Stalin and the Church

"Will war,
and the war is terrible,
worldwide,
She will lead the people of Russia to God."
Saint Reverend Seraphim of Vyritsa

"Under the crucifixion
and under the hammer and sickle Russia –
the same Holy Rus',
and Moscow is the Third Rome.”
A. Toynbee

What secrets does the Temple of the Armed Forces hold?

Among our Orthodox churches there is one unique one of its kind: the recently erected stunningly beautiful Church of the Armed Forces of Russia. The back walls of the church are decorated with several mosaics depicting the Russian army and the victorious Soviet people with all the communist symbols. There is also a panel depicting the Soviet generals and a poster with Stalin.

This is historically true and very inspiring, symbolizing not only the reconciliation of the Church and the Soviet government and personally of I. Stalin during the Great Patriotic War, but also the reconciliation of the Church and the Soviet past.

There is also a mosaic depicting a flight around Moscow with an icon of the Mother of God, the possibility of which historians are still arguing about. Was it so or not? And if it is a myth, how could it appear in a temple where only truth reigns?

There are many legends of that time that do not find direct historical testimonies. However, theological logic shows that all these events cannot be excluded, which is why they are so persistently transmitted orally. The Church has a concept of "church tradition". So legends and myths are in fact traditions about those events.

Bolshevism and the Church in the 30s: a battle to the bitter end

Before the revolution, atheism had firmly taken hold among the masses, and communists became its leaders – due to the fatal mistake of K. Marx, who equated the Church with the enemies of progress. Although the idea of ​​socialism was born out of the search for Christian justice. The policy of the Romanov dynasty during the synodal period of tsarist Russia, which turned it into part of the state, played a role in the growth of atheism and the subsequent repressions of the Church.

Now a number of researchers are trying to make Stalin, a former seminarian, some kind of opponent of the atheistic course. There were changes, but later.

What are the dry facts about the religious course before the war?

After the 1917 revolution, the atheistic government dealt the Church terrible blows, hoping to destroy it completely. The first stage of atheistic policy can be attributed to the period 1917-1929, the main document being the Decree of January 23, 1918 "On the separation of church from state and school from church". In addition to separation, nationalization of church property took place.

The Church realized that the Communists were here to stay. Patriarch Tikhon called for civil loyalty to the Soviet government, Metropolitan Sergius followed his path and, despite criticism, he offered both the Bolsheviks and the believers a formula for peace: “We want to be Orthodox, and at the same time to recognize the Soviet Union as our civil homeland, whose joys and successes are our joys and successes, and whose failures are our failures.” And this is quite sincere, because according to the teaching of the Church, “all power comes from God.”

But the communists saw in the Church only a vestige of the old state.

The second period is 1929–1941, designated by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of April 8, 1929, "On Religious Associations", and the decision of the Politburo "On Measures to Strengthen Anti-Religious Work". The anti-religious course of the authorities was continued from 1929, experiencing its maximum in the tragic years of 1937–1938.

Many communists fought with God, believing that He does not exist. But some, the bearers of certain confessions, saw Christianity as their immediate enemy. Lenin's guard, which had a certain national coloring, was cut down by I. Stalin, who understood where Trotsky and Zinoviev would lead the country.

According to Patriarch Kirill, by 1939, about 100 Orthodox churches remained open throughout the country. In 1928, 534 churches were closed, in 1929 – already 1, in the 119s, churches were closed by the thousands.

In 1931, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was blown up, in total more than 400 churches were destroyed and demolished in Moscow. And how many were destroyed throughout the country?

According to church historian Mikhail Shkarovsky, by September 1939 in the Soviet Union, from the previous structure of the Russian Orthodox Church, which in 1914 had 54 churches (not counting chapels) and 923 bishops, there remained 130 dioceses (4 bishops) and about 4 churches, all theological educational institutions were closed, and the majority of Orthodox clergy were in places of imprisonment.

According to the same M. Shkarovsky, by 1941, about 500 thousand people were repressed for their faith (including at least 140 thousand clergy). Of these, 200 thousand were arrested in 1937 (100 thousand were shot). And here it is enough to recall the infamous Butovo firing range.

Against this background, the subsequent turn of the Soviet government towards the restoration of the Church during the Great Patriotic War seems absolutely incredible and fantastic!

The graph below dispels any illusions.

Author's calculations based on the data of: Shkarovsky M. V. Russian Orthodox Church in the 2010th Century. Moscow, 26; Number of monasteries and churches, azbyka.ru; Reference of the SPO OGPU on the number of Orthodox churches in the USSR. April 1934, XNUMX (istmat.org)

Comments on the graph. There are no detailed statistics on the number of churches in the pre-war period. According to the SPO OGPU certificate on the number of Orthodox churches in the USSR in 1934, about 15. In 000, there were about 1928 parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church (data from Patriarch Kirill). In 30 - 000. In 1939 - 350, with over 1940 thousand in the new territories. Detailed statistics are available starting in 3.

Let us answer the question: could this have remained unpunished from a spiritual and moral point of view?

It is known that in besieged Leningrad, which experienced the most terrible consequences of the war, during the blockade, which lasted 872 days - from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944 (the blockade ring was broken on January 18, 1943) there were (only) ten Orthodox churches. At the same time, before the revolution of 1917, there were about 500 of them. Let us not forget about the sacred role of the capital - the revolution of 1917 began in St. Petersburg. And did not Peter drink the bitterest cup during the war?

Stalin and the Seminary

The future Generalissimo I. Stalin studied first in a theological school, and then in the Tiflis Seminary until the 5th year, was distinguished by his piety, and left the seminary, according to some accounts, due to lack of money, but mainly because he became interested in Marxism. At that time, seminaries, like the whole society, were seething with the search for social justice. Studying at the seminary left a significant imprint on the personality of the leader, laying the foundation for his amazing mind and genius as a statesman.

Stalin also accepted the atheism of that time. But in 1941, the former seminarian saw how the most powerful state, which had made an unprecedented great leap, industrialization, having one of the strongest armies in the world, suddenly found itself on the brink of real collapse.

In addition to the leader, the seminary was also attended by member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan and the famous Soviet commander Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky – and they had something to think about at that time.

How did the Germans reach Moscow in six months? You can be an atheist - that's one thing, but to be a God-fighter is another. And when a God-fighter suddenly meets God, something completely different happens - a terrible epiphany.

This can be called the Saul effect, after the Jewish lawyer who persecuted Christians in his religious rage. And so, on the road to Damascus, where he expected to continue the persecution, he was temporarily blinded, but spiritually saw the light, later becoming the Apostle Paul:
“As he was on his way and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
He said: Who are you, Lord?
The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 6:3–5).

Couldn't the same thing have happened to the former seminarian I. Dzhugashvili when he saw that the Germans were marching on Moscow? Didn't he understand that it is difficult to go against the grain? Wasn't he sent a message - what to do, and what was done? And what happened next, wasn't it a miracle, although based on the feat of the Soviet people? Everything is not so clear-cut, but it is impossible to take away the merits of I. Stalin in the subsequent restoration of the Church.

So where did the defeat of 1941 come from? Spiritual causes of war

The renunciation of God by our fathers and grandfathers brought the USSR to the brink of collapse in the early period of the Great Patriotic War. Here our history in many ways repeats fragments of the history of the Jewish people during periods of their apostasy.

There were objective reasons for the success of the German armies – the surprise of the attack, the successful concentration of troops, the technical superiority of German weapons, the level of mechanization that was astonishing for those times, combat experience, coherence, and in addition, all of captured Europe worked for Germany.

The USSR had a strong army and was preparing for war, but there were too many mistakes: the unpreparedness of the army and its positions, mistakes in the deployment of forces on the border, the weakening of the military command and fighters due to the repressions, the lack of coordination and low level of training of the Soviet troops, the incompleteness of military equipment, the hesitation of Stalin's position regarding the start of the war, the contradictory orders of the leadership (and their implementation) in the pre-war period.

But there is also just one more, simple and decisive factor – the war with God. “They have chosen new gods, therefore there is war at the gates” (Book of Judges, 5:8). And, in fact, similar events are happening in Ukraine now: the war with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian world has turned into a real war for the Bandera dictatorship.

According to Patriarch Kirill, the Great Patriotic War was a punishment for the sins of our people:

“Why was the last war so terrible and bloody?”… it was a punishment for… the terrible sin of apostasy of the entire people… The history of our Fatherland… teaches that God’s judgment occurs not only in eternity – it also occurs in history… God’s punishment is always a manifestation, including God’s love for people in the name of their correction… Not only individuals are subject to punishment, but also human communities, and this was the case from the Great Flood to the last terrible world war.”

Prerequisites for the restoration of the Church

Despite the church terror, the facts testified to the defeat of the atheistic onslaught on the Church and the failure of the "godless five-year plan". Already the first census in the USSR in the terrible year of 1937 revealed that the majority of the population - 56,7% - were believers. The question of religion was brought up personally by Stalin. People professed their faith, which became one of the factors in the restoration of the Church.

Then, in the newly annexed territories in 1940, there were more than 3 churches that had become part of the USSR in 000–1939. What was to be done with them? Turn against the people?

In 1941, Easter fell on April 20 (before the war). As a believer from Leningrad recalled:

“On Easter night in 1941, thousands of people stood shoulder to shoulder around the churches, with burning candles in their hands, and unanimously sang Easter hymns, not paying attention to the frenzy of the mounted police, who were trying in vain to disperse them, since all street traffic around the churches was disrupted...”

However, no one could have even imagined that the following Easter in 1942, religious processions around churches with lit candles would be officially allowed, despite the threat of German aircraft, and that the curfew would even be lifted. But the possibility of a coming war was also not yet thought about.

And finally, after the start of the war in the occupied territories of the USSR, the Germans began to restore church parishes, which also provided food for thought.

1941: The beginning of the war and the position of the Church

“There will be a war, and a terrible, worldwide war, it will lead the people of Russia to God,”

– this is what the Venerable Seraphim of Vyritsa said to his closest spiritual children back in 1927.

What really determined the turn of power towards the Church?

This is the Church itself, its civic and patriotic position, and of course – the faith of the people.

The hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church immediately called upon its flock to wage a holy struggle against the invaders. On June 22, 1941, on the day the war began, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), addressed the people with a message for the first time in many years. His message stated:

"The fascist bandits have attacked our homeland... The times of Batu, the German knights, Charles of Sweden, Napoleon are repeating themselves. The pathetic descendants of the enemies of Orthodox Christianity want to try once again to bring our people to their knees before injustice, to force them by naked violence to sacrifice the good and integrity of the homeland, the blood covenants of love for their fatherland... Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. Together with them, she bore trials and was consoled by their successes. She will not abandon her people now. She blesses the forthcoming national feat with heavenly blessings."

The Metropolitan's message also anticipated Stalin's address to the Holy Russian Princes in his November 1941 speech: "Let us remember the holy leaders of the Russian people, for example, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, who laid down their souls for the people and the Motherland..."

Perhaps the leader suddenly realized that this whole religious war was pointless. The people kept their faith, and the Church suddenly and so clearly came out on the side of the state. And the retreat of the army, like a sign from above. And it turns out that the Church has the strongest spiritual weapon (!) – the basis for uniting the entire state and people against the terrible invader.

Only on July 3, 1941, I. V. Stalin himself addressed the people. Recalling his Orthodox past, he said his famous: "Brothers and sisters!", and it was with these words that the war became truly Patriotic. And it was not just a battle, but, as now, a religious war.

Although the German army had regimental priests – chaplains who conducted services, and the fascists had the motto Got mit uns (“God is with us”) on their belt buckles, the fascists were pagans who trampled everything human. The Russians had only commissars, political officers, and a symbol of distinction – the Red Star. But God was with us and granted victory to the Russian (Soviet) people! And as A. Toynbee wrote: “Under the crucifixion and under the hammer and sickle, Russia is the same Holy Rus', and Moscow is the Third Rome.”

Moscow by a thread: October 1941

By the fall of 1941, the USSR was on the brink of a real catastrophe. There was despondency and fear in society, few believed in victory. There was a moment when Moscow hung by a thread. By October 15, during fierce battles on the outskirts of the capital, the Germans occupied Tver-Kalinin, Mozhaisk and Maloyaroslavets.

As E. A. Golbraikh recalls on the pages of the newspaper Duel: “In mid-October, rumors began to circulate that the front had been broken through, and that Stalin and the government had fled from Moscow... The management at many enterprises loaded their families into trucks and left the capital.”

The Soviet government decided to move part of the state administrative apparatus to a safe place; the partial evacuation of the people's commissariats gave rise to panic.

Stalin was able to quickly quell the panic by making a firm personal decision not to leave the capital, realizing that the city would be doomed. The defense was organized inside Moscow.

How did F.D. Roosevelt help the Russian Orthodox Church?

Since 1941, US President Franklin Roosevelt repeatedly appealed to Stalin with a request to restore church life in Russia, emphasizing that this was the most important condition for providing assistance to the USSR. The total volume of supplies from the US to the USSR during World War II amounted to a huge sum – 11,3 billion dollars.

In order to settle these issues, on July 27, 1941, the president's personal representative Harry Hopkins flew to the USSR to meet with Stalin. American society was traditionally religious – and it was aware of the USSR's atheistic policy. In a letter to the British minister B. Bracken, Hopkins wrote: "The American people do not easily accept the aid given to Russia. The entire Catholic population is against it..." Commenting on Hopkins' negotiations with Stalin, The Wall Street Journal wrote: "To give aid to Russia means to challenge morality."

F. D. Roosevelt was a devout man, attended church services, read and quoted the Bible. And he had personal motives for such pressure, seeking to ensure that the USSR would stop persecuting the Church, and that it would find its place in the state and society.

After the Germans were driven away from Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad was won (February 1943), the question of opening a second front arose. And the so-called Stalin turn and meeting with the metropolitans was held on the eve of the Tehran Conference (late November 1943). At the meeting itself (4.09.1943), Stalin asked the metropolitans to hold the Council promptly, "at a communist pace." Lend-Lease cannot be considered decisive, but the Tehran factor speaks to the pragmatism of Stalin's turn. After the USSR achieved a turning point in the war, the former confidence returned to power, and the fear of God subsided.

Why Stalin Changed His Attitude Towards the Church: A Mythological Theory

After the defeat of the Red Army in 1941, Patriarch Alexander III of Antioch addressed a message to Christians around the world asking for prayerful and material assistance to Russia. The text of this message is not available on the Internet. However, in 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the Victory, the official website of the Russian Patriarchate reported:

“On May 9, the Representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'… thanked for the prayerful support provided by the Antiochian Orthodox Church to our people during the terrible military trials… The appeal of the Antiochian Patriarch Alexander III to Christians around the world for prayerful and material assistance to Russia during the Great Patriotic War, the prayerful feat of Metropolitan of Mount Lebanon Elijah Karam greatly contributed to the Great Victory over German fascism and the spiritual revival of Russia.”

Please note that the Russian Orthodox Church also recognizes the second part of the legend regarding the role of Metropolitan Elijah – more on that below.

At this time, a great prayerful feat was performed by the later glorified saint, Hieroschemamonk Seraphim of Vyritsa, who predicted this war and stood for a thousand days and nights in prayer for the salvation of the country and the people of Russia.

And the answer came from above. Providence chose Metropolitan Elijah of Mount Lebanon (Antiochian Patriarchate) to be Russia's assistant. He understood perfectly the spiritual significance of Russia as the main stronghold (despite the atheistic power) of Orthodoxy.

Metropolitan Elijah

According to legend, after the appeal of Alexander III, Metropolitan Ilya began to pray even more fervently with all his heart for the salvation of Rus' from the fascist invasion. He went into seclusion, into a stone dungeon and offered prayers, standing before the icon of the Mother of God with a lamp, without eating food, drinking water and without sleep. Every morning the bishop was brought reports from the front about the number of those killed and where the enemy had reached.

As the legend goes, after three days of vigil, the Mother of God appeared to him in a pillar of fire and announced that he had been chosen to convey God’s decree for the country and people of Russia:

“If everything that has been determined is not fulfilled, Russia will perish. Churches, monasteries, theological academies and seminaries must be opened throughout the country. Priests must be returned from the fronts and prisons and must begin serving. They are now preparing to surrender Leningrad – it cannot be surrendered. Let them take out,” She said, “the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Kazan and carry it in a religious procession around the city, then not a single enemy will set foot on its holy land. This is the chosen city. A prayer service must be held before the Kazan icon in Moscow; then it must be in Stalingrad, which must not be surrendered to the enemy. The Kazan icon must go with the troops to the borders of Russia. When the war is over, Metropolitan Elijah must come to Russia and tell how it was saved.”

The Bishop contacted representatives of the Russian Church and the Soviet authorities and conveyed everything that had been determined. We do not find historical evidence, although it is believed that all these letters and telegrams of the Metropolitan are kept in the archives, perhaps they have yet to be found. However, this legend is supported by the actions taken by the leaders of the USSR, the change in the nature of the war, as well as the post-war visits of the Metropolitan to the USSR and his high status in them.

From emergency measures to reconciliation

It is believed that Stalin summoned Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad, the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), and promised to fulfill everything that Metropolitan Ilya had conveyed, because he saw no other way to save the situation.

According to legend, in December 1941, an icon of the Mother of God was flown around Moscow (although this is disputed). It was this picture that was depicted on the panel in the Temple of the Armed Forces.

According to another legend, in October 1941, Stalin came to Tsaritsyno to see St. Righteous Matrona (Nikonova), who told him: "The Red Rooster will win. Victory will be yours. You alone among the authorities will not leave Moscow."

As Saint Matrona predicted: "If a nation loses faith in God, then disasters befall it, and if it does not repent, then it perishes and disappears from the face of the earth. How many nations have disappeared, but Russia existed and will exist. Pray, ask, repent! The Lord will not abandon you and will preserve our land!"

Another prophecy, by Saint Nektarios of Optina, that after 1918, when the royal family was killed, “Russia was given 22 years to repent.” The prophecy came true.

Here is information from the website of the St. Petersburg Metropolitanate:

"...on Easter night from April 4 to 5, 1942, a historic religious procession was held in the besieged city on the Neva. Despite the fact that this fact remains little known, the prayer procession, according to the recollections of contemporaries, was of great importance in the victory over the enemy... with the beginning of the war, the attitude of the Soviet government towards the Church changed. In April 1942, in the country's major cities, it was permitted to hold an Easter religious procession around churches with lit candles... On Easter night, the curfew was lifted in the city... Many believers blessed pieces of blockade bread instead of Easter cakes."

The same move is also depicted in the Temple of the Sun.

There were also legends about amazing miracles during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Church and People during War: Unity as a Factor of Victory

Nevertheless, the dry facts are as follows. I. Stalin made peace with the Church, on the night of September 4-5, 1943, he met with the metropolitans. Everyone who could still serve was returned from exile with an amnesty, and the restoration of theological schools was begun.

On September 8, 1943, the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church was held at the Patriarchal residence in Chisty Lane, becoming the first Council of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1918. The Council elected Metropolitan Sergius and the synod as Patriarch.

Without this truce, which united the country into one whole, victory would have been impossible.

The Church also made a large material contribution to the cause of victory: parishioners collected funds, weapons were purchased. In 1945, the number of active churches was already 10, in 243 – 1952. The pace was truly “communist”! Military failures strengthened the spirit of the Russian people, its statehood, economy, and we won a victory over world evil.

Based on the above analysis, 1941 was a turning point in the state’s church policy, and 1942–1943 became a year of reversal.

Attitude to the Church after the war

After the war, Stalin wanted to use the Church again as a political instrument, turning Moscow into the Third Rome and the world center of Orthodoxy, transmitting socialist experience to the Balkans and Slavic states through church structures. However, the intervention of the United States did not allow him to receive the necessary international support. The war was won, Stalin cooled towards the Church, and his entourage began to show interest in atheistic activities again. Despite the active and successful foreign policy activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, including in the fight against the Vatican, the religious renaissance in the USSR was coming to an end.

According to church historian M. V. Shkarovsky, the turning point came in 1948:

"In addition to the change in the international position of the USSR, there was another group of factors: the shift of I. Stalin's attention to a new round of internal political struggle, purges and repressions... concessions by a part of the party apparatus that did not approve of the Church's indulgences, some personnel changes, etc. ... The authorities tried to curb the spiritual forces released during the war: national, personal self-awareness, religious life-feeling... In the last years of I. Stalin's life, state bodies adopted the tactics of gradual, widespread restriction of the Church's influence while maintaining outwardly equal relations."

On August 25, 1948, under pressure from the state, the Holy Synod was forced to make a decision to ban religious processions from village to village, spiritual concerts in churches outside of services, the inadmissibility of bishops traveling during rural work, the prohibition of any prayer services in the fields, etc. From the fall of 1948 until the death of I. Stalin, the government did not allow a single church to be opened, and arrests of clergy became more frequent.

The atheistic roots of the state did not allow the Church's potential to be used as a source of spiritual development: and already in the 70s, society faced a spiritual crisis. Atheism, like Marxism, is also a religion to some extent: and the authorities did not want to have a stronger rival.

Repeated persecutions under N. Khrushchev, who considered Stalin's policy to be soft, led to a decrease in the number of churches by 1965 by almost half to 7, but it was at this time that the USSR, hooked on oil, began to gradually move toward its logical collapse.

Now the Church continues its active development. If in 1985 the Russian Orthodox Church had 6 active churches, then in 806 there were 2017.

Was I. Stalin a believer or an atheist?

An interesting answer is offered by the historian, albeit a critic of Stalin, Igor Kurlyandsky, who has studied in detail the relationship between Stalin and the Church:

"Typical in this regard, for example, are Stalin's remarks in the margins of France's work, Resurrection by L. N. Tolstoy, The Brothers Karamazov by F. M. Dostoevsky and other well-known works. For example, Stalin crossed out Anatole France's dialogue About God, and in one place wrote his conclusion about the reason for people's incomprehension of God: "They know no traces, they do not see Him. He does not exist for them," thus leaving a "loophole" for the existence of God. One cannot help but note the facts... of certain religious features in the cult of his own person that he carefully constructed, as well as in the cult of Lenin, in communist symbols. For a consistent atheist, such actions seem impossible... This circumstance... made it easier for him to maneuver in relation to religion and the Church during the war years."

Patriarch Alexy I: from a speech on the death of I. Stalin

After Stalin's death, Patriarch Alexy I gave a speech before the memorial service for him, given in the patriarchal cathedral, in which he drew attention to the following:

“The Great Leader of our people, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, is gone. A great, moral, social force has been abolished: a force in which our people felt their own strength… There is no area that the great Leader’s deep gaze did not penetrate… As a man of genius, in every matter he revealed what was invisible and inaccessible to the ordinary mind… His name, as a champion of peace throughout the world, and his glorious deeds will live on for centuries. We, having gathered to pray for him, cannot pass over in silence his always benevolent, sympathetic attitude to our church needs. Not a single question that we addressed to him was rejected by him; he satisfied all our requests… The memory of him is unforgettable for us, and our Russian Orthodox Church, mourning his departure from us, sees him off on his final journey, “the journey of all the earth,” with fervent prayer.”

Stalin was a brilliant but pragmatic man. The leader used the Church as historical and political logic dictated. No one but God knows whether he took the path of the "prudent robber", although the activation of his religious consciousness in 1941-1943 does not raise any doubts.

Although the Church in the USSR was subjected to destruction and persecution before the Great Patriotic War, the war brought the leader to his senses: he saved the Church from complete destruction and even partially restored it.

And all the highest Soviet clergy of that time understood this perfectly well, especially against the background of the subsequent policies of N. Khrushchev, the main destroyer of the USSR before Gorbachev.

Projection from the past to the present and future

The Great Patriotic War was for us and for the Church a holy war between Russia, the guardian of the true Orthodox faith, and the German pagans, who trampled not only everything Christian, but also everything human in general.

History repeats itself again, the fascist vermin rises from the underworld again, not only all of Europe, but also the entire West is marching on Rus'. What is the reason for these events? On the West's side, there is a civilizational conflict. And on our side, there is Russia's renunciation of itself since 1985, its rejection of empire-building for the sake of a well-fed life, Westernism, colonization: everything is like in Ukraine. An epiphany has come: but the 90s and liberalism have left an indelible mark on our state. And the events in Kursk are a sign, perhaps a decisive one, that the state must abandon the destructive liberal course, otherwise Victory will not be achieved.

Now Western civilization is on the path of preparing for apostasy, clearly ignoring the basic norms of Christianity, encouraging gender displacement, perverted marriages, which is clearly directed against the family. This gives rise to a colossal degradation of Western civilization, which is evident in the example of the events of the Olympics in France. The first question: how long will they last in this state? Clearly not for long.

The headquarters of most totalitarian sects are located in the USA, churches in Europe are empty and closing, on the contrary, Russia preserves and multiplies its faith, and there are more and more churches in it. A beautiful temple of the Armed Forces has been built, the Cathedral of the Holy Blessed Prince D. Donskoy, who delivered us from the Mongol yoke, is being erected. So who will win the Victory?

Although the country is still firmly wrapped in a liberal system, there is no doubt that Russia will be freed from the yoke of globalists and everything that prevents us from winning, having children and developing.

After the revolution, Russia suffered misfortunes and humiliations, as it does now after 1985, the West counted on the collapse of the country. But Stalin created a powerful anti-Western project and returned the lost lands. History, including ours, repeats itself: perhaps it will happen now too. But before victory, we may have to endure a lot, as in those days. It seems that Stalin will return. But none of the visible future contenders for this place have studied at the seminary yet…

Links:
State-church relations of the Soviet period: periodization and content (pravoslavie.ru).
Stalin, Roosevelt and the Russian Orthodox Church (livejournal.com).
Patriarch Kirill: By 1939, about 100 Orthodox churches remained open throughout the country out of more than 60 that were active in 1917
Haskins, Ekaterina V. “Russia’s Post-Communist Past: The Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Reconsideration of National Identity.” History and Memory: Studies in the Representation of the Past 21.1 (2009).
M. Shkarovsky. Stalin's religious policy and the Russian Orthodox Church in 1943-1953.
Patriotic work in the churches of besieged Leningrad
How many churches are there in Saint Petersburg??
7 Famous Seminarians Who Didn't Follow the Church Path
All-Union Census of 1937. Brief results. Moscow, 1991. Pp. 106–107.
War, Church, Stalin and Metropolitan Elijah (stalinism.ru)
Church-historical bulletin. No. 1. M. 1998. P. 57.
Holy War / Pravoslavie.Ru (pravoslavie.ru)
Kalashnikov Maxim, Extinguished Panic of October 15, 1941. "Baptism of Fire". Volume I: "Invasion from the Future" (wikireading.ru).
Note to the patriot: Roosevelt forced Stalin to revive the Russian Orthodox Church in the USSR (newizv.ru).
Lend-Lease: How the US Sold Aid to Allies.
B. A. Filippov, F. Roosevelt, Pius XII, I. Stalin and the problem of the USSR’s reputation during the Second World War.
Sherwood R. Roosevelt and Hopkins through the eyes of an eyewitness. Moscow, 1958. Vol. I. P. 259.
Legend of the Great Patriotic War: Our Lady Saved Moscow
Was there a flight over Moscow with the Tikhvin Icon on December 8, 1941??
The Tale of the Life of the Blessed Elder Matrona. Comp. Z. V. Zhdanova. Holy Trinity Novo-Golutvin Monastery. 1994. Pp. 26–27.
Come to me and tell me, as if I were alive, about your sorrows (pravme.ru).
Faith in Victory is Faith in God: Why an Easter procession was held in the besieged city
Stalin and the Hierarchs: Meeting in the Kremlin
His Holiness the Patriarch announced statistical data on the life of the Russian Orthodox Church
Without Illusions – Orthodox Magazine “Foma” (foma.ru)
Speech of Patriarch Alexy I on the death of Stalin. Nikolay Starikov. Politician, writer, public figure (nstarikov.ru).

Comments

[Kolobochok]

So, in order to competently govern the state, it is a prerequisite to study in a seminary? Maybe it is enough to simply love the Motherland, to defend the interests of YOUR people, and not partners and "popularly beloved" capitalists?

[ivan2022]

Yes, it turns out that in order to be the leader of the Bolshevik Party, you must first graduate from seminary.....
And in order to destroy this party along with the country, you need to graduate from the Central Party School. These are the realities.

[Uncle lee]

According to Patriarch Kirill, the Great Patriotic War was a punishment for the sins of our people:

A dubious reason to start a war...

[Ross xnumx]

Quote from Uncle Lee

A dubious reason to start a war...

And if you think about it, you can put an equal sign between the fall of the nation: pride leaders and those in power, comparing themselves with God; greed and envy those people who had lost their conscience and who ordered the arrest of “enemies of the people” in order to appropriate the valuables that belonged to them; anger, lust, gluttony...and the events that unfolded as a result of the disappearance of the ability to analyze and foresee.
Don't we see the same trends today? It may seem to those thirty-forty-year-old citizens that nothing could be sweeter than the bourgeois structure of the state; it may seem to those who fled to "MMM" that money is pouring out of the sky for no reason... However, life is a more complex thing, and you can't experiment on people, lest you fall into God's disfavor.

[paul3390]

Well - now we probably have more churches than believers.. Have we gotten better? Is life better? Is the country stronger? Is the people happier? Are there more of us every year? Does everyone, especially the top brass, diligently observe the commandments, especially the one that says don't steal? And so on...

Somehow, the Russian Orthodox Church, which has once again gained unprecedented strength, is not demonstrating its necessity very convincingly... And looking at some of its hierarchs, I want to ask, do you yourself believe in God? Judging by your actions, it doesn't look like it... What do you have in common with that poor preacher 2000 years ago? Do you really think that He needs all your money and splendor? Do you think He would approve of all this? After all, he seemed to say something completely different... What do you think? However, sooner or later you will find out... Or are you not afraid because you don't really believe in anything?

[tatra]

The enemies of the USSR have proven that they don't give a damn about any of "God's commandments". They have two goals here - firstly, they are always automatically FOR those and those against whom and what the Bolsheviks-communists were, and if they were against religion, then the enemies of the USSR are for it.
And secondly, they don’t need a well-educated, oily people.

[paul3390]

"Under the Tsar, there was a church and a pub in our village. Under the Soviets, this was gone. But a school, a hospital, a club, a library appeared. Now none of this exists. But there is a church and a pub." (c)

[tatra]

Yes, this is the priority of both the Bolshevik-communists and their supporters, as well as their enemies.

[paul3390]

The Bolsheviks wanted to transfer power to the Soviets. And in order for the people to be able to really rule the country through them, they must be educated, have a broad outlook, diverse interests, a logical way of thinking, etc., etc. Otherwise, how can we trust ignorant, illiterate people with the fate of the socialist Fatherland?

Hence the unprecedented pressure on universal education and enlightenment.

As an antithesis - the current state of affairs. Therefore, how to rule - now only supposedly chosen ones should. It is unclear by whom and on what grounds. And these - according to the classics, smart ones are not needed, loyal ones are needed. Because smart ones - will inevitably sooner or later ask, what kind of epic wild crap are you up to here?

[Olgovich]

Quote: paul3390

"Under the Tsar, there was a church and a pub in our village. Under the Soviets, this was gone. But a school, a hospital, a club, a library appeared. Now none of this exists. But there is a church and a pub

under the Soviets the villages themselves disappeared: since 1960 they have been destroyed 53 thousand s. schools (more than half), tens of thousands of cultural centers, libraries, and destroyed 240 thousand settlements in Russia (60%), the territories were depopulated, the Russian cross was built

[paul3390]

Yes? And under your bourgeoisie, how many have disappeared now? As for the depopulated territories - yeah, you only have to look at the graph of population growth in the USSR, and it becomes absolutely clear that all this is a lie. Because populated areas were not destroyed, but enlarged. Since it is extremely difficult to provide education, leisure, medicine and even supplies in a village of 10 households.

About tens of thousands of DCs and so on - I leave this lie on your dubious conscience.

[Olgovich]

Quote: paul3390

Yes? And under your bourgeoisie, how many have disappeared these days?

look at the statistics, ignoramus - much less.

Quote: paul3390

the count of depopulated territories - yeah, you only have to look at the graph of population growth in the USSR, and it becomes crystal clear that all this is a lie.

Demoscope: Not a single generation of Russians born since 1910 has reproduced itself.
Soviet demographer Pervedentsev, 1970s: :The non-black earth region must be repopulated!
Your leaders of the Great Abortion Revolution have squandered the demographic wealth they have inherited from Russia

Quote: paul3390

Because settlements were not destroyed but enlarged.

eww, what a LIAR

Quote: paul3390

About tens of thousands of DCs and so on - I leave this lie on your dubious conscience.

You have no conscience at all - they also disappeared from the NP, ignoramus.

[paul3390]

What an uneducated liar you are... It's just awful...

Once again, for you. Birth rate in the Republic of Ingushetia BEFORE the so-called Stolypin reforms, that is, until your desired 1910, it grew for a banal reason - the land under communal land ownership was divided according to FOR EATERS! More children - more allotment during the annual redistribution. It was necessary to have many children FAVORABLE.

But as soon as Stolypin destroyed communal land ownership, the birth rate immediately went down. Because you can't feed many people on a fixed plot of land...

So this is a completely objective process.

What about your lies about non-reproducing generations - just look at the population census in the USSR!!! If you think so - we should have died out by about the 80s!! But that's not true, is it? At least sometimes - but you have to use logic?

And once again - you are a liar. Small villages disappeared for a simple reason - the mechanization of agriculture simply left no room for them. As well as no need. No one will drive a tractor or a combine to three yards. And drive a mobile shop there and take a doctor, and from there take two children to school.

Are you even familiar with the concept of increasing labor productivity? WHY do we need these three-yard villages in large-scale mechanized agriculture?

And finally look at the statistics of the number of populated areas in the Russian Federation since 1991!!!!!!!!! Ugh.

[Olgovich]

Quote: paul3390

What an uneducated liar you are... It's just awful...

Once again, for you. Birth rate in the Republic of Ingushetia before the so-called reforms

ignoramus, on:

birth rate: per 1000 inhabitants, A. G. Rashin. Population of Russia for 100 years (1811-1913). Statistical essays.
1906 — 1910 45,8
1911 45,0
1912 43,7
1913 43,1

The collapse of the birth rate is a big power

Quote: paul3390

What about your lies about non-reproducing generations - just look at the population census in the USSR!!! If you think so - we should have died out by about the 80s!! But that's not true, is it? At least sometimes - but you have to use logic?

This is not a crash course, you are an ignoramus to explain that if a couple has 1 child, then this is an increase today, but extinction in the future.
What your government has done with Russia's unique demographic wealth

Read scientists demographers, Demoscope, etc.

Quote: paul3390

And once again - you are a liar. Small villages disappeared for a simple reason - the mechanization of agriculture simply left no room for them. As well as no need. No one will drive a tractor or a combine to three yards. And drive a mobile shop there and take a doctor, and from there take two children to school.

villages, liar, disappeared according to decisions of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU from December 1959 on the development of new schemes for “district and intra-farm planning” in rural areas., recognized as a mistake in 1980, but it was too late to stop.

Don't you read your own texts?

The policy of transforming the structure of rural settlement did not justify the original plans and had negative socio-economic consequences. When it was implemented, important aspects of the rural population's life were not taken into account, especially its connection with private household plots. Liquidation of small settlements led to the desolation of adjacent agricultural lands, an increase in the production load on workers employed in agriculture, and the liquidation of private farms. The process of concentration of the rural population led to to a decrease in the level of population of territories. The weakening of the settlement network in the eastern regions weakened and disrupted inter-settlement connections and had a negative impact on public services. The displaced residents mostly moved to cities. This situation increased migration from rural areas and led to the demographic aging of the village.

Quote: paul3390

And finally, look at the statistics of the number of populated areas in the Russian Federation since 1991.

I know it - the number of NP has decreased by 20 thousand in 30 years and this is the result of the previous policy, with your tebils - TWELVE TIMES more in 20 years.

Shame ...

[BAI]

The birth rate in the Republic of Ingushetia BEFORE the so-called Stolypin reforms, that is, before your desired 1910, grew for a banal reason - the land under communal land ownership was divided into EDOKAM!

1. Birth rate must be considered simultaneously with mortality.
2. And there is a clear trend - the higher the level of development of society, the lower the birth rate.
The highest birth rates are in poor countries.
Here is China: it was poor, the birth rate soared, it became rich - and they immediately began to take measures to reduce the birth rate.
That is, Russia was poor - there was a high birth rate and high death rate. It became richer - birth rate and death rate decreased. Average life expectancy increased.
Average life expectancy in Russia. 1900 - 31 years. 1914 - 32 years.
Now 71

[paul3390]

And this is understandable - it is always easier to dig the earth with a stick in a group. Working hands are needed - everyone can be assigned to some kind of work from an early age.

[Bolt cutter]

under the soviets the villages themselves disappeared

Due to mechanization and a sharp increase in labor productivity. A field that under the tsar was harvested with sickles and threshed with flails, and then the grain was taken out by the entire village on a creaking cart for three days, will be harvested by a combine operator before lunch.

[Olgovich]

We are talking about RUSSIA, with its vastness and ROADS: try to get to that field. It is easier to abandon it, which is what happened

[Bolt cutter]

Try to get to that field again.

And wouldn't you like to create a farm in a remote village with yourself at the helm? Most likely not, the comfort of city life is more important. And the villagers are not stupid either. And about the land - how did the Russian Federation overtake the USA (with a much more favorable climate) in grain production?

[Olgovich]

Wouldn't you like to start a farm in a remote village with yourself at the helm? Most likely not, the comfort of city life is more important.

Tens of millions of peasants wanted this, but they were not given it, except for the lousy LPS

Quote: Bolt Cutter

And regarding land, how did the Russian Federation overtake the USA (with a much more favorable climate) in grain production?

grain is not produced where land was abandoned and technologies are different now

[Bolt cutter]

not where the lands were abandoned

The thing is that there is no abandoned land in Krasnodar. Abandoned are empty lands, where the harvest is every other time and weak. And about the technology, it is accurately noted - now there is simply no point in living in these villages. And it is more convenient to live in the city.

[Olgovich]

Quote: Bolt Cutter

Empty lands are abandoned, where the harvest is every other time and is weak

What are you saying? A hundred years ago people fought to the death for a piece of this "empty" land.
They are a treasure trove for the owner - this is livestock, feed, flax, etc.

Quote: Bolt Cutter

And about technology, you have accurately noted - there is simply no point in living in these villages now.

these villages were supposed to become cities, not forests

[Bolt cutter]

You are far from the realities of the countryside.

[Olgovich]

Quote: Bolt Cutter

You are far from the realities of the countryside.

empty chatter.
Nothing to say about the facts? Nothing.

[Bolt cutter]

Nothing to say about the facts?

The fact of labor productivity and, accordingly, the advisability of living in villages was happily ignored by you.

[Olgovich]

Quote: Bolt Cutter

The fact of labor productivity and, accordingly, the expediency of living in villages was successfully ignored by you

you are lying, the answer is given: We are talking about RUSSIA, with its vastness and ROADS: try to get to that field get there. It's easier to just leave it, which is what happened..
Millions of hectares of agricultural lands have been abandoned - read monographs, for example, by L. Denisova

[BAI]

In fact, there is more arable land in the RSFSR than in the entire Republic of Ingushetia. But in the Russian Federation, there is less.

[Olgovich]

Quote: BAI

In fact, there is more arable land in the RSFSR than in the entire Republic of Ingushetia.

and the yield... below 1913 right up until 1957.
Disgrace

[BAI]

A hundred years ago, people fought to the death for a piece of this "empty" land.

D. I. Mendeleev, †1907
On the area of ​​arable land in different countries, late 19th century.
In the 50 provinces of European Russia (excluding Finland and the Polish provinces), with 94 million inhabitants, there are 117 million hectares of arable land.

The area of ​​crops in the RSFSR increased until 1975-1976, when they occupied 126,771 million hectares.

- this is without the union republics, according to Mendeleev - the whole of the Russian Empire.

At the end of 2014, there were 121,5 million hectares of arable land in Russia. In 2015, the sown area amounted to 79,319 million hectares. Pure fallows - 11,859 million hectares.

Glory to capitalism!

[Olgovich]

Glory to capitalism!

"Glory" to Bolshevism, which destroyed the Russian village and its inhabitants.

Bring back the people destroyed by your "achievers" and then ask questions.

[paul3390]

Why are you arguing with him? You can hit him on the head with a stick. Well, the client has a quirk about the blessed RI. This is beyond treatment.

[Bolt cutter]

blessed RI

I don't understand people like that. If everything was so great, then rotten tomatoes would have been thrown at Lenin from an armored car and that would have been the end of it.

[paul3390]

It is hopeless - because this is an act of FAITH. And Vera does not need any proof and is not subject to criticism by definition.

[Olgovich]

Quote: paul3390

Why are you arguing with him? You can hit him on the head with a stick. Well, the client has a thing for the blessed RI.

they trimmed it for you and everything went wrong: a Russian person was able to eat and dress like in 1913 only 40 years later - see the Report of the Central Statistical Bureau of the USSR 1956.

And at the peak of development, they lived to see coupons for sausage and ass-pants once a quarter.

[paul3390]

Well, yes - under your Russian Empire, peasants gorged themselves on sausage every day... Ugh. Ignoramus.

[Olgovich]

Quote: paul3390

Well, yes - under your Russian Empire, peasants gorged themselves on sausage every day... Ugh. Ignoramus.

yes, more than with yours, ignoramus - study NUMBERS.

[Bolt cutter]

Russians were able to eat and dress like they did in 1913 only 40 years later - see.

A nitsche that these 40 years were, to put it mildly, not easy, but fell during two of the two world wars in which Russia took part?

[Olgovich]

Quote: Bolt Cutter

And it’s not a big deal that these 40 years were, to put it mildly, not easy, but fell during two of the two world wars in which Russia took part?

and nothing: read the report first, so as not to talk nonsense: already during the NEP of 1913, practically, they caught up, it collapsed after collectivization.

[Bolt cutter]

And what about the Great Patriotic War and the Nazis near Moscow - are they really just trifles?

[Andrey VOV]

Bolt cutter, don't waste your time on this Olgovich the crunch baker, and he gives links to the works of the same liars as he, who manipulate numbers to their advantage.

[YEHU]

Corn is trending in the States.

[BAI]

under the Soviets, the villages themselves disappeared: since 1960, 53 thousand village schools (more than half) have been destroyed

This is a natural process in the development of the welfare of society. If you want to be a developed, industrial country - welcome to urbanization, an increase in the urban population and a decrease in the rural population. If you want to be a backward agrarian country - welcome to the village, digging in manure, without social and cultural life.
NOT A SINGLE one of the mourners for the Russian village moved from the city to the village. They all prefer to suffer in comfortable urban conditions.
Agriculture is a calling, not an obligation.

[Olgovich]

Quote: BAI

This is a natural process in the development of the welfare of society.

Don't talk nonsense: show me a country where 60% of the NP was destroyed in 20 years.

Bredyatina.

[Olgovich]

Quote: BAI

This is a natural process

show me where else in the world it has been destroyed 60% NP (240 thousand) countries in 20 years.
Go for it.

Quote: BAI

in urbanization, an increase in the urban population and a decrease in the rural population.

Since the late 1930s, rural authorities have been crying about the fact that there is no one to work, despite the sea of ​​work.

Quote: BAI

NOT A SINGLE one of the mourners for the Russian village moved from the city to the village. They all prefer to suffer in comfortable urban conditions.
Agriculture is a calling, not an obligation

Your 70 years have taught people not to work. Don't forget that under your rule a third of the harvest always went under the snow, in the mud and rot - no one needs it.

[Foul skeptic]

Your 70 years have taught people not to work.

And they did this, apparently, throughout the developed world, where urbanization occurred. Miracles and nothing more.

[Aviator_]

Somehow, having once again gained unprecedented strength, the Russian Orthodox Church LLC is not very convincing in demonstrating its necessity...

Absolutely right - where are the tank columns (drone swarms) "Alexander Nevsky" and "Dmitry Donskoy"?

[astepanov]

The atheistic roots of the state did not allow the potential of the Church to be used as a source of spiritual development: and already in the 70s, society faced a spiritual crisis.

I wonder what potential the church has as a source of spiritual development? Does the church love good? Maybe it does, but only someone else's. During the reform of Patriarch Nikon, thousands of peasants were deprived of their property for refusing to be baptized with a pinch (which meant death by starvation), and the property was alienated to both the treasury and the Church. Thousands of Old Believers were burned in sketes (according to the official version, they self-immolated, but suicide is a terrible sin for an Orthodox Christian). And has the Church repented for the crimes of Nikon and his cronies? Or at least for the many years of torture of Archpriest Avvakum and his comrades and their burning in Pustozersk? No, our Mother Church has recorded citizen Romanov as a passion-bearer, and the priests have not found a kind word for the thousands of schismatics she killed. But how the long-maned curse the Bolsheviks who oppressed them at the beginning of the 20th century!
Maybe the church cared about its parishioners? But why then was the church the largest collective slave owner in Russia from the 9th to the 18th century? And it was the monastery serfs who most often initiated uprisings – probably because the church “loved” them. By the way, the notorious Saltychikha was extremely religious. This did not stop her from killing 76 people. Such Saltychikhas were quite typical, she just happened to fall into Catherine’s hot hand.
But let's return to spiritual development. What do we know about Russian music of the 17th century? Nothing, because by order of the same Nikon, all musical instruments were collected and burned, all the buffoons and raeshniki were collected, beaten and sent to hard labor with torn nostrils. And Nikon was not the first in this. That is why our music is from the Italians, Germans and French, from them - architecture and theater, from them, and not from Rublev, our painting and architecture. From the priests - only the mortification of everything they touch.
By the way, under Korolev and Chertok, spaceships were not sprinkled with holy water, no prayers were held – and so what? Our cosmonautics is on its last legs. And one more thing: every religion is pregnant with violence and blood. Confessions can coexist for a time – but the slightest reason – and pogroms, crusades, the hunt for apostates, and even religious wars begin. There have been countless of them in history. So what good can the church teach us? Aversion to cruelty, mercy, honesty – these are things that children receive from their parents, and do not read in the books of the Sinai shepherds.

[Xnumx vis]

Quote: ROSS 42

And if you think about it, you can put an equal sign between the fall of the nation: the pride of the leaders and those in power, comparing themselves with God; the greed and envy of those who lost their conscience, who ordered the arrest of "enemies of the people" for the sake of appropriating the values ​​that belonged to them; anger, lust, gluttony... and the events that unfolded as a result of the disappearance of the ability to analyze and foresee.
Don't we see the same trends today?

My colleague, who became a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church after serving in the army. When the SVO began, he answered my question - Why? He said - Because we "got scared, became officers..." At first I didn't understand... A year later it dawned on me... All these deputies of the Ministry of Defense... stole like they weren't themselves, and ordinary soldiers died because of them... And we ourselves did a lot of things that weren't according to our conscience.

[Ross xnumx]

Quote: 30 vis

And we ourselves did a lot of things not on conscience .

A good thought comes after...

[Kolobochok]

The sin turned out to be too bloody. Or does God love the blood of the Soviet people very much? Did he demand sacrifices?

[Fitter65]

According to Patriarch Kirill, the Great Patriotic War was a punishment for the sins of our people:

The Bolsheviks committed a great sin: they restored the institution of the patriarch, which Peter I had abolished...

[Olgovich]

Quote: ivan2022

Yes, it turns out that in order to be the leader of the Bolshevik Party, you must first graduate from seminary.....
And in order to destroy this party along with the country, you need to graduate from the Central Party School.

Thus, all significant Bolsheviks were educated by tsarism.

In their own Bolshevik country, the Bolsheviks raised only Yeltsins, Gorbachevs and Ligachevs to lead the country.

[tatra]

Well, yes, Nicholas II, praised by you, the enemies of the USSR and the Soviet people, taught the Bolsheviks to make a revolution, and then always be proud of it, and the Soviet communists taught you, their enemies, made your counter-revolution, and after it, for 33 years, chanted in unison, “It’s not our fault, it’s all the communists’ fault.”

[paul3390]

Well, it seems like they raised Putin too? The one you adore, I understand? Do you have any complaints about this one too?

[Fitter65]

Quote: Olgovich

In their own Bolshevik country, the Bolsheviks raised only Yeltsins, Gorbachevs and Ligachevs to lead the country.

These are already the alumni of the CPSU, and not the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

[BAI]

Thus, all significant Bolsheviks were educated by tsarism.

And there were no others on 25.10.1917/XNUMX/XNUMX. In principle. In the word AT ALL. A very subtle remark.
By the way, if we follow the logic (if there is any) of your maxim, we can assume that there were insignificant Bolsheviks who were not brought up by tsarism. Let me ask you: who were the educators and whom did they bring up (2-3 names)?

[Olgovich]

Quote: BAI

And there were no others on 25.10.1917/XNUMX/XNUMX

where is the other's statement?
The point is, once again for the tankers, that YOUR government, with all its system and complete dominance, has only brought up complete nonentities for the leadership - EBN, Shevarnalzev and Gorbachev

[Olgovich]

Quote: BAI

And there were no others on 25.10.1917/XNUMX/XNUMX

does it say something different somewhere?

But your government, with its one-man rule, has produced no one to lead the country except for the Yebn, Gorbachev and Shevardnadzes.

[paul3390]

It's just that the seminary of that time provided a very good liberal arts education for those times... By the way, a seminary graduate had every right to enter a university, just like a gymnasium graduate. So...

And what is especially important - for some reason they taught a forgotten subject there, logic. Which, looking at what is happening now, is an extremely necessary course... To at least slightly put people's brains in the right place.

[Aviator_]

And what is especially important - for some reason they taught a forgotten subject there, logic. Which, looking at what is happening now, is an extremely necessary course... To at least slightly put people's brains in the right place.

The subject "Logic" was part of the post-war school curriculum. Khrushchev Kukuruzny threw it out. There were also plans to simplify the grammar of the Russian language, but they did not have time. They removed it.

[ANB]

By the way, a seminary graduate had every right to enter university.

I don’t know how it was before the revolution and I didn’t find out now, but in Soviet times, seminary was considered higher education.

[ANB]

. So, in order to competently manage the state, it is a prerequisite to study in a seminary?

Actually, seminaries teach very well. And with an emphasis on people management and psychology.

[big_fun]

Maybe it’s enough to just love your Motherland, to defend the interests of YOUR people, and not your partners and “people-beloved” capitalists?

OWN - what kind of one? Georgian?
Your reasoning is incorrect, comrade.
Remember the slogan? "Workers of the world - unite!" Not nations! Not "brotherly nations"! Not "chosen nations". And not even communists. Proletarians. That's right.

[anclevalico]

Seminary, but not necessarily only it, lays a certain spiritual core in a person. It would seem to be such an obvious fact, but, it turns out, not everyone understands it.

[ivan2022]

State law is determined by laws, and the work of laws - law enforcement - is mainly determined by the traditions of society. Therefore, Russia, under any laws, lives as an autocratic monarchy.

And the deputy of the Supreme Council and the secretary of the Central Committee, Stalin, is like a monarch in an elected position...

Our main tradition is to carry out any, even the most idiotic orders. Regardless of their compliance with the laws.
Laws do not work in Russia.

Therefore, although the Bolsheviks only legally separated the Church from the State, the situation was reminiscent of the Roman Empire during the period of persecution.

As far as I understand, the main "crime" of the Bolsheviks is considered to be depriving the Church of its status as a legal entity and property? That is, the return of the Russian Orthodox Church to the apostolic norms of life. This is what should have been written about without hypocrisy.

[anclevalico]

Well, the tradition of following orders is like that everywhere. For example, in Japan. What does the status of a legal entity have to do with it and how does it relate to apostolic norms, I still don't understand.

[ivan2022]

Quote: anclevalico

Well, the tradition of following orders is the same everywhere.

That's right - everywhere! And not only in Japan... In order to carry out orders from superiors, it is not even necessary to join the ranks of the army. If we are talking about carrying out orders, then civilians carried them out in all countries at all times without any oath and were held accountable for failure to carry them out.... What do you think - why do armies need an Oath at all? I believe that for those who even act in defense of the Motherland on orders, it is useless.

In the US Army, it has always been different. The oath requires defending the US Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Even if the bosses are killed and give no orders. That's why the modern oath of the Russian Federation now includes words about protecting the Constitution, while the oath of the USSR never even mentioned the word "law". That's how they screwed up the country because "there was no order."

Quote: anclevalico

I still don’t understand what the status of a legal entity has to do with it and how it relates to apostolic norms.

Moreover, it is the status of a legal entity that gives an organization the right to run a business, to have separate property.... You did not understand why any organization that runs a business should be registered? Or you did not understand that the apostles called on the bishops of churches to live only at the expense of the donations of believers? In the decree of the Lenin government on freedom of conscience, the Russian Orthodox Church was offered to live exactly like that. The property belongs to the State, but the Church is allowed to use it free of charge. For this, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church still hates the Soviet government.

The Apostles did NOT seek state funding and the right of the Church to fine and flog believers for not attending communion, as was the case in the Russian Empire. It was in the Empire that the Russian Orthodox Church completely lost touch with its original purpose.

[Paul]

Wonderful work! But, Author, be prepared for an ocean of evil and narrow-minded sarcasm. A church-going person will understand you. The trouble with the rest is that the public is mostly mystical atheists. I hope (and I am even sure) that the majority of the community here definitely has sufficient knowledge that consistently proves the role of religion in any historical process, despite their personal beliefs.

[Ross xnumx]

Quote: Paul

Wonderful work! But, Author, be prepared for an ocean of evil and narrow-minded sarcasm. A church-going person will understand you.

It is enough to remind that all members of the SVO have either a cross, or an icon, or other symbols of Faith.

[Kolobochok]

Yeah...and the bombs are blessed, they won't explode without that. You can smash your forehead three times in church, but without trained people who know how to use weapons, you won't see victory. Or will their rockets not fly, their tanks not move, with the help of prayer?

[paul3390]

Without prayer, the rockets will certainly crash into the Firmament, you have to understand...

[Kolobochok]

came in, thank you, you raised my spirits

[parusnik]

Without prayer, rockets will certainly crash into the Firmament

When is this? They didn't bless it, they didn't pray, and the lunar landing failed.

[anclevalico]

And you read Suvorov and his biography, maybe you’ll understand something.

[Essex62]

You are spot on. The role of religion in keeping the plebs in obedience cannot be overestimated. And its unifying role should not be denied. But why unifying? As the patriarchs said - you act respectably, but you are afraid of the king? How can you do it without a king in your head?
Religion is the opium of the people, a lifeline for the weak in spirit, a straw in the hopeless circle of poverty and lawlessness.
And Vissarionovich, a true pragmatist, could not help but use this property. From the thousand-year power of the church, many tens of millions remained stupefied in the young Soviet power. Why not take advantage of it? The country was falling apart, all the tools were good enough.

[Olgovich]

Quote: Essex62

The role of religion in keeping the plebs in subjection cannot be overestimated.

how to say: the cult of personality did not help, it was necessary to shoot 1937 thousand fellow citizens in just one year, 1938-681, imprison millions, exile millions.

Quote: Essex62

у young Soviet power

It is significant that she disappeared so young.

[Andrey VOV]

Listen, liar, aren't you tired of lying and citing these Sozhenitsyn figures?

[Olgovich]

Quote: Andrey VOV

Listen, liar, aren't you tired of lying and citing these Sozhenitsyn figures?

You'll poke your wife if she gives it to you.
And the figures, ignoramus, are from Pavlov's References, Historical Materialism

[Andrey VOV]

Shut up, dirty talker, and shove your numbers somewhere, somewhere far away, and think with your head before you squeeze something out of yourself, any questions? No questions, you're free.

[Olgovich]

Quote: Andrey VOV

Shut up, slob, and stick your numbers in one place,

learn DOCUMENTS
And your advice, r, - into a tube and - there, there!

[BAI]

from Pavlov's References

The veracity of which is now increasingly being questioned, as facts emerge that many documents were destroyed and falsified on Khrushchev's orders to combat the "cult of personality." Including these certificates

[Olgovich]

Quote: BAI

The veracity of which is now increasingly being questioned, as facts emerge that many documents were destroyed and falsified on Khrushchev's orders to combat the "cult of personality." Including these certificates

I don't give a damn about the doubts of the stubborn idiots.
To avoid questions, you had to publish lists of those to be shot, the numbers and decisions, in the newspapers every day in the 30s.

They were apparently embarrassed by their brutality.

[Essex62]

Millions, really? Inflated figures. And yet, Soviet power has not disappeared, it has temporarily retreated. The time will come and democracy will return, because there is no more progressive and just form of society than the power of the working people, and not a handful of hangers-on, with "blue" blood and drone priests.

[anclevalico]

You can think whatever you want about opium and the plebs. But with the adoption of Orthodoxy, Rus' rose to its feet, and with the renunciation of it, it will perish. Stalin finally realized this. And then the pragmatists came and decided that the cactus is edible after all.

[Essex62]

Well, yes, well. That's why the prince-godfather was thinking about which religion to accept and force everyone into it. Rus' could easily become Muslim. Apparently, the luxury of the Christian church suited him better.
Death is possible, of course, but the reasons for it will lie in a different plane. Watching how yesterday's "communists" fervently cross themselves, changing their hands from zeal, you begin to suspect how this can happen.

[Amateur]

How could he appear in a temple where only truth reigns?

Is this the temple that had a fresco with S. Shoigu and his thieving deputies, which was then either removed or disguised?
(I. Ilf, E. Petrov. "The Golden Calf")

[parusnik]

This is the temple where there was a fresco with S. Shoigu and his thieving deputies

He is the most..

[odometer]

Mr. Samsonov under a pseudonym? We need more prayers...

[parusnik]

Mr. Samsonov under the pseudonym?

Nooooo, it's Odintsov who crosses communism and Christianity. Of those who don't want to write about how many priests went over to the Reds after the revolution, how many sympathetic priests of the Soviet government and how many unsympathetic ones were destroyed by the Whites, how many churches were plundered by them.. But here's an interesting example. Early in the morning of November 7, 1919, by decision of Denikin's military field court, the Kuban priest Alexei Ivanovich Kulabukhov was executed and hanged on the Fortress Square of Yekaterinodar. A sign was hung on his chest: "For treason to Russia and the Kuban Cossacks." Kulabukhov, a prominent figure in the so-called Kuban Rada, whose troops fought side by side with Denikin's forces, against the Bolsheviks.

[Dutchman Michel]

The policy of the Romanov dynasty during the synodal period of tsarist Russia played a role, turning it into part of the state

The church has always been part of the state. And where secular power ended, spiritual power began, controlled by secular power. The only ones who managed to avoid this were the Protestants of the evangelical churches, who completely rejected priests and had a horizontal management structure.

[tatra]

Now the Church continues its active development. If in 1985 the Russian Orthodox Church had 6 active churches, then in 806 there were 2017.

But the result of the destruction of Soviet ideology and freedom for religion is a monstrous decline in morality and ethics.
A strange article, simultaneously for Stalin and for Stalinophobes, repeating their propaganda.

[Monster_Fat]

The Church has nothing to do with morality and ethics, or even with holiness, because it is managed and maintained by PEOPLE who were initially cursed by the act of the Fall. How not to understand this, I don’t even know. By the way, the scandal that is currently unfolding in the world media, with almost the main church propagandist Illarion, is an example of this.

[Andrei Nikolaevich]

The question of church and state is very, very controversial. But the article is great! Many thanks to the author. I read it in one breath.

[north 2]

There is another mythological theory, different from the mythological theory of the author of the article. It consists of comparing Stalin with the current ruler of Russia. Just as the current ruler, after coming to power, was surrounded by the most influential and powerful Yeltsinites ready to destroy everything old-Soviet in the name of their moral ideas, so Stalin, after coming to power, was surrounded by all-powerful and powerful people ready to destroy and crumble everything old in the name of his ideas. If Stalin, upon coming to power, being in the minority against the majority of destroyers of everything old, had immediately begun to put them up against the wall for such barbarism, then those powerful and influential would have simply killed, destroyed Stalin. That is why Stalin could not resist them when they blew up temples and monasteries in Russia and put priests in camps. But with each year Stalin's power grew stronger and stronger, his and his associates' power cleansed the country of prospectors, destroyed everything old, and only then did those barbarians stop blowing up temples and churches all over Russia and the persecution of religion actually disappeared. But then came the Great Patriotic War.
After the Great Patriotic War, the Khrushchevites, covered in blood up to their shoulders before the military repressions, killed Stalin.
Well, what about the all-powerful Yeltsinites who surrounded and surround the current ruler? The most influential thief Chubais was released for permanent residence in the West. Thieves from the Ministry of Defense are only now starting to be put in prison! The main question remains - who is and what is the name of the modern Khrushchev, where do his modern Khrushchevites sit and how much time is left for the current ruler after the Victory in the Central Military District, just as Stalin did after the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

[parusnik]

There is also a mosaic depicting a flight around Moscow with an icon of the Mother of God.

Probably, to make sure whether it is true or not, then it is probably worth checking? Take the icon of Our Lady of Kazan and fly over the front near Pokrovsk or the occupied part of the Kursk region? What if? Or do miracles happen only once?

[Aviator_]

Or do miracles happen only once?

There is a limit on miracles. No more than once per century. Only after 2041 can you try.

[parusnik]

The limit is tight, no one has ever fed 1000 people with five loaves of bread.

[Aviator_]

The limit is tight, no one has ever fed 1000 people with five loaves of bread.

This is if you don't count Ostap Bender. True, he claimed that there was a big crush.

[VasAndr]

Quote: parusnik

Take the icon of Our Lady of Kazan and fly over the front near Pokrovsk or the occupied part of the Kursk region? What if?

As soon as victory comes, the churchmen will immediately begin to talk about their decisive contribution.

[glock-17]

The author touched on a very slippery topic regarding the extent to which religion can be involved in politics. Even Emperor Constantine considered these things incompatible, since politics is always dirty. That is why he was baptized just before his death. Religious beliefs are a personal matter. In a war, each warring party will say that God is with them.

[paul3390]

That is why he accepted baptism just before his death.

No, it's just that in those days they believed that during baptism all sins committed before it were forgiven. So the cunning emperor waited until the last minute to reset everything at once before his death...

[glock-17]

Yes, this is one of the teachings of Christianity, that at baptism a person becomes a new creation and starts with a clean slate. But the question arose as to how long this slate would be clean and what to do with sins after baptism. Some solved this problem by being baptized just before death.

[VasAndr]

Quote: Glock-17

Even Emperor Constantine considered these things incompatible, since politics is always dirty.

The church is at least the same as the government. And in reality it is dirtier (although nowadays it seems much dirtier), because it is based on lies.

[glock-17]

It all depends on what meaning you put into this word. According to the Bible, the Church is a gathering of believers, not just a religious institution. Atheistic teachings from the evil one are based on lies with the purpose of manipulating the masses, but not the Holy Scripture.

[VasAndr]

Quote: Glock-17

According to the Bible, the Church is a gathering of believers, not just a religious institution.

It may be so according to the Bible, but in fact the church and its ministers are a stronghold of obscurantism, and believers are the flock of the churchmen, on whom they feed.

[BAI]

1.

And wasn’t it the bitterest cup that Peter drank during the war?

Stalingrad suffered more.
2.

God’s punishment is always a manifestation of God’s love for people in the name of their correction…

Love is good. 27. And how many of them are children? He beats, it means he loves. Israel's chosenness cost the Jews dearly.
3.

All power from god

This is the whole Russian Orthodox Church. Ready to lie down under any authority. Including Zelensky.


and in general - logic does not prove anything. It follows from it

[Andrey VOV]

In fact, Zelensky signed a law banning the Russian Orthodox Church on the territory of state 404.

[Gardamir]

An article about Stalin and an article about the church, how can they be combined?
By the way, from the time of Tsar Petka until the revolution, there was no patriarch in the church, the priests were subordinate to the Tsar. And no one remembers anything. And after the revolution, the priests were given freedom, so they were offended.

[parusnik]

An article about Stalin and an article about the church, how can they be combined?

Haven't you noticed that the circle of authors is trying to find a third way? Andrey Biryukov recently suggested to the bourgeoisie to return Soviet norms, another Biryukov, now Viktor, offers the bourgeoisie the values ​​of fascism, revolutionary conservatism, Odintsov, also a "breeder", here he has "everything", autocracy, nationality, Orthodoxy, communism, a kind of hodgepodge... And the article reeks of obscurantism, seasoned with the ideas of socialism.

[Aviator_]

And after the revolution, the priests were given freedom, and so they took offense.

They were offended when they were kicked out of the budget and put on self-financing. That's when the churches suddenly started to fall into disrepair.

[tatra]

The Great Patriotic War was a punishment for the sins of our people:

Another justification of the crimes of Hitler and the Nazis. Like they "have nothing to do with it", and it was all God's doing. The enemies of the USSR do not think at all when they say and write something. And that is why they constantly want to prove one thing, but prove the exact opposite.

[glock-17]

Here the author makes a typical mistake when he tries to judge for God. In the book of Job, Job's friends are convinced that God cannot punish the righteous and call him to repentance. In fact, the meaning of his suffering is completely different. In any case, it is not for us to determine who is to be punished and who is to be tested.

[Alexander Ra]

"They have chosen new gods, that is why there is war at the gates"

- How is this about the new capitalist Russia?

[populist]

The Soviet atheists won the Great Patriotic War. And they defeated the believing Germans and others, also believers (Hungarians, Romanians, Italians, Finns...). The Germans had the inscription "God is with us" on their belt buckles.

[populist]

Mikhail Svetlov
Italian
A black cross on the chest of an Italian
No carving, no pattern, no gloss, -
A poor family stored
And the only son wearable ...
A young native of Naples!
What left you in Russia on the field?
Why couldn't you be happy
Over native famous bay?
I who killed you under Mozdok
So dreamed of a distant volcano!
How I dreamed about the Volga
Take a ride in the gondola just once!
But I didn’t come with a gun
Take away the Italian summer
But my bullets didn’t whistle
Above the holy land of Raphael!
Here I shot! Here where I was born
Where I was proud of myself and my friends,
Where epics about our peoples
Never sound in translations.
Is Middle Don Bend
Studied by foreign scientists?
Our land - Russia, Rasey -
Have you opened and planted?
Not! You brought in echelon
To capture distant colonies,
To cross from the casket from the family
Grew up to the size of a grave ...
I will not let my country take out
For the vastness of the foreign seas!
I shoot - and there is no justice
More fair than my bullet!
You have never lived here and have never been! ..
But scattered in the snow fields
Italian blue sky
Glazed in the dead eyes ...
November 1943, XNUMX

[Aviator_]

The renunciation of God by our fathers and grandfathers brought the USSR to the brink of collapse in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War.

Nonsense. It's a pity that my father, a war veteran, a Komsomol member, an airplane navigator, didn't live to see this nonsense. He would have very quickly explained to the author with two gestures (on the body and in the jaw) where he was wrong.

[Olgovich]

Yes, Stalin reoriented himself well when he was pushed to the limit:
1931 g:

The history of old Russia consisted, among other things, in the fact that that she was constantly beaten . The Mongol khans beat them. The Turkish beks beat them. The Swedish feudal lords beat them. The Polish-Lithuanian lords beat them. The Anglo-French capitalists beat them.

1941 g:

Let the courageous image inspire you in this war our great ancestors - Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dmitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov!

And let's not forget that it was on Stalin's orders that it was blown up main monument cenotaph OV 1812 - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, during which time the Naval Cathedrals-cenotaphs of Kronstadt, Sevastopol and other valuable monuments of the Russian people were destroyed.

[Kolobochok]

Well, Peter seemed to melt down bells to make cannons, didn't he?

[ivan2022]

And Stalin, who did not hold any position in the USSR government at the time, could give such orders as the demolition of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior?

Why the hell did Stalin need to do this if in our glorious society there have always been enough filthy lackeys for any business?
At least in the times of Catherine II, when Russian soldiers destroyed Orthodox monasteries, or in October 2, when brave tankers shot at the All-Russian Congress of People's Deputies without any orders at all. For a thousand bucks.

Heh... heh... Just last year, the "fool air defense officer" allegedly "without orders" killed 10 Russian soldiers in a reconnaissance plane And no one would be outraged... As if that's how it should be. A country of slaves, a country of masters...

[Olgovich]

Quote: ivan2022

And Stalin, who did not hold any position in the USSR government at the time, could give such orders as the demolition of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior?

Why the hell did Stalin need to do this if in our glorious society there have always been enough filthy lackeys for any business?

Poor, disenfranchised Stalin, everyone tyrannized and deceived him!

Why did he even know?

[Fangaro]

"What secrets does the Temple of the Armed Forces hold?"
Could Patriot Park be the harbinger of a new assessment of the Temple and the mysteries surrounding its construction?

[Jacques sekavar]

Before the revolution, the Church was the largest landowner, the richest organization, and a more important support of power than even the army.
The Church met the uprising of its parishioners extremely negatively and fought with all its might against the Soviet government.
In the Church itself, there was also a stratification of the lower classes from the church elite, which did not affect the Church’s policy.
In any war there are manifestations of nobility and the basest deeds, and in the heat of class struggle hatred and the desire for revenge, looting and permissiveness are mixed, and such facts are used by both sides for propaganda purposes.
The Church paid for its active resistance and support of the enemies of Soviet power, but was not banned, but only separated from the state, and the state did not finance the Church, as a result of which most parishes fell into disrepair.
After the coup d'etat and the restoration of capitalism, the Church is once again "on top", financed by the state and, along with the ruling class, participates in the ideological struggle against Marxism, rewriting history, and denigrating the Soviet government and its leaders.

[Mother Theresa]

On February 26 (March 8), 1764, Empress Catherine II issued a decree on church holdings, ending the centuries-long confrontation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state. The decree concerned the issue of church holdings. Its most important provisions were as follows:

All the estates of the Holy Synod, as well as monasteries, parishes and diocesan departments, were transferred to the state College of Economy.
All church institutions were removed from the management of estates, as well as monasteries, parishes and diocesan sees.
The peasants living in the said estates were transferred to the jurisdiction of the College of Economy, and were henceforth called "economic peasants". It should be noted that the said peasants, according to the 1760 census, amounted to 910866 census souls (i.e., only men).
Instead of corvee and quitrents, from January 1 (12), 1764, these peasants were required to pay 1,5 rubles per capita tax, which went to the state treasury directly through the College of Economy.
To support church institutions (monasteries, parishes and diocesan departments) that previously owned land, the College of Economy had to allocate a certain amount.
The dioceses were divided into three classes, their maintenance was assigned depending on the class allocated.
For monasteries, except for those subordinate to the Kyiv Metropolitan (at first), monastic lists were compiled, which included 225 monasteries, divided into 3 classes according to the level of maintenance.

[Jacques sekavar]

Since the Church was separated from the state and deprived of state funding, it was unable to maintain all of its parishes in proper condition and many of them fell into complete decline.
The buildings and structures were capital structures. Some of them were used for the economic needs of the local population, others were used by the Soviet authorities for their own needs - orphanages, dormitories, prisons, clubs, warehouses, etc., and some were demolished based on urban development and other plans.

[ivan2022]

According to the apostolic rules, the Church is obliged to be independent of the state and its financing. The Church is nourished by the gifts of believers, if it is truly a Church.

Do you think Christ called for government funding? He said the opposite: "Distribute your property." Yes... s. People have completely reached the end of their rope, their brains are upside down... Ugh.....

[Mother Theresa]

They were too late; the dispute between the Josephites and the non-possessors had already taken place under Ivan IV.

[Mother Theresa]

I am glad that you admitted the fallacy of your statement that "Before the revolution the Church was the largest owner of land."

[Dozorny severa]

Excellent comment - thank you.

[Mother Theresa]

The church, like any other organization, cannot be without flaws and problems. BUT, all the families that I see in the church have children, two, three. I know that churches help large families with food. At school, children from religious families are the most problem-free, their academic performance is very good. Fidel Castro did not destroy the institution of the church, he met with the Pope and Cuba is still the last socialist state (China, in my opinion, is not). What is interesting is that the West is trying with all its might to "reform" the church, to devalue faith (the Sabbath in Paris is called a "sports festival" is clear evidence of this), the result of these actions we all see. And now look [media=https://vk.com/wall-43618728_2449884?ysclid=m0hwcvmhv70545655] [media=http://ya.ru/video/preview/15742109178763868026]

[Dozorny severa]

Here is a quote from the author: "Decree of January 23, 1918 "On the separation of church from state and school from church." In addition to the separation, nationalization of church property took place."
The terrible blow was that all the idlers and parasites in cassocks were removed from the state payroll? Yes, it was a terrible blow - some even had to work - what atrocities.
The more temples and mosques, the fewer factories and universities.

[Dozorny severa]

Quote: Bolt Cutter

And the villagers are not stupid either. And regarding the land - how did the Russian Federation overtake the USA (with a much more favorable climate) in grain production?

Where did the firewood come from? From the manual? It didn't go anywhere, and the excess grain for export appeared due to the liquidation of 4/5 of livestock, both cattle and sheep and goats (a total of about 80 million heads).
So drink surrogates instead of milk and wear synthetics instead of wool.

[october]

The whole article is a stretch of the imagination. Here is Stalin's attitude to religion in "Conversation with the First American Labor Delegation" on September 9, 1927.
[https://vk.com/wall-465616_508476?ysclid=m0i7jkqs5i393413995]

[BAI]

After Stalin's death, Patriarch Alexy I gave a speech before the memorial service for him, given in the Patriarchal Cathedral

And what did the Church say about the deaths of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin?

[Saxahorse]

The article is strange, to put it mildly.

It is clear that this is a manual, it is clear that this is propaganda, but how can this be done more accurately? Does the author not want, for example, to look at his own graph of the number of Orthodox churches by year? At the figures from 1914 to 1918, for example? The authority of the Russian Orthodox Church during WWI simply collapsed like a stone. No need to start with Soviet decrees, much earlier, literally a couple of days after the February Revolution of 1917, the mandatory formation for prayer in the troops was officially abolished. Attendance immediately fell by 80%!! The unconditional support of the Russian Orthodox Church for the tsarist war propaganda undermined the authority of the church more than any atheists. They started burning churches even before the end of WWI. Not the Bolsheviks, they did not exist yet, the peasants did.

Well, a certain return to indirect support of the church by the Soviet state during WWII is quite understandable. Look at the photos below.. Mass support of Hitler by the Orthodox Church abroad required neutralizing this factor by involving local church representatives in the struggle and propaganda.

[bk0010]

And if this is a myth, how could it appear in a temple where only truth reigns?

Elementary. And regarding "only truth reigns", where did you get that from?

After the 1917 revolution, the atheist government dealt the Church terrible blows, hoping to destroy it completely. The first stage of atheist policy can be attributed to the period 1917-1929, the main document being the Decree of January 23, 1918 "On the separation of church from state and school from church"

Actually, it was the church that declared the Bolsheviks enemies for the decree on separation (when they realized that the state would no longer feed them). Well, they said "no problem!" and began to treat the church as an enemy.

According to the same M. Shkarovsky, by 1941, about 500 thousand people were repressed for their faith (including at least 140 thousand clergy). Of these, 200 thousand were arrested in 1937 (100 thousand were shot). And here it is enough to recall the infamous Butovo firing range.

Definitely for faith, and not for counter-revolutionary activity or theft? And where did he get such figures? From Ogonyok?

And wasn’t it the bitterest cup that Peter drank during the war?

Not the most: remember Stalingrad, Voronezh, etc.

How did the Germans reach Moscow in six months? You can be an atheist - that's one thing, but to be a God-fighter is another. And when a God-fighter suddenly meets God, something completely different happens - a terrible epiphany.

What are you saying?! Were there persecutions of the church in the Czech Republic too? And in France? Or in Denmark? Why were they carried out in a flash then?

Couldn't the same thing have happened to the former seminarian I. Dzhugashvili when he saw that the Germans were marching on Moscow? Didn't he understand that it's hard to kick against the pricks?

Of course not. He was a seminarian and had no illusions. You are right in what you write: reducing persecution of religion (not only Orthodoxy) was one of the requirements for the provision of Lend-Lease.

Already the first census in the USSR in the terrible year of 1937 revealed that the majority of the population – 56,7% – were believers.

Where is this figure from? A link would be nice...

On June 22, 1941, on the day the war began, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), addressed the people with a message for the first time in many years. His message stated:

But the head of the ROCOR, Metropolitan Anastassy, ​​supported Hitler in every way and was against the USSR. What are we going to do?

The Bishop contacted representatives of the Russian Church and the Soviet authorities and conveyed everything that had been determined.

None of the above was done, but they still won. For what purpose did you quote these words?

[Yuras_Belarus]

Nothing new. Another text from anti-Sovietists and anti-communists. Well, accordingly, the call is "For faith, tsar and Fatherland".

[VasAndr]

The article is clearly commissioned, paid for by the churchmen and the rotten government. It is not for nothing that the main attention is paid to the Great Patriotic War, because now there is also a war. The priests have attributed all the merits for the victory of 1945 to themselves. Considering us idiots, they tell tales about how, supposedly, faith turned out to be the main force in all victories and achievements, and all the troubles and defeats occurred from atheism or weak faith. What impudent scum.
The author is no less cynical in trying to please everyone, to sit not even on 2, but on 3 or more chairs. Won't his ass crack? Respecting such authors is not respecting yourself. Under Stalin, he would have been imprisoned and that would have been right. Well, the current government may even reward him.
I felt like I was covered in shit after reading this opus. Disgusting.

[VasAndr]

WHY DON'T ICONS HELP AGAINST DRONES?

In recent weeks, the Bandera regime's drones have been able to attack targets in a number of Russian regions. Even objects in the Kirov region have been attacked. People are perplexed - why is this happening? And it is not only ordinary citizens who are outraged.

Well-known military expert and permanent member of the Izborsk Club Vladislav Shurygin burst into an angry tirade on his Telegram channel:

"The VKS command has long been slaving away at a "two" for air defense! Such pigeon-like flights of slow-moving aircraft-type drones are a complete disgrace!

In the USSR, the entire top command of the air defense forces was removed for the flight of a similar aircraft, controlled by the adventurer Rust. But for us today, this is only a reason to be surprised: "Oh, how far he got!"

I want to ask - where is your air defense fighter aviation? Where are your aerostat radar lines? Or are you still being saved by the euphemisms of the press and governors about "drone fragments" that set fire to strategic fuel storage facilities? Well, PR doesn't cure gonorrhea!"

where... You don't have to be a military analyst to learn from Internet sources that the Air Defense Forces as a separate branch of the armed forces existed in Russia until 1998, when Russian President Boris Yeltsin demanded a sharp reduction in the combat and numerical strength of the armed forces. And over the next 12 years (that is, already under the current president), the Air Defense Forces practically ceased to exist as a single system. The number of fighter regiments was reduced eightfold, and anti-aircraft missile regiments tenfold!

Well, here is the result... And what in return? Let me remind you of the news from last year:

"On May 17-18, 2023, the aviation forces of the National Guard troops and the sector for interaction with the Russian National Guard of the Synodal Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies carried out overflights with the miraculous icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov over the territories of the Russian Federation located in the zone of potential threat from enemy unmanned aerial vehicles. The overflights were carried out on an Il-76 military transport aircraft and a Mi-8 military helicopter; the head of the Russian National Guard sector, priest Roman Bogdasarov, read prayers for Holy Rus', St. Seraphim of Sarov and the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas.

The icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov, with which the flights were carried out, was painted immediately after the canonization of Seraphim of Sarov in 1903. A year later, Emperor Nicholas II blessed the soldiers of the Zakatala Regiment with this image, leaving for the Russo-Japanese War."

Laugh or cry... Why didn't the miraculous icon help to divert either Bandera's UAVs or Ukrainian Nazi units from our territory... Can any of the organizers of this event explain why this happened? Many other questions arise, for example: who will pay for the banquet with expensive flights of the Emergencies Ministry Il-76 aircraft and the Russian National Guard Mi-8 helicopter, which were used together with their crews to fly many hundreds of kilometers and burned hundreds of thousands of rubles worth of kerosene without any positive result?

Or perhaps one of the readers who knows a thing or two about theology will tell me: if the icon used during the flyover did not “work” in the shamefully lost Russo-Japanese War by the tsarist regime, then was it worth expecting a positive result even from the point of view of a believer?

It seems that such "events" are needed, if at all, only as a convincing illustration of the truthfulness of Soviet atheistic propaganda. Now everyone should understand that it is not icons and prayers that help, but clear organization, modern technology and knowledge.

After all, a hundred years ago, Russian people were convinced on their own skin that modern technology cannot be replaced by prayers! And they made the appropriate conclusions, including organizational ones. And then our army under the red flag reached Berlin, Vienna and Port Arthur. At the same time, having strangled the Ukrainian nationalists.

By the way, neither before 1917, nor in modern times, all these “bonds” can protect the army from another scourge — general corruption. Today it was reported that another high-ranking general was arrested. And his son, as it turns out, sold military clothing and ammunition on the Internet. But all these already arrested generals went to church, were baptized, and communicated with priests. How is that possible? However, that is another story…

Alexander Stepanov

Ruins of one of the air defense units in Karelia. Photo from social networks:

[oleg Pesotsky]

What nonsense! Once again mossy and completely discredited ideas and meanings are being brought to light. Here the President of Russia and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief gave icons to generals at meetings, I want to ask - well, did it help? Well, the fact that only atheists are depicted on the frescoes in the temple of the RF Armed Forces is a paradox. My Grandfather went through the war from 41 to 45 and I once asked him about faith at the front, he simply answered - What do I care about him? He won't throw ammunition into my trench from above.

[ivan2022]

This is a correct remark. In fact, it has been known since WWI that war not only makes atheists believers, but also makes believers atheists. After everything they saw in the war.

It’s just that modern priests, due to the excess of state funding, have completely lost their bearings and are talking nonsense that is detrimental to faith.

[G17]

We paved the way for humanity into Space not with an icon in our hands and blind faith in our heads, but with Knowledge. Throughout the text, the author laments the liquidation of churches in the USSR. Why did the people need them when a new school, factory, research institute was being built in their place? What is better now when the number of churches and mosques in Russia is constantly increasing, while the number of schools and hospitals is constantly decreasing? Religion should be under the control of the state, and not replace it or oppose it. Stalin understood this. Therefore, he did not build an atheistic society (as religious myth-makers like to lie), but a free and secular society, responsible for its own Destiny. Who believes in what is his own business. But society and the state must be secular, separated from any religion.

[Old electrician]

According to the same M. Shkarovsky, by 1941, about 500 thousand people were repressed for their faith (including at least 140 thousand clergy). Of these, 200 thousand were arrested in 1937 (100 thousand were shot). And here it is enough to recall the infamous Butovo firing range.

– I didn’t continue reading the author’s Russophobic libel.
Dear author! Before writing utter nonsense, you should look into historical sources instead of quoting anti-Soviet propaganda.
According to the annual "Russian Calendar" on January 1, 1915, the entire territory of the Russian Empire was 112629 people of the clergy, of which priests - 51105 people, deacons - 15035 and psalmists - 46489. I will repeat once again: in 1915, there were 112629 clergy in the Russian Empire. Of these, 51105 were priests. Of this number, an indefinite number of clergy remained outside the territory of the USSR (Bessarabia, Poland, the Baltic countries and Finland) and fled with the White Guards. To increase the total, let's add the population of monasteries to the remaining clergy. By 1917, there were about one hundred thousand of them in the Russian Empire, including novices, laborers and novices. Thus, in total, even by the most optimistic estimates, it is impossible to scrape together 200 thousand clergy and monks for arrests and executions. It should be added that by 1925, all theological academies and seminaries in the USSR were closed. That is, the number of clergy and monks by 1937 had naturally decreased for natural reasons (we are all mortal), but could not increase in any way. Odintsov! How did you manage to arrest and shoot 140 thousand clergy for their faith? Did you include in this number workers who successfully retired?
In order for someone to be shot for their faith, a corresponding article of the Criminal Code is needed. There are only two articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR in the 1926 edition (in effect until the time of Nikita the Wonderworker), in which the word "religious" appears:

Art. 59.7. Propaganda or agitation aimed at inciting national or religious hatred or discord, as well as the distribution or production and storage of literature of the same nature, shall entail—
imprisonment for up to two years.
Art. 204. Compulsory collection of taxes for religious and everyday purposes with the obvious use of the dependence of the payers, arising from the relations of tribal life,
Correctional labor for up to six months or a fine of up to one thousand rubles

In addition to these two articles, I will quote Chapter Four of this criminal code in full:

Chapter Four. Violation of the rules on the separation of church and state.
Art. 122. Teaching religious doctrines to minors or underage children in state or private educational institutions and schools or in violation of the rules established for this purpose shall entail—
Correctional labor for up to one year.
Art. 123. The commission of fraudulent acts with the purpose of arousing superstition among the masses of the population in order to obtain some benefit in this way -
Correctional labor for up to one year with confiscation of part of the property or a fine of up to five hundred rubles.
Art. 124. Compulsory collection of taxes for the benefit of churches and religious groups -
Correctional labor for up to six months or a fine of up to three hundred rubles.
Art. 125. The appropriation by religious or church organizations of administrative, judicial or other public-law functions and rights of legal entities -
Correctional labor for up to six months or a fine of up to three hundred rubles.
Art. 126. The performance of religious rites in state and public institutions and enterprises, as well as the placement of any religious images in these institutions and enterprises,
Correctional labor for up to three months or a fine of up to three hundred rubles.
Art. 127. Obstruction of the performance of religious rites, insofar as they do not violate public order and are not accompanied by encroachments on the rights of citizens,
"corrective labor for up to six months."

.
That's all there was about religion in the Criminal Code of 1926, which was in effect until 1960. And where is there anything about executions for faith?
No one disputes that a certain number of clergy and monks were shot under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. This article actually constitutes an entire chapter of the Criminal Code and includes a number of subparagraphs.

58.2.
An armed uprising or invasion of Soviet territory by armed bands for counterrevolutionary purposes, the seizure of power in the center or at the local level for the same purposes and, in particular, with the aim of forcibly seizing from the USSR or a separate union republic any part of its territory or terminating treaties concluded by the USSR with foreign states, shall entail—
the highest measure of social protection - execution or declaration of an enemy of the workers with confiscation of property and deprivation of citizenship of the union republic and, thus, citizenship of the USSR and expulsion from the borders of the USSR forever, with the admission, under mitigating circumstances, of a reduction to imprisonment for a term of not less than three years, with confiscation of all or part of the property. (June 6, 1927 (SU No. 49, Art. 330)).
58.3.
Communications for counterrevolutionary purposes with a foreign state or its individual representatives, as well as assistance in any way whatsoever to a foreign state that is in a state of war with the USSR or is waging a struggle against it through intervention or blockade, shall entail—
social protection measures specified in Article 582 of this Code. (June 6, 1927 (SU No. 49, Article 330)).

Just don't tell me fairy tales about innocently repressed sheep. The priests consciously served the interventionists, the White Guard counterintelligence, participated in all the conspiracies against the Soviet power. Any spy or saboteur knew that he could find in the church not only food and shelter, but also weapons. For proof of this, look at the modern clergy. Find among them at least one who is not anti-Soviet.
Mass executions of innocent clergymen began with the advent of Perestroika in 1937. The count began immediately with hundreds of thousands of those shot, and then reached 5-6 million.
At the end of 1992, the head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the CPSU Central Committee, member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee A.N. Yakovlev was appointed head of the government Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression. Speaking of birds. Being a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Yakovlev was also a CIA agent. This follows at least from the fact that during his time as ambassador to Canada, he spent more money on personal needs than was allocated for the entire embassy. However, Yakovlev got away with this, as did his obvious anti-Sovietism.
Having headed the commission, Yakovlev turned to the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute for information on the number of those repressed. They also did not know exactly how many people were repressed, but they pulled out of thin air that 1937 were arrested for their faith in 136.900 alone, of whom 85.300 were shot; in 1938, 28.300 were arrested, 21.500 were shot; in 1939, 1.500 were arrested, 900 were shot; in 1940, 5.100 were arrested, 1.100 were shot; in 1941, 4.000 were arrested, 1.900 were shot. In total, it comes to approximately 175 thousand arrested clergy.
These calculations have absolutely nothing to do with the archival data. Yakovlev, in turn, was quite satisfied with the scale of these figures and did not intend to check them. Later, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church began to refer to Yakovlev's figures as official data, "forgetting" that these were fake data from the Russian Orthodox Church itself. After that, the lump of lies only grew.

[PavelT]

Author!
You know Why Stalin left the seminary and why he hated it?
You know who exactly (by name) taught him there?
Surely not.

This data (who taught there) is nowhere - it is simply erased, as the most important things in history are always erased. But those who taught Stalin and caused him to hate and disdain religion. Stalin himself wrote: "Another thing is the theological seminary where I studied at the time. Out of protest against the mocking regime and Jesuit methods that existed in the seminary, I was ready to become and actually did become a revolutionary, a supporter of Marxism…"There in the seminary there was discipline by the rod, surveillance, snitching squared, and so on...

And the Russian Orthodox Church is almost not to blame for this; it was not the priests/monks of the Russian Orthodox Church who taught there, but other people.
But in the Russian Orthodox Church these facts were also swept under the carpet instead, they are pushing the story on the people that Stalin secretly loved the church, although from his entire biography the opposite is obvious.
But you will simply push this nonsense about Stalin's love for the church for the sake of the Russian Orthodox Church against the facts. How are you trying to justify this delirious church lie with the flying over of the icon of the front on the eve of the battle for Moscow here... It is not clear why you have to stoop so low...

The turning point in Stalin's persecution of the church in 1943 and especially the reason for this turning point are of course a secret for us, erased by the state. Why? Because it is shameful for the state from the point of view of moralists/propagandists (not from my point of view). That is why it was simply erased from our history.
Completely.
As well as data on that, with what amount of gold did the USSR enter the war, how much gold and to whom did it send, how much was left after that terrible war, how many loans did it take out, how and when did it pay it off. You won't find this data anywhere!
Read A.G. Mosyakin (https://www.livelib.ru/author/544123-aleksandr-mosyakin) - he has been digging for gold on this issue for years, dug up a lot, but he still has no answers. This is interesting and important, and not the religious tales of ancient Hebrews.

The answer to the question of why Stalin abruptly changed his attitude toward the church in 1943 is simple: the US elite put pressure on him with lend-lease, loans, and money. This is written by British researcher Mark Harrison, the best specialist in military economics, on the expenditures of the countries participating in World War II. https://vk.com/wall-32176202_1443022
"US President Hoover, and then Roosevelt maneuvered between the American right, who demanded not to cooperate with the USSR. The US right had a lot of grievances. This included the persecution of the church in the USSR. This included the persecution of the Poles (their expulsion from the Western Region after 1934) - there was a large Polish community in the US, and it was necessary to adapt to its interests. This included the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and again problems with Poland (its division). This included the annexation of the Baltic countries, and then the war with Finland - here the influential and large community of Scandinavians in the US was outraged (by that time, about 400 thousand ethnic Finns alone had moved to the US).
But the greatest pressure came from believers in the United States. Exactly andBecause of America's ultimatum, Stalin allowed the church in 1943 – Roosevelt explained that he had to be re-elected as president in 1944, and he could no longer feed the rightists with promises that religiosity would be returned to the USSR." Roosevelt himself didn't give a damn about religion (he was a pragmatist), but the elections, alas, obliged...

[ivan2022]

Original: "The believers of the USA didn't give a damn that Roosevelt didn't give a damn about them, but Stalin really worried them."

Stalin had no need to allow religion in the USSR. Because under Lenin no one banned it. They simply did not want to accept at first that the Church was deprived of the status of a legal entity in the USSR and the usual business became impossible.


On the state side, the laws of the USSR did not prohibit religion, but the servile morals of society always "ran ahead of the locomotive." - that's what it was. In the same way, the Communist Party is not prohibited by law today, but in fact it is being persecuted.

It's all about the ROC leaders themselves, not the believers from the US. You "missed the elephant"

The priests realized that it was better not to be at odds with the state, especially since the ROCOR had finally turned into a gathering of traitors during WWII. If earlier there were still benefits from cooperation, then in the 40s cooperation with the ROCOR became madness. The priests themselves went for rapprochement with the authorities... Stalin would never have bowed to them. No way! So in the question of who could bend whom, you are very wrong.

Regarding the "secret loans" of the USSR - it's a lie. Simply because even in the 90s these dense tales had very modest success.

This is about the same joke as "Lenin received money from the German General Staff for the revolution and the creation of the USSR", but even Hitler for some reason did not know about this....

[PavelT]

Where did I write that "Stalin bowed to the priests"???
I didn't say that and neither did this Mark Harrison.

He simply claims that Stalin bowed to Roosevelt's demands because Roosevelt (the US) had lend-lease, technology, money, credits... and it was necessary to wage war.
Nothing strange, just a compromise that is unpleasant for ideology and propaganda.
Putin is also now making compromises with the USA - only a blind person can't see it. Our uranium is still being supplied to the USA, to their enemy and the main sponsor of the Ukrainians! Will you also claim that this is not so??? And now the situation is easier than Stalin had in 1943. However, they also caved in to the USA.

I completely agree with your opinion about the ROCOR. The Pskov story alone is worth something...

The fact that Roosevelt didn't give a shit about religion is purely my guess. He was a non-religious person by and large and very pragmatic, a genius manipulator and organizer. Such people usually don't believe in the alleged power of a crucified Jewish rabbi. But they feign religiosity during elections... that's how it is for the sake of votes.

Regarding the "secret loans" of the USSR - it's a lie

Well, well. Then find information about the USSR's gold reserves during the war...
Good luck! This information is nowhere to be found, there is no explanation as to why this is so, all historians (except a couple) are keeping their mouths shut. A taboo subject. Until now!

Lenin received money from the German General Staff for the revolution and the creation of the USSR

I received money for the revolution, not personally, but I did receive it. Of course, I didn't receive money for the creation of the USSR - the Germans didn't care what would happen (or not happen) in place of Russia.
It is absurd to deny what has already been proven.

You might as well tell me that the Bolsheviks did not send money and gold to the Germans in Germany under the secret additional protocols to the Brest Peace after the assassination of Ambassador Mirbach! Because the communists shamefully hid this... and they don't like to mention this in history:

"The assassination of Ambassador Mirbach on 6 July created a new crisis. As a result, the authorities of the German Empire made a last attempt to put their relations with Soviet Russia on a more solid basis, concluding an additional (secret) bilateral agreement with the Bolsheviks on 27 August. According to the financial part of this agreement, the RSFSR was obliged to pay - as compensation "for the damage caused as a result of Russian actions" and the costs of maintaining prisoners of war - a contribution of 6 billion marks (2,75 billion rubles): including 1,5 billion marks in gold (245,5 tons) and money (545 million rubles), 2,5 billion marks in credit obligations, and another 1 billion in deliveries of raw materials and goods. Payments in gold, money and goods were to be made by 31 March 1920 [248]. In September, the Soviet government sent two "gold echelons" containing 93,5 tons of gold; This delivery was the only one left"
Then the British and French took this gold from the Germans after their victory in WWI.
Did you know about this?

[Illanatol]

Quote: PavelT

But the greatest pressure came from the believers in the USA. It was because of the American ultimatum that Stalin allowed the church in 1943 – Roosevelt explained that he had to run for president again in 1944,

This is sheer nonsense, however. Stalin did not need to "permit" the church in 1943, since no one had banned the church, there were only restrictions on religious propaganda. In 1943, Stalin returned the patriarchate, which Peter the Great had annulled (replacing it with the Synod).
As for the "believers of the USA", this country was dominated by Protestants and sectarians of various stripes (Mormons, for example), who didn't give a damn about the "Orthodox" (Byzantine) branch of Christianity from a skyscraper.
Stalin acted pragmatically, based on internal motives: the people had to be consolidated to the maximum, glossing over (even if only temporarily) all the differences and contradictions within society, including in the spiritual sphere. The factor of external influence was minimal.

[PavelT]

As for the "believers of the USA", this country was dominated by Protestants and sectarians of various stripes (Mormons, for example), who didn't give a damn about the "Orthodox" (Byzantine) branch of Christianity from a skyscraper.

Ha! These showdowns between Christian denominations are funny of course (there are tons of videos of Greeks, Armenians and other Orthodox priests beating each other's faces every Easter in Jerusalem because of the queue in the procession and because of disputes in other rituals, and Israeli policemen separate them), but they did not prevent them from eventually uniting against atheists and other religions (Islam, for example).

Moreover, Christians even unite with Jews in their desire to hide the unpleasant in their common history! They together carefully hide how many they killed each other (half a million at least!) during the religious showdowns between the Byzantines and the Jews of the 525rd-0th centuries, how Byzantium and Aksum staged the "zeroth crusade" against the Jews in Himyar in 5 (https://cyclowiki.org/wiki/%D0%A8%D0%B1%D8%BC%D1%8C%D1%80F%D0%0%D0%BE-%D0%B1%D81%BA%D1%83%D0%1%D81%BC%D0%0%D0%BA%D1%B8%D0%2F_%D0%B0%D9%BE%D0%B0%D0%BD%DXNUMX%BXNUMX) and where a considerable number of Samaritans went (a generally unpleasant story, just genocide).

Here is the same crap: I agree that Mormons and Protestants don’t give a damn in the NORMAL SITUATION about the Orthodox and so on. I don't give a damn about them either.
But here the situation is unusual: communists are much more disgusting to any Christians!

And to the Nazis too!
What did the main Nazi specialist in religion in the occupied territories, Alfred Rosenberg, do? He also planted churches, and the most fragmented ones at that: https://nvo.ng.ru/history/2003-11-19/6_histori.html
The Nazis They even helped the Orthodox Church Abroad in Pskov. Just to spite the communists, Stalin and fool the people in the captured Soviet territories, to make them submissive. Here is the transfer by the occupation authorities of the Reich of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God (seized by the German army from the monastery in Tikhvin) to the Pskov Spiritual Mission, Pskov, March 22, 1942: https://youtu.be/guDLQBI56pk?t=53 Here is that mission with the Nazis: www.pravoslavie.ru/sas/image/100233/23392.p.jpg

If EVEN the Nazis needed Orthodoxy on the captured land, then why shouldn't American Christians (Mormons, Protestants, Quakers) demand the same from the USSR? Simply to bend the communists, to create spiritual/ideological competition for them within the USSR.

[Illanatol]

Quote: PavelT

I didn't say that and neither did this Mark Harrison.

He simply claims that Stalin bowed to Roosevelt's demands because Roosevelt (the US) had lend-lease, technology, money, credits... and it was necessary to wage war.

This Harrison is driving this blizzard, what an authority for me.
Yes, the USSR had to wage war, but was it only the USSR that needed it? What if the USSR had signed a separate peace with the Reich, similar to the Brest peace? Then Germany, whose forces in 1943 were not yet completely exhausted, could have come to the aid of Japan, with which the US was waging a tense war. Would the US have gained much from such a turn of events? In short, the dependence of the allies in the anti-Nazi coalition was mutual, which both Stalin and Roosevelt understood perfectly well. The US could not have curtailed Lend-Lease under any circumstances, it would have been simply dangerous for themselves. So Stalin was not inclined at all, and Mark Harrison is simply puffing out his cheeks in favor of historical myths that are so pleasing to the American elite.

[PavelT]

What if the USSR had signed a separate peace with the Reich, similar to the Brest peace?

Nonsense. This was impossible in principle. Hitler hated communists and would not agree to any peace. Stalin understood this perfectly well and would not have tried.

Here you write: "The US could not have ended Lend-Lease under any circumstances; it would have been simply dangerous for them."There was nothing dangerous for them at all in that war: they were far away, overseas, had a lot of money, resources, technology, and control of the ocean. By the end of the war, they had armed and deployed as many as 12 million people in the US Armed Forces (the largest army in the history of the world), without slowing down industry. They soldered everyone, made money off everyone, and then pushed the extra dollars (printed during the war) outside. There was profit from all sides... If the USSR had not taken those resources, ammunition, and equipment, they would have simply sent more to Britain and China, which would have been useful for the cause (China could have easily used up the entire Lend-Lease for the USSR).

Stalin was bent over not only with the church, but also with the religion of the USA back then (in 1943-44). At the same time, they forced him to disband the Comintern. https://dzen.ru/a/X1ctnLcgRwnwWETj https://rg.ru/2023/10/18/sekrety-kominterna.html (at the end). Will you deny this too?

Then after the war (during?) there were obviously loans from the USA. Or serious attempts to get them. Pavel Sudoplatov writes about this in passing in his memoirs "Intelligence and the Kremlin" (pp. 332-335) - he is not particularly interested in this, it was simply connected with the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, where NKVD agents Mikhoels and Fefer worked, Beria personally instructed them BEFORE their trip to the USA. They persuaded everyone in the USA to issue a loan, but in the USA this loan was tied to the formation of a Jewish autonomy in Crimea, "Crimean California" as the Americans called it. As Kheifets told Sudoplatov, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce Eric Johnston, whom Stalin received in June 1943 (along with the US ambassador), was especially interested in this project.
Then it is obvious that Stalin caved in to the US on the issues of the creation, location and rules of the UN in 1945-49. As a result, the UN became an instrument with which the US directs countries in the direction they need and manipulates the international agenda.
Was Stalin really so stupid that he didn’t see why the UN was being created???
I don't believe it. But it is quite possible that he did it in exchange for loans. But there is no information anywhere about loans of that time for the USSR. Not even about attempts to get them, not to mention the volume, terms of payment and %. For me it is strange. Why don't they write about this?

And why not declassify everything about the USSR's gold reserves before the war, during the war and after the war??? What's secret there? Why is this data still nowhere to be found?
Gold is generally the most secret thing in world finance. A simple example: do you know about the tsarist gold abroad (1914-1917) and about the sale of the rest of the tsarist gold from the RSFSR by the Bolsheviks in 1920-22? About the "locomotive scam" of Yu. V. Lomonosov in Sweden? Here in detail: https://flb.ru/3/4189.html

[Illanatol]

Quote: PavelT

If the USSR had not taken those resources, ammunition and equipment, they would have simply sent more to Britain and China for the benefit of the cause (China could have easily taken over the entire Lend-Lease for the USSR).

Fairy tales. England had already received the most from Lend-Lease, there was no point in giving more: weapons do not fight on their own, soldiers are needed, the English simply did not have enough of them. The English ground forces were never really numerous.
There was no point in giving more to China either: there were a lot of people, but they were mostly illiterate peasants, incapable of using modern weapons. The Chinese had practically no aviation, and it was not created in China right away even after the war.
It was the USSR that was most useful - many good, steadfast soldiers, capable of mastering military equipment in large quantities.

[P]

idealism leaves some heads only with the cessation of life activity. Fortunately, in critical moments of history it contributes to precisely this outcome

[ivan2022]

For example, such an idealistic idea as “all troubles come from idealists.”

Some heads need to be hit very hard on the head for another idea to get through to them: "All troubles come from thieves and traitors." But so far, apparently, they haven't been hit hard enough.

[P]

Not all troubles come from idealists, but the thesis "All troubles come from thieves and traitors" would never have been acutely relevant if the "thieves and traitors" did not have a crowd of idealists.

[Illanatol]

Quote: PavelT

Nonsense. This was impossible in principle. Hitler hated communists and would not agree to any peace. Stalin understood this perfectly well and would not have tried.

Of course, the Kaiser loved the communists, that's why he signed the Brest Peace with them. And Churchill also loved the communists very much, that's why he entered into a military alliance with them. Your argument is beside the point, political and ideological differences do not exclude such agreements.

Quote: PavelT

For them, there was nothing dangerous in that war: they were far away, beyond the oceans, had a lot of money, resources, technology, and control of the ocean. By the end of the war, they had armed and deployed 12 million people in the US Armed Forces (the largest army in the history of the world), without slowing down industry.

This is just your IMHO. If the USSR washed its hands of it, they would have to fight not only Japan, but also Germany plus the pro-German riffraff. The war would have been much harder for the US, even if successful, control over Europe (for which the US entered the war) was problematic.

The Axis armies (Germany + Japan + Italy) together numbered over 12 million in 1943.
In the event of the USSR's withdrawal from the war, German industry could be partially reoriented to the production of surface ships and an increase in submarine production. The balance at sea could be changed to the detriment of the Yankees.

[Illanatol]

Quote: PavelT

Stalin was bent over not only with the church, but also with religion in the USA back then (in 1943-44). At the same time, they forced him to disband the Comintern

Nobody forced him, it was Stalin's own initiative. The Comintern had long since outlived its usefulness, as had the idea of ​​a "world revolution" (Stalin rejected it as Trotsky's legacy). It was used for a time as a cover for an intelligence network in Western countries, but by 1943 other, alternative structures had been created, much less expensive in terms of financing.
Nobody betrayed Stalin; the IVS knew how to defend the interests of the state.

[Illanatol]

Quote: PavelT

Then it is obvious that Stalin caved in to the US on the issues of the creation, location and rules of the UN in 1945-49. As a result, the UN became an instrument with which the US directs countries in the direction they need and manipulates the international agenda.

There was no bending. The USSR joined the Security Council, and with the right of veto.
The USSR is the only state in the UN that had THREE votes (even the USA had one vote).
At the insistence of the USSR, the allied PRC joined the Security Council (taking away representation from Kuomintang Taiwan), as did de Gaulle’s France, with which the USSR had good relations.
Before the collapse of the USSR and the socialist camp, the US had no monopoly on UN activities. In post-Soviet times, the UN and the Security Council have become powerless talking shops that do not have the necessary weight and significance in real politics. Just decorations and dummies...

[Illanatol]

Quote: PavelT

If EVEN the Nazis needed Orthodoxy on the captured land, then why shouldn't American Christians (Mormons, Protestants, Quakers) demand the same from the USSR? Simply to bend the communists, to create spiritual/ideological competition for them within the USSR.

So, how strong was the competition between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union? What did it consist of?
There was no organization more loyal to the Soviet system than the Russian Orthodox Church. Priests held prayers, asking God to grant victories and success to the Soviet Army. I will not even mention the connections between church hierarchs and the KGB...

[grossmeister2013]

While we have the Great Pretender on the throne in Russia.

[gusev_sa]

Some kind of perestroika nonsense. Repressions of command personnel as one of the reasons for the defeat and other, other nonsense. The author, like a cockroach in a spit, is stuck in the 90s.