Translated material
We decided like God
Every second Russian is in favor of returning property that previously belonged to the church to the church.
Almost half of Russians approve of the return to the church of temples, icons and other “religious property” that is now owned by the state. This is evidenced by the results of a poll published yesterday by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM). 49% of respondents are in favor. And only 19% of respondents said that they had a rather negative attitude towards the restitution of church property. “Thus, every second person is in favor of returning the property to the church. The question of who will own this property, which ended up in state ownership during Soviet times, is important for the majority of Russians - 60%,” the VTsIOM report notes. Moreover, both Orthodox Christians (66%) and those who consider themselves an atheist (47%) spoke about the importance of this issue.The head of the Synodal Department for Relations between Church and Society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, noted that the results of the survey were quite expected. “From the point of view of the logic of a normal person, what was unjustly taken away must be returned,” emphasized Fr. Vsevolod. Sociologists themselves attribute such survey results to the fact that in recent years the religiosity of Russians has increased: a survey conducted by VTsIOM in the spring showed that over the past year the share of Orthodox followers increased from 70 to 75% of respondents, thus reaching the maximum value for all time measurements. However, we note that the number of those who read the Holy Scriptures turned out to be significantly smaller - 49%.
Explaining the position of the Moscow Patriarchate on the issue of the return of church property, Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin recalled: in the bill recently submitted to the State Duma on the transfer to religious organizations of property that was previously their property, but was nationalized after 1917, we are not talking about objects of the museum fund, but about buildings. “When I communicate with Western experts in this field and tell them that almost all churches in Russia are still state-owned, foreigners raise their eyebrows in surprise - have they heard correctly,” says Fr. Vsevolod. “It’s quite natural that the current situation needs to be corrected.” Moreover, in fact, the overwhelming majority of Russian churches have already been transferred to the church - albeit for use, and not for ownership. In addition, as emphasized by Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin, the Russian Orthodox Church does not demand the return of all property that belonged to the church before the revolution, that is, all property along with monastery fields, etc. The Patriarchate also recalls that on May 31, at a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill proposed creating a special conciliation commission that would regulate issues of interaction between the church and the museum community.
According to Fr. Vsevolod, those who stubbornly oppose the return to the church of what previously belonged to it constitute a clear minority. “According to the survey, 19% are against; This is approximately how it is, although it seems to me that there are even fewer conscious and serious opponents,” believes Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin. “This is a certain part of the intelligentsia who do not like everything that the church does, as well as those who consider the deeply abnormal relations that developed during the Soviet period to be the norm.”
Note that the opinion of the participants in the VTsIOM survey regarding who would better preserve cultural values - the church or secular institutions - turned out to be not as clear as in the case of the return of the church's property. The respondents were asked the question: “Please imagine an ancient icon of the 15th century. It is of great cultural value, but it is not so easy to see. Where, in your opinion, is this icon most likely located - on the territory of the museum complex or on the territory of an active monastery? 45% of respondents responded that access to the icon would most likely be difficult if it was kept in a monastery. And only 29% believe that museum workers will hide the icon in storage. “In the minds of Russians, cultural values stored by religious organizations are less accessible than the same objects located in a museum complex,” the study authors conclude.
Further, VTsIOM specialists asked survey participants to imagine the following situation: “In a 16th-century temple, in the last decade, part of the frescoes (wall paintings) were lost by an absurd accident. Where do you think this most likely happened - on the territory of the museum complex or on the territory of the active monastery? In this case, the opinion of Russians was divided almost equally. A comparative majority (35%) believes that the wall painting is in greater danger if the temple is owned by a monastery, 33% believe that this is possible due to the connivance of the museum management, and 32% were undecided.
The all-Russian survey, the results of which became known yesterday, was conducted by VTsIOM on May 29-30, two weeks before the government introduced to the State Duma a bill “On the transfer of state or municipal property to religious organizations.” In total, sociologists interviewed 1,600 people in 140 localities in 42 regions of Russia. Elderly Russians showed the greatest interest in the issue of returning church property (65%), and the largest number of those who are indifferent to this issue was identified among respondents aged 18 to 24 years (34%). Most supporters of the restitution of church property are among the LDPR electorate (64%). It is not members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation who object to the return of church property, but supporters of non-parliamentary parties (35%) and A Just Russia (27%).