Pentecost and ‘Russia Day’ fell just a few days apart. ‘Where are you, my Church?’ asked Father Andrej Misjuk bitterly, calling for a return to a faith that ‘does not tolerate lies, does not bless those who cannot be blessed, and once again sets out on the path that leads from Jerusalem to the Eternal.’ Meanwhile, in his new ‘Fable,’ Vladimir Sorokin recounts a post-apocalyptic world.
Moscow recently marked the 1,700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council when the profession of faith was drafted. Coincidentally, Putin and Pope Leo XIV spoke on the phone, providing an opportunity to renew the dialogue between the Church of Rome and the Russian Orthodox Church. Like in the 4th century AD, after the end of the persecutions, the challenge today for the bishops of the East and West is to show modern emperors a truth greater than any claim to dominion.
In a new essay, Aleksandr Šipkov goes so far as to point the finger at the philologist who, in the 1990s, helped Russia rediscover both Eastern and Western Christian traditions through his lectures. Why does today's Russia reject any convergence with the Christian culture of Eastern and Western Europe, presenting itself as the only true Church entrusted with a universal mission?
Leo XIV, the first American pope, has somewhat overshadowed the popularity of the American emperor in Russia, acting in some ways as an alternative in the image of the "Anglo-Saxon" West so reviled by the Kremlin. After all, today the Russian Church has split from almost all the other Orthodox Churches, starting with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, while dialogue with Rome has never been interrupted.
As the parodies of peace negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and America continue—most recently marked by the failed attempt to bring Putin and Zelenskyy together in Istanbul—Pope Leo XIV has directed an appeal to the Christians of the East: “Who more than you can sing words of hope in the abyss of violence?”
Robert Prevost has never had direct relations with Moscow, but the name he chose evokes very important relations in the history of relations between East and West in the ancient and modern Church, from Leo the Great to Leo XIII, the pope of Rerum Novarum, who was inspired by the great Russian author Vladimir Solovyov.
The truce for the Great Victory is a game of roles, with Putin wanting to prolong negotiations and appear victorious. The fourth parade since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, on the solemn 80th anniversary of the end of the conflict against Nazi Germany. The ‘Russian mindset’ among the cardinals at the Conclave. The Orthodox Patriarch shows the ‘Russian paradise’ against the devastation of war.
With all his soul, the pope wished to rescue the face of Russia's "mad holiness", that of its monks and pilgrims, its great artists and musicians, its writers capable of opening horizons of true universal union. That is why he often quoted Dostoevsky. Now, in his death, he promises us that in this inextricable inner struggle between good and evil, the face of Christ is always revealed in the human soul.
For Orthodox Christians, Holy Week – which this year coincides with Catholic Holy Week – is the ‘True Week’, the week that speaks of the ultimate truth about the destiny of mankind. Perhaps this is why Putin's Russia has decided to unleash its full military might on Ukraine at this particular time. Meanwhile, the website of the Moscow Patriarchate links Easter to May 9, Victory Day.
Founded in 2020, this movement, which now has hundreds of thousands of members, is characterised by an increasingly xenophobic nationalism. Its groups are a sort of "National Guard", Freikorps dedicated to violence. This is overshadowing the very idea of the "Russian World", which still envisages bringing together other peoples, projecting an ever-greater sense of aggressive isolationism onto the country’s future.
Ilja, Kirill's spiritual father, had been awarded the highest monastic title, that of ‘archimandrite with the skhima’, a super-cape with symbols that attest to the highest vows of spiritual life and the strictest ascetic rules. A miracle worker and prophet of ‘patriotic Orthodoxy’, his personality greatly influenced those of the Patriarch of Moscow and President Putin.
Making Russia and America “great again”, MAGA and Russkij Mir, is nothing more than the dream of returning to a world in which two great empires ruled and all the other countries submitted. It is not about conquests, but about the losses suffered, and returning to the top of the world helps overcome fears of further losses.
Today Moscow is biding its time, waiting for the proclamation of Victory on 9 May. But the agreement with Trump has already given it what it had been waiting for for more than thirty years: Russia's return to the table of superpowers, as a leading player in the world political arena.
Although some Russian Orthodox priests have spoken out against “war liturgies,” they don’t all hold the same positions. Some have tried to stick with the patriarchal Church, others have turned to other Orthodox jurisdictions; some have limited themselves to passive resistance, while others have openly criticised the patriarch himself, such as the theologian and Deacon Andrey Kuraev.
The majority of the population believe they have defeated the West, emboldened by the American u-turn. But now the question that circles their minds is ‘what happens next?’.
The Russian army has launched more drones and dropped more bombs on Ukraine in recent days, stressing the point that its goal is conquest despite negotiations and partition plans with Donald Trump's United States. The goal is to continue to exalt the theology of Victory, the true divinity to which every effort and every sacrifice must be dedicated.
Zelenskyj is today crushed not only by Russian armies and bombs, but above all by the economic interests that unite enemies and friends, inside and outside the country.
The 80th anniversary of the Conference between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill and the new goals of today's emperors to divide the world. Meanwhile, ongoing commemorations focus not on ending the war, but on what regime to install in Kyiv in the coming years.
Regardless of its leaders and its political and cultural expressions, Ukraine must be rebuilt not only in terms of its cities and houses, as imagined by the Great Real Estate Developer who has ascended to the throne of the American empire. It must be rebuilt as a border crossing between resentment and hope, between Russia and the rest of the 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.
