Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)

Synod

If in 2018 you open the website of the Russian Orthodox Church and look at the members of the Holy Synod, of which there are more than 400, you can see that only black monks are at the helm of the church. It is not easy to meet a parish priest in the Synod, because they only fulfill the decisions made by the monks.

A more careful analysis leads to another discovery: less than a quarter of the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2018 have higher secular education. On the contrary, about half in their youth advanced from the posts of subdeacons under the then bishops. But the fact that most members of the Synod have roots in Bessarabia and southeastern Ukraine, in Donetsk and Lugansk, is almost impossible to calculate. Although this is the holy truth and the root of all modern troubles of Russian Orthodoxy, the author of the investigation, Lenta.ru^[1], claimed in 2018].

It was in southeastern Ukraine and eastern Moldova that the Russian Orthodox Church traditionally held the most patriarchal views. It was here that the Orthodox hundreds ended with them in tsarist time. This is where the hatred of TIN and any passport comes from. It was here that cheerful fellow villagers most often disappeared. It was here that the "black hundred" was born. It is from here that Father Peter Kucher and many other princes of the Russian Orthodox Church are from.

Metropolitanates and dioceses

As of July 2018, there are 79 metropolitans and 356 dioceses in the structure of the Russian Orthodox Church, including:

• Moscow Patriarchate
• Petrozavodsk and Karelian Diocese

• Diocese of Barnaul
• Volgograd diocese
• Diocese of Nizhny Novgorod

Influence groups

• Naumovtsy

Relations with public administration

As of May 2020:

Andrei Veniaminovich Yarin, Presidential Administration. Officially: Head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Domestic Policy. In fact: the person responsible for the formation of state policy towards the Russian Orthodox Church solves not only tactical, but also strategic tasks.

Andrey Valentinovich Tretyakov, presidential administration. Officially: Chief Advisor to the Department for Interaction in Religious Organizations of the Office of Internal Policy of the President of the Russian Federation. In fact: a key specialist in the Russian Orthodox Church in the AP; knows all and all in the church; advises Yarin and prepares specific solutions for him. There were rumors that it was Tretyakov who leads the telegram channel "Tserchach."

Sergey Alekseevich Melnikov, Presidential Administration. Officially: Executive Secretary of the Council for Interaction with Religious Associations under the President of the Russian Federation. In fact: oversees the key leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church in the AP, creating a hardware counterweight to Tretyakov, which is why friction often arises between them; in addition to the Russian Orthodox Church, it is engaged in Russian Protestants.

Activists, lobbyists and sponsors

For May 2020:

Konstantin Veniaminovich Goloshchapov, Russian Athos Society. Officially: the owner of dozens of companies specializing in construction and investment. In fact: a close friend of GDP; together with Poltavchenko - the organizer of the "Russian Athos Society," which includes the head of state and the entire inner circle; organizer of the delivery of relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to Russia in 2017; Director of the Temple Foundation, which is engaged in the construction of churches throughout the country. That is, it has not only great financial, but also political influence, due to its proximity to V. Putin.

Guryev Andrey Grigorievich, PhosAgro. Officially: the majority owner of the chemical holding PhosAgro. In fact: one of the key sponsors of the Moscow Patriarchate; sponsors foreign visits of the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church; together with Goloshchapov organized the delivery of relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in 2017

Vladimir Iosifovich Resin, State Duma - United Russia. Officially: State Duma deputy. In fact: Counselor Patr. Cyril for the construction of temples; curator of the "program-200" in Moscow; Since his work, Deputy Luzhkov has a wide network of contacts in the business elite of the capital and the bureaucratic apparatus, which he uses to implement construction projects of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Sergey Anatolyevich Gavrilov, State Duma - Communist Party. Officially: deputy of the State Duma, chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Development of Civil Society, Issues of Public and Religious Associations, coordinator of the inter-factional deputy group for the protection of Christian values. In fact: chief in the Russian Orthodox Church in the lower house of the Federal Assembly; lobbyist.

Yakunin Vladimir Ivanovich, Andrei the First-Called Foundation. Officially: ex-head of Russian Railways. In fact: Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the Andrew the First-Called Foundation and the Center for National Glory, through which various programs of the Moscow Patriarchate are implemented, including the construction of churches in Russia and abroad; also known as the permanent supplier of "holy fire" from Jerusalem to Moscow on Easter.

Sergey Vadimovich Stepashin, Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society. Officially: the ex-head of many departments: the FSB, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Accounts Chamber, the Government of the Russian Federation and others. As of May 2020, Chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society. In fact: with the help of IPPO, foreign policy initiatives of the Russian Federation and the Russian Orthodox Church are being implemented, a number of projects of the patriarchate are being financed; although Stepashin himself most often does not interfere in the affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, if desired, he can push through any initiative.

Malofeev Konstantin Valerievich, "Tsargrad," Fund St. Basil the Great. Officially: head of a number of investment, information and public organizations. In fact: deputy head of the World Russian People's Council; member of the patriarchal commission on family issues and protection of motherhood; organizer of a number of church and circa-church projects: "Tsargrad," the fund of St. Basil the Great, gymnasium St. Basil the Great.

Aktivs

Arrivals

As of July 2018, almost 40 thousand presbyters, more than 5 thousand deacons and almost 400 bishops serve in the church.

In 1991, when the USSR collapsed and the religious revival began, there were about 6.5 thousand parishes in the Russian Orthodox Church, and two-thirds of them in Ukraine. As of August 2018, there are more than 36 thousand parishes in the Russian Orthodox Church, of which about 25 thousand are in Russia.

Geography of churches of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2019

The number of monasteries exceeded one thousand - there was no such number before the revolution.

Density of Orthodox churches per 100 thousand inhabitants

Every day, three new parishes of the RKCC are opened^[2].

Data for 2019

In mid-2017, a thousandth monastery was opened in Russia, and as of January 1, 2018 there were 1,010. For comparison: before the Khrushchev persecution, there were only 14 monasteries in the USSR (most in the Ukrainian SSR), in the 1980s - four (Trinity-Sergius and Pskov-Pechersk Lavra, Riga Desert (female) and Assumption Monastery in Pyukhtitsa, Estonia).

Religious building of the Russian Orthodox Church, (2014)

Commercial activities

Main article: Income of the Russian Orthodox Church

• "Art and Production Enterprise (KhPP)" Sofrino "
• Danilovskaya Hotel
• management of the Church of Christ the Savior, owned by the Government of Moscow
• Ritual Orthodox Service OJSC (for 2016)

As RBC reported in 2016, earlier the Yekaterinburg diocese owned a large granite quarry "Granite" and a security company "Derzhava," the Vologda diocese had a plant of reinforced concrete products and structures.

The Kemerovo diocese at that time is the 100% owner of Kuzbass Investment and Construction Company LLC, co-owner of the Novokuznetsk Computer Center and the Europe Media Kuzbass agency ^[3].

State support

Budget funding

According to RBC estimates, in 2012-2015, the Russian Orthodox Church and related structures received at least 14 billion rubles from the budget and from state organizations. At the same time, the 2016 budget version alone provides for 2.6 billion rubles.

In particular, in 2014-2015, over 1.8 billion rubles were allocated to ROC organizations. for the creation and development of Russian spiritual and educational centers under the federal program "Strengthening the unity of the Russian nation and the ethnocultural development of the peoples of Russia."

Another program supporting the church is Culture of Russia: since 2012, almost 10.8 billion rubles have been allocated for the preservation of religious facilities under the program. In addition, 0.5 billion rubles. in 2012-2015, it was allocated for the restoration of objects of religious significance, said a representative of the Department of Cultural Heritage. Moscow

Among the large recipients of contracts on the public procurement website is the Orthodox Encyclopedia Church and Scientific Center (the founder is the Patriarchate), which publishes the folio of the same name in 40 volumes edited by Patriarch Kirill. Since 2012, state schools and universities have spent about 250 million rubles on the purchase of this book. And the subsidiary organization of the Orthodox Encyclopedia, the Orthodox entsiklopediya​ Foundation, received 56 million rubles in 2013 from the Ministry of Culture to shoot the films Sergius of Radonezh and Snake Bite.

In 2015, the Ministry of Education allocated about 112 million rubles from the budget. Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanities University.

The Central Clinical Hospital of St. Alexis under the Moscow Patriarchate in 2015 received 198 million rubles from the Ministry of Health, and about 178 million rubles are provided for the hospital in the new budget.

The budget for 2016 includes about 1 billion rubles. "The charity fund for the restoration of the Resurrection New Jerusalem Stavropegic Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church" - the founder of the fund is the monastery itself.

In addition, from 2013 to 2015, Orthodox organizations received 256 million rubles. as part of presidential grants. The Russian Orthodox Church is not directly related to the recipients of grants, they were simply "created by Orthodox people," explains Archpriest Chaplin. Although the church does not directly participate in the creation of such organizations, there are no random people there, Sergei Chapnin, formerly editor of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, is sure.

According to the same principle, he says, they distribute money in the only Orthodox grant program "Orthodox Initiative" (Rosatom allocated funds, two sources familiar with the program told RBC; the press service of the corporation did not answer the question of RBC).

The Orthodox Initiative has been held since 2005, the total amount of funding over the years of the competition is almost 568 million rubles.

'I've sat on the expert panel for a long time. I can say that applications for grants, as a rule, are written carelessly - it is not clear from them what people want and can, - says Chapnin. - Every second person is sure to offer to make a site, not very well understanding how the sites do[4].

Tax breaks

As of August 2018, the Russian Orthodox Church, like any religious organization officially registered in Russia, has benefits, but all of them are key. It is completely exempt from payment:

• Value added tax (VAT),
• income tax (part 3 of article 149 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation),
• property tax (part 27 of article 251 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation),
• land tax (article 395 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation),
• as well as state duties (article 333.35 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation)^[2].

That is, in fact, the Russian Orthodox Church does not pay anything to the budget at all.

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation clearly stipulates: exemption comes only from religious activities, and all commercial, even carried out by the Russian Orthodox Church, is subject to mandatory taxation. Therefore, according to reports, the church does not conduct commercial activities at all. And arguing with it is useless. True, according to a senior Russian official, in fact, they simply do not want to contact the church.

"Priests are now included in absolutely all elected bodies of all floors of power, from local parliaments to various kinds of public councils and monitoring commissions - up to ministerial and federal ones. This, of course, is correct, but opens their doors to leaders of any rank, where you can simply cry to recall the commission or close your eyes to the identified shortcomings. And believe me - churchmen use this. And at the direct direction of his leadership, "he explains.

Paradoxically, state support makes the entire economy of the Russian Orthodox Church black. Or gray - after all, no parish is accountable to anyone. Nobody checks them, except the Church itself.

In May 2020, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 epidemic, State Duma deputies in the third reading approved an amendment to exempt religious organizations from paying taxes and insurance premiums for the second quarter of 2020.

According to the law, donations in any form from any legal entity to non-profit and religious organizations will be related to the costs of donors and reduce the income tax paid by them.

Real estate transfer

For 2016, the Federal Property Management Agency transfers objects to the Russian Orthodox Church in two ways - in ownership or under an agreement for free use, explains Sergey Anoprienko, head of the department for the placement of federal authorities of the Federal Property Management Agency.

RBC conducted an analysis of documents on the websites of the territorial bodies of the Federal Property Management Agency - over the past four years, the Orthodox Church has received over 270 property objects in 45 regions (unloading was carried out until January 27, 2016). The area of ​ ​ real estate is indicated only for 45 objects - a total of about 55 thousand square meters. m. The largest object that became the property of the church is the ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius deserts.

In the case of transferring real estate to ownership, explains Anoprienko, the parish receives a limb plot of land. Only church premises can be built on it - an utensils shop, a clergy house, a Sunday school, an almshouse, etc. It is impossible to erect objects that can be used for economic purposes.

For free use, the Russian Orthodox Church received about 165 objects, and ownership - about 100, follows from the data on the website of the Federal Property Management Agency.

"Nothing surprising," Anoprienko explains. - The church chooses free use, since in this case it can use state funding and count on subsidies for the restoration and maintenance of churches from the authorities. If the property is owned, all responsibility will fall on the Russian Orthodox Church. "

In 2015, the Federal Property Management Agency proposed that the Russian Orthodox Church take 1971 objects, but as of February 2016, only 212 applications were received, says Anoprienko. The head of the legal service of the Moscow Patriarchate, Abbess Ksenia (Chernega), is convinced that only destroyed buildings give churches.

"When the law was discussed, we compromised, did not insist on restitution of property lost by the church. Now, as a rule, we are not offered a single normal building in large cities, but only ruined objects that are expensive. We took a lot of destroyed churches in the 1990s, and now, of course, we wanted to get something better, "she tells[4].

The church, according to the abbess, will "fight for the necessary objects."

Educational institutions

For 2018, priests are trained:

• 5 Theological academies,
• 3 Orthodox Universities,
• 2 Bogoslovskikh Institutes,
• 38 seminaries,
• 39 theological schools,
• 2 pastoral courses.

Since 1993, the St. Alekseevskaya Gymnasium has been operating near Yaroslavl, which for 2018 is headed by hegumen Peter (Vasilenko). Her pupils receive a brilliant versatile education.

In Suzdal, at the Intercession Monastery, there is a social shelter for girls.

Worldliness

The miro transmission system actually looks somewhat more complicated than just selling. In fact, such actions are peculiar tools of direct control. And this has been practiced for much more than a thousand years.

When the church opens its "branch" in a new country or even region, then this method is used in different variations to control its "branch." The essence is that only the metropolis has a priority right to control the circulation of liturgical objects. This is necessary in view of both political (for example, so that "the branch does not break away or is not intercepted by competitors) and economic reasons (as a kind of tax).

Personnel policy

Security Service

In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where several key units of the Russian Orthodox Church are located, including the Commission on Monasteries and Monasticism, the entrance to the office premises is guarded by people of athletic build in cassocks with the grasps of professional security officers. They bypass the territory, and move along very professionally laid "patrol routes." In November 2013, an ark with a stone from Calvary, a 17th-century altar gospel in a silver salary, a shroud "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary" and a fold icon with the face of the Virgin Mary were stolen from the patriarchal chambers in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The cost of the stolen exceeded eight million rubles. Then the employees turned to the police and announced the theft, listing in detail the values ​ ​ and even providing photos. At the same time, one of the applicants in the cassock was talking on a very professional argo. Even in two - Christian, mechanically repeating "amen" at the mention of the Virgin, and police.

- During the inspection of the scene, the same man and his partner politely, but adamantly prevented the investigators from trying to study the premises adjacent to the chambers. And through the doors that opened from time to time, men in cassocks and without them were bored, clearly waiting for the departure of "worldly" investigators, "said one of the employees of the Moscow Region headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who traveled to Sergiev Posad at the signal of theft.[1]

The very next day, the thief was detained, and everything stolen returned to the Lavra, which the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported publicly. The main thing remained behind the scenes: the churchmen themselves carried out the investigation from beginning to end, they also handed over to the police the already confessed suspect and presented the seized stolen goods. During television broadcasts, it is clearly clear that near the highest ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church there are always clergy with a professional very tenacious look, while unmistakably performing rites.

At events with the participation of the top officials of the Russian Orthodox Church, there are churchmen next to law enforcement officers who themselves do not interfere in anything, but are vigilant about what is happening. And during the ceremony of laying the first stone in the foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, one journalist was detained and handed over to the FSB officers by two clergymen. They argued that the construction site could not be removed, although all the documents of the journalist were in order. It is curious that among themselves the then Chekists called these monks "neighbors" - also a word from the argo, which is usually referred to as colleagues from another power structure.

Believers who left the Russian Orthodox Church have repeatedly talked about conversations that some priests conducted with them, which resembled Chekists in behavior. And in Irkutsk, the author of the Lenta.ru investigation in 2018 was told a story about a disappeared homeless man who launched his hand into the church cash desk.

"Vanka thought that he successfully managed to spoil several thousand rubles. He did not go into a roar, on which almost everyone burns, did not give himself up and even continued to come to the temple, where he performed small work. But one evening, when the service was already over, and the believers had not yet dispersed, he was asked to go to the premises of the priests, where two men in cassocks arrived. No one else saw him - because of the altar he did not come out, "the parishioners said.

Many criminals say that stealing in churches is more expensive for themselves - they break their hands. In Pereslavl-Zalessky, journalists Lenta.ru had a chance to talk with a thief - he stole sausage and a bottle of vodka from a store near the temple, but was detained by an operative who accidentally went shopping. The thief, well known to the local police then, was released on recognizance not to leave.

- We talked, he told me his story, laughed at the unsuccessful fate - and then I asked him the first question that came to mind: - Why</nobr> didn't I</nobr> go to the monastery</nobr>? They will feed there if hungry. 'I don't eat - I wanted a drink. This is once. And two - in the monastery it is better not to pull anything, Father Dimitri has a pop - he breaks his hands without question. Cross himself - and shake... Forever[1]

At first glance, these are horror stories, but all the Orthodox communities that have left tell about special people looking at order and discipline. The girl who escaped in 2007 from the shelter of St. Bogolyubsky Monastery claimed that special clergy went in search of her, whose only task is to maintain order in the communities in the parish. They caught her and put her in a cell specially equipped for runaways. Similar stories are recorded in many appeals to law enforcement agencies throughout Russia. And each time a special chamber-type room is mentioned, equipped as in the zone.

And in the diocese there is often a special priest responsible for security. Most often he is called Father Sergius. Why is unknown, but it was Father Sergius who frightened people in the Yaroslavl, Vladimir and Irkutsk regions, as well as Moscow and St. Petersburg. And ordinary logic suggests: where there are secrets, there are archangels guarding them. And in the Russian Orthodox Church there are a lot of secrets - from ordinary everyday to difficult economic.

No wonder all attempts to secretly find out how and where the money received from tax breaks or the sale of church goods is spent ran into quite professionally organized opposition. And even when the criminal case was still able to be opened, it hung dead weight: the persons who had to be interrogated suddenly disappeared. In 2012, the criminal investigation officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Republic of Tatarstan put on the federal wanted list Father Grigory, in the world - Konushkin Mikhail Yuryevich, 28.10.1968 years old, a native of Moscow. The man, who was repeatedly reported to the police as a fraudster, took refuge in one of the monasteries, hiding from the search, where he took office. Later, accompanying the pilgrims, he collected all the cash from them (about 4 million rubles), allegedly for safety, got off the bus and disappeared. The search was terminated in 2016 in connection with the termination of the criminal case, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan. However, the damage to the victims has not been compensated. Meanwhile, a law enforcement source said the manhunt was simply stopped. Sometimes they took off from their place in one night and ended up in another region, where they registered at new addresses and received new, absolutely impeccable documents, including birth certificates and passports.

In the mid-2010s, a high-ranking law enforcement officer, who before his pension became deputy head of one of the operational-search units of the Own Security Service in northwestern Russia, began to orient the entire agent apparatus to identify employees who attend church more often than others. And during Lent, he rushed around the departments and watched what the officers eat and how. They laughed at him, someone turned his finger at his temple, but in the end of these strange events, the officer opened the leak channel of clean passport forms - more than 20 pieces were missing, and, surprisingly, according to the documents, they were all in the same employee before disappearance - very religious, but this can be an accident. An active search made it possible to find five missing documents already filled out on "unknown citizens," while the fate of the rest remained unknown.

A high-ranking employee, after an anonymous complaint, was caught in a sexual relationship and forced to quit. The Russian Orthodox Church remains the only place where from 1990 to 2018 law enforcement agencies (with the exception, perhaps, only the FSB) failed to recruit a single agent. But stories when informants (from among volunteers - not to be confused with agents) abruptly stopped communicating or simply disappeared, on the contrary, are often found. It was during an attempt to get into the territory of the monastery, where the criminal could hide, that a well-known Lenta.ru operative to the author of the investigation went missing. His skeletonized body a few months later was accidentally found in the forest. There was a walter pistol in his hand, and the skull had characteristic signs of destruction from a bullet fired into the temple. Investigators concluded about suicide, but his colleagues did not believe in this version^[1]

An equally strange story happened to a woman who worked for many years as an agent for an employee of the apartment fraud department and revealed the schemes of several gangs of "black realtors." She was introduced into a group suspected of legalizing the apartments of old women who allegedly sold their homes and went to the monastery. Suddenly, she cut off all contact with the officer in charge of her and turned the operation on her own, and then sent her daughter to church school, changed her style of clothing and began to go to church regularly.

Experienced criminals know that they will always find shelter in the monastery - the Russian Orthodox Church categorically refuses to issue any data to law enforcement agencies about those who have found refuge behind the church wall. In the summer of 2017, a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs even leaked to the press with a complaint about the abbots of churches obstructing the investigation. The response to it from Archpriest Sergius also got into free access. He reports that the church sees no reason to provide passport data of persons in the dioceses.

Father Sergius himself, a native of Bryansk Sergey Privalov in the world, served in the armed forces of the USSR and the Russian Federation until 2001. Having retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel, he changed the green field uniform to a black church uniform, and over the next 11 years he made a dizzying career: he became archpriest, cleric of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Petrovsky Park, candidate of theology, member of the Supreme Synodal Council, as well as chairman of the synodal commission for interaction with the armed forces and law enforcement agencies. In other words, he is the highest official of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose decision can practically not be canceled.

So it is not surprising that it is Archpriest Sergius who regularly refuses law enforcement officers to remove fingerprints from the monastery employees and seize genetic material from them.

Persecution of fugitives from monasteries

As you know, one of the most terrible church sins is the escape from the monastery. According to the charter, you can't just leave the monastery - you need to take off your vow, that is, become a scum. And this procedure is not fast, so it is easier to escape - the secular authorities still do not consider it an offense. As of July 2018, from 300 to 400 men and women are listed as escaped from monasteries in the Russian Federation. The police do not formally accept such statements - escape from the monastery is not considered a criminal offense, but such people need to be sought and punished so that others are discouraged. This is done by employees of the security service of the Russian Orthodox Church. True, officially such an organization does not exist. There was only one private security company Sofrino in the structure of the Church, but in June 2017 it stopped working and handed over all weapons to the licensing and permitting system of the Russian Guard.

Earlier, the Russian Orthodox Church was among the founders of Peresvet Bank. It is there that one of the most serious security services in Russia works for 2018. In October 2017, it was headed by Oleg Feoktistov, a former FSB general, the author of an operational combination that ended with a prison term for the Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev. Security officers of Peresvet were seen in at least two crime scenes associated with the Russian Orthodox Church, and at one of them, as a police operative will later write in an explanatory note, they were engaged in "fixing trace objects using forensic technology." That explanatory statement was never given a move, and the crime itself remained unsolved. We are talking about the murder of a priest on the threshold of the Nikolsky monastery in Pereslavl-Zalessky. The very monastery, the rector of which is Archimandrite Dimitri, is the confessor of Mother Lyudmila from the ill-fated village of Moseitsevo^[1].

The Security Service of the Russian Orthodox Church is also actively conducting operational-search work - that is, it secretly collects information about people, including using technical means. For example, sets the phone numbers from which girls from Moseitsevo went to. Internet After all, few people know how to see a profile on VKontakte, quickly find out from which phone number a person was on the network, and calculate his location. Someone from the environment of Moseitsev matushki did it in a matter of seconds. And a certain Matron Yaroslavskaya, a few minutes after the discovery of the girls' profiles, knew not only their mobile numbers, but also the address of the newly created e-mail. The identity of Matron herself could not be established.

The same fate befell several journalists who wrote on near-church topics: they suddenly learned that the content of their personal letters was becoming known to the highest church hierarchs. In other words, the security service of the Russian Orthodox Church does not formally exist, but in fact it is actively working. In any case, in December 2017, after the sentencing of mothers from Moseitsevo, someone wanted to find out the fate of their adopted children. By that time, they had changed absolutely all the documents, but the registry office of the Yaroslavl region tried to get a list of issued birth certificates, and the directorate of the orphanage received a request allegedly from the legal bureau demanding that the girls' personal files be provided. And someone else searched and opened their electronic mailboxes, and did it very professionally.

You can argue for a long time whether there is a special unit of hacker monks inside the Russian Orthodox Church, but dozens of priests whom the author of the Lenta.ru investigation spoke with in 2018 said one thing: the metropolitans literally knew the content of their email and correspondence in closed groups of social networks. And, despite the motto "Internet - sinful," church followers actively use the World Wide Web. Especially when you need to find someone Orthodox^[1].

There were many rumors that the princes of the Russian Orthodox Church had the titles of the KGB of the USSR and party tickets. This cannot be argued - many priests in the 1980s were very opposed and even opportunistic. But this cannot be considered an absolute lie either. In any case, in 2015, special religious departments operated in the structures of the territorial departments of the FSB, which in fact served as arbitrators, especially at the moment when conflicts acquired resonance. In Moseitsevo, for example, it was the FSB officers who assured the operatives of the criminal investigation department that no one would repair obstacles in the investigation of the criminal case, but there was no need to dig aside. In Bogolyubovo, officers of specialized units of the FSB also smoothed out sharp corners. At the same time, it is the FSB in Moscow that prevents the adoption of changes to laws that would make the budget of religious organizations transparent.

The Western press often says that money for bribes to officials and payment for intelligence information, especially political, goes to various countries precisely through church channels. But in our country, this data, even in translated articles, does not appear. And not because someone formally prohibits - there is internal censorship. In rare cases, the authority of the editor. It is no secret that Orthodox parishes often provide assistance to compatriots.

Lack of labor legislation

In 2017, the training commission of the Moscow Patriarchate came with a check to the Vladimir Theological Seminary, then almost accidentally found out: out of a dozen authoritative professors, only two formally got a job - the rector and the first vice-rector. And the rest worked for many years without registration, work books and contributions to the Pension Fund. They received their salaries in envelopes and thought that this was how it should be. Having learned the truth, they went to bow to the Patriarchate. And there they said: the pension will be paid by those whom you have now trained. In fact, the case was released on the brakes. People escaped, but no one will make up for the missed years - neither in experience, nor in compulsory deductions. And these teachers have nowhere to go - the Russian Orthodox Church has a monopoly on spiritual education.

"The whole church economy is very specific," says Father Nikolai, an ex-minister of the Russian Orthodox Church. - It is arranged according to the sectarian principle. You know, there is such a saying: "the priest has a surrender of nem." Our brethren don't like to pay for work. The system of economic relations is deliberately criminal - with black and gray salaries.

Russians will be very surprised when they find out: priests are absolutely powerless. Yes, they still forced them to issue work books, but not everyone still has them - in every church, in every monastery, they were discharged to the required minimum of clergy. But no one has employment contracts. Even the type form was not developed.

Salaries of priests

For 2018, the salary of a Russian priest is from 20 to 40 thousand rubles a month. Some say that they are withholding personal income tax, some - that they are completely exempt from taxes. The abbot gets much more.

Moreover, in the conditions of the priesthood, the issues of prestige are especially pronounced. Therefore, an ordinary priest will never buy a car more prestigious than from the abbot; the abbot will not appear on people in hours more expensive than the bishop; and the bishop will not possess a rarity, which the patriarch does not have. Therefore, the desire to stand out manifests itself differently.

In June 2018, one of the personnel agencies was looking for a personal cook for the abbess of the holy monastery. The salary was promised at 90 thousand rubles. According to the agency's employees, the abbess was going to pay her personal^[2].

Workers' and Peasants' Army

In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, a fundamental problem of the Russian Orthodox Church arose: there was essentially no one to revive religion and its institutions. After all, all the churchmen were exterminated as a class.

"The growth rate of the Russian Orthodox Church is colossal," said Father Nikolai in July 2018, in the world - Nikolai Dmitrievich Gundyaev (namesake), a former priest who left the Church after criticizing the structure of the church. In the early 1990s, during the reconstruction of the Russian Orthodox Church, tragic utopianism was superimposed on book Orthodoxy: the world rolls into tartarars, it does not exist for long, the Third World War is ahead, it is necessary to escape - and a lot of destitute people from collapsed families were thrown into monasteries in search of, if not a better share, then with the thought where their children save from debauchery, from alcohol, from drugs, from prostitution. Then the monasteries were still such utopian communities of Tommaso Campanella (the author of The City of the Sun, according to V. I. Lenin, is one of the predecessors of scientific socialism) and represented not so much Orthodoxy as war communism. People all left the Soviet Union, having a collective farm before their eyes as a model. Here it is, and not the apostolic community, and built. Therefore, it was not God's houses that turned out, but the same collective farms, only with the Gospel in their hands. Immigrants from Bessarabia and from southeastern Ukraine were especially appreciated. And of course it turned out that of all the possible Orthodoxy, we began to build a peasant one. Again, with all the ensuing consequences - with the promotion of subsistence farming and peasant culture, as well as with the rejection of urban life. Why do peasants need passports? "Taxpayer Identification Number" (TIN)? Books? Cards? Overseas trips? Peasants have always lived at the expense of subsistence farming! Well, that is, such peasant practicality. That's when the roots of the current troubles of the Russian Orthodox Church were laid - it so happened that the monastic, black clergy in Russia are traditionally the least educated than the white clergy. This is our specificity, unlike, for example, Catholics: their monks are more educated than parish priests. Since then, since the revival of the Church, people who have taken monastic tonsure have been pursuing a frenzied career. Lightning fast. Where a white priest should plow and plow, serve and serve, blacks could decorate themselves in two years with everything they could and take such positions as an ordinary priest did not dream of. Accordingly, from dirt to princes, without education - without appropriate length of service - forward. These are again Stalinist falcons, non-commissioned officers who became generals of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, who studied on the principle of "take-off - landing - ready to fight."[2].

At the end of the period of stagnation, the questionnaire of the average head of the district level looked like this: eight classes of education, a technical school, service in the ranks of the armed forces of the USSR, a proletarian (or collective farm) specialty, the University <nobr>of Marxism-Leninism</nobr> and the election to the post of secretary of the district executive committee. Today, the official questionnaire of the spiritual shepherd looks similar: eight to nine classes of the school, service in the army, work as an electrician, miner or combine operator, ordination and service as a deacon, seminary (or academy - depending on the status of bishop) and rank in the parish. However, there were exceptions there, and there were also very similar: long-term service in the armed forces and immediately - the leadership position is a step higher, but not under the cap, but under the hood. Both those and others have very low educational qualifications, which means the lack of real academic knowledge, including systemic ones.

Serf prisoners

In 2018, pop razdriga living in the Baikal region easily explained the everyday tricks of the lower tier of Russian Orthodoxy.

- If you want to recover - go behind the Ural stone. They take everyone there - the last bandits and convicts. The heavier the crime, the further east you have to go. It's very hard here, but they count a day in three. I personally know a dozen completely officially ordained elders, each of whom is a convict and a murderer, on their conscience not one or two, but ten to twenty victims, including those added already in the ministry. Here is REAL serfdom because you can't leave here. Money is not paid, but asked for work.[1]

Beyond the Ural Mountains, even officials and the leadership of law enforcement agencies openly speak about serfdom in the monasteries and monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2018. This problem, which must be solved, but no one knows how to solve it. Although there are many advisers. Already in December 2017, a Siberian journalist, having learned the story about Moseitsevo, looked into the eyes of the narrator for a long time and misunderstood, and then said: "You don't know life there in Europe at all." We don't make a noise on such nonsense. The law is a taiga. Look for fistulas.

According to him, dozens of people, mainly prisoners who have been released, are missing. They find themselves in distant settlements, where they work for the benefit of the church for free.

"The ball there is ruled by people hiding behind the Orthodox faith. But the orders there are Zonov. Rarely can anyone escape from there. And they don't really strive, to be honest. Because they feed, feed, give work. In the wild, many are more terrible, "the journalist said.

He clarified that law enforcement officers often cover these so-called Orthodox monasteries. But they cover - the word is not very accurate: they do not take money for concealment. Another thing is more curious: since the 1990s, those released from prison began to actively settle in the monasteries of Central Russia, and later in the Russian south. For them, even the term exists - "winter monks," that is, those who take tonsure for the winter in order to sit out the fierce times in warmth and fullness. In fact, according to law enforcement officers, a unique symbiosis has arisen: carriers of criminal culture ensure order in monasteries by Zonov methods, which guarantees an influx of material goods, and the church gives them protection from law enforcement agencies and flock.

Education system

2018

In 2018, the Training Committee of the Russian Orthodox Church was headed by the ambitious Moscow Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, the former rector of the Church of St. Tatians at Moscow State University. During the year, he inspected almost all the spiritual schools of the Russian Orthodox Church and even suspended the work of the most hopeless.

However, he had to admit that the Sretensky Theological Seminary of Metropolitan Tikhon has the best indicators in the system: over the 20 years of its existence, it has graduated 550 seminarians, of which 70% have become clergy, and the rest work in various synodal structures.

1994-2018

From 1994 to 2018, the Training Committee of the Patriarchate was headed by Archbishop Eugene (Reshetnikov). After several attempts at reforms, stagnation reigned in the economy under his jurisdiction.

Numerous provincial seminaries, which opened in the wake of the "religious revival" of the 1990s, could not find applicants and funds to feed students. But even the country's leading theological schools - the Moscow and St. Petersburg academies - catastrophically lost graduates who did not want to serve on the church line. I had to introduce something like partial serfdom - when graduates of academies and seminaries sign legally significant obligations for at least three years after receiving a diploma to work in the church or to cover astronomical sums for training and maintenance at their own expense. Under Eugene, the spiritual schools of the Russian Orthodox Church switched to the Bologna system, which implies a two-level structure of higher education: the seminar course was equated with a bachelor's degree, and the academic course with a master's degree.

So the Sretensky Theological Seminary began to differ from the Moscow Academy only in name: both provided training both under the bachelor's program and under the master's program, their diplomas had the same weight. Moreover, in the rating compiled by the Academic Committee of the Patriarchate, the Sreten Seminary sometimes even overtook the Moscow Academy in terms of the quality of education (the St. Petersburg Academy, the alma mater of Patriarch Kirill, invariably remains in the first place in the rating).

External relations

Main article: DECR (Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate)

2016: Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church meets Pope for the first time

In February 2016, the first meeting of their primates in the history of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches took place in Havana. Its result was a joint document designed to draw the attention of the world community to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and the decline of moral values ​ ​ in the world.

The meeting of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and the Pope was prepared for almost twenty years. It was first planned to be held back in 1997 in Austria. During the preliminary negotiations, a draft joint statement was then prepared, which, in particular, contained a rejection of Uniatism as a means of reuniting churches and Catholic proselytism in Russia and other CIS countries. But at the very last moment, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church decided to remove these points from the joint document, and the meeting had to be canceled. In 2002, there was a new round of aggravation in relations between churches, when Pope John Paul II raised the status of administrative structures of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia to the level of dioceses without prior consultation with the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church. As a result, the possibility of meeting two first hierarchs for a long time was reduced to zero.

Only after the accession to the Holy See of Pope Benedict XVI, who managed to relieve the tension that existed under the previous pontificate, did Orthodox Catholic relations take on a positive and progressive character. Most likely, if Pope Benedict XVI had not retired in 2013, then his meeting with Patriarch Cyril would have taken place. Pope Francis continued his predecessor's policy of normalizing relations between the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate, ultimately allowing for a historic meeting.

The first meeting of Orthodox and Catholics "at the highest level" after the division in 1054 of the Christian church into the Eastern and Western (not counting the Council of Florence in 1439) took place almost 53 years ago: on January 5, 1964, Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople and Pope Paul VI met in Jerusalem. As a result, mutual anathemas were abolished in 1965. The meeting became possible thanks to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which "opened" the Catholic Church to dialogue with other religions: "Truth should be sought through exchange and dialogue."^[5].

The first meeting of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia with the Pope was decided to be held in Cuba at the Jose Marti International Airport. This was due to the fact that Patriarch Kirill did not want it to take place in Europe from the very beginning, since it was there that the centuries-old difficult history of divisions and conflicts between Christians unfolded.

The main topic of negotiations in Cuba was the discussion of acute social, political and moral problems of our time. The final document, which was signed by the patriarch and the pope, in particular, spoke of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. The hierarchs called on the international community "to take urgent action to prevent the further displacement of Christians from the Middle East." In addition, they made a call to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. One of the fundamental points of the document is the recognition by the pope that the union is not a means of restoring church unity. The document also spoke about the protection of family values ​ ​ and about the rapprochement of Orthodox and Catholic positions on the issue of proselytism: the parties called on to abandon it, since it "has practical significance for peaceful coexistence." At the same time, both churches emphasize that neither theological nor canonical issues were discussed at the meeting. This suggests that it was organized not to resolve dogmatic differences, but to draw the attention of the world community to existing problems - in particular, to armed conflicts, persecution of Christians and the decline of moral values ​ ​ in the world. The patriarch and pope demonstrated to the world that, despite dogmatic differences, Christians are ready to jointly uphold Christian values ​ ​ in an increasingly secular world.

Digitalization

2024

ROC has developed and approved the principles of using artificial intelligence

General church postgraduate studies and doctoral studies named after Saints Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius approved the first document in Russia regulating the use of artificial intelligence technologies in spiritual education. The decision was made by the Academic Council of the institution on September 30, 2024.

According to the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate, the principles form the ethical and practical framework for the use of AI in the creation of scientific and educational works. The document was developed jointly with the Higher School of Economics after a series of training events for the administration of theological schools.

𝓲

ROC

Rector of the All-Church Graduate School, Chairman of the ROC Training Committee, Archpriest Maxim Kozlov emphasized the importance of the correct use of artificial intelligence as an instrument for the development of the higher spiritual education system.

The adopted principles declare openness to the use of AI technologies, but establish strict requirements for the transparency of their application. Students and teachers are required to indicate the degree and extent of use of artificial intelligence in their work.

Special requirements are established for graduation qualification works and dissertations. The authors should describe in detail the applied AI tools and their impact on the content of the study.

The document prohibits two ways to use artificial intelligence: automatic generation of text or fragments of it and the inclusion of machine translations without critical processing. Other methods of using AI are allowed subject to academic ethics.

Artificial intelligence technologies are seen as a tool for enriching the educational process, contributing to the development and structuring of large amounts of information. The introduction of modern technologies is aimed at improving the quality of spiritual education.^[6]

In Russia, launch the Orthodox messenger "Zosima" for the communication of believers

In September 2024, the Orthodox messenger "Zosima" was announced. The project is designed to communicate with believers, exchange prayer requests and support, as well as provide clergy with tools to interact with parishioners. The new messenger will be available on the main mobile platforms, which will allow users to quickly communicate with churches and abbots. Read more here.

Automatic terminals for non-cash donations have appeared in Russian churches. Photo

In mid-June 2024, it became known that automatic terminals for non-cash donations began to be installed in many Russian churches. In particular, such devices appeared in the capital of the Leningrad Region - Gatchina.

According to the regional administration, Gatchina entered the top 10 Russian settlements according to the digitalization index "IQ cities." The capital of the Leningrad Region has become one of the best in Russia in the category "Administrative Centers." Digitalization affects various spheres of urban economy. According to the publication "MK in the Leningrad Region," in some local churches donations can be made through special terminals.

To transfer money, it is enough to indicate the desired amount through the device screen, choosing one of the offered options (100, 300, 500, 1000, 3000, 5000 rubles) or entering your value. After that, you need to bring a bank card or smartphone to the terminal.

In some ways, digitalization in the Leningrad region is even faster than in St. Petersburg. Even in churches, you can now pay for a donation through special terminals, - says the publication of MK.

Earlier, the Voronezh diocese introduced in its churches the reception of donations through electronic terminals. In addition, similar devices are installed in the churches of Sevastopol. As noted, through such terminals you can not only make a donation, but also pay for goods presented in church shops.

This step is a response to the realities of our time, when an increasing number of people find it more convenient for themselves to use bank cards. Many Orthodox monasteries and churches both in Russia and abroad provide an opportunity to make their donations with bank cards, according to the diocese of the Voronezh region.[7]

2022: ROC launches Orthodox chatbot at Viber

The Synodal Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) launched an Orthodox chat boat in the. messenger Viber This was announced on December 8, 2022 "" Interfax with reference to. press service of the Russian Orthodox Church More. here

2021: The head of the Russian Orthodox Church called total digital control over personality slavery

The Russian Orthodox Church is categorically against the use of digital technologies to ensure total control over the human person - this is slavery, and such a practice will be widely applied before the end of the world, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said in January 2021, commenting on the introduction of digital technologies^[8] Russian^[9] Church^[10].

"Digital technologies are able to create tools that provide total control over a person. Nothing like this could have happened in the past... The book "Apocalypse" says that the coming of the Antichrist will be accompanied by total control over man, "the patriarch said in his traditional Christmas interview on the Russia 1 TV channel. In the Holy Scriptures, he explained, it is said that "the seal of the Antichrist will be imposed on a person, and without this seal it will be impossible to buy, sell, or participate in any social relations - a person will be doomed to death." At the same time, all such things, according to the Church, will be covered up with "good intentions." "The coming into the world of the Antichrist will be accompanied by the appearance of an amazing person who, by his intellectual power, by the power of influence on people, will be able to bring humanity out of the crises in which it fell. This person will offer: in order for all crime to leave our lives, let us be guided by the fact that each person has a certain key to everything that he needs. For example, it can be a card - you apply and get access to food, access to education, and if this card is not, then everything is lost, "the patriarch said . He stressed that "the maximum development of total control over man means slavery, and everything will depend on who will be the master over these slaves." "That is why the Church is categorically against the use of digital technologies in ensuring total control over the human person," concluded the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

2020: CCTV cameras installed in Russian churches

At the end of February 2020, it became known that video surveillance systems were being installed in Russian churches. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) officially announced this. Read more here.

Chronicle

2024: A priest from the Moscow region was sentenced to 3 years in prison for exchanging pornographic photos on WhatsApp

On July 18, 2024, it became known that the Zyuzinsky court of Moscow sentenced Archpriest Dmitry Kuvyrtalov, rector of the Church of the Archangel Michael in Letov, to three years in prison. The priest is accused of exchanging pornographic materials in the WhatsApp messenger. Read more here.

2021

ROC is concerned about import substitution of drug production in Russia

In January 2022, it became known about the concern of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) about the import substitution of drug production in Russia. The corresponding letter was sent by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to the director of the Health Department of the Government of the Russian Federation of Grief Kagramanyan. Read more here.

Death of 145 priests of the Russian Orthodox Church from COVID-19

As of February 3, 2021, 145 clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) have died from the coronavirus COVID-19. 4001 cleric and monk of the Russian Orthodox Church have had this infection. Read more here.

2017: Receiving St. Isaac's Cathedral from the state by decision of Russian President Putin

St. Isaac's Cathedral St. Petersburg the regional authorities transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in early 2017. Read more. here

2002: Map of the Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation by the Share of orthodox

1980s: 4 thousand of 6.5 thousand parishes in Ukraine

In the late 1980s, when the church revival began in the USSR, officially called "return to faith," there were 6.5 thousand parishes in the Russian Orthodox Church. Of these, almost 4 thousand are in Ukraine, and the majority are in its southeastern part. About 500 more in Moldova - more precisely, in that part of it that was traditionally called the Bessarabian province, or Bessarabia. Then in the USSR there were three seminaries - Zagorskaya, Leningrad and Odessa, and two Theological Academies - Moscow and Leningrad. Public policy was such that most of their applicants already had unfinished higher secular education.

1982

Funeral of CPSU Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev, Hall of Columns of the House of Unions, Moscow, November 1982.

1929

Public burning of icons by the organization "Society of Atheists" in Podolsk, USSR, late 1920s.

1923

Red Army soldiers carry icons and church utensils from the Simonov Monastery in Moscow, USSR, 1923.

1919: Results of the opening of the relics of saints by the Bolsheviks

Results of the opening of the holy relics by the Bolsheviks, USSR, 1919

1914

The floating church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is the only ship in the Russian Empire on which a full-fledged Orthodox church was located. It operated in the 1910s in the Caspian Sea.

1906: The Murder of the Father-in-Law George Gapon

10.04.1906 in the country village of Ozerki near St. Petersburg, the murder of priest George Gapon was committed.

1904

Priest G.A. Gapon in the "Collection of Russian factory workers," end of 1904.

1901

The priest of the Russian Orthodox Church in the national costume of the Kamchadals. 1901, Gizhiga, Russian Empire

1890

In 1890, shortly after a trip abroad, the artist Isaac Levitan created the painting "Quiet Abode," which appeared at a traveling exhibition.

Isaac Levitan. Quiet abode. 1890. State Tretyakov Gallery

The aerial picture depicting the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in the pre-sunset light was discussed by the entire intelligent Moscow. Impressed by the work of Levitan, poet Nikolay Rubtsov wrote a poem, and Anton Chekhov described the canvas in the novel "Three Years":

"In the foreground is a river, a log bridge across it, on that bank a path disappearing into the dark grass... And in the distance the evening dawn burns out. And for some reason it began to seem that these very clouds, and the forest, and the field, she had seen for a long time and many times, and she wanted to go, go and walk along the path, and where there was an evening dawn, a reflection of something ethereal, eternal, an ocean of pure joy and no overshadowed bliss rested. "

1888: Celebration of the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Russia

Celebration of the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Russia on July 15, 1888

1722: Decree of Peter I banning fees for the construction of churches and the needs of the church

On March 6, 1722, the Decree of Peter I was issued, prohibiting fees in the Russian Empire for the construction of churches and the needs of the church.

1665

Portrait of Patriarch Nikon with clergy (D. Wuchters, 1660-1665?)

1572

• Stikhirs of Ivan the Terrible in honor of the Presentation of the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir

1505: Reprisal against the scientific intelligentsia under the guise of "heresy of the Jews"

• Sixwing (book)

Icon of the Russian Inquisitor Joseph of Volokolamsk (Volotsky) in the Museum of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. 1910s, Moscow, salary of Mitrofan Ryndin's workshop

959: Princess Olga asks Otgon I to send Christian preachers and establish a bishopric in Kyiv

In the summer or autumn of 959, that is, the next year after the breakdown of relations with the Byzantine emperor Konstantin Bagryanorodny, the princess sent ambassadors to Germany to King Otgon, whom she asked no less as the establishment of a bishopric in her country. See Adalbert's mission for details.

Notes