N. Mitrokhin - about Orthodox radicals and counteraction to them

July 7, 2015 Grani.ru published a comment historian Nikolai Mitrokhin to the incident that occurred at a concert dedicated to anniversary of the radio station "Silver Rain".

Recall that the parishioners of the Annunciation Church, headed by rector Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov broke through the guards onto the stage and almost disrupted the concert, demanding to reduce the volume of the sound.

The author considers this incident, which contains corpus delicti of several articles of the Criminal Code, in a series of others conflicts related to public opposition to radical Orthodox. Public activists, despite threats and attempts of physical violence from side of the Orthodox radicals, managed to achieve the cancellation of the decision to install monument to Prince Vladimir on Sparrow Hills and suspend construction temple in the park "Torfyanka".

From these situations, N. Mitrokhin draws a number of conclusions, in in particular, that “neither the authorities nor any other political forces control the situation at the grassroots level”, and among officials “there is no unity on many ideological issues, in particular in relation to religion .

In addition, the cases described show how the paths of "normal" Russian citizens, including conservative Orthodox, and Orthodox radicals. hot calls to defend the temple in Torfyanka or erect a monument to Vladimir precisely on Vorobyovy Gory was completely ignored by the city's Orthodox community. In places, the Orthodox were represented by people who most of all looked like paid clackers. Smirnov's visit with his flock to the "Silver Rain" holiday and unmotivated cessation of worship were also unanimously condemned by all representatives of the church who spoke on this topic .

The expert recalls that in the 1980s and 1990s the majority public associations supported the restoration and construction of churches, whereas today the situation has changed: “All social groups and a significant part of the "normal" Orthodox oppose the Orthodox colored extremism and the rampant construction of temples that do not take into account opinions of local residents. And today's local protests can transform into "the real political agenda of tomorrow" .

Sources

• Mitrokhin N. The road from the temple // Grani.ru. 2015. July 7.