N and I are settling down to watch a recently released Russian movie. The opening credits say, “Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.”
“Ah!” N says. “This will be another piece of religious propaganda with crosses, prayers and priests in every scene.”
He was absolutely right. Religious imagery was spilling out of every scene in a very jarring way. This happens in every other Russian film that gets released nowadays. It is especially funny to see movies where Communist leaders and party apparatchiks all wear crosses and pray every fifteen minutes in the breaks between party meetings. I’m still waiting for a flick that will show Lenin as a crypto-Christian but I won’t be surprised when it comes out. Why not if Stalin’s supposed religiosity has become a commonplace in every recent biography of his.
It is very curious that the Russian government sponsors this endless religious propaganda in a country where only 2% of people actively practice Christianity.
Clarissa's Blog 
I have e an odd question. WHY??? What purpose does religion serve in modern day Russian?
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They have no other way to create a national identity in such a Multi-ethnic, multi -racial society. There is a huge Chinese immigration and a huge illegal Muslim immigration and nothing holding people together in this huge, unwieldy empire.
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“There is a huge Chinese immigration and a huge illegal Muslim immigration and nothing holding people together in this huge, unwieldy empire.”
Ah. I was completely flabbergasted by this sudden head-long dive into religion by a Communist — and therefore ideologically required to be secular — state. Well, if this is what it’s like, we should stop ripping our politbureau members’ heads off for attending religious rituals.
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Have you read “Moscow 2042” by Vladimir Voynovich? And note, it was written some 20 years ago, not in the last couple of years…
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The movie was “Багровый цвет снегопада.” God, what a horrible, horrible movie. I have no idea why everybody is so into it. Badly made and completely stupid.
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On the “why” – I do not think it is so much about national identity (or, more precisely, it may be about national identity of ethnic Russians, but it cannot be a unifying factor in the whole multi-religious country), I believe that many years of Communist rule f*cked up the concept of personal responsibility in too many people. That’s why we see both the election of authoritarian leader (and do not tell me election was gigged… it was, but Putin would win anyway) and the renaissance of the religion, and not just some religion but a particular rather conservative and authoritarian religion, which is essentially the same thing in spiritual sphere as electing authoritarian leaders in real life.
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rigged, of course, not gigged…
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I just find it disgusting to watch. Rarely see movies at all, but had the “luck” to see it anyway.
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I’m glad we agree about it!
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Did you know that they just named a street in Bethlehem, Israel after V. Putin? He didn’t even need to become a saint first like most folks but maybe he has had a special intersession with the authorities by the Pope due to the sudden interest in Christianity by the Russian establishment.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/putin-loss-bethlehem-street-named-him-191324947.html
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