Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has embraced religion

MOSCOW LETTER: UNTIL THE Soviet Union was dissolved
Fr Valentin at the Church of the Assumption in the Potteries near
Taganskaya Square in Moscow was banned from holding the procession that
is part of the Orthodox Easter’s midnight liturgy. 

The Krestny Khod, in
which the congregation enters the street and walks three times around
the church, was banned by the Soviet authorities as an “obstruction to
traffic” but has been permitted since 1992.

Anyone who knows the
Taganka area will know that traffic around this beautiful little church
with its outdoor icon of the Virgin with Three Hands is slight at the
best of times and after midnight in the days of the USSR it was
non-existent.

Since those days there has been a surge in religious
adherence among Russians. 

Almost every taxi in Moscow has its selection
of little icons to protect driver and passengers against accidents. 

In a
city where driving standards are low and speeding is almost a way of
life one can understand why Russian motorists appeal to heaven.

In
the Ireland of my youth prayers were said for the conversion of Russia
but those who feel this goal has been achieved might be dismayed by the
anti-Catholic feeling that exists among a small section of Orthodox
believers.

Some years back an Irish diplomat on a tour of the
great monastery of Sergiev Posad to the north of Moscow noticed a
painting of the Last Judgment which included people in clerical garb
suffering unspeakable indignities at the hands of Satan and his crew in
hell. 

“Who are they?” he asked the monk who was conducting the guided
tour.

In a tone that indicated everyone should know who the sufferers were, the monk replied: “They are the Roman Catholics.”

Andrei Zolotov, a leading Moscow journalist, editor of the prestigious
Russia Profile magazine and devout Orthodox believer,
recognises that this type of tension did exist but is now waning. 

In the
papacy of John Paul II there were strained relations between Moscow and
Rome tied up with the complex historical relationship between Russia
and Poland.

Relationships have improved under the papacy of Pope
Benedict XVI, who is regarded by Zolotov as “orthodox with a small o”,
and following the succession to the Moscow patriarchate by Patriarch
Kirill upon the death of Patriarch Alexiy II.

In a church in which
its beautiful music plays an important role, Zolotov’s wife, Katya,
sings in the Moscow Synodal Choir, one of the most prestigious in the
capital, and his mother-in-law, Tamara, is an extremely observant
believer.

Zolotov’s family background is an unusual one in that
his nanny was a nun who died when he was 13 and she was 93. 

He believes
he might have been baptised secretly by her as a child but cannot be
sure. 

He was baptised therefore in 1990 in a special ceremony for those
who may have been previously baptised.

He regards his parish as
his second home and a very important part of his life. It is a bit of a
stretch to say it is a way of life. “It’s supposed to be like that but
I’m not sure I’m there yet,” he says.

While the Orthodox Church
has gone from strength to strength, Russia’s second-largest religious
denomination is undergoing major changes. More than 16 million citizens
of the Russian Federation are Muslims and with most of them living in
European Russia the country can claim to have by far the largest numbers
of Muslims in Europe.

Russia’s Islamic population is concentrated
in two main geographical areas. 

Tatarstan and the adjoining
Bashkortostan are the most northerly traditional Muslim regions on
Earth, while in the Caucasus region to the south, territories such as
Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan have strong Muslim
majorities.

Like Orthodoxy, Islam received a boost after the
Soviet Union ended. 

But the arrival of radical Wahhabis and the funding
of students with money from Saudi Arabia, while strengthening beliefs
and organisation, have brought problems with them.

Chechnya is
comparatively quiet after two disastrous wars. A state of insurgency
exists in Dagestan and many of those killed have been traditional
moderate imams opposed to the militant beliefs of others.

Less
dramatically, imams newly educated in the Middle East have won disciples
from traditional imams who were deprived of a full Islamic education
during the Soviet era.

To the north, many of the Russians captured
and detained in Guantánamo Bay were from the city of Naberezhnye
Chelny, formerly known as Brezhnev, to the east of Tatarstan’s capital,
Kazan. 

But in general Tatarstan, one of Russia’s wealthiest regions, has
managed to stave off more radical Islamic tendencies.

 

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