Distortion of Religious History in the Concept of "Russian World"

Abstract

The article continues the series of research illustrating the formation of the idea of the “Russian world” in the religious discourse of Orthodox Russia. The main attention is paid to the ideological stamps used by the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill while preaching and giving public speeches. The study summarizes the idea of the monolithic “Holy Rus” with Moscow as a core-city developed to support Vladimir Putin’s annexationist geopolitical policy. The paper cites examples of falsification of historical facts in religious and political spheres applied with the intention to form a strong propaganda background in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Kirill Gundyaev uses the images of the Battle of Kulikovo and the medieval Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy to draw historical parallels with Russia’s current war with Ukraine. To strengthen his own position as the head of the modern religious front, the patriarch repeatedly returns to the ideological concept of the blessed war, using legends about the blessing of the troops and divine providence in the medieval wars of the Moscow principality.