During the Soviet Socialist era (1917 to 1991), and during earlier Czarist times, Russian ambitions included Ukraine, which Russia thought to be its possession. During the years in which Gorbachev held office in the USSR, and during the years in which Yeltsin held office in post-Soviet Russia, the Russians seemed, if not friendly, then at least a bit less hostile to Ukraine.
Since Vladimir Putin took office in Russia, however, his policies, reminiscent of the older Soviet Socialist policies, have been more aggressive, including the 2014 military occupation of the Crimean Peninsula.
Working for Barack Obama, diplomat Victoria Nuland urged that the United States and the European Union together take a firm stance against Russian aggression. The credibility of Obama’s and Nuland’s diplomacy dwindled, however, when it was discovered that they were meddling in Ukraine’s domestic politics.
Obama and Nuland were using their positions in the United States government to interfere in questions which were Ukraine’s to resolve.
Nuland further undermined relations between the US and EU when she dismissed the EU’s ability to be helpful in the Ukraine situation.
Inside Ukraine, the Orthodox Church took on a renewed significance as the Russians escalated their threats. In a December 2018 edition of the Wall Street Journal, James Marson reported:
For 27 years of Ukraine’s independence, its only internationally recognized Orthodox Church was controlled by Russia, a pillar of the Kremlin’s continued influence in its former vassal.But 4½ years into an armed conflict against Russia and separatists in the country’s east, Ukraine on Saturday founded its own national church, endorsed by the foremost leader of global Orthodoxy.
The church, an essentially spiritual institution, would not allow itself to be an instrument of Russian foreign policy. The creation of a Ukrainian church manifests the church’s alliance with the oppressed, despite the oppressor’s attempt to use the church.
Although the event was formally the creation of a new church, it was more a redefinition of an already-existing church. Both the clergy and the members of the new church are largely from the old church, as James Marson writes:
“We will get out from under Moscow’s hoof,” said Viktor Kolesnyk, a 67-year-old retiree who was among several thousand people gathered near St. Sophia Cathedral, where bishops from three Orthodox churches met for a Unification Council.The creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is a signature victory for U.S.-backed President Petro Poroshenko, whose country has lost control over parts of its territory in the conflict, which has left more than 10,000 people dead. Mr. Poroshenko, who faces an election in March, told the crowd that “today we finally attained our Ukrainian independence from Russia.”
The assertion of the church is a “setback for” Russia’s “Putin, who has used” Russia’s and Ukraine’s “shared cultures and pasts to justify his efforts to keep Ukraine in the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.”
The Russian-backed church leadership had “long been a proponent of close ties with Russia, supporting politicians favored by Moscow.” The priests and ordinary members of the church refused to endure such political influence in the church.
Russian influence in the church directed church leaders to give “vague statements calling for peace without condemning Mr. Putin.” Now, the true nature of the church emerges, favoring no political agenda. Churches, and groups which merely claim to be churches, routinely call for peace and justice. But to make concrete steps toward those noble goals, the church must deliberately distance itself from the ghosts of Soviet Socialism and its imperialist desires.
The Orthodox Church survived over seventy years of Soviet Socialist persecution. Despite the surveillance, imprisonment, beatings, torture, and murder of both church leaders and ordinary members, the church did not surrender its belief in Jesus.
The era of Putin presents the same challenges. The church is responding with the same steady conviction. The ability of the church to endure, and to continue advocating for the oppressed, derives from its understanding of Jesus.
