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The purpose of this post is to give some evidence for what I stated as my opinion on another thread about Putin's take on the ROC. The purpose is not to speculate about the state of anyone's soul, but just to interpret a public figure's thoughts and feelings based on their public comments. Further, I don't even imagine a particular debate - but if debate arises, the thread is already here.
I am not the world's greatest expert on Putin nor on Orthodox Christianity. But I'd like to show that I didn't form my opinions by watching CNN (if CNN had something like this post, I promise you that I missed it). Russian texts included so someone can tell me why I'm wrong, if they want.
A few main ideas:
1) VP makes public statements that reveal his feelings about the OC. These statements often show an attitude that I'd expect to be considered not healthy in an Orthodox context. They show that his thought about the Church considers it as a political tool or even a tool of empire. However, they're often taken as very pro-OC - I think mostly because VP has set the tone already by appearing to be a defender / promoter of the OC. Example:
"Русская Православная Церковь сыграла уникальную роль в истории нашего народа и нашего государства. Ведь, по сути, с принятием восточного христианства – Православия – начала создаваться русская нация как единая нация и начало создаваться централизованное российское государство. По сути, в основе и русской нации, и российского централизованного государства лежат единые духовные ценности, которые объединяли всю эту большую европейскую территорию, на которой сегодня располагаются и Россия, и Украина, и Беларусь." (Интервью к фильму «Второе крещение Руси»)
"The Russian Orthodox Church has played a unique role in the history of our people and our government. After all, in essence, it was after the acceptance of eastern Christianity - Orthodoxy - that the Russian nation began to take shape as a single nation, and a centralized Russian government began to take shape. In essence, at the root of the Russian nation and the centralized Russian government, there lie common spiritual values that united all this large European territory, which today is occupied by Russian, Ukraine, and Belarus."
The suggestion here seems clear: Ukraine and Belarus belong under a centralized "Russian" government, and the excuse is the common spiritual values that once were common throughout this territory. In other words, the focus is political dominion, and the OC is an afterthought that he pretends is on center stage.
"Но церковь выполняет ещё очень важную роль даже внутри России – создание условий для межконфессионального и межэтнического, межнационального мира и согласия. В этом смысле значение церкви выходит даже за границы сегодняшней Российской Федерации. Она помогает нам наладить хорошие отношения с народами других стран, прежде всего, конечно, речь идёт о постсоветском пространстве. Я уже упомянул о единых исторических нравственно-духовных корнях народов Украины, России и Беларуси. По сути, у нас единая церковь, единое нравственное начало, единая судьба. Но что касается и других стран СНГ, других народов стран Содружества, то, безусловно, церковь и здесь выполняет очень конструктивную, положительную роль."
"But the church performs another quite important role, even within Russia itself - the creation of conditions for interfaith and inter-ethnic peace and harmony. In this sense, the meaning of the church goes beyond the borders of today's Russian Federation. The church helps us to establish good relations with the peoples of other countries, and that mainly means the post-Soviet space. I've already mentioned the common historical moral and spiritual roots of the peoples of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. In essence, we have one church, one moral principle, and one fate. But as far as the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States go - certainly the church plays a very constructive and positive role there, too."
Тhe modifier "today's" on "today's Russian Federation" is telling. "Even though the Russian Federation is smaller than it might be, at least we have the church to draw us closer together politically." The church is "under" the idea of empire and its purpose is to serve that empire, to prevent the breakup of the empire, and to keep "satellite" states under the control of the remaining central authority.
Yet this is against the teaching of the ROC itself, as expressed in the draft catechesis at http://theolcom.ru/images/2017/КатехизисСББК_Проект.pdf
"В то же время национальные чувства могут стать причиной греховных явлений, таких как агрессивный национализм, ксенофобия, национальная исключительность, межэтническая вражда. В своем крайнем выражении эти явления нередко приводят к ограничению прав личностей и народов, войнам и иным проявлениям насилия. Православной этике противоречит деление народов на лучшие и худшие, принижение какой-либо этнической или гражданской нации. Тем более несогласны с Православием учения, которые ставят нацию на место Бога или низводят веру до одного из аспектов национального самосознания."
"At the same time, nationalistic feelings can cause sinful developments like aggressive nationalism, xenophobia, national exceptionalism, and inter-ethnic enmity. When allowed to develop to an extreme degree, these developments lead to the circumscription of rights of individuals and peoples, as well as to wars and other forms of violence. The division of peoples into 'better' and 'worse' is against Orthodox ethics, as is the denigration of any ethnic or civil nation. Even less compatible with Orthodoxy are teachings that put the nation in the place of God or reduce the faith to just one aspect of ethnic self-awareness."
Quotes like the ones above from VP show that to him, the nation is in the place of God and the church is praised as something in service of political unity. This is not consistent with the teachings of the ROC as expressed in this (draft, I admit) catechesis.
2) Phyletism.
First, I note that in every speech, although there are mentions of a "moral foundation" or "moral principle," there is never anything about the faith itself as it "looks" to an Orthodox Christian from the "inside." The Church is viewed only as another face of a political entity from the middle ages through the present day.
Although VP does mention the fact of other peoples who live in the Russian Federation, the RF is conceived of in his speeches as an ethnically Russian state.
As I've tried to show above, the OC is, in Putin's understanding, necessarily the servant of the state. He thinks of this state as necessarily (not just historically or accidentally) ethnically Russian. The ROC, therefore, is seen and promoted as specifically "for" a particular ethnicity - which itself is understood as "the dominant ethnic group in a political entity."
3) Another note
Although Putin is sometimes thought of as at odds with the Soviet history of relations with the ROC, he's quite in line with it.
Putin: "Когда началась Великая Отечественная война… Сталин, несмотря на всю его достаточно жёсткую, если не сказать жестокую политику в отношении церкви, он обратился совсем по-другому — «братья и сёстры». И в этом был огромный смысл, потому что такое обращение не просто слова. Это было обращение к сердцу, к душе, к истории, к нашим корням, для того чтобы обрисовать, во-первых, трагизм происходящих событий, а во-вторых, побудить людей, мобилизовать их на защиту своей Родины»." (Речь И.В. Сталина 3 июля 1941 года)
"When the Great Patriotic War began...Stalin, despite all his rather harsh, or even cruel policies with regard to the church, addressed [the people] as "brothers and sisters." And there was great meaning in this, because addressing people in that way is more than just words. This was an appeal to the heart, to the soul, to history, to our roots, with the goal of depicting the tragedy of the events that were unfolding, and also of spurring people on, mobilizing them for the defense of their Motherland."
Here, VP speaks surprisingly openly, in effect sympathizing with Stalin's use of the remains of the visible ROC for the war effort - after decades of trying to destroy the church in order to replace it with a nominally atheistic state religion. Indeed, those words were an appeal to the heart - but they were also a cold and calculated appeal made in the exigencies of war. VP shows that he has learned from his predecessor that the church is useful - and so he goes on to use it.
Further, let's look at VP's inaugural speech from 2012. I won't quote the whole thing, just want to look at his use of the word "narod" (the people). Speech here:
Инаугурационная речь Владимира Путина (7 мая 2012 г. Москва, Кремль) » ИНТЕЛРОС
служение нашему народу - service to our people
это результат усилий нашего народа - this is the result of the efforts of our people
от наших усилий по сбережению народа - [depend] on our efforts to defend the people
Мы добьёмся наших целей, если будем единым, сплочённым народом - We will attain our goals if we are a single unified people
если будем опираться на прочный фундамент культурных и духовных традиций нашего многонационального народа - If we rely on the firm foundation of the cultural and spiritual traditions of our multi-ethnic people.
Note that the "people" don't do anything here. They always appear as a predicate or in some prepositional phrase. This is perfectly consistent with the Soviet usage and Stalin's usage of this word "narod" (the people). "The people" are an entity to be invoked and used as a verbal token, but are not to do anything. "The people" are not agents, have no will of their own. The only suggestion that they might "do" anything is in some unspecified "efforts." Then there's a token phrase about the "cultural and spiritual traditions of our multi-ethnic people" - surely that includes non-Orthodox people, right? What about if their traditions contradict the Orthodox ones? How is that a solid foundation? It isn't. This doesn't mean anything.
The Church is, in VP's view, a wheel-greasing lackey for the state. The state ostensibly serves "the people," but "the people" are a mere token used to suggest that the state doesn't just serve itself. What I see here is a bald-faced continuation of the Soviet project of replacing the OC with a "state religion" in which religious feeling and devotion are controlled by the centralized state apparatus with the general secretary in the "place" of the patriarch. A loving father to his "spiritual children" - even if he can't be everywhere at once and root out all the abuses (a common attitude toward Stalin in his day). Now, however, the visible OC itself is incorporated more fully into this project.
The purpose of this post is to give some evidence for what I stated as my opinion on another thread about Putin's take on the ROC. The purpose is not to speculate about the state of anyone's soul, but just to interpret a public figure's thoughts and feelings based on their public comments. Further, I don't even imagine a particular debate - but if debate arises, the thread is already here.
I am not the world's greatest expert on Putin nor on Orthodox Christianity. But I'd like to show that I didn't form my opinions by watching CNN (if CNN had something like this post, I promise you that I missed it). Russian texts included so someone can tell me why I'm wrong, if they want.
A few main ideas:
1) VP makes public statements that reveal his feelings about the OC. These statements often show an attitude that I'd expect to be considered not healthy in an Orthodox context. They show that his thought about the Church considers it as a political tool or even a tool of empire. However, they're often taken as very pro-OC - I think mostly because VP has set the tone already by appearing to be a defender / promoter of the OC. Example:
"Русская Православная Церковь сыграла уникальную роль в истории нашего народа и нашего государства. Ведь, по сути, с принятием восточного христианства – Православия – начала создаваться русская нация как единая нация и начало создаваться централизованное российское государство. По сути, в основе и русской нации, и российского централизованного государства лежат единые духовные ценности, которые объединяли всю эту большую европейскую территорию, на которой сегодня располагаются и Россия, и Украина, и Беларусь." (Интервью к фильму «Второе крещение Руси»)
"The Russian Orthodox Church has played a unique role in the history of our people and our government. After all, in essence, it was after the acceptance of eastern Christianity - Orthodoxy - that the Russian nation began to take shape as a single nation, and a centralized Russian government began to take shape. In essence, at the root of the Russian nation and the centralized Russian government, there lie common spiritual values that united all this large European territory, which today is occupied by Russian, Ukraine, and Belarus."
The suggestion here seems clear: Ukraine and Belarus belong under a centralized "Russian" government, and the excuse is the common spiritual values that once were common throughout this territory. In other words, the focus is political dominion, and the OC is an afterthought that he pretends is on center stage.
"Но церковь выполняет ещё очень важную роль даже внутри России – создание условий для межконфессионального и межэтнического, межнационального мира и согласия. В этом смысле значение церкви выходит даже за границы сегодняшней Российской Федерации. Она помогает нам наладить хорошие отношения с народами других стран, прежде всего, конечно, речь идёт о постсоветском пространстве. Я уже упомянул о единых исторических нравственно-духовных корнях народов Украины, России и Беларуси. По сути, у нас единая церковь, единое нравственное начало, единая судьба. Но что касается и других стран СНГ, других народов стран Содружества, то, безусловно, церковь и здесь выполняет очень конструктивную, положительную роль."
"But the church performs another quite important role, even within Russia itself - the creation of conditions for interfaith and inter-ethnic peace and harmony. In this sense, the meaning of the church goes beyond the borders of today's Russian Federation. The church helps us to establish good relations with the peoples of other countries, and that mainly means the post-Soviet space. I've already mentioned the common historical moral and spiritual roots of the peoples of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. In essence, we have one church, one moral principle, and one fate. But as far as the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States go - certainly the church plays a very constructive and positive role there, too."
Тhe modifier "today's" on "today's Russian Federation" is telling. "Even though the Russian Federation is smaller than it might be, at least we have the church to draw us closer together politically." The church is "under" the idea of empire and its purpose is to serve that empire, to prevent the breakup of the empire, and to keep "satellite" states under the control of the remaining central authority.
Yet this is against the teaching of the ROC itself, as expressed in the draft catechesis at http://theolcom.ru/images/2017/КатехизисСББК_Проект.pdf
"В то же время национальные чувства могут стать причиной греховных явлений, таких как агрессивный национализм, ксенофобия, национальная исключительность, межэтническая вражда. В своем крайнем выражении эти явления нередко приводят к ограничению прав личностей и народов, войнам и иным проявлениям насилия. Православной этике противоречит деление народов на лучшие и худшие, принижение какой-либо этнической или гражданской нации. Тем более несогласны с Православием учения, которые ставят нацию на место Бога или низводят веру до одного из аспектов национального самосознания."
"At the same time, nationalistic feelings can cause sinful developments like aggressive nationalism, xenophobia, national exceptionalism, and inter-ethnic enmity. When allowed to develop to an extreme degree, these developments lead to the circumscription of rights of individuals and peoples, as well as to wars and other forms of violence. The division of peoples into 'better' and 'worse' is against Orthodox ethics, as is the denigration of any ethnic or civil nation. Even less compatible with Orthodoxy are teachings that put the nation in the place of God or reduce the faith to just one aspect of ethnic self-awareness."
Quotes like the ones above from VP show that to him, the nation is in the place of God and the church is praised as something in service of political unity. This is not consistent with the teachings of the ROC as expressed in this (draft, I admit) catechesis.
2) Phyletism.
First, I note that in every speech, although there are mentions of a "moral foundation" or "moral principle," there is never anything about the faith itself as it "looks" to an Orthodox Christian from the "inside." The Church is viewed only as another face of a political entity from the middle ages through the present day.
Although VP does mention the fact of other peoples who live in the Russian Federation, the RF is conceived of in his speeches as an ethnically Russian state.
As I've tried to show above, the OC is, in Putin's understanding, necessarily the servant of the state. He thinks of this state as necessarily (not just historically or accidentally) ethnically Russian. The ROC, therefore, is seen and promoted as specifically "for" a particular ethnicity - which itself is understood as "the dominant ethnic group in a political entity."
3) Another note
Although Putin is sometimes thought of as at odds with the Soviet history of relations with the ROC, he's quite in line with it.
Putin: "Когда началась Великая Отечественная война… Сталин, несмотря на всю его достаточно жёсткую, если не сказать жестокую политику в отношении церкви, он обратился совсем по-другому — «братья и сёстры». И в этом был огромный смысл, потому что такое обращение не просто слова. Это было обращение к сердцу, к душе, к истории, к нашим корням, для того чтобы обрисовать, во-первых, трагизм происходящих событий, а во-вторых, побудить людей, мобилизовать их на защиту своей Родины»." (Речь И.В. Сталина 3 июля 1941 года)
"When the Great Patriotic War began...Stalin, despite all his rather harsh, or even cruel policies with regard to the church, addressed [the people] as "brothers and sisters." And there was great meaning in this, because addressing people in that way is more than just words. This was an appeal to the heart, to the soul, to history, to our roots, with the goal of depicting the tragedy of the events that were unfolding, and also of spurring people on, mobilizing them for the defense of their Motherland."
Here, VP speaks surprisingly openly, in effect sympathizing with Stalin's use of the remains of the visible ROC for the war effort - after decades of trying to destroy the church in order to replace it with a nominally atheistic state religion. Indeed, those words were an appeal to the heart - but they were also a cold and calculated appeal made in the exigencies of war. VP shows that he has learned from his predecessor that the church is useful - and so he goes on to use it.
Further, let's look at VP's inaugural speech from 2012. I won't quote the whole thing, just want to look at his use of the word "narod" (the people). Speech here:
Инаугурационная речь Владимира Путина (7 мая 2012 г. Москва, Кремль) » ИНТЕЛРОС
служение нашему народу - service to our people
это результат усилий нашего народа - this is the result of the efforts of our people
от наших усилий по сбережению народа - [depend] on our efforts to defend the people
Мы добьёмся наших целей, если будем единым, сплочённым народом - We will attain our goals if we are a single unified people
если будем опираться на прочный фундамент культурных и духовных традиций нашего многонационального народа - If we rely on the firm foundation of the cultural and spiritual traditions of our multi-ethnic people.
Note that the "people" don't do anything here. They always appear as a predicate or in some prepositional phrase. This is perfectly consistent with the Soviet usage and Stalin's usage of this word "narod" (the people). "The people" are an entity to be invoked and used as a verbal token, but are not to do anything. "The people" are not agents, have no will of their own. The only suggestion that they might "do" anything is in some unspecified "efforts." Then there's a token phrase about the "cultural and spiritual traditions of our multi-ethnic people" - surely that includes non-Orthodox people, right? What about if their traditions contradict the Orthodox ones? How is that a solid foundation? It isn't. This doesn't mean anything.
The Church is, in VP's view, a wheel-greasing lackey for the state. The state ostensibly serves "the people," but "the people" are a mere token used to suggest that the state doesn't just serve itself. What I see here is a bald-faced continuation of the Soviet project of replacing the OC with a "state religion" in which religious feeling and devotion are controlled by the centralized state apparatus with the general secretary in the "place" of the patriarch. A loving father to his "spiritual children" - even if he can't be everywhere at once and root out all the abuses (a common attitude toward Stalin in his day). Now, however, the visible OC itself is incorporated more fully into this project.
