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On 15 December in the residence of the ruling bishop of Ekatrinburg diocese occurred the signing of an agreement on cooperation between the plenipotentiary representative of the president of the Russian federation in the Urals Federal District and the dioceses of Cheliabinsk, Ekaterinburg, Tobolsk, and Kurgan of the Russian Orthodox church.
Participants in the signing ceremony included the plenipotentiary representative of the president of the Russian federation in the Urals Federal District, Petr Mikhailovich Latyshev, Metropolitan Iov of Cheliabinsk and Zlatoust, Archbishop Vikenty of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotursk, Archpriest Aleksy Sidorenko, representing Archbishop Dimitry of Tobolsk and Tiumen, and Archpriest Nikolai Chirkov, representing Bishop Mikhail of Kurgan and Shadrinsk.
As stated in the preamble, the sides have signed the agreement "taking into account the centuries-long historic connection of the Urals territory with Orthodoxy and noting the presence in this region of prominent monuments of Orthodox architecture and painting, for the purpose of the spiritual regeneration of society and intensifying cooperation in the sphere of education, culture, health maintenance, social service and charitable activity, and guided by the constitution of the Russian federation, active legislation of the Russian federation, and international agreements."
The agreement include about twenty propositions according to which the church and state in the first place will strive to find means of cooperation and mutual help. In particular, the sides agreed to the following:
--To participate together in planning and carrying out regional and provincial programs and projects in the area of education, moral training, spiritual enlightenment, culture, charitable activity, protection of health, and social work directed toward the regeneration of the spirituality of the individual and society.
--To facilitate, in accordance with the desires of the citizens, the creation of favorable conditions in public schools and secondary special and advanced educational institutions for training faculty in the fundamentals of Orthodoxy, the history of Russia, the history of Russian (including Orthodox) pedagogy, and the history of religion on the basis of Orthodox religious studies. To support inculcation of Orthodox values in the teaching of Russian language and literature, the history of the fatherland and culture, and regional studies and ethics.
--To work together in improving the qualifications of teaching personnel in the area of Russian literature, history, pedagogy, philosophy, morality, aesthetics, study of culture, religious studies, social psychology, and other disciplines.
--To conduct regularly joint conferences, seminars, and round tables on problems of education, spiritual enlightenment, moral training, culture, protection of health, and charitable activity.
--To plan a series of measures that will promote the regeneration and strengthening of spiritual structures of the family as the moral basis of society.
--To cooperate in development of summer children's and family vacations including the organization of Orthodox children's camps and family vacations using the former pioneer camps and vacation centers.
--To cooperate in the study of information and explanation of the essence of various totalitarian sects that are active on the territory of the region and are destroying the family structure of life, threatening the values of national self-consciousness, and bringing harm to the spiritual, moral, and physical health of people.
--To cooperate in the development of medical care, including organizing courses for nurses on the foundation of local medical educational institutions.
--To work together in creating favorable psychological milieus in retirement homes, hospitals, social service institutions, children's homes, orphanages, etc., as well as in conducting Orthodox sacraments and rituals for the seriously ill, invalids, and pensioners.
--To facilitate raising the level of business ethics, and morality and patronage in enterprise activity on the moral foundations of Orthodoxy.
--To cooperate in religious educational work in the army and law enforcement and militia organizations, revival of the traditions of loyal service to the fatherland, and spiritual and moral training of youth for army service, guided by the joint declaration of the patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian federation, as well as previously concluded agreements on cooperation among agencies of military command and the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox church.
--To cooperate in discovering, maintaining, and using the historical and cultural heritage of the territory.
--To work together for yet further return to the Russian Orthodox church of buildings, icons, liturgical books, churchware, and other property formerly belonging to it.
--To facilitate the accumulation of book collections in state libraries and libraries of educational institutions of literature of Orthodox and traditional religious and moral contents.
--To cooperate in the area of radio, television, and the press for the purpose of creating joint educational and informational programs and publications which will promote the religious and moral education of the individual; to work together in planning legislative measures directed to the restriction of television and radio programs that spread vice, violence, and irreligion.
--To cooperate in the development of religious and educational work and in the construction of Orthodox churches in prisons.
--To conduct joint events devoted to national, historic, and Orthodox holidays and memorial days in the history and culture of the territory.
A draft of the agreement that was signed had previously been reviewed and approved by His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus. This was the first conclusion of such an agreement at the level of a federal district and a number of dioceses of the Russian Orthodox church. In the opinion of both sides, the agreement will become the basis for a new stage in church-state relations in the Urals region.
After the conclusion of the signing ceremony, P.M. Latyshev, Metropolitan Iov, Archbishop Vikenty, Archpriest Aleksy Sidorenko, and Archpriest Nikolay Chirkov gave a brief press conference for reporters.
Afterward at the spot of the murder of the tsarist passionbearers, where now the construction of the church on the blood consecrated to all the saint resplendent in the land of Russia is underway, a prayer service to the tsarist passionbearers and all Russian new martyrs was performed. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 December 2000)
The small Baltic country of Estonia has again become the focus of rivalry between the world's two most influential Orthodox churches and their leaders - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I of Constantinople and Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and All Russia.
The latest dispute broke out after a visit in late October by Patriarch Bartholomeos to Estonia. At issue between the two churches is the troubled question of whether the Ecumenical Patriarchate or the Russian Orthodox Church's Moscow Patriarchate should have jurisdiction over Orthodox Christians in the predominantly Lutheran country of Estonia.
The dispute has led the Russian Orthodox Church to state that it will not send delegations to Istanbul -- where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is located -- to mark the feast of St Andrew on 30 November or to the Patriarchate's Christmas festivities on 25 December. Nor will it participate in a symposium on the environment being planned as part of a cruise on the Baltic Sea by Patriarch Bartholomeos.
"His visits to the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church during the cruise are considered undesirable," the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church - the church's 13-member ruling body -- said in a statement issued on 8 November, in which it pointedly referred to Estonia as "the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate".
"Under the present conditions," the synod said, "it would be a hypocrisy to show our unity to the world, when trust has been undermined and the principles of fraternal cooperation have been trampled upon on the way to the real healing of the painful division of the Orthodox Church in Estonia".
The Estonian conflict is particularly sensitive for the Russian church because Patriarch Alexei was born in Estonia in 1928 and served as its bishop until his election to the Moscow see in 1990. Many observers also place the dispute in the same context as the situation in other parts of the former Soviet Union, such as Ukraine, where rival Orthodox churches are seeking the recognition of Constantinople. The disputes follow the fall of communism in the region and major realignments of national loyalties.
A similar conflict in 1996 between the two churches over jurisdiction in Estonia led the Russian Orthodox Church to break off official contacts and announce a "break in communion" with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
This time, however, the Russian church has stopped short of breaking off all official contacts with Constantinople. Instead, the synod has decided to break off personal contacts with Patriarch Bartholomeos, as well as with Orthodox Archbishop Johannes of Finland, who accompanied Bartholomeos to Estonia, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Metropolitan Stephanos of Estonia, by saying that until the conflict is resolved, the Moscow Patriarchate "flatly refuses" to attend any meeting in which the three churchmen might participate.
The Russian Orthodox Church is the world's biggest Orthodox community, with membership estimated at between 100 and 150 million. However, for Orthodox Christians, the Patriarch of Constantinople - ancient capital of the Byzantine empire - has traditionally maintained the position of primus inter pares (first among equals) among the heads of the world's 16 independent, canonical Orthodox churches.
Caught up in the middle of the argument are Estonia's Orthodox Christians, the majority of whom are ethnic Russians, most wishing to keep church and cultural ties with Moscow. However, most Orthodox of Estonian descent wish to cut the links with Moscow. Following independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia embarked on a policy of severing all ties with Moscow and limiting the public and political role of the country's Russian-speaking population.
Also at issue is the question of whether the Orthodox church linked to the Moscow patriarchate or that linked to Constantinople is the legal successor to the pre-war Orthodox Church in Estonia. The Estonian government has officially recognised the Constantinople-linked church as successor, and restitution laws in Estonia turn the officially-recognised church into one of the country's biggest landowners. The Estonian government is pressing the Moscow-linked church to register as a new organisation, which means that it would relinquish its claim on the pre-war church properties, and that its parishes would become de-facto "foreign" missions which would have to rent their premises from the Constantinople-linked church.
The dispute of 1996 was resolved when the synods of the two churches made simultaneous statements announcing that "they will allow the Estonian Orthodox the freedom to choose to which ecclesiastical jurisdiction they wish to belong".
However, the Russian Orthodox Church believes that Patriarch Bartholomeos has broken this agreement through his recent statements and actions.
"It is with immense pain that the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has to state that the one-sided ... actions of [the] Patriarch of Constantinople in Estonia have cancelled the results of common work done for the sake of accord," the Moscow Patriarchate statement said.
"Renunciation of the compromise agreements which envisage parallel presence of the two jurisdictions in Estonia speak for the [continuing] intention of Constantinople to usurp canonical authority in Estonia and to deprive the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate not only of the legal, but also of the canonical right of succession in the country, where Orthodoxy has been nourished and strengthened through the efforts of ... both Russian- and Estonian-speaking ... faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church."
According to the statement of Moscow's holy synod, Bartholomeos demanded during his visit that there should be only one "Archbishop of All Estonia", who would also be answerable to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This follows the appointment by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in March 1999 of Bishop Stephanos as Archbishop of Tallinn and All Estonia and his demand that the Russian church should recognise this appointment.
The Russian synod also cited Bartholomeos as saying that Archbishop Kornily, who heads the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, should be removed.
In the face of what is seen in Moscow as a new attack against the Russian church, on 6 November Patriarch Alexei elevated Archbishop Kornily to the rank of Metropolitan, implicitly challenging the status of Archbishop Stephanos. While in the Greek Orthodox Church the rank of metropolitan is lower than that of archbishop, in the Russian church it is the opposite way round.
Archimandrite Yelisei Ganaba, the Moscow Patriarchate official responsible for relations with other Orthodox churches, told ENI that although the Russian church had suspended personal contacts with Patriarch Bartholomeos, discussions would continue with representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate about the situation in Ukraine, as would joint work in the World Council of Churches, where both churches are represented on a special commission dealing with the question of Orthodox participation in the WCC.
"As far as I know, the Ecumenical Patriarch [of Constantinople] has not expressed his wish to meet with Russian church representatives on the question of Ukraine," Ganaba said.
To date, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has made no statement regarding the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, in Geneva, asked for his personal reaction, Father Georges Tsetsis, Grand Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, said that while the decision was a "sad development", the dispute over Estonia was "not unique".
"It is the tip of the iceberg," Father Tsetsis, who retired last year as the permanent representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches, told ENI today (23 November). "There are similar cases in Hungary and Moldova, where Moscow also claims jurisdiction, in spite of the objections formulated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the first case and the Orthodox Church of Romania in the second - not to mention the Ukrainian imbroglio."
Given the socio-political changes in central and eastern Europe, he said, and the "determination of the people to quit the tutelage of superpowers, it is quite normal to see churches seeking their autonomy as well, today in Estonia and Moldova - tomorrow probably in Ukraine, Belarus or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".
Such developments, he added, were not unusual in Orthodox church history, during which church boundaries had changed many times, following political changes.
"These conflicts should be resolved with discernment and great humility, for the well being of the Holy Orthodox Church." (posted 13 December 2000)
Clergy of Muscovite United Belief parishes, who had arrived in St. Petersburg to participate in ceremonies devoted to the biennial of the establishment of United Belief in Russia, refused to concelebrate a joint prayer service with Orthodox clergy of the St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox church. The service had been scheduled with the blessing of Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga for the cathedral of the Vladimir Mother of God icon on 5 December. At the divine service a group of only three United Belief clerics, including the rector of the St. Nicholas United Belief parish of the northern capital, Fr Petr Chubarov, concelebrated at the alter with Orthodox clergy of the St. Petersburg diocese.
The monastic priest Petr, of the Moscow church of Nichilas in Studentsy, and Fr Dimitry, of the church of the village of Kurovskoe in Moscow province, explained their refusal by reference to the liturgical regulations that have been worked out in Russia pertaining to joint services of Orthodox and United Belief priests. According to Fr Petr Chubarov, the Muscovite United Believers based their position on the rule that states that United Belief clergy can concelebrate at the altar with new ritualist clerics only in such cases were the divine service is led by a bishop and is performed in accordance with "pre-Nikonian" books. Nevertheless, after refusing the serve at the altar of the Vladimir cathedral, fathers Petr and Dimitry sang in the church's choir.
The rector of the Prince Vladimir cathedral of St. Petersburg, Archpriest Vladimir Sorokin, who attended on the evening of the same day a scholarly conference on the occasion of the biennial of the establishment of United Belief in Russia held in the house museum of the writer F.M. Dostoevsky, expressed amazement at what had happened and declared that he would inform the ruling bishop of the diocese, Metropolitan Vladimir, about what had happened. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 December 2000)
The Salvation Army may be expelled from Moscow after a court in the Russian capital upheld a lower-court decision to reject the group's registration application.
Colonel Kenneth Baillie, head of the group’s Russian operations, told the Moscow Times he believes the Moscow municipal justice department, which originally refused the registration, is confused about the purpose of the Salvation Army. "Since we have the word ‘army’ in our name, they said we are a militarized organization bent on the violent overthrow of the Russian government," he said.
The status in Moscow of the worldwide Protestant organization, known for its benevolence work, is based on a controversial 1997 religion law that established the Russian Orthodox Church as the country's main religion. The drafters of the law, which included the Orthodox Church, said the aim was to protect against dangerous sects, but critics charge that it discriminates against new groups and foreign organizations.
The Salvation Army was founded in 1865 by William Booth, a Methodist minister who worked with the poor in London's East End. The group says it has over 1.5 million members working in 107 countries.
Russian religion researcher Mark Elliott said he found the November 28 decision troubling because Moscow is headquarters for the group and the capital of the country, though he is unsure of its impact on the rest of Russia. "But it is a troubling sign of the kind of manipulation that the law permits," said Elliott, director of the Global Center at Beeson Divinity School in Alabama.
Critics of the religion law say its ambiguity and contradictions with local laws have given regional officials pretexts to restrict religious minorities. Russia specialist Blair Ruble, deputy director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Washington, D.C., says that while courts in other regions of Russia have not taken such action against the Salvation Army, they will be watching the outcome of this case. If the decision stands upon appeal to the Russian Supreme Court, some regional courts may move against the group, he said in a recent report for United Press International.
The 1997 law on religion requires all groups to be reregistered by the end of this month. According to Keston News Service, the Salvation Army's only hope of meeting the deadline is to register as a centralized religious organization, a group with a central office anywhere in Russia and branches around the country. The law requires a group to prove it has been in existence for 15 years to register, but a 1999 Constitutional Court ruling broadened the provisions. A group now can reregister if it was registered when the 1997 law came into effect.
Unregistered groups cannot rent or buy a meeting place, proselytize, publish literature, or provide religious training.
The Salvation Army renewed its work in Russia in 1991 after being expelled by the communist government in 1923. The group has registered in five of the 14 cities in which it works in western Russia.
Elliott says he finds it hard to believe that Moscow authorities truly believe that the group, the leading religious charity in the United States, has militaristic goals that threaten the nation's security. "I think the logic of singling out the Salvation Army as somehow marginal because (it has) unusual dress and designations for their leaders is just odd," he said. "Do they really know so little about this organization that they would lump it with truly marginal and cult-like groups, or are they just toying with them?"
Other groups of foreign origin have encountered problems in Moscow, including the Church of Christ and the Jehovah's Witnesses. The Church of Christ is appealing a rejection of its application, and a lengthy court action to close the Jehovah's Witnesses Moscow congregation resumed December 6 after an eight-month adjournment. (posted 11 December 2000)
COURT CALLS SALVATION ARMY SECURITY THREAT
by Sarah Karush
Moscow Times, 6 December 2000
The elderly women doing calisthenics in a community center in central Moscow on Tuesday certainly didn't look like subversives.
But the Moscow City Court has ruled that the organization that brings the lonely pensioners together each afternoon for lunch and activities - the venerable Salvation Army - is plotting the overthrow of the government.
The decision, brought Nov. 28, means the organization may be unable to re-register before a Dec. 31 deadline, forcing it to shut down its Moscow operations, which provide material and moral support to thousands of people.
"This is the only thing that saves us lonely people," said Nina Bodina, 85, after Tuesday's exercise program. "Here we get everything we need - love and human contact."
The center is only one of many Moscow programs run by the Salvation Army, which resumed work in Russia in 1992 after being ousted by Soviet authorities in the 1920s. The organization also assists homeless people who line up for hot meals at the city's train stations, as well as prisoners and the homebound.
The trouble began in 1997, when parliament passed a law requiring any religious organization that had been operating in Russia less than 15 years to register with local authorities.
The Moscow branch filed its documents under the new law in February 1999. Six months later, it received its first rejection, said Colonel Kenneth Baillie, head of the group's Russian operations.
City officials told the group that because its headquarters are in London, it is not entitled to register and could only open a representative office. But Baillie contends that this is a misreading of the law and that the Supreme Court shot down such logic in a similar case involving the Jesuits.
In September 1999, the Salvation Army filed suit in Moscow's Presnensky court, which in July ruled in the city's favor. The group's appeal to the Moscow City Court was rejected Nov. 28.
"Since we have the word 'army' in our name, they [the court] said we are a militarized organization bent on the violent overthrow of the Russian government," Baillie said.
Baillie said that the group intends to appeal to the Supreme Court, but in order to do so they need to have the latest decision in writing. He said the group's lawyers were told they would receive the verdict within a month - which might not give them enough time to appeal before the current registration expires.
A spokeswoman at the court said a month is "standard practice."
Baillie said the Salvation Army, which works in 14 cities west of the Urals, had run into no such problems in other regions. He said that as a result of the 1997 law, the group had incurred legal fees of more than $20,000 - money he would have preferred to spend on programs.
Baillie said the Salvation Army was being singled out for harassment.
"There's a general wariness and suspicion of foreigners. That's part of Russian culture and certainly part of the religious culture. But we do know that we have been specifically targeted and it's unclear why," he said.
City officials who deal with religious organizations could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
After eight years of continuous work, the Salvation Army's Moscow ranks are not only made up of foreigners. According to Major Marcia Vanover, who is in charge of Moscow operations, the capital has 203 "senior soldiers," or adult members, 14 Russian officers and 12 expatriate officers.
Back at the senior citizens' center, about a dozen women finished their workout and sat down to sing folk songs and romances to piano accompaniment.
Blissfully ignorant of the Salvation Army's legal troubles, they wore broad smiles as they spoke about the effect the organization's work has had on their lives.
"When I spend time here I feel like this is my family," said Antonina Kuprina, 75. The head of the center, Lyudmila Glushankova, said she had not had the heart to tell them that the center might close.
"If we have to close it, these people will lose everything," she said. "They'll have nothing but their four walls."
Pensioners dancing Tuesday were full of smiles about the the Salvation
Army's work and blissfully ignorant of its legal problems.
(posted 1 January 2001)
Russia's parliament overwhelmingly approved on Friday President Vladimir Putin's request to reinstate a Stalin-era anthem tune and a tsarist flag and eagle as the country's post-Soviet state symbols.
The State Duma lower house pushed through the legislation in less than three hours. The most hotly disputed measure, the ''Unbreakable Union'' anthem, was backed by 381 votes to 51.
The white, blue and red, tricolor and the double-headed eagle coat-of-arms also passed easily as did restoration of the Soviet-style red banner for the armed forces.
A delighted Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said the vote on the rousing anthem music enabled Russians to be proud of Soviet-era achievements.
"This was a vital step. The country has been sliding toward destruction for 10 years and is still doing so,'' Zyuganov told radio station Ekho Moskvy.
"We have restored the anthem of the Soviet Union, the great music of (World War Two) victory, the flag which we planted atop the Reichstag, the anthem which helped us move into space and create a complete system of health and education.''
The legislation will provide Russia, nine years after it emerged from decades of Communist rule, with an official coat of arms, flag and anthem for the first time.
Liberals, who had demanded a new anthem to break with the excesses of Stalinism, cried foul, saying they had been denied time to speak.
Grigory Yavlinsky, veteran leader of the Yabloko party, said the move was a harbinger of terrible things to come. He said liberals might challenge it in the Constitutional Court.
"We believe this is a signal about where our society is heading and what we can expect in the near future,'' he told reporters outside the Duma. "It removes all illusions about the medium-term policy of the country's administration.''
Words Still To Be Decided
Former President Boris Yeltsin had also opposed a reversion to Alexander Alexandrov's old anthem, introduced in 1944 while part of European Russia was under Nazi occupation.
The rousing anthem melody will replace an arcane 19th-century tune for which no words had been written. That tune, along with the coat of arms and flag, were only temporary stand-ins approved by decree under Yeltsin.
Putin, keen to bolster Russia's nationhood, earlier this week defended the Soviet anthem, saying he wanted to unite Russians by taking the best from their tumultuous history.
Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II, another surprise backer of the Soviet-era music, exercised caution after the vote, telling NTV television that state symbols "must not divide our people.''
The anthem remains wordless for the moment pending a study of proposed new lyrics. Various sets of words have been put forward and among suggested authors is Sergei Mikhalkov, who wrote the original lyrics and has since amended them twice.
The legislation stipulates that those present during the playing of the anthem must stand to attention and men must remove their hats. Those found to have insulted the anthem will be subject to criminal proceedings.
As debate got under way, Yabloko party activists gathered outside Moscow's main post office, urging passers-by to send telegrams to Putin denouncing the president's proposals.
Elderly pro-Communist demonstrators backing reinstatement of the old anthem stood outside parliament and a few minor scuffles broke out as deputies made their way inside.
Yeltsin had said Putin, the man he chose as prime minister and his preferred successor in 1999, should influence public opinion and ensure a new anthem was composed.
Anatoly Chubais, architect of Russia's crash privatization program in the 1990s and a long-standing Yeltsin adviser, denounced the measure.
"I have already said it is an historic error,'' he was shown on television
telling reporters in the Siberian town of Tomsk. ''History obliges us to
correct such errors and this one will have to be corrected too.''
CHURCH APPROVES AS PUTIN DECIDES TO SING TO A SOVIET TUNE
by Andrei Zolotov
Ecumenical News International Daily News Service, 7 December 2000
After initial hesitation, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church has expressed support for President Vladimir Putin's proposal to resurrect the musical setting of the communist Soviet national anthem.
President Putin is pushing ahead with the proposal, which is about to be discussed by the Duma in Moscow, despite stiff opposition from liberal politicians and intellectuals. Putin's plan has caused astonishment in Western capitals.
The president wants Russia to have a range of national emblems combining both tsarist and Soviet symbols, including the tricolour pre-revolutionary flag, the tsarist double-headed eagle and the music of the Soviet national anthem by Soviet composer, Alexander Alexandrov, for which new lyrics are to be written. Putin believes this mix will ensure a sense of continuity with the many strands of Russia's past.
"I think that the president has made a very worthy decision," the spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, told Interfax news agency this week. "It is very important that all the symbols of the country are viewed in a combination: a pre-revolutionary flag and coat of arms, which show the continuity with the pre-revolutionary period of our history, and at the same time Alexandrov's music, which shows continuity with the Soviet era, in which, of course, there were terrible tragedies, but there were also a lot of good things. Thus the continuity of all Russian history is restored and demonstrated."
During a heated public debate about the anthem, several Russian media outlets reported, without citing any sources, that the church's head, Patriarch Alexei II, opposed the return of the Soviet anthem. But Chaplin stressed this week that the patriarch had never publicly expressed his opinion. "His Holiness has never rejected the possibility of the old anthem's melody returning," Chaplin said. "He said only that the issue of state symbols should not divide society, but unite it."
In fact, discussions about the anthem have proved highly divisive in recent weeks. The Soviet anthem, which cleverly combines musical features of both a march and a song, was written by Alexandrov in 1943, originally as the Communist Party anthem. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin approved the music and ordered the lyrics to be rewritten so the song could serve as the national anthem. After Stalin's death, lyrics praising him were dropped and eventually new lyrics were added retaining praise of Lenin and the Communist Party.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the tri-colour was adopted as Russia's flag. But the Communist-dominated parliament refused to accept President Boris Yeltsin's proposals to make the double-headed eagle the national emblem and the "Patriotic Song" by the 19th century composer Mikhail Glinka the national anthem.
In 1993, after Yeltsin put down a parliamentary rebellion, he imposed the emblem and the anthem by presidential decree. But the eagle has never been approved by two thirds of the parliament, as required by the Russian Constitution.
The anthem has proved even more problematic. No official lyrics had been adopted for Glinka's music, which most Russians find complicated, uninspiring and hard to remember.
In October, President Putin raised the matter in public after Russian athletes complained that they had no words to sing when they were awarded medals at the Sydney Olympics.
The president put the issue on the agenda of the State Council - which is made up of regional governors but has limited powers. Various options were discussed, but a public poll taken at the same time showed that Alexandrov's music, familiar to most Russians, led with 49 per cent support.
"Let us not forget that we are talking here about the majority of the people," President Putin said last Monday in a passionate plea on national television. "It is possible that the people and I are mistaken," he said, but he added that rejecting all Soviet symbols would suggest that "our mothers and fathers lived a useless life, lived their lives in vain. I cannot agree with this, either in my head, or in my heart!"
A group of 35 prominent intellectuals, including a progressive Orthodox priest, Alexander Borisov, published an open letter to the president warning that a return to the Soviet anthem could cause a national schism. "The attempt to resurrect the music of the Soviet anthem triggers nothing but protest and disgust," the letter stated. "There is no new text that could hide the immortal [original] words praising Lenin and Stalin."
Leading Orthodox Church officials appear to have changed their mind during the debate. A prominent church leader, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk, initially expressed support for Glinka's music in a newspaper article. But late last month he appeared on the state-owned RTR television station to support Alexandrov's music.
Other religious leaders also contributed to the discussion. A Muslim official, Mufti Talgat Tadzhutdin, said he had no problem with either the double-headed eagle or with the Soviet-era anthem. "It is our past, and you cannot escape it," Tadzhutdin told Interfax. "For seven decades we and our ancestors lived in the Soviet state, and many recall their youth with warm feelings. It is wonderful that we won't forget that period."
More argument is expected when the new lyrics for the anthem are published. A draft by the poet who wrote the lyrics for the Soviet anthem, Sergei Mikhalkov, and another by former prime minister Yevgeni Primakov have appeared in the press in recent weeks. In his new version Mikhalkov, who once composed verses to glorify Lenin and Stalin, writes: "With hope and faith, forward, Russians! And may the Lord safeguard us on the path!"
Some of the drafts were clearly ironic, including one from a liberal party, the Union of Right Forces, stating: "We work honestly and pay our taxes! Glory to you, O private property!"
But despite the opposition and the irony, Putin's proposal is almost certain to be approved by the Duma. (posted 8 December 2000)
Since 1992, the Salvation Army has worked to ease the suffering of Russia's poor and forgotten. It provides food to the homeless, offers drug counseling, runs community centers, conducts outreach programs in prisons and more. It provides relief during natural disasters and assists refugees. Anyone who knows Russia knows that we need as much help of this sort as we can get.
Perhaps just as importantly, this organization is introducing Russian society -- grown accustomed to turning to the state for help in every situation-- to the concept of civic activism and self-help. In Moscow alone, the Salvation Army boasts more than 200 Russian volunteers.
Now all this commendable work is threatened in the typically ham-handed, xenophobic style that characterizes so much of the Russian bureaucracy. The municipal committee that registers such organizations has so far refused to register this one because of a trifling technicality. The Salvation Army appealed this decision to a municipal court, which in turn rejected the appeal. Now, with an end-of-the-year deadline looming, it may be too late for the Salvation Army to appeal further to the Supreme Court, mostly because the municipal court has said that it will only issue its verdict in writing "within a month."
The Salvation Army reports that it has already wasted $20,000 in legal fees contesting this case, money that could have fed and sheltered many homeless people this winter.
The crux of the problem, besides the stupidity of the bureaucrats, is a 1997 law that was foisted on Russia by the Orthodox Church. That law requires any religious organization that has not been working in Russia since 1982 (that is, any organization that was not able to get the imprimatur of the Soviet state) to register with the authorities and abide by strict restrictions in its work.
Ostensibly, the law was paternalistically intended to protect Russians from dangerous cults and sects. In reality, its goal is to protect the Orthodox Church's status as a quasi-state religion by putting all other groups under the thumb of bureaucracy.
But there is still time to act. The Orthodox Church, which created this mess, must lobby against this crass application of the 1997 law. It would be only charitable for the patriarch himself to telephone the appropriate authorities and urge them to reconsider. After all, the poor are under much greater threat from cold, hunger and loneliness than from foreign cults.
Winter's cold is here. Christmas is coming. What other reason do we need to do what is right? (posted 8 December 2000)
MOSCOW COURT PUTS SALVATION ARMY IN LIMBO
by David Hoffman
Washington Post Foreign Service, 7 December 2000
On a cold, raw afternoon in a small city park near the Kursk train station, Lyudmila Mikhaleva was wearing an overcoat that looked two sizes too big, and she was grateful. Homeless, hungry and on the move, she got the coat from the Salvation Army.
Today, at 3 p.m., she joined the vagrants and others down on their luck who lined up for bread and soup. But their days of free meals may be coming to an end.
A Moscow court has ruled that the Salvation Army is an unwelcome foreign organization, and has refused to grant permission for the group to work in the capital.
The ruling is the latest twist to a law restricting religion in Russia that was approved in 1997 and continues to receive widely varying interpretations. The law established four mainstream religions in addition to Russian Orthodoxy--Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity--and required that all others be formally registered by local and national governments before they can work here.
The legislation was sought by the Russian Orthodox Church, which has felt threatened by the proselytizing activities of such groups as the Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists and Mormons; the measure was an attempt to crack down on the activities of these religious groups as well as cults. Even if they were working in Russia, they were required to register anew.
Many of these religious groups, viewed with suspicion by local politicians and the Russian church, have been in arguments and legal fights with local jurisdictions as they have attempted to legalize their status.
The Salvation Army, a Christian service organization, returned to Russia in 1991 after having been expelled by the Bolsheviks in 1923. The group is working in 14 cities in the European part of Russia, and has successfully registered in five of them.
However, in August the Moscow municipal justice department refused to re-register the Salvation Army in the capital. Kenneth Baille, head of the group's work in the former Soviet Union, said the denial was apparently based on the misunderstanding that the Salvation Army was a military organization.
The Salvation Army appealed to a local court, which ruled against it. It then appealed to a higher court, which on Nov. 28 upheld the decision not to register the group.
The decision can be appealed further, to the Russian Supreme Court, but if not overturned, it means the soup kitchens and other social programs it runs in Moscow will be forced to close at the end of the year. The group, meanwhile, is seeking national registration and expects to receive it.
Baille noted that the group has been "cheerfully" re-registered in other Russian cities. "I think there is someone in Moscow who doesn't want us here," he said. "I don't want to speculate as to who, or what.
"It is a strange twist and a surprise to us."
He said the Salvation Army, while preaching the Gospel, is not competing with the Russian Orthodox Church. "If you mean are we trying to steal away members of other Christian churches, no," he said. "But we do preach the Gospel very forthrightly."
The organization runs feeding and clothing programs for the poor, a community center for retirees, programs in Russian prisons and other social services. At the park today, more than 100 homeless people were lined up for soup and bread, ranging from Mikhaleva, the woman in the oversized coat, to Sergei Myshkov, a 16-year-old in shabby clothes who said he had been roaming the streets for seven years. He arrived at 3 p.m. sharp for a chunk of bread and a cup of soup ladled out of an urn. "Sometimes for big holidays," he said, "they even give us chocolates."
© 2000 The Washington Post (posted 8 December 2000)
AN OPEN LETTER FROM A GROUP OF RUSSIAN INTELLECTUALS TO VLADIMIR PUTIN
Esteemed Mr. President,
The idea of bringing back the music of the former Soviet anthem causes revulsion and protest.
This melody is one of the most vivid symbols of the past era. No new text can totally erase from memory the words glorifying Lenin and Stalin which had come to be associated with the music of Alexandrov. The polemics around the anthem has already split society in which the process of reconciliation and consolidation was already starting. Galina Vishnevskaya and Mstislav Rostropovich write that they, like us, wouldn't be able to bring themselves up to their feet when this anthem is played, while Zyuganov assures us that at the sound of the familiar tune the whole planet "rises and applauds".
We will remind those who have forgotten: before Stalin selected this melody to serve as the national anthem it was the anthem of the Bolshevik Party. It remains such today and has just sounded at the opening of the CPRF congress, without any words because the music was eloquently speaking for itself. The exponents of the Soviet past are absurdly preparing (or are we really a country of the absurd? Or are the rumors true that the author of the "new" words will be the very same master of applied poetry who was once admired by Stalin?...) for the anthem of the implacable opposition to become the official anthem of Russia.
By what right (is the old anthem being brought back)? What is the historical logic behind this? The state created by them has collapsed. Why is it that people who have been vested with legislative and executive power in the new, non-Leninist, non-Stalinist, non-Bolshevik Russia want to present the communists with a huge moral victory without any political justification? The President himself has said that the Soviet system had driven the country into an impasse. How can one recall from the past the sounds that reverberated beneath the dome of that impasse and which so persistently glorified it?
Glinka's Patriotic Song has become not only the anthem of new Russia but also a symbol of the restoration of the links of time. And even the staunchest champions of an exclusively Soviet Russia cannot say that this music slights their convictions. But the essence of this plan is that they, especially the numerous representatives of the present local authorities and those who are longing for the past epoch and dream of somehow wreaking vengeance on the entire decade of Russia's renovation, need a symbol of their revenge. And the head of state must be clearly aware that millions of fellow citizens (including those who voted for him) will never come to respect an anthem that flouts their convictions and insults the memory of the victims of Soviet political repressions. It is precisely because we have a memory that we are convinced that it will be impossible to seamlessly link the history of Russia to the history of the USSR. The seams are there and they are still bleeding.
The main argument of the initiators of the return of the Alexandrov music is that this is the opinion of the majority. But it has long been known that in some cases the opinion of people may run counter to their own interests. Ask anyone if he would like "Soviet" prices to be back or wages to be increased five-fold, and more than 60 percent will say yes. Many people found it easier and more comfortable in the Soviet land. But it is dishonest, short-sighted and dangerous to 'appease' them in this way. Reviving ghosts is a risky business.
We, the children of Russia, live and want to go on living in a country that has an anthem at the sounds of which one is not ashamed to stand up.
Signed by: Reverend Alexander Borisov, Yevgeny Anisimov, Oleg Basilashvili, Vladimir Vasilyev and Yekaterina Maximova, Boris Vasilyev, Alexander Volodin, Galina Volchek, Valentin Gaft, Yakov Gordin, Natalya Ivanova, Vladislav Kazenin, Timur Kibirov, Alexander Kushner, Kirill Lavrov, Yevgeny Mironov, Olga Ostroumova, Gleb Panfilov, Alexander Panchenko, Andrei Petrov, Andrei Smirnov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Viktoria Postnikova, Lev Rubinshtein, Boris Strugatsky, Valery Todorovsky, Marietta Chudakova, Mikhail Chulaki, Yuri Shevchuk and the group DDT, Rodion Shchedrin and Maya Plisetskaya, Alexander N. Yakovlev, Yuri Saulsky, Alexander Sklyar (the Va-Bank group). (posted 6 December 2000)
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