Temples of discord: Church building in Putin’s Russia - a podcast by BBC World Service

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is a rebuilt structure, a beacon for the resurgent Russian Orthodox Church and a stronghold of Patriarch Kirill who recently boasted that three new churches are built somewhere in Russia every day. Last year, there were 25 new churches in Moscow alone.
Patriarch Kirill argues the country needs new churches to replace the ones destroyed under Communism. In the Soviet era, Lenin compared religion to venereal disease. Churches and monasteries were pulled down or turned into meat storage units, public toilets and museums of atheism.Now the Patriarch says the increased concentration of churches will give Russians the opportunity to “feel closer to God, lead happier lives and tackle the difficult circumstances of the modern world.”

Yet the church building programme has sparked mass protests across the whole country. Most recently thousands demonstrated against a new church on a park square in Yekaterinburg. Yekaterinburg’s citizens are not alone. Over the past 5 years there have been rows over new churches in 28 cities in 25 regions of Russia. A proposal for a church in Moscow’s Torfyanka Park in 2015 led to violent conflicts between local residents, Orthodox activists and the riot police. Many Russians, especially the younger generation, feel that the Church and the State are too close for comfort. The Kremlin’s recent decision to give 2.8 billion rubles ($43.4 million) toward luxury renovations at Patriarch Kirill’s mansion outside St. Petersburg only reinforces that impression. Even some devout Orthodox believers in Yekaterinburg were unhappy that the new St. Catherine’s Cathedral would be overshadowed by a massive new office block, a gym, and other buildings – the whole project bankrolled by two local oligarchs.Is this another example of the unholy alliance between God and Mammon? In this edition of Heart and Soul, we explore what this conflict over building churches tells us about the Orthodox clergy, the state and a new generation of Russia’s faithful.

The archive audio for the programme is from a film 'Back to Byzantinism' and it was kindly provided by the film's director Vladislav Tarik.Produced by Tatyana Movshevich
Presented by Lucy Ash

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