It employed the powers given to it by the CPSU Central Committee at the 1929 congress to dictate orders to schools, universities, the Soviet Armed Forces, the trade unions, the Komsomol, the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization, the Soviet press, and other institutions for the purpose of its antireligious campaign. It criticized many public institutions (including the Communist Party) for failing to adequately attack religious belief and instructed them on how to be more effective. The People's Commisariat of Education was heckled and Glavnauka, the Chief Administration for Science and Scholarship was also singled out for criticism. A spokesperson for the latter tried to justify their behaviour to the LMG by claiming that they had reduced the total number of historical buildings under its protection (mostly ancient churches and monasteries) from 7000 to 1000, by destroying them.