---
title: 'Bezbozhnik No. 19, October 1930: letter from the Mother of God (cover)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bezbozhnik-barrel-organ-kolkhoz-1930/
description: 'Magazine cover: a bearded man in a cap, his vest and hand-organ marked with crosses, grinds out a ''letter from the holy Mother of God'' held by a…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Soviet anti-religious caricature of clergy as a barrel-organ grinder with a parrot. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Bezbozhnik No. 19, October 1930: letter from the Mother of God (cover)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bezbozhnik-barrel-organ-kolkhoz-1930.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bezbozhnik-barrel-organ-kolkhoz-1930.jpg)

# Bezbozhnik No. 19, October 1930: letter from the Mother of God (cover)

Magazine cover: a bearded man in a cap, his vest and hand-organ marked with crosses, grinds out a 'letter from the holy Mother of God' held by a top-hatted parrot, telling a peasant woman not to join the collective farm; she raises a palm in refusal. Ridiculing the church as a barrel organ and its message as a parrot's repetition is the name-calling tell.

## Text on the object

Original (Russian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
БЕЗБОЖНИК
№ 19    Октябрь 1930 г.    Цена 15 коп.

письмо от св богородицы
АЗ, БОГОРОДИЦА,
РЕКУ:
НЕ ХОДИ В КОЛХОЗ
К БОЛЬШЕВИКУ!
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
THE GODLESS
No. 19    October 1930    Price 15 kop.

letter from the holy Mother of God
I, THE MOTHER OF GOD,
SAY:
DO NOT GO INTO THE KOLKHOZ
TO THE BOLSHEVIK!
```

'Аз ... реку' is Church Slavonic-style phrasing ('I ... say'), used here for effect. The abbreviation 'св' (holy) is printed without a full stop.

[← Milliyet, 'Şakilerin son mukavemeti de kırılıyor' (Istanbul, 13 September 1930)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/milliyet-sakilerin-son-mukavemeti-1930/) [A vanguarda dos libertadores, Revista da Semana, 1 November 1930 (The Vanguard of the Liberators) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revista-da-semana-vanguarda-dos-libertadores-1930/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)