This Street Prophets Coffee Hour is brought to you by Patriarch Alexy II. Today’s article, Putin Mobilizes Religion, is part 5 of 15 in a series about figuring out just what is going on in American politics. It will be about how we got to where we are now. And hopefully present a story of where we should be going. Along the way we will take a look at Russia, the U.S. 2016 Presidential election, Memes and Fiction, Network Propaganda, soft warfare, and cyberwarfare.
This is an Open Thread and all topics of conversation are welcome. What is for dinner? How are you doing? What is on your mind. If you are new to Street Prophets please introduce yourself below in a comment. This Coffee Hour series is brought to you by Putin’s Philosopher Ivan Ilyin.
To the astute observer events in Russia sinisterly foreshadow potential futures for the United States. In parts Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this series we learned that historian Timothy Snyder is just such an observer and in his book, The Road To Unfreedom, Snyder maps out in detail how events in the Ukraine were a “trial run” for delivering their first major weapon to the United State soil called Trump.
Asymmetrical amplification of of false messages is one of tools of weaponization that Russia used to propel its payload, Trump, into office. Russian Web Brigades, fresh from the battle in the Ukraine turned their efforts to the 2016 Presidential election with the outcome being the election of their puppet Trump.
Today’s article is not about the mechanics of spreading false information. This will be discussed in a future installment of this series. Our topic for today is about the underlying ideology that propels Russia’s cultural hegemony.
It is my belief that Putin's embrace of the Russian Orthodox Church was a key component in his war tool chest. Not only did it add the voices of its over 150 million followers it enabled the Russian Federation to draw upon the authority of God to demand absolute obedience and sacrifice by the followers of the faith.
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Putin Mobilizes Religion
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) under the Soviet Union was severely and brutally repressed. Thousand of churches were destroyed and the clergy and members were persecuted. Upwards of 95,000 priests were put to death.
In the time between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to less than 500. Between 1917 and 1935, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested. Of these, 95,000 were put to death. Many thousands of victims of persecution became recognized in a special canon of saints known as the "new martyrs and confessors of Russia". — Wikipedia: Russian Orthodox Church
It was under Mikhail Gorbachev that the Russian Orthodox Church was allowed to start rebuilding and functioning openly. However, it was infiltrated and controlled by the KGB. By the late 2000s the church with the help of state was well on its way to regaining what was lost before. The Russian government was able to use the over 300 million believers worldwide as assets in supporting Russian goals.
The Russian Orthodox concept of the spiritual father, which encourages almost complete deference to the Church's hierarchy and clergy, is one that most Russians understand, and a defining aspect of Russian culture. This widely understood theological concept has paved the way for Russians to accept and defend Putin's authoritarianism and to see him as the country's spiritual father. Government officials, as well as religious leaders, have been known to speak of Putin in quasi-religious terms. Vladislav Surkov, who has held various senior positions surrounding Putin, including Deputy Prime Minister, has referred to Putin as “a man whom fate and the Lord sent to Russia.” — Forbes: (Un)Holy Alliance: Vladimir Putin, The Russian Orthodox Church And Russian Exceptionalism
When Putin came into power it was only natural for him to engineer the resurgence of ROC. He used it to insure votes for himself, spying on foreign and domestic dissidents, promoting nationalism, and influencing public policy. In return the leaders of the ROC received land, power, and wealth.
Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia. — From a New York Times article by Clifford J. Levy dated April 24, 2008: At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church
It is my opinion the blending of the government of the Russian Federation and the Russian Orthodox Church is a prototypical example of the failure of the separation of church and state. Yes I realize this separation idea is an American idea, but I think the principal is valid and insures good governance. (I believe a useful metaphor for conceptualizing this separation is the mathematical concept of perpendicular.)
The tremendous power of persuasion inherent in the main ideologies of our times is not accidental.
Persuasion is not possible without appeal to either experiences or desires, in other words to immediate political needs.
Plausibility in these matters comes neither from scientific facts...nor from historical laws.
Every full-fledged ideology has been created, continued and improved as a political weapon and not as a theoretical doctrine.
— Hannah Arendt. The Origins of Totalitarianism. 1967. iBooks.
From a comment by democratos: Ideology is a political weapon
Putin has improved the ROC as a political weapon by using the internet. This cyber attack by Putin is over the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Putin wants the ROC to control the Ukrainian Church.
On Aug. 27, one of the strangest targets yet of Russian hacking was revealed, when The Associated Press broke the news that Fancy Bear—the group infamously entangled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election hacks—had also targeted the heart of Eastern Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Foreign Policy article by Christopher Stroop dated September 10, 2018: Putin Wants God (or at Least the Church) on His Side
The Foreign Policy article is worth the read as it connects the dots between Ilyin’s ideology and how it is being used by Putin to retain power. Below the closing paragraph of the article.
Russia’s new championing of so-called traditional values, such as homophobia and opposition to feminism and secularism, has received a powerful boost from the Orthodox Church—and from far-right fellow travelers in the West. (Chapnin himself was
fired from his position as managing editor of the
Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate for vocally expressing his critical views.) The ties between the Orthodox Church and the Russian state go all the way to the top; both Kirill and his predecessor were at least informants for the KGB during the Soviet era, if not
full-blown agents. Today, Putin benefits from the backing of the Orthodox Church, an institution that, despite
low levels of Russian piety and direct religious participation, enjoys considerable respect among the Russian people. —
Foreign Policy article by Christopher Stroop dated September 10, 2018: Putin Wants God (or at Least the Church) on His Side
Lastly, remember one key assertions of Timothy Snyder’s book, The Road To Unfreedom, is that Russia’s attack on the Ukraine was a testing ground, and rehearsal for the Russian attacks on the United States, Europe, and NATO.