On the advantages of the “Stalinist” model of church-state relations

In the anonymous article "Russian Power entre chien et loup, or Twilight of Church-State Relations", published on January 16 on "Portal-Credo.ru" under the heading "Comment of the day", the authors discuss desirable and undesirable, from their point of view, prospects relations between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church. In their opinion, "now we are at a crossroads between two models of church-state relations - roughly speaking, the one that was under Stalin and the one that was under Brezhnev."

The essence of the first of them, characteristic of the period 1943-1953, is summarized in the article as follows: "the structure of the ROC-MP is controlled by the state power, approximately in the same way as any people's commissariat (which, however, is close to the status of the dominant Church of pre-revolutionary times, which , according to the laws of the Russian Empire, was equated to the ministry)". The "Brezhnev version", according to the authors of the article, "is the servility of the ROC-MP as a mask covering the face of a weak but insidious enemy of state power - a kind of collective oligarch, who, among other things, has a very special symbolic capital that is quite convertible in the West."

The second model, the authors believe, was "quite dangerous for the state even then, despite the persistence of the totalitarian regime in the country, and even more dangerous in the current perspective, when the suppression of civil liberties at the level of the USSR is no longer expected." Now the economic consequences of choosing this development option are especially dangerous: "... the ROC MP has already turned into a large internal offshore that cannot be controlled from outside. The size of this offshore is such that it is already noticeable in the state economy, noticeable in politics (or, even worse, it will remain in the shadows, converting its material wealth into political ones through third forces).

On the contrary, the first, "Stalinist" model, according to the authors, is preferable: "In modern conditions, the ROC-MP could receive, with this type of government, an even more well-fed life for the clergy and even greater freedom of worship for parishioners, and the state could use the resources of the ROC MP in the social sphere to a much greater extent." The transformation "into a part of the state apparatus," the authors admit, "for a real and canonical church organization, which was once the Russian Church, ... was destructive. But for the Moscow Patriarchate, created by the state itself in 1943, this is not only not destructive, but also the only possible one. Any other version of its existence dooms the ROC-MP to a malignant degeneration, when instead of an organ useful for the state, it will turn into a cancerous tumor."

The authors associate the "Brezhnev version" with the figure of Metropolitan Kirill (Gundyaev) (whom they call an "oligarch" striving for the "privatization" of the Church), the "Stalinist" one with Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov).

The article also suggests quite specific measures aimed at weakening the influence of Metropolitan Kirill: "Apparently, one of the most urgent measures on the way to choosing the future Patriarch is now the creation of a special body that effectively competes with Metropolitan Kirill's DECR MP. For a start, this body can act and tacitly and not have any official status. It is simply about the fact that the personal relations of Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) with the current powers that be would move to a more structured level. The presidential administration has a part of the apparatus responsible for relations with the ROC MP, however, it cannot act effectively enough due to poor knowledge of the realities. A counter initiative is needed from the bowels of the ROC-MP itself, but not at the level of Father Tikhon personally, but at the level of a certain administrative apparatus."

Sources

• Russian power entre chien et loup, or the Twilight of church-state relations. Latest results of 2003 // Portal-Credo.ru. 2004. January 19.