- Langhorne, Pennsylvania, United States
Eugene Blum
La Salle University, Central and Eastern European Studies, Graduate Student
- Central and Eastern European Studies, Art History, English, Russian Geopolitics, Russian Orthodox Church, History of the Russian Church, and 254 moreRussian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Catacomb Church, Theology, Russian Studies, Colonialism, Imperialism, Geopolitics, Russian Foreign Policy, Post-Soviet Studies, Russian Politics, Political Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Post-Soviet Regimes, Russian Nationalism, Psychology, Russian History, Fascism, Neo-Fascism, Post-Soviet Politics, Postsecularism (Sociology), Post Soviet, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European Studies, Russian Orthodoxy, Russian Revolution, History of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, EU-Russia relations, Ukraine, Polish History, Intellectual History, German Literature and Culture, European governance, Ukrainian Studies, German History, Stalin and Stalinism, Dystopian Literature, Cultural History, Neo-Eurasianism, Postsocialism, Russia, Propaganda & Indoctrination Studies, German Studies, Soviet History, Women saints, Turkish and European Union Relations, Ukrainian Politics, Comparative Politics (Research Methodology), Eurasianism, Council of Europe, Vladimir Putin, New Right, GULAG, Communism (Revolutions), Religion and Politics, Soviet Regime, Ideology Studies, Russia (History), Propaganda Systems In Media, Cultural Nationalism, Political Religion, Authoritarian regimes, Christian Orthodoxy and Nationalism, Foreign Policy of Ukraine, Alexandr Dugin, East European History, Turkish Russian Relations, Transitology (Political Science), EthnoNational Conflicts, Religious Extremism, Conspiracy Theories and Transparency, Post-Communist Studies, Ukraine (History), Eurasian Geopolitics, history of OUN UPA, East European studies, South East European Studies, Literature and the Bible, Central Asia (History), Anti-Americanism, Extremist Groups, Post-Socialist Societies, Ukraine in WWII, Pussy Riot, Belarusian Studies, Soviet Union (History), Kievan Rus', Ukrainian Nationalism, 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From the beginning of the Russian–Ukrainian War, forecasting the Kremlin’s policies has become an increasingly important priority for the United States as well as for the entire free and civilized world. In order to obtain an objective... more
From the beginning of the Russian–Ukrainian War, forecasting the Kremlin’s policies has become an increasingly important priority for the United States as well as for the entire free and civilized world. In order to obtain an objective science-based forecasting, there is a need to maximize the use of computer models of sophisticated systems such as ‘states.’ Nevertheless, in the case of Russia and other totalitarian states, even descriptive models can produce reliable results if the analyst understands the system-forming ideology of the state.
Many experts believe that pravoslavie (Orthodoxy in its Moscow-Kremlin interpretation) has become just such a post-Soviet ideology in Russia. In addition, there is a unique situation of complete submission of the official church (the Russian Orthodox Church, ROC) to the dictatorship of Russian special services (the former KGB). Thus, the ROC is a channel and provider of ideas for manipulating the consciousness of the Russian people. Its current ideology has little to do with Christianity, but forms a very successful and influential paradigm for the political aspirations of the Kremlin.
Under the current circumstances of war, the probable cooperation of the ROC and the Russian special services becomes an important question. The ROC adamantly denies reports of cooperation or tries to minimize their significance. Nevertheless, the very behavior of the ROC, for example, in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, says the opposite.
In this paper, we will examine the history of the relations between the ROC and the Russian government as well as the basic postulates of “Kremlin Orthodoxy” (pravoslavie) as a doctrine. The available evidence about the cooperation of the ROC and the KGB will be presented. In the example of modern Ukraine, it will be illustrated how, under the influence of pravoslavic rhetoric, the Russian expansionistic and imperialistic ideas derived from mythical prophecies are turned into reality.
The task and purpose of this thesis is to help American policy-makers to estimate the long-term course of Russia’s government in the light of the modern Russian paradigm. A critical investigation of Russian Orthodoxy as a modern political technology, which employs Christian rites to disguise its purpose, offers the analyst a reliable measure of intentions of Russian policy-makers. Deep-seated in the mythology of Russian Orthodoxy itself is the goal, and the sense of life, for Russians: the restoration of the Russian Empire, the spread of its influence, first, to the neighboring former Soviet countries, then to countries professing Eastern Christianity, and then, ideally, to the whole world – if the civilized world will allow this to happen. The pravoslavic ideology preached by the Kremlin, with its ideas of “Russians as God’s chosen people”, “Moscow the Third Rome,” and the “God-given mission” for Russia to any aggression under the noble-sounding pretext of ‘preserving Orthodoxy’ or spreading ‘the only true faith,’ has placed the world on the brink of World War III in 2014. Long-term cooperation between the KGB-FSB and the Russian Orthodox Church makes subordination and exploitation of the Russian populace not only largely possible, but also extremely dangerous for the rest of the world. It is history in the making, happening under our very noses.
Many experts believe that pravoslavie (Orthodoxy in its Moscow-Kremlin interpretation) has become just such a post-Soviet ideology in Russia. In addition, there is a unique situation of complete submission of the official church (the Russian Orthodox Church, ROC) to the dictatorship of Russian special services (the former KGB). Thus, the ROC is a channel and provider of ideas for manipulating the consciousness of the Russian people. Its current ideology has little to do with Christianity, but forms a very successful and influential paradigm for the political aspirations of the Kremlin.
Under the current circumstances of war, the probable cooperation of the ROC and the Russian special services becomes an important question. The ROC adamantly denies reports of cooperation or tries to minimize their significance. Nevertheless, the very behavior of the ROC, for example, in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, says the opposite.
In this paper, we will examine the history of the relations between the ROC and the Russian government as well as the basic postulates of “Kremlin Orthodoxy” (pravoslavie) as a doctrine. The available evidence about the cooperation of the ROC and the KGB will be presented. In the example of modern Ukraine, it will be illustrated how, under the influence of pravoslavic rhetoric, the Russian expansionistic and imperialistic ideas derived from mythical prophecies are turned into reality.
The task and purpose of this thesis is to help American policy-makers to estimate the long-term course of Russia’s government in the light of the modern Russian paradigm. A critical investigation of Russian Orthodoxy as a modern political technology, which employs Christian rites to disguise its purpose, offers the analyst a reliable measure of intentions of Russian policy-makers. Deep-seated in the mythology of Russian Orthodoxy itself is the goal, and the sense of life, for Russians: the restoration of the Russian Empire, the spread of its influence, first, to the neighboring former Soviet countries, then to countries professing Eastern Christianity, and then, ideally, to the whole world – if the civilized world will allow this to happen. The pravoslavic ideology preached by the Kremlin, with its ideas of “Russians as God’s chosen people”, “Moscow the Third Rome,” and the “God-given mission” for Russia to any aggression under the noble-sounding pretext of ‘preserving Orthodoxy’ or spreading ‘the only true faith,’ has placed the world on the brink of World War III in 2014. Long-term cooperation between the KGB-FSB and the Russian Orthodox Church makes subordination and exploitation of the Russian populace not only largely possible, but also extremely dangerous for the rest of the world. It is history in the making, happening under our very noses.
