The image of Orthodox crosses was abandoned on the new 1000-ruble banknote.
Reason for 1000 rubles
The current situation was very correctly described by the head of the synodal department of the Moscow Patriarchate for relations between the church and society and the media, Vladimir Legoyda. In his opinion,
“The selection of images on banknotes should be approached more carefully. So as not to create tension where there may well not be any. And it simply shouldn’t be.”
And the designers and managers of the Central Bank created serious tension. On the new 1000-ruble banknotes you can now see the Museum stories statehood of the Tatar people and the Republic of Tatarstan. It would seem, what is reprehensible here?
As the museum’s website states, it is “dedicated to the history of the formation of statehood, ethnogenesis, religion and traditions of the Tatar people. The museum’s exposition covers a period of more than 2 years and introduces objects of the material and spiritual culture of the Tatars and their ancestors.”
No less significant is the Syuyumbike Tower of the Kazan Kremlin, also depicted on the 1000-ruble banknote. The building is rightfully considered one of the symbols of the capital of Tatarstan and is unique for its “fall” - the spire has moved two meters from the vertical. Not the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but still.
The slope of the tower is not visible on the banknote, but the crescent moon on the spire is visible. At the building of the Museum of the History of Statehood of the Tatar People there is no crescent, but there is no cross on the dome. It was removed back in 1918, and since then the masterpiece of Russian Baroque has been used as a dining room, and in modern times the church houses a permanent museum exhibition.
By the way, there was never an Orthodox cross on the Syuyumbik Tower at all - before the revolution, the spire was decorated with the coat of arms of the Russian Empire.
What made Gosznak designers place architectural objects with such a complex history on popular banknotes?
If you remember the previous 1000-ruble banknotes, then seventeen Orthodox crosses are visible on them. Symbols of faith crown the chapel of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God against the backdrop of the Spassky Monastery, as well as the Church of John the Baptist in Tolchkovskaya Sloboda in Yaroslavl.
Naturally, immediately after the publication of the design of the new banknotes, the department was criticized. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church reacted with indignation news about the disappearance of Orthodox symbols from banknotes. No matter how church ministers feel about money, banknotes are one of the state symbols, and there should be no discrepancies here.
There is also an excellent point of view on banknote design.
According to the radio “Moscow Speaks”, some in the Russian Orthodox Church described the impression with the phrase “this is not a church, but a museum.” The Telegram channels were rightly indignant at this assessment. Especially considering the special scrupulousness of the Russian Church towards Orthodox relics in the Hermitage and other museums. But here’s something else – you need to understand!
1000-ruble bill and objects chosen for the image
As always, in such situations, conspiracy theories of what is happening come to mind.
Officials and managers of the Central Bank, in general, and Goznak, in particular, quickly caught on to the new Russian trend. We are talking about the gradual settlement of the country by migrants from Central Asia. Only now they are not migrants, but new citizens of the Russian Federation - last year, 175 thousand people from Tajikistan received new passports. Is this why Orthodox symbols are disappearing from Russian banknotes?
To its credit, the Bank of Russia decided to stop issuing the controversial banknote and redesign the appearance. There are no comments on the department, and rightly so - now it is necessary to silently correct the situation and also silently put new money into circulation. The topic is too sensitive to spill over in the comments. It is highly desirable that considerable funds for redesigning the design of the 1000-ruble bill be found from the personal funds of those who signed the design approval protocols.
There is an alternative explanation for the epic failure.
Perhaps the Central Bank decided to earn extra money. At the time of the presentation, the machine had time to work, which means several tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of banknotes had time to appear. If bank employees do not completely destroy the unsuccessful circulation, then in five to ten years the banknotes will cost crazy amounts of money. Such exclusives are extremely valuable among bonists - collectors of paper money. Here's a business scheme for you.
"De-Christianization" of Russia
The big picture is built from individual details. Whether she is beautiful or not - it all depends on the details.
The story of the 1000-ruble banknote is just one puzzle in a sad reflection of reality. In the second year of the special operation, when our fighters win and die with God on their lips, people in Russia suddenly began to be ashamed of their Orthodoxy. As we know, there are no atheists in the trenches. But Russia is not in the trenches, many people think, so you see a disappointing picture - symbols of faith are carefully erased from context. Moreover, if the absence of crosses on the new banknote at least corresponds to reality, then in other stories everything is different.
The Novgorod monument “Millennium of Russia” could be like this – right image
In the capital, there are posters of the “Moscow Seasons” with St. Basil’s Cathedral without crosses on the domes. Was it the “designer girl” who did this again or the conscious approach of management?
The Novgorod monument “Millennium of Russia” was deprived of crucifixes in the original sketch. Once again, they deliberately tried to deprive the symbol of the Novgorod region of its Orthodox symbol. The draftsmen turned out to be specialists from the Moscow office of the Renaissance Art Group. Creative guys see the world in a special way, different from the rest of Russia. For example, among the symbols of Kazan they previously chose a mosque, the Museum of the Rise of the Machines, some kind of cat and not a single Orthodox church. They forgot about 46 percent of Russians in Kazan. With this approach, it is not surprising that Novgorod will do without Orthodox crosses.
In these images, Orthodox symbols are deliberately erased.
Events take on the characteristics of a conspiracy, although we are not prone to conspiracy theories. Honestly, this could not have happened without the intervention of the order of haters of Orthodoxy.
We reached the east of the country. The cross was removed from the Khabarovsk Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God. More precisely, they didn’t even remove it, but drew an angle where it really isn’t visible. There are also murals in honor of the Year of the Teacher and Mentor, in which there are churches without crosses. A little creepy even.
In Khabarovsk, after a wave of indignation, the crosses on one of the murals were returned
If we stop respecting ourselves, then welcome to a new future. And here it is. In Bashkiria, a worship cross on the rock of the Pavlovsk reservoir was demolished. Local nationalists caught the wave and understood it in their own way.
Further more. “Red October” receives a halal certificate from Roskachestvo. Chocolate “Alenka”, it turns out, is now halal. Is there a fasting certificate? Have you ever thought about this? It is clear that both Roskachestvo and Red October pursue exclusively marketing goals. But at what cost? Let's become politically correct and multicultural, like Europeans.
Let us sum up the disturbing story in the words of Arkady Mahler, the famous theologian:
“all this cutting, knocking down, erasing and retouching of the main Christian symbol occurs in a situation where, as one of the significant complaints to the West, our state rightly puts forward the reproach of forgetting the common Christian heritage, of abandoning the very Cross of Christ for the sake of obsessive “political correctness” and “multiculturalism” "