How the Russian Orthodox Church expands its holdings, taking away parks, museums and houses

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

2017 without exaggeration can be called the year of expansion of the Russian Orthodox Church: the scale of the territories that became the property of the church amazes the imagination. The beginning of the next wave of expansion of the church's possessions was laid in January 2017, when the authorities of St. Petersburg agreed to transfer St. Isaac's Cathedral into the free use of the Russian Orthodox Church for 49 years. In the first half of 2017, in different regions of Russia, the Orthodox Church announced its claims not only to public territories, but also to the private property of citizens.

The process that we are witnessing today began back in the 1990s, when the state began to return to the ROC the property seized from the church by the Bolsheviks. Then it was about religious objects - the buildings of churches and monasteries, icons and shrines kept in museums were transferred to the ownership of the church.

In the 2000s, the State Duma adopted a number of laws, according to which the church was able to claim in general all property and territories that belonged to it before 1917. The last of the documents - Federal Law No. 327 ("On the Transfer of State or Municipal Property of Religious Purpose to Religious Organizations"), adopted in 2010, made it possible to transfer any municipal and state property to the ROC, and allowed the church itself to lease the received space to lease and conduct business activities where hospitals, schools, cultural centers and museums were located yesterday.

Culture houses, museums and historical buildings: local dioceses receive public buildings for free

Penza: "How can a believer go there if they play jazz, stamp their feet and have fun?"

In early August, it became known about the transfer of the Penza House of Culture named after Dzerzhinsky to the Russian Orthodox Church, which was previously owned by Russian Railways. About 400 children are engaged in the building. The basis for the transfer of the building to the church was the fact that the Epiphany Church was located on the site of the Palace of Culture from 1884 to 1917. In 1923, the Bolsheviks gave the church into the ownership of the railway, the leadership of which organized a club there for their workers and their children.

On August 3, Penza residents went to a picket against the appropriation of the building by the church - residents were worried about whether their children would be able to continue to study in circles and sections of the House of Culture. “How will they start studying when there are candles and prayers around? And how can a believer go there if they play jazz, stamp their feet and have fun?”, The residents were indignant. The governor of the Penza region had previously assured the residents that all the circles would remain in their places, but a few days later he said that the children would now study in the Officers' House, which would soon be reconstructed especially for this. Penza residents do not want to take their children to paint and dance in a remote area of the city and believe that "there are enough churches in the center to perform religious rituals." Penza residents have already planned a new protest action and are going to get Russian Railways to reconsider the decision.

Orenburg: Russian Orthodox Church evicts Yuri Gagarin's spacesuit

A similar story is developing with the Orenburg Museum of Cosmonautics with an attendance of more than 3 thousand people a year. The pride of this museum is the personal belongings and equipment of the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who once graduated from the local flying school. But long before the appearance of Yuri Gagarin himself and cosmonautics, there was an Orthodox seminary here - this is what gives the local representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, more than a hundred years later, to claim this premises.

After the collapse of the USSR, part of the museum building was returned to the local diocese - now it wants to take the entire building. Employees of the Museum of Cosmonautics are convinced that the museum exposition will not be able to be moved to another building and will have to be destroyed, because it "was made for centuries." Now the city authorities are looking for a new room for the museum - the issue of transferring the building of the diocese, one might say, has already been resolved, but until a suitable building for the museum is found, the icons and candles will not be in the place of Yuri Gagarin's spacesuit.

Novocherkassk: Cossacks write a letter to the Russian Patriarch

In the city of Novocherkassk, Rostov region, the Cossacks and the local diocese clashed in the struggle for a historic building. In house 72 on Kirpichnaya street, the board of the Cossack village "Srednyaya" is now located. The Russian Orthodox Church claims that the building used to belong to the Mikhailovsky Church, although the church owned it for only 5 years, after which an elementary school was located there for a long time. Now the atamans of the Cossack army regularly gather in the building. On June 17, they wrote a letter to the Patriarch of All Russia and the President of Russia with a request to moderate the appetites of the local diocese.

For several years now, the diocese has been planning to open a parish school in this building. The Cossacks admit that they are ready to provide a room for 120 seats in the village administration building for classes with children. But representatives of the church were not satisfied with such a proposal - they insist on changing the owner. According to the Cossacks, this year the city administration came to the aid of the diocese, which unilaterally terminated the lease due to the transfer of the building to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Squares, summer cottages and embankments: city administrations donate municipal lands to the Russian Orthodox Church

Kaliningrad: "Find money and then everything will work out"

In January 2017, the Kaliningrad authorities decided to keep up with the capital and offered to erect a 10-meter monument to Prince Vladimir near Victory Square. To implement this idea, the authorities decided to transfer the site next to the square for free use by the Russian Orthodox Church. As the city authorities later told, the cost of this site is 5,015,358 rubles and 61 kopecks. The proposal was supported by 20 deputies of the city council, two abstained. The monument is supposed to be erected this year, but the sculptor Vladimir Surovtsev, who was approached by the authorities, on January 19 (before the vote on the transfer of land to the Russian Orthodox Church) told Komsomolskaya Pravda that the city authorities offered him to find money for the monument himself: they ask: "Vladimir Alexandrovich, find money and then everything will work out." It turns out that I, as an author, must create, go through all the approvals, and also find finances. Honestly, for me this is an impossible task for today. We are in contact with some representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, and they sometimes call me: "Have you found the money?" According to the sculptor's estimates, it will take from 16 to 20 million rubles to make the monument. In 2016, the administration allowed the Kaliningrad diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church to build a four-story Orthodox educational center with an area of 5.6 thousand square meters on Victory Square.

St. Petersburg: 47 acres in Komarovo and a chapel in the parking lot

At the end of July, the Committee for Property Relations of the Administration of St. Petersburg gave the ROC 4, 7 thousand square meters of land in the village of Komarovo for free use. The cost of this site is estimated at 30 million rubles. According to the Land Code, the Russian Orthodox Church has the right to acquire ownership of the territory on which the property belonging to it is located. "Church" real estate in Komarovo really is - here is the dacha of the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Varsonofy. As of 2005, there is a house with an area of 212 square meters and a house for servants with an area of 144 square meters on the summer cottage.

The other day it became known about the plans of the Russian Orthodox Church to receive also the parking area in Komarovo - now the construction of the chapel is being completed there, although there is no permits for this structure. As Novaya Gazeta writes in St. Petersburg, church representatives expect to legalize the construction retroactively and are confident that the governor "will take a political decision."

Krasnoyarsk: "referendum on the cathedral is extremism"

In May 2017, a rally was held in Krasnoyarsk against the construction of a church in the historical center of the city - the Strelka area. For many years, the local diocese and city authorities have been looking for a place to build the Nativity of the Mother of God Cathedral - in the 19th century it was the largest church in Siberia until it was blown up by the Bolsheviks in 1936. Now, on the site of the destroyed cathedral, the building of the government of the Krasnoyarsk Territory is located. “Krasnoyarsk will soon be one of the last cities where there is no cathedral,” complained representatives of the local diocese. In 2012, Patriarch Kirill came to Krasnoyarsk and personally chose the site for the new church - the Patriarch's finger pointed to the embankment at Strelka.

This is how the Mother of God Nativity Cathedral looked like before the explosion in 1936. Source: ngs24.ru

According to the law, the ROC can lay claim to this land, since before the revolution there was another cathedral here, so the city authorities quickly made a positive decision. This was not prevented by the fact that the land has already been officially given for the construction of a business center for the Moscow company "Retail Park Group". Local residents were outraged by the fact that the city authorities did not hold any bidding or public hearings. The residents' demand, similar to Isaac's, to hold a referendum on the transfer of land at Strelka to the ownership of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Panteleimon called extremism and recalled: "Everyone who broke crosses and temples ended up in a terrible death." “The mission of the church is not to surprise with the luxury of cathedrals and not to collect municipal land for itself, but to bring relief from torment to the disadvantaged,” protesters said at the rally.

The cost of building the temple is estimated at 1.3 billion rubles, and they plan to build the cathedral by the 2019 Universiade. In July, a tarpaulin tent for prayers was erected on the site of the future church - the entrance to the “cathedral” is decorated with an inscription with the hashtag “city beyond the cathedral”.

Houses and apartments: the Russian Orthodox Church in court demands the cancellation of the results of privatization

Vysha: "Go to the toilet in the forest - it is nearby"

In the village of Vysha, Ryazan Region, the Holy Dormition Monastery is not encroaching on public buildings or municipal land, but on the private property of local residents. In 1917, this monastery was closed, and all its property, including buildings and land, was given to the state. In the 1930s, a psychiatric hospital was housed here, and in the 1970s, employees of the medical institution were given apartments in houses located on the territory of the hospital. In the 90s, residents of these houses privatized their apartments, and then the hospital moved. The state then decided to transfer several buildings that had previously belonged to the monastery to the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2011, as a result of secret border surveying, all privatized buildings ended up on federal property - people were recognized as "invaders" of the monastery lands, and their gardens and sheds were illegal. One family living on the allegedly monastic land was demolished with the only outdoor toilet - the court advised residents to "go to the forest, he is nearby." Residents would be ready to move out of the monastery lands - but they are not offered any other housing, and the possible monetary compensation is so small that it is impossible to buy new housing on them. 23 families have already suffered from the oppression of the monastery, including a former concentration camp prisoner.

Stavropol: “My documents will be kept there, and the nun's grandmother will be accepted into the monastery”

In Stavropol, the local diocese is seeking the eviction of the family of the 90-year-old veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Raisa Fomenko. The barrack-type house, where Raisa and her family now live, is, according to the local church, a church monument: before the revolution, this house was allegedly the abbot building of the Ioanno-Mariinsky convent. Now the church is demanding the abolition of privatization - in their opinion, the municipality illegally allowed residents to privatize the house, which was supposed to become the property of the local diocese. Residents of the house are ready to move to new housing, but neither the city administration nor the diocese are ready to either provide new housing or offer compensation. The only proposal made by the diocese was to move 90-year-old veteran Raisa Fomenko to the monastery cell so that the abbess of the monastery could keep documents in the building vacated for the church.

Parks and reserves: dioceses want to assign recreational zones and UNESCO sites

Bryansk: felling of chestnuts in honor of the Romanov family

In July, protests were held in Bryansk to protect the territory of Proletarsky Park from the claims of the Russian Orthodox Church - the Bryansk diocese intends to establish another church there. According to Bryansk activists, the new church building will occupy up to 3,500 square meters of the city park, and the construction will require cutting down 80 chestnut trees.

Eight trees have already been cut down only in order to conduct geological surveys - after the study it will become clear whether it is possible to build a temple here. The Bryansk diocese, which was given a plot in the park free of charge, has already prepared a project for a temple "in honor of the Holy Royal Passion-bearers" (in honor of the executed Romanov imperial family).

The local authorities claim that they are on a neutral side in the conflict, although residents are outraged that the citizens themselves were not invited to public hearings on the fate of the park. As a result, the architectural council of Bryansk recognized the park as a good place for a temple, despite the felling of trees.

Crimea: a hotel for the diocese on the site of an ancient Greek city

In January 2017, it became known that the Simferopol and Crimean Diocese was going to take possession of the objects of the State Museum-Reserve "Tauric Chersonesos". The diocese, in its application, asked to give it 24 objects of the museum - allegedly, these buildings were previously used by the monastery of St. Vladimir.

According to Sergei Khalyuta, the Dean of the Sevastopol District, who previously headed the museum, only the transfer of the reserve to the church will help "begin the process of genuine development of the national reserve." The management of the museum, on the contrary, believes that if the decision to transfer this territory to the Russian Orthodox Church is taken by the regional authorities, then the work of the museum-reserve will actually stop.

The Tavrichesky Chersonesos Museum-Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where archaeological excavations are regularly carried out. The diocese plans to build a museum complex on the territory of the reserve, the central part of which will be a tower 28 meters high and an area of more than 4 thousand square meters, as well as build churches and the Necropolis of Saints complex with guest houses there.