Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 14 – Few Russian Orthodox figures have undergone as great an evolution as Aleksandr Shchipkov who in Soviet times attacked both the Moscow church and the Soviet state and worked as a correspondent for Britain’s Keston College but now serves as a propagandist for the hardest of hard liners among the ROC MP and its allies in the government.
Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1957, Shchipkov grew up in a liberal Orthodox family and was a follower of Father Dudko. He has said that at that time, his slogan was “Christianity, freedom and anti-communism” but now he celebrates the Soviet system as consistent with Orthodoxy (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/01/14/kresty-i-lampasy).
Moreover, he serves not only as an advisor to the patriarch but to leading Russian officials but also as a spokesman for the church. In both capacities, he goes far beyond even the official line: he insists Russia has had an ideology for a decade despite constitutional bans and that Europe as a whole and not just Ukraine has become a bastion of re-Nazification.
Because of Shchipkov’s background as a dissident, some in the West are inclined to see him as a bridge to the Orthodox leadership in Russia today; but that is almost certainly a mistake. He is now more Orthodox than the Patriarch and likely will remain so given that his positions are close to what the Kremlin really thinks but has not yet been ready to articulate publicly.
The article in Novaya Gazeta tracks his evolution which seems to reflect less something driven by intellectual reflection than about seizing the main chance for career advancement and a willingness to use the kind of repressive measures against his opponents that some in the Russian church as yet have been less willing to engage in.
Almost certainly, Shchipkov’s views, as presented at websites he controls -- religare.ru and shchipkov.ru – serve as an indication of the direction the thinking of the Kremlin and the Patriarchate in the years of mature Putinism not only is proceeding now but is likely to go in the future.
Friday, January 17, 2025
Aleksandr Shchipkov – Soviet-Era Dissident who is Now Chief Ideologist of the ROC MP
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