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Political Language of the Church in the Post-Soviet Period Boris Knorre and Tatiana Kharish Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

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Political Language of the Church in the Post-Soviet Period Boris Knorre and Tatiana Kharish Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia ISPS Convention 2017 Convention 2017 “Modernization and Multiple Modernities” Volume 2018 Conference Paper Political Language of the Church in the Post-Soviet Period Boris Knorre and Tatiana Kharish Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia Abstract This article analyzes the political language of the Russian Orthodox Church as a social / public instrument of influence. Against the backdrop of post-secular processes, it considers the specifics of the language of political church strategies that go beyond the traditional religious domain. The ways and communicative approaches in the field of government relations and public relations are shown, by which the Russian Orthodox Church establishes relations with the authorities in the post-Soviet period, and already today demonstrates itself not just as one of the institutions of civil society, but also as an institution vested with political functions and political authority. To construct its Corresponding Author: Boris Knorre social and political role, the Church acts situationally. On the one hand, it resorts to [email protected] narratives of the 20th century, using different discourses - from the “victim” one to Tatiana Kharish tunafi[email protected] isolationism, on the other – to modern concepts typical for post-Soviet times, such as, for example, the idea of messianism, “Katekhon,” that is, saving the world from sin. Received: 26 April 2018 Accepted: 25 May 2018 In one way or another, the Church acts as an open political player, in part as a political Published: 7 June 2018 technologist offering recipes of “soft power” for strategic state purposes, especially Publishing services provided by foreign policy objectives. The authors analyze the evolution of public rhetoric of the Knowledge E Church leaders in the context of the post-secular institutionalization of Orthodoxy in Boris Knorre and Tatiana the space of politics and law. Kharish. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Keywords: post-secularism, political language, post-Soviet, Orthodoxy, Russian Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use Orthodox Church, discourse of victimization, messianism, Orthodox civilization and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. Selection and Peer-review under the responsibility of the ISPS Convention 2017 1. Monarchism as a Sign of Church Inquiry for Conference Committee. Political System The attitude for political influence has existed in Church from the very beginning of the 1990s, when Orthodoxy was prominent, as we can judge by the activism of monarchist movements, their grass-roots support, and the demand in the political environment. How to cite this article: Boris Knorre and Tatiana Kharish, (2018), “Political Language of the Church in the Post-Soviet Period” in Convention 2017 Page 365 “Modernization and Multiple Modernities”, KnE Social Sciences, pages 365–383. DOI 10.18502/kss.v3i7.2488 ISPS Convention 2017 The popularity of these movements was expressed in particular by the views of Ortho- dox believers in the political sector, including the request for canonization of Nikolas II, for a monarchy as the most favorable regime. The Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church stipulates in the section ”Church and State” that ”The Orthodox tradition has developed an explicit ideal of church-state relations,” namely ”church and state symphony”, which ”could emerge in history only in a state that recognizes the Orthodox Church as the greatest people’s shrine, in other words, only in an Orthodox state.” (§ III.4). According to the Social Concept, ”The state in such symphonic relationships with the Church seeks her spiritual support, prayer for itself and blessing upon its work to achieve the goal of its citizens’ welfare, while the Church enjoys support from the state in creating conditions favourable for preaching and for the spiritual care of her children who are at the same time citizens of the state.” In the same document, there is a positive quotation of the Determination of the Local Council 1917 – 1918 on the legal status of Russian Orthodox Church: «The decrees and statutes issued the Orthodox Church for herself in the order established by herself, as well as deeds of the church government and court shall be recognized by the State as legally binding and relevant. These words show that Church is interested to have a state with not only protectionist policy towards the Church, but that receiving its (her) laws and regulations of many social relations alongside with the very state laws and regulations.” (§ III.4). The quotes above show the interest of the Church in a supportive and Orthodox-based political system. It must be borne in mind that at the time of the adoption of the Social Concept, there was no such interest in the archaic as we observe today, and the Church tried to make allowance for that, therefore, at the official level and at the Church senior establishment level it tried to deny any claims to create a political system (On political parties 2001 Federal law N 95-FZ). If they happened to speak about the monarchy as the most favorable political system, they did it without any reference to political realities, but in an abstract manner. But nevertheless, in some disguised manner, the sympathy for the monarchy is still perceivable in the text of the Social Concept of the ROC, although it has its own peculiarities and conditions for the exercise of power: ”Any change in the form of government to that more religiously rooted, introduced without spiritualising society itself, will inevitably degenerate into falsehood and hypocrisy and make this form weak and valueless in the eyes of the people. However, one cannot altogether exclude the possibility of such a spiritual revival of society as to make natural a religiously higher form of government. (§ III.7). In particular, Bishop Tikhon DOI 10.18502/kss.v3i7.2488 Page 366 ISPS Convention 2017 of Egorievsk, Chairman of the Patriarchal Cultural Council, also refers to unfavourable circumstances of the present: ”The monarchy is the ideal condition, which is natural for Russia. The monarchy is natural to us, but I think it is totally wrong to speak about the renaissance of monarchy now,...one must elevate oneself and live through until the special monarchic consciousness emerges. We are, of course, totally in no condition at this time. Therefore, all the talk about the renaissance of monarchy now seems completely vain... And democracy is what we need in our poverty [25].” One should see a certain evolution in the Church’s political strategy. During the first 10 years of the 1990s, the Church tries simply to establish more or less constructive contact with power by organizing from time to time the signing of various kinds of treaties and agreements between the Ministry of Health, the Armed Forces, the Social Ministry to get the opportunity of spiritual care and supervision within the framework of the ministerial departments of these ministries. 2. Orthodox Civilization as a Missionary Project During the millennium, when a certain period of restoration of church life passed, the church began integrating into basic activity, which was the establishment of church and parish life, the public mission. It began to offer society its paradigms of social and moral life, based on Orthodoxy. We can see the basic documents that were adopted by the Russian Orthodox Church. This is the ”Basics of the social concept of the Russian Orthodox Church”, “The Russian Orthodox Church’s Basic Teaching on Human Dignity, Freedom and Rights” (Church’s Basic Teaching on Human Dignity, Freedom and Rights 2008), “Declaration on Human Rights and Dignity” (Declaration on Human Rights and Dignity 2006). Many documents were adopted by such a body as the World Russian People’s Council, which is both a church and a public body. The chairman and organizer of this cathedral is the current Patriarch, who in 1993, then Metropolitan Kirill, initiated such a public platform on which socially significant and politically significant ideas would be spoken out. During the Council’s work, several documents were adopted such as “Code of Moral Manage- ment Rules”, “Wealth and Poverty: Historical Challenges of Russia”, (XI WRPC), “Russia and the West: a dialogue of peoples in search of answers to civilizational challenges” (XX WRPC), “Russia and the Orthodox world” (VIII WRPC). That is, as we see, the subjects are quite diverse, and it’s not so much an internal church as the public agenda. Often it goes beyond the domestic framework. It should be noted that on the foreign policy front, the church placed a special emphasis on DOI 10.18502/kss.v3i7.2488 Page 367 ISPS Convention 2017 foreign policy, which was devoted to the World Russian People’s Council, dedicated to the theme ”Russia and the Orthodox World” in 2004. The project of ”Orthodox Civilization” was announced there, as well as an explanation of what the Orthodox world is and what it means for Russia (Orthodox Civilization). These issues should be considered in more detail. Metropolitan Kirill claimed that “The socio-political body of the Orthodox world com- prises the states of the Orthodox tradition, the formation of cultures of which Ortho- doxy had a decisive influence. These are Bulgaria, Belarus, Greece, Cyprus, Moldova, the Republic of Macedonia, Russia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine. Also, the Orthodox world includes peoples who constitute a religious minority in the countries of residence, but are stable cultural and
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