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May 12, 2008

KGB: For Old Time's Sake

From the Forum 18 news service. A summary:

Belarus: KGB Pressure Orthodox Not To Venerate Soviet-Era Martyrs

Belarus discourages the commemoration of Orthodox Christians killed for their faith by the Soviet Union, Forum 18 News Service has found. Today's KGB secret police have sought to have icons of the New Martyrs, as they are known by the Orthodox Church, removed from Grodno Cathedral. Russian Orthodox Deacon Andrei Kurayev told Forum 18 that "Some comrades from the local KGB asked local clergy why they were inciting the people in such a way." While there was no official order to remove the icons - "it was on the level of a chat" - Kurayev reported that Bishop Artemi (Kishchenko) of Grodno and Volkovysk refused to take them down. "He told the KGB that he couldn't rewrite history." KGB officers also often monitor visitors to Kuropaty, where New Martyrs are probably among mass graves of Stalinist repression victims, a local Orthodox source told Forum 18. The act of going there - even to light candles - is "fraught with tension" with the current Belarusian regime, according to the source. An Orthodox chapel planned for the site has never been built.

(Apparently the Communists didn't kill any Christians? Or if they did, let's not talk about it.)  The full story is here.

Posted by James M. Kushiner at 11:33 AM | Permalink

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This demonstrates an interesting fault line between Russia and its minime Belarus. While Russia has ditched communism as a discredited ideology and has erected in its place a kind of state fascism frequently described as "Putinism", Belarus under the leadership of President Alexandr Lukashenko has regressed into a kind of neo-stalinism which has actually become an impediment to the reintegration of Belarus into the Russian Federation. Under Putin, the Russian state has embraced the Orthodox Church as a focus for the moral regeneration of Russia, and has used the glorification of the New Martyrs to distance itself from the Bolsheviks and show its commitment to "reform". It is interesting that Lukashenko, while not exactly persecuting the Orthodox Church in Belarus, it is apparent that he wants it to remain utterly subservient to the state.

Posted by: Stuart Koehl | May 12, 2008 7:59:10 PM

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