— HN Das In the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 religion was sought to be banished completely from Russia and people were asked to shun all religious functions and ceremonies. The Communist party cadres demolished many cathedrals, churches and other establishments all over the country.
However, most Russians secretly continued their religious prayers and rituals all through the seventy years of Soviet rule. Many functionaries of religious institutions had been removed from their positions. They or their successors managed to come back after the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991. In Moscow the Communists had destroyed 750 out of 800 churches. Already 400 have been rebuilt. The others are also being restored.
A vast majority of Russians belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church which is the collective name of independent Christian Churches of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. In 1054 the Orthodox Church came out of the Roman Catholic See in the reign of Pope Leo IX. Orthodox Christians established their headquarters in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine empire. Later it was shifted to Athens in Greece. But the Russian Church came out of the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Athens. The Russian Patriarch lives at the Danilov monastery in Moscow. The special features of “this branch of Christianity are that bishops must be unmarried; the dogma of immaculate conception is not admitted ; icons are venerated in the churches and fasts are frequent and rigorous.”
Christian religion came to Russia when Kiev was still it’s capital. Princess Olga, who assumed regency on behalf of her minor son Sviatoslav in 945, visited Constantinople and was publicly and officially admitted into Christianity in 957. Mass conversion took place around 986-8 during the reign of Prince Vladimir. For this Vladimir was rewarded by marriage with the sister of the Byzantine emperor. Two hundred years later Vladimir was canonized.
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow is the largest church in Russia. Its enormous structure and golden domes can be seen from anywhere in the city. I was stunned to hear that this great possession of all mankind had been completely raged to the ground by the orders of Stalin in 1931. This reminded me of Dominique Lapierre’s inimitable novel “Is Paris Burning?” and the picture of the Nazzi General von Choltitz in a Paris street on August 25, 1944. That day Choltitz defied Hitler’s orders to burn down the great monuments of Paris. Instead he surrendered to the Allied Army. (Esmond Wright : An Illustrated History of the Modern World). But in 1931 there was no Soviet General or Communist Commissar in Moscow who could defy Stalin’s orders. After 1991 the Russian Christians reconstructed the Cathedral by spending the equivalent of US$650 millions (Rs. 3,120 crore). The money came from the ordinary Russians. When I attended service on September 27, 2008 afternoon there were more than 10,000 people standing inside the Cathedral. No one is allowed to sit and no benches are provided. What the principal protagonist of the reconstruction, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzkkov, had stated at the cornerstone laying ceremony is significant : “Let the reconstruction of the main Cathedral stand as symbolic proof of hundreds of destroyed churches and millions of lost lives.”
St. Basil’s Cathedral’s multicoloured onion shaped elegant domes have become the most visible identity of Moscow. When flood lit at night St. Basil changes the entire atmosphere of the Red Square, were it stands beside the Kremlin. Its architecture is very different from other European churches. Built by Ivan the Terrible in 1551-61 to celebrate his victory in the campaigns against the Mongols St. Basil is distinctive because of its particularly Russian artistry and iconography in its narrow chapels and corridors. Named after St. Basil, the Blessed and the “Holy Fool”, the Cathedral’s crypt contains his remains.
Many other Churches have been built in Russia in imitation of St. Basil’s. One of these is the Cathedral of Spilt Blood in St. Petersburg which was built by Tsar Alexander III to commemorate the spot where his father Tsar Alexander II was blown to pieces in 1881 by the Anarchists who were dissatisfied with the slow progress of reform.
A day excursion to the town of Sergiyev Posad, 70 kilometres north east of Moscow, brought me to the beautiful monastery of the Holy Trinity, St. Sergius Lavra, which has been the centre of Russian spiritualism for more than 600 years. It was founded as a remote hermitage in 1340 by St. Sergius of Radonezh, one of Russia’s most holy men who is also called the Abbot of Russia. Among the 20 remarkable buildings in the monastery is the white Trinity Cathedral which dates back to early 1400. Inside the cathedral I marvelled at the decorative art left behind by the great artist Rubylov. These had been mutilated and defiled by the Soviet soldiers and Communist cadres. The process of their restoration is still on. The golden pulpit, which was used for shooting practice during Soviet times, by stripping the walls and the ceiling, has been restored recently. The monastery also contains a Theological Academy beside a number of churches and chapels.
Another beautiful monastery with a serene atmosphere is the Novodevichy Convent located on the banks of the Moscow river south west of the city centre. It was founded in 1524 to celebrate the taking of the town of Smolensk from the Lithunians. Many noble women, including Peter the Great’s first wife, were sent here to live as nuns. Most of the buildings, enclosed by forbidding towered walls, were constructed by Princess Sofia, Peter the Great’s famous half sister during the time she acted as Regent. In 1689 she herself was banished to this Convent to live as a nun. Tchaikovsky got his inspiration to compose his immortal ballet “Swan Lake” from the lake in the Convent grounds. During Soviet times the Convent had been closed down, its buildings battered and its occupants chased away.
I visited many other religious places in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Pushkin Town and Peterhof. I attended service in the main Cathedral inside the Kremlin. What impressed me, however, was the religious fervour of the Russians and the tenacity with which they retained the Christian religion in the midst of the reign of terror unleashed by the Communists, specially during Stalin’s time.
(The writer was Chief Secretary, Assam, during 1990-95). source: assam tribune
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