The authors of the Keston "Encyclopedia of modern religious life" - about the peculiarities of church-state relations in the Kuban and Belgorod region

The website of the Keston Institute published the first (April) issue of the information and analytical bulletin "Russian Review" , prepared by the participants of the project "Encyclopedia of Contemporary Religious Life". Two articles in this issue are devoted to the consideration of church-state relations in the Kuban (Roman Lunkin, "Kuban: the Cossack ideal of the Orthodox land" ) and in the Belgorod region (Sergey Filatov and Roman Lunkin, "Belgorod: Zemstvo symphony of the governor and archbishop" ).

R. Lunkin describes the "Kuban model" as follows: "Contrary to their historical heritage, the Kuban spiritual leaders and politicians emphasize the Cossacks' loyalty to the government and the official Russian Orthodox Church. Krasnodar officials see the Orthodox Cossacks as a pillar of their power, using the ideas of the need to preserve of the Russian nation and its primordial faith - Orthodoxy as the foundation of statehood. In fact, the religious policy of the authorities of the Krasnodar Territory, namely their attitude towards Orthodoxy and religious minorities, is based on radical Orthodox nationalism. to discrimination against all religious movements, which, together with their active missionary and social activities, do not fit into the framework of the National Orthodox Cossack state.

As for the Belgorod region, the uniqueness of the situation in this region, according to S. Filatov and R. Lunkin, “owes its existence to the region’s governor since 1995, Evgeny Stepanovich Savchenko, and the Bishop of the Belgorod and Stary Oskol diocese, who has been ruling since 1995, that is, since the moment of its resurrection, to Archbishop John (Sergei Leonidovich Popov).

Governor Savchenko seeks to embody the ideas of Zemstvo in the Belgorod region and is a member of the Presidium of the Russian Zemstvo Movement (RZD). The governor's ideology fits in the "triune formula of the Russian idea" proclaimed by him: "Faith - Sovereignty - People" - "filled with the spirit of the Holy Trinity."

Within the framework of Zemstvo ideology, he pays great attention to spiritual issues related primarily to the participation of the Belgorod diocese in the social, political and economic life of the region. Thanks to the personal position of the governor, the RZD is the link between the Church and the regional authorities. The participation of the Church in the RZD gives it the right to feel like a powerful ideological force that has effective means of putting pressure on its opponents."

The authors especially note the "surprising success of the "zemstvo policy" of the Belgorod authorities", which by 2005 "achieved complete" stabilization ": minorities resigned themselves to their humiliated position. The public meekly accepts the" introduction of Orthodoxy "in the" patriotic "interpretation of Governor Savchenko and Archbishop Popov Not a single exclamation of indignation from the banks of the Seversky Donets reaches Moscow or, say, Strasbourg."

Sources

• Lunkin R. Kuban: the Cossack ideal of the Orthodox region // Keston Institute. Russian review. 2005. April.
• Filatov S., Lunkin R. Belgorod region: zemstvo symphony of the governor and the archbishop // There.