Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko (center) sees himself as the uniter of divided Ukrainian churches.
Photo: Alexander Techinsky
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Russian Orthodox Rock Concert Maidan
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has declared the intention of creating a local Ukrainian Orthodox church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate. In response, the Russian Orthodox Church has wielded a new weapon against Ukrainian authorities: it held a rock concert on Kreshchatik in Kiev with Yury Shevchuk (founder of the rock group DDT) and several church officials that drew more than 100,000 people. Kommersant special correspondent Mikhail Zygar has the details from the Orthodox Maidan.
A Center of Pressure
The morning of the celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus began in Kiev with a storm. Rain-drenched Sophia Square, the main site of the ceremonies, was closed to the public. Only people on a list were allowed in, and they had to pass through a metal detector. An elderly European tourist stood at the edge of the square and sighed. “Why did they have to block if off?” he asked. “Just like in Russia.”
The VIP guests sat in padded chairs on a platform, but they were moved out of the rain under an awning against the walls of St. Sophia’s Cathedral before the events began. On one side holding an umbrella was chairman of the organizing committee of the holiday first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.
“Leonid Makarovich,” I addressed him, “have you heard that the Russian Foreign Ministry has accused you of disrespect toward the Orthodox Church?”
“Yes. But I don’t understand what they’re talking about. How did we offend them?”
“Why did they take the portraits of [Patriarch] Alexy II down?”
“We took them down yesterday because Bartholomew was coming. We put up his portrait for his arrival. Today Alexy is coming, and we’ll put his portrait up again.”
“And the Russian Orthodox Church is very displeased with your idea of creating a local Ukrainian church independent from the Moscow Patriarchate.”
“What else are we to do? Look. We hold a memorial for the victims of the Holodomor [famine of 1932-1933], for example. And the Orthodox Church does not take part? Why? It doesn’t respect the memory of famine victims? No, it respects them. Then why? Because it received a directive from Moscow! I have great respect for Metropolitan Vladimir. He is very intelligent and correct. But he cannot be his own master because he has to follow Moscow’s commands. Is that really fair? If you were president of Ukraine, would you accept that?”
Rock and Pop
Kravchuk was so caught up in what he was saying that he started to wave his umbrella.
“Do you think Moscow uses the church as an instrument of political pressure on Ukraine?” I asked.
“You remember what Putin said: ‘Orthodoxy is the shield of Russia.’ Forceful, isn’t it? I don’t think that’s bad. It’s right. But we have to remember that.”
“And how do you want to change the situation?”
“As far as I know, [head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kievan Patriarchate] Philaret and [head of the Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church] Methodius are supposed to write an appeal to Bartholomew with a request to accept them under his jurisdiction. As metropolinates. And there will be two churches – one under Moscow and one under Constantinople. Then the Patriarch of Constantinople will make the metropolitanate of Kiev an autocephalic church. That is one scenario, any way.”
It started raining harder.
“But that will lead to a deeper schism, not to unity.”
“We are striving for unity. But have you heard the conditions the Moscow Patriarchate has placed on unification? Repentance. Crawling on their knees. Self-dissolution. Who begins a dialog with those requirements? I don’t think the Russian authorities want unification of the churches in Ukraine, because they want a center of pressure.”
At that moment, the bells of the Cathedral of St. Sophia rang, indicating that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew were coming out onto the square.
Yushchenko began reading his speech immediately. It was a long, historical speech. He said that Prince Vladimir baptized Ukraine-Rus in 988 and Patriarch of Constantinople Paisius declared Bogdan Khmelnitsky sole Russian ruler. Only at the end of his speech did he come to the main point, what the entire celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the baptism of Rus was organized for.
“I believe, as a gift of God and as historical truth and fairness, a national church will appear in Ukraine. I believe and I ask, Your Holiness, for your blessing,” the president said.
The patriarch did not answer. He said a few words of greeting in Greek and a translator read the rest of his speech. The speech was evasive. He said the transfer of the Kiev metropolitanate to the Moscow patriarchy in the 17th century was necessitated by political considerations and “care for the preservation and renewal of church unity is our common obligation, and it is higher than any political or ecclesiastic goals.” No one expected a speedy and concrete answer from the patriarch. According to Kravchenko, he will have his say after the appeal by Philaret and Methodius.
“They Are Promoting Themselves at Our Expense”
The rain stopped almost as soon as the ceremony was over. Later in the day, when almost all of the main official events were finished, including laying a wreath at the memorial to the victim s of the Holodomor, Patriarch Alexy II flew into Kiev. Like Bartholomew a day earlier, he went immediately to the Lavra monastery. But, while Bartholomew met there with the Ukrainian president, Alexey met with Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich.
When the patriarch entered the monastery, the guards closed the gates behind him immediately. Only those who were ahead of the patriarch got to use the main gates with him. The day before, when Bartholomew and Yushchenko entered the monastery, the gates opened for them alone, and the congregants and journalists had to use side entrances. Be that as it may, the journalists traveling with Alexy decided that Ukrainian authorities did that to provoke them. Members of the Orthodox Brotherhood, who had not been able to display their banners in front of Bartholomew (but met Alexey with them), raged along with the journalists. “Autocephaly is the road to hell,” “Alexy II is our patriarch,” “We want to stay in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church” their signs read.
The main event of Saturday was not in the Lavra, however, but on Kreshchatik, Kiev’s main street. Approximately simultaneously with the arrival of Alexy, a rock concert devoted to the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus began. It was organized by Deacon Andrey Kuraev and two members of parliament from the Party of the Regions. They wanted to hold the concert on the Maidan, but they moved it 500 m. in the direction of the mayor’s office to avoid disturbing the presidential reception in St. Sophia’s Cathedral. The stage was set up across Kreshchatik, so that only the very back rows of viewers were on the Maidan.
Contrary to expectations, no one said anything about the president, attempts to cancel the concert or disrespect toward the Russian Orthodox Church. The host only made vague reference to “politicians who search for dividends in the cloudy waters of separatism.” But young people circled the stage wearing T-shirts that said “United Russian Youth Guard” with flags of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus on them.
Deacon Kuraev sat beneath the stage with a laptop computer. I approached him to ask about the political sense of the concert and what the organizers wanted to tell the Ukrainian authorities with it. The music was so loud we had to step into a neighboring shoe store to hear each other.
“What do you think of Yushchenko’s idea of founding a local church?” I asked.
“What is there to think?” he countered, settling into a sofa next to young people trying on sports shoes. “Yushchenko wants to have a local church. And maybe the church wants to see Yushchenko in the political grave.”
“Can his plan be realized?”
“Anything can happen. This is the land of Mazepa, so such viruses are stronger here.”
“Is your concert some sort of counterweight to Yushchenko’s official celebrations?”
“No. We began our tour of Ukraine almost a year ago, long before the Ukrainian authorities decided to do anything. And there is no need to think that the concert is the doing of the Russian authorities. On the contrary. The Russian elite hasn’t shown any interest in us. We haven’t gotten a single ruble from Kremlin-linked funds.”
“What? You have the United Russia Youth Guard sitting there!”
“What are they to us? What do we need them for? They came to promote themselves at our expense and they are no help to us at all.”
“How about the Ukrainian elite? The Party of the Regions, for example?”
“From the party itself, no. Two Kiev businessmen, Gorbal and Omelyanenko, helped us and they are members of the party. But the party itself has shown no interest in us. We had hoped to launch a Russian tour after Ukraine, but it didn’t work out.’
Then Kuraev made his way onto the stage and to say that you have to believe in God, or else you’ll believe in the devil that makes everyone march in step and vote the way they say.
Then a video of Patriarch Alexy and Metropolitan of Kiev Vladimir was shown on a big screen. After that, recent participant in the Russian March of the Dissenters Yury Shevchuk came out.
“Those politicians who are trying to make us fight won’t be here in 30 years. But we will remain. And we will live together. Russian-Ukrainian friendship forever!” Shevchuk declared from the stage. And on Kreshchatik they applauded as though it were not just a rock concert, but a new revolution on the Maidan, against new enemies. Shevchuk began his familiar “I Am Rushing into Battle.”
During a break in the DDT songs, Metropolitan Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s external relations, and Metropolitan Irenaeus of Dnepropetrovsk dashed onto the stage.
“Hello, Kiev!” Kirill shouted to the 120,000 in the audience. They responded as though to a rock star.
“Lavrenty Chernigovsky said that Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are Holy Rus,” he said. “And Holy Rus is not an empire. Holy Rus is not some kind of alliance, former or future. Holy Rus is the ideal of beauty, goodness and truth!”
Everyone applauded. Shevchuk returned to the stage and sang his biggest hits, first about how “there in the distance, there across the Dnepr, it is, love,” then “freaky homeland.” He sang a line of the chorus of the last song in Ukrainian: “All that I leave behind me is all that I take.” For some reason, that brought many people to the point of tears. At that moment, Shevchuk did penitence for some of the sins of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the State Duma, and even Gazprom. They last time they sang and cried on that spot was the Orange Revolution of December 2004.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of July 28, 2008
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