RUSSIAN WORLD The pacifist heresy of Russian Orthodoxy

In the accusations that the patriarch makes today against the pacifist priests, the explicit reference to the “Tolstoian heresy” is striking. Father Viktor Burdin has been punished with excommunication, which according to Kirill should have “universal value”, but he responds with the question “who can prevent me from serving God?”, the same one that is often repeated in his homilies by another Moscow Orthodox priest, the Italian Giovanni Guaita.

In the context of the dramatic turn of the war in Ukraine, halfway between self-destruction and the reciprocal reconquest of lands disputed for centuries, tension also increases in the war-ecclesial field, another dimension of the endless confrontation between the two faces of the Russian world and of Europe itself. The cases of priests who react against the military-patriotic rhetoric covered in Trinitarian halos are becoming more frequent, and at the same time the sacred cincture of the patriarchal inquisition that stifles the aspiration of priests, monks and faithful to profess a religion of peace.

The straw that is breaking the camel’s back was the forced transfer of the Rublev Trinity icon from the museum to the Church, not only because of the possible damage to the masterpiece of Russian art -which for now seems limited- but also because of the context of authoritarianism and the propaganda exploitation of a symbol of spirituality and mutual love, turned into a banner of the bellicose union of the throne and the altar. It is one of the episodes that best demonstrates how far the distortion of the authentic tradition of Russian religion and culture can go, even in the name of “defending traditional values”. The most difficult aspect of the whole affair to swallow, especially for the Orthodox clergy, was the brutal removal of Protoierej Leonid Kalinin, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Council of Experts on Church Art and Culture, a highly respected and beloved figure, that he was also suspended a divinis “for his opposition to the transfer of the icon to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior”.

When the ax of the irate patriarch Kirill fell on his head, poor father Leonid publicly apologized, declaring that “obviously I was wrong; if this decision was made, it means that they thought it through”, which provoked new indignant reactions against those who they had so brutally dismissed the opinion of the most competent ecclesiastic on the matter. He himself assured that “I have accepted the decision in peace, and I ask all those who know me and love me to pray for me. I try to do what I think is right, but I can always be wrong.” In the end, the icon was placed in an airtight capsule prepared exactly according to Kalinin’s instructions, which made the patriarchal anathema even more paradoxical.

Meanwhile, “canonical attacks” against members of the Russian clergy accused of “pacifist heresy” are multiplying. This is Kirill’s response to all those who in the rest of the Orthodox world accuse him of “philetism” – the identification of the Orthodox religion with the national cause – which Constantinople had already condemned in the first half of the 19th century to contain the movements revolt against the Ottoman Empire. At that time the Bulgarians and the Greeks were accused of heresy, which paved the way for the acceptance of the ethnic principle of the “national Church”, which later became the organizational system of all Orthodox Churches. Actually the principle had been introduced by the Russians since the proclamation of the patriarchate of the “Third Rome”, the true origin of the Philettist heresy.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Kirill inveighs against “ecumenical” pacifism, which denies not only support for the “special military operation” in Ukraine but the very foundations of Russian church ideology. On the other hand, this discussion had already inflamed the spirits of all of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, when anathema was thrown against Lev Tolstoy, the most religious-humanist and at the same time anti-clerical writer in all of Russian literature. On February 22, 1901, the author of “War and Peace” was excommunicated by the Church Synod – which at that time had no patriarch – under the chairmanship of the Tsarist Minister of Worship (oberprokuror) Konstantin Pobedonostsev, the ” Torquemada” Russian of the desperate defense of Holy Russia shortly before the revolutions. In fact, he resigned soon after, in 1905, after Russia’s senseless war against Japan, so reminiscent of the current ruinous campaign in the Ukraine. The Russians believed they could subdue the Empire of the Rising Sun in seven days and were trapped between islands and ports for weeks before succumbing to the intrepid Japanese counter-offensive. Already then a good part of the Russian soldiers and sailors were ex-convicts sent by force from the concentration camps to redeem themselves in the war. They were not able to put up any resistance to the samurai, especially since most of them were victims of alcohol fumes, like the Russian soldiers of Bakhmut and Kherson.

The ruinous war was followed by the first Russian revolution, already heralded since January by the popular demonstration led by Pope Gapon, a priest with socialist sympathies who had asked all groups to withdraw their flags and political and controversial writings and moved towards the Winter Palace hoisting the sacred processional icons. Gapon wanted Tsar Nicholas II to come down to meet the people, and an appearance by him would have been enough to please the crowd, but the generals and their relatives had persuaded the tsar to take refuge in the castle of Tsarskoye Selo, far from Petersburg, and opened fire on the masses of peaceful unarmed demonstrators. The government declared that there were 130 deaths, other sources counted between 600 and 2,000, and it was the beginning of the end of the tsarist regime.

The excommunicated Tolstoy raised his voice against the massacres, further stating that “religious persecutions were never as frequent and ferocious as today”, and it is quite impressive that the accusations that the patriarch currently makes against pacifist priests speak explicitly of “Tolstoian heresy”. . Indeed, the writer had inspired a new variant of pacifist religion, precisely called tolstojanstvo and derogatorily tolstovshchina, the same term used these days by Putin’s propagandists and preachers to expose priests who oppose the war to public ridicule. Hieromonk Afanasy (Bukin), who was serving in the Russian mission in Jerusalem, was fired last February when he spoke out against the military operation on its first anniversary. A few days ago, he explained on Facebook that he had been reduced to a lay state by the ecclesiastical court with extremely aggressive motivations, as stated in the sentence: “the cleric has betrayed the ecclesiastical oath and the apostolic norms, with depraved motivations, not only for the words that he has used but because of his refusal to submit to ecclesiastical authority”.

Another hieromonk, Father Jakov (Vorontsov), spontaneously left the Russian Orthodox metropolis of Kazakhstan, before being himself expelled, and referring to the ecclesiastical authorities, said that “the Evil One has taken over their hearts, which are already incapable of distinguishing good from evil… is it possible that the Russian saints have performed their great miracles and sacrifices in vain? Has Russian culture become fertile ground for the growth of the Antichrist? I think not, and I trust the many Russians who don’t want war, even if they don’t have the courage to say it openly”.

It is no coincidence that the monks are the ones who raise their voices, especially in the peripheral venues. In fact, most of his brothers live in communities led by faithful executors of patriarchal directives, and the parish clergy, married by tradition, are conditioned by their families. The vast majority of priests must protect their numerous children, many of whom will continue their parents’ mission and become popy and popady, priests and priests’ wives, following restored “caste traditions” after the Soviet winter. On the other hand, the few priestly families were those who preserved the Orthodox faith under the atheist regime, and even the patriarch Kirill himself is the son and grandson of priests.

One of the few priests who had the courage to put his own family at risk is the parish priest of Kostroma -500 kilometers north of Moscow- Viktor Burdin, known as the “Savonarola of Kostroma”. Aged 51, a priest since 2015, at the beginning he was vicar in the town of Karabanovo, whose parish priest was a historical anti-Soviet religious dissident, Father Georgi Edelstein, who is currently 91 years old. Together with him he signed several letters of protest even before the invasion of Ukraine, and was one of the promoters of the letter that 300 priests signed after the start of the operation. He, too, has been reduced to a secular state, with the formal accusation of “lying pacifism” or “pseudo-pacifism”, to distinguish it from “authentic”, which defines peace according to the interests of the Russian people and the victims of the “Ukrainian genocide”. in the Donbass”, according to the patriarchal act of his sentence.

Father Viktor further infuriated Patriarch Kirill when he tried to enter the service of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria, and the excommunication he has been subjected to claims to have “universal value”. Burdin responds with the question “Who can prevent me from serving God?”, which is often repeated in his homilies by another Orthodox priest from Moscow, the Italian Giovanni Guaita, who came to Russia thirty years ago with the Focolare movement and converted in a member of the patriarchate, encouraged by ecumenical convictions and love for Russia. In one of his interviews that he is making a splash on YouTube, he states that “the only sin that cannot be forgiven” is using faith to inflict death. Faith is not the property of State or Church officials, not even the most illustrious and powerful. It is the path to peace, as priests and faithful around the world know in reality.

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