The Russian World

The educational conferences which have marked the end of the Christmas season in Moscow since the end of the Soviet Union are the primary ideological review of the new Orthodox Russia. Kirill underscores the mnogočadie, the ‘multi-family’ as an indispensable way of life: ‘We are the largest country in terms of geographical area, but we are too few for all this space’.

Between the Trumpian Maga of America first and the Putinian dream of Russkij Mir there is much harmony in the post-globalist vision of the world, which in the coming decades will be dominated by a tyrannical, threatening, imperial and colonial neo-sovereignism, in which the most expendable part is not so much Ukraine, but the whole of Europe.

Just as ancient Roman Empire had its protective geniuses of war, so in today’s dominant new patriarchal martyrology, the patron saints of Orthodox Russia have become associated with professional groups to imbue "traditional spiritual values" to all aspects of military and social life.

According to research by the Modifiers agency, Russians are turning to both psychologists and representatives of the esoteric arts in their fight against stress in these war years. While traffic on astrology, fortune-telling and numerology sites has increased by 38% in the past year, the Moscow Duma is seeking to ban the advertising of fortune-tellers.

A quarter of a century has now passed since Boris Yeltsin's ceding of power. No one then thought that the peaceful and flourishing Russia that celebrated Moscow's 850th anniversary in 1997 would disappear. Today, however, the New Year greetings ominously repeat ‘we will go on, until victory’ while everything seems to be dragging Russia further and further backwards.

In a long Christmas interview, the Major Archbishop of the Greek Catholics, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, spoke about the future of Ukraine by looking at it with the eyes of faith. For him, the representation of God as the “Great Protector” who guarantees our well-being is a "stereotype that has now been destroyed, so we must learn again to ask ourselves: God, where are you? Where can we find you in a time of war? How should I communicate with You today?”

At the end-of-year press conference, Putin wanted to show the face of a winner, not only because of the additional bits of territory conquered in the Donbass, but also to convey the sense of Russia's superiority against the many uncertainties of the West. The war itself has "sovereignty" as its main purpose, not so much to defend the country’s borders as to assert its independence and greatness in front of the whole world.

The Patriarchate of Antioch is the only one of the fifteen autocephalous Orthodox Churches, and the only one of the five ancient patriarchates, that has always and in every situation supported the Russian Church. Moreover, it was precisely the Antiochians who inspired the establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate. And these ancient stories of the late Middle Ages find their relevance today in the face of the Russians' fear of losing their controlling role in the Middle East, after the victory of the Islamists in Damascus.

The patriarch has tried to distance himself recently from the country’s political leaders, stressing his superiority in the relationship between Russia’s political and clerical power. At least two issues underscore a gap between Church and State, namely the response to the demographic crisis with monks criticised for being celibate, and the ban on organised prayers in private homes.

If various terms are used to describe the new generations, Russians today are increasingly seeing the ‘Putin generation’ emerge. One wonders what fate is in store, although in reality it is difficult to discern any real social and ideological convergence. They are rather reminiscent of the ‘silent ones’ of the Second World War years.

Proposals and ideas about ending the war are multiplying, but for Putin, any negotiations with Trump would only be an intermediate stage in an ongoing process. For Ukraine the situation is becoming increasingly grim, not only due to the uncertainties of Western aid but also to the decreasing participation of Ukrainians in the war effort.

Author Viktor Erofeev, from exile in Berlin since 2022, publishes a novel entitled Velikij Gopnik, illustrating how Putinism emerged from Russian subconscious and the backyards of Leningrad to reach levels of extremism towards its very soul, incapable of ‘accepting a normal life’.