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Calendar celebrates Stalin

by
17 January 2014

by Michael Bourdeaux

Достоинство

ONE of the best-known publishing houses of the Russian Orthodox Church, Sergiev Posad, located at the historic Holy Trinity monastery, near Moscow, has printed a calendar for 2014 commemorating Stalin (right). It recounts his life in detail, and is lavishly illustrated.

It was produced on behalf of a third party, a group called Dostoinstvo ["Virtue"], but this has not prevented many believers' claiming that this is yet another public-relations disaster for the Moscow Patriarchate.

There have been several of these recently, not least its refusal to accept the apologies of the Pussy Riot women for the offence they caused, and - originally - its call for a maximum sentence for their act of "hooliganism" in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow (News, 24 August 2012).

Many Orthodox believers are expressing their dismay. One, on the website of the radio station Echo of Moscow, ridiculed the Church for "including the executioner of millions in their prayers".

The calendar does not represent the official view of the Church. In 2010, Metropolitan Hilarion, in charge of the external relations of the Church, said, through his official spokesman, Fr Filipp: "Stalin established an inhuman system which no one can justify. . . [Our achievements] came not from Stalin, but from our multi-national people."

There is an alternative view, however, that yearns for the past. It was expressed by President Putin when he called the dissolution of the Soviet Union - the creation of Lenin and Stalin - "the greatest geo-political disaster of the 20th century".

The Patriarchal press may have produced the calendar for commercial gain. At a cost of 200 roubles (£3.67), it appears to be designed for wide distribution. Now it may have to offset this income against the impression that the Church is trying to rehabilitate its own chief persecutor.

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