Militant clericalism in Russia is not only apparent but is also clearly strengthening and becoming more organized. The main lobbyist for the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Sergey Gavrilov, a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), is part of the inter-factional group for the protection of Christian values, which includes more than 40 deputies. Gavrilov proposed including the mention of God in the Constitution of the Russian Federation even before Patriarch Kirill: “I believe that we could very well, unlike the European Union, which refused to mention its Christian roots in its Constitution, come to at least note in the preamble the unique role of Orthodoxy, which it has played in the preservation of our Russia, not only as a state but also in the preservation of our society, our people — including thanks to the prayerful deeds of Sergius of Radonezh, whose anniversary we celebrated in the summer of 2014 in the unification of the people. I think that it is difficult to find a person now — if there is one, he would be insincere — who could deny these obvious things. I believe that we will return to this issue. You understand perfectly well that when we discussed this issue, we encountered serious resistance. And this silent resistance often accompanies us when we raise questions about protecting children, including from threats of sexual violence, when we raise the issue of protecting our national interests in the field of foreign policy. But I must say that a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then.”
«Our Presence in the Duma is Intended to Unite the Clergy and Consider All Issues from an Ethical Point of View»
One of the bishops states: “Our presence in the Duma is precisely aimed at ensuring that we, honored by the high election by the people, here in the Duma rise above party divisions and form a single group of clergy that would illuminate all issues from their ethical point of view.” Representatives of the clergy are not allowed to be elected to the Duma or to be members of parties, factions, etc. However, as delegates, representatives of the clergy participate in the work of the Duma. Metropolitan Hilarion spoke in an interview with Kommersant about the prospects of the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Old Believers: “The Orthodox Duma clergy overwhelmingly finds”… that in the name of the “preeminent and dominant position of the Orthodox Church,” neither freedom of preaching for the Old Believers, nor the declarative procedure for opening Old Believer communities, nor the designation of Old Believer clergy as clergymen is permissible. The “purely moral point of view” of Russian priests has fully revealed itself as pure clericalism. The “overwhelming majority” of the Duma clergy, on behalf of whom Metropolitan Hilarion spoke, are likely right-wing and moderately right-wing priests of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the VIII convocation.
«The Church is above the state, just as the eternal and divine are above the temporal and earthly.»
The Russian Orthodox Church is an ally of the Russian government and president, without any doubt. The Patriarch himself spoke in the State Duma, after which theology became an “academic discipline.” Every year, various structures of the ROC receive millions of rubles (grants from the president) for dubious purposes such as “strengthening national unity.” This means only one thing: in most state structures, there are allies of the ROC ready to promote the church’s interests. The ROC has friends in all major political parties in Russia, as the church is a lucrative private enterprise in relation to the state.
Here are the achievements Gavrilov notes during the period of his group’s work: The ROC, according to Patriarch Kirill and some of his supporters, is a divine and eternal institution; the laws in relation to the ROC are immutable, as the ideals of state life are known to undergo constant changes. The Russian Orthodox Church recalls a “disturbing historical parallel”: the secularization of church property under Catherine II, as well as after the working class took power following the Great October Revolution in 1917, when church lands and property were turned over to the benefit of the masses, and the church was separated from the state and its treasury, losing all state privileges. Sergey Gavrilov, (a Communist!), a deputy from the CPRF, is a member of the State Duma of the VIII convocation, elected in 2021. In this convocation, he holds the position of Chairman of the Committee on Property, Land, and Property Relations and notes the achievements during the period of his group’s work: “We managed to resolve issues with the return of land to the Church and the restoration of many churches. Recently, the Church regained the right to perpetual use of land plots and is now exempt from land tax.” Church funds are not subject to state control, as church rules state that if a bishop is entrusted with Christian souls, then church property should all the more be entrusted to him. Thus, the holy Orthodox Church, the spiritual mother of all officials and gendarmes, stands before them not only as public representatives but also as its spiritual children. Before us is pure clericalism. The Church is above the state, just as the eternal and divine are above the temporal and earthly. The Church does not forgive the state for the secularization of church property.
The Essence of the Policy of the Majority of the Eighth Duma Clergy
After the dissolution of the USSR on December 26, 1991, the Russian Federation was recognized by the international community as the successor state to the USSR, meaning it has the right to demand and respond to the debts of the USSR. Today, the church demands interest for the use of land, subsoil resources, property (including gold), and lost profits for the entire period starting from 1918. The ROC demands a preeminent and dominant position not only in Russia but also beyond its borders. For it, Duma deputies and officials are not so much people’s representatives as “spiritual children.”
These are not officials in cassocks but feudal lords in cassocks. The essence of the policy of the majority of the eighth Duma clergy is the protection of the church’s feudal privileges and the open advocacy of medievalism. Every priest, every bishop, every charlatan laundering money through the ROC will not forgive attacks from the people on their share of the sacred income. Those who dare to “undermine the historical and canonical foundations on which our church life has stood and must stand” and “shift the life and activities of the Russian Orthodox Church from the canonical path to a path where… the real princes of the church — the bishops — would have to cede almost all their rights inherited from the apostles to secular princes”… “This is nothing less than… an encroachment on someone else’s property and on the rights of the church and its possessions”…
Militant Clericalism Shows Itself Clearly
Russian liberals have long consoled themselves, or rather deceived themselves with the “theory” that there is no ground in Russia for militant clericalism, for the struggle of the “princes of the church” with secular power, and so on. But the current state of affairs has put an end to liberal illusions.
Clericalism existed in a latent form as long as the majority of liberals in the government and the Duma remained intact and inviolable. Today, as is known, the majority of staunch monarchists and right-wing nationalists prevail in the Russian government and the Duma, so clericalism no longer needs to take a hidden form — they all follow one ideology, they are all like-minded. Before the invasion of Ukraine, clericalism did not need organization and saw no need for political struggle, but today, when the majority of the populace stands against the war, clericalism relies entirely on the belief that the whip is sufficient to keep the rabble in check. The struggle of clerics against the populace has been particularly noticeable in recent months. This struggle unfolds on a national scale and requires a special black parliament. Militant clericalism has shown itself clearly, and Russian liberals are forced to be mere spectators in the conflicts between the clerical bourgeoisie and the anti-clerical bourgeoisie. The task of the working class is to manage to unite as a special class, capable of separating itself from bourgeois democracy, to organize jointly with the remnants of the anti-clerical liberal bourgeoisie in the Duma, and to raise the issue from the Duma tribune of “providing information on church incomes and the expenditure of parish funds.” However, it is worth noting that the party supposedly defending and representing the working forces of Russia, the CPRF, is in fact the most reactionary party advocating for the strengthening of Orthodox monarchism. The so-called left (CPRF), specifically G. Zyuganov, exclaims that “religious life is shaken by the efforts and hostility of the West,” and that “the only basis for the moral order of the Russian population is the Orthodox Church, and not some notion of class.” “Religion! — as the basis of morality — must be accessible to the entire population, and the conductors of this religion must enjoy proper authority.”
This CPRF representative wants to strengthen religion by joining forces with all party representatives in the Duma, wishing to strengthen the influence of religion on the masses, feeling the inadequacy of the church’s authority. The bourgeoisie and capital understand that the old means of stupefying the people no longer work. Capital representatives understand that slogans such as “Russia rising from its knees” or “The West wants to take our land and resources” can no longer consolidate society — these slogans are worn out and outdated. Now the semi-autocratic government needs a new slogan — “religion and the holy church,” because it is very convenient to cover imperialist conquests of other countries with religion, calling these conquests “holy wars” “for the glory and protection of traditional Orthodox values.”
Religion is the mantle with which the government and the Duma cover the deaths of hundreds of thousands of workers in these military conflicts, calling these military conflicts a battle for political, economic, and above all spiritual sovereignty. An example of this bourgeois hypocrisy is the speeches of officials, cultural figures, and oligarchs “for the holy war.” For example, actor Dmitry Pevtsov from the “New People” party: “We are not just standing against the collective West. Now it is time to defend not only the economic, political sovereignty of the country but also spiritual sovereignty. Spiritual security is a characteristic of the state of society in its moral and ideological potential, its deep, fundamental goals and values. It is the spiritual sphere that forms what is called the spirit of the nation. This is the basis of the spiritual sovereignty of our country.” As for the soldiers killed on the fields during the military conflict in Ukraine, actor Dmitry Pevtsov suggests simply commemorating them with a moment of silence — what a grand gesture of goodwill!
Representatives of capital and the bourgeoisie in Russia have completely lost their authority before the people over the past 30 years; the only thing that can unite them and save them for a while from internal explosion is the authority of religious institutions, which was created by the hands of the bourgeoisie itself. To keep the people in spiritual slavery, a close alliance of the church with the right-wing and staunch monarchists in power is needed. Today, the police government needs to act more cleverly, more cunningly, more skillfully, — the church is above politics, — only in this way can the backward workers, especially the peasants, be fooled, only in this way can the “great, holy cause” of maintaining the spiritual slavery of the masses be carried out.
But when the naked and unadorned truth about the clergy’s exactions, about the extortion of priests, about how they demand not only money for weddings, baptisms, and funerals but also “several crates of vodka, snacks, gold, several cars of fresh flowers, and sometimes even beautiful women,” and if this also goes public and spreads on the internet, a wild howl is heard in the Russian government, in this police and spiritual office.
“What kind of mockery is this? What an outrage? — talks about exactions with the statement of the ‘rates’ is nothing but anti-religious and anti-church statements, it is the attacks and machinations of the West and its agents.” The church says — “The West brought Bolshevism to the holy Russian Empire in 1917. The Soviet government fought against the church and Orthodoxy, fought against religion and the religiosity of the peasant against his will and without his consciousness. Such a thing cannot be repeated and allowed! Power must go hand in hand with the church, apply legal, and sometimes illegal means to the people so that the church ‘in greater power and glory than now, performs its great, holy work in the spirit of Christ — love and freedom.'”
What is Apparent: Religion Against the People
The Russian Patriarchate conducts its dark deeds not only within Russia. Wherever there is a Russian population, there is an untapped field for the ROC, for bishops and priests. For example, take the Baltics, where Russians coexist peacefully with Lithuanians, Estonians, and Latvians. Until the spring of 2022, Orthodox churches in the Baltics were mostly perceived as museum buildings from medieval times. However, with the arrival of spring 2022, the situation radically changed: the number of opening and constructing churches and temples began to grow rapidly. Moreover, former museums were transformed into functioning monasteries, churches, and temples.
Correspondents of “The Eastern Post” conducted an experiment by visiting ROC churches and temples that had transitioned from museum status to working religious institutions. They highlighted one important characteristic: the main task of these institutions is to ensure their parish. The church demands money!
A small example from the Republic of Estonia: in a church, the cost of one candle averages 1 euro, with a production cost of only 0.001 euros. The markup on candles can reach 10,000%. Most often, candles are made from a mixture of paraffin (90%) and wax (10%). When asked, “Do you accept cashless payments?” the response was: “Only from 5 euros,” as the bank supposedly charges a commission for transactions. However, it should be noted that the church institution is not a commercial enterprise, and the church pays the bank a fixed amount for using the terminal, not for each transaction. Most likely, the requirement for a minimum amount of 5 euros is just an excuse, as the church prefers to keep cash out of the bank’s sight. In the same church, bishops and priests actively work on the population with the same tale as in the Russian Duma, “The Soviet government fought against the church and religion, the Bolsheviks were sent by the Germans and encroached on church property: on church lands and private property, as did Catherine the Great. But today’s Russian government not only goes hand in hand with the church but also listens to the church’s advice, whether in spiritual or state affairs. You will see, in 2-3 years, Estonia, with its predominant spiritual values of Orthodoxy, will tearfully ask to join Russia. Such a small state as Estonia cannot exist alone and must necessarily join the strongest, and the driving force for this union should be the Orthodox Church.” The same indoctrination by church officials is already observed today on the streets. It should be noted that the ROC may very well become the core that will try to split the society of the Baltic countries into Russians and non-Russians, into Orthodox and Catholics. Militant clericalism with feudal lords in cassocks receives enough funds from the Russian treasury to prepare the ground. This was the case in Ukraine, this is happening in Armenia, Georgia, etc., and it will happen in the Baltics. In some cities of the Baltics, combat Orthodox squads already identify themselves with the “Russian World.”
For the hundredth and thousandth time, we see that the church stands for the oppression and enslavement of the people. For the hundredth and thousandth time, we see confirmation of the truth that the Russian proletariat is sent to die on the battlefields with the blessing of the church in the name of the private interests of the same church. The working class of Russia must demand the actual separation of church and state; the Russian working class must destroy the crushing and ruinous yoke of the feudal landowners, the feudal lords in cassocks, the autocratic feudal lords. “Religion is the opium of the people” … “Not a penny of the people’s money to these blood enemies of the people, who darken the people’s consciousness” – this slogan must resonate with millions of workers and soldiers of Russia, it must spread among the masses, who will be able, when the time comes, to turn it into revolutionary action.
Author of the Article
Nadezhda Orlova
