The sound of choral music echoed around the territory of the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, where worshippers crossed themselves beneath its golden domes. Inside, mosaics commemorate military campaigns from the medieval era to Syria and stained glass windows are decorated with Soviet symbols. The steps are made from melted-down Nazi tanks.
The vast Orthodox church near Moscow was consecrated only two years ago and draws heavily on the past, but its fusion of military pride, patriotism and religion belongs unmistakably to Russia’s present.
As what Moscow calls its “military operation” approaches the end of its first month, President Putin and his allies are portraying the fighting as a confrontation between good and evil. And the forces of good, the Kremlin says, are firmly on Russia’s side.
About 70 per cent of Russians define themselves as Orthodox Christians, around the same number who have told pollsters that they support the Kremlin’s military operation. Older people are more likely to be enthusiastic, research suggests. Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has said that Russia is battling “evil forces” in Ukraine, where some of the religion’s earliest holy sites are. At the cathedral, people were unanimous in their backing for Putin.
“I trust our president. Nato was planning to attack us through Ukraine,” said Yulia, 47, her head covered in accordance with Orthodox tradition.
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“I know that the Bible tells us not to kill, but Orthodoxy has always allowed Russia to defend itself against its enemies. This has been true throughout history.”
Her comments were echoed by Anatoly, a 66-year-old former Soviet soldier.
“The enemy is at our gate. This isn’t a case when we can turn the other cheek,” he said. “We have put up with eight years of outrages from Ukraine, including all their gay parades. No country would tolerate this on its borders!”
On Friday at a packed stadium in Moscow, Putin greeted a crowd of around 100,000 people waving Russian flags. Standing under a banner that read “For a world without Nazism,” the Russian leader cited biblical scripture, saying: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
The carefully-choreographed event at the Luzhniki, the host stadium for the 2018 Fifa World Cup final, was a celebration of the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Putin was followed on stage by Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, who raised a cheer from the crowd when she said that Russians would never accept the concept of gender neutrality.
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“We call our sons and daughters girls and boys!” she said. “We value and protect peace and fight against evil. Darkness is the absence of light. True and genuine freedom is the freedom from evil. You cannot frighten us, because we live in love and faith. God be with you!”
Under the USSR, the Orthodox Church was suppressed and sometimes persecuted. But Putin, a former KGB officer, has in recent years cast himself as a defender of Orthodox Christian values. He has hailed social and political conservatism as the only way to stop the world slipping into “a chaotic darkness”.
Not all Orthodox believers are willing to lend their support to the current hostilities. About 300 priests have signed an open letter condemning the bloodshed, while Father Ioann Burdin, a priest in the Kostroma region, was fined after delivering an anti-war sermon and posting critical comments to a church website.
The armed forces cathedral is part of a sprawling complex that also contains a huge museum devoted to the history of the Soviet victory in the Second World War, or the Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia. It is the memory of that heroic fight against Nazism, when more than 26 million Soviet citizens sacrificed their lives to defend and liberate cities such as Kyiv, Moscow and Leningrad from Hitler’s forces, that Putin has invoked to rally support.
Speaking just days after ordering troops into Ukraine, Putin described President Zelensky, who is Jewish, and his government as “neo-Nazis.” Last week, in a speech to Russian government officials, he compared the Ukrainian authorities to the “doomed” Third Reich.
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The allegations stem largely from the existence of a far-right military regiment called Azov that has been incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces. It is thought to have around 2,500 fighters. However, nationalist parties received just 2 per cent of the vote at parliamentary elections in 2019.
Putin’s message is one that many people in Russia, where almost every family has a relative who was killed or injured in the Second World War, are receptive to.
“We were allies with America and Britain against the Nazi,” said Vladimir, 64, an employee at the war museum. “But now relations have collapsed. Who is to blame? The west of course! They sided with fascists in Kyiv. They will realise their mistake, eventually.”
Much has changed in Russia since Putin sent troops into Ukraine last month. The Kremlin has made it a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison to spread “fake news” about the actions of the army, while unprecedented western sanctions have rocked the economy. Thousands of people, including opposition activists and journalists, have left the country over fears that the Kremlin is planning to ramp up its crackdown on dissent. Putin’s comments last week in a speech to government officials have done little to calm such fears.
“The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths — spit them out on the pavement,” the president said. “Such a natural and necessary self-purification of society will only strengthen our country.”