Posted on 05/14/2019 6:49:48 PM PDT by marshmallow
Yekaterinburg (Russia) (AFP) - Hundreds of people from the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg protested Tuesday against a controversial plan to build a Russian Orthodox cathedral in a central park.
Dozens of anti-riot police ringed the protest site late Tuesday and made several arrests, an AFP journalist said. Local authorities cited by the Interfax news agency spoke of 10 detentions.
The Kremlin said it was monitoring the situation after some 2,000 activists toppled a fence around a construction site and clashed with security guards and martial arts enthusiasts linked to an investor in the project.
Tensions around plans to build new Orthodox churches are not uncommon in Russian cities, including the capital Moscow.
The Church says that it needs new facilities for worshippers after the destruction of many of its buildings in the Soviet era, as well as to provide for those living in modern suburbs.
In Yekaterinburg it wants to build a recreation of a cathedral demolished in 1930 under a Soviet anti-religion campaign, to be dedicated to Saint Catherine. But locals are up in arms about the loss of a valued green space.
"To build the cathedral, they want to destroy the park, which is a favourite place for residents to relax," the Yekaterinburg activist group said in a post on its website.
Tensions came to a head in Yekaterinburg after locals found on Monday morning that a large swathe of the green zone had been fenced off to prepare for the cathedral construction, local media reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“In Yekaterinburg it wants to build a recreation of a cathedral demolished in 1930 under a Soviet anti-religion campaign, to be dedicated to Saint Catherine. But locals are up in arms about the loss of a valued green space. “
Most likely Soros is paying them.
That might be the case but most likely not. I know this city and know this exact location and in all honesty can’t imagine another church in that exact place. It just obviously doesn’t fit in this square. Not to mention there is already a huge temple right across the small pond within visual range and another in a next block. At least one smaller church and a chapel in a direct proximity too.
The church was there before, until the communists had it torn down.
Right but as I mentioned there is a number of other which weren’t and newly built. New church is a good thing but it is not right to have a dozen per block. Why won’t they build in a neighborhood without a church at all.
Yekaterinberg being the city in which the last Tsar and his family were incarcerated in a former wealthy merchant’s Ipatiev home, and, by order of Lenin, who feared the advancing White Russian army rescuing the Tsar— were murdered in the basement of that same home, and a long saga of how their bodies were... disposed of.
That house was destroyed by order of Yeltsin. There is a memorial to the Tsar and his family in the area, as well as one built near the verified final burial location in woods under railroad crossties outside the city, and a smaller memorial to the boy Tsareivich and his sister Maria (who were dissolved in acid and tossed down a well). The details of this are truly appalling. So there are several memorials/icon sites in the area. The place is a holdout of Stalinists who want the whole event forgotten, and thus, for there to be no Orthodox churches there, reconstructed or otherwise built.
Forensic anthropologist Dr. William Maples (U. of FL),a personal hero/mentor, early on identified the bones in 1992 as they were “revealed’ to have been found, the fear removed by the first President Boris Yeltsin (who was from Yekaterinberg interestingly, and ordered the house destroyed so it wouldn’t be made a shrine, and to appease the Stalinists there at the time). Maples’ IDs were confirmed finally by extensive DNA (including mitochondrial, and DNA samples of blood on a shirt worn by Nicholas II when he was stabbed in Japan when in his teens).
So, the Stalin worshippers still exist (as does a “communist” party all stalinist) as a political minority. Putin supports the Orthodox church, and it will be built. This is fascinating dinosaur Soviet politics— they still think Stalin was great, and.... no Tsar memory (sort of like erasing Confederate and other period statues, like Stephen Foster the songwriter!) allowed. The communist way.
The Romanov family is officially all buried now in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Then: 
Next block: 
Across the pond (not one but two and another behind it): 
against the construction of a new cathedral ...
Above I posted a few pics from downtown Yekaterinburg. It is not even a third of Orthodox churches in that tiny location.
A single non-Orthodox place of worship in downtown is a small Catholic chapel on premises of US Consulate on Gogol Street.
I don’t think downtown Yekaterinburg needs another Orthodox church.
North side is now a Chinatown and Northeast is Muslim. Southwest, South infested with 7th day adventists, Methodists. Orthodox better forget about downtown and go compete elsewhere.
2,000 rioting? they push the fences over with baby strollers?
knock down some buildings, build the church there and give the toddlers their park.
Thanks for the pix offers an insight into life there. Am I wrong that most of the living is in government housing don’t see any single dwelling units,
Yes and no at the same time. It is the city center and most people live in suburbs. Although a Russian idea of suburb is rather different. These are mostly highrise blocks but the concept of government housing is mostly non-existant now. The units in high rises are mostly privately owned.
US-style single dwelling suburbs are trying to gain momentum for about 15 years in Russia but in most areas it fails to pickup for a long list of reasons.
Communist city planning lives on because it proved rather convenient despite obvious downsides.
For example utilities cost for a 1000 Sq ft apartment are about $150 max in Russia including heating in winter and half that much in summer. That’s in a Soviet-built 1970s building. Might be half that much in a modern more efficient building. That includes everything including cable and broadband internet.
No way you can have it at the same cost in a single dwelling suburban unit.
Commute is another problem. It takes 10 minutes to get to the downtown Yekaterinburg from the most remote classic Soviet suburb by high speed subway. It might sound ridiculous for an American but in comparison a daily 20 mile commute to work through a traffic jam by car seems like a nightmare for a Russian who used to get anywhere in minutes.
And nobody would build a subway line to a low-density single dwelling suburb for cost efficiency reasons.
Once again there are numerous government and corporate programs to make American-style housing more attractive especially for families but it still mostly attracts the retirees.
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