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I’m supicious of President Putin’s support for Orthodoxy
Russian leaders have always used the church for their own purposes

By Francis Phillips on Friday, 31 May 2013
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/com...-president-putins-support-for-orthodoxy/

Francis Phillips reviews books for the Catholic Herald.

As someone who is interested in all things Russian (don’t ask me why; it must be something to do with reading too many Russian novels in my youth), I am reading just now another book in the genre: The Last Man in Russia, by Oliver Bullough. It is about the life of a charismatic Orthodox priest called Fr Dmitry Dudko. As Fr Dmitry’s lifespan coincided with the advent of Communism, followed by Stalinism, the last war and its aftermath, Bullough describes his life against this backdrop.

One of the aspects of Orthodoxy that the book throws light on is the deeply compromised position of the Orthodox Church under Communism. After a brutal persecution of the Church in the 1920s and 30s, Stalin allowed it to be “reinstated” in 1943 for his own cynical purposes. Bullough writes that Stalin’s restoration “was marked by the almost complete penetration of the hierarchy by the security organs”.

I thought of this highly dubious relationship between Church and state when I happened to pick up an article on Russia in the Telegraph for Tuesday, May 28. Written by Yulia Ponomareva and entitled “On a wing and a prayer: the priests who skydive for God and mother Russia”, it describes President Putin’s recent moves to put “traditional Orthodox values” at the heart of his administration’s policy since his return to the Kremlin last year. Alongside increased defence spending Putin has expanded the numbers of army chaplains – now almost 1,000 –who serve with Russia’s armed forces. The chaplains’ mission is to boost soldiers’ morale and “reinforce a sense of patriotic duty in society” as Putin seeks to build support for his conservative coalition and against his numerous critics.

So are the chaplains simply the religious arm of Putin’s political strategy, used as tools for social control? According to Fr Mikhail Vasilyev, aged 41 and a veteran chaplain, his own aim is “to help as many soldiers as possible to get into the Kingdom of Heaven”. This sounds properly spiritual and laudable, as do his other goals: “to fight sin and bad language”. But there are also some alarming aspects to the training prospective chaplains undergo: they take 2-month courses in which they learn to load and fire a rifle, work as a tank gunner, drive an armoured personnel carrier and use a flamethrower. Surely these are not necessary chaplaincy skills? The chaplains also bless military kit from ships to rockets with holy water.

According to Fr Vasilyev, “The Church blesses the use of these weapons for defence of the weak, not for conquest.” This sounds very dodgy. One of the scandals for those outside Christianity has been to witness just this kind of collusion between the military, especially in times of war, and men whose lives are supposedly dedicated to non-violence. To look after the souls of soldiers is one thing; they need just as much spiritual care as ordinary civilians, if not more so – Fr Vasilyev remarks that servicemen “often turn to God in the face of danger”; but to actively participate in the possibility of killing the enemy – surely this goes beyond the call of religious duty?

Although I like the sound of Fr Vasilyev, who wants to keep his servicemen “from turning into beasts”, I remain suspicious of President Putin’s motives for this seeming upsurge in his Orthodox piety.

Christ is Risen!!

In a perfect world, one might criticise President Putin. But it's not. So I think it's best to look closer to home before we criticise others.

I think I'd look at the United States military where chaplains are forbidden to speak out against homosexual practice or other issues that the politically correct administration doesn't approve criticism of.

Bob

American chaplains certainly bless weapons etc. (there are blessings for weapons in the old Rituale Romanum). I bet British chaplains do too.

I think that there is way too much fear and suspicion of Vladimir Putin in the United States!

It is kind of amusing, actually--America was suspicious of the 'evil empire' that banned and hated God and Church, and now that it has once again espoused God and Church and become a 'repentent' empire, America is still suspicious of it!

Another irony, is that the very values of atheist Communism that we deplored are now fast becoming our values, and they are fast espousing the values we *used* to have--those of upholding morality in society.

Indeed, and well said, Metropolitan Hilarion!

Yes. This is true. This was what our deacons and priests have homilized and warned about what was going to be happening here. It just seems like everyone wants to think of the November elections as one big popularity contest, and voting for a president because he's "cool." Well, look where that got us. This country can't afford this style of voting anymore. Not sure what it's going to take to get it through everyone's head what voting based on "cool" and "popular" factors are going to do for those that want nothing to do with that kind of agenda.

I couldn't agree with you more! I have long bemoaned the voting of today's younger American on personality politics rather than issue politics. The problem is that today's issues have become all about immorality rights. 'Cool' issues now include all sorts of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual 'celebrations and exhortations' for their alternate lifestyles.

Ofcourse, our populous, especially the last couple of voting generations have been totally brainwashed in their schools and in the all encompassing and influential media/entertainment industry that feeds us what to accept and what to not accept.

The media of my generation actually taught us to respect our elders, parents, teachers, etc. To go to Church and believe in God. To be honest and moral.

Funny to watch the old sitcoms of my childhood on a special channel every night, and to remember all those old values and to not hear sexual innuendo in every other sentence, to not see women jumping into bed with someone else in every other scene, etc...it actually is 'comfort food for the soul' for me, remembering a sweeter, safer and more comforting time for my country.

Maybe everyone should talk to people who have actually lived in Russia before thinking that the characterization of Putin as a corrupt, manipulative, opportunistic, kleptocratic thug are overblown.

Agreed. l have observed over the years that politically Stuart and I have few points of convergence (the issues we agree upon are transcendent though) but I think it is fair say that we probably agree that Russia is not a paragon of moral virtue, that despite the superficial resurgence of the Orthodox Faith viewing Russia as a truly Christian nation is more than a stretch and that putting one's hopes in a strongman like Putin is a prescription to societal ruin - if not regional or global conflict.

That being said, the resurgence of Orthodoxy will be impressive IF it is becomes more than the regime's cynical substitution of Russian Orthodoxy as a cultural ideology in lieu of the cult of Leninism.

LOL--these are exactly the sentiments of many Americans and foreigners about some American presidents!

Never the less, how refreshing it is to see countries not go along with the American and European agendas of moral relativism and depravity . BRAVO to those societies and their leaders!!

While we are on the subject of moral relativism and depravity, perhaps you need yourself some exposure to the REAL Russia, and not the Orthodox fantasyland of the fevered imagination. It is a country, to be quite frank, where everyone and everything is for sale, where prostitution is rampant, alcoholism too common to mention, abortion ubiquitous and messy, politics dominated by brute force and intimidation, the economy controlled by Putin and a handful of his close associates, a place where bribery is necessary to get anything done, where life expectancy is declining annually, and the birth rate so low that the population of the Russia will decline by a quarter over the next fifty years. It is also a place where the Church, while supposedly advocating the moral reform of the country, is also owner of one of the country's largest vodka distributorships and cigarette factories, gladly accepts funding and other favors from the government, and in the meanwhile says nothing at all about the crimes committed by the government against its own people.

And let's not forget that, for the vast majority of Russians, Orthodoxy is, at best, a fashion statement, a lifestyle choice, an affectation of convenience, where only about ten percent of all self-professed believers bother to attend services weekly, and where most people never see the inside of a church except for weddings, baptisms and funerals.

Wow.

Seems like quite the hatchet job.