Russian Orthodox Question

[Joseph the Worker]

Does anyone know what the Russian Orthodox Church did during the Soviet times? Were they banned from having Bibles? Were they forbidden to read from their Lectionaries during mass? I asked this over on the EX-Board but am very curious and I knew some of the Orthodox people who come here might know the answer.

[prairie]

I have no idea, but I did read recently that Nicholas and Alexandra are considered saints in the Russian Orthodox church. Haven't checked that "fact". It makes me wonder what they think about Rasputin and if he really was a saint - he was very hard to kill, much like some of the early Catholic saints. All that about Rasputin is just speculation on my part. I'd love to know more.

[Joseph the Worker]

I have no idea, but I did read recently that Nicholas and Alexandra are considered saints in the Russian Orthodox church. Haven't checked that "fact". It makes me wonder what they think about Rasputin and if he really was a saint - he was very hard to kill, much like some of the early Catholic saints. All that about Rasputin is just speculation on my part. I'd love to know more.

I doubt it. From what I know about Rasputin, he was of extremely questionable character. I think I did know that all their children are considered saints in the Eastern church.

[cvbreno]

Czar Nicholas was a devout family man and a really nice guy by all accounts, but unfortunately he was a weak and incompetent king, and lived in virtual isolation from both the people and from political realities. I'm certainly not an expert on the political aspects of the church during Soviet times, but I know it was persecuted to some degree, and lost its state sponsorship and much of its political influence. I recently visited one of the big cathedrals in Moscow that had been converted into a public swimming pool (it has now been restored and re-consecrated ). I suppose this sort of thing happened in other places, but I haven't read about any wholesale destruction or looting of parish churches.

A colleague who grew up in Moscow during the Soviet era took me to visit her neighborhood church a few months ago. She said they went to Divine Liturgy every Sunday when she was a little girl and it was no problem, although religion was officially frowned upon and considered strange by the intelligentsia. I suppose is was kind of unusual for her family to go to church, since her parents were both university professors. The small parish church is lovely and still has dozens of priceless icons. I don't know about Bibles or readings being banned during Divine Liturgy, but I kind of doubt it, although it may have been illegal to preach or to distribute Bibles in public. (I'm just guessing here.)

There are a handful of Catholic churches in Moscow that survived the Soviet era. Most of the parishoners were (and still are) Polish workers and diplomats' families living in the capital. In 2008 I went to Mass at a Catholic cathedral in St. Petersburg that had been confiscated by the Soviets and used as a supply warehouse and a motorcycle repair shop. It was returned to the Church in 1990 and has now been restored (mostly) and re-consecrated. It looks nice now, but of course all of the artwork is long gone.

~ Chris

[Joseph the Worker]

Wow that was very helpful. Thanks!

[SirFlea]

The Russian Orthodox Church was severely persecuted. The communists murdered 1000s of Orthodox Christians during that time. They're called the New Martyrs. Many churches were destroyed or turned something else. They would riddle the icons with bullet holes or gouge out their eyes. When a church was allowed to stay open, the priest wasn't allowed to do his job. The KGB planted informants in the churches so people didn't know who they could trust. I'm sure the ROC will need a generation or more to recover from the damage the communists did.

[BH]

The Russian Orthodox Church was severely persecuted. The communists murdered 1000s of Orthodox Christians during that time. They're called the New Martyrs. Many churches were destroyed or turned something else. They would riddle the icons with bullet holes or gouge out their eyes. When a church was allowed to stay open, the priest wasn't allowed to do his job. The KGB planted informants in the churches so people didn't know who they could trust. I'm sure the ROC will need a generation or more to recover from the damage the communists did.

If the church refused or simply would not deal with the issues troubling the people at the time in a way that solved the problems why was it wrong for the communists to remove it from a position of power and influence?

[cvbreno]

My 2 cents -- One might say the same thing about the Catholic church in France leading up to its republican revolution, but that doesn't make it right for the revolutionaries to murder priests and loot churches - whether in France, Russia, England, or anywhere else. The Church is not called to be involved in political revolutions, but who can say whether they might have been prevented if the Church leaders had tried harder in both situations to persuade the King to be more responsive to the people's needs. Even in hindsight, we can't know that for sure. We can see that it was a mistake for the churches in both countries to be so intertwined with the aristocracy. However, the atheistic revolutionaries were pretty determined in both cases, and may have been unstoppable.