World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 13 стр.

                                                                                         6. Why was the separation of the Church from the State so damaging for
               The October Revolution and the Era of Atheism                        the Church?
     In the summer of 1917, soon after the February Revolution, the first                7. What decision of the Bolshevik government led to the open confronta-
(1)…… of the Russian Orthodox Church for two and a half centuries was held.         tion of the State and the Church?
It took place at the very heart of the old (2)……, in (3)…… in the Moscow                 8. What was the response of the Church to the decision of the Bolshevik?
Kremlin. It reestablished the (4)…… and chose Patriarch. The choice fell on              9. How did the Bolshevik government conduct their struggle against the
Tikhon, newly elected metropolitan of Moscow (1865–1925).                           Church?
     The Church which he was called upon to lead was faced with unprece-                 10. What was the position of the RPCh during the Great Fatherland War?
dented problems. With him began a new line of martyrs and confessors, for al-
though the Church was suddenly (5)…… from the state the new establishment
                                                                                    Part IV
was to subject it to every kind of indignity and constraint.
     The Bolshevik government decree of 23 January 1918 on the separation of                                    The Church Preaches Accord
Church and state and of schooling from the Church affected all religious bodies,          Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksy II is interviewed by MN’s
but none so obviously or so immediately as the formerly (6)…… Church of the         Vladimir Shevelev, editor of the morality and law desk.
Russian Empire. Now the Church found itself (7)…… even of the rights of a                 – Usually in our “Leader” section MN introduces prominent politicians,
person at law.                                                                      military people, scientists and cultural workers. But for the first time we are
     The (8)…… of Church property (legitimized by the same decree) soon led         featuring a clergyman. How do you, the first person of the biggest and most in-
to confrontation. The newly elected patriarch’s first encyclicals expressed a se-   fluential Church of Russia, appraise your leadership?
verity, which bordered on (9)…… (19 January and 7 November 1918). But his                 – The position of the Patriarch has never been easy in our country – both
insistence that the new leaders acted “in a manner contrary to the conscience of    after the institution of the Patriarchate by Fyodor Ioannovich in 1589, and after
the people” could only serve to confirm the Bolsheviks in their resolve to          its abolition by Peter the Great in 1718. And it has been especially difficult in
mould that conscience in accordance with their own (10)…… . An intensive            postrevolutionary Russia. From the first steps of my patriarchate I clearly came
(generally crude) antireligious propaganda campaign was put into operation as       to understand what heavy work was in store for me and what responsibility.
soon as the (11)…… ended in 1922. There followed clashes, deaths and arrests.       Feelings of complacency, selfadmiration and superiority over other people are
Among those to be tried and executed, in 1922, was the meek and popular             alien to me. Although you could say that I have been lucky: my election coin-
(12)…… of Petrograd, Veniamin Kazansky.                                             cided with very important positive changes in the life of our country.
     The 1930s saw a drastic reduction in the number of churches, the dissolu-            – But, after all, you yourself contributed to these changes.
tion of the monasteries, and the imprisonment of countless (13)……. At the                 – Of course, I did. In the mid – 1980s the Church began to emerge from
outbreak of war, hardly four bishops were at liberty to exercise their pastoral     rigid isolation and occupy an ever more visible place in society. There was a
role within the narrow limits permitted by the authorities. The war created an      need to re-establish normal church life and adopt a law on the freedom of con-
entirely new (14)…… .                                                               science which would not in words as before but in practice stand up for the
                                                                                    rights of believers and the Church. At that time, clergymen – and not only those
Task 2. Answer the questions:                                                       of the Orthodox Church – took part in elections, becoming people’s deputies,
    1. Why had the Russian Pravoslavnaya Church held no Council for two             and did much for the revitalization of society.
and a half centuries?                                                                     – Today, both in church and, especially, around the church one can hear
    2. Why does the author refer to the Dormition Cathedral as “the Old Third       people saying: perestroika and reforms in Russia have led to disorder and insta-
Rome”?                                                                              bility, to stratification into the poor and the rich, to the victory of vulgar materi-
    3. What is the Russian name of “the Dormition Cathedral”?                       alism, etc. There are some who ask in embarrassment: perhaps, it would have
    4. Who became the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus in 1917?                      been better not to begin this at all?
    5. What was the position of the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution               – Those who have grown weak spiritually do not want to remember what
towards the RPCh?                                                                   existed in the past – the sway of fear and hypocrisy, total, compulsory atheism,
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