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| The nave of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Chicago and the Midwest, Orthodox Church in America, Chicago, Illinois looking east toward the iconostasis. Designed by Louis Sullivan, built 1899–1903. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In the Soviet Union it was the state which had the strings in their hands. Today in a certain way the strings may have changed hands into the ones of the Russian Orthodox priests. But they are just the puppet-strings of the man in power.
For some years now president Vladimir Putin knows to direct everything according to his dictatorial will. He also very well knows what he needs to have his acts agreed with by the majority of the people. For this reason he holds a very firm grip on the Russian Orthodox Church which raised from the ashes as if it was never forbidden in the Soviet Union.
In spite of Putin’s firm grip on power and the absence of credible opposition in the country, Putin can’t risk another uprising like the one in 2011.{Christianization of Warfare: Putin’s manipulation of history}The last few years we could see that Putin is slippery as an eel. He knows that by giving food and games he can win the people. Not providing them with enough money to stay alive it probably thinks it is much safer to give people hopes and some institutions where they can go to to loose themselves in thoughts of better times.
It is only with the help of the church that Putin could rally most of the Russians on his side despite some disgruntlement in some sections of orthodox Slav society.
The fact that the Russians generally do not display religiosity in public shouldn’t deceive us from the reality; the orthodox Christianity is the part of “Russian identity”, comparable with “Turkishness” that also, in some degree, means Islam.{Christianization of Warfare: Putin’s manipulation of history}In the tradition of Stalin and Lenin, Putin knows to direct his country and bring it in the adventures he loves, in the hope to become a bigger personality to be remembered in history.
Obviously, he would not go for the erstwhile soviet communism or socialism anymore. People could say the whole lot of things; though in reality Russians are prone to easily buy the glorious age of the soviet empire, without favouring its Marxist-Leninist value system.{Christianization of Warfare: Putin’s manipulation of history}Putin has found a very good solution by searchings deep inside Russian history, where he finds the Russian Orthodox Church, an institution that despite some oddities is still worth eulogizing because of its resilience even during the protracted Soviet era.
The church, despite its rise in Russia just during the middle ages, had served as the only “national” identity; majority of Russians could remember and accept it more than the defunct Marxist value. It teaches them, amongst others, that mother Russia is always in danger from outside barbarians, and it is one of their sacred duties to do preemptive strikes far away to save the nation. {Christianization of Warfare: Putin’s manipulation of history}People do love tradition and lots of spiritual rituals. They love all the ostentation the Orthodox Church is offering them. In those churches they can burn candles and ask for blessings.
The priest have lots of time in a long service to convince people their national leader is doing the best for the country and is fighting against the godless people in the East.
As in the old times the Russian Orthodox Church has found the barbarians to fight against and to ask their churchgoers to fund their necessary tasks to protect the nation for further decay by such ungodly people.
Putin is a graduate of soviet intelligence academy. He knows how to manipulate/herding people into his frame. So when he wants to legitimize his war, he would brand name the adventure to make it as a war against the Orthodox Church. With his autocratic apparatus he then spreads that framing, using everything including Christening and blessing the aircrafts and the missiles being used in Syria while presenting that his war against ISIL in Syria is also the orthodox’s war. {Christianization of Warfare: Putin’s manipulation of history}
However, the question that must be baffling to Putin and his war veterans shamelessly involved in killing the innocent Syrians is whether his manipulation of history by linking Russian warfare with orthodox Christianity would ever succeed. The reply is definitely in the negative, particularly in view of the majority of the Russians living with communism in depth of their hearts. Thus, the course of action adopted by Putin in his present war games would force him to meet his Waterloo, Inevitably. {Christianization of Warfare: Putin’s manipulation of history}
In discussing the Moscow Patriarchate Russian Orthodox Church (MPROC) in the context of modern foreign and domestic policy of Russia, it should be noted that, any large religious organization is a complex and multi-faceted mechanism that can hardly be clearly defined in terms of the political preferences of all its members. {How Russian Church serves Kremlin propaganda}
However, we should recognize that at the moment the official involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church (first and foremost – its highest Church hierarchy) in the political process is so great, that the Church in many ways has become one of the common elements created by the Kremlin propaganda machine. {How Russian Church serves Kremlin propaganda}
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