Are the ROCOR Rightwingers in Obedience to HH and Marking Victory Day or are They in Contempt of His Decree?

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In 2011, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russia issued a decree stating that all churches, monasteries, and establishments under his authority must serve a Molieben on Victory Day in memory of the deliverance of the people, “from a terrible deadly enemy, from such a danger that we hadn’t seen in our entire history”. In addition, sources at the Centre assure me that he also decreed that all parishes serve Pannikhida in memory of all those who fell in the VOV and for all the civilian victims of the war.

Perspirin’ minds wanna know… are Victor Potapov, James Paffhausen, Alexander Webster, Rod Dreher, and the monastery at Jordanville fulfilling this decree in letter and in spirit? Has the ROCOR forsworn its support of Nazi collaborators and their organisations (and their unwholesome repulsive ties with Western intelligence agencies)? Do they wear their St George Ribbons and Red Ribbons with all due dignity and thankfulness? That is, do they celebrate the Great Victory in all sincerity, gratitude, and joy? On the other hand, do they still believe that “Hitler was a friend of the Church?” To speak bluntly, there was no such thing as *“Sergianism” (at least, not in the form used by ROCOR polemicists since the ’50s). It was a lie cooked up by Far Right Church circles… Sergei Stagorodsky was a great hero imprisoned TWICE for Christ’s sake, he preserved the Holy Church for posterity… shall the ROCOR apologise publicly for its support of the Nazis and the CIA (by the way, it’s the ONLY apology necessary)? Now, that’s a SERIOUS question. Quo vadis, ROCOR? After all, HH stated publicly that he held anti-Sergei opinions as a young man, but that he came to a better understanding with maturity, and that he regretted such a stance now.

That’s the question… perspirin’ minds wanna know… do they stand for the Great Victory that St Serafim Vyritsky prayed for… or, do they still favour the godless and grasping opponents of Russia and the Orthosphere in their heart-of-hearts? Will they come to their senses, disown the “culture wars“, and overturn the Golden Calf of Rightwing Politics? On the other hand, will they harden their hearts and continue to dance around it in Dionysian abandon drunk on the wine of Libertarianism to the tune of the Koch brothers? We’ll have to see, won’t we?

* Addendum:

In its journal of 25-27 October 1990, the MP Archpastoral Council stated that the church isn’t bound by the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergei Stagorodsky of 1927, but it accentuated:

With all truth, we emphasise that the Declaration of 1927 doesn’t contain anything contrary to the Word of God, it doesn’t contain heresy, thus, there was no reason to move away from the accepted Church administration. …

We’re accused of “trampling on the memory of New Martyrs and Confessors“. Here, we’ll definitely state that our Church never interrupted prayerful remembrance of the martyrs for Christ amongst our bishops and clergy. Now, the whole world knows, we’ve started the process of glorification, which according to ancient Church tradition should be outside the influence of ephemeral political trends. …

However, for a long time, the Mother Church has been lenient to its wayward children, despite the fact that in the difficult years of persecution their irresponsible behaviour deepened her wounds and increased her torment. Now, we’re still ready to understand and to forgive. Even despite the fact that the leadership of the ROCOR has strengthened the existing divisions, forming a parallel hierarchy by encouraging parishes on the canonical territory of the MP, we once again extend a hand to them, calling for an open and honest dialogue on all matters of disagreement between us. In this regard, we’re ready to have a public debate in Moscow or elsewhere (within a scientific church conference or otherwise) on all matters of life of our Church in this century, especially, in relation to the Declaration of 1927.

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/525416.html

This journal was issued one year BEFORE the fall of the USSR. That is, the church revival was in full swing. For ten years after the release of this journal, the ROCOR stopped up its ears and continued to attack the MP at the behest of its Western sponsors. Let those with open minds see that the ROCOR circles who claim that the Mother Church “repented of Sergainism” aren’t speaking the whole truth (to put it charitably… some circles that state such aren’t culpable… they’d lose their situations if they didn’t repeat the party-line of the Hard Right).

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 9 May 2013

Albany NY

Belarus Commemorates Holocaust Victims

11 April: International Day to Remember the Liberation of the Prisoners of the Nazi Concentration Camps

Yefim Tsvik

1985

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On Saturday, Belarus marked Holocaust Victims Memorial Day. On 2 March 1942, the Nazis killed more than 5,000 Jews from the Minsk Ghetto (which had 80,000 to 100,000 residents) at the “Pit”. Later, in 1947, the USSR erected a monument to Holocaust victims at the place of this tragedy. This Saturday, Belarusian Jewish groups came to the memorial to commemorate the victims of that massacre.

2 March 2013

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_02/Belarus-commemorates-Holocaust-victims/

 

3 February 2013. RIA-Novosti Presents… Russia Celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the Victory at Stalingrad

On Friday, the site of the Родина-мать зовёт (Rodina Mat Zovyot: The Mother-Motherland Calls)  monument on Mamayev Kurgan was prepared for the celebration.

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On Saturday, the Hero City of Volgograd celebrated the 70th anniversary of the defeat of German forces at Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad took place from 17 July 1942 to 2 February 1943. The laying of wreaths and flowers at the Eternal Flame in the Alley of Heroes opened the festivities. Then, on the Square of Fallen Fighters, the local garrison paraded past in a solemn and formal review.

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The defence of Stalingrad was the largest land battle of World War II. At one stage, both sides committed more than 2 million troops, about 30,000 guns, and more than 2,000 planes and tanks. This gigantic confrontation ended with the crushing defeat of the Nazi forces. The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of the war; it marked the beginning of the Red Army counterattack.

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Festivities took place in the Hero City of Volgograd on 1 and 2 February. Volgograd Oblast authorities sent out invitations to the celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad to over 11,000 veterans of this battle.

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In Volgograd, thousands of Russian and foreign guests gathered… veterans, delegations from sister cities, CIS countries, and other members of the World War II anti-fascist coalition.

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On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, discussions buzzed over the possibility of returning the “Soviet” name to the city of Volgograd. The deputies of the Volgograd City Council decided, during the celebrations devoted to the heroic defence of the city, to use the name “Hero City of Stalingrad”. Therefore, on 2 February 2013, Volgograd was called the Hero City of Stalingrad.

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President Vladimir Putin visited the main memorial of the battle on Mamayev Kurgan and laid a wreath there.

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Deputy PM Dmitri Rogozin supported returning Volgograd’s name to Stalingrad.

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In the image above, we see Dmitri Rogozin in the Square of Fallen Fighters “working the crowd” during the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad.

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The troops of the Volgograd garrison paraded and held a review after the laying wreaths and flowers at the Eternal Flame in the Square of Fallen Fighters.

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The parade opened with the trooping of a copy of the official symbol of the Great Victory in the Great Patriotic War… the Victory Banner. Then, a unit brought forth copies of the banners of the four fronts involved in the Battle of Stalingrad, followed by an honour guard drawn from all the branches of the Armed Forces.

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A T-34 tank from the VOV era led the parade of the Volgograd garrison. More than a dozen examples of modern military hardware and weapons were shown on the Square of Fallen Fighters. People were able to see the latest army equipment such as the 9A52-4 Tornado-G MLRS, 2S34 Khost 12cm SP gun, 2S19 Msta-S 15.2 cm SP howitzer, 9K317 Buk-M2 SP SAM system, GAZ-2330 Tigr all-terrain multi-purpose vehicle, 2K22 Tunguska SP anti-aircraft gun-missile system, and the T-90 MBT.

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This tank took part in a parade on Victory Day 2012 in Volgograd, then, it was on exhibition at the Stalingrad Battle Historical Museum-Memorial Panorama on Mamayev Kurgan. Next to the museum is a memorial cross with the inscription, “On 14 October, in the year 2010 since the birth of Christ, this cross was set as a sign with the blessing of Metropolitan German Timofeyev of Volgograd and Kamyshin“… some people wanted a church here, but it would’ve been a tight squeeze on the available property, so, the Kremlin vetoed it.

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Later, the venue of the celebrations moved to the highest point of the frontline at Stalingrad, Mamayev Kurgan.

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There was a formal dedication of a memorial stele with the names of 17,000 defenders of Stalingrad unearthed by search organisations in the last decade from hastily-dug battlefield graves.

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The names of these 17,000 defenders will be on 1,500 memorial plaques surrounding the memorial stele on Mamayev Kurgan.

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At a concert in Volgograd Sports Palace, guests saw a living panorama of the Battle of Stalingrad. This presentation had a semicircular widescreen display, multi-level catwalks, and more than 2,000 participants, with songs of the VOV era performed by People’s Artist of Russia Dmitri Khvorostovsky.

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More than 200 veterans of the Battle of Stalingrad attended the celebratory concert in honour of the 70th anniversary of the battle’s end, with 5,000 attendees in total at the gala concert.

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The festivities concluded with a celebratory artillery salute and fireworks.

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2 February 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/photolents/20130202/920976027.html#photo=920972503

http://en.rian.ru/photolents/20130203/179192703_1/Prazdnovanie-70-letiya-Stalingradskoy-bitvy.html

Editor’s Note:

There were NO images of Deputy PM Rogozin on the spread on the English side of RIA… this smells to me like at least one of the editors on the English side is a pro-Western mole, best dismissed as quickly as possible. Truly, we don’t need such self-serving Quislings amongst us. After all, Dmitri Olegovich is a patriotic nationalist, thus, he’s anti-Western to the bone… he’s especially anti-NATO and anti-American aggression. His participation in this event signals a ratcheting-up in tensions between Russia and the USA. Always watch out for the “Lenin’s Tomb” moments… they can tell you more than anything else does.

Sadly, we have people here in the Russian Orthodox diaspora who still glorify the KONR and Vlasovtsy traitors (they went from serving the godless Fascist killing machine to serving the godless American intelligence apparat). They haven’t changed their spots because of the Reconciliation… but as a friend of mine at the Centre said, “We all know about Potapov and his ilk… trust me, the SVR and FSB know about them too. I lived in the USA for some years in the nineties, and I heard and saw what these gentlemen said and did. They have no repentance for anything that they did against the Rodina”. I can testify that this observation isn’t only correct; it’s understated. I saw Jordanville’s loud espousal of Vitaly Ustinov’s stab-in-the-back to the Mother Church (you should’ve heard their loud praises of Agafangel Pashkovsky) and Victor Potapov’s unfounded gratuitous attacks on Patriarch Aleksei Ridiger (especially, his groundless smears during Aleksei’s visit to Georgetown… he owes the Church a formal and public apology for that). They’re not joining all of Russia in celebrating this victory… they cast (and still cast) mud at the victors and vilify their names. Their families supported the Fascist occupiers (and helped the Nazis round up and kill Jews)… they try to tell all and sundry that such collaboration and treason was honourable and just.

I stand four-square for the celebration of the victory at Stalingrad. That’s where all decent members of the Russian Orthodox diaspora should stand. That’s all that needs be said on the matter, isn’t it? After all, a saint, St Seraphim Vyritsky, prayed every day for the victory of the Red Army over the Fascists… no saint prayed for the victory of the collaborationist traitors. That should tell us what to do whenever a bloviating sort like Potapov opens his mouth… we shouldn’t attack him in the same manner as he lies about the Soviet past, but we should understand that his position isn’t humanly-decent, let alone god-blessed. Say a prayer for the brave fighters of the RKKA and RKKF… they helped save you from the Nazi night… NEVER forget that. Also never forget that there are those amongst us in the diaspora who aided that evil (and their families have never repented of it)… NEVER forget that also.

BMD

Auschwitz… History to Remember… but Never Repeat

Catholic St Maximilian Kolbe, who died in the Auschwitz extermination camp… not all of its victims were Jews…

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On January 27, a Russian exhibition will reopen in the museum devoted to the history of World War II in the Polish city of Oświęcim, better known under the German variant of its name… Auschwitz. During that war, during the Nazi occupation of Poland, one of the most terrible Nazi concentration camps was in Auschwitz. In 1947, the Polish government turned the former camp into a museum, with the aim of it to be a constant reminder of the Nazi horrors, so that we wouldn’t repeat them. The organisers chose 27 January for the Russian exhibition’s reopening because the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz camp on 27 January 1945.

In particular, the Nazis intended this camp for the killing of nationalities that, according to incoherent Nazi “theory”, were “underdeveloped” peoples. More than 1.1 million people died in the Auschwitz camp, including about 900,000 Jews, at least 140,000 Poles, and about 23,000 Roma. Every day, trains brought thousands of people, including many old people and underage children, to this camp from more than 30 countries… Romania, France, Czechia, Slovakia, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, the Netherlands, the USSR, Poland itself, and others. The Nazis immediately killed the majority of new arrivals comers in the gas chambers. Witnesses said that, every day, the camp’s crematoriums disposed of about 8,000 corpses.

Those not immediately killed had to perform debilitating work. The daily ration consisted of 300 grammes of bread and a cup of watery soup. After several months spent in such conditions, people turned into living skeletons. Besides, medical experiments… if one could call sophisticated torture medical experiments… were performed in Auschwitz. One of the doctors (if could call sadists doctors), Josef Mengele, dubbed the “Angel of Death”, was especially notorious for his cruelty. When the Red Army liberated the camp, they found only 7,000 people alive there.

The organisers of the Russian part of the Auschwitz museum’s exposition don’t hide the fact that they want it to upset visitors. Hard as it may be, such horror would help people to realise one thing… we must never allow Nazism to rise again. Olga Sokolova, One of the Russian organisers, said, “The visitors should realise that they’re witnessing a hideous occurrence. Of course, only the part of the exposition devoted to the camp’s liberation by the Red Army should produce positive feelings”. There are eight expositions in the Auschwitz museum, devoted to this-or-that particular country, from whence the prisoners who suffered in the camp came from… Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Czechia, Austria, Hungary, France, and Belgium. A part of the exposition is devoted to the Roma people. For the last five years, the Russian section remained closed. Officially, it was under renovation, but the real reason was a cooling of relations between Russia and Poland.

Victor Skryabin Deputy Director of the Moscow Museum of World War II and one of the organisers of the Auschwitz exhibition, pointed up, “Russia and Poland might have certain disagreements concerning politics, but I believe that these disagreements shouldn’t affect the two nations’ need to commemorate World War II’s victims. After all, many Soviet people, including about 15,000 Red Army men, died in the Auschwitz camp. One of the aims of our exposition is to show the criminal nature of Nazism. We also wish to emphasise that the Red Army liberated the camp, and, of course, to commemorate the dead”.

The camp in Auschwitz was the largest, but it wasn’t the only extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Europe. There were ten such camps, four of which were in Poland. In total, about the Nazis killed 3 million people in extermination camps.

25 January 2013

Maria Dunayeva

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_25/Auschwitz-history-to-be-remembered-but-never-repeated/

Editor’s Note:

Horrid as it was, the Holocaust wasn’t unique. Mankind has indulged in mass murder throughout history, especially, when others lived on land coveted by this-or-that group… two prominent examples being the Israelite ethnic cleansing of Old Israel (the Biblical version of events) and the American campaign against the Native population (justified by the racist doctrine of Manifest Destiny). I’m four-square against anti-Semitism, but I’m equally-against the white-washing of the historical record to fit a convenient mythos. Never forget this… ordinary human beings carried out the Holocaust. Ordinary humans could do it again… and DID… in the Rwandan Genocide and the Cambodian Genocide. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee…

One last thing… the agitation by some Jews against the Carmelite convent at Oświęcim was unjustified and hateful in the extreme. Edith Stein, a Carmelite nun, died there. St Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan monk, died there. They weren’t the only Catholic victims of this horrific place. In short, some Jews were upset that the Carmelite nuns were praying for the soul of Edith Stein… a convert from Judaism to Christianity. I hate religious bigotry of all sorts… I despise anti-Semitism and Jewish anti-Christianity equally. Thank God, only a small minority of Christians and Jews actually engage in such filth… but it should be a warning to all of us… the urge to evil exists in all groups. Never forget… just as there wasn’t ever a “pure” human group, there’s never been a totally-evil one. We should keep a watch over our hearts… Solzhenitsyn reminded us that there’s a bridgehead of evil in every soul… we forget that at our peril…

BMD