“Whitsunday, a Christian holiday, seems at first a strange date for a communist rally, but the Soviets knew what they were about. In Germany, Whitsuntide is a traditional spring festival. Young people go into the woods for beech twigs and branches to decorate their hats and bicycles. Farm wagons are decked out in bunting and greenery.This is the time for youth, song, and the freshness of new life. The Christian religion, when it spread among the European tribes, took over their heathen festivals and worked them into our Christmas and Easter customs. The Soviets set out to take over the Christian festival of Whitsuntide in the same way.” (p. 18)
United States. Department of State. Division of Publications. (1951). Confuse and control : Soviet techniques in Germany. (Department of State publication ; 4107). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.