- 9 hours ago
Russian priests blessing missiles is not mysticism, but a long political method: this analysis traces how the Orthodox Church in Russia became fused with state power and why it now lends a halo to war. From Byzantine roots and the rise of a state religion to Nikon’s reforms, Peter the Great’s Holy Synod, Soviet control, and Putin’s “officials’ Church,” the story shows how faith was turned into a tool of legitimacy, obedience, and surveillance.
The video contrasts the church in Russia with Western Christianity, explains the Great Schism of the 17th century, and follows the suppression of Old Believers, religious minorities, and dissenting believers. It also covers the Soviet era, the post-Soviet revival, and the modern use of Orthodoxy as a political identity, where blessing soldiers, missiles, and war becomes part of the system.
Created for viewers interested in Russian history, Orthodox Christianity, church and state, political religion, and documentary-style analysis of Putin’s Russia. It also fits searches for history commentary, religion and power, Kremlin propaganda, Soviet legacy, and modern Russian politics.
The video contrasts the church in Russia with Western Christianity, explains the Great Schism of the 17th century, and follows the suppression of Old Believers, religious minorities, and dissenting believers. It also covers the Soviet era, the post-Soviet revival, and the modern use of Orthodoxy as a political identity, where blessing soldiers, missiles, and war becomes part of the system.
Created for viewers interested in Russian history, Orthodox Christianity, church and state, political religion, and documentary-style analysis of Putin’s Russia. It also fits searches for history commentary, religion and power, Kremlin propaganda, Soviet legacy, and modern Russian politics.
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LearningTranscript
00:00You see Russian priests blasting shells and rockets before they fly into Ukraine.
00:06And you wonder, how can this be? What happened to thou shalt not kill?
00:12And yet, Putin insists on it. He is openly religious. One of his demands is for the Russian
00:21Orthodox Church to be restored in Ukraine, as if faith itself must march alongside tanks.
00:28So, why does he need this? Why do priests in Russia support the war?
00:34My name is Elvera Barry. I am a writer born and raised in the USSR.
00:39And today we will uncover the hidden role of religion in Russia.
00:43How it has been twisted, broken, and used as a weapon.
00:48The difference between the Church in Russia and the West.
00:53If we set aside questions of faith for a moment and look only at the social role of the Church,
00:59something striking appears. In the West, the Catholic Church was an independent power.
01:05At times, even a military one. For centuries, it was immensely wealthy.
01:12Beyond preaching, it carried out social functions. It ran hospitals, schools, and
01:16orphanages. It offered not only faith, but education, care, and charity. Protestant churches
01:24were something different again, a form of self-organization. They became meeting places,
01:30centers of community, hubs of local self-government. Faith and society intertwined in a way that
01:37encourages participation and independence. Orthodoxy in Russia took a different path.
01:43It inherited its model from Byzantium. A topic I explore in another video on how Byzantium shaped
01:51the Russian state. In that tradition, the Church was never outside the state. It was
01:57part of the state. Its job was not to stand apart, but to defend the regime, spread ideology,
02:03and help keep records and control. Why did the Russian Church never stand on its own?
02:09Unlike Catholicism, it never had a military wing. No crusaders, no armies to protect its independence.
02:18Yes, it had money, privileges, and authority. But it lacked force. And in Russia, without force,
02:27you serve someone who has it. So, if the Church wanted to keep its privileges, it had only one path.
02:35Loyalty. Absolute loyalty. It had to bind itself to the state and serve it faithfully century after century.
02:46The birth of a state religion
02:51We know very little about what people in ancient rules believed before Christianity arrived. But one
02:58thing is clear. The adoption of Christianity was a turning point of enormous importance.
03:03For the princess of Rus, Christianity wasn't just about faith. It was about power, prestige,
03:09and politics. By embracing the faith of Byzantium, the dominant empire of the early Middle Ages,
03:16they gained access to trade, legitimacy, and even dynastic marriages with Byzantine princesses.
03:24To a medieval ruler, that was priceless. And yet, Christianity did not erase the old world overnight.
03:31Pagan traditions lived alongside the new faith for centuries. On the one hand, people wanted to
03:38follow the prince and fit into his court. On the other, they could not just abandon their own rituals.
03:47The magic of planting and harvest. The charms for healing. The rites for marriage and burial.
03:56Everyday life was steeped in paganism. And Christianity simply layered itself on top.
04:03For ordinary people, Christianity also offered protection. Crusaders marched into pagan lands and
04:10sold captives into slavery, to Byzantium, and to the Arab markets. That was not considered a sin because
04:17at that time, a non-believer was not seen as fully human. So, if you didn't want to end up
04:23on a galley,
04:24or in a quarry, or castrated and sold as a household servant, the choice was simple. Except baptism.
04:33In the Middle Ages, religion was never just about the soul. It was a way to mark who was ours,
04:41and who was an outsider. Nations and citizenship didn't exist yet. What mattered was whether you
04:48were a fellow believer and whether you belonged to the prince's domain. And Christianity became the
04:55only force strong enough to unite the countless tribes scattered across the lands we now call Ukraine,
05:02Belarus, and Russia. The state itself was too poor to build a bureaucracy or pay officials. So, the church
05:11was forced to take on much of the work. Administration, education, rituals of life and death. Which meant
05:18one thing. The state had to keep the church on a short leash, making sure it remained part of the
05:24machinery of power. The great schism of the 17th century. Nothing shows how closely the Russian
05:32state and the Orthodox Church were bound together more than the great church schism of the mid-1600s.
05:39Patriarch Nikon, with the backing of Zora Alexei Mikhailovich, launched a set of radical reforms.
05:47His goal was to bring Moscow's religious practices in line with the rest of the Orthodox world.
05:55Why? Because centuries have passed without any comparison. And by then, Russian rituals had
06:02drifted far from Greek, Ukrainian, or Bulgarian ones. Part of these diversions came from isolation.
06:09After all, Kievan Rus and then-Muscovists spent centuries under Mongol rule, cut off from Orthodox
06:15neighbors. Meanwhile, Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgarians were absorbed into the orbit of the Catholic Church,
06:23or later, the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Their practices evolved in one direction, while Moscow's evolved in
06:31another. But as Muscovy expanded westward into lands populated by fellow Orthodox believers,
06:38Ukrainians and Belarusians, the differences became impossible to ignore. And something had to be done.
06:45Nikon chose the most radical option, scraped Moscow's version, and adopted the Western Orthodox standard.
06:53The reform seemed small on paper, but enormous in meaning. The name of Jesus to be written with two
07:01I instead of one. Isus versus Isus. The sign of the cross to be made with three fingers, not two,
07:11dozens of corrections in liturgical books.
07:13The reaction was explosive. A huge portion of the faithful rejected the changes. This would become
07:21the old believers, later branded as schismatics, heretics, and fanatics. They clung to the old ways,
07:30insisting that what their ancestors had practiced for centuries could not suddenly be declared as sin.
07:37But the Council of Moscow in 1666 did exactly that. It condemned the old rites as heresy. Nobody blinked
07:48at the contradiction. The same rituals once performed by Tsars themselves were now anathema.
07:55Why such harshness? Because the state demanded unification. To build a functioning military,
08:02to defend borders, to levy taxes, to suppress separatism. You needed a single ideology. And
08:10in that era, there was only one ideology strong enough. A common faith. So persecution followed.
08:18All believers were hunted, exiled, and burned alive. And from the 18th century onward, the pattern
08:26hardened. Orthodoxy would serve as the ideological glue of empire. Instead of empowering the church,
08:34the state shackled it. After patriarch Adrian's death in 1700, Peter the Great abolished the patriarch
08:41entirely. In its place, he created the Holy Synod, a government office led by a secular official.
08:50For more than two centuries, until the October Revolution, the Russian church would have no
08:56patriarch at all. Even confession lost its sanctity. By law, priests were required to report crimes
09:03revealed in the confessional. Especially if they touched the state. Imagine that. The sacrament turned
09:11into surveillance. Religion had become not just faith, but a weapon of governance.
09:17Religious minorities. Because Russia was an empire, it encompassed countless peoples and countless
09:27faiths. From shamanism in the far northeast, to Islam in the Volga and Caucasus, to Catholicism in Poland,
09:36to Buddhism along the Chinese frontier. The state tolerated these religions, but always with suspicion.
09:45And there was one iron rule. You could only convert into orthodoxy. Never out of it. For centuries,
09:54changing faith in the wrong direction carried severe punishment. In the early 18th century,
10:01conversion away from orthodoxy could bring the stake. By the time of Catherine the Great, the penalty was
10:09softened to prison. Still, ten years behind bars for adopting another faith was hardly mercy. Nor could
10:17non-orthodox preach among the orthodox. To do so was called seducing from orthodoxy. A crime that carried
10:25long prison terms. The Russian empire became, in effect, a confessional state. Every citizen was
10:32assigned to a religious institution. A church, synagogue, mosque, or Buddhist temple. And these
10:38institutions doubled as state record offices. They registered births, marriages, and deaths. If the
10:45priest or rabbi did not write it down, in the eyes of the state, it did not exist. This created
10:52endless
10:52problems, especially with mixed marriages. If you were orthodox, you could not be married in a church to
11:00a Muslim woman. And you could not go to a mosque either. You were orthodox by law. The only solution?
11:07She had to convert. Because for you to adopt Islam meant prison. But not everyone was willing to change
11:15faith, even on paper. And if the marriage was not recognized, then the children were considered
11:22legitimate. That meant trouble with inheritance, with property, and with social standing. Jews faced a
11:31different set of restrictions. They were not forced to convert, but they were confined to the pale of
11:38settlement. A cluster of provinces in today's Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland. Conversion to
11:45Orthodoxy lifted those restrictions overnight, which explains why many conversions existed only on
11:52bureaucratic paper. I have another video covering this topic. Check it out. And this pattern was
12:00repeated across the empire. The Mari, Udmurts, Chuvash, Komi, and many other peoples were officially
12:08Christianized. But in practice, they quietly preserved their ancestral beliefs. Finally, in April 1905,
12:17under the pressure of the First Russian Revolution, the government issued the decree on strengthening
12:24religious toleration. It was a turning point. It granted formal equality to representatives of all
12:32faiths while still preserving Orthodoxy's dominance. And for the first time, it allowed a conversion
12:40out of Orthodoxy. The effect was immediate and dramatic. In the following decade, more than 400,000 people
12:52officially left the Orthodox Church. The Church and Soviet Power
12:59Before October 1917, the Bolsheviks thought religion would wither away naturally. As society moved
13:06toward communism, they assumed, the masses would awaken and leave faith behind on their own. In 1919,
13:15the new government issued the decree on the separation of church from state and school. Officially, it was
13:21meant to strip the Orthodox Church of its privileges. But the result was something the Bolsheviks had not
13:28expected. In a paradox, the atheist communists became initiators of their first real religious
13:35emancipation in Russian history. Now, for the first time, sectarians, Muslims, Jews, everyone stood
13:44equal before the law. Equal before a hostile, often brutal law. Yes, but equal, nonetheless. The outcome
13:55was surprising. In the 1920s, villages across Soviet Russia saw a boom in religious life. The old believers
14:04grew in numbers. So did Protestants, especially Baptists and Pentecostals. For them, the fall of the
14:13Orthodox Monopoly opened doors. On the ground, however, chaos reigned. Anything could happen. Churches or mosques
14:21smashed by mobs one week. A priest or imam elected head of a village Soviet the next. Simply because he
14:29was
14:29the only literate man for miles around. But many believers, of course, couldn't reconcile themselves
14:35with living under the rule of militant atheists. For religious minorities, the 1920s were strangely
14:43a window of opportunity. But for the former state church orthodoxy, it was a time of crisis. In 1917,
14:53after two centuries without one, the Russian church finally elected a patriarch. But soon after, it fractured
15:02into free-arrival camps. By parliamentary logic, you could call them left, right, or center. On the left were
15:10renovationists. Priests who wanted to democratize the church, modernize worship, even translate liturgy from
15:18church Slavonic into Russian. They were open to dialogue with Soviet officials. For decades,
15:24historians dismissed them as opportunists, nicknaming them red priests. But recent research shows that many
15:32were sincere. They truly believed socialism and orthodoxy could be reconciled. On the right was the
15:39Russian Orthodox Church abroad. These were emigree clergy tied to the white movement. They broke away
15:45completely, first settling in Yugoslavia, then later in America. And in the center remained the official
15:53patriarchal church, led by Patriarch Nikon. His relationship with the Soviet state was deeply hostile,
16:01and the strain broke his health. He died in 1925 too early. His successor was arrested, then executed.
16:11It was Metropolitan Serkis who finally stepped in. In 1927, he issued a declaration to the faithful.
16:20We wish to remain Orthodox, and at the same time we recognize the Soviet Union as our civil homeland.
16:28Its joys and successes are our joys and successes. Its misfortunes are our misfortunes. Any blow against
16:37the Union, whether war, boycott or disaster, is a blow against us. It was loyalty written in black and white.
16:47But not everyone agreed. Those unwilling to pledge allegiance to the Soviet state,
16:53broke away, forming their underground catacomb churches. The name itself pointed back to the
17:00first Christians hiding in Roman catacombs. Some communities operated semi-openly, like the parish of the
17:09Savior on the Blood in Leningrad. Others went fully underground. By day, parishioners worked in factories.
17:16At night, they returned to tiny cells hidden in communal apartments. But when Stalin replaced the
17:23chaos of the 1920s with systematic terror, believers were among the first targets. And underground
17:30monasteries made the perfect case for repression. Ready-made anti-Soviet organizations, whose members
17:37often confessed proudly in interrogation that they despised the regime.
17:43faith, once more, had become a crime. The Church in the Soviet Union
17:51At the start of the 20th century, religion was central to self-identity for millions of subjects
17:58of the Russian Empire. But the Soviet state did everything it could to destroy that bond. Why?
18:04Because the Church was a competitor. It offered its own ideology, its own way of uniting people,
18:12and the Bolsheviks would not tolerate rivals. By the late 1920s, the campaign began. Churches were
18:20demolished en masse. Any excuse would do. The building interferes with parades. And the walls were
18:28brought down with dynamite. Priests were targeted with fabricated charges of anti-Soviet activity.
18:36Children who wore crosses were humiliated in school, pressured to renounce not just their faith,
18:44but even their religious parents. At the heart of the conflict was one contradiction. The Church gave
18:50citizens a way to gather, to solve problems together, even to form political solidarity. The Soviet system
18:57allowed only one center of power – the state. Citizens were not supposed to unite on their own,
19:04unless the party permitted it. And yet, repression did not kill faith.
19:11On the contrary, in times of terror, people often turned more strongly to religion. In 1937,
19:19at the very height of Stalin's Great Terror, the regime conducted a census. It included a question
19:26of religious belief. The results were shocking. Over 56% of the population declared themselves
19:33believers, and another 20% refused to answer at all. The full data were never published,
19:40and the census organizers were themselves executed. Two years later, the next census had no question
19:47about religion. Problem solved. Then came World War II, and what historians call Stalin's turn to the
19:54Church. The state loosened its grip. In 1943, with Stalin's approval, the Russian Orthodox Church of the
20:01Moscow Patriarchate was re-established. Islam also regained official religious centers, and even some old
20:09believer communities were legalized. All of them operated under strict state oversight – washed,
20:16distrusted, but allowed to exist. During Perestroika, the religious landscape exploded into color.
20:23Foreign missionaries poured into the Soviet collapse like pioneers into a frontier. Protestants,
20:29Mormons, Adventists, Baptists appeared. Arab Islamic preachers arrived. So did American Hare
20:36Krishnas and saintologists. New local sects sprang up too, ranging from harmless blends of Christianity and
20:43New Age mysticism to darker cults like the White Brotherhood, which prophesied the end of the world
20:50in November 1993. In 1997, the state tried to impose order again. A federal law on freedom of consciousness
20:58and religious associations declared equal rights for all, believers and atheists alike. But at the same
21:06time, it gave Orthodoxy a special status as Russia's traditional faith. The law also honored Islam, Judaism,
21:15and Buddhism as religions forming part of Russia's historical heritage. From that moment, Russia settled
21:23into a system of traditional religions. Official institutions, the Moscow Patriarchate, the Muslim
21:30Spiritual Board, the Federation of Jewish Communities enjoyed state support and protection. Everyone outside
21:39those structures, their existence became precarious, uncertain, sometimes even dangerous.
21:47The Church and Putinism
21:52The diversity of the 1990s did not last long. As Russia slid back into authoritarianism,
21:58religious policy followed the same path. Vladimir Putin is a believer, sincerely perhaps. But his
22:05version of Christianity is peculiar. It is a faith that pays little attention to commandments like
22:13thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Under his watch,
22:19the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate once again fused with the state. It gained extraordinary
22:27privileges, tax exemptions, direct state subsidies, and public land. And just as Putin displayed his
22:35religiosity, so did every official who wanted to remain in fashion. Today it's hard to find an office
22:42of the Russian Burkrat that does not feature both an icon and a portrait of Putin. Across the country churches
22:49have risen. Some rebuilt, others newly constructed. Monasteries once again attract pilgrims. But here
22:57lies the contradiction. Russian society is not religious. Four generations lived under Soviet rule.
23:05They simply grew up without the habit of church, prayer, or ritual. Instead, superstition filled the void.
23:12Horoscopes, tarot cards, folk magic, shamans, and healers became part of daily life.
23:20According to a 2021 poll, 66% of Russians identified as Orthodox. But in practice, for most this means
23:32little more than wearing a cross, baptizing children, or holding a church wedding because it looks beautiful.
23:40Only a small fraction actually read the Bible or participate regularly in church life. The core of
23:47true parishioners are the elderly. When people call themselves Orthodox, often it simply means
23:54I'm Russian. Or it is a gesture of loyalty to the state. Many say they believe in God, but they
24:02don't
24:02need the church as an intermediary. Can this be called religion? Probably not. It is more a vague hope in
24:11some higher force that will protect them if necessary. That is why the Russian Orthodox Church has become
24:17not a people's church, but an officials' church. Its main mission is not faith. It is loyalty. And because
24:27huge sums flow for it, it works to please the authorities. That is why priests sprinkle holy
24:34water on missiles, bless mercenaries, and sanctify wars in foreign lands. For the ruling class, religion
24:42is a convenient justification. How else can they explain their sudden right to vast riches and their
24:49right to sacrifice lives in war? They say it is God's will. They have a mission to make Russia great
24:58again.
24:59And so the church and the state found each other. Officials create their belief in their divine
25:06chosenness, while the church eagerly feeds it. Because it pays well. This is why in 2000 the church
25:14canonized the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family. Let us remember who Nicholas was. The man who
25:22dragged Russia into the First World War, sending millions to die. His failures opened the path to
25:28revolution, civil war, and all the catastrophes that followed. But for those who lobbied of his
25:36sainthood, Nicholas redeemed all of this with his death. They claimed he atoned for the sins of
25:44Bolshevism. How exactly this logic works? Better not to ask. At its core lies not theology, but the imperial
25:53instinct. The urge to glorify any ruler simply because he ruled. The war on dissent
26:03As the Orthodox Church gained strength under Putin, it turned to suppressing independence and dissent.
26:10Scroll through Russian social media and you will find priests proclaiming that a woman's place is in
26:16the kitchen. Or that Jews are to blame for the world's misfortunes. And the church's others do not
26:24stop at the sermons. They show up in courtrooms as victims, claiming their religious feelings have been
26:32offended by teenage girls dancing in front of the church. Or that a film about a ballerina,
26:39once Nicholas II's mistress, somehow insults the faith. Others cry terrorist propaganda at plays about
26:47women who fall in love online with ISIS fighters. These are not harmless debates about world views.
26:54People go to prison for offending believers' feelings. They go to prison for fabricated charges
27:01of justifying terrorism. And even loyal priests are not safe. Take Father Sergius. He spent years
27:10promoting conservative authoritarian values, reviving monasteries, breaching family values, railing
27:17against liberal art. He believed the regime was on his side. But when the pandemic struck and he criticized
27:26their authorities for lockdown measures, he crossed an invisible line. As long as you attack abstract
27:35enemies, liberals, masons, globalists, even reptilians, the system applauds. But criticize a concrete official,
27:46a church hierarch, or, God forbid, the president himself. And suddenly your Kazakh is changed for a prison
27:55uniform. Those are the rules in place of a conclusion. There's no civilization without religion.
28:05Which means religion fulfills some profound human need. But there's also no single religion. Because different
28:13times different people require different answers. In good hands, faith is a powerful tool. It can unite,
28:21inspire, create art and meaning. But modern Russia has lost this possibility. Because that tool has been seized
28:31by people who themselves ignore the very commandments they are supposed to uphold. And it is nearly impossible
28:38to revive a tradition after it had been broken for generations. If you didn't grow up with a children's
28:44Bible. If you never knew the warmth of a church community, how can you suddenly embrace orthodoxy
28:51as if it were yours? I have my own theory of God and religion. It is not mystical. It is
28:58grounded in facts and
29:00does not contradict science. I sometimes share it with family and friends. But I am not a preacher. And I
29:07have
29:07no desire to found a new church. It is simply a framework that for me feels reasonable. And even a
29:16little witty. I know that for many Americans, religion is intimate, sacred and untouchable. That is why I
29:24hesitate to share these thoughts openly. I want no quarrels. But I do want to reach those who, like me,
29:31see value in the tools of religion, community, reflection, hope, yet want to reconcile them with
29:38rational scientific knowledge. So I record a small video about these ideas available only to members
29:45of this channel. Those who truly care will find it. And perhaps together we can look at faith in a
29:52new way
29:53without lies and hypocrisy. If this clarified the picture, help one more person see it. Like the video,
30:00subscribe if you are new, and share it with someone who still thinks faith and power don't mix.
30:07To keep this work independent, you can join the think tank, buy me a coffee, tip via PayPal,
30:14or use Super Thanks. Before you go, add your voice. In one line, what is the church's main role in
30:22today's
30:23society? Saving souls? Serving the state? Or something else? Why?
30:29Your comments sharpens the analysis and help this reach those who need it. And thank you.
30:35In the closing credits, you'll see all the current think tank members.
30:39Your support lets me tell the story as it is, without fear and without permission.
30:59For more information, we'll see all the other parts and check out the chat box.
31:04We'll see you soon as we join the next episode.