August is a month of recollection. For it was then, in 1945, that the United States changed humanity forever by dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) and killing up to a quarter million Japanese civilians.
August is also a month of responsibility, when clerics and other religious leaders remind humanity that peace is preferable to war, and that using weapons of mass destruction is intrinsically wrong — even if it shortens a war.
Policymakers may argue for or against the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, analysts may debate their ability to deter aggression, and historians can disagree over the strategic utility of destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and of the Anglo-US conventional bombing of Dresden), but the men and women of God really have no alternative to condemning them, even if their condemnations strike some as naive.
Pope Leo XIV, for instance, has noted that “true peace demands the courageous laying down of weapons — especially those with the power to cause an indescribable catastrophe” and that “nuclear arms offend our shared humanity and also betray the dignity of creation.”
The Dalai Lama has also expressed his opposition: “A world without nuclear weapons is necessary and possible. In our interconnected world, violence brings suffering even to those far from the conflict. I sincerely hope that we can all remember the oneness of humanity, and recall that harming anyone with violence, including the use of nuclear weapons harms us all.”
In contrast, here’s what Kirill, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch and leader of his church’s more than 100 million faithful, had to say about nuclear weapons on August 1, at the feast of the “uncovering” of the relics of St. Seraphim, the Wonderworker of Sarov.
“Scientists working here in Sarov created our Russian atomic bomb, which thwarted the enemy’s plans to destroy and enslave our Fatherland. Thus, through the labors of the scientists, engineers, and workers who toiled here, God’s grace and mercy were bestowed upon our country . . . That this happened precisely in the place where St. Seraphim prayed was no coincidence. I’ve spoken with our physicists, scientists who work in this field of scientific knowledge and ensure our country’s security . . . In my conversations with them, I realized that they fully understand that the creation of a formidable weapon in our country in this particular place was no accident; all of this occurred, in part, through the prayers of our venerable and God-bearing father, Seraphim of Sarov.”
There you have it. Russia’s nuclear weapons are the product of God’s grace and mercy, and the prayers of a man who died in 1833 before Russia’s first railroad was built.
Kirill may be forgiven for not recognizing the separation of church and state (reports suggest he has long-established ties to the KGB, beginning as a young man). That’s a long-standing Russian Orthodox tradition. Decidedly less forgivable is the insensitive timing of his remarks (August 1) and his open adulation of Putin and his criminal cabal: “And together, we must pray, and we do pray, for our Orthodox authorities, for our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, for many who are in power today.”
Completely unforgivable is Kirill’s unwillingness to recognize the principle of the separation of church and weapons of mass destruction.
But none of Kirill’s recent remarks are surprising. He enthusiastically supports Putin’s war of aggression and has even told Russian soldiers that, should they be killed in the fighting, they would immediately go to Heaven. If killing Ukrainians with ballistic missiles is doing God’s work, why not drop a nuke or two on them? That, alas, is the conclusion to which Kirill’s logic points.
That Kirill is a war-monger is disturbing, but ultimately far less important than the fact that his views are probably shared by much of Russia’s Orthodox clergy and believers. Ending the war with a smashing Russian defeat is Ukraine’s and the West’s first priority. Humanizing Russian political and religious culture will be next. Alas, that task will be at least as difficult as winning the war.
Fortunately, not all Russians share Kirill’s views, and even fewer are likely to subscribe to them in the event of a Russian defeat. Russian Orthodoxy will remain a handmaiden of the state for many years to come — and that may be the good news.
For if Russians can succeed in shifting their state from the path of despotism, even if only a tad, that could encourage the state-aligned clergy to abandon Kirill and seek spiritual inspiration elsewhere. There is always hope, however frail.
Alexander Motyl is a Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University-Newark.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
