Bad Religion

Look what Friedrich Gorenstein wrote in Soviet Moscow in 1975 (a quotation from his novel Psalm, the scene in the Tretyakov Gallery): “The woman was looking at the ‘Appearance of Christ’ (Alexander Ivanov’s “The Appearance of Christ Before the People”—Radio Svoboda ed.). Andrei looked at her and thought: Here we have a religious Russian person. When people get together these days and argue about religion they talk a lot about how atheism has been defeated and a religious rebirth is underway. OK, let’s say atheism has been defeated, but has religion in Russia gained anything from this? Without having learned anything, it’s being reborn with its previous holy-foolery in place of feeling, with its hungover arguments about Christ, and its common people who don’t argue about Christ but pin their hopes on him in the same way they pin them on Stalin the Georgian, Razin the Turk, or some other Russian ataman. And if Russia is fated to try to save itself through the ethnic popular mindset, then it won’t be materialist or atheist. Russian salvational fascism will wear a ethno-religious guise. First, what was called ‘atheism’ really has compromised itself in Russia, it’s gotten old and boring. Second, it wasn’t flexible enough, too cumbersome as far ethnicity was concerned, while Orthodoxy at several points in the past demonstrated its freedom to openly glorify ethnic strength, and right now it’s also attractive to young people as a novelty.”

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Gorenstein was a literary phenomenon, he was not a political writer, and it would be wrong to reduce his art to political views or prophecies. Nevertheless, he undoubtedly had the power of prophecy. Gorenstein loved both Ukraine, where he was born, and Russia, where he became a writer; he always cared deeply about the fate of these two Slavic peoples. In his novel Traveling Companions he wrote about Kyiv and Moscow: “The cupolas of Kyiv’s St. Sofia Cathedral, surrounded by ancient chestnut trees, glow clear gold. But in the same place, in the courtyard paved with old cobblestones, the sightseers are giggling, they’re bored. They gawk at the holy place that’s been turned into a state-run museum. And not far away the anti-Semite Bohdan Khmelnytsky, rigged up by the anti-Semitic sculptor [Mikhail] Mikeshin, gallops off toward Moscow. He brawled a bit with Poland, then a superpower, and surrendered Ukraine to Russia, then a novice superpower, swearing this in Moscow on the street that now bears his name, in a church that has now been turned into a military engineering bureau. Entering the church is thus prohibited by armed guards. From a distance, though the grate of a sturdy iron fence, one can only read the inscription on a commemorative plaque honoring this sale and purchase of a state that could have become a Slavic Germany or France. You read the inscription and recall the words of [Aleksei] Polishchuk, a Ukrainian satirist of the 1930s: ‘A person who has been enslaved can rise up; one who has been bought can only be re-sold.'”

Source: Yuri Veksler, Radio Svoboda, 18 March 2022. Translated by the Fabulous AM

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Editor’s Note: Fr. Artemy Vladimirov is a prominent priest in Russia, especially popular among Moscow’s English-speaking population for his intelligence, wit, and perfect command of the English language. He has a strong internet presence, and has often traveled to the US to lecture. He has published many books, such as Bright Faith, and under his guidance, many foreigners converted to Orthodoxy. (You can see numerous articles we have published about him here.)

In this video, Fr. Artemy is speaking Russian, so we have added English subtitles. He provides an excellent assessment of Russia’s current military operation in Ukraine.

TRANSCRIPT

I congratulate you, brothers and sisters, on Thursday of Cheesefare week, or “Maslenitsa”, as people call it. We are approaching the beginning of Great Lent. On Saturday, we will honor the venerable fathers from the beginning of time, who have shone forth in the feats of repentance, fasting, and prayer. Let us seek their blessings, as we approach these holy forty days.

The following Sunday morning will begin with the remembrance of Adam being expelled from paradise. We are all the children of our forefathers, and though we ourselves have also sinned, we carry the cross of repentance together with them. We also rejoice, however, because the Redeemer has come into the world. He made the earth a gateway to paradise, offering us His grace to acquire eternal unity with Him, the Lord, to acquire salvation.

Forgiveness vespers will be this coming Sunday, and we will mutually forgive one another of any sins and offenses.

Those who attended the services on Cheesefare week could not fail to notice that on every day of this week, the Gospels are read about the suffering of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as if this were Passion Week, right before Pascha. Indeed, during Cheesefare week this prepares us for fasting, and for the Last Judgment, reminding us how much the Lord did, and how much work he undertook for us, accepting the torment and the Cross. He awakens gratitude and love in us, and if we acquire it, then we will joyfully labor in Great Lent.

It seems that the passion gospels are also read these days for another reason. More precisely, they correspond to these dramas and tragedies that we are all experiencing now. Unfortunately, not all of our Russian compatriots understand what is happening. Feeding on incorrect information sources — and I’m not referring to the youth — certain cultural forces are cooperating with fascism.

“No war!” proclaim Galkins, Palkins, and other popular figures. For some reason, for eight years, they have been arranging evenings of recreation and laughter, while here nearby, in the Donbass region, people were shot daily, killed, raped, and burned, and their homes were leveled to the ground by the Ukrainian-fascist snakes that are being fed by Europe.

Now Russia is at war, as it always has been, with the collective West. What does the West give birth to? ISIS and neo-fascism. Here are their children. Behold their offspring! Here is the fruit of their spirituality, and of their life aspirations. They can only turn the planet into chaos. They can only raise cannibals.

And it’s really a shame for those of our compatriots (we don’t have such parishioners here), who today, twisted within the virtual world, are in solidarity with Kolomoisky, Avakov, Yatsenyuk, “bloody pastor” Turchinov, with fascists, cannibals, monsters of the human race, who by God’s permission are there, in the midst of our brothers in Ukraine, exercising their tyranny.

“But Father, in Suma and Chernigov, the Ukrainian people swear by heaven and earth that Russian troops in Energodar are using people as human shields, trying to keep anyone from taking control of the nuclear power plant there.”

For eight years, and I must say not eight, but twenty-five years, inhabitants of Ukraine have been teaching their children this lesson: “Kill yourself a Russian.” For twenty-five years they would jump on one leg, saying, “Whoever doesn’t jump is from Moscow!”

How many of those languishing in cells in Kharkov and Kiev are Russian people who did not agree to sell their souls to fascism? Who can count the number of girls who were raped? How many of our fellow countrymen have had their organs cut out and sent to Europe? It goes without saying that all of this will come out into the open.

Russian peacekeeping troops are carrying out a special operation in order to apply the Nuremburg process to all of Europe. Those who closely follow politics notice when the modern leaders of Germany ask, “What genocide?” It is like they are laughing and mocking. Thus they show their solidarity with Hitler.

But what else would you expect from foolish Europe? What’s worse was when Orthodox people, almost two hundred priests, sent an appeal to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, asking him to help stop the war.

Is Russia really at war with civilians? Is Russia really bombing kindergartens and schools? The Fake News Factory – CNN – portrays such footage.

In fact, we are inflicting pinpoint strikes on military structures, on command centers where NATO puppets are coordinating this system of enslaving the Slavs. The next day, they pull corpses out of the morgues, laying them out in Kharkov around the building where the military command staff met, and they make fake news.

These people are lurking in deserted, dilapidated kindergartens and school buildings. They are Ukranian-Nazi drug addicts, as Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin calls them, knowing they are high on heavy narcotics.

These are people who have nearly lost their human appearance, like an animal, now showing its attitude towards Slavs and Ukrainians of Kharkov and Kiev, blocking their way out of the city, which is why the cleansing is being carried out so slowly. Russian peacekeepers are trying to avoid any casualties among the civilian population.

Meanwhile, the civilian population and the youth are being fed propaganda. For twenty-five years, they have been teaching the youth in Ukraine to pour Molotov cocktails in Odessa and Kharkov. They think this operation is a masquerade, a continuation of Maidan, even though it is eradicating fascism from Europe.

I repeat that what is being done now is not some kind of local, not a local operation. Today we are talking about cleansing Europe from any trace of fascism, which can give nothing to the world except ISIS and Bandera. They cover it up carefully. Lavrov demands that Europe be cleansed of nuclear weapons from the United States of America. This is what we are talking about.

We worked ahead of the curve, because if this operation had not begun, military operations would now be going on in the Voronezh, Belgorod, and Kursk provinces. And of course, if it is forgivable for Kharkovites and residents of the cities of Suma, Khitomir, Tiraspol, and Ternopil not to understand what is happening, it is because they caved in before fascism!

They ate and drank and prepared lard for winter, while next door in Novorossia, people were dying every day, and a genocide was being committed against baptized Russian people. Today, they are dissatisfied, finding themselves in bomb shelters, in the subway, leaving their big cities, and they are hindered by fascists, these non-humans, from whom Ukraine needs to be cleansed.

And today we must pray with special feeling and love for our army, commemorating the five hundred dead Russian soldiers, praying for the health of one thousand five hundred wounded Russian soldiers who suffered in the first days of this operation, sacrificing themselves for us.

We repeat once again that this operation in Ukraine is of a global nature. Russia, as always, is liberating the world from fascism, from a digital concentration camp. And a sign that Putin has messed up all the plans of the golden billion, which had almost triumphed in victory, turning the entire population of the earth into cattle, can be seen today in the abolition of QR-codes throughout our capital, and throughout Russia. This shows the exceptional merit of our President.

And this is evidence that the plans of Schwab, these globalists, and these Nazis will not come true — not in Russia, and not in any parts of the world that stand together with Russia, for which we thank the Lord.

Therefore, today, from all of us who cannot actively participate — Here in our congregation is a woman who signed up as a volunteer nurse. She will go to Ukraine as a qualified nurse, to help our wounded soldiers in field hospitals. Today, by deed and especially by prayer, we must unconditionally support Russians who are bringing liberation to the world.

Without delaying our reflection today, let’s say that this special operation in Ukraine was inevitable. This is the only way to force Europe and the Western world to partner with us. Diplomacy is good when diplomats have a revolver on the table. This is the only way for Russia to escape from the slavery in which, to a certain extent, we were bound for 30 years after the lawless collapse of our country.

All these sanctions are just a bunch of belching, proving the impotence of the West in the fight against Russia, which is regaining its sovereignty.

And one does not need to be a prophet to say that in six months, in a year, Russia will have all the conditions necessary for enormous economic, spiritual, and moral growth, because now all the bonds and chains are crumbling — those shackles which had been binding us, thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev and his own passivity in the nineties, which anyone can verify, if you know what materials to read, to analyze what is happening.

I want to congratulate everyone for having received the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

Let us rejoice at the fact that our capital is freed from digital control. Dear pensioners, rejoice! Now you can travel without restrictions.

We will prepare for the beginning of Lent, and for what we believe will be a special Pascha in 2022, when all Russian people from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus will be able to march from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad as a single immortal regiment. Let’s hope that in the near future we will be joined by Moldova, Kazakhstan, and unfortunate Ukraine. Georgia is on the way, refusing to participate in the sanctions.

But you can guess what will happen to the Baltic states. Today, they serve as a transfer shipping base, supplying weapons for the extermination of the Slavs.

Please accept my blessings. Now we can all go home for private prayers, for victory over the dark fascist horde.

Glory to Thee, O God. — Glory to Thee, O God. — Glory to Thee, O God.

Source: Russian Faith, 29 March 2022. Thanks to Tatiana Retivov for the link.

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Patriarch Kirill: “We are a peace-loving country”

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia delivered a sermon during services at the main church of the Russian Armed Forces in Kubinka (Moscow Region), in which he stated that the Russian people have no desire for war or harm to others.

“We are a peace-loving country and a very long-suffering people who have suffered so much from war as few other European nations have suffered. We have no desire for war or to do something that could harm others. But we have been brought up by our history in such a way that we love our fatherland, and we will be ready to defend it as only Russians can defend their fatherland,” Kirill said.

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Source: Alexei Sergeyev, Facebook, 3 April 2022. Translated by the Russian Reader