Posted on 12/01/2004 6:57:33 PM PST by NormsRevenge
I think that Pan-Slavism was a typical XIX century Romantic nationalist movement which searched for a larger unity among kindred peoples. It was idealistic and proven utopian in the end as differences between various Slavic nations were too great.
Pan-Slavism as other nationalisms was in contradition with the universal/imperials ideas. It was also in contradiction with the religious identities which crossed the ethnic borders.
Solzhenitsyn does a brilliant job of talking about the fact and the implications -- social, political, and spiritual -- of the decapitation of the Russian people. A critical mass of those were were leaders in industry, prayer, thinking, anything... was killed, exiled, or sent to the Gulag. When I think of how we are being quietly decapitated in a different way, through governmental policies that discourage private initiative, squelch free speech, and encourage hiring and university admissions based on anything but merit, I worry about our future. At least we're not dead, I guess!
I recently watched the 3-video Canadian/French production of The First Circle, which is one of the books that has had the biggest effect on me in my life. Like all films, it doesn't measure up, but it does a beautiful job of portraying how the women prison guards fell in love with prisoners, in no small part because prison was where all the real men had been put...
Russia has yet to recover from this decapitation. The miracle is the speed with which Russia is returning to her Orthodox Christian culture and roots. In theory, it might not have been able to happen at all, given the magnitude of the "cleansing that had taken place in the preceding 8 decades.
I would like to at least plant a seed of doubt. From what I can tell, this new "Russian Orthodox Christianity" is not quite the same as the Russian Orthodox Christianity of my own Grandfather, who came to the US just before the real trouble started, arriving in NYC in 1912.
Bear in mind, and take this for what's it's worth, that the NKVD and later the KGB liquidated and / or harrased the clergy and that there is evidence they actually planted people into the seminaries. I would be very interested to see any thorough accounting regarding the true pedigree of the current prelature in Russia. Sources I have who are familiar with them, and yet, skeptical, in a healthy way, seem to not trust them completely. For that matter, it really raises the question of how a guy like Putin could suddenly become so "religious."
What this doesn't take into account though, is the whole question of which is more powerful -- Orthodox Christianity or Soviet Communism. I think it very likely that many would-be agents and stool-pigeons found themselves transformed by the Church.
I'm reminded of those stories from the early centuries of the Church, where pagan actors would pantomime and mock the mysteries of the Church. In several cases, when baptisms were being mocked, the actors arose from the water completely changed, declared themselves to be Christians, would not recant, and were martyred for embracing the faith.
Only time will tell, but the stories coming out of Russia are quite remarkable. I attended parishes of the ROCOR for many years, and it is still in a sense my spiritual home. Priests I deeply respect are completely convinced that a genuine spiritual renewal is taking place, against great odds, in Russia. Parishes are packed, services go on for hours and hours.
These priests and many others are eager to reunify with the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia, to help and be a part of this renewal.
As to Putin, my basic instinct is to trust him and believe that his advocacy of the Orthodox Church and his Christianity are genuine. But I am reminded of the Psalm we sing at Liturgy each Sunday: "Trust ye not in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation..." This applies to them all: Putin, Bush, you name it.
Here's my "I just mentioned Putin" ping!
We could not rescue them all. Forgive us.
As you say, he is nothing more than a man, like the rest of us. But it is truly delightful for me, at times, to see our Orthodox training so publicly displayed.
GOP, forgive me if I have asked you this recently and forgotten. When were you last in Russia?
Exnavy. You obviously have an active mind , or you would not be here. I wasn't snapping at you, just teasing. We all of us suffer from a certain amount of managed information, that is what nations do, for good reason during war time. In about another hundred years Americans can start discovering the facts about WW1.
I have not been there yet. I was supposed to go a couple years ago but the trip got canned due to cost containment. So I am forced to work the phone and email a lot - the time difference is brutal from Pacific time. The closest I have been on the ground, thus far, has been Slovakia and, at the other end, the PRC.
Oh, forgot to mention it, my mother in law was there in the Spring - Great Russia and White Russia. Brought back nice gifts! :=)
MARKET GARDEN was a case of the plan taking on a life of it's own. Monty NEVER consulted with the Dutch about the feasibility of a single thrust up a single road.They had staffed it during pre-war war games, and determined such an operation would fail. Despite being told that the 9th and 10th SS Pz Divs. (Hihenstauffen and Frundsburg) were re-equipping in the area (they had been pulled out of the Falaise debacle largely stripped of equipment and men), Monty disregarded the advice. "Boy" Browning, the airborne CG had never commanded an airborne Corps., and overlooked the plans flaws. The Brits let Zangen's 15th Army cross the Scheldte Estuary and sit on their flank. Any theoretical success was illusory. The Poles were committed to rescue the 1st British Airborne not to keep them from Warsaw, but because they were the only airborne troops left, and 30 Corps ground attack had been stopped. Forget Ambrose. Read Cornelius Ryan's "A Bridge Too Far"
Market-Garden has always been a peripheral study for me - I was always more interested in the Ardennes counter-offensive and the Eastern Front.
I find that I make more connections between causes, events and outcomes as the years go by. It's hard to encompass it all, and the men who lived it were surely caught up in the war's inexorable mechanism of death and destruction.
It's OK. I don't remember the story of Stalin in Poland during WWII, must have skipped class that day. The crimes committed were terrible and should not be forgotten. Thanks for helping me get educated to some real history.
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