Putin’s Favorite Orthodox Hierarch Says Russian Empire was Going in Right Direction but was Brought Down in 1917 by Dissatisfied Elites

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Dec. 29 – Metropolitan Tikhon, the Orthodox hierarch Putin has long been closest to, says in his candidate dissertation that the Russian Empire was going in the right directions up to the time of the 1917 revolution but was brought down by the actions of dissatisfied elites who stirred up the population.
    Tikhon defended his thesis, “The Collapse of the Russian Empire: Factors of the Interrelationship of Power and Population,” at Moscow State University’s faculty of state administration (mk.ru/social/2024/12/29/imperiya-kotoruyu-my-poteryali-mitropolit-tikhon-nashel-prichiny-ee-krusheniya.html).
    In a critical review of Tikhon’s position, Moskovsky Komsomolets journalist Kirill Ivanov says that the Orthodox prelate argues that neither in the economy nor in the social sphere were there any serious problems in Russia in the years before 2017, although he admits there were some “temporary difficulties.”
    In brief, Tikhon suggests that the revolution was not inevitable but rather the work of the country’s political elites who split during the war and encouraged various groups in the population to think that their lives could be made even better if the tsarist system were to be overturned.
    Tikhon’s argument fits neatly into Vladimir Putin’s single stream approach to Russian history and undoubtedly has influenced the Kremlin leader’s thinking not only about why revolutions happened in the past but also how they can with wise leadership be avoided in the future.