Dead Heroes and Living Saints: Orthodoxy

Dead Heroes and Living Saints: Orthodoxy, Nationalism, and Militarism in Contemporary Russia and Cyprus By Victoria Fomina Submitted to Central European University Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Professor Vlad Naumescu Professor Dorit Geva CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2019 Budapest, Hungary Statement I hereby declare that this dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions and no materials previously written and / or published by any other person, except where appropriate acknowledgement is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Victoria Fomina Budapest, August 16, 2019 CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This dissertation explores commemorative practices in contemporary Russia and Cyprus focusing on the role heroic and martyrical images play in the recent surge of nationalist movements in Orthodox countries. It follows two cases of collective mobilization around martyr figures – the cult of the Russian soldier Evgenii Rodionov beheaded in Chechen captivity in 1996, and two Greek Cypriot protesters, Anastasios Isaak and Solomos Solomou, killed as a result of clashes between Greek and Turkish Cypriot protesters during a 1996 anti- occupation rally. Two decades after the tragic incidents, memorial events organized for Rodionov and Isaak and Solomou continue to attract thousands of people and only seem to grow in scale, turning their cults into a platform for the production and dissemination of competing visions of morality and social order. This dissertation shows how martyr figures are mobilized in Russia and Cyprus to articulate a conservative moral project built around nationalism, militarized patriotism, and Orthodox spirituality. It argues that the public appetite for the radical model of self-sacrifice embodied in these new martyr cults developed in response to the social anomie and perceived erasure of traditional values that bind communities together in the wake of the rapidly changing economic and political organization of everyday life. The contribution of this dissertation is two-fold. First, through a transnational ethnography of martyr veneration, it reveals the formative role the notion of self-sacrifice plays in shaping nationalist and political imaginaries in contemporary nation-states. It develops a typology of communal ethical responses to the figures of victims, martyrs, and heroes and outlines the distinct forms of commemoration they engender. Second, it offers an in-depth account of the heterogeneous Russian and Greek Cypriot nationalist-conservative movements and reconstructs the moral visions at the root of their mobilizations. It demonstrates that the popular appeal of moral conservatism, while not unrelated to economic ills and hostility towards ethnic Others, cannot be entirely reduced to either of these factors. Rather, it represents a collective attempt to imagine a new moral community grounded in religious transcendence and reconstruct a public culture marked by passion, emotionally charged symbols, and militaristic CEU eTD Collection vigor. ii Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the help, guidance, and support of the people who surrounded me during my doctoral studies. I am very grateful to Vlad Naumescu, a considerate and dedicated supervisor, who encouraged me to think past conventional disciplinary boundaries, experiment with different methods and approaches, and develop my own theoretical perspective. His astute comments left a strong impact on this dissertation. Equally, I appreciate the kindness and support Vlad extended to me throughout these years. I also would like to thank Dorit Geva for her support and encouragements, sharp and insightful comments, and for pushing me to strive for clarity and theoretical precision. I am also deeply indebted to the mentorship and help of Dan Rabinowitz. Aaron Kappeler and Alina Cucu have provided an invaluable support and a continuous intellectual dialogue throughout the writing process as well as important theoretical interventions that greatly enriched my work. I am grateful to all the members of the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department for creating a friendly and stimulating intellectual environment. Alexandra Kowalski, Judit Bodnar, Prem Kumar Rajaram, and Jean-Louis Fabiani have offered constructive feedback and posed challenging questions at different stages of my studies. I am also very grateful to my colleagues Volodymyr Artiukh, Ana Chiritoiu, Ezgican Ozdemir, and Rik Adriaans for the endless conversations, exciting debates, and thought-provoking comments. I would like to thank Dan Sperber for an engaging conversation over the years and for encouraging me to pursue my intellectual curiosities beyond the classical anthropological approaches. I also am deeply indebted to Thomas Rooney, whose rigorous comments and dedication to clarity helped me become a better writer. In the Fall of 2018 I spent a semester at the University of Edinburgh, where I greatly benefited from the advice and mentorship of Tom Boylston as well as from conversations and exchanges with the members of Anthropology of Christianity Working Group. This research would not have been possible without the funding generously provided by CEU and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Some parts of Chapters 2 and 6 have previously appeared in my article “Between Heroism and Sainthood: New Martyr Evgenii Rodionov as a Moral Model in Contemporary Russia,” published in History and Anthropology 29(1): 101-120. My discussion of commemorative practices has greatly benefited from the comments provided by the journal’s anonymous reviewers. CEU eTD Collection iii Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ viii 1. Introduction: Death and Nationalist Mobilization ........................................................... 1 1.1. Martyr Cults and Cultures of Memory in the Historical Context ................................... 6 1.2. Sacrifice and Modern Thought ..................................................................................... 13 1.3. Dissertation Structure and Contribution ...................................................................... 21 PART I Violent Death and Social Activism ......................................................................... 27 2. He Chose the Cross: Soldier Evgenii Rodionov as a Moral Model in Post-Soviet Russia .................................................................................................................................................. 27 2.1. Heroism and Sainthood in Post-Soviet Russia .............................................................. 31 2.2. Mobilizing Around the New Martyr ............................................................................. 37 2.3. The Mother of a Soldier ................................................................................................ 49 2.4. Converging Visions of Morality ................................................................................... 56 2.5. Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................................... 66 3. Anastasios Isaak and Solomos Solomou: Bikers, Heroes, Martyrs ............................... 69 3.1. International Audience: Isaak and Solomou as Martyrs for Democracy and Freedom 73 CEU eTD Collection 3.2. Domestic Audience: Isaak and Solomou as Embodiments of Greek Ethnic Virtues ... 83 3.3. The Rise of ELAM and the Culture of Public Memorial Events in Cyprus ................. 99 3.4. Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................... 109 PART II Transformations: From Social to Spiritual Action ........................................... 111 iv 4. A Holy Warrior: Militarization of Orthodoxy and Spiritualization of Militant Patriotism in Russia ............................................................................................................. 111 4.1. A Military Saint .......................................................................................................... 117 4.2. Parading the Dead ....................................................................................................... 127 4.3. The Moral Pedagogy of Martyrdom ........................................................................... 136 4.4. Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................... 150 5. “Bikers Do Not Forget”: The Initiative in Memory of Isaak and Solomou ............... 153 5.1. The Politics of Bikes ................................................................................................... 155 5.2. Transmitting Historical Memory ...............................................................................

Load more