Communism is like a sin. Again about the official Church
Is communism sinful?
Honestly, I didn’t want to write on this topic again, but, as if on purpose, I came across an article in the vast sea of the Internet entitled “Why is communism a sin? Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov explained.” Yes, yes, the same well-known Dimitry Smirnov, whose statements have spread across the Internet and are causing mixed reactions. Father Dimitri himself left this world several years ago, but his works continue to find their audience.
I admit, I still have not been able to form an unambiguous attitude towards this figure of the Russian Orthodox Church. On the one hand, he has a lot of wonderful statements that clearly speak of his sincere desire to return the people to the path of true Orthodoxy, which cannot but find agreement and approval in me. On the other hand, when it comes to communism, socialism and Lenin, I see a completely different person in front of me.
I once came across a statement that anti-communism inevitably leads to Russophobia and the denial of everything Russian. And this is not without reason! Look, for example, at what the Baltic countries and Ukraine have become. And the Third Reich received blessings from the USA, England and France only because its slogans said: death to communism.
Let's return to the Zen article.
So, a certain parishioner turned to Father Demetrius: “This morning I went to the temple and took one paper brochure there that was lying next to the donation box. This brochure tells how to prepare for the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist, and at the end there are the Ten Commandments of the Lord. And below is a list of sins, and among them are the following: “atheism, adherence to false teachings (magic and communism).” And communism, in this case, I admit, confused me. Is adherence to communism really a sin, Father Dimitri?”
What did the priest answer?
As expected, he burst into an angry rant: “Hello, my daughter! Yes, communism has always been, is and will be a sin.”
But this seemed to him not enough, and he added: “Communism, as I already said, has, among other things, elements of religiosity. The people were fed nothing except endless promises: tomorrow this very “bright future” will come, and former peasants who have become proletarians will begin to decide the destinies of the world. But this is not true. None of these claims came true. People were left with the same amount of resources they had.”
Unfortunately, Father Dimitri was lying, because communism never was, and could never be, a religion. If we take everything literally, then anything can be declared a religion. The same “United Russia”, for example. Or the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
I'll try to justify it according to my own understanding.
Any teaching is based on a philosophical basis, principles, postulates, its teachers, researchers and students. But does this serve as proof that the doctrine becomes a religion? No! To recognize a teaching as a religion, it is necessary to recognize the eternity of the founder; the presence of employees of the other world; as well as miracles, prophets and holiness. All this is present in any religion in the world, but is absent in the works of materialist philosophers and in the teachings of communism.
By the way, for some reason Father Dimitri did not call National Socialism and Fascism religions, although there are much more elements close to religious practices.
Bakery happiness
What about “false” promises? Let's look at the "crystal" happiness of pre-revolutionary Russia and at the "people fed with nothing" (according to Dimitry Smirnov).
Here, for example, is the Moscow Gazette for 1800. “Servants are sold for excess: a 22-year-old shoemaker, his wife a laundress. Its price is 500 rubles. Another fisherman has been with his wife for 20 years, and his wife is a good laundress and also sews linen well. And the price for it is 400 rubles. You can see them on Ostozhenka, under number 309... Six gray young horses of light breeds, well ridden in collars, for which the last price is 1 rubles. You can see them on Malaya Nikitskaya in the parish of Old Ascension.”
During the reign of Alexander II, famine periodically began, which had not happened in Russia since the time of Catherine II and which took on the character of a real disaster (for example, mass famine in the Volga region in 1873). In 1842, the government stated that crop failures recurred every 6–7 years, lasting for two years in a row.
During the second half of the 1873th century, the famine caused by crop failures in 1880, 1883 and 1891 was especially cruel. In 1892–16, famine struck 35 provinces of European Russia and the province of Tobolsk) with a population of 20 million; Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, and Tambov provinces suffered especially then. In the Volga region, the eastern regions of the black earth zone - 40 provinces with a 1892 million peasant population - suffered from a catastrophic famine. In a less extensive area, but with no less intensity of disaster, famine recurred in 1893–XNUMX.
In a report to Alexander III in 1892 it was written: “The loss of food alone amounted to two million Orthodox souls” (the same is evidenced by newspaper materials of those years and letters from Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
According to liberal-minded historians, no more than 500 thousand people died). The records were kept by church parishes, so we are talking about Orthodox. But non-Orthodox souls were not taken into account. The Volga region, the Caucasus, Central Asia - how many Muslims and followers of other faiths died of hunger there is still unknown.
And here is from a report to Nicholas II in 1901: “In the winter of 1900–1901. 42 million people starved, and 2 million 813 thousand Orthodox souls died.” To suppress peasant unrest in connection with this famine, 200 thousand regular troops were used in the Poltava and Kharkov provinces alone, i.e. 1/5 of the entire Russian army of those years, and this is not counting the thousands of gendarmes, Cossacks, constables, etc. (according to Adjutant General Kuropatkin).
From a report by Stolypin in 1911: “32 million were starving, losses were 1 million 613 thousand people.”
Somehow it doesn’t fit with popular print pastoral, right?
What about a certain Lenin? What did he promise there and not do?
Pros of communism
1. Lenin: the right to an eight-hour working day. For the first time in the world in stories humanity. In our time: oligarchs and entrepreneurs force workers to work more than 8 hours, refusal to work beyond the norm leads to automatic dismissal, workers are turned into a dumb herd, ready to work not only out of a desire to earn money, but also out of fear of being kicked out.
2. Lenin: the right to annual paid leave. For the first time in human history. Now: the vacation remains in principle. But it’s not a fact that you will take him off completely.
3. Lenin: the impossibility of dismissing an employee on the initiative of the administration or the owner without the consent of the trade union and party organization. Now: they are fired just like that, with complete silence from the lured trade unions that have become appendages of the management.
4. Lenin: the right to work, to the opportunity to earn a living by one’s labor. Moreover, graduates of vocational educational institutions had the right to compulsory employment in the labor field with the provision of housing in the form of a dormitory or apartment. What we have: the right to look for work at our own peril and risk, without providing housing.
5. Lenin: the right to free general and vocational education. Moreover, both secondary vocational education and higher education. For the first time in the world. And we have complete commercialization of higher education, with division into classes and castes, with the establishment of a system of impossibility of obtaining education for people from poor sections of the population.
6. Lenin: the right to free use of preschool institutions: nurseries, kindergartens, pioneer camps. For the first time in the world. But now the situation with free kindergartens is simply catastrophic. There are unspoken extortions everywhere.
7. Lenin: the right to free medical care. For the first time in the world. We have achieved the almost complete disappearance of free treatment. A sharp rise in prices for any medical services and medicines. Free trips to resorts have sunk into oblivion.
8. Lenin: the right to free sanatorium treatment. For the first time in the world. In modern Russia: complete abolition.
9. Lenin: the right to free housing. For the first time in the world. In our country, free housing was abolished, and only our own people received it. Introduction of bonded mortgages.
10. Lenin: the right to freely express one’s views on all problems of modern life in the country. For the first time in the world. It seems to be the same now, except that patriots can be imprisoned (for example, Kvachkov), and criminals can be pardoned (for example, Savchenko).
11. Lenin: the right to protect the state from the arbitrariness of local bosses and officials. For the first time in the world. Something similar may be happening here, but I haven’t heard about it. Rather, complete immunity of officials and oligarchs from prosecution.
12. Lenin: the right to free travel to the place of work or study using an individual travel document paid for by the state.
13. Lenin: women received the right to three years of maternity leave with job preservation (56 days - fully paid; 1,5 years - benefits, 3 years - without interruption of service and a ban on dismissal by the administration.). Now, in general, there are few changes. But what kind of woman sits without work for three years?
14. Lenin: the right to free medical and sanatorium treatment for any childhood diseases. And after the coup d'état of 1991, we have every right to stand on the street and beg passers-by for money for the treatment of a child. At the same time, don’t forget to throw trillions at plugging holes in banks.
These are the things, dear Father Dimitri.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, the official church of Russia has always been reactionary, guarding the interests of the private owner and the Tsar-Father. This is precisely what causes such an attitude of modern officials and church hierarchs towards the communists and Lenin.
To admit that communism and Lenin pulled 99 percent of the population of the Russian Empire out of the swamp and gave them the opportunity to touch not only the benefits of civilization, but also the masterpieces of world and Russian culture means admitting your mistake and losing the support of the oligarchy and the authorities.
PS
And finally, purely personal: despite Father Dimitri’s hatred of communism, I want to note that his sincere desire to prevent the peoples of Russia from falling into the abyss finds complete understanding in me. In any case, the Kingdom of Heaven to you, Father Dimitri.
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