Czar Nicholas I said that Russia must be ruled by three things: orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality. I often wondered why those words were in that order. I think I know why. It has meaning today. The fatalism we experience in Russian thought surfaces in many ways. Foreigners are puzzled by this lack of trust in the future. It has deep roots.
Of course, by autocracy the Czar meant what any dictator means: “I am the boss! I control you.” By nationality he meant keeping the scores of various ethnic, religious, and racial subdivisions of the vast Russian people identified, separated, and controlled. But to me, orthodoxy was the most influential weapon at the leader’s command and has impacts on behavior even today. Maybe that is why he listed it first. With the church on the leader’s side, not only the body, but the consciousness can be controlled.
Various dictionaries will give you the same root of the word, originally from the Greek. Orthos: straight, upright, correct. Doxa: opinion, thought. Orthodoxy: correct thinking. See again what Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor says to the imprisoned Jesus: “...three powers alone, able to conquer and hold forever the conscience of these impotent rebels for their happiness―those forces are miracle, mystery, and authority.” Even after seventy years of state-sponsored atheism, Orthodoxy remains one of the most powerful, albeit silent, forces in Russia. It is suggested that the character of a people is determined by two things: geography and religion, and in the end it is geography that is the determining force, for geography often determines the confines and direction of a religion. Russia’s expansive geography requires something to control the thought. Even post-сzarist Russian leadership knows that.
Andrei Zorin is a professor of Russian Cultural Studies and has lectured at many top American universities and now at Oxford. In his class, he approached each stage of Russian history as a phase of a national religion. “Born Russian, born Orthodox” was the title. The difference between Russian Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, he said, lies mainly in their respective views of the afterlife. To the Roman Catholic, there is hell and heaven, and a vestibule into either of them called purgatory. In the Russian church, there is no purgatory, only heaven and hell. There is no way for the individual to hope for afterlife in his present life. The whole vision of Russian holiness is to run away from life, he said. The world is hopeless. Richness is a sin. No way to have a stone house. Eternal salvation is not reached through daily deeds, only through spiritual withdrawal in the Orthodox, Zorin pointed out. This goes far to explain the lack of personal responsibility so evident in many Russians. Life is predetermined, so “hope for the best.” Hope dies last, they say. Why work, why improve? It is all preordained and man, born in sin, has no hope of salvation until the afterlife and maybe not even then. It is fatalism.
There are many polls about religion in Russia. One reported that of ethnic Russians polled, 90% said they were Orthodox, but only 9% go to church. Only 42% believe in God. Russian Orthodoxy was deemed a "historical heritage" in a law passed in 1997. There is little choice. Zorin expanded his concept of Russian history as all religion. Before Peter, the crown owned the Russians and their property and the Church owned their souls. After Peter, especially in the 19th century, literature became the religion and the writer was a god of sorts. In the 20th century, Communism was a sort of religion, the State was god. And now? The greedy excesses of capitalism so visible today drive some back to “correct thinking” where personal material advancement is a questionable state if not a sin.
Some foreign observers assumed that religion was dead during Soviet times, but it was only breathing in its coffin. Religion was not dead. I have been impressed by some of the young priests I have talked to. They are well educated and see a progressive role for the Russian Church. I am not referring to the Russian church as such here, that is a different subject, but of the cultural discipline of “correct thinking” and its effectual impact on the Russian mind today.
When asked about religion, a friend said, paradoxically: “I don’t believe in God, but I would never change my religion. I am Russian.” To her, to be born Russian, is to live and die Orthodox. The Russian church is the only national symbol which has lived through the centuries of Russian history. On a walk with a friend we passed a church in typical post-Soviet disrepair. I asked her if she was religious. She answered, “No, I cannot believe in these men in their medieval black robes and swinging incense. It is irrelevant today.” She paused and then said, “But, still I feel a sense of peace in the church. We are not meant to know everything. There is mystery in life and the priests keep the secrets.”
The Russian Church is the enduring thread of national continuity through a thousand years of Russian history. It has been a binding force behind this thing called “the Russian soul.” Central control is still desired by many Russians and “nationality” is still promoted to control them, but orthodoxy, correct thinking, will persevere for a long time I predict, even with some of the young.
I read that reform from within is mounting. Change will come slowly the reformists know. After all, “orthodox” means “correct thinking” and it is hard to correct what is already “correct.” But, will they ever do what is needed to replace fatalism with hope and personal responsibility?
The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
Musings of a Russophile: Coco Chanel and WHO? Rasputin??
Musings of a Russophile: Dr. Zhivago lives…
Musings of a Russophile: Machiavelli lives
Musings of a Russophile: Expectations?
Musings of a Russophile: A people not to be trifled with
Musings of a Russophile: Russians and Americans - A good team
Musings of a Russophile: Heroic Writers -The Pen Mightier than the Gun
Musings of a Russophile: The “pleasures” of the banya
Musings of a Russophile: The Contract and The Rule of Thumbs
Musings of a Russophile: Russia and China – Next Generation or Today?
Musings of a Russophile: “The Will of Heaven” or “Swaying the destinies of half the globe”
Musings of a Russophile: “The Mechanical Piano” plays a familiar tune
Musings of a Russophile: Babushkas Rule
Musings of a Russophile: Meeting a Hero from the Elbe
Musings of a Russophile: Discipline?
Musings of a Russophile: Authority
Musings of a Russophile: The Massage
Musings of a Russophile: The Train to Helsinki
Musings of a Russophile: Point-of-view from under the bushes
Musings of a Russophile: Change and the Big Mac
Musings of a Russophile: The Vodka Curse
Musings of a Russophile: Russians - First in Space
Musings of a Russophile: A Peek into the Noble Past
Musings of a Russophile: A Land of Walls and Windows
Musings of a Russophile: What makes a Russian tick?
Musings of a Russophile: The Mystery of the Missing Stopper
Musings of a Russophile: Statistics know everything!
Musings of a Russophile: St. Petersburg - a city of cats
Musings of a Russophile: Moscow – a city of dogs
Musings of a Russophile: Russian art - as I see it
Musings of a Russophile: Our guys and their guys
Musings of a Russophile: Walking on ice
Musings of a Russophile: Good sisters make good families – usually
Musings of a Russophile: A Real Russian City
Musings of a Russophile: Chekhov Lives... at 20 Gorky St.
Musings of a Russophile: Russian music, like Russian literature, is always excited about something
Musings of a Russophile: Suddenly
Musings of a Russophile: "Never Talk to Strangers"
Musings of a Russophile: Everything is difficult—and everything is possible
Musings of a Russophile: What Is To Be Done?
Musings of a Russophile: An Inconvenience of Geography
Musings of a Russophile: What is it about October?
Musings of a Russophile: What is a Russophile?
*
The column is about the ideas and stories generated from the 20 years the author spent living and doing business in Russia. Often about conflict and resolution, these tales at times reveal the “third side of the Russian coin.” Based on direct involvement and from observations at a safe distance, the author relates his experiences with respect, satire and humor.
Frederick Andresen is an international businessman and writer with a lifetime of intercultural experience in Asia and for the last twenty years in Russia. He now lives in California and is President of the Los Angeles/St. Petersburg Sister City Committee. While still involved in Russian business, he also devotes time to the arts and his writing, being author of “Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia” and historical novellas.
