861.404/7–144: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union ( Harriman ) to the Secretary of State

2385. Press for July 1st publishes an announcement of the formation of a Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults under the Council [Page 1216] of Commissars of the USSR. The announcement reads in translation as follows:

“By a decision of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR there has been organized under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR a Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults to provide liaison between the Government of the USSR and the leaders of religious societies: the Armenian Gregorian, the Old Ritualists, the Catholic, the Greek Catholic, and Lutheran Churches, the Moslem, Hebrew, and Buddhist confessions and sectarian organizations, in regard to questions concerning these cults requiring decision by the Government of the USSR.

Comrade I. V. Polyanski81 has been appointed President of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR.”

Harriman
  1. Ivan Vasilyevich Polyansky, whose position was comparable in behalf of other religious denominations to that of Georgy Grigoryevich Karpov for affairs of the Orthodox Church.