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

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.

Date: October 1930
Period: Interwar
Made by: Bezbozhnik (The Godless), magazine of the Soviet militant-atheist movement, Moscow
Region: Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Country: Soviet Union
Medium: Newspaper pages
Issuer type: Movement
Regime: Soviet Union
Leader: Joseph Stalin
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Demonize
Themes: Religion, Economy and finance
Event: Soviet Collectivization
Techniques: Name-calling
Regime: Soviet Union under Stalin
Leader: Joseph Stalin
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: Public domain (published 1930, before 1931); scan also CC BY-SA 4.0
Cover of Bezbozhnik No. 19, October 1930. Scan on Wikimedia Commons (PD-Russia, PD-1996; CC BY-SA 4.0 for the scan).

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.