The former Russian president assures that the Russian military operation in Ukraine has the “sacred objective” of “stopping the lord of Hell”. A religious rhetoric also fueled by the sending of priests to the front to support the Russian soldiers.
From “special military operation” to “holy war”? For several weeks, the Russian power has been trying to give a religious and sacred dimension to its offensive against Ukraine, while Dimitri Medvedev, number two of the powerful Russian Security Council, affirmed at the beginning of November that the “sacred objective” of the offense is to “stop the lord of Hell”. This rhetoric, however, divides even within the Orthodox Church.
“We are fighting those who hate us, who ban our language, our values and even our faith,” said Dmitry Medvedev.
The enemies of Russia are the Ukrainian “Nazis” and the “dogs” of the West, still denounces the former head of state, close to Vladimir Putin.
A “holy war” against the West
A sign of the importance for the Kremlin of the spiritual dimension it seeks to instill in its military intervention, Vladimir Putin affirmed, during his New Year’s greetings, that “moral correctness” was on Moscow’s side.
This claim illustrates the will of the authorities to iron out the doubts of part of the population thrown off balance by the entry of Russian troops into a country where the majority of believers are, as in Russia, Orthodox Christians.
As Moscow suffered several military setbacks, religious rhetoric gained increasing momentum from the fall, with senior officials and state media portraying the intervention in Ukraine as a ‘holy war’ against a West portrayed as decadent. .
Priests sent to the front
Beyond the speeches, the intertwining of the religious and the military is also manifested by the sending of dozens of priests to the front to support the soldiers. Military priest Sviatoslav Tchourkanov explains that these missions aim to prevent soldiers from “losing their soul (…), even if the situation pushes them to it”.
A priest must “root in the soul of the military that prisoners should not be tortured (…) We should not loot, we should not harm civilians”, he continues.
The cleric has no doubts about the merits of this assault on Ukraine, which, according to him, consists in defending the “traditional values” of which the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church present themselves as the protectors.
The sacrifice of the soldiers intended to “wash away the sins”
A sign of the importance of these clerics in the conflict, Vladimir Putin awarded in November the title of “Hero of the Russian Federation”, the country’s highest distinction, to an Orthodox priest killed in the combat zone, Mikhail Vasiliev.
The powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has also voiced support for the military offensive, saying support should be given to pro-Russian ‘brothers’ in eastern Ukraine who have ‘rejected’ Western values.
During a sermon at the end of September, he claimed that those killed while fulfilling their “military duty” performed a “sacrifice which washes away all sins”.
A rhetoric that divides within the Church
But this involvement of the Church in the conflict and the increasingly religious rhetoric surrounding it are not unanimous in Russia.
“This rhetoric of ‘holy war’ comes straight from the Middle Ages,” said Andrei Kordotchkine, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church stationed in Madrid.
If the Moscow Patriarchate shows frank support for the military intervention, it has caused a stir within the Orthodox world, with a bitter struggle between the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches.
A platform against the war signed by religious
Even within the Russian clergy, there are differences: as of March 1, a platform against “fratricidal war” was signed by 293 Orthodox religious.
“It is not only (Russian) society that is divided, but also the Church and the clergy,” said priest Andrei Kordotchkine.
Several signatories of the text were sanctioned by the patriarchate by being moved from their parish, confides one of them, on condition of anonymity. “In recent years, the ties between the high Orthodox hierarchy and the power have been strengthened. The state has helped the Church a lot and this help has created great dependence,” he adds.
