If I say that Stalin was a religious man, it may sound offensive to many Christians… What is this?! Isn’t it a fact that in Soviet Russia Christianity was persecuted, many churches closed, some turned into outhouses; children taught atheism at school?…
History knows many perversions of religion, such as the infamous Spanish Inquisition. The Soviet religious experiment was of a peculiar kind, and in Stalin’s person, it was revealed in his personality split between the public and private man.
As a student of theology at the Tiflis Seminary, he had learned many sacred passages by heart, and loved to quote them. “Then saith he [Jesus] unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” [Matthew 22:21]... So, what was the big deal about the Great Terror?! Stalin was acting as a statesman, not as a private individual. The public man is not accountable to God with his “tax money!”
Stalin repented a lot but had no remorse. Every time he knocked his forehead on the floor, he felt redeemed. His persecution of the Church? Come on! Ivan Grozny had Metropolitan Philip strangled for meddling in the affairs of the State. And how many more priests and monks had he Ivan murdered? How many beautiful Russian churches had he Ivan destroyed and desecrated? Yet nobody calls Ivan “Godless!”
Now, what about Peter the Great, who abolished the Russian Patriarchate, while Comrade Stalin welcomed its restoration shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution! When Patriarch Adrian was pleading with Peter I for leniency in his rough treatment of political prisoners and even brought with him the miracle-working icon of the Virgin Mother to intercede on their behalf, what did Peter do? He threw the Patriarch out, yelling this at him: “I worship God and His Holy Mother no less than you do, but it is my duty to protect my people and punish the enemies who plot against them!” Comrade Stalin was in good company.
History and theology were his genuine domains. Stalin liked when people were reminded of his theological background. When his mother, a very religious woman, once told how she always regretted that her son had not become an Orthodox priest, instead of politician, Stalin was genuinely pleased, and made sure that his mother’s story had a wide circulation… No wonder. Religion was giving Stalin legitimacy, in his own eyes, to rule over Russia.
He was a zealous Russian chauvinist. Being a native of Georgia was of tremendous help but not in the sense which people usually have in mind when they say that no one can be more zealous than an outsider trying to prove his legitimacy.
Stalin did not come in as an outsider. He descended on Mother Russia from above. Having visited Georgia a number of times, I know from personal experience that for every Georgian it is a matter of great pride that his little nation was among the very first few chosen ones, to receive Christianity in its earliest, purest form, almost seven centuries before the pagan Russia was baptized. (In fact, Georgia was the second country after Armenia to adopt Christianity as state religion!)
Stalin was terribly proud of his heritage, and never stopped being a Georgian. Most previous Russian rulers were of German, Scandinavian, and even Tartar descent. But he was from the race of the pioneers, the truly superior race.
Therefore he never stopped being an Orthodox Christian either. Without the Christian connection, his native Georgia would have been just a small and totally insignificant patch of territory within the Russian Empire! It was the Christian connection, that made her special and distinguished.
There is a most enlightening story about Stalin’s conversation regarding religion and Soviet power with the great Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov. Stalin admired Bulgakov’s genius and his rare courage and creative integrity in standing up for his views, and personally protected him from unavoidable persecution. He was particularly fond of Bulgakov’s novel White Guard, adapted by the author himself into the play Days of the Turbins, performed by the Moscow Arts Theater, and attended by Stalin over a dozen times. Here is what he said about Bulgakov’s unapologetically positive depiction of the enemies of the Red Army in Russia’s Civil War:
“In life there is no clear distinction between the good Reds and the bad Whites. There are good Whites too: good Russian patriots, who love Russia no less than the best of the Reds. It is just that life has put them on the opposite sides of the conflict, which is a great tragedy.”
On one particular occasion, in his conversation with Bulgakov, when the latter was bitterly complaining to him about religious persecution in the USSR, Stalin briefly commiserated with him, but then turned the tables on the writer in their historically memorable exchange. He reminded him how before the Bolshevik Revolution Bulgakov used to be a religion-spurning atheist, and now look “what our Revolution has done to you: It has turned you into a Russia-loving defender of Christian Orthodoxy!”
Bulgakov was quick to get the point, and registered his stunned agreement with Stalin then and there.
History knows many perversions of religion, such as the infamous Spanish Inquisition. The Soviet religious experiment was of a peculiar kind, and in Stalin’s person, it was revealed in his personality split between the public and private man.
As a student of theology at the Tiflis Seminary, he had learned many sacred passages by heart, and loved to quote them. “Then saith he [Jesus] unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” [Matthew 22:21]... So, what was the big deal about the Great Terror?! Stalin was acting as a statesman, not as a private individual. The public man is not accountable to God with his “tax money!”
Stalin repented a lot but had no remorse. Every time he knocked his forehead on the floor, he felt redeemed. His persecution of the Church? Come on! Ivan Grozny had Metropolitan Philip strangled for meddling in the affairs of the State. And how many more priests and monks had he Ivan murdered? How many beautiful Russian churches had he Ivan destroyed and desecrated? Yet nobody calls Ivan “Godless!”
Now, what about Peter the Great, who abolished the Russian Patriarchate, while Comrade Stalin welcomed its restoration shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution! When Patriarch Adrian was pleading with Peter I for leniency in his rough treatment of political prisoners and even brought with him the miracle-working icon of the Virgin Mother to intercede on their behalf, what did Peter do? He threw the Patriarch out, yelling this at him: “I worship God and His Holy Mother no less than you do, but it is my duty to protect my people and punish the enemies who plot against them!” Comrade Stalin was in good company.
History and theology were his genuine domains. Stalin liked when people were reminded of his theological background. When his mother, a very religious woman, once told how she always regretted that her son had not become an Orthodox priest, instead of politician, Stalin was genuinely pleased, and made sure that his mother’s story had a wide circulation… No wonder. Religion was giving Stalin legitimacy, in his own eyes, to rule over Russia.
He was a zealous Russian chauvinist. Being a native of Georgia was of tremendous help but not in the sense which people usually have in mind when they say that no one can be more zealous than an outsider trying to prove his legitimacy.
Stalin did not come in as an outsider. He descended on Mother Russia from above. Having visited Georgia a number of times, I know from personal experience that for every Georgian it is a matter of great pride that his little nation was among the very first few chosen ones, to receive Christianity in its earliest, purest form, almost seven centuries before the pagan Russia was baptized. (In fact, Georgia was the second country after Armenia to adopt Christianity as state religion!)
Stalin was terribly proud of his heritage, and never stopped being a Georgian. Most previous Russian rulers were of German, Scandinavian, and even Tartar descent. But he was from the race of the pioneers, the truly superior race.
Therefore he never stopped being an Orthodox Christian either. Without the Christian connection, his native Georgia would have been just a small and totally insignificant patch of territory within the Russian Empire! It was the Christian connection, that made her special and distinguished.
There is a most enlightening story about Stalin’s conversation regarding religion and Soviet power with the great Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov. Stalin admired Bulgakov’s genius and his rare courage and creative integrity in standing up for his views, and personally protected him from unavoidable persecution. He was particularly fond of Bulgakov’s novel White Guard, adapted by the author himself into the play Days of the Turbins, performed by the Moscow Arts Theater, and attended by Stalin over a dozen times. Here is what he said about Bulgakov’s unapologetically positive depiction of the enemies of the Red Army in Russia’s Civil War:
“In life there is no clear distinction between the good Reds and the bad Whites. There are good Whites too: good Russian patriots, who love Russia no less than the best of the Reds. It is just that life has put them on the opposite sides of the conflict, which is a great tragedy.”
On one particular occasion, in his conversation with Bulgakov, when the latter was bitterly complaining to him about religious persecution in the USSR, Stalin briefly commiserated with him, but then turned the tables on the writer in their historically memorable exchange. He reminded him how before the Bolshevik Revolution Bulgakov used to be a religion-spurning atheist, and now look “what our Revolution has done to you: It has turned you into a Russia-loving defender of Christian Orthodoxy!”
Bulgakov was quick to get the point, and registered his stunned agreement with Stalin then and there.
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