Help the patriarch!

" The darkness of low truths is dearer to me

The deception that exalts us... "

A.S. Pushkin

I risk incurring the wrath of my fellow liberal camp members. However, I want to say right away that in this case this anger is unjust.

Indeed, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to cancel the decision of the Russian Government on the mandatory purchase of land plots under church buildings and structures.

I want to say right away that this applies not only to thousands and thousands of real estate properties of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also to the property of other traditional faiths, although it is obvious that the scale of the problem is not comparable.

And if liberals are thoughtful, objective and fair people, then we must support the patriarch in this appeal to the head of state, and here’s why.

First, a little history.

Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of February 23, 1922 “On the immediate confiscation of church values ​​and lands,” which gave rise to the oppression of believers, the looting and destruction of churches, open persecution and physical extermination of clergy, after which the machine of a national tragedy was launched, which crushed hundreds of thousands of human destinies.

After the democratic revolution of 1991, the first Order of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin dated December 31, 1991 No. 135-rp “On the return of buildings and religious literature to the Russian Orthodox Church.” After which they began to return the temple buildings to the Russian Orthodox Church.

I remember well how at a meeting of the session of the district council of people's deputies in the Maslyaninsky district, Novosibirsk region, we voted for the return of the Church of St. Nicholas the Pleasant to the local church, which until that time had housed the district House of Pioneers.

I remember that I carried out the reconstruction of the village House of Culture on my state farm, and we donated a bronze chandelier to the restored temple.

And then the government we dislike behaved quite consistently.

On November 30, 2010, the President of the Russian Federation D. A. Medvedev signed Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 327-FZ “On the transfer to religious organizations of property for religious purposes that is in state or municipal ownership.”

I foresee a lot of your reproaches about the ugliness of its enforcement. I agree.

However, the problem is not the law, but the lack of clear regulations for the transfer of religious property.

There is a separate question about church lands, and the Russian Orthodox Church alone had 11 million dessiatines (12 million hectares) before 1917. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the church was one of the most effective land owners, but this is a topic for another detailed and thoughtful conversation.

Let's return to the patriarch's request.

Apparently, the radiance of his “waking Breguet” was noticed not only by us, his critics, but also by thieving officials. I think that there is a constant scanning of the surrounding space, and then the principle of Karl Marx works flawlessly: “The bureaucracy has no private property, the state is the private property of the bureaucracy.”

I consider the adoption of the Land Code of the Russian Federation in 2002 to be one of the serious achievements of Vladimir Putin during his first presidential term. This most important document rests on two basic paradigms: the unity of the land and property complex (the fate of the land follows the fate of the property) and the principle of payment (land is the main national resource and you need to pay for it).

Most churches and monasteries are located in city centers, on the best, most expensive land. Imagine how much a plot of land under the land and property complex of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior could cost.

The size of the redemption price is very variable, which means that, firstly, a powerful source of corruption appears, and secondly, the spiritual authorities, starting to agree on the price, fall into a fatal dependence on the secular. So we are fighting this so desperately!

If we accept that the church is a non-profit organization and the Savior rightly expelled the traders from the temple, then demands for the redemption of land drives religious organizations into commercial relations, and this is bad.

How many critical arrows have we fired at both the patriarch and the Russian Orthodox Church for their tobacco and alcohol addictions in the 90s.

Everything repeats itself.

There is no vertical. There is an opportunity to make money today; both the patriarch and the church will be sold.

Meanwhile, a solution was found back in 2003.

In order not to break the structure of the Land Code and to create a precedent, it was proposed to transfer the land under temple buildings and objects of religious rites for free, fixed-term use until the termination of the legal entity.

I understand that many have accumulated serious complaints against the Primate himself and the Russian Orthodox Church. However, personal hostility should not suppress reason, and if we consider ourselves intelligentsia, then now we need to help the patriarch.