Lots of people here in the States, reflecting a Cold War mentality, still want to equate Russia with atheistic Communism. This is a mistake that has ramifications for us here in our domestic policy, not just foreign policy.
Since the fall of Communism, Russia has built 1,000 churches per year. That alone should be cause for thoughtful reconsideration of Russians, but we go on to a matter that is more relevant to the topic of this essay: the building of monuments.
On 16 Sept. 2021, author Paul Gilbert reported on the unveiling of a new statue of the martyr Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (+1918). This is no ordinary statue; it is a true monument: ten feet tall, bronze and marble, overtly Christian symbols, consecrated by a bishop. Pictures and a short video may be seen at this web page.
However, the ending of his article is even more astounding:
During the Soviet years, Nicholas II was vilified and forgotten. Not a single memorial of any kind existed in the Soviet Union, however, during the last 30 years more than 100 monuments, busts and memorials in honour of Nicholas II have been erected in more than 30 regions of the country.
But if honoring kings chaps your hindquarters, there are other notable monuments being built in the lands that were once held under the heavy weight of the Communist yoke, and some just as notable statues being torn down:
. . . The latest triumph of the Church over communism occurred on May 22 in the village of Novoselskoe in the Odessa Province in Southwestern Ukraine, when a statue of St. Nicholas [St Nicholas the Wonderworker of the 4th century, not Tsar-St Nicholas II—W.G.] was installed in the center of the village on a pedestal that once supported a monument to Vladimir Lenin, the Soviet leader responsible for the persecution and deaths of millions.
The Lenin monument was dismantled as part of decommunization, and the village council decided a year ago to install a monument to the great St. Nicholas, who is the patron of the village church, reports Trassa E-95.
The installation took place during the celebration of Village Day.
Then, following the festive Pentecost Divine Liturgy, the faithful of the St. Nicholas Church held a procession to the new sculpture and took part in the ceremony for the opening and consecrating of the monument. The rite was celebrated by Archimandrite Peter (Marku) from the village church.
The statute is made of carbon fiber, which is characterized by its strength, rigidity, and low weight—the 10 ft. monument weighs only 200 lbs.
According to Fr. Peter, the cost of installing St. Nicholas was taken over by the charity foundation Urbansky “Danube.”
“This is a very expensive project, and we are very grateful to our People’s Deputy Alexander Urbansky and his brother, the Chairman of the Odessa Province Council Anatoly Urbansky for the help they always give not only our village, but the entire Reni district and region,” Archimandrite Peter said.
In a similar story, the authorities of the city of Ulyanovsk, where Lenin was born, resolved to change the name of Lenin Square back to its original title of Cathedral Square. It was named such because the Holy Trinity Cathedral stood there before its destruction by the soviets in 1936.
A couple of other Lenin statues have also recently been toppled in the Ukraine.
Consider all this: 100 monuments have gone up in Russia to Saint-Tsar Nicholas II alone. Meanwhile, in the United States, 270 Confederate monuments have been torn down (as of 2020). Why are Russia and other ex-Communist countries moving in one direction and the States in another when it comes to monuments honoring heroes? Because the former have kept a sense of duty to community (known as sobornost in their lands) while we in the States have by and large lost it. Or to say it differently, Russia, the Ukraine, Serbia, and other former Communist countries are returning to their thousand-year-old Christian tradition, but the West is dead-set on leaving the Christian path (and some of the leaders in that dreadful vanguard are here in North America, particularly the heart of Yankeedom – New England – although their ideological and physical descendants on the West Coast are not far behind them at this point).
. . .
The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2021/10/garlington-russia-is-climbing-out-of-wokeism-faster-than-were-falling-in/ .
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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