What are the true roots of western civilization?
Is Russia European?
Could there be a grain of truth in the Ukrainian propaganda?
Have a great Sunday!
Cheers
Andrei
Saker Message:
What are the true roots of western civilization?
Is Russia European?
Could there be a grain of truth in the Ukrainian propaganda?
Have a great Sunday!
Cheers
Andrei
It is very hard to consider the Pope as anything other than a secular prince. The previous two had education and learning and Ratzinger’s books read very well as structured and coherent, however the Argentinian is not to my mind even Christian – perhaps the very antithesis thereof.
As for Christianity the very clear difference between the Chaldean or Antioch Church and those in Western Europe which are often Neo-Pagan is intense. It is very hard to see in the current Churches of The West the basic tenets of the Christian Church – indeed Germany as a society is itself Neo-Pagan with Green Pantheism.
So Russian Orthodoxy can be the embodiment of the Russian nation in the same way the 1662 Church of England was supposed to be the backbone of the English State and in the era of greatness, was.
But the Church of Rome lacks credibility with its current Anti-Christ at its apex.
Paul Greenwood
“It is very hard to consider the Pope as anything other than a secular prince”. You are right. In fact the Pope is more than that. The Popes “inherited” the role of the Roman caesar’s, while the Vatican “inherited” the role of the Roman empire. This “inheritance” was self applied. The word “Catholic” means universal, ie. a universal empire.
The Vatican was always a political institution first and a religious one second. This is the reason why it always targeted Russia and the Orthodox Church, wanting to subjugate both. When the German knights invaded Russia in the 13th century, they did so with the blessing of the Vatican. However, the Vatican never undertook anything against Russia without the connivance of West European elites, whose appetite for plundering was insatiable. The current situation with Ukraine, the West’s proxy fighter, is proof of this, it being given the role of the sacrificial lamb, whose task is to start a war. However, it would appear that even Zelensky is starting to get cold feet, terrified of internal repercussions.
Can the Russian Orthodox Church be placed under Vatican control ? Never. The history of the two institutions is dramatically different, with the Vatican having plenty of innocent blood on it’s hands, like the forced conversion and extermination of natives in the Caribbean and other places. How many people did Columbus exterminate, with Catholic blessing ? In fact the Vatican is regarded by many of the Russian clergy as an evil institution. As far as I can see, the Orthodox churches have a future, while the Catholic church is losing it’s members, especially in Europe. Some are even converting to the Orthodox faith.
So Russian Orthodoxy can be the embodiment of the Russian nation in the same way the 1662 Church of England was supposed to be the backbone of the English State and in the era of greatness,
Christ did not found His Church to be the backbone or embodiment of any nation.
Your thinking is totally pagan.
this comment has been flagged as of little/no value (possibly troll) by the saker
Exactly Saker. As the Lord Himself put it, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18.36).
However, as a Catholic, I am saddened at how vitriolic many people are about the papacy, the vatican and anything that smacks of “popery”. Some seem to have never gotten over 1054, others 1517 or 1532. Despite what people might think, one day the Latin and Greek Churches will be fully united. It’s what Christ Himself prayed for most during his passion.
I’ll leave the last word to Cardinal Ercole Consalvi (a diplomat and slick mover that could give a lesson or two to anyone reading this). Responding to Napoleon after he had threatened to crush the Roman Catholic Church, he said “If in 1,800 years we clergy have failed to destroy the Church, do you really think that you’ll be able to do it?”.
Como meu sobrenome traduzido do Grego antigo diz, “Vindos do Longínquo Leste”, sou Eslavo!
Mental e fisicamente, também a religiosidade e valores morais são distintos dos Anglos, Latinos e Teutos.
The Polish Pope was a conniving Satanist and a war criminal that helped bring nothing but misery to the former Yugoslavia and USSR. Millions of Orthodox Christians and Muslims perished because of direct or indirect atrocities perpetrated by this evil person.
With the German Pope one at least knew what he represented being a former Nazi.
The current one despite his various views which are less that traditional is at least hesitant in accepting blood thirsty monsters of WWII pretending to be bishops into sainthood.
Original Marko
As I have already written, the Vatican is a political institution first, with plenty of Masonic influence inside it, if not downright control. The Polish Pope was “elected” as Pope in order to subvert communism inside Poland, where the Catholic influence was immense. The idea was to start a chain reaction inside Eastern Europe, install “democratic” governments led by political puppets, and have both the EU and NATO move towards Russian borders, so that Russia could be destabilized, broken up and plundered. This almost happened under Yeltsin, but was prevented by Putin, whom many regard in Russia as being sent by the Almighty to save the country, which he did.
@Marko
Agree with your characterization of the Polish and German. Francis is mostly weakness. Like he was during the junta, torture and disappearances in his native land. Has no spine.
Larchmonter445
Just to point out that the current Pope, while Argentinian by birth, is actually of Italian origin, which is the reason he was picked to be Pope, a Vatican tradition of picking Italians. As for his personality, he is a non entity, leaving the impression of being a faceless bureaucrat, possessing no charisma. He will quickly be forgotten.
Putin has slammed Pope Francis for “pushing a political ideology instead of running a church”, and warned that the leader of the Catholic Church “is not a man of God.”;
“Pope Francis is using his platform to push a dangerous far-left political ideology on vulnerable people around the world, people who trust him because of his position,” Putin said. “He dreams of a world government and a globalsystem of repression.As we have seen before in communist states, this system is not compatible with Christianity.”
“If you look at what he (the Pope) says it’s clear that he is not a man of God. At least not the Christian God. Not the God of the Bible,” Putin said at the Naval Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Kronstadt.
Francis is positively encouraging a revolutionary transformation of the Church to to make the Church more “modern” and relevant”; that is, meant to sell Her to the world; lock, stock, and barrel. This Pope is so Christianity-free that he cannot manage to do the right thing even when he defends the right position. His outlook is entirely secular.
Who is to decide or make a pronouncement if someone is or is not a “man of God”? What qualifications are to be required of the decider? Logically, it should be only those who have actually experienced or “seen” God (used in a cosmic sense). Just like only those who have a doctoral degree have the right to decide whether a new aspirant is fit to receive the degree or not. From the worldwide history of sages and mystics of different religions, it appears that the decider on this question should be a person of exceptional purity, i.e., one who has renounced worldly desire (e.g., Christ, Buddha). Vladimir Putin, who rose to power under the depraved, corrupt and reactionary Yeltsin, and who is the leader of a vast and powerful country, is mired in worldly matters besides living a worldly life. Such a person, whatever his other merits, IMHO, does not have the qualifications to offer an assessment of this question.
Organized religions, especially those that are faith-based and believe in an external God, have caused immeasurable bloodshed, destruction, grief and strife in humanity as history testifies. Sadly, it is forgotten that what really matters are the actual teachings of Christ (Sermon on the Mount) or Buddha (The Dhammapada) and not the various Christianities or Buddhisms which have evolved from these teachings.
Captain Nemo, you have reminded us of humankind’s urgent need to guide worldly actions by spiritual motives, as in “the actual teachings of Christ (Sermon on the Mount) or Buddha (The Dhammapada). I believe that all religions (including Marxist Dialectical Materialism) aim at this goal in same way — and all miss in some way. We are one race, the human race; we should resolve our differences to find our true home in this astounding universe. It is not surprising that three of Europe’s greatest books, Homer, Virgil and the Bible, are about conflict — and a homecoming. And a fourth, The Divine Comedy, is about one man’s spiritual journey from Hell to Paradise, guided by insights from those ancient books. Without the spiritual search we are merely one more species of higher ape roaming the terrestrial environment, adapting to it and altering it:
“Who are these hooded hordes, swarming
Over endless plains, sailing
Over endless seas,
Ringed by the flat horizon only?
Cities rising and falling …” — TS Eliot, The Waste Land
Yes, perfect!
I think any man or woman has the basic right to decide for him- or herself who is a “man/woman of God,” and what that means—what types of acts indicate that status.
Most assuredly one need not be ordained in any religion to be a man/woman of God.
I thought one of the main points of Christianity was that Jesus was “recognized” by regular people who perceived what/who he was.
Wladimir Putin has met Pope Francis three times. Last year he congratulated him on his 85th birthday and wrote “It is hard to overestimate your personal contribution to the development of relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, and to the strengthening of the Russian-Vatican ties … I am certain that, with our joint efforts, we will be able to do a lot to protect the rights and interests of the Christians and to ensure the multi-confessional [or interfaith] dialogue.” Would you provide a source for your quotes, which do not seem to be consistent with the above?
https://www.thetrumpet.com/25025-what-are-pope-francis-and-vladimir-putin-up-to
What is notable about the current pope is often being forgotten: he is a Jesuit. As a matter of fact, since the 18th century the Society of Jesus (at one time the top Jesuit was considered to be more powerful than the reigning pope) has been kept at arm’s length from the Vatican.
Yes, Russia is Europe. In fact, in the 19th century was the most European of all of them, culturally, scientifically and philosophically. You can divide Europe in the parts you like, for instance, the borders between Catholicism and Protestantism follow the Roman Empire borders more or less (apart from Ireland and Poland), maybe the property and laws of land? And yes, Greece and Scandinavian and the Balkans, and even the Iberian Peninsula could argue similar arguments. I don’t think they are relevant ones.
The true is far different: Europe is a continent occupied by the US since 1945 and its dominion over it grew since WarPac collapse. The only country which has succeed avoiding being a colony is Russia, for a lot of reasons. More: since I think Europe has been degraded by the US occupation, it’s Russia who is the very last, standing, European country in the world.
Fully agree with the last paragraph of your comment. Russia is Europe. But there are parts of Europe elsewhere as well: Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil (Parana, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina), as well as parts of Chile.
As for the the Southern Brazilian regions, they are certainly European from some point of view, but only because thet were colonized by the least sophisticated Europeans in the late XIX century, barely above ignorant and helping to form a mass of uneducated people today in political terms, despite their relative economic success if compared to other parts of the country (to be fair, there’s a single exception among the “rule of dumbness” in the region: Porto Alegre is a important regional center of culture and critical thinking)
I remember growing up as a teen seeing Russia to be European much like the other European nations. At the time I was not aware of any great schisms between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, or the US occupation of Europe. I can vaguely remember some time in the early 2010s a news article on the internet (Yahoo News?) about some guy talking about “Western/European values” and Russian ones, and while I can’t remember the specific words used, I do remember how confused I was that there was even any difference to begin with – all that mattered to 13-year-old me was, neither of them were “[US] American”.
Joey, just like you I learned in my early years that Russia was part of Europe, and Russian culture was part of European culture. I saw great movies like Greta Garbo in Anna Karenina; on the London stage I saw The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya and The Seagull; Russian ballet was sensational; I read War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov; the radio played Tchaikovsky, Rimsky, Borodin. Then the Cold War started, and Senator MacCarthy pulled down an Iron Curtain between the U$A and European history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DEJOwLQhJQ
Thanks for that wonderful clip of Danny Kaye.
Such a great perfoomer with a gentle sense of humor. But he could perform incredible and very funny linguistic feats.
I will surprise you, but my high school history teacher was quite clear: the third Rome is Moscow, after Rome and Constantinople. At the time I was skeptical, but now I know it can be hardly denied, the heir of the Roman Empire was Byzantium, from which Christianity then propagated to the Kievan Rus. For sure he was a rarity. Of course, a part for this note, I haven’t studied Russian history at school, but I had the pleasure to study it by myself. In Italy, in our basic studies, Russia comes back only in the Napoleonic wars and with the Bolshevism, figures like Trotsky and other comrades have more space than all he Romanovs. So, I am not surprised if Russia is often misunderstood, but I repeat, many people here are sympathizer of the communist party and enjoy very much this part.
Imo, Russian roots are European, at least in the geographical sense, since it emerged from the mix between the Slavic culture with the Vikings, innervated with Orthodox Christianity, all of these elements can hardly be defined Asiatic. Moreover, Russia participated actively to the European history in Modern Age, and despite the expansion in Siberia, she never meddled directly in China up to the last couple of centuries. So, it is a pity that we are witnessing to the creation of a new iron curtain in the present days.
Yes, I too learnt in very young years many many decades ago that Moscow was the third Rome. We learnt mainly about Byzantium and the Western Viking expansion. Only later did a Swede tell me about the trade routes from Visby in Sweden, Reval (Talinn), Novgorad, Kiev to Constantinopel, and about Rurik and Oleg who founded the Kievan Rus. Nowadays young people tend to learn more about marketing, engineering (weapons) and information technology, and they have little real knowledge of their history and traditions. A shame.
I hope to get up New York State to visit the Russian Orthodox Monastery in Herkimer County New York…I think Brother Gary runs the Monastery…
The Monastery is in the Mohawk Valley Region. Mohawk Valley Region is where the Movie Last of the Mohicans takes place.
Back in the Day, a Jesuit Priest named..I think…Isaac Jogues…a French Jesuit had his head hacked off by the Mohawks. There is now a Catholic Shrine where his head rolled into the ravine. Not to far from Herkimer…
Speaking of heads…one of my friends claims he went to Rome many years ago and during the tour the guide pointed out a skull inside a glass box. The group were told, “That’s the skull of St. Peter.” Later in the day, the guide pointed out a different skull inside a glass box. The guide said, “That’s the skull of St. Peter.” One in the group replied, “Wait a minute. You said the other skull belonged to St. Peter!” The guide cleverly replied, “The other skull was before his head was cut off. This one is afterwards.”
Auriesville…built in honor of the headless French Jesuit…is 45 Miles from the Russian Orthodox Monastery in Herkimer NY.
Father Isacc Jogues named a famous Lake in the Adirondacks:Lac du Blessed Sacrament…before he was relieved of his head of course…
All of this is North of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Headless Horseman…
One issue that must be raised about the Catholic church is institutionalized pedophilia.
What there have been exposes about various Catholic priests being guilty of pedophilia in the United States and elsewhere, some questions that arise are how high up in the Catholic hierarchy does this pedophilia go and for how long?
Is it decades–or even centuries–of Catholic pedophilia?
Thank you Saker for putting together a zip file of Fr. John’s works. I’ve had the chance to read “Introduction to Romanity, Romania, Roumeli” (the PDF was only 13 pages) and “FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE.
AN INTERPLAY BETWEEN THEOLOGY AND SOCIETY.” (the PDF was only 55 pages).
For me the history of the Eastern Empire mostly comes from Gibbon and Ridpath so the point of view Fr. John presents is totally alien to me. The theological differences are never discussed in a serious way and appears to be very profound on cursory examination (almost an inversion). The only thing that I can personally compare to the concept and process of Glorification is perhaps Tsongkhapa’s “The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment”.
At least I now have a feeling for how deep and profound the great schism truly is. I also understand why the history, theology, and philosophy of the Eastern church is absolutely ignored and never discussed. The kind of questions that might be raised by such a meeting on a even field might prove fatal to the Western church.
Father John was truly a brilliant historian and theologian.
I am very happy that at least one reader took the time to read this article(s).
Thank you
Are there any recommended books on the history of the franks besides the fr romanides book? I read that Charlemagne was a pious man and not just cynically using the church to build empire. Maybe the fault falls more on the Pope who crowned him and was influenced by the donation of constantine.
I don’t have any recommendations for books on the history of the Franks but I would like to recommend a couple of books I’ve found useful while poking around the subject of Orthodox Christianity.
The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today’s World
Vladimir Lossky’s “The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church”
Both can be found on Amazon at least.
I am very much new to the world of Orthodoxy but I have made an effort at some understanding in the last few years.
Some concepts I’ve found very interesting are: Theoria and Tabor Light (Фаворский свет). Perhaps the Saker will comment on these ideas some day. I don’t think there is an equivalent of practice and result in the Western church but again I am no expert by any means.
Postovani Sokole i ostali misleci
Nisam vican pisaniju na siroko ili nadugacko,vise volim pesme,ali zbog teme,potrudicu se da ukratko kazem koju. Sticajem okolnosti bio sam predsednik crkvenog odbora Srbske pravoslvne crkve u svojoj parohiji.
Ideja je bila da renoviramo crkvu.Dobro. Kroz aktivnosti,malo sam se potrudio da saznam vise o pravoslavlju,ali sam imao prilike da upoznam niz svestenika,igumana pa i episkopa. Svuda ima dobrih ljudi,kao i onih drugih.
Srbi su,koliko znam, jedini hriscanski narod koji ima krsnu slavu,iliti Sveca zastitnika kuce, porodice,zdravlja i svakog napredka.
Vecina tih zastitnika je preuzeta iz stare Slovenske mitlogije,sto je i bio razlog da Srbi prime hriscanstvo.
Da skratim,vecina danasnjih, takozvanih zastupnika bozije reci satire iskrenu veru.
Dele se crkveni ordeni predstavnicima, vlasti koji im dele pare iz budzeta, kontroveznim biznismenima,
pederima,pedofilima,lezbejkama,starletama. . . . .
Do pre nekako, misio sam da je nemoguce da licimo na truli zapad, da se u mojoj Srbiji ovo desava.
Pre desetak godina posetio sam voljenu Rusiju i video slicno.
Relativno cesto sam po Evropi,koja je bivsa po pitanju vere i jos svasta-nesto,ali se bojim da polako licimo na njih.
Srbi i pored covida slave svoju krsnu slavu,druze se,smeju se Evropi i Americi i ogromnom vecinom navijaju za bracu Ruse. Navikli smo da nas zapad bombarduje zato sto smo mali Rusi.
Yandex traslation. Mod:
Respected Falcons and others thinking I’m not good at writing wide or long, I prefer songs, but on the subject, I’ll try to summarly say which one. By circumstance, I was chairman of the church board of the Serbian Orthodox Church in my parish. The idea was to renovate the church. Good. Through activities, I did my best to learn more about Orthodoxy, but I had the opportunity to meet a number of priests, priors and even bishops. There are good people everywhere, just like the others. Serbs, as far as I know, are the only Christian people with baptismal glory, a.m. the Patron saint of the house, the family, the health and every advance. Most of these protectors were taken from the old Slavic mythology, which was the reason for Serbs to receive Christianity. Long story short, most of today’s so-called advocates of God say satire sincere faith. Church medals are handed out to representatives, authorities who hand out budget money to controlled businessmen, Church medals are handed out to representatives, authorities who hand out budget money to controlled businessmen,, pedophiles, lesbians, starlets…. Until somehow, I thought it was impossible to look like the rotten West, that this was happening in my Serbia. About ten years ago, I visited beloved Russia and saw something like that. I’m relatively common in Europe, which is the former in terms of religion and all sorts of things, but I’m afraid we’re slowly reseeping from them. Serbs, despite their baptismal glory, hang out, laugh at Europe and America, and the vast majority cheer for the Russian brothers. We’re used to the West bombing us because we’re little Russians.
Saker:
Putin is the best leader Russia has ever had.
Why doesn’t he tighten the screws on the imperialist/colonialist gang?
Europe is composed of 2 type of countries::
1. Coloniaist , who plundered the world and enriched themselves, and suddenly discovered there are human rights. They did not think of human rights when raping the world.
2. Sh*t countries, former Warsaw Pact, whose governments and military brass are at the CIA payroll.
A forlorn hope quite possibly, but a wish a hope for us all to live our lives together for love & peace for each other in the actual moment during our short time here on earth & not back in the days of the exodus or the Roman’s or whoever forever on repeat
The origin of western “civilization” – aka Roman – comes from Bronze Age Anatolia & Black Sea, which originated mainly from Russia (Caucasus) & Persia and to a lesser extent Indus Valley.
There were people in the west (Europe) Celts – Nordics etc… but they were in fact barbarians / sod house dwellers with little real civilization.
So I find all this amusing.
The Romans had to teach them how to make things and use of money to grow economies.
And when Rome collapsed after 535 AD the “west” had 500 years of demise called the Dark Ages.
Then it was technology from the Islamic world that got Europe into a new era post 1400 AD (eg mechanical devices and a new number system).
While in the past few centuries the west may have advanced more than the east, these things go in cycles and we can certainly say in the past 2 yrs (if not the past 50) the west is in social and economic decline.
‘To all of us slavery is a thing unknown…there are no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and rocks, and the yet more terrible Romans, from whose oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and submission. Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a desert and call it peace…’
(Calgacus, chieftain of Ancient Caledonia)
or as some bard said, when europeans were still running around in animal hides, India (specifically Tamil) had grammar. for all of who take it for granted today, this is world’s greatest invention
Rome is not the origin of western civilization
please listen to the video and read the articles
I had no idea at all about the Tatar id problem. That icon is telling for sure. Thanks for the Romanides. Your Christian Vignettes series is an absolute pleasure to read.
St. Andrew came east and walked along the Dneiper. The Jesus Prayer from the Desert Fathers became a hallmark of Orthodoxy. Sviatoslav sacked the Kazars. His son Vladimir converted to Christianity ushering in one thousand years of Christian civilization in the Kievan-Rus. Only interrupted briefly by the atheist Bolsheviks. Regenerated by Putin.
Thanks Saker for assembling John Romanides’ work and making it available to us.
After starting to read I was immediately blown away by his idea that “… in West European sources we find a separation between a Greek East and a Latin West. In Roman sources this same separation constitutes a schism between Franks and Romans”.
This view is particularly interesting to me personally for the good reason that I’m presently terminating a volume about Modernity in which I defend the core thesis that Modernity emerged in South-West Europe, in Frankish territory, sometime in the first part of the 12th century.
Over the preceding centuries Christianity had become inseparable from the history of the Franks. So much so that Modernity and capitalism, as its economic form, originated in Frankish lands (the Champagne Fairs) as a consequence of the call for a crusade, in Clermont France in 1095, by Frank Pope Urban II who was born in 1035 in a noble family in northern France. All this explains why the large majority of the participants in the first crusade were Franks, and in turn also explains, why long distance commerce emerged in Frank territory that literally opened the era of Modernity.
The narrative, that a Frankish Christianity unleashed a Western Frankish Modernity, is observed in the origin of the word “capital” in old French sometime during the 12th century… and note that, from its use in the Champagne Fairs to its adoption in the English language, it took nearly 5 centuries… The use of the word “capital” in English dates indeed to sometimes in the late 17th century…
In 2020, the Levada-Center [Foreign Agent (Russia)] conducted a sociological survey on Russians’ attitudes towards the religion. According to the published results, 26 % of Russians position themselves as atheist.
Being from a protestant background I would say both Catholicism and Orthodoxy have things going for them absent in protestantism. They bith have the eucharist, Saints + tradition. One could connect with heaven, everything in between and the early church in both tradition, something which is impossible with protestantism.
Protestantism very easily connects with wokeism. Catholicism not so much, but is effectivly undermined from within.
It is widly assumed by traditional catholics that a big part of it is infiltrated by the enemy, especially since Vatican II.
Orthodoxy seems to fend of wokeism fairly well.
It is pretty obvious that the enemy devies the Church and destroys its parts bit by bit. Islam started as anti-trinitarian cult and look where it is right now. The real devide runs through Peoples hearts….
When Europeans interact with Russians, they will (to Europeans) almost always feel much “more European” then Chinese or Japanese for example.
I am talking about general behavioral matrix, general impression, world outlook, values…It is just easier to communicate with Russians and also feel certain “closeness” then with people from more distant cultures to the East or South.
This is neither historical nor scientific opinion. It overlooks vast national character differences even internally, in big nations (I met only Russians living in Europe, probably specific group). But it probably tells something about historical forces that shaped nations.
So, although geopolitically Russia orients itself more and more to Asia, I think it would take centuries for this turn to reflect fully in national character.
Re: Is Russia European?
From a person that spends most of her time in Yekaterinburg and Moscow…
We must keep in mind that Russia spans massive territory so, anything West of the Urals = European, anything East of the Urals = Asian.
We must also keep in mind that EurAsia spans massive territory so, anything West of Vladivostok = EurAsian, anything East of Lisbon = EurAsian
Toché!
Russia is Russia, its own civilization. Spiritual Descendant of Byzantine. If it was European, Europe wouldn’t mass Armies to destroy it every generation. Cartographers do not define the Russian world by saying West of the Urals. Culture changes once you stand on Orthodox lands.
Enjoy your stay in Russia, it is a very beautiful place.
@Saker, thanks for the content from Father John Romanides.
You are conflating geography and culture
You are correct, I have errored. Thank you for your reply.
My perception is that the EU uses European as a national identity and “multiculturalism” as a vessel which surpresses the real constituents identity and culture.
It does seem as though the EU is trying to create a new national identify based on so-called “European values.”
But I wonder how many people actually fall for this. Even within European nations, local identities seem to remain strong, even stronger than the national identity. But perhaps I am in a pre-EU time warp.
When I lived in Germany in the 1970s there was a strong regional identity within the country. An appreciation for thse subnational identity and consequent cultural richness. Everyone knew that Swabians were different from Bavarians, from Sachsens, from Friesians, etc. These were of course stereotypes, but stereotypes that everyone enjoyed, with historical roots! The individual Laender have far longer histories than does the German nation. And the latter concept was fractured by 20th C. history. Despite this shattering and shattered history, it is hard for me to imagine a Bavarian suddenly thinking of himself as an EU-ian.
The centralized country of France consisted of regions that hardly knew each other well into the modern period.
I think Italy’s regions still have separate recognized personalities, histories, cultures, cultural loyalty, etc.
I have no idea whether the same is true in Russia—that regions within Russia have clear local identities and loyalties—although it seems clear that people from Saint Petersburg have a strong local identity. However, the denizens of political or cultural capital cities generally do feel superior to everyone else.
“Everyone knew that Swabians were different from Bavarians”.
It is so true. Recently I was visiting the Ba-Wü city of Tübingen and there was fun to be had with imitating the Bavarian dialect.
The diversity of Russia is another matter entirely. I’ve never been to Russia but when the World Cup was in Russia a friend and I were determined to go (unfortunately unforeseen events prevented the trip). We had settled on the city of Kazan as the best geographically for our base being the shortest distance to the most games. Kazan is said to be where East meets West and is the proclaimed sports capital of Russia. Talk about diversity! Just look up the demographics of this city and your perception of the typical Russian will change dramatically.
this comment has been flagged as of little/no value (possibly troll) by the saker
I find this whole philosophy of west having nothing to do with Rome as dubious at best,
It is no secret that Romans expanded their borders right to the west, and heavily latinized the different populations living there,
The franks you mentioned did not impose their culture, in actual fact they got reverse latinized, and converted to Christianity, adopting the roman codes.
Its as if I said that Russia was conquered and ruled by Tatars, so russia is a tatar nation, and has nothing to do with Rome,
I recall reading somewhere that French is the most corrupted form of Latin.
I think the word used was “corrupted.”
In my opinion this Pope seems to be precurser to the Antichrist. I think we should all pray for peace in the world, and that Thy Kingdom come, and Thy Will be done, as soon as possible, as well as calling down Gods Mercy.
Thank you Saker for these invaluable posts/links.
As of “Mongol-Tatar Yoke”, Saker, you might find this interesting: https://aftershock.news/?q=node/1059081
In brief, there is only marginal trace, “background noise” level, of Mongol male DNA in Russians, only slightly above same level in, say, Poland