Paganism Spreading among Combatants on Both Sides in Putin’s War in Ukraine, Moscow Expert Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Dec. 2 – It is an ancient observation that there are no atheists in the trenches, but it is a new one that combatants in Putin’s war in Ukraine are turning to paganism rather than more conventional religions, an observation offered by Roman Shizhensky, a specialist on religious affairs at the Russian Academy of Economics and State Service.
    Three months ago, Patriarch Kirill complained about that development among Russian soldiers, declaring that Russian soldiers with little experience in the church were listening to pagan missionaries (tass.ru/obschestvo/21944567). Now, an academic specialist is offering more details and about soldiers on both sides of the front (apn.ru/index.php?newsid=46855).
    In the course of an extensive interview, Shizhensky provides not only his judgments about the origins of this phenomenon, which he places primarily in the desire of people to identify with national rather than supernational faiths, but also a guide to recent Russian scholarship about paganism.