Konstantin Mikhailov: “Sooner or later, in the world of fake Orthodox organizations, someone will appear who is ready for real violence”

We publish the commentary of a religious scholar Konstantin Mikhailov, dedicated to the situation around the film by Alexei Uchitel "Matilda".

Around not quite historical melodrama a completely real story is twisted in the spirit of a political thriller, not a picaresque comedy. The deputy, accused by many of betraying the oath, quarrels with the Minister of Culture, who is just as often accused of plagiarism. From out of nowhere, an Orthodox organization hitherto unknown to specialists appears, on in fact, it turns out to be almost the office of Horns and Hooves. In the year of the centenary revolution, religious processions go out in St. Petersburg against a film about the tsar and his mistress. And no one has really seen the movie yet. All this looks funny. But we are not laughing: until now, everyone joked that our future is a father Zvezdonius from Voinovich, but it turned out that it was necessary to re-read "It's hard to be god."

So much has been written about the history of Matilda, that it is difficult to add something fundamentally new to this. No, I think need to be reminded neither of how events unfolded nor of their actors. Comment here does not keep up with the news: I started writing this text in the morning, and in the afternoon I learned about the detention of the leader of the "Christian State". So it seems to me that it is worth asking (at least concisely) more general questions. What made the Matilda story possible? Who benefits from it? Can she be the result of one plan or another? Can it be controlled?

The sequence of events is fine restores, it seems to me, Stanislav Minin in his column in the Independent newspaper" - and many others write about the same. Disruptions of Orthodox concerts and attacks on gay pride parades turned into destruction of exhibitions and street attacks. Oprichny brotherhoods, destroying magazines and books under video recording, have grown into militant detachments, in full agreement with Heine, are now taking on people. All this is not yet looks serious. It is too early to talk about Orthodox terrorism, about “Christian the state of Moscow and All Rus', all the more so, but there is a feeling that the point no return passed.

At the same time, a lot is said about the authorities, who released Orthodox activists like a genie. And there is a lot of truth in this. Of course, the actions of the authorities in 2012 were the main reason for the current events. But at the same time, it seems to me, there are at least two other forces that have played important role in the development of the current Orthodox extremism: the Church and media.

Over the years, both opposition and authorities were equally influenced by the popular myth that The church has become a state department, an obedient part of the apparatus. The voices of religious scholars and a few literate journalists who noticed that speech was not so much about submission as about mutually beneficial cooperation and temporary the coincidence of the course, did not attract attention. Now we can all make sure that rightness. Extremism, inappropriate and inconvenient for the authorities, putting them in a position hostages of their own ideological policy (which no one was going to seriously), turns out to be extremely beneficial for the Russian Orthodox churches. It is no coincidence that the hierarchy is now reacting so sluggishly to the activities protesters against Matilda. They hardly care much about the image of Nicholas II, canonized, as everyone knows, for the sake of absorbing ROCOR. But the thousands religious processions, militants ready to take up clubs, if not for explosives, daily publications - all this makes the patriarchate and the episcopate stronger, more authoritative and weighty in the political sphere. Moreover, they now have new means of influence. In conditions of heightened sensitivity of the Orthodox public, the hierarchies can inflate a new scandal at any moment. Trouble in that the influence is one-sided: they can inflate it. But put out hardly.

The interests of the Russian Orthodox Church and the authorities diverged, and the conflict this one is turning in favor of the Church so far. This also contributes to passivity. a society ready to be afraid of the shadow, and the weakness of the authorities. Years of autocratic elimination of somewhat independent politicians and the lack of real competition naturally led to the formation of a whole generation - a generation of inept ones. On them against the background, even Poklonskaya looks like a figure. Faced with the real, the unpredictable public conflict (whether it be a Muslim rally at the embassy or an Orthodox extremism), officials and parliamentarians are stupefied, missing blows. Speeches Medinsky about "Matilda", the arrest of the leader of the "Christian State" - all this steps, perhaps reasonable, but weeks late in conditions when Events are heating up every day. In part, of course, this is also due to the fact that that the authorities have driven themselves into a stalemate. Now to fix conflict, radical violations of the ideology that formed over the past five years. But there is no one who would dare to give relevant instructions. And there is no more confidence in the performers.

The most unpleasant thing in the current Orthodox activity - unpleasant for both the authorities and citizens - is that this there is no center or plan for activity. In Russia, everyone is a little obsessed with theories conspiracy. The authorities rave about the orange revolution, the opposition out of habit demonizes the secret services, imagining a fat bureaucratic organization capable of complex intrigues. Church people believe in a secret conspiracy guiding information attacks, and anti-clericals see a subtle strategy where there is nothing but petty diocesan squabbles. But in the modern world such delights rare. The history of "Matilda", as it gradually becomes clear, is the result of a combination of circumstances and activities disparate actors, each pursuing their own interests. It is absolutely impossible to fight them: any organizational conclusions addressed to Poklonskaya will not be silenced by church ultra-conservatives, sanctions against The "Christian State" will not be touched by the "Forty Forties". Point solutions and selective repression, so beloved by the Russian authorities, the situation is no longer they will decide, and in general repressions are useless here, but a systematic and heavy a job no one wants and apparently can't do.

Desultory and aimless (because no one does not plan ahead), the activities of activists in all their diversity - from Poklonskaya to specific failed terrorists - benefit them. political glasses, self-satisfaction, a moral justification for wanting to scratch your fists. Indirectly, she benefits the Church, for the reasons already described above, and - together with the risks - director Uchitel, whose historical picture became the main film of the year, if not decades. But its main beneficiary was, as usual, mass media.

This, of course, is also not about a conspiracy or something. like: the media is just doing their job. But it is their attention that is the nutritious the soil on which organizations of Orthodox extremists are growing. That's how "God will" from a company of eccentrics protesting against oral sex, turned into known movement. On the same waves tried to rise and "Christian state” - with the amendment that in the virtual world of media and the "state" itself turned out to be a simulacrum. You can rightly blame the media here only because, it seems, only "Medusa" wondered about the true nature what she wrote about. But even she, it seems, tried to see behind amateur performances. there are more right-wing conservative adventurers than she really is is.

The media is unlikely to change (and this is rather a good thing). The church is unlikely to give up its new opportunities. Extremists who have tasted blood will not want to return to the old vegetarian diet, and ecclesiastical and secular conservatives, as completely correctly notes Baunov, everyone will insist more insistently on authorities not only formal, but also real adherence to ideological statements. Meanwhile, the authorities will hardly discover in themselves the ability to unleash tangled knots and keep cutting them. The implications of this are easy to predict: a mixture of comedy and thriller, we will have to watch for a very long time. And even if in in the near future - for example, after the release of "Matilda" - the situation will settle down for some time, it will only lull. Orthodox extremism is unlikely to develop into a real organized terrorism - and you should not panic here. But there are still many unresolved problems. once they let you know. And sooner or later in the world of fake Orthodox organizations and pseudo-Cossacks, someone ready for real violence will appear. Someone alone, but more is not needed.