Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND July 2016 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 Manifestation of the religious factor in the Ukrainian socio-political crisis (2013-2014) Vladimir Nikolaevich Rogatin1, Rinat Ahmetgalievich Nabiev. Kazan Federal University, Kremliovskaya str, 18, 420008, Kazan, Russian Federation. Abstract: Ukrainian socio-political crisis involved different sectors of society, including religious organizations and religious leaders. The involvement of religious actors in political action has led to the politicization of religious organizations and the creation of a religious justification of protests and violence. Reasons for protests neither had religious background nor covered any religious matters. Despite this fact, Catholics, Baptists, neo-pagans and non-canonical Orthodox church became the leaders in actions of opposition politicians and public figures at the “Euromaidan”. Discussion related to the manifestation of the religious factor in the Ukrainian crisis is primarily focused on the issue of artificial or spontaneous attraction of the religious organizations and their leaders to these events. A high level of confidence of the Ukrainians in the religious leaders, which sometimes greatly exceeds the confidence in politicians and government, is due to that Ukrainian politicians consider religious organizations as a mean of influencing public opinion. Religious concepts justifying the violence of and protests against the regime of Viktor Yanukovych became particularly popular in the Ukrainian events, which contributed to the cultivation of violence among the “Euromaidan” participants. Keywords: socio-political crisis, Euromaidan, Eurorevolution, religious organizations, church. 1 [email protected] http://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/index Page 468 Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND July 2016 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 Introduction A period of crisis is a time of maximum social instability, violations of its normal functioning processes, a large number of accidents, separation and conflict within the society. Being a part of society, religious organizations have been involved in the crisis too [1]. Modern socio- political crises differ substantially from the previous ones due to the possibility of their artificial construction in the form of color-coded revolutions. To understand this question it is necessary to consider the degree of participation of different organizations and their leaders in the Kiev protests, the time of joining these protests and the attitude of the religious leaders towards these events. 2. Methodological Framework The following tasks were set during the study: 1) to analyze the involvement of religious organizations in the socio-political crisis in Ukraine; 2) to find out which religious associations were more involved in the social opposition; and 3) to summarize the information on the manifestation of the religious factor in the socio-political conflict in Ukraine. To cover the topic, the major religious groups operating in Ukraine were distinguished and classified by the intensity of participation in the revolutionary process: Catholics, Protestants and the Protestant NRMs, Orthodox, Muslim, neo-pagans and NRM, and Jewish. 3. Results 1.Catholic Leaders in the protest movements were Catholics: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Many of Ukrainian media reported that the clergy of the UGCC and RCC were agitating their congregations to go to Kiev yet back in the 20s of November 2013 in all churches and seminaries. It is therefore not surprising that the next day after the violent confrontation in Kiev, the clergy, seminarians and parishioners of the UGCC and RCC from various regions of Ukraine came to “Euromaidan” right on cue. The Catholics explained their actions in the article “Catholic revival”, the magazine “Katolicheskii Vestnik” (“Catholic Bulletin”), as follows: "Therefore, Ukrainian Roman- and Greco-Catholic clergy acted in direct response to what Pope used to say... in general, the entrance of clerics upon Euromaidan would be impossible without the blessing of church hierarchs” (Vikhrov, 2014). Based on the article, many of Catholics and believers treat “Euromaidan" as "Catholic revival" or “Eurorevival" and considered it both political and Christian action. Despite the initial aggressive mood of “Euromaidan”, the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine Thomas Edward Gullickson, the head of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Sviatoslav Shevchuk, and the ex-leader of the UGCC Cardinal Liubomir Guzar of the Catholic Churches of Ukraine expressed their support [3]. Catholic support was expressed to “Euromaidan” not only morally, but also materially. Virtually from the very beginning of “Euromaidan”, there were meal stations organized by the international charitable Catholic organization "Caritas" and "Maltese service”. The Uniates also equipped a separate prayer tent where they served the prayer liturgy. In the same tent the Roman Catholic clergy served too. 2. Protestants and Protestant NRMs The second leader of the religious presence Protestants and Protestant NRMs. Baptists had a great influence due to the fact that one of the leaders of the protests was the political and religious leader (a preacher, by his own words) Aleksandr Turchinov. December 5, the pastor of a Baptist organization "New Life" Oleg Magdych and the Vice- Rector for Public Relations of the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary (Kiev) Oles Dmitrenko erected "an interfaith prayer tent" in the Independence Square (Cherenkov, 2015) [5]. It http://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/index Page 469 Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND July 2016 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 is interesting, that the “Euromaidan” leadership allowed only this and the Catholic tent to operate in the area occupied by the protesters. The followers of the Baptist organization “Almaz” were also active at the Maidan. Every Saturday and Sunday, their community visited “Euromaidan”. The head of the Ukrainian Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, Vyacheslav Nesteruk tried to explain political neutrality. He said on behalf of Ukrainian Baptists that they always try to be apolitical. Immediately after his statement, the religious teachers of the Baptist theological schools submitted an open letter. They stressed in their letter that the interview by V. Nesteruk is his personal opinion only; the petition was signed by 11 pastors. After that, this interview was removed from the Baptist online resource [6]. Further, the attitude of the different Protestant and neo-Protestant NRMs has become more moderate in official documents: "We condemn the false, abuse of power and strength, which resulted in violence from all sides of social and political confrontation”. This petition was signed by 9 leaders of all-Ukrainian association: Baptists, neo-Pentecostals, Adventists, Pentecostals, and Lutherans. Nevertheless, the pastors of different organizations continued to participate in the “Euromaidan” activities and even in the clashes with the police, and their organization followers were even in the ranks of the "Right Sector" (banned in Russia). Participation of the neo-Pentecostals in “Euromaidan” cannot be compared with the events of 2004, however, they also happened to take part. For instance, Pastor of the NRM “Novoe Pokolenie” (“New Generation”) (Kiev), Iurii Shmuliar helped to strengthen the barricades of the protesters in Khreshchatyk (the main street of the Ukrainian capital). The pastor of the Christian Social Center (CSC) “Novoe Vremia” (“New Time”) and member of the Apostolic Council “Posolstvo Bozhie” (“Embassy of God”) Andrei Kuksenko constantly attended “Euromaidan" and took an active part in its activities [7]. Neo-Pentecostals have scant popularity at “Euromaidan”: in ecumenical prayer tent there was a poster asking not to pray in languages and not to pray loudly, which was specifically for neo- Pentecostals. While street "preachers" of “Golos Bozhii” (“Voice of God”) under the Kyiv Municipal State Administration (KMSA) were promptly stroke down by the "Maidan self-defense service”. This was due to the occurred severe religious competition. 3. Orthodox "Euromaidan" was immediately supported by the followers of the non-canonical (unrecognized by the world Orthodoxy) Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP). It happened because the UOC-KP has positioned itself as a conspicuously "Ukrainian" church and has always been in the zone of influence of the pro-Western "democratic" political forces. According to sociological ratings, most faithful supporters of the opposition parties are parishioners of the UOC-KP. They accounted for 38% of the “Svoboda” supporters, and 34% and 35% of those of “Batkivshchyna” and “Udar”, respectively. Two events described the position of the UOC-KP most eloquently. The first was that in the morning of November 30, 2013 some of protesters hid within the walls of St. Michael's Cathedral of the UOC-KP and freely spend the night right in the church. From a political perspective, the same expressive gesture was an appeal by the head of UOC-KP Filaret and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the US Senate with a request for “effective promotion” of association of Ukraine with the EU. Thus, the UOC-KP at “Euromaidan" showed once again its political position and loyalty to the pro-Western political parties. This action could not worsen the already poor relations between UOC-KP and the regime