Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons^™

A Brief Report On A Religious Freedom Conference In Central Europe, Branko Bjelajac

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The first regional conference of the Visegrád Group (V4) on religious freedom was held October 13, 2022, in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, under the title, “Religious Freedom: Contemporary Policies and Challenges in the World.” The Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger opened the conference and pointed out that Slovakia is a young democracy and still must learn what freedom is and how to live it. One of the plenary speakers, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, critically evaluated the poor state of religious freedom worldwide. Another plenary speaker, Roman Catholic Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, from Makurdi, …

Value Vectors Of The World Local Orthodox Churches Position Regarding Russia's War Against Ukraine, Oleksandr Brodetskyi, Iryna Horokholinska, Mykola Lahodych

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article deals with the religious contexts of the modern civilizational crisis caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Among the multitude of thematic lines of this set of problems, the article’s authors focus their attention precisely on the position of the world Orthodox Churches regarding this war. The concentration of such attention is objectively determined by the fact that the majority of Ukrainian citizens position themselves as Orthodox by faith, and therefore, are particularly sensitive to the opinion of the leaders of the Orthodox Churches of the world. The article examines the value aspects of the problem of …

Putin's Invasion Of Ukraine: What's Religion Got To Do With It?, Mark R. Elliot

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Summary

• As of February 24, 2022, as Russian air strikes, missiles, and tanks began pouring into an outmatched Ukraine, the Byzantine calculus of symphonia, of a mutually interdependent church and state, devolved into an unholy alliance joining at the hip a predatory Putin and a sycophantic Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kyrill.
• Especially over the past decade Patriarch Kyrill has tied the fate of his church to that of his patron Putin, the same tragic mistake made by the same church in its defense of tsarist Russia in its death throes.
• Since his accession in 2009, and emphatically since Russia’s moves against …

Jenny Vorpahl And Dirk Schuster (Eds). Communicating Religion And Atheism In Central And Eastern Europe. (Book Review), Oleg Kyselov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Jenny Vorpahl and Dirk Schuster (eds). Communicating Religion and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020. 312 p. ISBN 978-3-11-054637-8 Hardcover $114.99.

Destructive Russian Orthodox Powerplay, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Frontmatter (Volume 42, Issue 7), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Transformation Of Religious Feelings Of Vulnerable Populations Under Conditions Of Large-Scale Dangers In The Chernivtsi Region, Iryna Lazorevych

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Solving the challenges facing humanity requires the combined efforts of all humanity using a comprehensive approach. This also applies to the problem of HIV. In particular, in the context of the war in Ukraine, the crisis of marginalized groups deepened and people with HIV began to face more challenges than usual (because their treatment, which requires constant supervision and medication, is at risk). This article analyzes a survey conducted at the beginning of the invasion about the level of religiosity and trust in the church among HIV-positive people in wartime conditions. The issue of the problems of marginalized groups and …

Russia’S War In Ukraine And The Limits Of Religious Diplomacy, Ina Merdjanova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"The ongoing international efforts to put an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine have exposed the limits of faith-based diplomacy. This is particularly true when church and state embrace each other in a symbiotic alliance, in order to pursue their respective hegemonic ambitions."

Reconciliation Attempts And The Return To Conflict In The Balkans, 2010-2022 (And Parallels To The Russian War On Ukraine), Vjekoslav Perica

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Hopefully there will be soon peace in Ukraine, and another attempt at reconciliation in Western Balkans. Even as mostly symbolic and commemorative practices, these endeavors proved that they improve social trust and reduce interethnic tensions. There still remains the question about the purpose and long-term goals of such reconciliation efforts. In my 2021 book, Reconciliation and Last Days, published in Belgrade, Serbia, I argue that postwar reconciliation projects make sense, provided there is a new beginning for wartime enemies, that is, the peoples, faiths, and states in the region. In other words, the purpose of a longer period of peace …

Repressive Psychiatry As A Means Of Combating Religious Dissidents In The Soviet Union, Oksana Vysoven, Nina Brehunets, Tetyana Lohvynyuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article highlights the impossibility of the coexistence of modern civilization in conditions of impunity for crimes against humanity, which have no statute of limitations, but due to the lack of punishment and concealment of information it creates even greater crimes. Many of the unjustly convicted political prisoners have been rehabilitated since the condemnation of Stalin's cult of personality and his crimes in Soviet Ukraine since 1956. As a result of the mass rehabilitation of political prisoners, the regime gained serious opposition, some of whom сonsisted of evangelical Baptist communities who advocated genuine freedom of conscience. The Soviet regime used …

Memory, Trauma, And Religious Identity, Petro Kotliarov, Valentyna Kuryliak, Stefaniia Demchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The so-called ‘memorial turn’ triggered a huge shift in historical studies of the late 20th century. It brought into focus stories of the ‘small people’ previously left out from the ‘grand narrative.’ For post-Soviet countries, the memorial turn can be perceived as an indicator of changes in society associated with the opportunity and interest of previously oppressed social groups and religious movements in finding their "roots," when the reconstruction of personal history becomes the history of the church and strengthens collective identity. In this essay, we attempted at reconstructing the traumatic history of the "little" people in the context of …

Best Practices In Protestant Aid For Ukrainian Refugees: 2022, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, dramatically accelerated Moscow’s military campaign against its southwestern neighbor which had begun in 2014. This unprovoked invasion managed to generate an equally dramatic displacement of Ukrainian civilians, some 13.5 million and counting.

"Paradoxically, the humanitarian response has been both phenomenal and inadequate. It has been phenomenal in its prodigious marshalling of resources and in its determination to alleviate enormous human suffering, calling forth impulses of generosity on a massive scale on the part of the UN, the EU, numerous individual European and North American governments, businesses, foundations, relief and development …

Frontmatter (Volume 42, Issue 8), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of The Multi-Confessional Religious Situation In Ukraine In The Period From 2000 To 2021, Valentyna Kuryliak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This study summarizes information regarding features of religious and church-religious self-determination of citizens of Ukraine for the period 2000-2021. Ukraine’s Western region is traditionally characterized by a high level of religiosity, while the South and East of Ukraine are the least religious. In recent years, the proportion of citizens who do not identify themselves with any of the religions has increased. There is a significant difference between the level of declared religiosity and identification with a particular religious community. As a result of the military events in the East of Ukraine and the war with Russia, the number of believers …

Appeal To The World Council Of Churches On Russian Terroristic Attacks On Ukrainian Civilians: Statement Of Ukrainian Council Of Churches And Religious Organizations, - Ukrainian Council Of Churches And Religious Organizations

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Language And Cultural Identity In Post-Soviet Frozen Conflicts, Irina Paquette

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

How we, as humans, define ourselves and our national and ethnic distinction often centers on visible characteristics—physical features, group traditions, and language. Of those, language is both mutable and plays such a central role in daily life that it is often a hotly contested and manipulated factor in defining national identity. This paper examines the role language has played in the formation of crisis situations in the former Soviet Union. Linguistic identity has been used as a basis to establish the legitimacy of independence for both Soviet republics and separatist groups within those republics. As such, it is a highly …

Adaptation Practices And Forms Of Struggle In Jewish Communities For The Preservation Of Religious Worldview In Soviet Ukraine (1920s-1930s), Tetiana Savchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the ways of adaptation of the Jews to the Soviet anti-religious experiments and the definition of forms of counteraction to these attacks during the 1920s and 1930s. There is insufficient research in the historiography of the struggle of Jews for the preservation of their religious worldview. The development of historiography shows a certain imbalance in the studies of the methods and extent of anti- church policy while ignoring the reaction of believers to the Bolshevik experiments. Based on archival documents of the Soviet secret services (not previously introduced into scientific circulation) and …

Pinpointing Patterns Of Violence: A Comparative Genocide Studies Approach To Violence Escalation In The Ukrainian Holodomor, Kristina Hook

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article utilizes the case study of the 1930s Ukrainian Holodomor, an artificially induced famine under Joseph Stalin, to advance comparative genocide studies debates regarding the nature, onset, and prevention of large-scale violence. Fieldwide debates question how to 1) distinguish genocide from other forms of large-scale violence and 2) trace genocides as unfolding processes, rather than crescendoing events. To circumvent unproductive definitional arguments, methodologies that track large-scale violence according to numerically-based thresholds have substituted for dynamics-based analyses. Able to address aspects of the genocide puzzle, these methodologies struggle to incorporate cross-cultural contextual variation or elicit ripe moments for specific, real-time …

Invisible Russian Armies: Wagner Group In Ukraine, Syria And The Central African Republic, Ryan Benaso

Master's Theses

This study provides in depth case studies of three distinct theaters of operations that the Wagner Group participated in order to further Russian national interests overseas. The first of theise is a case study just across the Russian border in the Ukraine during the Crimean annexation and the subsequent Donbas War where the Wagner Group was founded. The second case study also signifies the next stage in the Wagner Group’s evolution as it enlarges and is put in the vanguard for major operations in the Syrian Civil War culminating in the infamous encounter with US forces in Khasham. The third …

“Practice Basic Hygiene, And You’Ll Stay Healthy”: How Primary School Reading Textbooks Transmitted Cultural Education In The Soviet Union, Victoria Storozenko

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Russia’s Cultural Revolution, beginning after the October Revolution in 1917, produced a broadly defined understanding of culture and cultural education at Russian schools that encompassed even basic hygiene and health. Drawing from postdoctoral research, this paper discusses the Cultural Revolution’s impact and its ideas on cultural education as presented in textbooks for 10-year general education schools in the Soviet Union. Discourse analysis revealed that the schoolbooks acted as an interface between a functional education system and changes in its surrounding environment, especially changes due to the Cultural Revolution. Amid today’s COVID-19 pandemic, the study’s findings raise several questions about what …