Russian Orthodoxy is a Terrible Force

Abstract

Abstract The invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops in February 2022 calls into question the legal status of the Russian Orthodox Church (headed by Patriarch Kirill) as a religious organization claiming Eastern Christian heritage. While the Russian Orthodox Church appropriates the history of Kievan Rus, the top hierarchs of the roc are guided by the ideology of servility and Bolshevism. At the same time, the Catacombers who survived the Bolshevik persecution also consider themselves part of Russian Orthodoxy. They are like the inhabitants of Kitezh-Town, the legendary sunken city hidden under water. The Catacombers are silent participants in the anti-war protest and oppose the ideas of the Russian World and nuclear Orthodoxy. They run a partisan movement of volunteers helping Ukrainian refugees. If one wonders whether Russian Orthodoxy is possible after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then the answer is seen in the prophecy of the political scientist, V. Kramnik, about the inevitable collapse of the Russian Federation and the appearance of the Republic of Rus instead of it. Citizens of the provisional Kitezh-Town in the Republic of Rus will be the real descendants of Kievan Rus and elective affinities of the Ukrainians.