THE PERMIAKOV EFFECT
by Irina Kelekhsaeva
In South Ossetia, it has been decided to take on nontraditional religious movements. Especially those "whose directing centers are located in western countries." Several days ago, units of the MVD and KGB of the republic broke up at least three meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses, who have a lot of followers in the republic.
The Jehovah's Witnesses themselves describe how siloviki in masks and with weapons in their hands stormed their religious meetings. People were asked to disperse, and a couple of men were taken away to explanatory conversations. What was talked about the believers are reluctant to share, saying only that the name of Arseny Yatseniuk was mentioned and what evil "this sectarian brought to Ukraine." In South Ossetian society, nontraditional religious organizations are treated, to put it mildly, with caution, and are called sectarians. Despite that, the followers of those Jehovah's Witnesses are only increasing. However, the average resident of the republic still celebrates the traditional ritual Ossetian holidays, which coexist organically with Orthodoxy, which is the official religion of South Ossetia.
My interlocutor, I shall call her Alma, is wearing a heavy gold baptismal cross, although she admits that she does this more out of aesthetic, and not religious, motives. "I am an adherent of Ossetian beliefs and traditions," she explains. She practically never goes to church, but she also does not feel special sympathy for "sectarians." Alma thinks that the spread of diverse religious movements seems more like a fashion for religion, although she sees a definite danger in all of this.
"First, so far as I know, sectarians are not soldiers, and in South Ossetia the primary need is for soldiers, since, God forbid, the enemy does not sleep. There is danger also in that these people may subtly manipulate and direct the psyche in the wrong way. Therefore, it is possible they may bring even harm to our society."
My second interlocutor, Vadim, thinks that people are seeking mostly help and support in various religious confessions. When they attend protestant churches, they communicate with the pastor face to face, and he does not turn his back to them like in Orthodoxy, and he talks with them about God in a language they understand. Vadim does not attempt to judge these people's choice. In religious meetings, parishioners find comfort and attention which they lack in the world, he thinks. He counsels that the official Orthodox Church should devote more attention to social programs and he cites the example of the Alagir convent, where they have worked with problem children for a long time and successfully.
"Services, of course, are fine," he continues. "But it would be better if the priest would devote more attention to pastoral care. After all, if people do not get this, they are going to seek comfort in another place."
Vadim does not consider the recent operation by the siloviki to be an effective means of "struggle with sectarianism," since, he says, in the whole history of Christianity, threats and prohibitions, on the contrary, have attracted more people to faith. "Neither execution, nor burning at the stake, nor persecution have been able to put a stop to all this. On the contrary, these people manifest the image of martyrs. Indeed, according to biblical canons they even now are martyrs, since they suffer for their faith."
We got a longer conversation with the rector of the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, priest Iakov Khetagurov. To the question of what prevents the strengthening of the position of the official church, Father Iakov answered this way:
"What's the problem? It lies, as they say, on the surface. There is a shortage of personnel. That is, we priests are few. And what is the church? Its first duty is spirituality, but the church has been and remains the channel of certain ideological norms. That's the whole point. Shortage of people, shortage of clergy. Just imagine, in our city, the capital, there are three churches. And not because there are no church buildings but because there are no priests. And in my opinion, there should be somewhere around ten churches in our city, small churches in each district."
As Father Iakov observes, Easter services are conducted with a large influx of people who want to receive answers to many questions and to change something in their lives. Each of the four priests hears confession from up to 60 persons a day. With such a shortage of clergy, the districts of the republic remain practically without spiritual nurture. Religious confessions which have been operating in South Ossetia for several years he calls directly "nonreligious," and he thinks that they manage "to successfully exploit the religious needs of people."
"So why is the struggle against sectarianism going on? Like people go and worship. Because it is among the sects that they are torn away from society, which is impossible in the Orthodox Church. On the contrary, the church helps a person to be integrated and to be seen in the society where he lives. If life is hard for him, we explain to him: sure, it is hard; you must endure, be patient. But you cannot leave society because it is a big family. But people go into sectarianism because of the ostrich principle. I go somewhere and the door slams behind me, and all the troubles of the world remain outside of my sect and congregation. And of course spiritually it is fine for them there," Father Iakov continues.
The clergyman is sure that all nontraditional religious movements in South Ossetia have been created and controlled by western intelligence services, and therefore he understands the actions of the siloviki, but he does not consider them effective. Father Iakov asks why, for example, there are no Buddhists in South Ossetia, although Kalmykia is not far away, and how organizations that are controlled from Brooklyn are working in the republic? The various religious movements, in his view, are not just the problem of the official church:
"Sectarians, are they a problem only of the state? No. A problem only of counterintelligence? Again no. You simply must have a proper approach to this problem on all these levels simultaneously, and then new people will simply not be going to these organizations."
Today I heard yet another version of the reason for the start of an active struggle with nontraditional religious movements in South Ossetia: supposedly they are to blame for the shooting of an Armenian family in Gyumri by Valery Permiakov, a serviceman on a Russian army base. My source maintains that Permiakov "grew up in a family of sectarians," and he worked as a trigger for provoking anti-Russian attitudes in Armenia. Therefore the echoes of the war with various religious organizations that had swept over Russia after this and now the wave has swept up to South Ossetia also. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 April 2015)
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