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This time Easter absolutely overshadowed and squeezed from the television the May First holiday. On Monday, 1 May, news programs dutifully reported how this day that was important for the soviet era passed. But for the rest of the time the First of May was treated simply like an extra weekend day in which people needed not so much to be entertained as to relax [with movies]. . . .
But the Saturday television fare preceding the First of May looked quite different. Everything was reminding viewers of the approach of Great Pascha. After the daytime broadcasts devoted to this holiday there was an unsuccessful direct broadcast of the liturgy celebrated by the most holy patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus. TV-6 especially vigorously produced a minute-by-minute chronicle of services, brief items about the meaning of Easter and traditions of its celebration, and speeches by priests addressed to viewers. As a result there turned out to be an unending Easter television show. But the chief thing was the abundance of motion pictures on related topics: "Jesus of Nazareth," "A Boy named Jesus," "The Mother of Jesus," and, finally, the series "World Cinema Project 2000," covering the earthly fate of Jesus.
Television put on a grandiose Easter program which in its abundance can be compared with programs devoted to only two milestones in the life of our country, New Year's and Victory Day. These are the frames of our daily life cycle which are unquestionably observed and loved by everybody. It even is understandable. After all, in the final analysis New Year's comes around inevitably in accordance with the life of the universe, completely independent of anybody's philosophical pretensions. And the day of our victory in the Great Patriotic war, 9 May 1945, is a substantial and unchangeable historical given. And there exist special motion pictures which depict splendidly the atmosphere of celebration of New Year's and show the events that engendered Victory Day. Such films inevitably are shown on the respective holidays. By the interpretation of Easter on television through similar means, this holiday has also acquired the status of a national holiday at the base of which were certain objective events that have direct relationship to the existence of the universe and humanity. And just as it is unthinkable to ignore the rotation of the earth around the sun and the fact of our victory in the Second World War, it is senseless to distance ourselves from the celebration of Easter because of some narrow ideological, philosophical, or some other reasons. Just as it seems quite logical for the president to address the nation on New Year's Eve, even so the patriarch's address seems natural as does the mention by Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga of the loyalty to Vladimir Putin shown at the elections by a majority of Petersburg's residents. There is more likely to be annoyance when television announcers at inappropriate times get off the main subject in order to give attention to secular leaders.
Back a few years many politicians evoked serious discontent when, although they often failed to obey the holy commandments and often created doubt about the sincerity of their faith, they still ceremonially lined up in church with candles in their hands. Nowadays their presence at Easter services does not seem to be some kind of extraordinary event. It seems to be, if not integral, then at least unavoidable, like the image of the coolly impassive security agents. The more so since the television crews merge them into a single human multitude with the ministers of the church. The political elite goes to church not in accordance with the requirements of the latest fashion but following an important ritual that is associated with eternal values and truths.
The holiday of Pascha has also overcome the traditionally atheistic consciousness that was an inheritance from soviet times, as well as the current technological reality of the world. Television is playing its own role in this, by translating the ordinary features of the earthly life of Jesus into common experience. The epic distance is removed and the parabolic mystery dissolves in the atmosphere of the current moment on film. Into their place come impressions and visible details of the earthly life of Jesus, his communication with those around him, people, disciples, enemies, the immediacy of human reactions, and finally, the naturalism of torture, murder, excruciating pain and suffering, after which comes a visible resurrection that is so lifelike. This happens especially clearly in the series "World Cinema Project 2000." Those who saw the episode on Golgotha, with Jesus, nailed to the cross and with howls of unbearable pain, could hardly remain emotionally indifferent, however far they might be from expressing Christian faith in the rest of their daily existence. If the reality of the existence of Jesus Christ in the contemporary world remains problematic for someone, still it is inescapable that the "virtual" biography becomes a visual fabric. The traditional celebration of the First of May was largely cleared of any drama. In the present day world that cultivates the sensation of drama, the story about the sufferings and resurrection comes as a culmination of existence in which everything evokes an immediate perception and empathy. If God is far from many contemporary people like a kind of complex philosophical speculation, he can seem near and understandable like a well known personality who accompanies us on our daily life's path, filled with its conflicts, sufferings, and thirst for a just revenge. In place of the impersonal, unheroic First of May comes a holiday in the center of which is an extraordinary person with whose fate somehow or other the contemporary ordinary person can subconsciously relate. (tr. by PDS)
(posted 8 May 2000)
Discussion of the scenario for the inauguration of the second president of Russia in the Kremlin was begun back at the end of March, soon after the results of the elections were announced. The "tsarist variant," with the patriarchal blessing on Cathedral Square, which was seriously considered in 1996 for B. Yeltsin, was immediately rejected.
First, a special role in the ceremony for Patriarch Alexis would inevitably be associated with the anointing of emperors. Indeed, to give prominence to one of the religions of the multinational country would hardly be fitting. After all the church in our country is still separated from the state. However this does not prevent the heads of all religioous confessions from participating in the ceremony in the capacity of honored guests. . . .
KREMLIN SEEKING NEW TRADITIONS
by Liudmila Romanova
Nezavisimaia gazeta, 5 May 2000, (excerpts)
The presidential administration is engaged in an active search for symbols which will emphasize the line of authority of the new head of state. . . . The inauguration ceremony for Vladimir Putin, it seems, will be substantially different from the inauguration of 1996. Although the symbols of presidential authority will remain as before, the very atmosphere of the ceremony will be changes. For example the inauguration of the new head of state will have an exclusively secular character, without the blessing of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus. . . . (tr. by PDS)
[ed. note: but compare the following Reuters report:
RUSSIA TO ENTER NEW ERA WITH PUTIN INAUGURATION
by Patrick Lannin, Reuters, 4 May 2000
. . . The centrepiece of the inauguration, due to be broadcast live,
will be a 26-word presidential oath which Putin will read with his
hand on a copy of the constitution. Orthodox Church leader,
Patriarch Alexiy II, will bless the new president, a reflection of
the strong ties fostered between church and state in modern Russia
after 70 years of officially atheist communist power. . . . ]
(posted 5 May 2000)
Capital police summarize the celebration of Pascha
The GUVD of Moscow has reported that on the night of 30 April 3569 police personnel were activated for maintaining public order in 192 Moscow churches. Inside the churches there were 71,375 people (in 1999, 77,148), and on the surrounding yards there were 53,645 (last year, 66,436). Near the church, twenty persons were arrested for various violations of law, including eleven for drinking alcoholic beverages and public drunkenness. On Sunday, police estimate, 640,000 persons (in 1999, 775,000) visited cemeteries. Only nine persons were arrested for criminal violations, all of them for drunkenness. (tr. by PDS)
[ed. note: see the patriarch's comments on visiting cemeteries.]
PASCHA NIGHT IN MOSCOW
by Pavel Korobov, Oleg Nedumov
Nezavisimaia gazeta, 4 May 2000
Things were not rushed on Pascha night, 29-30 April, in the cathedral church of the Epiphany. Long before the start of the service those who possessed the coveted invitations passed through the police lines and ran to take up places nearer to the patriarchal throne. Before the beginning of the ceremonious service, honored guests entered the cathedral led by Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov and the first deputy prime minister of the government of Russia, Mikhail Kasianov.
The solemn paschal liturgy was led by the most holy patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus, Alexis II. Concelebrating with him on this night were Metropolitan Sergius of Solnechnogorsk and Archbishop Arseny of Istra along with a multitude of clergy. After distributing to the worshippers the sacred flame, toward midnight the clergy moved from the altar in a procession of the cross, the a cross, candlesticks, and incense. Immediately behind the most holy patriarch came the highly placed guests, surrounded by security. Not all of the common people decided to join the procession of the cross, fearing that they would not be able to get back to this places. Privileged worshippers did not have to fear this since they had their own personal entrance. Only one woman of this company, Giulnaz Sotnikova, decided to display democratism and went along with the people through the main entrance, which created for her great problems in returning to her elite place. The security guard of his holiness had to come to her aid, which extracted her from the crowd under the amazed stares of the worshippers and clergy.
Mikhail Kasianov ended his own communion with God rather quickly; he left the cathedral around one a.m. after having exchanged greetings and gifts with his holiness. After another forty minutes the court sculptor of the mayor's office, Zurab Tsereteli, departed after having hobnobbed for a time with the city fathers. The elite public that stayed in the church continued to worship intently and even from time to time joined the choir in singing.
The whole festive activity continued until 3:30 a.m. and after greeting the patriarch the VIP guests went with his holiness to celebrate the Pascha feast while the common people started waiting for the public transportation to begin working.
On Monday of Bright Week, the first of May, the most holy patriarch served the divine liturgy in the Dormition cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, in which he was joined by concelebrants Archbishop Arseny of Istra, Archbishop Tikhon of Bronnitsy, Bishop Alexis of Orekhovo-Zuev, and Bishop Savva of Krasnogorsk. Like on Pascha night itself, on this day there was a large crowd, although entry was by invitation only. There was a large number of students of the Orthodoxy Department in the Peter the Great Military Academy of Antiaircraft Defense, who created a solid wall along the central aisle and with their backs shielded His Holiness from the worshippers. They kept children and elderly worshippers from viewing the patriarch's change of vestments.
Before the sacrament of communion Bishop Savva read the paschal message of the most holy Patriarch Alexis, in which, in particular, he says that "the life of the state and society on the canonical territory of the Russian church remains extremely difficult, but nevertheless there are signs of hope. In Russia a renewal of governmental authority has happened, which now is striving principally for a fruitful relationship with the Orthodox church in very many areas."
A festive service also was celebrated by means of a procession of the cross around Dormition cathedral and conferral of diplomas upon the students of the Peter the Great military academy.
On the night from Saturday to Sunday festive paschal services were held in all Moscow churches. The majority of residents in the district of Shabolovskaia metro station welcomes Pascha in the church of the Don monastery. For example not far away, on Don street, the special day's service was conducted, modestly as always, in the church of the Deposition of the Lord's Robe. The history of this church is connection with the fate of the great Christian sacred relic, a part of the Lord's robe which was cut from the relic that is preserved in the church of the Deposition of the Robe in Dormition cathedral. It is in a silver case attached to the icon of the Deposition of the Lord's Robe. This ancient icon portrays in pictures the entire story of Christ's robe, beginning from the soldiers' casting lots beneath the cross and ending with its deposition in Moscow's Dormition cathedral.
According to the gospel narrative, after the Savior's crucifixion the Roman soldiers who guarded the place of execution divided his clothing among themselves by lot. Later they became sacred relics for the whole Christian world. In 1625 an embassy from Persia came to Moscow with whom Shah Abbas send to the two "great sovereigns," Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and his father Patriarch Filaret, the Lord's robe, which has been taken by the Persians from Georgia which they had recently subjugated. The Moscow authorities met the emissaries at the edge of the Kaluga outpost and from there the procession moved to the Kremlin, after which Christ's robe was deposited on a special altar in Dormition cathedral (the confirmation of its genuineness ensued: the robe was taken to sick people, many of whom were healed). The place where the embassy was met soon was marked by a wooden church. Regarding this now there is only a four-sided brick column in the fence next to the high altar of the church of the Deposition. Beside the crumbling wooden church a small stone church of Saint Catherine was erected. The new church of the Deposition was added to it. Its consecration was held in the autumn of 1716. in 1763 a left chapel was added to the church consecrated to the holy apostle James, son of Alpheus. At the end of the nineteenth century, on the initiative of the local priest, capital repairs were performed, removing a certain asymmetry and stylistic diversity between the main church and the chapels.
In the thirties of the twentieth century the Deposition church escaped the sad fate of many other churches and was not closed. Sorrow beset it during the Khrushchev administration when then Patriarch Pimen was faced with a choice: to close either the old cathedral of the Don monastery or the Deposition church. After long negotiations a compromise was reached: both churches were united into a single parish while the cathedral in the Don monastery was used only on holidays. (tr. by PDS)
(posted 5 May 2000)
Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia officiated on Wednesday at the Easter liturgy in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Prokhorovka field near Belgorod where the biggest tank battle at the Kursk Bulge was fought in July 1943. The service attended by thousands of people preceded the festivities in the field of glory of Russian arms on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of V-Day in which Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin and the presidents of Belarus and Ukraine will participate.
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is the central part of the memorial complex built here five years ago. It is shaped like a lit candle symbolising eternal fire in memory of fallen soldiers who gave their lives for the fatherland. The church was built by the whole country. Thousands of people from all over Russia contributed donations, dozens of commercial firms and banks were sponsors of the project.
The famous tank battle occurred on July 12, 1943, the day of Saints Peter and Paul, so the temple was named after them. Marble plates of the memorial complex carry the names of more than 700 soldiers who perished in fighting at the Kursk Bulge. Every twenty minutes the bell strikes thrice in memory of those who fell at the Kulikovo field, in the battle at Borodino and in the battles during the Great Patriotic War.
The 58-metre tall church of white stone was sanctified five years ago during its inauguration by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. The project was designed by famed sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov.
SLAVIC PRESIDENTS RING BELL FOR UNITY
by Sergei Shargorodsky,
Associated Press
PROKHOROVKA, Southern Russia -- President-elect Vladimir Putin and two other Slavic presidents rang a bell Wednesday symbolizing their spiritual unity at an Orthodox church service marking the 55th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany -- but the meeting didn't settle their political differences.
"We met our enemies together and achieved victory together. We have a common fate, common culture and religion. We are one family," Putin told the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus.
The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, called for a "joint future" for the three primarily Orthodox former Soviet republics.
The service, at a chapel built on the site of the Battle of Kursk, was attended by thousands of local residents. The 1943 battle involved thousands of tanks, artillery and planes. Hitler called off the attack after Nazi forces suffered heavy losses and it became clear his troops wouldn't be able to penetrate Soviet lines.
"The victims were united. Their glory was united, and our memory of the dead is united," Alexy said. "The best gift we can give to the heroes will be the unity of Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians."
But Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has said his country has no intention of joining the Russia-Belarus union, which stops short of creating a single state but proposes a single currency and a joint military force.
Ukraine has been increasingly looking to the West and NATO. And while Putin wants to sway Ukraine closer to Moscow, analysts say, he did not make a pitch for unification Wednesday, saying only that "such brotherly peoples can have no obstacles toward uniting our efforts ... to make life happier."
Yevgeny Volk, director of the Heritage Foundation's Moscow office, said Wednesday's meeting was "most likely a symbolic act."
"It was a bow to veterans -- and that is why Kuchma agreed to do it," Volk said by telephone. "But symbolic acts will not affect Ukraine's foreign policy."
Belarusian-Ukrainian relations have become increasingly tense recently. Kuchma criticizes Lukashenko as too authoritarian, while Lukashenko has accused Kuchma of kowtowing to the West.
But the three presidents appeared to bury their differences as they rang a bell symbolizing their peoples' spiritual unity. Built for the occasion, the bell also honors the men from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus who died during the Battle of Kursk. * * *
SLAVS COMMEMORATE WORLD WAR II KURSK TANK BATTLE
Agence France Presse, 3 May 2000
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church brought together the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in a ceremony Wednesday to symbolize Slavic unity and commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Patriarch Alexy II consecrated a "unity bell" representing the spiritual unity of the three Slav nations in a ceremony at Prokhorovka, scene of the 1943 Battle of Kursk -- the biggest tank battle in history.
Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin was joined in the village, some 500 kilometers (340 miles) south of Moscow, by his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko and Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma.
Also in attendance were scores of veterans who survived the battle of Kursk, a turning point in World War II, which is known here as the "Great Patriotic War."
PRESIDENTS OF FRATERNAL PEOPLES MEET IN PROKHOROVKA
ITAR-TASS, 3 May 2000
Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma arrived on Wednesday at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Prokhorovka, the Belgorod region. They will attend the Easter liturgy conducted here by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia.
Then the presidents will attend the ceremony of inauguration of the Chapel of Unity of three fraternal Slavic peoples built in the territory of the church. They will also be present at the ceremony of the sanctification of the bell of unity at which patriarch of Moscow and all Russia will speak. These functions are part of the festivities dedicated to the 55th anniversary of V-day.
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul was built on donations by people and sanctified by Alexy II five years ago. The famous tank battle at the Kursk Bulge occurred here on July 12, 1943. The walls and pylons of the church carry marble plaques with the names of over 6,500 fallen soldiers.
The bell of unity of three Slavic peoples has been fixed under the cupola of the chapel. It has three bands. The upper one carries the sign: "Love and unity are our salvation." The median one shows four icons symbolising, specifically, the unification of Russian land, spiritual and historic unity of three Slavic peoples. The lower band of the bell carries the sign in the church Slavonic language: "This bell was sanctified on May 3, 2000 by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia in the presence of the presidents of fraternal Slavic countries -- Russia, Ukraine and Belarus".
The idea of building a chapel in the territory of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul was conceived by archbishop Johann of Belgorod and Stary Oskol and head of the Belgorod regional administration Yevgeny Savchenko.
PUTIN, LUKASHENKO, KUCHMA MEET AT MEMORIAL FIELD
ITAR-TASS, 3 May 2000
The Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian presidents, Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko and Leonid Kuchma, arrived at Prokhorovskoye Field in the Belgorod region on Wednesday.
They attended an Easter service at the Cathedral of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul at the memorial field outside the village of Prokhorovka which was the scene of a World War II battle involving a total of over 1,000 Soviet and Nazi tanks, the greatest ever.
The Belgorod region is part of the wartime Kursk Bulge, one of tracks of most ferocious fighting.
Patriarch Alexy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, presented to each of the presidents an icon named for their patrons and a staff with an image of the Trinity.
Alexy said the visit of the presidents was in the nature of an opening of memorial events devoted to the 55th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War.
Putin, Lukashenko and Kuchma bowed their heads to memory of the fallen.
The clergy prayed for those who died at the tank battle in July 1943. Most of the fallen are known, but excavation work in areas of fighting continues to this day and opens new names which are entered on the cathedral's memorial scroll.
Alexy consecrated a Unity Bell of Slav Peoples in the presidents' presence.
Inscribed on the bell are words of Reverend Sergy of Radonezh: "By Love and Unity Shall We Save Ourselves."
The bell carries the image of the Trinity as a symbol of unity and faces of Prince Vladimir, enlightener of Rus, of Sergy of Radonezh and Reverend Yevfrosinya of Polotsk.
The bell was cast in Moscow with private savings of believers and with a contribution from the Belgorod region's administration.
RUSSIA, UKRAINE, BELARUS LEADERS RECALL WW2 UNITY
Reuters, 3 May 2000
The leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus met on Wednesday at a key World War Two battleground to underline their shared heritage before celebrations marking 55 years of peace.
Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's Leonid Kuchma and Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko paid tribute to Soviet troops mown down by the Germans in and around Prokhorovka, a village in western Russia near the Ukrainian border.
With much of the former Soviet Union gearing up to mark Victory Day on May 9, the three leaders unveiled a modest memorial in a field near the centre of the world's biggest tank battle, known to posterity as the Battle of Kursk.
Then the presidents, dressed in black, together rang a bell hanging beneath a golden cupola with an Orthodox cross crowning the white arch of the memorial. "Love and harmony will save us," read the inscription engraved on the bell.
"This bell is the symbol of unity of the three Slav nations," said Russia's Orthodox Christian Patriarch Alexiy II, who conducted a memorial service.
"In the years of severe trial, we were not divided into Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians -- we defended one country, one motherland," he said. "Although we now live in different states, we have one faith, one history, one culture."
Historians say around 500,000 soldiers of the then Soviet Union died during the 1943 Battle of Kursk, which was crucial for the outcome of World War Two. The town of Kursk lies not far to the north of Prokhorovka.
PUTIN LAUDS UNITY
The presidents echoed the patriarch on the theme of unity. "We are one family. We vanquished when we stood together. We have common historic roots, a common fate, history, culture," said Putin, whose inauguration as president is set for Sunday.
"This is a special place for our peoples. It is from here that the countdown to victory began, and the advance of the Soviet army to liberate Ukraine and Belarus," he said. Hundreds of local residents enthusiastically waved Russian, Ukrainian and Belarussian flags in scenes of strong emotion.
"We are invincible when we are together," read one banner. "From the bell of unity to the unity of the three Slav states!" read another.
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus became independent after the demise of the Soviet Union in December 1991, but many people in all three states regret the passing of the Communist superpower.
"The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest mistake of the outgoing century," said Lukashenko, whose country is trying to forge a new political and economic union with Russia.
In typically blunt language, Lukashenko also said the three former Soviet republics should not let down their guard against the West. Moscow and Minsk have been very critical of NATO's decision to take in new members in central and eastern Europe.
DIVISIONS REMAIN
But despite Wednesday's emotional rhetoric, the three countries remain divided by a range of issues.
Ukraine views Russia as a strategic partner but is also jealous of its newly won independence and has declined to join the Russia-Belarus union, saying it sees its long-term future in terms of integration with European structures.
Ukraine's cordial relations with NATO have also irritated Moscow, which sees the eastern enlargement of its former Cold War foe as a threat to its strategic interests.
Ukrainian debts of at least $1.4 billion for Russian natural gas supplies also mar ties with its big northern neighbour. Kuchma said last week he would probably discuss the debt issue during an informal meeting with Putin.
Russia and Belarus have set up joint institutions to oversee their much-vamped union agreement but further integration is hampered by Lukashenko's reluctance to adopt market reforms.
(posted 4 May 2000)
WASHINGTON, May 2, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Religious freedom in Russia is in danger of deteriorating significantly in the near future and the United States should monitor developments, an independent panel set up by the US Congress said Monday.
In its first annual report, the Commission on International Religious Freedom said that Russia's 1997 Religion Law was a "significant step backward."
The law makes it harder for new, often aggressively active religious organizations to operate in Russia, forcing them to register with the government while traditional religions do not have to do so.
The law "creates a hierarchy of religious organizations and effectively restricts smaller, newer, and foreign religious communities," the commission, created in 1998 to monitor religious freedom around the world, said in its first annual report.
"It also establishes an onerous and intrusive registration process and other means of state interference with religious organizations' activities."
Most alarming, the report said, was a decree by Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin which extends the deadline for registration to the end of the year, but stipulates that from then, non-registered churches would be banned.
Regional officials have denied unpopular religious groups registration as a way to have them banned, the report said.
It said that the threat to religious freedom in Russia often came at the regional level where religious believers have been victimized and foreign clerics expelled from the country.
One third of the regions have enacted religious laws more stringent that the 1997 federal law, said the commission, which makes recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress.
The report also accused the Russian government of using anti-Muslim propaganda in its civil war against the separatist republic of Chechnya.
"While the conflict in Chechnya is based on political and geographic factors, the severity of the documented human rights abuses against the majority Muslim population requires the attention of the commission and the US government," the report said.
The commission members, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Bahai religious leaders as well as experts on human rights and international law, recommended continued US government monitoring. It also said Washington should pressure Moscow to keep an eye on regional and local officials.
"The United States should urge the Russian federal government to monitor more closely and respond to more effectively the actions of regional and local officials who interfere with religious freedom," it said.
The State Department said it welcomed the recommendations of the report for increased monitoring of religious freedom.
"The administration has already enhanced our efforts on each of these issues and we will look for more opportunities to do even more in the future," it said. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
U.S. PANEL OUTLINES ACTION TO IMPROVE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN SUDAN AND
CHINA
Newsroom, 2 May 2000
(excerpt from article, regarding Russia)
. . .Although the commissioners believe that Russia's human rights situation is not comparable with Sudan's or China's, they decided to focus on the country because of its influence in the region, and "the fact that the condition of religious freedom in Russia could deteriorate in the near future." The commission recommended that President-elect Vladimir Putin be pressed to reverse a new amendment to the controversial law on religion, requiring dissolution of churches that fail to register with the government by the end of December. That recommendation likely will fall on deaf ears, said Lauren Homer, an attorney in St. Louis, Missouri, who helps U.S.-based mission groups gain permission to operate in foreign countries.
"If this is something we care about we should help the Russian government, NGOs, and religious freedom lawyers deal with the massive volume" of applications that remain unprocessed, she said. "They are understaffed, and most of these groups need a lawyer" to help complete the forms.
An estimated 7,000 churches and religious groups have not yet registered, she said. "Unless there is a major effort starting now, … by year's end it will be 5,000." Churches that have not registered must be dissolved under terms of legislation the Duma passed in March when it extended for one year the registration deadline.
McFarland agrees that much of the backlog can be attributed to a lack of resources. "They don't have the infrastructure to process all of these registrations in a huge country," he said. "In addition, however, there is the concern that after December 31, will the local officials pick and choose which disfavored churches get liquidated? Will there be equality under the law, or will the Russian Orthodox Church be untouched and Baptist, Pentecostals, and others be liquidated?"
Homer has a colleague who wants to put forms and directions for filling them out on a CD for distribution throughout Russia, a process that would cost about $30,000. But financial appeals to religious and legal groups in the U.S. have been unsuccessful, the attorney said. "This is a key thing," she said. "Churches can't operate unless they have the right legal foundation. We need to figure out a way to help churches comply with the law to help get the gospel out. … Groups that fund rule of law issues are more secular. Churches are more interested in evangelization. To me that's the biggest problem."
Homer said her experience in Russia suggests that the government would accept legal help if it were offered. "We should try to help Russia figure out how to deal with it."
(excerpts from report pertaining to Russia)
(posted 3 May 2000)
The editors of AiF have received an official letter and documents from the chairman of the Foreign Investigative Commission for Study of the History of the Death and Burial of the Family and Servants of Nicholas II, Mr. P.N. Koltypin, in the USA. Many scholars throughout the world have not shared the point of view of the corresponding governmental commission in Russia and have spoken against recognizing the burial in Petersburg as accurate. The letter calls it a "fantastic deception." The letter includes a copy of the latest documents of the commission on the affair of the falsification of studies of the remains that were found near Ekaterinburg. On the basis of these documents and of the opinion of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus, Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin at first refused in 1998 to take part in the reburial, and only later, under strong pressure, did he agree to participate in the ceremony at the last minute.
The affairs regarding the remains is more than complex. A decade of activity by the foreign commission and constant examination of objective and honest literature among responsible state leaders and specialists both in Russia and throughout the world has produced positive results in the struggle for the truth about the fate of the "royal remains." It is possible to say with assurance that the activity of the commission has put an end to about 80% of the actions of the secret "conspirators" in Moscow which was intended to deceive the Russian people and the whole world.
The absence at the ceremony of reburial of religious and political leaders of the world is one obvious result. The patriarch and all bishops of the Russian Orthodox church were absent. At the church service in St. Petersburg all of the bodies were interred as unknown persons, without names. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad did not recognize the remains turned over to the state commission in Moscow as genuine, and it condemned their attempts at deception. Among persons absent from the ceremony were heads of any other religious confession in the world and anyone of the crowned heads or claimants to the throne of various countries.
As regards the conclusions of the Russian state commission, the probative value of the results of genetic analysis was slight and this also is shown in an article sent to AiF by doctore of biology Zhivotovsky in Annals of Human Biology, one of the most prestigious scientific medical journals of the world. Professor Zhivotovsky, who received the state prize of the Russian federation and is director of the center for DNA identification of the genetics institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, thinks that in such a delecate matter as the identification of remains, there must beabsolute irreproachability.
Second, the probative value of the famous "Yurov Notes" (a report and recollections by the leader of the "operation" for shooting and disposing of the remains of the royal family" is equally null. And it was the only basis for the conclusion of the state commission. Meanwhile, in the notes there is not a word of truth and the palce of burial of the supposed "royal remains" also was wrongly indicated. Somebody's remains were found there. But whose? The conclusions of the foreign commission are wide ranging and scientifically based. Complete copies of all documents are at the editorial offices. (tr. by PDS)
(posted 2 May 2000)
A group of leading Russian human rights activists has sent a letter to President-elect Vladimir Putin asking him not to allow the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Aleksy II, to participate in the May 7 presidential inauguration. When Boris Yeltsin was sworn in for his second term as president in 1996, the patriarch was among those top officials who stood on stage with Yeltsin as he was sworn in. While Aleksy did not administer the oath of office, he was the only religious figure who was on stage with Yeltsin. The leaders of Russia's other major confessions sat in the audience.
Among the signatories of the letter to Putin expressing misgivings over the Patriarch's role in the inauguration were Ludmilla Alexeeva, Sergei Kovalev, Marina Salye and Lev Ponomarev. Ponomarev, who is a founder and leader of the Democratic Russia movement and also heads a human rights group called "For Human Rights," argued that the Russian constitution makes no mention of religious leaders or representatives participating in the inauguration or swearing-in of a president. In addition, the ceremony is secular, involving no religious oaths or rituals, he said. Ponomarev also said that "the country is multiconfessional, and a demonstration of the Patriarch's special proximity to the government can be seen by other religious confessions as an insult." The signatories to the letter noted that in such countries as the United States, France, Switzerland and Germany, religious leaders and representatives participate in the inauguration of the head of state only as guests. They also noted that even countries in which the Catholic church is powerful, such as Poland, Italy and Spain, would not allow such an open expression of the links between the church and state.
However, despite Ponomarev's fears that the Orthodox patriarch's high-profile role in the inauguration will be an insult to other religions, representatives of other religious faiths are apparently not particularly bothered by this prospect. "All of this is politics, which we regard with indifference," an anonymous official from the office of Russia's chief rabbi told a newspaper. "If only the Patriarch will be next to the president again, this does not particularly bother us." Sheik Farid Asadullin, a member of the Council of Muftis of Russia, said that the council's chairman, Ravil Gainutdin, had been invited to the inauguration, but that it was not clear yet how he would participate (Segodnya, April 29).
The Kremlin announced last week that foreign leaders would not be invited to Putin's inauguration because it is a "domestic event." Foreign ambassadors based in Moscow will, however, be invited (Moscow Times, April 28).
(posted 2 May 2000)
The Georgian Orthodox church has again declared its decisive condemnation of the teaching of the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses. This declaration was made in connection with the death in Tbilisi of a twenty-one-year-old Jehovist woman. The cause of death was refusal of a blood transfusion on religious convictions.
The declaration says "Thus yet another time (far from the first time) the inhumane character of the Jehovists' teaching is revealed. This teaching poses a threat to the life and health of the individual and weakens the defense preparedness and stability of the state (Jehovists reject not only blood transfusions but also defense of the Motherland and service in the army). The Orthodox church again declares that the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses is anti-Christian, anti-state, and anti-society. I will pose an even greater threat to Georgia in the future if the state does not recognize this threat and take appropriate actions." (tr. by PDS)
(posted 2 May 2000)
Icons of the Savior and Saint Nicholas will again occupy their historic place on the Savior and Nicholas towers of the Moscow Kremlin. It is expected that consecration of the restored icons, which decorated the Kremlin towers until 1917, will be performed on 9 May on Red Square by Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus.
The two icons, which are executed in mosaic, are a gift from the most holy patriarch to the Moscow Kremlin in the year of the bimillennium of the birth of Christ. Because of the intense air pollution in the center of the capital, expert art scholars deemed the use of a fresco painting to be unwise and advocated a more substantial material, enamel glass (smalto).
Revolutionaries storming the Kremlin shot up the mural icon of St. Nicholas the Miracleworker on the Nicholas tower. Shortly afterward the fresco of the "Savior of Smolensk" on the Savior tower was destroyed; it has been installed at the beginning of the sixteenth century in memory of the conquest of Smolensk in 1514 by Vasily III.
"With the return of these icons to the Kremlin towers their historic names will be justified," Patriarch Alexis said in an interview with an ITAR-TASS reporter. The primate of the church called this event an "act of historic justice." He thinks it significant that "in the year of the bimillennium of the birth of Christ the icon of the Savior and St. Nicholas again will gaze down on all who enter the Kremlin." (tr. by PDS)
(posted 2 May 2000)
Russia's Muslims are a heterogenous group. But the war in Chechnya is straining their loyalty, writes Christian Caryl
You might be forgiven for thinking that Vladimir Putin was the scourge of Islam after his recent visit to London, when his remarks about the war in Chechnya stirred up a flurry of protest in quarters ranging from the Tories to UK Islamic leaders. "We have seen European countries and European leaders not able to support the Russian struggle", said Putin, "because they are afraid of a reaction among the Muslim inhabitants of Europe, but that should not be their conclusion." He urged Europeans to "wake up" to the threat of "fundamentalist extremists on their borders". In his view, militant Islam is mushrooming in central Asia, the Caucasus and Europe. But, he warned, "so far, Russia is fighting alone".
If one is to take these remarks seriously, Putin would like to see an international military campaign against extremist Islam, one that would unite European (presumably meaning "Christian") countries in a sort of new Crusade to cleanse the world from a monolithic threat.
Putin's admonishments, widely quoted in the British press, were played down by the Russian media. They preferred to repeat, days after the event, a different remark made by the Russian president at the same press conference: "We will observe human rights. We are not fighting against Muslims and Chechens, we are not enslaving Chechnya, we are liberating it from terrorists."
Russian journalists have good reason to tiptoe around their president's more divisive remarks on the Muslim question - namely the 20 or so million believers in Islam who live within the Russian Federation. Out of Moscow's total population of eight million, around one million are members of the faithful; Muslim Muscovites like to claim that they live in the most Islamic city in Europe.
The Chechens make up only a small fraction of the Muslims who live in Russia. Most are Tatars, Turkic-speakers concentrated in a swathe along the southern reaches of the Volga River where they have lived for thousands of years. In the North Caucasus, the other Russian focal point of the faith, Chechens are but one of a mixed basket of various Muslim peoples. Muslims can be found across the length and breadth of the country. The geographical and cultural heterogeneity prevents them from acting as a bloc. Most Tatars subscribe to the moderate Hanafi school of mainstream Sunnism; there are Tatar intellectuals who like to boast about their people's role in developing an undogmatic "Euro-Islam". The Bashkirs, former nomads who inhabit the Siberian plains farther east, profess an Islam that contains elements of steppe shamanism.
Caucasians, in turn, are steeped in Sufi traditions. Even within families, there can be broad differences in practice and belief. Younger Tatars who live in cities mix with non-Muslims, attend mosques where women are allowed to pray and eat pork, while their parents may live in villages with rigid Koranic observances and mosques that women may not enter.
During the Soviet period, the few rudimentary Islamic institutions that existed were controlled tightly by the KGB, and Russian Muslims were cut off from fellow believers in other parts of the world. As a result, the cultural and ethnic differences among Russian Muslims today tend to override religious unity. That came through with startling clarity during last summer's little war in Dagestan, the Muslim republic adjacent to Chechnya. When several groups of Chechens invaded the republic under the banners of radical Islam, they were repulsed by the combined forces of the Russian army and Muslim Dagestani militias. A major divide within Chechnya itself runs between the separatist government headed by President Aslan Maskhadov, who until recently was claiming the allegiance of several radical Islamist warlords, and the Mufti of the city of Gudermes, Khozh-Akhmed Kadyrov, who criticised Maskhadov for, among other things, adopting elements of sharia law alien to the spirit of the Chechen people. And it is quite common to hear other Russian Muslims - particularly from areas bordering Chechnya - badmouthing the Chechens. In that respect, they have something in common with their non-Muslim co-citizens, whose historical hatred of the Chechens, stoked in the mid-1990s by the humiliation of the first Chechen defeat and the years of Chechen-orchestrated kidnappings that followed, has now reached a white-hot fury.
But when terrorists set off a series of devastating bomb attacks in Moscow and other Russian cities last year, the wave of popular fury that resulted extended to all Chechens (regardless of their individual attitudes to the independence question), to virtually anyone who looked like he might be from the Caucasus and to Muslims in general. Madina, a Tatar housemaid in Moscow, says: "It's not easy. On TV, they show pictures of the Chechen fighters at prayers, and everyone sees those pictures and says, 'ee, they're Muslims'." Because her appearance doesn't correspond to the average Russian's picture of what a "Muslim" should look like, Madina says that she often finds herself listening to tirades directed against her fellow believers. "Officially, it's not supposed to matter what religion you are now," she says. "But most Russians just assume that you're Orthodox."
Alexei Malashenko, a leading Russian scholar of Islam, speaks of burgeoning "Islamophobia" in Russia. In a poll taken in 1992, says Malashenko, 17 per cent of respondents said that Islam was a "bad thing". In a more recent survey of young Russians, the figure was 80 per cent. Such underlying tensions might help to bring about what Putin ostensibly aspires to avoid - the politicisation of Russia's Muslims. He clearly understands the political import of religious feeling in a way that Boris Yeltsin did not. "Yeltsin was a party bureaucrat," says Malashenko. "Putin is younger and more sensitive to the problem. He knows that there can be tensions between Muslims and Christians. He doesn't have an approach or a policy. But he has a feeling that it deserves attention."
His solution, says Malashenko, has been to promote a "loyalist" Islamic movement that would give Muslims a political voice. During last year's parliamentary elections, Putin's entourage even sponsored the creation of Refah, an Islamic party that now claims the allegiance of a dozen deputies in the 400-member State Duma.
Such attempts to co-opt Muslim aspirations clearly have limits. Last year, during the war in Kosovo, Mintimer Shaimiyev, the president of Tatarstan and one of Russia's most influential regional leaders, criticised attempts by Russians in the republic to recruit volunteers to fight on the side of the Serbs. That could lead, he warned, to a reaction among Tatars, who might take up arms with the Albanians - a tendency, he said, that could end with Russian boys killing other Russian boys in the Balkans.
That's why Putin and his entourage never lose an opportunity to blame the war in Chechnya on the nefarious activities of Osama bin Laden, the Turkish secret service, and "Arab mercenaries". Putin has gone much farther than Yeltsin would have ever dared did in emphasising the "international" aspect of the conflict. When I visited Chechnya last December, Russian soldiers assured us that the enemy forces even included kilt-clad Scotsmen - evidently members of a hitherto unknown Islamist group based in the Highlands.
Putin hopes that the strategy will pay off on several fronts. He can dampen western criticisms by invoking the bogey of the Islamist threat. He can reassert Russian influence in central Asia by promising support to regional leaders facing fundamentalist threats of their own. And, above all else, he can use the threat of an "external enemy" to consolidate Russian society around him.
The question is, how long will Russia's Muslims be prepared to go along with the team?
(posted 2 May 2000)
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