This year the Soviet Union has supported celebrations of 1,000 years of Christianity in that part of the world. It was in 988 that Prince Vladimir of ancient Kiev, now the capital of the Ukraine, required his subjects to particpate in a mass baptism in the Dneiper River. To many, the current celebrations are indicators of progress toward religious freedom. A further looks shows purposes other than a celebration of Christian heritage.
In the last two weeks of August I visited churches and monasteries in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev as part of a ”millennium tour” sponsored on the Soviet side by Intourist and the Russian Orthodox Church. The visit showed that the Soviet state is eager to change its image as a persecutor of religion.
In a time of economic crisis, the Soviet Union has invested significant resources in restoring old churches and key monasteries in the larger cities. Gold onion-domed cupolas are highly visible, and further reconstruction is in the works. There are 48 functioning Russian Orthodox churches in Moscow, a city of 8 million; 16 functioning churches in Leningrad, a city of 5 million; and 8 functioning churches in Kiev, a city of 2.5 million. According to official church spokesmen and expert estimates, there are an estimated 6,500 functioning churches in a country with about 50 million to 60 million Russian Orthodox believers. All but four of the churches are owned by the state.
But all of the beautiful gold onion-domed cupolas visitors see are not churches; many are state-run museums. For instance, since 1933 the Cathedral of Kazan, also in Leningrad, has been used as a Museum for the History of Religion and Atheism. Museums and churches seem to blend as the tourist buses unload thousands who visit for either glimpses of religious services or for quick lectures on the history of some building that used to be a church.
Near the churches and museums-and in all Intourist hotels-visitors purchase religious calendars, mass-produced icons, slides, fur caps, dolls, etc., at special shops for foreign currencies. These-state run berioshka shops accept only dollars, deutschemarks, francs-anything but the Soviet ruble.
To be sure, there are some marginal indicators of change for the better. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met last April with Russian Orthodox Church leaders and promised changes in laws affecting freedom of conscience. And in June at the first Russian Orthodox Council meeting since 1971, church leaders passed internal rules that, among other things, gave local pastors the right to membership on local church governing councils. Since 1929, the pastors have been excluded by law from membership, and local government officials have always had the right to veto anyone for membership. According to current law, ministers can only lead worship services and give the sacraments within the church; they are excluded from planning, personnel, finance and property maintenance decisions. Since the Orthodox Church passed this internal rule, it is believed that a change in the state law must be in the offing.
Churches also are prevented from evangelizing to nonmembers and teaching to members. There are 130 documented cases of persons imprisoned for violation of these anti-religious laws. Nonetheless, it appears that lately there is even less enforcement of these laws, and many believers do feel more free to express themselves.
In 1988, the publishing department of the Russian Orthodox Church, which may not own printing presses, contracted with the state printing office to produce 100,000 Bibles, making a total of 400,000 Bibles printed since 1956. When asked why they couldn`t print more, a priest replied lamely that there was a paper shortage. The shortage does not seem to prevent books by and about Lenin to be available at every kiosk and bookstore in the USSR.
In addition to the restoration of churches and monasteries, the Russian Orthodox Church was given permission by the state in 1983 to build at its Danilov Monastery in Moscow a residence for its Patriarch, which will also serve as an administrative headquarters. A 240-room hotel is being constructed for international visitors to this Holy See of Orthodoxy. Ever since the Turks seized Constantinople in 1453, Russian Orthodoxy has proffered a claim to lead Orthodox Christians worldwide-a role traditionaly played by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. This new construction seems to be further effort in this direction.
If Russian Orthodoxy were to assume this role in the future, it would likely issue a worldwide call for peace. The problem with this noble cause is that Russian Orthodoxy has been in complete agreement with Soviet government ideas of peace. The church has issued statements supporting the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and that of Czechoslovakia in 1968. More recent statements have related to the Strategic Defense Initiative, nuclear testing, Central America and other international issues. Such statements are one of the prices the church has paid in order to survive. There is one charity in which the state allows the church to participate, even though it`s a technical violation of the law: the Soviet Peace Fund. All local churches ”voluntarily”
contribute.
In any case, one could not help but be impressed by the devotion of many church members as they stood or knelt for hours in prayer on cement floors. Others were seen on hands and knees engaged in the menial tasks of making these active churches shine like jewels. Younger members, at risk to career, attend church in growing numbers-more than 70 years after the Communist revolution. These are devoted, hard-working people. And this probably is one more reason the Soviets are giving religious believers more freedom. The Soviet Union needs people who have faith, even if not in Marxism-Leninism, in order to restructure its failed system.
