The Russian Orthodox Church has almost completed its transformation into a radical religious organization. For years, Vladimir Putin has personally encouraged such a metamorphosis, arguing his demands meet the interests of their “homeland.”
The context is important here. The “stunning success” of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria and the Ukrainian Donbas has led many Russian soldiers to reflecting on why they would actually agree for a deadly deployment to some faraway land from where their “homeland” is hard to see.
Such reflections in own army ranks became a significant issue for the Kremlin on the way of further pursuing their goals. In this regard, Putin has set before his subordinates an urgent task: “to deprive Russian military of the ability to think and instill in them an unconditional willingness to die at the Kremlin’s first finger click.”
The ROC was appointed contractor of these political and educational services. Having siphoned billions of rubles during the construction of their main propaganda hub – the Christ Resurrection Patriarchal Cathedral (the army’s main church), the ROC started preaching among soldiers and officers the need to be ready to “die for the Motherland.” It all started on June 13, 2021, when Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) performed a sermon timed to the first anniversary of the consecration of the army’s main church. Following the liturgy, the ROC chief addressed the military with the Primate’s Word.
Here is an excerpt of the sermon.
“These are the words of God Himself, which the Gospel gives us: life is eternal. And isn’t this the basis, purely intuitively, of the man’s ability to lay down their life for others, for their Motherland, for family and friends? If it were not for the intuitive realization that eternal life is out there, how terrible it would be to die!
But eternal life is out there, says the Word of God, affirming this fact, and these words must be the base for, including, the feat of self-sacrifice in defending the Motherland. Military courage, bravery, and willingness to lay down one’s life for one’s friends must be based on these words (John 15:13). This is eternal life – and you go for a feat, you lay down your physical life, but remember: you will not perish, you will not die, you will live.
And may God keep this awareness of the enduring meaning of the divine words of eternal life in the minds of our servicemen, when in order to fulfill commands they must take a great risk of death or injury. These life-affirming words, which – I’d like to reiterate – the Lord Himself addressed to us today through the Gospel, justify very feat and self-sacrifice…”
As we can see, this is a very mild form of agitation for self-sacrifice on the battlefield. Meanwhile, training suicide soldiers is beneficial to Russia in many respects.
First, a suicide soldier requires no support to retreat after completing a combat mission. Thus, the preparation of any military operation becomes way easier.
Second, suicide soldiers would have a greater psychological impact on the battlefield, testifying to the “fearlessness” of Russian soldiers.
Third, such troops would be guaranteed a heroic image of “martyrs”, which, incidentally, would help in further recruitment of such servicemen.
And last but not least, such soldiers can’t be interrogated at any International Tribunal for their war crimes. This is perhaps the most important aspect for today’s Kremlin, which has repeatedly regretted that the MH17 flight shot down from the sky over the Ukrainian Donbas was not destroyed by such kind of suicide soldiers.
Now it remains to be seen, why exactly Russia started this whole thing in the first place. After all, no hostilities are set to unfold on the Russian territory. And no one is plotting any attempts to seize Russian lands…
So here comes the time for some bad news.
Russian propaganda has long ensured that the concept of “Homeland” goes far beyond the state border of the Russian Federation.
It is worth recalling how Vladimir Putin, speaking at the “Moscow. Putin. The Kremlin” show said that, when the Soviet Union had been created, many of the republics that were part of it “got a huge amount of Russian lands” and “traditional Russian historical territories.” At the same time, when quitting the USSR, as per the Russian president, each of these republics was supposed to “withdraw with what they came with” instead of “taking along the gifts from the Russian people.”
After Putin’s statement, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin spoke about the need to immediately assess the collapse of the Soviet Union and expose those involved in “this tragedy.” However, he complained that Russia was now forced to walk the path of recollecting its lands.
That is, we see how the Kremlin has declared the intention to continue “collecting Russian lands,” while the ROC is reliably providing religious and ideological nourishment for their “Orthodox jihad.”
And here it becomes clear why there is an urgent need for suicide soldiers and officers who, without asking questions, would be ready to go and “collect lands” in Ukraine, the Baltic States, and other countries that the Kremlin will declare part of “Homeland”. It remains unclear at the moment, whether the adventurous and insane Kremlin generals and officials will be able to resist the temptation to “collect all lands” up to Berlin, inclusive…
Source: Ihor Mechnykov, a Ukrainian political commentator
