If Ivan Ilyin’s philosophy is the weapon then the Russian Orthodox Church is the organization that is organizing it and attempting to make it a part of Russian’s every day lives. The Russian Federation under Putin invested hundreds of billions of in bringing back the Russian Orthodox Church from near extinction. Remember under the Soviet Union the church had been almost totally destroyed.
Using the power of the state Putin brought into the Russian school system mandatory religious and ethical studies. On surface it initially appeared to be balanced. But, over time it just focused on teaching the dogma of the Russian Orthodox Church. The following quotes are from a great article in the public domain that I encourage every one to read.
It all happened very fast. In the middle of 2009 Dmitry Medvedev, the then president of Russia, said ‘Let it be’ and by September 2010 the Ministry of Education responded, ‘Thy will be done,’ and set up a pilot project to introduce religious and ethical studies in 19 Russian regions. The Ministry stressed that it was schoolchildren and their parents who would choose which of six modules they would study in their fourth year of school (10-11 year olds) – Fundamentals of Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Orthodox Christianity, World Religious Cultures or Secular Ethics.
Open Democracy: Teaching orthodoxy in Russian schools — Natalya Yakovleva December 4, 2014 (Reuse permission under Creative Commons 3.0)
The article then explains how the module system did not work out and how the Russian Orthodox Church’s teaching became the dominate topic of instruction.
Nevertheless, after two years the pilot was officially pronounced a success (though in rather abstract terms). Yelena Nizienko, head of the Education Department of the Ministry for Education and Science announced that:‘The new subject is a useful one – more than 60% of adults believe it has brought them closer to their children.’ After that there was no stopping it –no one asked the parents any more. And billions of roubles had already been spent on it, after all. So in 2012, ‘Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics’ became part of the curriculum for 10-11 year olds.
Open Democracy: Teaching orthodoxy in Russian schools — Natalya Yakovleva December 4, 2014 (Reuse permission under Creative Commons 3.0)
Teachers had no choice or voice in the decision of including Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics in the children's curriculum. And as the years went past the class teaching materials and methods became more organized and more slanted away from the secular toward the Russian Orthodox.
Not many teachers even try to explain the concept of ‘God.’ Even the textbook recommended by the Ministry and edited by a professor at Moscow’s Theological Academy, states: ‘The word ‘God’ is used to designate a being for which there is no reason. God created everything; no one created Him. God created both the world and Time, so Time did not exist before the creation of our Universe. God himself is outside our world, and outside Time. That which is outside Time is called Eternity... God is free. He created nature and its laws.So nature’s laws have no power over him. He is able to do anything, including being more than just God.’
Open Democracy: Teaching orthodoxy in Russian schools — Natalya Yakovleva December 4, 2014 (Reuse permission under Creative Commons 3.0)
The above paragraph resonates with Timothy Snyder’s concept of the Politics of Eternity. And in this part of the series we see just how a Religion can become a weapon. The Russian Orthodox Church, bought and paid for by Putin, takes Ivan Ilyin’s philosophy and re-packages it for weekly church services and instruction in state owned schools. And note below that the religious lessons are taught with with no regard to the development stage of the child. So some children are unable to reconcile other areas of their schooling such as scientific theory with the religious instruction. This is the mechanics of Weaponizing Religion.
And where does Orthodox Culture end and fundamentalism begin? Vladimir Krupko, astronomer and teacher, and Director of the Omsk Planetarium at the city’s Palace of Children’s Creativity, tells me that recently mothers have been bringing their children along for ‘re-education’: ‘Parents are worried about their children’s lack of interest in learning. Things can get really heated at home: “The teacher said God created the world; why do you lie to me?”The mothers bring them to look through our telescope. On the one hand, religion is of course a good thing: you believe that God exists, so he exists and life becomes easier. On the other hand – if God created the world, you don’t need to discover how it works: why bother, if you know it all already? How can the immensity of space above us not be interesting? What’s left – kitchen-school-toilet?Children need to have a choice. But are they getting one?’
Open Democracy: Teaching orthodoxy in Russian schools — Natalya Yakovleva December 4, 2014 (Reuse permission under Creative Commons 3.0)
Of interest in the article is the segment called the decline of learning. It gives examples and interviews with scientists and teachers who are observing the decline of learning in Russia. In keeping with the wise words “follow the money” the here is a snip about putting church building before everything.
In the regions church buildings are going up at an alarming rate – Leonid Polezhayev, Omsk’s regional governor for the last twenty years,has been building ten new churches a year even as the area’s industry and agriculture has totally collapsed. The Novosibirsk Region is lagging behind in this respect, having only managed 100 new places of worship in that time, but last year its then acting governor Vasily Yurchenko signed an agreement with Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to build another 100. At the same time, the government insists that this building spree is being entirely funded by donations from parishioners, and not out of hard-pressed regional budgets. This is hardly likely: the average monthly income of urban Siberians is a mere 26,000 roubles (£350), and for people in rural areas it’s only half as much.
Open Democracy: Teaching orthodoxy in Russian schools — Natalya Yakovleva December 4, 2014 (Reuse permission under Creative Commons 3.0)
The paragraph below brings us back to the importance of stories. Do we live by the story of the Politics of Inevitability or the Politics of Eternity. Or, do we create a new story such as the Politics of Structural Stability as will be presented at the end of this series.
Political specialist Ivan Kardash has another perspective on the subject: ‘The ultra right has realised that ‘nationalism’ is a dirty word. At a time when the Kremlin is trying to revive the old Tsarist slogan, “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” as its new state ideology, it is much more effective to promote it under the banner of the Church.’
The Putin government is evidently intent on abolishing evolution in one country. Who needs people who can create their own worlds? We have our own Universe – Russia, a country where the Almighty above is in the service of the Almighty beneath.
Open Democracy: Teaching orthodoxy in Russian schools — Natalya Yakovleva December 4, 2014 (Reuse permission under Creative Commons 3.0)
In closing I would like to remind everyone what Timothy Snyder said about the importance of studying Russia’s development over the last 20 years. In that a number of religious groups are waiting in the wings to bring the Politics of Eternity to the United States. All the division and stumbling around in the Republican Party could be eliminated overnight if Mike Pence became president and those Fundamentalist and Dominion Theology backers of his are allowed to take over.
Everything Trump and the Republicans are doing is designed to create as much misery and chaos as possible. This parallels the situation with Boris Yeltsin. When Yeltsin reached the end of his term as president the Russian public was ready to welcome Putin and give him all the power necessary to bring back some sense of stability. After Trump will we welcome anyone who pretends to govern wisely even if they are leading us to a theocracy.
