Russian President Vladimir Putin encourages early marriage to address declining birth rates, citing North Caucasus traditions during his recent call-in show.
Eh, the patriarch is buddy-buddy with Pu, plus there’s yet another personal ‘spiritual advisor’. The church isn’t shy about advocating for whatever the government’s course is, including the war. Land and large sums of money are given to the church to build church buildings every few blocks and on parklands. The Ministry of Defence had a humongous cathedral built on the outskirts of Moscow. Pu and the clique stop just short of pronouncing Russia an Orthodox country, probably only because Muslims constitute a large portion of the populace.
Note also that Christianity was never really ‘obliterated’ in the USSR. Firstly, Stalin himself did a 180 during WW2 when he needed to unite the people against Germany, and the religion was used in propaganda as one such unifying sentiment among others. Then, people migrating in large masses from the rural areas never stopped worshipping: I’ve known some folks born before the WW2, who living in the city kept a whole array of icons and spent time praying each morning. Basically, the church bounced back pretty well.
The Orthodox church is still fairly weak after having been obliterated by the Soviets
Eh, the patriarch is buddy-buddy with Pu, plus there’s yet another personal ‘spiritual advisor’. The church isn’t shy about advocating for whatever the government’s course is, including the war. Land and large sums of money are given to the church to build church buildings every few blocks and on parklands. The Ministry of Defence had a humongous cathedral built on the outskirts of Moscow. Pu and the clique stop just short of pronouncing Russia an Orthodox country, probably only because Muslims constitute a large portion of the populace.
Note also that Christianity was never really ‘obliterated’ in the USSR. Firstly, Stalin himself did a 180 during WW2 when he needed to unite the people against Germany, and the religion was used in propaganda as one such unifying sentiment among others. Then, people migrating in large masses from the rural areas never stopped worshipping: I’ve known some folks born before the WW2, who living in the city kept a whole array of icons and spent time praying each morning. Basically, the church bounced back pretty well.