Main military temple under construction

[vostok]

It is building near Moscow in "Patriot" military-cultural park.

 

[vostok]

 

[vostok]

The beauty, the greatness and originality of this church amaze me. I think soon it will be as popular symbol of Russia as Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square and Church of the Savior on Blood in Saint Petersburg.

 

[vostok]

 

[Constantin84]

I'm sorry but, beautiful as it is, this is not a Christian Orthodox Church. It can't be with Stalin drawn on its interiors....Stalin! Leaving aside that he was a mass murderer but he was also an atheist and a declared enemy of religion, he destroyed Churches, killed and persecuted priests....Russian priests! Has the Russian Orthodox Church gone mad?

And he gets to be consacrated in a Church?

 

[vostok]

I'm sorry but, beautiful as it is, this is not a Christian Orthodox Church. It can't be with Stalin drawn on its interiors....Stalin! Leaving aside that he was a mass murderer but he was also an atheist and a declared enemy of religion, he destroyed Churches, killed and persecuted priests....Russian priests! Has the Russian Orthodox Church gone mad?

And he gets to be consacrated in a Church?

He was commander in chief during WW2 and won most important victory in the whole 12 centuries-long history of Russia. If any man deserves to be there - it is him.

 

[Constantin84]

He was commander in chief during WW2 and won most important victory in the whole 12 centuries-long history of Russia. If any man deserves to be there - it is him.

Anywhere in a museum, maybe, not a Church.

Stalin next to Saint Peter?

 

[fitpOsitive]

It is building near Moscow in "Patriot" military-cultural park.

Temple? Seems like a Church..

 

[Piotr]

He was commander in chief during WW2 and won most important victory in the whole 12 centuries-long history of Russia. If any man deserves to be there - it is him.

Persecution of Orthodox Church started under Lenin, and stopped (or at least weakend) under Stalin. It was Stalin who rehabilitated Orthodox Church.

Why did Stalin rehabilitate the Russian Orthodox Church?
History Dec 04 2019 Oleg Yegorov

Joseph Stalin and Patriarch Sergius, who headed the Orthodox Church in the USSR while Stalin was in power.
Global Look Press, Legion Media, Public domain

The Bolsheviks oppressed the Orthodox Church after seizing power in Russia – but Stalin, despite all his ruthlessness, changed things for better in this area.
There is a legend saying that it was a miracle that saved Moscow in the winter of 1941, when the Germans were approaching the city: Joseph Stalin supposedly ordered the powers of Orthodoxy to be harnessed to save his capital. “The miraculous icon of the Theotokos of Tikhvin was flown over Moscow in a plane. So the capital was saved,” reported Orthodox journalist Sergei Fomin in his book Russia Before the Second Coming.

Like any legend, this one is not true: there is no evidence that Stalin, a Bolshevik atheist, decided to resort to such a strange measure to defeat the enemy. It was the bravery and skill of the Red Army that saved Moscow in December 1941, not some kind of higher power. But legends of that kind remain popular: there is one about Stalin visiting Saint Matrona of Moscow, who promised him victory, or about him praying for the defeat of Germany.

These legends, though untrue, reflect the shift in Stalin’s religious policy during the war, which surprised the USSR and inspired rumors of the leader’s “secret Orthodoxy.” Two years after the Battle of Moscow was won, Stalin met with three chief hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, allowed the clergy to perform religious services, celebrate Easter and Christmas, and even promised to give the church back some of its monasteries (confiscated after 1917) and release imprisoned priests. Basically, he made Christianity legal again, in an atheist country.

Change of heart?

Blowing up the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1931.
russiainphoto.ru

The three hierarchs, led by Sergius (Stragorodsky), the Patriarchal locum tenens in 1925-1943 and de facto head of the Church, thanked Stalin after their meeting in a very servile letter: “In each of your words… we felt the heart that burns with paternal love for all his children... The Russian Orthodox Church venerates you feeling with your heart that it lives together with all Russian people, by the will to victory and sacred duty to sacrifice anything for the sake of the Motherland. God save you for years to come, dear Iosif Vissaronovich.”

The elite of Orthodox clergy in the USSR, 1930s.
Public domain

Praise for the strongman was understandable: before 1943, the Orthodox lived in constant fear. Anti-religious propaganda flourished. Throughout the repressions of the 1930s, at least 100,000 people convicted in cases connected with the Church were executed. Being an Orthodox Christian (or believer of any other kind) in a country that worshipped only Communism meant living under a threat.

It’s important to remember that “dear Iosif Vissarionovich” was among those who carried out the anti-Church repressions. As priest Job (Gumerov) noted commenting on the legend of Stalin ordering an icon to be flown over Moscow, “Any attempt to present the cruel persecutor as a faithful Christian is dangerous and can cause only harm.” Indeed, Stalin wasn’t Christian, so why did he change his policy towards Orthodoxy?

Practical approach

Global Look Press

Stalin, a cynical and clever leader, didn’t experience any epiphany but simply knew that taking it easy on the Orthodox Church was important for winning the war. First, many Soviet citizens remained secretly religious (which was not directly forbidden), so the “legalization” of Orthodoxy helped to keep the nation at war united – quite a crucial thing. Second, the Allies were pushing Stalin towards loosening his grip on the religious: the oppression of the faithful was bad publicity, internationally speaking. Third, in 1943 the Red Army was regaining the Soviet lands previously occupied by Germans. The occupants, trying to gain public support, had reopened churches closed by the Bolsheviks – and it would have been strange indeed had the liberators reclosed them.

The clergy conducting their meeting under Stalin's' portrait, 1940s.
russiainphoto.ru

Stalin understood all of that and acted accordingly. His biographer, historian Oleg Khlevniuk, wrote: “Moving from the iconoclast approach of the 1920s – 1930s, from mass repressions against priests and believers to a reconciliation was a demonstrative, practical move. Such a shift in the Soviet policy towards religion is to be viewed within the context of encouraging Russian patriotism.”

A priest giving his blessing to the Red Army soldiers during the war.
Sputnik

Stalin kept his promise to the Church hierarchs: in 1943, they held the first election of a Patriarch in 20 years, won by Sergius. In return for loyalty and support for the authorities, Stalin let the Orthodox Church be: of course, the state remained atheist but priests were not imprisoned and killed anymore. The next wave of anti-Church repressions occurred during the rule of Nikita Khrushchev, in the 1960s, but was far less blood-shedding.

https://www.rbth.com/history/331371-stalin-orthodox-church

 

[Turingsage]

I am on the side of Lenin and Trotsky. Especially Trotsky the leader that would have transformed communism and the world. Stalin the boorish genocidal buffoon ensured the death of communism and a vistory for repression.

 

[I S I]

And all this time I thought that Russia as a state was aethist.

 

[vostok]

Anywhere in a museum, maybe, not a Church.

Stalin next to Saint Peter?

It is a military temple, dedicated mostly to WW2, all main commanders will be there.

 

[vostok]

As they say there will be no Stalin in it.

 

[riscol]

it is a very beautiful church and well designed interior

 

[vostok]

It is ready.