ORTHODOX CLASSES NOW MANDATORY IN SOME RUSSIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 010370 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/13/2016 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM RS SUBJECT: ORTHODOX CLASSES NOW MANDATORY IN SOME RUSSIAN REGIONS Classified By: Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs Alice Wells. Reasons: 1.4(B/D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. Public schools in the Bryansk, Kaluga, Smolensk, and Belgorod regions have incorporated a mandatory Orthodox culture course into their curriculums. Eleven other regions are offering the subject as an elective. Supporters say the move is needed to counter the spiritual vacuum left by Soviet atheism and replace the ideology of communism with a new Russian ideology that will protect traditional Russian culture and values. Critics, on the other hand, claim that such a course goes against the Russian Constitution and fosters the growth of Russian nationalism, which will drive a wedge between ethnic and non-ethnic Russians. END SUMMARY. -------------- What Happened To Church/State Separation? -------------- ¶2. (C) Moscow City Duma Deputy and Science and Education Commission Chairman, Evgeniy Bunimovich, told Embassy September 14 that the mandatory "Foundations of Russian Orthodox Culture" course, which was publicized only two days before the school year began on September 1, contradicts the Russian Constitution, which explicitly endorses the separation of church and state. Bunimovich explained that the ROC was taking advantage of the ten to twenty percent of a region's curriculum that is not federally mandated to avoid having to obtain the Education Ministry's approval of the course. He said Education Minister Andrey Fursenko has long opposed mandatory Orthodox classes and backs the idea of an elective on the history of world religions, even preparing a textbook on the subject. Fursenko this week called on the Public Chamber to take a look at the issue. However, President Putin has consistently encouraged the Russian Orthodox Church's (ROC) ascendant role in society, saying recently that "today the ROC is not only a keeper of the centuries-long spiritual and cultural traditions of our people ... it plays an important role in the education of young people - educating them in the spirit of patriotism, justice, and commitment to family values." ¶3. (C) Father Zacchaeus, Representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Moscow Patriarchate, in a September 8 meeting, said the course is just the latest example of the growing influence of the ROC, which in the past few years has ;forged an increasingly close alliance with federal and local governments. "The trend is very troubling," he said. "Despite the resistance from the Education Ministry, the ROC is pressing very hard to advance its interests in schools and wants to assume the dominant ideological role in society." He expressed concern about what might happen if Putin's successor were not as religiously inclined, stressing that the ROC needs to look beyond the short-term benefits of cooperating with the regime (i.e., obtaining funds for church restoration). ¶4. (C) Another Orthodox priest, Father Georgiy Chistyakov, in a separate meeting told Embassy that many in the intelligentsia think the Moscow Patriarchate serves Putin, so they stay away from the ROC, some converting to other faiths. He opposes teaching any religion in schools because it creates a barrier in an individual's personal relationship with God. In addition, he said Orthodox classes might pull impressionable young people away from God and towards nationalism. Chistyakov thought that many new ROC converts joined the church for nationalistic reasons, and they have an "aggressive-defensive" attitude toward the ROC that is similar to communism -- that the country is surrounded on all sides by enemies and needs to be protected at any cost. ¶5. (C) According to Sergey Filatov, Senior Research at the Institute of Oriental Studies and head writer of the Oxford-sponsored Encyclopedia of Religious Life in Russia Today, the attempt to create a national philosophy to unite all Russians has a long history. He told us that from the 16th-century idea of Moscow as the Third Rome, through the 19th-century concept of "Orthodoxy, autocracy, and the national idea" and on to the Stalinist concept of "building Socialism in one country," Russia's leaders have tried to develop national philosophies that were effective in mobilizing the population behind state policies. In Filatov's opinion, Vladislav Surkov's creation -- sovereign democracy -- whose basic idea is that Russia is a sovereign nation with its own traditions and the right to determine its own path and stand up for its interests where it feels they are threatened by the activities of other actors, internal or external, is a 21st-century rehash of the previous concepts. Filatov worried that if Orthodoxy and a national idea in the form of sovereign democracy were resurrected, history might repeat itself and autocracy would not be far behind. MOSCOW 00010370 002 OF 003 -------------- -------------- ROC Claims No Student Forced To Study A Specific Religion -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) In contrast to other high-level ROC interlocutors, Father Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church's Moscow Patriarchate, stressed to us that discussions about the nature and content of religious or moral education in Russian schools were ongoing. There was no unanimity in the Education Ministry or even within the ROC about what schools specifically should do. The ROC's broad preference is that students be given an option to choose among several courses that would be based on the differing Russian religious traditions or on secular principles. He pointed to the example of Serbia, where students can choose among six religious traditions or opt for a course in secular ethics. No student would be forced to study a specific religion, but students should have grounding in some moral teaching. Chaplin did not foresee clergy teaching such courses, noting that the ROC did not have enough priests to minister to existing congregations. Instead, the government in consultation with religious groups should develop curricula for moral education. -------------- Why Teach Orthodoxy In School? -------------- ¶7. (C) Father Zacchaeus thought that one reason for the push to teach Orthodoxy in schools is that, while most ethnic Russians identify themselves as Orthodox, only a fraction of them actually attend church regularly. He said it was a "lazy and dangerous way" to solve the problem of educating young people about Orthodoxy. He was also concerned that the end result would be that more young people would be bored with being forced to take several years of mandatory classes and turned off from the ROC rather than attracted to it. ¶8. (C) Most of the interlocutors believed that religion does not belong in public schools, although they were unanimously in favor of a mandatory course on the history of Russian peoples, which would take the focus off of religion and promote increased inter-ethnic tolerance. They said religion was better taught by parents or at Sunday school, during elective after-school courses, in private schools, at spiritual seminars, etc. And, if the course continues to be taught in schools, they worried that the teachers would not be qualified. According to Landysh Latfullina, a Muslim expert from the Moscow State Pedagogical University, approximately 10,000 instructors will be trained at divinity schools and secular pedagogical colleges by 2010, but the teachers or clergy currently teaching the course are ill-prepared. Father Chistyakov said that there are too many conservative elements in the Orthodox Church who could take advantage of the course and push their own religious interpretations and agendas. -------------- -------------- Feedback From Non-Orthodox Religious Denominations -------------- -------------- ¶9. (C) Latfullina joined others with whom Embassy spoke in maintaining that mandatory Orthodox classes could drive a wedge between Russians and non-ethnic Russians. She claimed that non-ethnic-Russian students are often treated with condescension in the classroom, and any course that highlighted who is Orthodox and who is non-Orthodox would only make matters worse. The official opinion of the Council of Muftis, Latfullina averred, was that the introduction of such coursework could threaten the relative stability of Russia's various religious communities. She reported that the Council recently announced it would push the government to expand instruction of Muslim culture beyond the Muslim republics in the North Caucasus to other regions with established Muslim communities and that it has already developed a textbook and curriculum on Muslim culture, which is taught in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, and Tatarstan. However, she personally does not approve of such an initiative, saying that it would likely lead to less tolerance, while a world religions or history of Russian peoples course could improve mutual understanding. ¶10. (C) Despite their personal differences, Jewish leaders Berel Lazar and Adolf Shayevich agreed that it is necessary to teach respect for people of different nationalities, and if the basics of culture and religion are taught in school, it should be all the traditional religions of Russia. In an interview with a Moscow radio station Lazar contended that the Orthodox course will "divide children into different classes" and ostracize minorities. In addition, Shayevich's MOSCOW 00010370 003 OF 003 Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Communities of Russia (KEROOR),an umbrella group for non-Chasidic Orthodox congregations, stated that Jewish parents should report cases where Jewish children are pressured in any way in the classes. The group said it was not protesting the course itself, but that it had been made mandatory. ¶11. (C) The Roman Catholic Church supports including the course in the curriculums of Russian schools. Reverend Igor Kowalevski, general secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Russia, told Interfax that "whatever the private opinions of representatives of various confessions may be, they still should remember that we live in Russia in which Orthodoxy is a culture-forming religion." Therefore, the teaching of Orthodox culture "cannot harm anybody." ¶12. (C) COMMENT. Although teaching Orthodox classes in public schools has been debated for several years, it appears the ROC is beginning to gain the upper hand over the Education Ministry. The ROC is successfully pursuing a new strategy of mandating classes from the bottom up (i.e., via local and regional governments) rather than from the top down (i.e., via the federal government). It is adopting a parallel ideology to sovereign democracy, playing on ethnic Russians' insecurities about their demographic situation in order to convince school administrators that making the course mandatory will help preserve Russian (Orthodox) culture from being diluted. However, the danger in this strategy is that it might add to the increasing tensions between Orthodox and non-Orthodox citizens in the regions instead of trying to foster tolerance for all religions and ethnic groups. BURNS