A person commented on my Tolstoy post by sending me a link from an article in the Christian Science Monitor called, How Russians survived militant atheism to embrace God. It is an article worth reading in its entirety. Below are a few quotes from the article:
Sometimes really huge news stories occur that receive almost no notice, but they are seismic just the same. Today, less than 20 years after the collapse of the officially atheistic Soviet Union, Russia has emerged as the most God-believing nation in Europe, more so than Roman Catholic Italy or Protestant Britain. The independent Public Opinion Fund poll discovered this spring that 82 percent of Russians now say they are religious believers.
Given the brutal and ruthless repression by Joseph Stalin of the Russian Orthodox Church and all religion, this is truly a remarkable statistic. It is a testament to the babushkas who would not capitulate to Soviet bullying. Hoorah for the hero grandmothers of the motherland! Against all odds they have won. …
Russian society owes an enormous debt to its babushkas, and not just for refusing to let the religious faith of its people be extinguished by the supercilious sneers of Lenin and Stalin. … From the humble icon corners of their huts to the retelling of the classic Russian folk stories, they preserved and perpetuated a culture …
The institutional church was re-created in later Soviet years to perpetuate the farce of religious freedom. But everyone knew the KGB had infiltrated the Orthodox clergy to make sure religion did not take root again. That may explain why adherence to organized religion (in particular the Orthodox church) lags far behind belief in God. …
I have no doubt that the babushkas were used by God to preserve the faith. But, just as strong in preserving the faith was the persecution that laypeople, clergy, and monastics endured. It was Tertullian who said that, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” In Russia, the Church suffered a persecution that matched anything which was endured in the first three centuries of the Early Church. Thus, it is not surprising that the more blood that flowed, the more the faith was rooted in Russian soil.
Yet, Tertullian was but reflecting a teaching which can be found also in the Book of the Revelation, chapter 12. There one can find the following hymn:
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”
Yes, in the Soviet Union, in Russia, “they triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” And so, the Church was preserved in Russia. The article points out that due to the depradations that the Soviet Union visited upon the Church, institutional membership is much lower than the percentage who believe in God and have their icon corners. It will take a while for the Church to heal, for the institutional side of the Church to regain the trust of the people, but I suspect that it will happen if they continue on the course in which they find themselves.
The Evangelicals who flocked in after the fall of the Berlin Wall expected to find a country with little knowledge of Our God, one full of wrongful atheistic beliefs. But, what they found was something else. They found faith, perhaps not as well taught as it could be, perhaps not as organized as it could be, and definitely not anywhere near as rich as those who came in. But, they found a faith that had withstood the test, a faith which had overcome, a faith which now has a chance to flower and which has a hold on a large part of the populace. May God be praised! (And the babushkas as well.)
There are some verses from a hymn that I would like to quote at this point. It is Western and one of the ones approved for use in Western Rite Orthodox parishes:
For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confess,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,
Alleluia! Alleluia!Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia! Alleluia! …And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia! Alleluia! …The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon, to faithful warriors cometh rest.
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
We learned that hymn in Catholic school. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk is also partly responsible for the triumph of Orthodoxy in Russia. He devoted much of his time as priest, Bishop, and after his retirement, in writing instructional material for clergy and lay people. He opened a seminary and required priests’ sons to attend and lay people to send one son.
I love this article because it shows how God works thru those who are seen as the “least of these” or “the lesser parts of the body” as Paul calls them. I think we see this happening in all branches of the Church. We see it in the Grand-mothers in the African-American Church, Nuns in the Catholic Church (Orthodox?) & the babushkas in the Russian-Orthodox Church & on & on. The Weaker parts keep the Body of Christ alive in this world.
I’m glad you mentioned the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Our Pastor was a missonary in Berlin when the wall went up & was there until a couple of years before it fell. The Germans Anabaptists who moved to Russia under the Czar until Communism fell have moved back to Germany & now are re-making & energizing the Churches in Germany (in east & west). It’s amazing what trials can do for Faith. Thanks for your post!