When the wounds of World War II, which plowed through all of Central Russia along with Ukraine and Belarus, were still fresh and alive in the memories of many who lived through it, the Soviet-Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote a famous poem with the following words:
«Do Russians want war? Ask the silence over the fields and meadows, over the birches and poplars. Ask the soldiers lying under the birch trees, and let their sons tell you: do the Russians want war?»
These verses were set to a popular song in Soviet times, but today different songs are popular in this country. Recently, in St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the main Orthodox temple in St. Petersburg, the choir sang a song with the following words: «On a submarine with an atomic engine, with a dozen small bombs under a hundred megatons, it crossed the Atlantic, and I called the navigator, ‘Aim,’ I said, ‘Petrov, on the city of Washington!'»
On the one hand, of course, this is nothing new or surprising, especially after the «national leader» himself declared that there is no need to fear a nuclear war, because in such a case «we will go to heaven as martyrs, while they will simply die». Not to mention the years of militaristic propaganda that preceded it, when they threatened Washington with «radioactive ash» on the central state television channels. On the other hand, we repeat — all this is happening in the main Orthodox temple of Russia’s second capital, and the official choir is singing a song calling for a global nuclear war.
In connection with this there are inevitable questions. If this song was an initiative of the choir’s leadership, why did the Russian Orthodox Church not condemn it? Considering that this story caused a scandal, the silence of the Russian Orthodox Church can only be interpreted as the agreement of its leadership with the performance of such songs by its choirs in its own temples.
In this case, it turns out that the largest religious organization in Russia is clearly propagating a global nuclear war in its churches. Isn’t this a reason to claim the existence of Orthodox terrorism, radicalization of the believers of the Russian Orthodox Church and inclusion of the Church itself in the lists of terrorist organizations banned in Russia?