KRISHNAITE CORPS AND PROTESTANT DIVISIONS
by Evgeny Poliakov

Military Review, no. 2, 1997, Nezavisimaia gazeta, 18 January 1997

Having inherited from the last duma the law draft "Concerning aternative civil service," the committee of the State Duma on Defense is continuing under the leadership of its president Lev Rokhlin to develop the provisions of this complex law, whose principle is declared in the constitution of the Russian federation. One of the problems is balancing in this law the interests of the state, the rights of citizens, and ethical and relibious norms.

A correspondent of the military review met with the leader of the Khomiakov Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Nontraditional Religions, a priest of the Moscow church of the Joy of all the Sorrowing, Oleg Steniavyi and tried to clarify with him whether it is possible at present to unite organically in law and in life the seemingly irreconciliable: state, church, and army. In Father Oleg's opinion, experts should represented the interests of traditional and the so-called minor confessions not only in the working group in the State Duma but also on a permanent basis in the form of an independent state agency which could not be subject to pressure from either the Ministry of Defense or any other power structure.

Unfortunately, Father Oleg points out, the approach to military service is complicated by a dual morality. Why, for example, does one and the same religious confession (Seventh Day Adventists) permit its adherents in the USA to serve in the army but in Russia it does not? During Operation Desert Storm Adventists made up a whole military unit of the USA with its own chaplains which fulfilled its military mission with distinction.

Regarding the possibility of the appearance in the Russian Federation of military units comprising, say, Krisnaites, Baptists, Shakers or Fireworshippers, Father Oleg noted: "Why not? Such things are known in the history of Christianity. In ancient Rome there were purely Christian legions alongside pagan ones. Christians refused to fight under non-Christians standards." Surveying history, Father Oleg noted that in prerevolutionary Russia Lamaists (Kalmyks and Buriats) also had their own corps. Moreover there were similar ones made up of people from Muslim provinces of the Russian empire.

Father Oleg also articulated his position quite distinctly on the question hanging now in the air: is not an "Orthodox Bias" beginning to gain force in the near future? Is not the Russian Orthodox church monopolizing the institution of the chaplaincy in the army? He emphasized that the army frequently appeals to all confessions to aid in the normalization of the moral climate of the army. But on the Russian Orthodox chruch has responded. Muslims, Jews, Protestants, etc. have ignored it.

Father Oleg's Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Nontraditional Religions has recovered 450 people for Orthodoxy in its two years of work, many of whom had earlier conscientiously refused military duty. Just recently Father Oleg blessed more than twenty draftees "to fulfill their civic duty with honor." He corresponds with those who already are on duty in the army. Father Oleg is convinced that support for soldiers is a problem not only of the state or church-at-large but also for individual parishes. "Whereever a parishioner may be, he should feel himself a member of a church family." [tr. by PDS]

Full Russian text (requires KOI-8): Krishnaitskie polki I protestantskie divisii
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