#certainly not russians

[jh-newman-opn]

The Moscow Fiasco

At the prodding of @quonunc, here is a quick overview of the incident I fondly referred to as "the Moscow fiasco" in a previous ask about the difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. It's a subject dear and horrifying to my heart after I wrote my undergrad dissertation on it.

In short: this is to do with how the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian Orthodox Church, hereafter ROC) is entirely in bed with the Russian government, and how Patriarch Kirill (of Moscow and All Russia) has been responding to the ongoing situation in Ukraine (and former Soviet lands more generally). Picture will make sense lower down the post.

The slightly longer short answer is that Patriarch Kirill is entirely in favour of the Ukraine war, and the ROC clergy are under significant pressure to support that as an official church stance-- my dissertation topic started to germinate when, completely by accident, I came across a 10-minute video of a ROC priest explaining very slowly and carefully that when he met the Pope, he did not talk about Ukraine. Will link this video if I can find it again, but at present it's proving elusive. (EDIT: found it!!! It was the Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary. This video looks like a hostage video honestly £10 says there's someone behind the camera holding a gun to this man's head for legal reasons this is a joke).

The foundation for this belief is obviously completely political (and the history of how the ROC and Russian state are completely entwined is long and complicated to say the least!), but officially the ROC stance is that it's about reclaiming the historic Slavic spiritual unity founded on the Baptism of Rus' in the year 988 by Vladimir the Grand Prince of Kievan Rus' when Slavdom become Orthodox. Proponents of this "Russian World" theory (Russkiy Mir') basically argue that it's the influence of the West that has fractured the unified Slavic people into different, opposing nations, and that by "liberating" Ukraine of this alien ideology of nationhood, the Slavic Orthodox world will regain its historic unity under the common banner of Orthodoxy. All I will say on this is that these people have a very rosy view of Kievan Rus', but that's a post for another day.

This has obviously caused friction within the Orthodox world. Ukraine now has two Orthodox churches-- the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is in communion with the Russian Patriarchate. They are not in communion with each other, and Constantinople's decision to grant autocephalous status to the OCoU caused Moscow to schism with Constantinople. Constantinople is also accusing Moscow of heresy (specifically, ethno-phyletism). Moscow obviously denies this. Obvious question for the Catholics among us-- does this mean Russian Orthodox christians are no longer Orthodox? No, because schisms between Orthodox churches are not particularly unusual, and they remain within the general cloud of Orthodox communion links.

The whole mess is then immortalised in the absolute monstrosity that is the Main Cathedral to the Russian Armed Forces, which is what I wrote my diss on. The YouTube video linked there is promotional material from Russian military-themed TV channel Звезда, and is one of the better sources of info on it-- a lot of English-language sources contain a lot of incorrect information on it-- either because they don't understand the cultural background, or just straight up lies from the Russian govt propaganda arm--, so take anything they say with a grain of salt. Kirill then gives televised sermons from this cathedral in which he talks about the glorious Russian martyrs of the Ukraine invasion, does his best to harmonise Stalinism and Orthodoxy, and oversees military parades for national holidays. This cathedral has a huge amount of weird symbolism and imagery, and I am super happy to talk more about the mosaics and propaganda going on there, because it's a lot (to say the quiet part out loud: pLEASE ask me more about this cathedral because the more I think about it the more scream-worthy facts about it I remember).

You may have seen memes with this picture of the Virgin Mary (below). Yeah that's from this cathedral. And it's a really really fucked up image. Like, more fucked up than you may think. Could have written my entire diss on this image alone and how shockingly awful it is. western orthobro converts who keep reblogging it as if it's somehow cool and macho are just showing how little they know and it's embarrassing.

The militarism of the ROC since this whole thing has also gone bonkers and there's a huuuuuge amount of corruption and weird stuff going on. The tension between the clergy and the laity has been extremely high for decades, and has spilled over most notably in Pussy Riot's Punk Prayer stunt, an exhibition called Осторожно, религия! (beware, religion!), and some shenanigans in church-building more generally. On this particular incident I would point to the blessing of nuclear weapons and the canonisation of a patron saint of long-range nuclear missiles as key moments. The cathedral also has matching mosaics of Putin and Stalin, a fact that the Russian government very much wants you to think never happened (officially the mosaics were removed, but they absolutely were not-- muggins here found them and has the pictures to prove it).

The main takeaway from this topic is that situation is obviously complicated and the repercussions for everyone involved-- particularly Russian and Ukrainian laypeople-- are unpleasant to say the least. It gives something of a window into the Putin regime and its propaganda arm (Epiphany swim, topless horseriding pictures, Soviet-style policies, I could go on) more than anything else, because the situation inside the ROC is still quite obscure. From talking to people who know Kirill personally, it's not clear quite what he thinks is going on or why he's involved the way he is. Either way. Fiasco.

[j-a-nuary]

On Repeat top 10 poll

[emeraldskulblaka]

I'm a little sad that the response to "sorry, I don't speak this language" is "then learn it". I speak five languages and I'm actively learning a sixth, give me a break 😭

[tehcherrya]

"They seem to have got a notion in their heads that you are... mad... or close on it."

I promise I didn't abandon you, Tumblr, I have just been busy since my semester started a week or so ago!

Anyway, I have been reading Crime & Punishment recently and have really enjoyed it thus far. If y'all didn't know this about me already, I am a big lit nerd with an even more active imagination for illustrations. I've also seen clips from the miniseries and I can't wait to watch that after I finish the book!

[charmac]

Frank vs. "Russia"

Frank being the general audience's rejection to all the gay shit that happens on Sunny vs. Dennis' obvious queerness

[qkmlh]

On god Kraven is both everything and nothing at all of what I expected and I say that with so much love

[sivavakkiyar]

[real-hws-confessions]

Belarus is revealed better than Russia. Why is this guy among the main characters if he is essentially a minor character?

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[junksprungs]

Music in languages i dont understand my beloved

[motsimages]

The thing with US imperialism is that the marketing has been so good for the past century (almost) that we have believed it to be A Good Thing, an Ideal, something to copy and export. It may have been briefly so, but it certainly isn't anymore. It is a failed state.

There are many other countries full of inequality, violence and all kind of social problems that we don't envy or idealise of try to copy. We don't even hear of them, we have virtually no reference. Do they have universal healthcare in Afganistan? We don't know. Do people have unemployment benefits in Sudan? We don't know. Do people have paid leave in Russia? We don't know. They may be famous countries for some terrible shit, but we are not told anything other than The Terrible Thing They Are Famous For.

But the US? I have all the fucking details of the new horrifying law that has been passed in one of the 50 something states. And the worse part is I better pay attention because our government may think it's a good idea and try to copy it. We don't want to copy The Terrible Politics of Third World Country we get refugees from, but we are willing to get inspired by the country where you can't walk anywhere, where homelesness is a big fucking problem to unheard levels in many other countries, where schools shootings are a thing, where segregation and slavery still exist under another name, where religion makes law, and so on.

We tolerate things from the US that most countries in the world are penalised for. The dream is falling apart, we are starting to see glimpses of real life US and it is horrifying. And many people and governments still believe it is an ideal to achieve.

[radioactivehydronerd]

This exam season is psychologically draining my bros I am living up to my profile pic currently. Head on fire

[keyofjetwolf]

WELP THERE WENT MY NIGHT

[dugaodna]

really big fan of the soviet children's animation. Gay little dog

[mystacoceti]

the invasion of ukraine and the hamas terror attack showed how many american leftists are just motivated by a guilt over being american which struggles to expresses itself as anything other than a reactionary anti-americanism. and then the fucking kicker is how many of the "radical" leftists protest and organize in ways that are comfortably within the wheelhouse of liberal protest.