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“Whatever past, we may have, it’s ours… it’s all our past”… President Lukashenko spoke wisdom when he said that. That’s why we shoudn’t topple the statues of Lenin… nor those of Tsar St Nikolai… nor those of Gagarin… nor those of Minin and Pozharsky… nor those of Pyotr Veliki. It’s all “our past”, and it formed our narod. If you attempt to erase the past, you attempt to say that what happened didn’t happen… and that’s more formally-absurd than anything Camus ever wrote. There are Five Epic Events in Russian History (there are other Great Events, but these were the real game-changers):
Great October deserves its place. Lenin deserves his place. There’s no getting around it. It’s our past. Great October WAS an epochal event. Lenin was an exceptional leader (I’m not saying that I agree with all of his programme, merely that he was a very talented and gifted man). Russia is forever different because it was Soviet… just as St Vladimir changed it by embracing Orthodoxy… just as Batu Khan changed it via conquest… just as Minin and Pozharsky changed it by defeating the Poles and maintaining Orthodoxy… just as Pyotr changed it by bringing in Western methods and mores. Besides, we’re too close to the events of 1991 to see their true import. Were they a permanent rejection of the Soviet model or was it only a temporary crapitalist interregnum? In historical terms, twenty years is a piffle. No system is cemented in place until fifty years have passed… at least. For instance, the present American system has persisted since FDR’s New Deal… since the time of Reagan (the Russians would’ve called his era of misrule the Reaganshchyna), the Grand Olde Phonies have attempted to topple the New Deal paradigm, but they’ve ultimately failed (they’ve chipped away at this and at that, but the basic edifice stands). Under modern conditions, a powerful federal government’s required, and that’s that.
For the Church, Great October was good, in the end. Yes, kids it was GOOD. The atheist persecution of the early USSR was a GOOD thing. It drove most of the phonies out. It burnt out the cancer of being a “state department”. It made the Church confront its sins and failings. That is, it did much more good than harm, in the long term. That’s why the woman abused by Moriak should sue him in civil court. It’ll force the believers in the OCA to face reality. The SOBs aren’t interested in the truth, they’re only interested in maintaining their situations, and, if they commit crimes against the civil law or break the canons… that’s no biggie to them. “I apologise… see, it’s all right, now!” That’s immoral, absurd, and utterly false at base. We need to burn out the cancer. Paffhausen, Moriak, and Peterson all have to go… not out of office… deposed from the episcopate (they’d still be priests… the Church doesn’t allow multiple punishments). We must utilise the principle of the Great October… not a bad thing in its essence.
Great October is ours. I still say… “Let there be a November Holiday, starting with the Day of National Unity (an old tsarist holiday) on 4 November and ending with the Day of the Great October on 7 November”. It’s the right time for folks to get ready for winter, and the two days between the two book-end holidays would be dandy for that. You can’t shitcan history… what does that tell you about those who try to do such? Here’s a last point to ponder for Russian Orthodox people here in the American diaspora… SVS and Jordanville are trying to “shitcan history”… what does that tell you about them (and their positions on the Church)? Think on that one well…
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Thursday 8 November 2012
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
7 November 2012. Several Thoughts on this Great October…
Tags: aleksandr lukashenko, Alexander Lukashenko, Batu Khan, Belarus, Christian, Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Church, History of the Eastern Orthodox Church in North America, Lenin, Lukashenko, Moscow Patriarchate, October Revolution, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, political commentary, politics, President of Belarus, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russia, Russian, Russian history, Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet Union, United States, USA, USSR, Vladimir Lenin
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“Whatever past, we may have, it’s ours… it’s all our past”… President Lukashenko spoke wisdom when he said that. That’s why we shoudn’t topple the statues of Lenin… nor those of Tsar St Nikolai… nor those of Gagarin… nor those of Minin and Pozharsky… nor those of Pyotr Veliki. It’s all “our past”, and it formed our narod. If you attempt to erase the past, you attempt to say that what happened didn’t happen… and that’s more formally-absurd than anything Camus ever wrote. There are Five Epic Events in Russian History (there are other Great Events, but these were the real game-changers):
Great October deserves its place. Lenin deserves his place. There’s no getting around it. It’s our past. Great October WAS an epochal event. Lenin was an exceptional leader (I’m not saying that I agree with all of his programme, merely that he was a very talented and gifted man). Russia is forever different because it was Soviet… just as St Vladimir changed it by embracing Orthodoxy… just as Batu Khan changed it via conquest… just as Minin and Pozharsky changed it by defeating the Poles and maintaining Orthodoxy… just as Pyotr changed it by bringing in Western methods and mores. Besides, we’re too close to the events of 1991 to see their true import. Were they a permanent rejection of the Soviet model or was it only a temporary crapitalist interregnum? In historical terms, twenty years is a piffle. No system is cemented in place until fifty years have passed… at least. For instance, the present American system has persisted since FDR’s New Deal… since the time of Reagan (the Russians would’ve called his era of misrule the Reaganshchyna), the Grand Olde Phonies have attempted to topple the New Deal paradigm, but they’ve ultimately failed (they’ve chipped away at this and at that, but the basic edifice stands). Under modern conditions, a powerful federal government’s required, and that’s that.
For the Church, Great October was good, in the end. Yes, kids it was GOOD. The atheist persecution of the early USSR was a GOOD thing. It drove most of the phonies out. It burnt out the cancer of being a “state department”. It made the Church confront its sins and failings. That is, it did much more good than harm, in the long term. That’s why the woman abused by Moriak should sue him in civil court. It’ll force the believers in the OCA to face reality. The SOBs aren’t interested in the truth, they’re only interested in maintaining their situations, and, if they commit crimes against the civil law or break the canons… that’s no biggie to them. “I apologise… see, it’s all right, now!” That’s immoral, absurd, and utterly false at base. We need to burn out the cancer. Paffhausen, Moriak, and Peterson all have to go… not out of office… deposed from the episcopate (they’d still be priests… the Church doesn’t allow multiple punishments). We must utilise the principle of the Great October… not a bad thing in its essence.
Great October is ours. I still say… “Let there be a November Holiday, starting with the Day of National Unity (an old tsarist holiday) on 4 November and ending with the Day of the Great October on 7 November”. It’s the right time for folks to get ready for winter, and the two days between the two book-end holidays would be dandy for that. You can’t shitcan history… what does that tell you about those who try to do such? Here’s a last point to ponder for Russian Orthodox people here in the American diaspora… SVS and Jordanville are trying to “shitcan history”… what does that tell you about them (and their positions on the Church)? Think on that one well…
Thursday 8 November 2012
Albany NY
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