The Many Faces of Christianism: The 'Russian World' in Europe -- Part 3, continued from Part 2
Chapter 1 is an introduction to the book by all four editors: Marietta van der Tol, Petr Kratochvíl, Sophia Johnson, and Zoran Grozdanov.
It introduced the concept of "imaginaries", which I struggled to understand, but I think I can interpret it in the Lacanian sense of an external image that shapes one's self-perception, as a child's image of itself is shaped by its reflection in a mirror. So there are two things: the child itself -- the reality, and the imaginary -- the external image that shapes the child's perception of itself.
Among the imaginaries discussed in this chapter are the concepts of "Holy Rus'" and "Holy Russia" and what strikes me about it is that in this chapter they are discussed purely as imaginaries. They are not examined in context, and there is apparently no attempt to understand them theologically, or relate them to the thing that is reflected in the mirror. They are simply assumed to be exactly as the external Western observers assume them to be in a kind of self-referential circle. The "Holy Rus'" referred to in this chapter is a Western imaginary of a Russian imaginary of an unmentioned original.
Recently, the idea of the Russian World has increasingly aligned with Russia’s expansionist policies. A politicized version of Christianity, and Russian Orthodoxy in particular, is highly influential in shaping the idea of the Russian World, partially through the canonical claims of the Russian Orthodox Church, but mostly through popularised notions of Holy Rus’ and Ancient Rus’ that imply the unity of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians as ‘brothers’. In this sense, the Russian World refers to an “organically unified transnational orthodox Christian Russian civilisation that includes the territories and people of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and sometimes other nations” (Van der Tol et al 2025:6).
If this was meant to be a serious critique of the way a theological imaginary (Holy Rus') has influenced a secular political imaginary (Russian World), then it should surely compare the imaginary with the reality, and show how they differ. It should at least attempt to understand the original in its own terms rather that rather arrogantly assuming that its imaginary of an imaginary is the only correct view of the world.
What is Holy Rus', or Holy Russia?
Holy Rus' refers to the spiritual descendants of Saints Olga and Vladimir of Kievan Rus', who introduced the Christian faith into the regions to the north of the Black Sea in the ninth century. Over the following centuries it spread to an area roughly covered by modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Over the centuries it developed some features that made it distinct from Christians in other parts of the world. It had a common liturgical language (Church Slavonic), and honoured as Saints a set of Christians unique to that part of the world. It is these Saints that constitute the essence of "Holy Rus'".
"Holy Russia" was a subset of those spiritual descendants of St Olga and St Vladimir who spoke the Russian language or lived in the Russian state, which developed mainly as a resistance to Mongol conquest in the twelfth century.
In the 19th century the Napoleonic conquests sparked a resistance in the form of a romantic nationalism, which emphasised the distinctness of language and culture. In Russia it also led to the growth of a pan-Slavic nationalism. In the 20th century the Bolshevik Revolution resulted in most of the territory of Holy Rus' falling under the domination of a radical Western secularist and internationalist ideology, which encouraged atheism and discouraged religion of any kind, including Christianity, and at least two generations grew up under this regime.
When the Bolshevik regime fell in 1990, many of the suppressed movements, including nationalism and Christianity, resurfaced. But after two generations of suppression, very few people had any idea of what they were about, and only had "imaginaries" to go on. These were often confused and mingled, sometimes quite deliberately by some people, and so various forms of Christian Nationalism (and unChristian Nationalism) developed.
In its original meaning, Holy Russia was not holy because it was Russian; it was holy because it was Christian. Holy Rus' linked people of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine because they were baptised, and not because they were part of a "Russian World". In the reality of Holy Rus' (as opposed to the imaginary) the war between Russia and Ukraine is tragic because it is a war between people who have been baptised in the Orthodox Christian faith and are therefore brothers through common citizenship of the Kingdom of God, and not of some earthly political entity. If they assert (or deny) that they are brothers because of belonging to some earthly political entity, then, from a Christian point of view, their attitude is idolatry -- they have idolised some secular conception of a nation, an "imaginary", if you like.
But this essential background history is entirely missing from the opening and introductory chapter of The Many Faces of Christianism. It is a serious defect.
It also seems to me that there is also a legitimate sense in which Holy Rus' or Holy Russia can be imaginaries -- rather in the way that C.S. Lewis described the relationship between Logres and Britain.
Continued in Part 4: Populism and Religion
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