Each day the news brings additional atrocities to the forefront of this unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The killing of civilians and especially children is simply gut-wrenching. Watching helplessly as the news unfolds, I seek to better understand this aggression and hope against hope that the bloodshed will end soon.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is complicated with a difficult history. I do not pretend to know all the nuances of this aggression against the Ukrainian government and its people. But there is one aspect to which I’d like to give voice: the entanglement of religion in this political and military conflict.
Today, the largest branches of Christianity are Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox. There are 260 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world, with half of them living in Russia and 30 million living in Ukraine. Beginning in the year 451, the spiritual leader of all Orthodox churches became known as the Patriarch of Constantinople. Some Orthodox churches are more directly influenced by the Patriarch of Constantinople while others are more autonomous. The city of Istanbul, Turkey, formerly Constantinople, is the headquarters of the Orthodox Church.
In about 980, Prince Vladimir of Kyiv (Prince Volodymyr in Ukrainian) decided to strengthen his control over his kingdom in what is now Ukraine by instituting a state religion. It was part of a bargain with Emperor Basil II of Constantinople. Prince Vladimir himself became a Christian and was baptized into this new religion while establishing the first Orthodox Church in Kyiv for his subjects, the Rus people, at a time before Russia existed. Prince Vladimir was later named Vladimir the Great and canonized as St Vladimir by the Orthodox Church. Today, he is considered a saint in both Ukraine and Russia.
In the 1200’s, due to war, people were scattered and those who took up residence in what is now Moscow started the Russian Orthodox Church as the seat of this branch of Orthodox Christianity. Over the centuries, there has been tension between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow as the latter controlled the former. The Moscow branch is significantly more conservative than some of the more Westernized Ukrainian churches.
In 2018, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kyiv, along with other Ukrainian Orthodox churches, even some Moscow-leaning ones, banded together to create the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. They sought and received the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople who established the sovereignty of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and removed it from the control of the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow.
The establishment of the autonomous Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Kyiv diminished some of the control over Ukraine by the Russian government which reportedly infuriated Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since the Russian Orthodox Church is one of many tools in his tool box to control the Russian people as well as those in Ukraine, Putin had just lost some of his authority. In retaliation, Putin tried to rewrite history by installing a humongous statue of Vladimir the Great right outside of the Kremlin. He was saying, in effect, that he is still in control of the church and that the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow was the only valid church descended from Prince Vladimir, effectively removing Ukraine from that important part of history. With a statue having the same name as his own, perhaps he also intends to write himself into history as potentially Vladimir the Great II. His known obsession with Peter the Great and Catherine the Great would make that seem plausible.
Since 2018, this loss of control over a swath of Ukrainians contributes to this power play to regain control over Ukraine today. In the eyes of the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow, both Ukraine and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine have become too Westernized and tainted by the “evil” West with values that don’t line up with the more conservative Russian government and church. Indeed, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow, reportedly said that holding gay parades in Donbas (southeastern region of Ukraine) is part of the reason for the “peacekeeping mission” by Russia in Ukraine. Because of his public support of this mission, he is currently experiencing backlash from other Orthodox leaders from within Russia and around the world.
From the Russian government and church’s perspective, the fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is Jewish is further evidence that Ukraine, in electing a Jewish leader rather than an Orthodox one, is aligning more with the West and less with the Russian Orthodox Church and its values.
So how does all this play into the current conflict? Putin has said that the greatest catastrophe in the last century is the collapse for the former Soviet Union. He is challenging the West’s world order of democracy and apparently believes that the Rus people, those primarily in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, should be reunited again, ostensibly under his control via domination, along with complicity from the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church. This national identity of both Rus and Russian Orthodoxy is so intertwined that it is difficult to separate the two, a point that Putin seeks to use to his advantage. To gain control over the Orthodox Church of Ukraine may not be Putin’s main objective, but it certainly plays an important role in today’s conflict.
Interestingly, over a millennium ago, Prince Vladimir was baptized in Crimea. Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 is viewed by some as a proper returning of that piece of Orthodox history to the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow. The fact that there was no international interference to Russia’s annexation of Crimea has helped to fuel his plans to overtake the rest of Ukraine, particularly Kyiv.
Today’s invasion is a desperate attempt to regain control, rewrite history, and recreate a new Russia, all under the thumb of an authoritarian dictator. Using religion to tie the destiny of Ukraine to Russia is not new. Nor is using religion to create a nationalist movement. To history students, however, this may feel like a modern-day crusade, not unlike the ones from the Middle Ages where neighboring people groups were either conquered or killed in the name of Jesus. Sadly, today, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Orthodox Christians are killing other Orthodox Christians for the sake of creating a new nationalistic world order controlled by the Russian government with the complicity and blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The fact that the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has blessed the government’s invasion (or “peacekeeping mission”) of Ukraine is important. If Putin actually believes that he is doing God’s will in invading, destroying, and conquering Ukraine, then nothing will stop him. We can only hope for divine intervention. And soon.
Text and photograph copyright © 2022 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of a crucifix at a bridge over the River Inn, Innsbruck, Austria.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is complicated with a difficult history. I do not pretend to know all the nuances of this aggression against the Ukrainian government and its people. But there is one aspect to which I’d like to give voice: the entanglement of religion in this political and military conflict.
Today, the largest branches of Christianity are Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox. There are 260 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world, with half of them living in Russia and 30 million living in Ukraine. Beginning in the year 451, the spiritual leader of all Orthodox churches became known as the Patriarch of Constantinople. Some Orthodox churches are more directly influenced by the Patriarch of Constantinople while others are more autonomous. The city of Istanbul, Turkey, formerly Constantinople, is the headquarters of the Orthodox Church.
In about 980, Prince Vladimir of Kyiv (Prince Volodymyr in Ukrainian) decided to strengthen his control over his kingdom in what is now Ukraine by instituting a state religion. It was part of a bargain with Emperor Basil II of Constantinople. Prince Vladimir himself became a Christian and was baptized into this new religion while establishing the first Orthodox Church in Kyiv for his subjects, the Rus people, at a time before Russia existed. Prince Vladimir was later named Vladimir the Great and canonized as St Vladimir by the Orthodox Church. Today, he is considered a saint in both Ukraine and Russia.
In the 1200’s, due to war, people were scattered and those who took up residence in what is now Moscow started the Russian Orthodox Church as the seat of this branch of Orthodox Christianity. Over the centuries, there has been tension between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow as the latter controlled the former. The Moscow branch is significantly more conservative than some of the more Westernized Ukrainian churches.
In 2018, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kyiv, along with other Ukrainian Orthodox churches, even some Moscow-leaning ones, banded together to create the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. They sought and received the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople who established the sovereignty of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and removed it from the control of the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow.
The establishment of the autonomous Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Kyiv diminished some of the control over Ukraine by the Russian government which reportedly infuriated Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since the Russian Orthodox Church is one of many tools in his tool box to control the Russian people as well as those in Ukraine, Putin had just lost some of his authority. In retaliation, Putin tried to rewrite history by installing a humongous statue of Vladimir the Great right outside of the Kremlin. He was saying, in effect, that he is still in control of the church and that the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow was the only valid church descended from Prince Vladimir, effectively removing Ukraine from that important part of history. With a statue having the same name as his own, perhaps he also intends to write himself into history as potentially Vladimir the Great II. His known obsession with Peter the Great and Catherine the Great would make that seem plausible.
Since 2018, this loss of control over a swath of Ukrainians contributes to this power play to regain control over Ukraine today. In the eyes of the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow, both Ukraine and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine have become too Westernized and tainted by the “evil” West with values that don’t line up with the more conservative Russian government and church. Indeed, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow, reportedly said that holding gay parades in Donbas (southeastern region of Ukraine) is part of the reason for the “peacekeeping mission” by Russia in Ukraine. Because of his public support of this mission, he is currently experiencing backlash from other Orthodox leaders from within Russia and around the world.
From the Russian government and church’s perspective, the fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is Jewish is further evidence that Ukraine, in electing a Jewish leader rather than an Orthodox one, is aligning more with the West and less with the Russian Orthodox Church and its values.
So how does all this play into the current conflict? Putin has said that the greatest catastrophe in the last century is the collapse for the former Soviet Union. He is challenging the West’s world order of democracy and apparently believes that the Rus people, those primarily in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, should be reunited again, ostensibly under his control via domination, along with complicity from the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church. This national identity of both Rus and Russian Orthodoxy is so intertwined that it is difficult to separate the two, a point that Putin seeks to use to his advantage. To gain control over the Orthodox Church of Ukraine may not be Putin’s main objective, but it certainly plays an important role in today’s conflict.
Interestingly, over a millennium ago, Prince Vladimir was baptized in Crimea. Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 is viewed by some as a proper returning of that piece of Orthodox history to the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow. The fact that there was no international interference to Russia’s annexation of Crimea has helped to fuel his plans to overtake the rest of Ukraine, particularly Kyiv.
Today’s invasion is a desperate attempt to regain control, rewrite history, and recreate a new Russia, all under the thumb of an authoritarian dictator. Using religion to tie the destiny of Ukraine to Russia is not new. Nor is using religion to create a nationalist movement. To history students, however, this may feel like a modern-day crusade, not unlike the ones from the Middle Ages where neighboring people groups were either conquered or killed in the name of Jesus. Sadly, today, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Orthodox Christians are killing other Orthodox Christians for the sake of creating a new nationalistic world order controlled by the Russian government with the complicity and blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The fact that the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has blessed the government’s invasion (or “peacekeeping mission”) of Ukraine is important. If Putin actually believes that he is doing God’s will in invading, destroying, and conquering Ukraine, then nothing will stop him. We can only hope for divine intervention. And soon.
Text and photograph copyright © 2022 by Dawn Dailey. All rights reserved. Photo of a crucifix at a bridge over the River Inn, Innsbruck, Austria.
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