KGB past haunts world’s largest Orthodox church

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By Jussi Konttinen
     
      A drama will be played out today in Moscow’s Church of Christ the Saviour which can be compared only with the coronation of a Tsar. Kirill, the new Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, will take his throne, and he will be presented with the symbols of his power: a staff, a green robe, and a white hat.
      But what kind of a man is the 62-year-old Kirill? And what kind of a church is he getting to lead?
      The Russian church is the world’s largest Orthodox church. As many as 100 million people in Russia have been baptised as its members.
     
The history of the church is full of difficulties in its relations with the state.
      After the revolution of 1917 it nearly ceased to exist. Tens of thousands of priests perished in the prison camps.
      The church was recreated in 1943, as the Wehrmacht raced towards Moscow. It was needed for the propaganda effort, and collections taken during services were used to finance an entire armoured division. However, the price of freedom to act was a high one: the church was subjected to the close scrutiny of the KGB.
      “When I studied for the priesthood in the 1960s, the KGB recruited third-year students. Later they began to operate already when students were chosen”, says Gleb Yakunin, a Russian dissident priest.
      In his view, collaboration with the KGB was an absolute requirement for being named a bishop in the Soviet Union.
      Documents of the security service use code names for the bishops. It is believed that the code name for Patriarch Alexy II, who died in December, was “Agent Drozdovik”. Kirill, the new Patriarch, has been said to have been “Agent Mikhailov”.
     
In defence of the bishops, it must be said that they could not have done anything different in the prevailing circumstances.
      What is even stranger is that the Russian church has not been able to process its past after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
      In the early 1990s the church set up a committee to investigate the links with the KGB, but its activities faded away.
     
The popular reform-minded theologian Aleksandr Men was killed with an axe, in a manner reminiscent of the one used by Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. Gleb Yakunin, who had gone through archives of the KGB, was removed from the priesthood.
      The church chose conservatism. It has been criticised as a closed corporation, a “spiritual Gazprom”, with close ties to those in power.
      “The state protects the church, and the church sanctifies the state. The autonomy of the church as as scant as it was during the time of the tsars”, says Finnish theologian, Dr. Arto Luukkanen, an expert in Soviet and Russian ecclesiastical history.
     
So what about Kirill? What is the direction that he will take the church?
      Kirill, the son of a priest from Leningrad, seems to be something of a chameleon. As head of foreign relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, he has travelled much, and is familiar with ecumenical thinking. He is expected to improve his church’s relations with the Vatican.
      “Kirill annoyed the Kremlin by writing in the church’s social doctrine that civil disobedience can be a virtue, if Christian ethics and political power are at odds with each other”, observes Jyrki Härkönen, Theological Secretary of the Finnish Orthodox Church.
      On the other hand, many of Kirill’s statements have been arch-conservative. He has said that nuclear weapons have a central role in Russian society. Human rights are a threat to religious tradition. Improving the rights of homosexuals would gradually lead to the acceptance of paedophilia.
      Kirill has also been involved in the writing of the “Russian Doctrine”, in which he visualises Russia as an Orthodox state.
     
Both Kirill’s admirers and his opponents agree that he will be a strong patriarch.
      “He is a person whom everyone fears. He will be the Tsar of the church”, says Gleb Yakunin.
      Before he was named, Kirill had to please everybody, but only now will he reveal his true nature. A sermon that he gave last week is somewhat enigmatic. In it he looked back at St. Phillip, who lived in the 16th century, who dared oppose Ivan the Terrible.
      “What does the example of Phillip teach us? The Church must speak to everyone - to those in power, to the armed forces, and the media - the truth of God.”
      Ivan the Terrible had Phillip imprisoned and put to death.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.2.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  New Russian Orthodox church gets building permit (2.2.2009)

JUSSI KONTTINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jussi.konttinen@hs.fi