Kathy Rousselet, Research Director at Science Po-Paris, is a specialist in religious issues in post-Soviet Russia. In an interview with Le Monde, the author of Holy Russia against the West (Salvator, 172 p., €18.50) analyzes Patriarch Kirill’s position towards the Kremlin, especially since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, and the increasingly anti-Western discourse of the Russian Church.
Did the holy war in Kirill’s speeches about the Russian intervention in Ukraine or the fight against the “corrupt West” surprise you?
In fact, Kirill’s initial reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not this. Recall that on February 24, 2022, the Patriarch, admittedly without denouncing the war, recalled the common history of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, hoped that “this brotherhood” would help them “overcome divisions”, and “the Pleroma” invited [l’entièreté] of the Russian Orthodox Church to pray earnestly for the speediest restoration of peace. »
But a few days later the tone changed. The archives might one day explain exactly why. On March 6, he took up the arguments he is most familiar with to justify the unjustified. For him, it was not about “denazifying” Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin or another hierarch close to him and the FSB, Metropolitan Tikhon Chevkunov, claimed. Their goal was the fight against globalization and liberal values.
Also read: War in Ukraine: Words for Understanding the Conflict, From Heavy Weapons to Nuclear Deterrence
Kirill’s rhetoric, which is very close to that of ultra-conservative religious movements in other parts of the world, is old. The reference to homosexuality, for example, appeals to the Russian population in particular: it was with them that resistance to the corrupt West was built up, especially from the early 2010s. His speech flared up. He speaks there of “metaphysical struggle”.
Kirill has long insisted on Russia’s messianic duty. The people of Rous [qui comprend dans ses représentations les peuples russe, ukrainien et biélorusse] would have a mission to account for at the end of time. He spoke in 2009 of a people that “God carries,” an idea dating back at least to the 19th century and to Dostoyevsky. On November 6, consistent with these ideas, he presented Russia as “the pillar and support of the truth” (referring to Paul’s 1st Epistle to Timothy, 3:15).
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Finally, the Patriarch’s speech took on a patriotic dimension with a Soviet accent, heavily militarized. Kirill recalled how much the act of sacrifice was part of the Russian cultural code. In his sermon of September 25, 2022, he even went so far as to say that “Russian soldiers who die in the war in Ukraine will be washed clean of all their sins.” His speech has become more radical over the months.
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