There is a lot of real and pretend concern among the Evangelicals and Protestants of the US.
They are worried about Ukraine.
Namely, about the freedom of speech and the right to religious expression in Ukraine.
So I have taken it upon myself to explore the topic and report back to the good people reading the Crustian Daily.
Why is anyone to listen to my opinion on the state of Christianity in Ukraine
It just so happened that I grew up around American Evangelicals and Protestants, seeing as my mom worked for them as an interpreter since the early nineties.
The Soviet Union/Russian Empire just fell apart (again) and finally, after 300 years of systemic erasing of the Ukrainian identity, this nation finally became free. And some wonderful and brave Americans started grassroots campaigns to gather funds to send missionaries to Ukraine. I will forever be thankful to them because at the time, we badly needed direction.
My mom helped set up the first Protestant churches in the city of Mykolaiv and across the south of Ukraine.
For context, Mykolaiv stands firm on two rivers, Yuzhny Buh and Inhul. It was encircled from three sides by russians in the beginning of the invasion.
But it held and pushed the “unstoppable” advance of russians back which was recognized by the title of a Hero City among a few other strongholds that helped save Ukraine in 2022. And took the most punishment from russians for it.
I myself was baptized after a Christianity crash course (which I nailed) at the ripe age of 15.
Some would say that’s too young. But -for instance- Mat Gaetz and many acting officials call girls this age “women”. 15, after all, is not much younger than Trump Junior’s daughter for whom Elon Musk just recently bought a suped up cybertruck. I wish I had a fun uncle like that when I was her age. But that’s beside my point today.
After that I remained an active member of a Christian church and I still consider myself a Christian. To the surprise of my California friends.
Over the years, I’ve been deeply plugged into the theological and political spheres of Ukrainian life. For example, I lived for a week in an all-men Greek Catholic temple in 2014. Without the internet, in the forest.
Christianity in Ukraine – well-known facts in a backstory
In 988 (i didn’t forget to put a 1 in front of that date), the state with the capitol in Kyiv officially became Christian.
It was achieved by the great ruler of Kyivan Rus at the time, a viking by the name of Voldemar or in Ukrainian – Volodymyr, when he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior and stole the Constantinople princess.
As vikings do.
At the time people in Kyiv and other modern Ukrainian lands worshiped many ancient, pagan gods, but their statues were all torn down by Voldemar, and drowned in the Dnipro river.
Some believe to this day that this act alone cursed Ukraine to generations of suffering. But we’re here to go over facts, not superstitions.
Christianizing was mainly a political move to align with Constantinople and the Holy Roman Empire which was just across the Black Sea pond. It took a couple generations, but Ukraine/Rus has become deeply and thoroughly Christian.
The Ukrainian Orthodox priests and the churches have always been the centers of local civil societies – the word “hromada” is used both to describe a perish and educated and active people of a town.
And this hasn’t changed.
The Revolution of Dignity started with the special forces brutally beating a couple hundred student protestors.
Then in the middle of the night the ancient bells of the thousand-year-old Mykhailivskyy Sobor rang to summon the people to protect their children from a pro-russian wannabe dictator and his oligarchs. His name was Victor Yanukovych (a.k.a Yanyk), he lives in Rostov, Russia.
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Moscow influence on the religion in Ukraine – overview
Every generation since the 1650s hated that our nation was under Muscovy imperial rule. Every generation tried to overthrow the brutal Russian occupation.
M.Khmelko – With Moscow forever, forever with the russian people – Treaty of Pereyaslav, 1951.
Often uprisings were successful and Ukraine threw occupiers out (most recently in 1917-1921). But then our allies would invariably turn their backs on Ukraine and it would again be devoured by the Muscovite state which solidified as an inheritor of the Golden Horde expansionist and totalitarian traditions.
Naturally, every time ruskiz came back and reoccupied their most precious colony, they launched new waves of repressions against Ukrainian identity and anybody who bore it (check out Holodomor and Executed Renaissance as the most documented examples).
But for muscovites it was a matter of principle – the only way Russian Empire can be considered a European nation is if the “mother of all Rus cities” is theirs.
Plus, as proven by the 20th century, it is much easier to threaten European nations from Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Certainly not from the unwelcoming fields of Donbas, Ukraine.
And they still believe all of this.
Japanese cherry blossoms in Uzhhorod.
Stella at the entrance of Donetsk oblast, Ukraine.
How Muscovy became Christian
At one point, Ukrainian Orthodox monks and scientists wanted to trick the Muscovy into becoming normal and they are widely considered traitors in Ukraine for what they did to this day.
Here’s why.
These monks from top churches and top universities in Ukraine were led by one Feofan. They went to Muscovy in the 17th century and told the czar all about Christianity and how we all trace our lineage to Kyivan Rus. And therefore, maybe, the czar might even rename his empire originating in the swamps around the Moskva river from Muscovy into Russia. This way he’d be able to claim that he’s this great leader of the Christian civilisation they brought him from Ukraine, seeking, basically, power.
Persecution of Christians in Ukraine debunked
After regaining independence, Ukraine has become surprisingly welcoming of all religions. In a way that it’s not important what religion you are, as long as it’s not russian orthodoxy.
Hasidic Jews celebrating Rosh Hashanah at Uman, Mykolaiv oblast, Ukraine. Yearly.
But when it comes to the Russian Orthodox Church, it’s not that simple.
First of, it was founded by Joseph Stalin in 1941. He was losing the war and it was a hail mary to boost the morale of his troops after his idiotic leadership in the previous stage of the war.
But since all the real church leaders were by that time executed or in hiding, he just made it a branch of the KGB. Which it remains to this day.
On the occupied territories ALL the pastors of this “church” instantly switched sides and gave away all the intel on patriotic people in their village or town to the russian occupying force. Others helped round up Ukrainian kids to deport them to russia for indoctrination camps.
There are thousands of Russian Orthodox parishes in Ukraine. They are not attacked by Ukrainians. But they are attacked by Russians quite often, surprisingly and to much discomfort to the KGB operatives running those beautiful temples Donald Trump seems deeply worried about..
At the same time, when due process clearly allows it, Ukraine punishes those “pastors” from this KGB franchise on the grounds of them calling for overthrowing of the Ukrainian government during the war, pledging alegiance to the Moscow church, hiding tons of weapons for russian mercenaries and blackops groups, or coordinating missile strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and cities.
Many older people can’t accept that their church is a KGB arm which causes a lot of unpleasantness. But one should commend the professional and kind treatment of an enemy terrorist organization on Ukrainian territory in the year 11 of the war for survival. The strategy? Any person who still goes to pray into the russian orthodox church willingly…isn’t going to be around for many electoral cycles.
The treatment of Christians on the occupied territory of Ukraine
I will not go into much detail about the torture of protestant pastors, executions of members of parishes, rapes, random murders, thousands of civilians in unaccounted for concentration camps where Ukrainians are tortured until death for crimes like having a second uncle who used to serve in the Ukrainian military.
Izolyatsya prison in occupied Donetsk, the most feared russian concentration camp.
Or they’ve found in your phone that you monitor news in Ukrainian telegram channels. Or a tattoo looks suspiciously nationalistic, etc.
I won’t go into the burning of libraries and mass reeducation of Ukrainian children to be the next generation of meat fodder for Vlad Putin.
We know what will happen to these children, because there have already been children on the territories russia occupied in 2014.
And now those territories are barren of men. Including those who went to the first grade in 2014. They were round up and sent on Ukrainian defenses first with few chances to survive.
I see a lot of propaganda pushing the narrative that Ukrainian mobilization is tough. Yeah, it’s tough. Fighting russia on your own is tough. The reason why you don’t see those videos from russia and the occupied territories is because people die and these videos don’t make it out. Which goes to show, Ukraine remains a shining beacon of free speech and religious freedom, despite anything and everything.
Here are two good documentaries to give you a better idea of what goes on in russian occupation.
Let’s put it this way. Since the 1930s, the russian playbook hasn’t changed.
In conclusion
I can go on. But I think that if you read what I wrote, you get the idea.
After over 300 years of brutal occupation, Ukraine regained its independence in 1991.
She has almost lost her identity, all of the real cultural, scientific, and spiritual elites have been executed.
But hromada survived. And it is now the active society that keeps a watchful eye over the Ukraine’s defenders, on corruption, on reforms, on digitalization, etc. And Volodymyr Zelenskyy has to listen to his people. Because their support and unity with his nation, frankly, gives him all the cards of the world.
