Inside the New Russia

By Vitaly Michka

Only the Russians live in Russia, right?"

"It is very cold over there, isn't it?"

"Who are these Russians?"

You will find answers to these and other similar questions in this book. We worked hard so you can have first-hand information about Russia. We encourage you to go ahead and explore this beautiful country with its good people who are often taken for enemies simply because their government was "red."

The comprehensive and easy-to-use index will help you instantly locate any specific Republic or ethnic group you would be interested in. We've also included maps and illustrations to provide a more complete picture of the country and those who inhabit it.

We hope that you will be able to see live people behind the black letters on white paper, and that this acquired knowledge will change your attitude toward "Russians" for the better. Read the book, you will not regret it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: SC Publishing
• Release date: Feb 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201115227

Book preview

Introduction

Only the Russians live in Russia, right?

It is very cold over there, isn’t it?

Who are these Russians?

You will find answers to these and other similar questions in this book. We worked hard so you can have first-hand information about Russia. We encourage you to go ahead and explore this beautiful country with its good people who are often taken for enemies simply because their government was red.

The comprehensive and easy-to-use index will help you instantly locate any specific Republic or ethnic group you would be interested in. We’ve also included maps and illustrations to provide a more complete picture of the country and those who inhabit it.

We hope that you will be able to see live people behind the black letters on white paper, and that this acquired knowledge will change your attitude toward Russians for the better. Read the book, you will not regret it!

Vitaly Michka

Executive Director

of SC Publishing;

Inside the New Russia

Project Director

Table of Contents

––––––––

Preface

Part One Introduction

Religion in the CIS

Christianity in Russia

The Bible of the Slavs

Part Two Republics

Part Three Ethnic Groups

Bibliography

Preface

Inside the New Russia is a reference book containing much in-depth information about the Commonwealth of Independent States and the people living within its boundaries. The book helps the reader to understand who the people of the CIS are and why they became the nation they are today. The information they are searching for.

Part One is a collection of three articles about the Russian Church, the spread of Christianity, and the Slavic Bible. The first article, Religion and the Church in the CIS, explains the formation of the various religious trends within the CIS. This in-depth article used both facts and figures to help the reader come to understand the major events of the church.

Christianity in Russia, the second article, gives a historical overview about the spread of Christianity throughout Russia from the third century to the present day. This article is filled with information concerning the trials and victories of the various Christians who gave their all for the Cross and its cause.

In the final article, The Bible of the Slavs, the reader is introduced to the history of the Slavic Bible. The article takes the readers back to the Bible’s very beginning and leads them through many bits of intriguing information about the Slavic Bible to what it represents today.

The next section, Part Two, is entitled The Former Republics. In this area the reader will find various graphs, charts, maps, and illustrations. All of these will provide quick and valuable information about the ethnic population and its breakdown, territorial information and geographical locations as well as various bits of national statistics.

The third and final section of this book is about the ethnic groups within the CIS. Each group is alphabetically listed to assist in quickly locating the group in question. Within each people’s area, information about their history, culture, and traditions are provided. It also contains facts about their national styles of clothing and religion.

Putting the three sections together will provide thorough information to assist the reader with a better understanding of the history, the people, and the CIS as a nation.

Part One: Introduction

Religion and Church in the CIS

On the territory of CIS there exist Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and some denomination groups as well.

The most widespread religion among believers is Christianity which has more than 10 independent churches, a number of denominations, and non-registered groups in great numbers.

The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest religious organization both in CIS and among independent Orthodox Churches of the world. Its supreme power belongs to the Synod. It is convened as required in the presence of all the bishops, including foreign ones, who are under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchy, and the representatives of the secular clergy and believers.

Old Belief is historically divided into three independent trends: Church of Belokrinitsa Concord headed by Moscow and all Russian Archbishop; Church of Beglopopov Concord, i.e. the church accepting the clergy who passed on from Greek-Oriental (Orthodox) Church and which is headed by Novozybkovsky, Moscow and All Russian Archbishop; Church of Bespopov Persuasion ignoring church hierarchy functions in different regions independently, but in Lithuania it is governed by Supreme Old Belief Council.

The Georgian Orthodox Church is governed by a Patriarch under the guidance of whom Mtsheta Theological Seminary functions.

Armenian-Georgian Church unites eparchies and religious communities of Armenian believers living in CIS and abroad. The Church is headed by All Armenian Patriarch. The Theological Academy is also under his guidance.

On the territory of Ukraine there is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church represented mainly in the Western regions of Ukraine.

The Roman-Catholic Church has communities of different types. Thus, in Lithuania Catholic parishes are divided between six religious centers: Vilnius Archeparchy, Vilkavishkis, Kaunas, Kaishadoris, Panevezhis and Telshai Eparchies. In Latvia Catholic parishes are united by Riga Archdiocese. In Zakarpattya there is the vicarage of Roman-Catholic Church (its residence is in Uzhgorod). There are Catholic parishes in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan as well, but this Church does not have a united center.

The Evangelical-Lutheran Church (of the Augsburg denomination) is functioning in Baltic regions. It has three independent centers-consistories. In Latvia and Estonia they are headed by archbishops, and in Lithuania – by Consistory Chairman-President.

The Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists is headed by the All Union Council (its residence is in Moscow) which is elected at the congresses of believers.

In Lithuania there are communities of believers of Evangelical-Reformatory Church headed by Consistory and its President; in Estonia – of Methodist Church headed by Council Chairman-Superintendent; and in Zakarpattya – of Reformatory (Calvinist) Church headed by Bishop.

In some regions of CIS there are religious groupings: followers of old forms of Russian religious dissidence (dukhobors, molokans, holy eunuchs), and also confessions of West European origin of Protestant type (7th day Adventists, Pentecostals and others). They were spread on the territory of the Russian Empire at the end of the nineteenth, beginning of the twentieth centuries.

The second most widespread religion (after Christianity) is Islam. It has two trends. Sunnite beliefs are spread mainly in Middle Asian states, Kazakhstan, autonomous republics of North Caucasus, Volga regions, and in a number of Russian Federation regions; Shiite is represented in Azerbaijan. The religious activities of Moslems are governed by four independent religious centers – Councils of Moslems of Middle Asia and Kazakhstan; of European part of CIS and Siberia; North Caucasus and Trans-Caucasus.

Buddhism in the form of Lamaism is spread in Buryatia, Tuva, Kalmykia, Irkutsk and Chita regions of Asia. It is headed by Central Buddhist Council of the CIS.

Judaism is the religion spread mainly among the Jewish population of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and some other regions of the Commonwealth.

Religious Syncretism (paganism in theological terminology) combines elements of animistic, totemistic, and fetishistic ideas, ancestral cult and shamanism. It is spread in some regions of Siberia and the Far East.

In May, 1988, the Council of Religious Affairs of the USSR Soviet of Ministers registered the Moscow Krishna Society. It is the organization created with the aim of satisfying the religious needs of believers of Vaishnav Persuasion and joint performance of religious rites.

The Road 70 Years Long: From Confrontation To Cooperation

(The relationships between the state and the church in the history of the Soviet society)

Lately we have witnessed the process of pulling down the secret taboo for discussing the problems connected with the activities of the religious organizations. At the same time there appeared the necessity of giving an account of the post-Revolutionary history of the relationship between the church and the Soviet state. It is not only the performance of our duty to the past but also a pledge of our success in moving forward. It is impossible to work out and to follow a new course in the relationships between the church and the state without looking into what has occurred since establishing the power of workers and peasants in the Soviet country, without answering the questions of what the church policy depended on and when and how the deformation of the post-Revolutionary principles as to religion, church and believers started.

1918-1929

On January 20, 1918, Sovnarkom of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) adopted a decree On Liberty of Conscience, Church, and Religious Societies which became the basis of the church policy. It was not easy to implement it into the existing system at the very beginning. On the one hand, it was opposed by the clergy and the religious centers; on the other hand, the local Soviet authorities lacked enough self-control and presence of mind. They wanted to solve all the problems as soon as possible. The only way out they thought was applying administrative pressure. It was with this purpose that the Joint Committee Commission was found in April, 1918, to carry out the decision on disestablishing the church. On May 8 this committee resigned its commission to the special department of the People’s Commissariat of Justice. This delicate mission was carried out successfully on the whole by the 8th Department of Narkomyust (People’s Commissariat of Justice). The church had been basically disestablished by the middle 20’s. At the same time mutual understanding and normalization of the relationships between the state and the majority of religious organizations had been reached. Moslems and Old Believers, Lutherans and Baptists, Armenian-Gregorian Church and Patriarch Orthodox Church announced their loyalty to the Soviet Power and called their believers to fulfill their civic duties.

It should be noted that there were constant difficulties and misunderstandings in the relationships between the church and the state, and it was quite natural, because there had been no experience in the working out of relationships between the socialist state and the church. Many conflicts were usually figured out experimentally.

The 8th Department of Narkomyust had not existed long. In August, 1924, it was abolished. Soon after Lenin’s death the only central organ which regulated the relationships in a most delicate sphere ceased its existence.

In 1924-1929 church policy was carried out by the notorious Narkomat Vnutrennikh Dyel (People’s Commissariat of Home Affairs). The attempts made to work out Union legislation about religious cults in 1926-1929 failed. There appeared the necessity of lawlessness instead of laws.

Since the late 20’s the activities of the religious organizations had been severely limited. Attempts were made to move them aside to the periphery of social life, to isolate them from the population, and to make them concentrate on purely religious questions. For example, in the instructions of the late 20’s the local authorities were ordered to forbid discussing and solving the questions not referring to religion during religious meetings and sectarian congresses.

First the limits were established and later a ban was imposed on all kinds of economic activities and on charity work as well. Violations were administratively and criminally punished.

It was justified by the famous lines of Stalin about the aggravation of class struggle in the process of building Socialism. Religious organizations were declared conductors of bourgeois influence, kulak-nepman agents who supposedly mobilize reactionary and lacking class consciousness elements of the country with the aim of counter-attack the Soviet Power and the Communist Party. There were calls to fight religion – not an abstract idea of God but the counter-revolutionary force.

Early in 1929 it was decided that the Union legislation on religious cults was useless. A special letter signed by L. Kaganovich On the Measures on Intensifying Anti-religious Work was sent out. Practically it functioned force pressure on the religious societies. This was done in spite of the repeated statements of the religious organizations about their loyalty to the Soviet Power.

Information about prayer houses and religious societies

(The table was made according to the NKVD (KGB) data which is not always exact)

Number of prayer buildings

1917   1928

CULT    Total    Used for

religious aims

Russian Orthodox   77,767   29,584   28,560

Old Believers   1,268   1,707   1,679

Catholics   4,233   137   128

Jews   6,059   265   261

Moslems   24,582   2,376   2,293

Evangelical Christians,

Baptists   2,447   714   701

––––––––

1929-1930

Equal legal rights for both atheist and religious propaganda are necessary – this demand can be heard today whene discussing the draft of the law On Liberty of Conscience. This problem was being solved in the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1918, adopted when Lenin was alive. Nevertheless, in May, 1929, at the 11th All Russian Congress of Soviets amendments and changes were introduced into Article 4 of the Constitution. The necessity of amendments was explained in the following way: This amendment is introduced with the aim of limiting the spreading of religious prejudices by propaganda which is used with counter-revolutionary aims very often.

The Sovnarkom Chairman Rykov A. I. stressed in his report that the supporters of the fight with the religious ideology are not going to apply any measures of compulsion against religion... that such struggle can be successful only if it is connected with the rise of the masses, with the application of scientific knowledge and changing the living conditions. Violence extremes were condemned.

The idea of overcoming religion found more and more advocates among the local leaders. Nikitin, a representative of Vladimirskaya Province declared, The question is that we do not need propaganda alone but maybe also a proletarian worker’s hand; and maybe in some places we have to give a blow to religion and whip it properly.

Rykov objected, warning against the attempts to replace ideological struggle with a club; but the administrative-repressive measures were gathering strength.

After the ideological attack on religions, campaigns on closing the prayer houses developed. In the Moscow region alone 696 churches were closed in winter 1929-1930. More and more often the local authorities asked for the introduction of more drastic measures. They demanded limiting the journeying of bishops, banning religious meetings, closing the church libraries at the religious societies, and passing the religious literature into waste-paper.

The Commission on Questions of Cults, yielding to pressure, found it expedient to give the local authorities the right to close prayer houses in January, 1930. The next step was a ban on religious Congresses and believers meetings.

There were occurrences, however, that in those complicated times there were certain people in the Party and in the Government who were against such policy.

Information about the state of religious societies and prayer houses in the RSFSR for December 1, 1933

Closed   Number in 1931 Closed prayer houses   # of  % to

CULTS 1918-   Religious  Prayer   in   in   in   pr. hs.  # of

1931    societies   Houses   1931   1932   1933   in 1933  total

Russian Orthodox

Tikhonovtsy   8,568  24,843   23,213   171   224  142   22,676   63.0

Obnovlentsy   1,488   4,367   4,159   2   -   -   4,157   11.6

Catholics   112   217   188   1   -   -   187   0.5

Lutherans   662   945   828   4   1   -   823   2.0

Moslems   3,552   5,269   4,863   4   1   2   4,856   13.5

Jews   247   223   200   6   3   1   190   0.5

Buddhists   44   234   231   -   -   -   231   0.6

Armenian Church   49   59   56   -   -   -   56   0.2

Old Believers   706   1,484   1,335   5   8   1   1,321   3.6

Evangelists   225   1,130   711   -   -   -   711    2.0

Baptists   224   878   549   -   -   -   549   1.5

Religious groups   110   349   232   -   -   1   231   0.6

Greek Churches   1   23   22   -   -   -   22   0.1

Total:   15,988  40,021   36,587   193   237  147   36,010   100.0

This table was made by the specialists on cult questions at the Presidium VCIK on the basis of statistical data from NKVD (KGB) and from different regions of Russia.

1930-1938

By Spring of 1930 the situation in the question of religion was critical. Collectivization was accompanied by dispossession of the priests and ministers, by closing churches and prayer houses. This called forth a rising tide of discontent from both believers and non-believers. The participants of these rebellions were peasants of average means, poor peasants, women, ex-service men and even the representatives of local authorities.

That is why the Central Committee of the All Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks passed the resolution On Distortions of the Party Lines in the Collective Farm Movement (March 14, 1930). It commanded the authorities to stop closing churches immediately by administrative order. The process of closing churches was somewhat held up; some of the illegal decisions were abolished. For example, in the Moscow region 545 churches were re-opened right away. Nevertheless, the Commission failed to change the situation. The Party apparatchiks were guided by a policy of dictation in solving the question of religion. In February, 1933, under the pressure of a GPU representative the Commission was forced to pass the resolution, On the Status of Religious Organizations. It demanded that authorities redouble vigilance to limit the possibilities of ministers’ influence in the workers’ masses. Such appeals reduced the number of religious societies, limiting the ministers’ activities. Suspiciousness and hostility toward the clergy was justified by the Party line.

In preparing the new Constitution in 1936 a number of suggestions were directed to the Constitution Commission to ban all the religious rites, to deprive the ministers of their civil rights, and to outlaw all unofficial societies. The Commission tried to block the way to such militant recommendations.

After the adoption of the new Constitution Krasikov addressed the Central Committees of the Union Republics pointing to the troubles in the sphere of religion and the reduction of the number of functioning churches. Thus, in Ukraine there were only 9% of the pre-Revolutionary number of churches left, in Azerbaijan – 4.3%, in Armenia – 6.4%, in Uzbekistan – 31%, in Belorussia – 10.9%, in RSFSR – 35.6%, totaling in the USSR mere 28.5%. The Commission demanded returning the churches which had been