Orthodox state holy Russia organization. The Christian State "Holy Russia" of two people is a fake of the special services, and not what they say in the media

This is a clear provocation. After all, a criminal case was immediately initiated on the blasphemous performance of "Pussy Riot".

In relation to "Matilda" not a single case was initiated!

Thus, the Orthodox were deliberately provoked into defending their faith.

On September 11 (on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist) "Matilda" was presented in Vladivostok.

Why was this day and Vladivostok, a suburban city of the former Russian Empire, chosen for the screening of this film?

Most likely the whole thing is in proximity to Japan. After all, saber blows on the head of Sovereign Nicholas II were inflicted in 1891 by the Japanese policeman Tsuda Sanzo (there are no traces of a saber on the skull in the Peter and Paul Cathedral).

These facts once again confirm the ritualistic nature of the murder of the royal family and the film "Matilda" itself.

In this light, the reaction of the police and the entire law enforcement system looks more than strange. After all, a criminal case was immediately initiated on the blasphemous performance of "Pussy Riot".

Here we are witnessing not only a policy of double standards, but also a clear pitting of society.

The organization mentioned in the article has nothing to do with Orthodoxy or the Orthodox.

An ordinary provocation, the purpose of which is to jeopardize the Christians of Russia and plunge the country into chaos.

On September 14, 2017, a post is posted on Twitter with a series of photos: “Meet. Head of the Central Organ of the NGO “KhGSR” Miron Kravchenko. The main wrestler with Matilda. Civil War Scenario Coordinator in Russia. he is also a “Russian nationalist”, he is also “the coordinator of the discussion platform “Russian Club in Ukraine1123;””, he is also the coordinator of the “Russian Emigrant Club” - a bosom friend and like-minded person of the “active participants in the Kyiv Maidan”, Bandera from Azov , "Right Sector" and other iconic figures of the ATO". Now, together with Kalinin, he is also allegedly “the main defender of Orthodox values ​​in Russia”! /AT. Filimonov "Orthodox Jihad", or who wants to unleash a civil war in Russia /

It was the Central State University that fired the storm. God damned Pindos, even put our great Goose on his knees again. We are like a bone in goggle to them, especially after the patgiots seized power in the stgana, who took the kugs to double the GDP by 2010. I feel they are afraid that we will catch up with Pogtugalia and pegegonim, so they are degging.

After such articles, you will involuntarily think that Kashin still got it hard ...

Then the question is to the GB, why do they really want to introduce Madame Poklonskaya bargaining chip between the pokuratura-executive power and religion? After all, a good madam, why did you stick to her? Are you making a fool of yourself? Or is it a shame for the mother of the fag Mizulina - the silly Golodets - and the sucker Nabiullina?

And I, as a resident of a secular state, a pion Erka-Komsomol member and a long-term controller-auditor of the FCD of enterprises and organizations, do not want any gods, just because all these high-ranking priests-imams-gurus, etc. there is basically nothing sacred behind the soul, one loot, and they have one god for all - mammon!

Being a believer, I would like to see more Christians in Russia and the world. It's the Christians. people who believe in God and try to live according to the New Testament, and not brutal religious fanatics who have nothing in common with the teachings of Christ, which already existing similar movements have proven themselves to be. I believe that the church cannot be merged with the state, since this can violate the constitutional right of citizens to freedom of religion and lead to a split in the country on religious grounds, since there are many representatives of other religions among the peoples of Russia.

However, these films are still watched on TV, and no one organizes religious processions for the ban on Soviet film classics, for insulting the monarchists and the royal family. But it was precisely "Matilda" that was chosen as the occasion, which relegated to the background and and economic crisis, and the confrontation with the United States and the presidential elections, and the war in the Donbass. For the ninth month now, they have been trying to impose a discussion on Russia - is it possible, when describing the events of 130 years ago, to portray the heir to the throne as a man with his passions and desires. Therefore, it is worthwhile to figure out who inflates the all-Russian conflict from the film and awakens the seeds of obscurantism. Natalya Poklonskaya, apparently, has become only a formal initiator, and the storm is already going on without her active intervention. After all, puppeteers are much more influential. So, here's what life correspondents found out. ru. The campaign against the film "Matilda" began with the filing of the public movement "Tsar's Cross", which, according to some information, is associated with the oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, who, in turn, is the owner of the Orthodox channel "Tsar-grad". The publication found out that the "Royal Cross" specifically attracted the attention of State Duma deputy Natalia Poklonskaya to the film. According to Porozhnyakov, they turned to Poklonskaya because she "is their like-minded person and has established herself as an admirer of the royal family." The Royal Cross movement is not registered as entity. It is only a public page on the Vkontakte social network, created in October 2016, that is, shortly before Poklonskaya's collective complaint was filed. Little is known about Alexander Porozhnyakov. On his page on Vkontakte, he indicated another monarchical organization, the Double-Headed Eagle, as his place of work. Among the two organizations in Moscow, called the "Two-Headed Eagle", one is engaged in the development of Russian historical education, while the second was established by retired general Leonid Reshetnikov, chairman of the board of the Tsargrad channel. The organization's website is registered to his daughter Alexandra, who is friends with Porozhnyakov on Vkontakte. It is significant that figures from “fraternal Ukraine” also had a hand in the heat of passions, who were suddenly terribly seized by the idea of ​​the purity of the tsar and for some reason they rushed to express the opinion of the Russian majority with particular aggressiveness. On behalf of the people, one of the leaders of the “Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine”, Yuriy Kot, suddenly began to speak, who, in his three years of living in Moscow, had never been seen in any monarchical actions and love for the august persons. It turns out an amazing thing. On the whole, the political forces of Russia are calmly and even with some kind of misunderstanding looking at the uproar around Matilda. On the other hand, political outcasts and clowns from among Ukrainian emigrants now and then jump on behalf of the Russian people and try to escalate the situation, take it “weakly”, “used to wipe themselves off”, as their compatriots from Galicia once tried to cause direct confrontation. This is what the nationalists in Ukraine are striving for today. Another Banderaite Pavel Kazarin, literally the day before, spoke on Channel 5, owned by Poroshenko, with an appeal-incitement - to arrange a “Maidan” in Moscow, and then take Crimea. Earlier, his family supported the coup d'état in Ukraine and left the peninsula. According to Kazarin, the conditions for his return should be accompanied by no less shocks in the Russian Federation. “Stakes on maximum disorganization, destabilization, on the new 91st year and so on,” Kazarin said. Bandera's ideas turned out to be very consonant with the newly-minted "Orthodox" organizations and monarchists, who openly promise acts of violence against civilians. Again, on behalf of the people. Leader of the organization Christian state – Holy Russia” Alexander Kalinin bluntly stated: “If the film is shown in the cinema, tomorrow the cinema will burn down.” And what a coincidence! It turned out that surrounded by the leader of the movement "Christian State - Holy Russia", from whom the church hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church have already disowned, suddenly the closest helper is found, who has obvious connections with Ukrainian right-wing radicals who dream of the collapse of Russia. His name is Miron Kravchenko. In the Ukrainian media, Kravchenko is called a Russian nationalist. He is friendly with representatives of the "Right Sector" and without hesitation was photographed against the background of their symbols. In 2015, this character participated in the founding conference of the "Anti-Putin Information Front" held in Kyiv and spoke at the press conference "Lessons and results of the Kyiv Maidan: the possibility of implementing a revolutionary scenario and a civil war in Putin's Russia." On the Ukrainian side, Ukrainian radical Dmytro Korchinsky, arrested in absentia in Russia, took part in it. As Kalinin later explained in an interview with the Pskov Governorate, Kravchenko then hesitated on which side to fight in Ukraine, and eventually chose the Christian State. It is very likely that Kravchenko has already been infiltrated by the “Ukrainian brothers” and is on a “mission” to undermine the internal political situation in the Russian Federation. To neglect this possibility is very, very reckless. Small bug, but smelly. In Ukraine, this has been proven more than once. What do we end up with? The games of obscurantists in Russia closely merge with the actions of Ukrainian nationalists, who unexpectedly sang in the same choir with some representatives of Ukrainian emigrants. The unspoken alliance dresses up in the garb of Orthodoxy and patriotism, but in reality it is tsarebozhiya. Their goals are clear - to undermine the situation in the country, to play off the Russian people because of sheer nonsense. After all, if these disguised monarchists were real patriots of Russia, whose love for the country would really be expressed in the desire to make it modern, stable and prosperous, then they would be looking for heroes among other people. But they are raising Nicholas the Bloody to the shield, who plunged Russia into a series of unrest and revolutions, who sent the country to the fronts of the First World War to the tune of England. They do not remember either the millions of soldiers who died in this war, or the Russian officers. Of course, the actions of obscurantists and their dancers on Facebook this time will not lead to any Maidan. Russian society, unlike Ukrainian, is still too monolithic, and it is not going to please the wishes of a handful of monarchists. But no one says that they are going to shake such a country in a couple of weeks. While they are accustoming us to violence on the part of some activists, they pass off throwing Molotov cocktails as the opinion of believers. What happens next, you know it from Ukraine. Alexey Belov

The film was based on the novel of the heir to the Russian throne Nikolai Romanov and the ballerina of the Imperial Theater Matilda Kshesinskaya.

Historians confirm that the romantic relationship between the heir and the ballerina did take place (differences relate to the question of whether they were exclusively platonic), but they stopped after the wedding of Nikolai and Alexandra Feodorovna.

Points of criticism

Origins of the conflict

The first trailer for "Matilda" was released on April 7, 2016, but the public conflict began to take on visible proportions only in the fall of that year. According to Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov), the reason for the protests against the film was the perception of its trailer as distorting historical truth.

Even before the deputy was involved in the conflict State Duma Natalia Poklonskaya has launched an online petition on Change.org to cancel the painting.

Natalia Poklonskaya's request to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to check the film "Matilda" for insulting the feelings of believers was sent on November 2, 2016. This was preceded by an appeal to her by representatives of the public movement "Royal Cross", who considered that they were dealing with "an anti-Russian and anti-religious provocation in the field of culture."

Subsequently, Poklonskaya made a lot of efforts, trying to achieve.

Positions of the parties

Natalia Poklonskaya

executive branch

In turn, the head Russian government Dmitry Medvedev, speaking in April 2017 at the forum “Culture is a National Priority”, warned against the manifestation of intolerance and aggression in the field of culture: “Sometimes it [aggression] comes down to the persecution of the author, whose work no one has seen yet. We need to be much more tolerant in this sense," Medvedev advised.

Leadership of individual republics

In August 2017, it became known that the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, applied to the Ministry of Culture with a request not to show the film on the territory of the republic. A similar request was received from the authorities of Dagestan.

However, after the film was issued a distribution certificate, Ramzan Kadyrov declared that the republic was not going to ban the film, because, according to him, in Chechnya "they will not waste time watching a film that is immoral, soulless and immoral in relation to their homeland" .

Church and church hierarchs

The official position of the ROC

In September 2017, Bishop Tikhon reaffirmed the earlier point of view: not demand a ban, but warn of untruth- as the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church.

… this is an absolutely dead end and wrong way. Not demands for bans, but a warning about truth and untruth - this is the goal that can and should be set in connection with the upcoming wide screening of the film. If the film lives up to the trailer, it will be enough just to talk widely about the real former story.

Not all church hierarchs agreed with this approach. So, in June 2017, Metropolitan Pavel of Surgut sent a letter to the clergy of the diocese under his jurisdiction, in which he blessed in June-July 2017 to collect signatures for a ban on the production and distribution of the film and ordered to submit information about their number by August 1, 2017. In a letter, the metropolitan stated that the film is "a deliberate anti-historical forgery aimed at discrediting, mocking and slandering, at forming a very definite false image of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II" .

In turn, Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga in September 2017 expressed the opinion that the campaign directed (“with the best intentions”) to ban the film only fueled interest in it. He believes that "the best response of Orthodox people will be the creation of works of art dedicated to the Passion-Bearer Tsar - new books and films that reflect the Orthodox point of view."

Romanovs

Subsequently, in July 2017, the head of the Russian Imperial House, Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, also declared the futility of trying to ban this and similar films, while Alexander Zakatov stated that there was no historical authenticity. According to him, from the diaries of Nicholas II, his correspondence and other reliable sources, it is known that:

the romance of the young Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich and Matilda Feliksovna ended in 1894, when a decision was made to marry the heir to Princess Alice of Hesse, and Nicholas II never cheated on his wife.

Movement "Forty Forties"

Compromise options

As a compromise solution, a proposal was made to delay the release of the film for two years in order, firstly, to avoid a “high degree” of public confrontation in the current discussion and, secondly, to prevent the release of the film from coinciding with the centenary execution of the royal family.

The initial idea was expressed by Pavel Pozhigailo at a discussion in the State Duma at a meeting of an inter-factional deputy group for the defense of Christian values.

Calls for a ban

In January 2017, it became known about admission to public Council under the Ministry of Culture of Russia, 20 thousand signatures demanding a ban on the film, a selective check of which confirmed the real existence of the signatories. The number of official appeals against the rental of the film in the name of Natalya Poklonskaya reached a similar value. In July 2017, Poklonskaya announced that the annex to the next parliamentary request against the film contains 100,000 appeals and signatures of citizens about insulting their feelings. In the autumn of the same year, the Tsar's Cross movement reported that 100,000 appeals against the film Matilda were handed over to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Activities of Natalia Poklonskaya

At the end of 2016, after a request from Natalia Poklonskaya to the Prosecutor General's Office, the film materials were checked, which, according to Alexei Uchitel, did not reveal any violations. Almost immediately, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Culture, film director Stanislav Govorukhin, criticized the idea of ​​checking the film, saying that such initiatives should be "interrupted in the bud." The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation reported that the issue of issuing a distribution certificate to the film will be decided after the completion of work on the film.

In December 2016, it was reported that the prosecutor's office would request the film's script as part of an audit at the request of MP Poklonskaya.

In April 2017, the next commission, which Poklonskaya insisted on, after reviewing the text of the script and two trailers, saw in the film the imposition of a false image of St. Nicholas II on the viewer and an insult to the religious feelings of believers. At the same time, experts (I. V. Povkin, V. I. Slobodchikov, V. Yu. Troitsky and A. Yu. Evdokimov) established what exactly forms the negative image of Nicholas II. Alexei Uchitel said that he was "already tired of Mrs. Poklonskaya's war with him and the entire film crew." The results of the examination were sent to the Prosecutor General 's Office .

In addition, in September 2017, Natalya Poklonskaya announced that she had at her disposal documents indicating dubious financing schemes for the film by Alexei Uchitel. A little later, information was received according to which Poklonskaya stated that she was representing the interests of the Romanovs in court against a lawsuit to protect their honor and dignity against the director of the film "Matilda" Alexei Uchitel, and the lawsuit contains a requirement "to impose interim measures in the form of a ban on showing the film" . However, the lawsuit against the studio of director Alexei Uchitel was dismissed by the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg due to procedural violations that must be eliminated before September 30.

At the end of September 2017, Natalya Poklonskaya announced the substitution of the script after the allocation of budget funding to the film in the amount of 280 million rubles. According to her, the original script, for which budget funds were allocated, was dedicated specifically to the ballerina: Nicholas II was not in it at all. She also produced a video recording that, according to her, exposes Aleksey Uchitel, and promised to hand it over to the Prosecutor General's Office and the FSB.

Movement "Forty Forties"

RIA Novosti reports that on September 18, 2017, according to the movement's own data, protest actions organized by it in the form of pickets, processions and prayers gathered about a thousand people in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd and other Russian cities. This was followed by an action on 8 October.

Prospects for a ban

In October 2017, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky stated that there were no legal grounds for revoking the film's distribution certificate.

Threats

In January 2017, a previously unknown organization, Christian State - Holy Russia, sent letters to directors of cinemas demanding that the film be cancelled. The letter said:

If the film "Matilda" comes out, cinemas will burn, maybe even people will suffer. Official notice: any banner, poster, leaflet with information about film rental will be considered as a desire to humiliate the saints Orthodox Church…

Responses and comments

The Russian Orthodox Church, represented by Vakhtang Kipshidze, almost immediately announced that the organization "Christian State - Holy Russia" had nothing to do with it.

A little later, in February 2017, more than forty leading Russian filmmakers responded to this threat with an open letter, in which they regarded the aforementioned message as a threat to potential film distributors and "calls for arson of cinemas and violent actions." The signatories believe that "the official Church does not give an assessment of what is happening", and the Ministry of Culture takes a wait-and-see attitude.

Aleksey Uchitel appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office with complaints about threats from extremists from an unregistered organization and about Poklonskaya, and Dmitry Peskov noted that threats "from anonymous extremists ... are absolutely unacceptable," like any violation of laws.

Natalya Poklonskaya, in turn, also noted the inadmissibility of extremist statements by "some unregistered organization".

Arson

With the film "Matilda" and the resulting confrontation, according to the persons involved and the media comments, there is an alleged connection with the arson of property that took place in various cities of the country.

Moscow

At the end of August 2017, Vladimir Nosov, the Russian boxing champion and coordinator of the Forty Sorokov movement, filed an application with the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as with the Nagatinskaya Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office of Moscow. He asked to check the actions of the intruders for the presence of corpus delicti in them. According to the press service of the movement, on August 26, 2017, at about 14:00, Nosov’s car was set on fire by unknown persons. Nosov linked the incident to the movement's participation in protests against the film and a number of events planned by the movement, while Andrey Kormukhin told TASS that members of the movement had been threatened for a long time, by phone and on social networks, but "before this incident, the threats were not taken seriously."

St. Petersburg

On the night of August 31, 2017, three Molotov cocktails were thrown into the windows of the building of the Lendok film studio in St. Petersburg, where the Teacher's Rock studio is located. The fire was quickly extinguished, as windows with inside were bricked up and the fire could not spread inside the building. The teacher noted that the attack took place on his and Matilda Kshesinskaya's birthday and said that threats "come all the time: both at the studio and at cinemas."

The leader of the Forty Sorokov Orthodox movement, Andrey Kormukhin, declared the attack on the film studio a provocation by "godless" designed to denigrate Orthodox Christians protesting the film, and even offered to single out Alexei Uchitel as a bodyguard for one of the athletes included in the movement. The teacher refused the offered services, and the wording of the refusal allows us to consider that he is inclined to associate the threats that have arisen with the activities of the mentioned organization.

Yekaterinburg

On the morning of September 4, the Kosmos cinema in the center of Yekaterinburg rammed a UAZ car, and then a 30 m 2 fire broke out. A criminal case was initiated under the article “intentional damage to property committed by arson” and a 38-year-old suspect was detained, who was hospitalized with burns. A number of media reported that the man set fire to protest against the film "Matilda", however, as RIA Novosti notes, the investigation stated that the reasons for the act had not yet been established. Earlier, the BBC, citing the Investigative Committee of Russia, reported that the suspect is a resident of the city of Irbit, who, according to preliminary information, is registered with a psychiatrist.

Unofficial information that the film "Matilda" was the cause of the attack was made public by the Znak.com portal, citing a "source close to the investigation." The portal also notes that on the page in social network"Odnoklassniki" the suspect looks like "an exemplary family man ... with a variety of hobbies", from whom it is difficult to expect such actions. On the same page there are a number of photographs taken in or near Orthodox churches. With all this, however, the suspect lost contact with his family for more than 2 years and was put on the wanted list, and a number of judgments on religious issues are harsh.

According to unofficial media reports, the suspect also claimed during interrogation that he arrived in Yekaterinburg on the morning of September 3 and spent the whole day in the Church on the Blood. The suspect was detained after contacting the emergency room with burns and taken into custody.

Two weeks before the attack, he stated in an interview that in Russia "the monarchical spirit is rising - the veneration of the royal family" and that, along with other monarchists, he is united by the fight against the "common evil" - the Teacher and his film, which should not be shown in Russia, and "penguins in Antarctica".

Moscow

On September 11, 2017, at 05:20, a call was recorded about a car fire in Starokonyushenny Lane, next to the office of lawyer Konstantin Dobrynin, representing the interests of the Teacher. Two cars were damaged. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a criminal case was opened under article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - deliberate destruction or damage to property, and Dobrynin said that leaflets "Burn for Matilda" were scattered near the cars.

Responses and comments

The leader of the Christian State - Holy Russia movement Alexander Kalinin, commenting on what is happening, said that his "organization is not engaged in extremism", but "only broadcasts to society the position that is in the hearts of some people", and that they threaten, set fire and ram movie theaters "people who have run out of patience".

One of the responses to the events of August-September 2017 (arson in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and near the office of the Bar Association) was a deputy request to the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation from the State Duma deputies Irina Rodnina and Oksana Pushkina: they asked to check the Christian State organization for extremism "and" Forty Forty. The deputies believe that the organization "Christian State - Holy Russia" in its interviews and publications openly threatens not only ordinary citizens of Russia and dissenting artists, but also the leaders of the state.

The fact that the Forty Sorokov movement is ready for inspections and is set up for full cooperation with law enforcement agencies, its leader Andrey Kormukhin told the Znak.com portal, emphasizing that the movement has repeatedly condemned extremist actions in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.

At the same time, according to the same portal, activists of the Forty Forties movement compared members of the Christian State - Holy Russia organization with saboteurs, as they threaten to set cinemas on fire, while "millions of Orthodox people" who oppose the film "act exclusively in a peaceful legal course”: their means include pickets, prayers and religious processions, collection of signatures, lawsuits and arguments in public space.

Detentions

On September 20, 2017, it became known that, as part of a criminal case on car arson, several people were detained near the law office, including the leader of the Christian State - Holy Russia organization Alexander Kalinin. Two detainees (including the brother of the leader of the organization) confessed to arson and were taken into custody by a court decision - initially until November 11.

On March 29, 2018, the Khamovniki Court of Moscow sentenced Yuri Kalinin (brother of the leader of the "Christian State" Alexander Kalinin) and two of his accomplices to two years in a penal colony for setting cars on fire.

Consequences of the conflict

Growing popularity of film and director

One of the consequences of the conflict was a sharp increase in the popularity of director Alexei Uchitel: Yandex search query statistics show that in August 2017 more than 62,000 people wanted to know about him, and only 9,000 people wanted to know about him a year earlier. The popularity of requests related to the film "Matilda" has grown unprecedentedly (tens of times) and amounted to 343 thousand people; for the first time, the popularity of these requests jumped in November 2016 and coincided with the appeal of Natalia Poklonskaya to the Prosecutor General's Office.

"Matilda's Lie"

In July 2017, it became known that documentary filmmaker Sergei Aliyev intended to film documentary"The lie of Matilda", which is designed to "debunk the myths" around the personality of Nicholas II. The film should include seven stories dedicated to one topic or another: Nikolai's relationship with Kshesinskaya, his alleged weakness of character, the degree of validity of his nickname "Bloody", abdication and others. It was planned to involve several historians, including

The public movement "Forty Forties" sharply criticized the organization "Christian State - Holy Russia".

“The Forty Sorokov Movement officially declares that the Christian State – Holy Russia (KhGSR) organization is a virtual creature that does not exist in reality, the only purpose of which is to confuse the words “Christianity”, “state”, “Holy Russia” with negative context: arson, terrorist attacks and other crimes against society,” the movement said in a statement cited by its press service.

In "Forty Sorokov" they expressed surprise that HGSR appeared simultaneously with the start of the advertising campaign for the film "Matilda" by Alexei Uchitel. “Millions of Orthodox people who oppose the blasphemous anti-historical film “Matilda”, created with the support of the Ministry of Culture on the eve of a turning point in the history of the Fatherland, act exclusively in a peaceful legal direction, gathering for pickets, prayers and religious processions, collecting signatures, filing lawsuits against the creators paintings and reasonedly expressing their opinion in public space,” the movement said in a statement.

By the way, even the very name "Christian State" should cause people to associate with the terrorist organization "Islamic State" banned in Russia. Thus, the head of the State Duma Committee on Culture, director Stanislav Govorukhin, using this associative line, called the opponents of the blasphemous tape "mini-ISIS" and "dark forces."

HGSR appeared in January 2017, when public pressure increased on the sponsors and creators of the blasphemous film, calling for the destruction of cinemas. State Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya sent a request to the Main Directorate of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia to check the Christian State - Holy Russia movement. As a result, it turned out that this phantom organization was not legally registered with the Ministry of Justice. According to State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov, behind the fake organization "Christian State - Holy Russia" is the lawyer of the director A. Uchitel, the advocate of sodomites K. Dobrynin.

That is, in this case, the provocateurs outwitted themselves: in an effort to compromise their opponents, they gave an excellent reason for the cinema chain to refuse to show their disgusting tape.

Stay up to date with upcoming events and news!

Join the group - Dobrinsky Temple

For more than half a year, a conflict has been developing in Russia around the rental of the film "Matilda" by Alexei Uchitel. After another State Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya about checking the film at the beginning of the year, cinemas across the country were threatened by the organization "Christian State - Holy Russia" with a demand not to show the picture of the Teacher. On the eve of the threat of arson from the rental of "Matilda" the largest Russian cinema chain.

The Village figured out who opposes Matilda and what the radicalization of Orthodoxy in Russia can lead to.

What is the "Christian State" known for?

The unregistered organization "Christian State - Holy Russia" (permitted on the territory of Russia) widely announced itself at the end of January, when it was sent to Russian cinemas letters with a demand to stop advertising and rental of "Matilda" by Alexei Uchitel, as well as with threats of arson. “Any banner, poster, flyer with information about the rental of the film “Matilda” will be considered as your desire to humiliate the Saints of the Orthodox Church and a provocation to the “Russian Maidan”,” the activists said in their appeal.

The authors of the letter warned about the adoption of "the most radical methods" to combat "Matilda" by part of the Orthodox community. Commenting on this message, the Church stated that the "Christian state" has nothing to do with the ROC and its position. In turn, the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov called the members of the organization "anonymous extremists" and recalled Vladimir Putin's words about the state's harsh reaction to similar species aggression. The activists themselves assured that they did not plan to burn cinemas on their own, and, on the contrary, announced their intention to prevent arson with their warnings.

With a request to check the activities of the organization, both Alexei Uchitel and Natalia Poklonskaya, who accused the "Christian State" of intending to defame Orthodoxy. More than two months later, the prosecutor's office in the actions of activists showed signs of coercion to abandon the deal under the threat of violence. Two months later, the department submitted materials to the police to make a decision on initiating a case, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to prosecute.

While the police were deciding the fate of the transferred materials, the Christian State once again warned film distributors about arson. “The release of Matilda will entail terrible consequences for the whole of Russia - for just 10 million rubles you can burn down all the cinemas in Russia,” the activists said.

From words to actions

The first incidents occurred at the end of August in St. Petersburg, when the Lendok studio, where Alexei Uchitel's office is located, was firebombed. Then the director's lawyer Konstantin Dobrynin noted that Christian State activists could be behind the attack. On September 11, near the Moscow office of Dobrynin, unknown people set fire to two cars, in connection with which a lawyer in the Ministry of Internal Affairs to check the Orthodox movements.

In addition, in early September, the driver of a loaded gas cylinders truck to the Kosmos cinema in the center of Yekaterinburg due to outrage at the showing of Matilda. The teacher, his lawyer, as well as the mayor of the city, Yevgeny Roizman, accused Poklonskaya of provoking the incident.

As a result of threats and attacks, the united network of cinemas "Cinema Park" and "Formula Kino" from the rental of "Matilda". Representatives of the cinema chain in Yekaterinburg received threatening messages on September 4, the same day that the incident occurred at the Kosmos cinema. In addition, Illusion canceled the film's only preview screening in Moscow, although representatives of the cinema said that this was due to technical reasons. The head of the "Christian state" Alexander Kalinin again assured that the organization is not involved in arson, while linking the massive in the cities of Russia due to telephone terrorism with the imminent premiere of "Matilda".

What do religious scholars say

Konstantin Mikhailov
religious scholar

This situation is a logical development of those events that we have observed for quite a long time. We remember the disruption of rock concerts by Orthodox activists, we remember the destruction of museums - you can remember the Darwin Museum or the famous destruction of the Vadim Sidur exhibition a few years ago. There, gradually, this violence was brewing. Concert disruptions were usually carried out by methods such as a call with a message about an allegedly planted bomb, but Sidur's exhibition was already completely smashed in a physical way: they grabbed the exhibits, threw them on the floor, trampled them underfoot. All this developed gradually and accelerated significantly after 2012, when the case of Pussy Riot was, and it was followed by a conservative turn and the activation of the Church.

The state overslept this moment a little. The authorities themselves emphasized support for the Church when laws were passed to protect the feelings of believers. Thus the state poured new forces into church politics. For a while, the authorities assumed that they could control this process, that the Church would remain loyal and under control. Now they are surprised to find that this is not the case: it turns out that Orthodox activists are acting more actively and aggressively than would be convenient for the state.

In extreme marginal situations, such as attempts at violence, this is not beneficial for the ROC, but in general, the activation of the church discourse of morality, opposition to modern trends in the development of society, the Church is in the hands, this makes her voice sound more authoritative. There is a large support group behind the Church, which is ready to come out for church interests at a rally and move on to active forms of struggle. All this makes the Church a more influential political and social player in society.

On the other hand, last years the level of religiosity of Russians is growing, and the churched part of Russian society is increasingly delving into a very conservative, right-wing agenda, which ultimately involves violent actions. We can recall as an example the similar activity of Protestant fundamentalists in the USA, where the techniques are the same.

The problem of radical Orthodoxy arose not now, but much earlier in connection with organizations like the Forty Forty or God's will". We cannot talk about the existence of a mass Orthodox extremist underground, so far it is a set of small, independent groups. But, as the American experience of fundamental Protestantism teaches us, in the long run this can turn into quite serious problems. American Protestants also did nothing terrible for quite a long time, they protested against Darwinism, and then once - and some Timothy McVeigh ( mastermind of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. - Approx. ed.) organizes a terrorist attack in which one and a half hundred people die.

We are now witnessing a moment of transition from marginal, imperceptible problems to public problems. If nothing is done, then, most likely, we will see a gradual strengthening of Orthodox radicalist tendencies, which are unlikely to become widespread - we have a fairly secular society - but the group of believers actively involved in Orthodoxy will become more and more radicalized, and the consequences can be the most unpredictable including the risk of violence.

As the practice of extremism in other religious movements shows, nothing can be solved here with simple prohibitions. We have an ugly article 282 in the legislation ( for extremism. - Approx. ed.), but it does not solve the problems of extremism either in Russia or in other countries. Here we need more systematic work, in which the Church should also participate. Our classic methods of “grabbing and not letting go” will not solve anything here.

The Christian State organization is small and, until recently, rather marginal. For its comparison with ISIS ( terrorist group banned in Russia. - Approx. ed.) there is no reason. Islamic State - Giant organized structure, which arose according to the proven models of terrorist structures with strict subordination. This cannot be said about the contemporary Orthodox community. And this is a completely different level of aggression. 100% of Orthodox organizations (even very right ones) do not consider terrorist attacks as their immediate goal. Maybe, if things go badly, they will reach this idea, but there is no need to talk about the initial goal setting.