Faith in the military enlistment office

Yakov Krotov: Today's release of the program is dedicated to the theology of war. Our guest is Boris Knorre , a religious scholar specializing in the history of the modern Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Let's start with a small video interview with Maxim Bardadim , a supporter of an alternative civil service who had to face the fact that military commissariats in the military enlistment offices are appealed to the authority of the Orthodox Church, convincing young people that it is impossible not to serve in the army.

Maxim Bardadim: Among my friends there are many conscripts who were submitted to alternative civil service precisely because of religious beliefs. And in their case, the pressure was just and manifested at all levels, starting when they go to the military registration and enlistment office and see posters, for example, a Tolstoy poster, which calls to go to the army (although, as we know, Tolstoy was a pacifist: as it turned out, on the poster of his quote was given inaccurately), and ending with the fact that there is a conflict of interest, when it was a conflict of interest, when it was a conflict of interest. The conscript calls himself a Christian, and the same military commissar who sits among members of the draft commission also calls himself a Christian, but one sits in military uniform, and the other says that he will not wear it.

Christianity can be understood in different ways, and in my understanding we are talking about a religious feeling that is not that it is impossible to prove in any way, it is sometimes even impossible to formulate it in any way. For example, the conscript comes to the military registration and enlistment office and says that his father died during the Chechen war, and he simply does not want to connect his life with the army: my acquaintance had that. At first he was refused, saying that “you need beliefs that you do not have by law,” but in the end they still granted the right to an alternative service.

The conscript says: "I do not want to not only kill, but even take a step towards a possible murder"

Members of the draft commission often give historical examples, for example, Alexander Nevsky or other great commanders who are considered Orthodox. Often a priest sits in the draft commission, and here there is such a misunderstanding when the conscript understands “not to kill” in his own way. He says: "I do not want to not only kill, but even take a step towards a possible murder." And when, from the point of view of just such a Tolstoye, he understands the Holy Scriptures, here, again, there is a misunderstanding between members of the draft commission or even the priest who sits there, and the conscript himself.

Yakov Krotov: Boris Kirillovich, you had to deal with the fact that representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church find themselves in the military commissariats, did you hear something about this?

Boris Knorre: I had to deal with how representatives of the Russian Church convinced my flock of draft age not to evade military service, explained this and the spiritual, including the benefits of this matter. In particular, this was done by the notorious Maxim Kozlov.

Yakov Krotov: Father Maxim Kozlov from the temple of St. Tatyana at the University: intelligent, university person.

Boris Knorre: He now serves in another temple, but is still popular. And not only he, of course. Although, frankly, the situations are different. I know that one of the confessors in the Holy Danilov Monastery at one time, in the 90s or in the 80s, asked to cover the deserter who escaped from the army, who could not withstand the mentally pressure of the Devil. So the position of the clergy is completely different. But in the last ten years, it seems to me that a certain apology has previously prevailed, some such sociomorphism is a structural and aesthetic rapprochement between the church and the army. We know the pictures when, for example, Holy Patriarch comes, and he is met - on the one hand there are officers in a row, and on the other hand, priests. And thus, priests are also considered as a kind of troops, spiritual officers.

Yakov Krotov: You are at Western universities, in Belgium, in Finland - is there different? In Belgium, in Britain in many temples, I saw memorials of memory of soldiers who died in world wars. In the Anglican church in Moscow, regular commemorations of the dead are carried out. There are still positions of chaplains and so on. What is the difference?

Boris Knorre: You know, in Belgium, I was even amazed at how much he breathes in the memory of the war, however, in the state, secular context, in museums dedicated to the First World War, the moments of the suffering of victims, horror of war are more accented, the war is demonstrated as an absolute evil that needs to be avoided. And in our memorials and museums of military glory, the victorious moment, the moment of achieving the triumph, is more accentuated. So here the devil in detail, in accents, I would say.

As for the Catholic clergy and Protestants, they also completely bless and support the spirit of military ministry. In general, they do not deny this. If we compare with the West, then in the States there are Protestant directions that believe that war is a blessed business, and the defense of their power is including.

Yakov Krotov: There are ameshi in the States, there are quakers , hardly pacifist directions, and a Protestant mainstream like Baptists, all this biblical belt, is still quite militar.

Boris Knorre: I would not say that this is the mainstream, it is difficult to describe this in the proportion.

Yakov Krotov: mainstream is not by proportion, but by value.

Boris Knorre

Boris Knorre: A very significant part of the Protestants is convinced that war is an important matter. Maybe they are more likely to focus on preventing the war with defense means. And I was surprised by the position of the Orthodox in the States, in particular, the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad Alexander Webster, the famous Capellan, wrote a lot about theology of the war. In fact, in his works he is trying to reconstruct the theory of a fair war in Eastern Christianity, in Orthodoxy, which causes many disputes and criticisms from other theologians. Its idea is that the totality of Orthodox communities scattered in different parts of the world, the presence of them in a particular state is the basis for a fair war in order to defend itself from the Islamic threat and other threats to the existence of the Orthodox Church in the person of these communities.

Yakov Krotov: I do not remember a thousand years ago the great theology of war, in Byzantine theology, this topic was not very executed. And even in the confrontation with Islam, when the Byzantine bassiles turned to the church fathers so that they would somehow inspire the soldiers, they said that the murder, even at the front, was still a murder.

Boris Knorre: It seems to me that there is a certain coarsening, such radicalization in the framework of the indigenization process (this is a process of globalism), when local culture in globalization is trying to defend its identity and make some rollback back, taking advantage of the modern, technological progress, information tools.

Yakov Krotov: And what is called the theology of war is the result of centuries -old development or decomposition over the past decades?

This is the result of the application of some paradigm of the Soviet past, contributing to the legitimation of the consecration of weapons

Boris Knorre: On the one hand, if we talk about Russian Orthodoxy, of course, this is the result of the application of some paradigm of the Soviet past, in particular, contributing to the legitimization of the consecration of weapons, which is now being a conversation, and not only a conversation, but are going to accept the draft ROC "On the practice of consecration of weapons". There, however, it is written that atomic weapons cannot be consecrated, because it is impersonal, but you can consecrate personal weapons.

But you can’t dump everything for the Soviet period, because, for example, Valentin Sventsitsky, a famous priest who at one time fed the Volunteer White Army, then was forced to somehow agree with the Soviet government, and finished martyr, in particular, said how he consecrated the weapon: “July 14, I served as a mileful prayer. The front of the Battery of the English sample shone in the sun. The completely unexpected feeling was shocked to me that the dead metal came to life, for one elusive fraction of the second, I felt not “guns” in front of me, but some living creatures, reverently worshiped before the sign of the cross.

Yakov Krotov: This is in memory of the famous article by Vasily Rozanov in 1915, where he describes the delight in which he came to see the Nevsky Dragoon, especially the brilliant bandages, horse harness and glossy horsebacks. In response to this, Berdyaev wrote an article "About forever a woman in the Russian soul." This proves the correctness of the atheists, starting with Freud, who say that faith, religiosity is the transformed forms of sexuality, a certain, simply incorrect direction of libido. And this, most likely, is the affinity of the army and Orthodoxy on the basis of some kind of inferiority complex: you will not serve in the army-you will not become a man.

Boris Knorre: There are many different factors. Partly I agree with you, and there are deep reasons. I recently wrote an article about Gender, about the problem of masculinity in the church environment. It seems to me that in the Orthodox environment there is such a problem, we have few men in the church. Even the Moscow Patriarchate recognizes this moment, although the disproportion is gradually leveled, there are more men.

Yakov Krotov: Because they command the church, and the man does not like to be commanded.

Boris Knorre: That's it, there is an obedience that makes men actually adapt and abandon leadership, rationalism. What is rationalism, when you need to first comply with the principle of obedience or at least keep this principle in your mind? Globalization dictates a different type of masculinity, where force on force is not so significant and even legitimized.

It seems to me that for men in the Church there are three main ways to implement the masculinity strategy. This is partly the consumption of the church in the trend of consumerism, because the church today, as we know, legitimized some consumer things. We see that there are glamorous magazines, that Orthodox believers are much better to dress. Consumerization allows you to legitimize the desire for success, for financial viability, for career, which in the 90s was completely banned in the church tradition, restored after the Soviet period. This is one of the ways.

Another path is a realization of oneself part of the imperial project. And the third is just war or militarization. In fact, three such basic options remain, because a person can personally give himself and be in this paradigm of obedience, not to identify his leadership positions, rationalism, to actually sacrifice something, but this can be compensated by the fact that he realizes himself as a warrior, especially since this closes with the Christian understanding of the army of Christ and with a certain interpretation of New Testament texts, which, again, is characteristic of the Soviet Orthodoxy. We know the words from the "Epistle to the Jews" that "our abuse is not against the flesh and blood, but against the spirits of the Middle Kingdom, or apocalyptic instructions that the world, one way or another, will come to some global war ...

Yakov Krotov: ... in which we generally should not participate - it says: "Run to the mountains."

Boris Knorre: This still imposes psychological participation.

God does not fight with people and not even Satan, God fights with inhumanity

Yakov Krotov: A Christian prays for peace, but does not participate in the war.

Boris Knorre: No, this refers to another. The Christian really prays for the world, but at the same time a certain Christian focuses on the confrontation between the prince of this world, on the confrontation of these spirits of the Middle Kingdom, he pronounces that he is an Orthodox warrior, reads Nicodemus Svyatogorets , "invisible abuse." There is a transfer of this spiritual measurement to the social sphere. A person needs to see some real embodiment of what he thinks spiritually.

Yakov Krotov: But this contradicts the very essence of faith, which is confident in invisible.

Boris Knorre: I agree with this.

Yakov Krotov: You feel like an Orthodox person, and at the same time you are a scientist, well familiar with the academic environment, you are part of it. And this environment is mainly secular, unbelieving.

Boris Knorre: Yes, the environment is more secular, but many believers.

Yakov Krotov: In modern Russia, we see the Orthodox ethology of militarism. Do we see the atheistic ethology of war? Is it possible to say that Orthodoxy is lonely, that the secular, academic, intelligent, intellectual environment is more peacekeeping? Or are there just two options for one mindset? How Orthodoxy, faith here is critical?

Boris Knorre: Given that today we have Orthodox atheists, Orthodox people who say that they do not believe in God, we must understand what we mean by Orthodox.

Yakov Krotov: Well, the person says that Orthodox, - we will consider him Orthodox. But what about the humanist? Now the anniversary of Woodstock, and Woodstock - it was a protest against the war in Vietnam. Why half a century later there is nostalgia, there is war, but there is no protest against war? Pacifism turned out to be local, he did not let the roots? In Russia, there has never been especially a peacekeeping movement, you have to hear reproaches to religion that it is a source of militarism, but how atheism, agnosticism is a source of peacekeeping?

Boris Knorre: If we recall the Soviet time, the Great Patriotic War, which was called the Holy War, we will understand that atheism supported military operations and justified the need to protect the homeland. The Orthodox later tried to prove that they, too ... Of course, Metropolitan Sergius published their message earlier, and then secular figures even used some of its expressions, nevertheless, it is interesting that the term “sacred war”, which was used by atheists in the 40s, was adopted by modern Orthodox today. And modern Orthodox priests think life in the categories of the Great Patriotic War. Today, the term "Holy War" in Orthodoxy transfers the connotations that he received in the 40s.

Yakov Krotov: There is a theology of war in modern Orthodoxy, and even in modern American Orthodoxy, unfortunately, but there is also theology of the world. The theology of the world in believers, in contrast to militarism, which, like a bomb, will explode here and here, permeates the very essence of faith, because a person reveals to himself another and other, and this other ... We can call him the “God-warrior”, but we well understand that God does not fight with people and not even Satan. And therefore, even if the war is sacred, it is sacred when this war is peaceful, unarmed, and the front passes along Calvary, near the cross.