Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 11 – The explosive growth
of Protestant congregations in post-Soviet Russia has worried many Russian
Orthodox and Russian nationalist observers, but now some of them say that the rise
of Protestantism there has slowed eclipsed by the growth of the activities of
Eastern religions.
In a commentary today on the
Kavkazoved.info portal, Vladislav Gulyevich who writes frequently on religious issues
says that the Krishna movement has become especially active not only in the
European part of Russia but also in the Caucasus and Siberia” (kavkazoved.info/news/2016/04/11/krishnaizm-protiv-pravoslavija-i-ego-tradiciy.html).
Because the leaders of this movement
say that they “are not against Christ” and offer not an alternative religion
but “a science about God,” they have attracted many Russian followers. But they
have explicitly attacked Russian Orthodoxy and the other traditional Russian
religions (Islam and Buddhism) as being out of date.
In fact, Gulyevich says, the Krishna
movement’s ideas are unacceptable for those who are part of the Russian
cultural tradition. According to him, “a
Krishna tradition does not exist in Russia,” although there are cases where
parents have passed on Krishna ideas to their children and thus separated them
from the Russian nation.
The Krishna tradition in no way
connected present-day Russians with their ancestors and the history of their
country,” Gulyevich says. And thus, it is objectively working against the
spiritual unity of Russia and must be opposed to the extent that it is an
organized movement and not simply the choice of particular individuals.
Participants in the Krishna movement
have attracted some support, he continues, because they insist that they are
peace-loving and have “never attacked anyone … ‘in contrast to your Orthodox
Russia.’” But in fact, “Indian
battalions participated in the intervention in Soviet Russia in 1919 as part of
the British expeditionary corps and in the Anglo-Afghan wars.”
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