War and Faith: Memories of the Great Patriotic War in the Russian Orthodox Church

Despite previous anti-religious persecution, the Russian Orthodox Church became a valuable support for the Soviet state during the Great Patriotic War against Hitler's Germany.  Though the Soviet Union and its atheistic system of government no longer exists, the modern Church memorializes the War as a fight for "Holy Russia."  This memory of the war may seemingly contradict the legacy of Soviet oppression against Christians, but the idea of "Holy Russia" makes these memories compatible.  The Orthodox remembrance of the war also involves politics, considering the faith's importance in Russia and the use of the Great Patriotic War as a politically legitimizing idea.

For a longer and more detailed episode on this same topic, please listen to Episode #8: "Holy War: Memory of the Great Patriotic War in the Russian Orthodox Church."