Orthodoxy, Politics, and Kirillism: Reassessment of Post-Soviet Church-State Symphonia in Patriarch Kirill's Russia

Abstract

. CHARLES UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Institute of International Studies Thesis Abstract 2022 Paul-Henri Perrain . CHARLES UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Institute of International Studies Paul-Henri Perrain Orthodoxy, Politics, and Kirillism: Reassessment of Post-Soviet Church-State Symphonia in Patriarch Kirill's Russia Thesis Abstract Prague 2022 Author: Bc. Paul-Henri Perrain Supervisor: Doc. Adrian Brisku, Ph.D. Academic Year: 2021/2022 Abstract While the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) occupies a preponderant place in Russian cultural identity, its position as an institution has undergone great changes throughout history. Sometimes under the rule of the tsars, sometimes independent, sometimes marginalised, the ROC is now back in the aftermath of the fall of communism. In this new officially secular state, the Church has managed to restore close ties with the main political authorities of the country and benefits from the proximity and entanglement of the spiritual and temporal powers to defend its own interests. The involvement of the Church in the Russian public sphere is all the more evident since the election of Kirill in 2009 as Patriarch. The principle of symphonia which postulates the independence of the two powers and which should guide Church-State relations after 1991 seems...