Russian ‘Immortal Regiment’ Marchers Carry Pictures of Stalin, Beria, and Jesus Christ

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 18 – One of the most effective ideological innovations of the Bolsheviks, a practice continued throughout the Soviet period, was having those taking part in public marches carry pictures of the current leadership, a practice that echoed the iconostasis in Russian Orthodox churches.

            That combination of religious tradition and anti-religious leaders effectively cemented communism within the Russian tradition, making it easier for Russians to accept communism and communists to accept what was a simulacrum of Russian national traditions as being part of a single tradition.

            Vladimir Putin has extended that approach not only with his ideas about “a single stream” of Russian history but now with the restoration of the use of pictures of earlier leaders in public parades, a move that is for some ideologically jarring but for others a celebration of this conjunction of traditions that they find comforting.

            One who welcomes this restoration is Russky vestnik commentator Igor Grevtsev who says it is not clear whether Putin did this on his own or whether he was moved by the Holy Spirit but that it is wonderful that in the Immortal Regiment marches this year, all can find their own place (rv.ru/content.php3?id=14243).

            “Believers and unbelievers, Orthodox and representatives of other faiths, communists and atheists, patriots and liberals” can all come together because “individual worldviews do not have importance,” he writes. What matters is that each “carries in himself genes of his goal ancestors” and thus is part of this striking combination.

            Grevtsev celebrates what others may are certain to find disturbing: the marchers this year carried pictures of Stalin, Beria, Putin, and Jesus Christ, only some of whom would seem appropriate to be put in one rank.  He even illustrates his article with a picture of marchers carrying Stalin and Beria.

            This integration of various parts of the Russian tradition worked wonders for the Bolsheviks at least for a time; it is likely helping Putin maintain himself as well, albeit for how long remains an open question given the ideological diversity of those he is promoting in this way.