Freedom of Conscience
by Andrei Pravdoliubov

Ekspress khronika, 31 January 1997

"Within state boundaries only the established Orthodox church has the right to persuade adherents of other Christian religious and religious deviants to embrace its doctrine" (Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire, v. 11, part 1, SPB, 1896). On 21 January at the academy of the MVD the "Christmas Readings," organized along with the Russian Orthodox church, were conducted. Representatives of other religions that citizens of Russia profess were not invited to this undertaking. Why that was the case became clear from the addresses of the participants. In the absence of the minister, first fiddle was played this time by his first deputy General-Lieutenant V. Kolesnikov, who referred in his report to the humane "centuries-old tradition of the Russian police" and declared that "moral education must be carried out upon the traditions of Orthodoxy, which has stood up in defense of the Russian state." Now, by Kolesnikov's order, in all "Lenin rooms" portraits of the leader with be replaced by portraits of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, and "academic" study of the lives of saints will be inaugurated for future guardians of order.

The director of management of the Administration of the Russian President for Relations with the Federal Assembly and with Public Associations, A. Loginov, gave a conceptual address. He declared: "There is a serious problem associated with the unrestricted activity on Russian territory of various cults, missionary organizations and movements that are alien to our national particularities and characteristics. This includes Mormons and the church of Scientology. . . . And today a great struggle is focused here because it is no secret that enormous sums of money are being expended in order, as foreign analysts have written 'to transform the code of civilization of Russian society.'" What kind of traditions comport with our particularities? We glance at the part of the present criminal code that corresponds to chapter 3 of the "Statute of the Russian empire for prevention and suppression of crime" (SPB, 1890), one heading of which explicitly declares an extremely "particular" attitude toward religious freedom: "Concerning prevention and suppression of apostasy from the Orthodox faith." Points 36-39 state: "Persons born into the Orthodox faith are forbidden to apostasize from it and embrace another faith, even if it be Christian. Those who apostasize from the Orthodox faith are forbidden, prior to their reconversion to Orthodoxy, to reside in their estates inhabited by Orthodox. These properties are held in escrow, and the husband of a woman apostate from Orthodoxy or the wife of a man apostate from Orthodoxy may not reside therein. It is the responsibility of the MVD to supervise these matters, which at the same time gathers information about the family of persons apostate from Orthodoxy, and if that includes minor children, then measures for preserving their Orthodoxy are proposed to His Majesty."

In the opinion of Mr. Loginov, the principal hinderance to recreating such a divine "code of Russian society" is none other than the secretary of state of the USA, Madeleine Albright: "As a student of Z. Bryzenski, this woman is quite irreconciliable in a number of her foreign policy positions with regard to Russia and those processes which are unfolding here. She acquired from him the idea of making it a permanent agenda item in the Russian-American dialogue to deal with the question of freedom of religious confession and of religion, using it for applying political and other kinds of pressure, certainly including economic pressure, on the independent course of Russian foreign and domestic policies." And what did the modest director of management decide to counterpose to the evil quests of the new "iron lady," who has decided to defend religious freedom which, according to Loginov's address, is radically disturbing the tradition of "active cooperation" of the MVD with the inquisitors from Orthodoxy? The answer was clear when he declared: MVD is the last hope of the "fathers" for protecting us from civilization, from an educated youth and intelligentsia, and from answers to questions about the meaning of life. "Light a candle and pay money and you won't get kicked in the face,"--that's the stupid "sermon. The newspaper of the presidential administration, Rossiiskie vesti, on 17 December 1996 has already exhorted Russians "who love the motherland and her traditions" to "beat the smiling nontraditional religious countenances." So that if someone is day-dreaming about religious freedom and tries to preach in contemporary language about God, remember: the experience from before 1917 is enormous. The same criminal code of the Russian empire, chapter 2, bearing the clear title, "On prevention and suppression of failure to fulfill the rules of the Orthodox church," says: "Every Orthodox person must make confession and communion once a year. Admonition for the fulfillment of this sacred duty is the responsibility of the parish clergy, but also the civil and military command sees to it that persons under their authority unfailingly fulfill this duty. Whoever, despite the exhortation of the priest, does not confess and commune for two or three years is reported to the civil authority for its supervision." It is difficult to say how many times Mr. Loginov has confessed and communed, but it would seem that if we returned to "national particulars" and the "years-old traditions of the Russian police" he would seriously risk the confiscation of his property and deprivation of parental rights and perhaps even imprisonment in a monastery cell "until complete repentence."

We should not forget that in accord with the criminal laws of the Russian empire Stalin learned the Russian ecclesiastical-police traditions in church seminary.