In 1866, Fiodor Tiutchev, the distinguished Russian poet and intellectual, wrote a famous poem, often cited to this today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can\u2019t grasp her with your reason,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can\u2019t simply measure her.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s so timid and so proud that<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n All y\u2019can do is have faith in her.<\/em> 1) <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s precisely the final verse with which Russians repeatedly respond when asked about \u201cthis whole thing with Russia.\u201d That \u201cfaith in Russia\u201d is their firm, intrinsic belief about their motherland as an independent, unique entity as incomparable to as it is unparalleled by any other country in the world. In their mindset, in ideological, spiritual, cultural, and religious senses Russia is a separate continent, a veritable eighth one. So convinced are Russians that they differ from the rest of the world it\u2019s as if they constitute a completely distinct world, some self-contained and separate planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they\u2019re right, they do differ from the West: they\u2019ve been immersed in Eastern Orthodox Christianity since the Great Schism of 1054 as it has forged its identity in opposition to Rome and to the Latin world. Quite precisely, it was the Russian Orthodox Church that prevented Russia\u2019s going through the turbulence of the Protestant Reformation and of the Enlightenment as both brought about fundamental changes and ideas without which today\u2019s Europe would hardly be possible <\/strong>and gave rise to basic, indispensable concepts including individualism, modern democracy, liberalism, and individual rights. In fact, liberal trends advocating tolerance and freedom that spread across Europe for centuries ground to a halt at Russia\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Kievan Rus, the medieval Slavic amalgam state that later transformed into Russia, accepted Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium, it adopted both Byzantine rites and a system in which the emperor was at once a political and a religious leader, his authority and power provided by God and therefore held sacred. Over time, Russians went a step further, however, and attributed holiness to the ruler himself. Many Russian texts identified the Tsar with God and with God\u2019s Son: a given tsar was referred to as \u201cChrist\u201d (\u201cYou are Christ\u201d). Consequently, his throne became a new Mount Tabor, site of Christ\u2019s transfiguration, and all that related to that tsar was regarded as sacred. His blood was sacred as was his family and his will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such a concept had unforeseen consequences. Tsar Paul I decided that he wanted to celebrate the liturgy, for example. He felt it was his right \u2013 after all, he was head of the Russian Church. It took much diplomacy for the Orthodox bishops to skillfully maneuver him out of this idea. And not only tsars got carried away with the idea. In the nineteenth century, hanging portraits of the current tsar among paintings in Russian churches was common practice. People knelt before them, lit candles and prayed to them as they did before holy icons. More recent examples of such devotion abound. In 2008, Stalin icons were placed in a church in Strielna, near Saint Petersburg. Two years later, in Moscow, this happened in the Church of Saint Nicolas. And in 2007, near Nizhny Novgorod, among the largest cities in western Russia, a new sect founded and led by a Mother Photinia pronounced that Vladimir Putin was an incarnation of Saint Paul. According to her, as Paul had oppressed Christians before his conversion, so had Putin as a KGB officer. When Putin was elected president, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and he became a spiritual leader for all Christians. Putin\u2019s portrait soon hung among the icons in the sect\u2019s church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read also:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n