Translated material
They were finished
A brief story of the village king Zosima and his churches-empire. How the Kremlin was frightened by the "deep" Orthodoxy
Zosima Vlasov. Photo: social networks
The shaft of the same type of publications of federal and regional media does not bode of anything good Orthodox-apocalyptic community, calling itself the “Russian Orthodox Church of the Tsarist Empire” (ROC Qi). The media are insured that an organization that almost no one had heard about before, is numerous and dangerous, and hint that a “decision” was made about its indicative liquidation. What and to whom is this “tsarist church” dangerous?
The ROC Qi is the successor of the passionate movement of the “tsarboaters” , who at one time popular among the “patriotic elite”, but disorganized after the arrest of the spiritual leader, the science of Sergius (Romanov).
Yes, after the start of its mobilization resource of the right -wing Patriotic groups should be in demand by the authorities. But there is one nuance: they (including the ROC qi) do not trust Vladimir Putin and the entire state system of the Russian Federation, calling for all. At some stage of the “national revival of Russia”, the “deep” Orthodoxy jumped “in the wrong way”, and the authorities are afraid of the opposition to the right no less than the left-handed. In such a paradigm, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Zosima Vlasov is destined for the path that Igor Girkin-Strelkov went.
However, repressing the “wrong” believers for their beliefs, the authorities do not just follow the traditions of militant atheism, but also, in the expression of the “prophet” Alexander Dugin, exposes itself as a new religion, implacable to any heresy and free -thinking.
Intelligence with a fight
In modern Russia, campaigns are periodically held to eliminate one or another religious tradition. In 2017, all Jehovah's witnesses were recognized as extremist and all communities of Jehovah's witnesses were prohibited, and the Hizb Ut-Tahrir, radical neo-mines, are previously banned, and these days are trials over the leader of the Church of the Last Testament Vissarion and the confessor of the Tsarebozhnikov Sergius (Romanov). Information campaigns always preceded the repressions against the “wrong” believers, but against their background, artillery is an artillery plan *** before the arrest of the leaders of the ROC Qi looks completely excess: NTV released two reports about the “sect” in a few days, and Ren-TV-four!
According to the traditions of the genre, labels borrowed from Soviet propaganda, therefore quite attributed to the Russian Orthodox Church, are hung on believers: “strange people in black”; “Men with beards and women in scarves”; “Tour in search of salvation”; “Drive the strangers” ... The theme of pedophilia was a new element of the “anti -secondary canon” in Russia. The propaganda publications began from it against the True Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church , Mormons, Krishnas, Protestant communities ... If you do not react to insulting stamps, it is impossible to understand from the report of the Russian Orthodox Church: they preached their faith, distributed religious leaflets, believed in the end Mirsky ... After they were asked to leave the village of Polkhovsky Maidan, "they collected things and left." From the second report , you can find out that
At the forefront of the fight against heretics are official priests who are afraid of competition. From the farm, Varvarinsky “Tsar’s Church” expelled Rostov Archpriest Valery Kharitonov, accusing it of ... sermons of the end of the world.
Further - more: the “news” turns the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church from simply the “pedophile” into “four times convicted for the corruption of the young native of Kazakhstan” (we will figure it out a little below with his convictions). But now he is not to blame for this, but in the calls “to create an independent state of triune Russia within Russia” (for which, by the way, Patriarch Kirill also called on .
REN-TV enriches the “anti-secondary series” attendant in the way of the former adherent, who knew the criminal essence of the ROC Qi. A solid man by the name of Bardelev describes his stay in the “sect”: “We started digging, digging a lot, we began to ask people.” The only thing that the Bardelev group was dug was the connection of the ROC Qi with the "extremist organization by the USSR citizens." Zosima Bardelev describes the followers of Zosima: "People are inexperienced, uneducated, who have not read anything, they can get anything." He considers Zosima an adventurist-sybarite, who "has everything: he created his religion, got a job well."
But the local “Ulyanovskaya Pravda” draws a completely different image of Zosima: “He destroyed his documents, has no property, and supporters do not disclose his location.” “Komsomolskaya Pravda” habitually discovers in the Russian ROC “Ukrainian trace” without explaining what it consists of. Let's try to figure it out.
A repentant robber, an eschatological king ...
The life path of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, 41-year-old Leonid Vlasov (as a monastic of Zosima) is really unusual for the Orthodox hierarch, even the "alternative". Information about his biography and teaching can be gleaned on the Zosima YouTube channel and in social networks, where his adherents are extremely active.
According to researchers , the permanent Internet audience of the group reached 150 thousand, despite the fact that no more than 10 thousand "church adherents of the Russian Orthodox Church of Qi. Zosimovites use Internet technologies much more effectively than the “multimillion-dollar” Russian Orthodox Church: the archaism of their teachings is paradoxically combined with the progress of technology for its distribution.
The Zosima group acts without state registration, so he does not have legal temples or prayer houses. In the villages where adherents live, several house temples are arranged, but the main part of the believers of the ROC Qi prays private, maintaining communication with their church via the Internet.
Zosima with a captivating simplicity and many details tells about his criminal past, “to repentance”: an orphanage in Dzhambul, participation in teenage fights, hooliganism, the first walk in a colony for minors, immediately after liberation - “stand” with minors, for which the second term is nine years of strict regime. He categorically denies his involvement in pedophilia, although the article was for “sexual actions”.
Religious treatment occurred already in his zone and was accompanied by the voices and phenomena of saints.
After the liberation, he settled in the “catacomb” community of Bishop Sergius Ageev in the Pskov region, from where he moved to the community of anti-globalist-disassportors in the village of Luna of the Tula region. It was there that the glory came to the Zosima monk in 2012: his sermon, accompanied by “miracles and signs”, attracted pilgrims and interested, began “the first persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church and the authorities”, the community went “to wandering”.
During the wandering, Zosima received the rank of bishop, which the Russian Orthodox Church, of course, does not admit. The chain of his episcopal continuity through the bishop of Sevastian (Suslenko) from the True Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Metropolis (here he is, the Ukrainian trace!) Goes back to the Georgian bishop Nikolai (Modebadze), which was in the Russian foreign church independent of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Gradually around Zosima, who settled in the villages of Gribovka and Zhedyaevka, the Ulyanovsk region, a new “catacomb” jurisdiction arose, uniting today more than a dozen bishops and about two dozen priests. They erected their leader to the rank of Metropolitan, and recently recognized him as the king-patriarch, anointing on the throne. The adherents of the ROC Qi, who have already “left the world” (from cities), live dispersively in the villages of a number of Volga regions.
In the image of Zosima, two archetypes were mixed, key for the Soviet-Soviet and folk legal culture. This is both a “experienced man” with prison experience and a “repentant robber” from the gospel or the lives of saints. His prototype is the Monk Moses Murin (330–405), who was the leader of the detachment of the robbers and killed people, but repenting, became a monk and even a priest in the Egyptian monastery. In the Russian epic, this type was captured in the image of Kudeyar-Ataman, known since the 16th century. He also includes Sergius (Romanov), who was so ardently protected by “from the plunders” as excesses of piety Vadim and Vika Tsyganov in the sensational interview with Dudu (included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the list of “foreign agents”). In the Russian Orthodox Church, there is an almost official legend that monastic tonsure frees the greatest sinner in the past from canonical obstacles for ordination.
Zosima's status is entirely charismatic, informal. It is not based on the correctness of the ordination or “legality” of claims to the tsarist throne. He does not live in the palace, he does not have a retinue and troops, his throne is an idea, and his kingdom is an eschatological dream of heavenly Jerusalem.
The neophytes who went after him were inspired by Russian Messianic nationalism, multiplied by popular apocrypha, revelations and prophecies circulating in the “depth” Orthodoxy and sometimes breaking into the shops of official temples and stores of the Russian Orthodox Church (collections “Russia before the second coming”, “Life of Blessed Matrona”, “Great Diveye Secret” and “The Life of the Blessed Society” and “ T.P.).
Zosima had his own personal prophet - a certain blessed lad Paul, who was angels, predicting the autocratic future of Zosima. The lad shared them ... Of course, into YouTube. This can cause a smile, but most religious truths are born: they depend not on laboratory tests, but on a moral-volitional decision of a particular person who recognizes or not recognize them worthy of faith.
In favor of Zosima, apocalyptic fears that cover Russia work: an intimidated person willingly accepts on faith what gives a chance to quickly exit the surrounding nightmare.
After the proclamation of Zosima, the tsar (his anointing was performed with several witnesses by one of the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church), the adherents began to take the oath, receiving princely and noble titles in response. To maintain internal mobilization of his group, Zosima periodically launches flash mobs on the Internet. Now, for example, adherents are recorded and posted on the network their personal "anathematia of Kirill Gundyaev and his assistants."
What you sow ...
If you abstract from the personality of Zosima and anathemas for Cyril, then the teachings of the ROC qi are the agreement to the end of the narratives that the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and its like -minded people promote. Depending on who exactly expresses the narrative, you can either get the presidential award, or go to bars.
The Patriarch calls on the Russians boldly to go on the battlefield, promising all the automatic entering paradise on this field. Shimnik Sergius (Romanov) asks his novice "Are you ready to die for Russia?" - And he receives a term for "declining to suicide."
The social concept of the Russian Orthodox Church proclaims : "If the authorities forcing the Orthodox believers ... to sinful, sincere acts, the Church should refuse the state to obey." The ROC Qi takes the following logical step: calls for adherents to refuse documents and not to comply with the orders of the “antichrist power”. From the words of Patriarch Kirill about certain “powerful forces that control the whole world”, but not able to defeat Russia, the ROC Qi naturally leads his faith in the “Jewish conspiracy”.
Zosima and his Church/Empire are not called for any armed struggle or active civil protests. Their mystical teaching connects the hopes of the “salvation of Russia” only with wonderful intervention from above.
Perhaps the only socially significant form of protest that they recognize is the rejection of documents and goods with barcodes. The consistent execution of such a refusal forms a specific way of life: moving from the city to the village, natural economy, a recluse lifestyle with a minimum of “external” contacts.
But to see in this a direct threat of public security and the state system is hardly possible to (if not falling into paranoia).
... Prophecies about the imminent end of the world, often sounding in the history of Christianity, revived the religious faith that fades, "if nothing happens." So it was in the early church, in the Middle Ages and in modern Protestantism, where the popularity of new communities such as adventists was based on the dates of the second coming assigned to them. In the Russian Orthodox tradition, such an eschatologism is superimposed on the communal-monarchist matrix-and as “signs of the soon end” “kings from the people” appear. Zosima has competitors in this field, although less popular, also “anointed by catacomb hierarchs” Yuri Khudyakov, who took the name George-Mighail, and Alexander Minsk. They are united by hostility to the Russian Orthodox Church and, to one degree or another, to the Russian Federation.
All this modern impostority was considered marginal and not worthy of much attention until his status raised the repressive-propaganda machine of the authorities.
The ideology of the ROC qi and similar groups are far from the values of democracy, but it is these values that guarantee the right of believers to such views. The Constitution of the Russian Federation prohibits the creation of only such associations of people who are aimed at violent change in the system.
Russian society is accustomed to persecution for faith and perceives them rather indifferently. An ideological and political model has been built in the country, in which religious views are permissible only within the framework of the “civil religion”, when loyalty to the state and its chapter are put on first. The ban on public quoting of the 6th commandment of the Decalogue (“not kill”) or the 7th commandment of bliss (“Blessed peacekeepers”), to which “traditional” (state) denominations reacted with understanding, reminded who the master was in the house.
How to express your faith - now the state will decide, and not the believer itself. The ROC Qi enters during the period of persecution not because of the radicality of its ideology, which is 90% consonant of the Kremlin, but due to the fact that it put religious principles above obedience to the state and thereby led itself out of the "control zone".