Even though we're behind Europe in religiosity and far behind the US, Orthodox Christianity was alive and well here after the fall of the SU, and Christmas and Easter are variously observed. It's rather notable that despite the Bolsheviks' no-nonsense and literal approach to eradicating religion, Christianity and the church have survived the Soviet era pretty well. One reason for this is said to be that in the ramp-up to the Great Patriotic War, the government dropped the anti-religious rhetoric and adopted instead the position of ‘unite and defend your motherland and the people’.
Add to this the fact that in the 70s and likely later, people were still migrating from rural villages to the cities, with the whole baggage of inherited religiosity and mishmash of folk beliefs. My grandmother put in plenty of time in prayer each day. Icons or whole arrangements of them are a feature in many homes, cars and sometimes, more rarely, offices. And I still receive messages from my parents each year, commemorating birth and then the resurrection of Christ. Folk culture doesn't tend to follow an official doctrine, as exemplified by troves of Soviet jokes—and is also not big on ideological clarity, so many didn't see a problem in subscribing to both socialism and Christianity, along with crystal healing, magical powers of thought and a bouquet of other fringe beliefs.
In the 90s, my home city already had a bunch of churches including at least one large temple, and one or two monasteries—and I don't think they popped up recently.
Notably also, even Bolsheviks preserved old and unassuming Karelian wooden churches, recognizing them as architectural and cultural monuments—while demolishing some huge temples in Moscow. Like the Kondopoga church, built in 1774 and which somebody burned down in August of 2018: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Church_of_the_Do...
It's just my opinion, but it's not uncommon. I believe Blaise Pascal (the brilliant French mathematician) got it right when he said "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing....."
For this reason, I doubt religion will ever die. It will be with us always.
Yes, religion will never die because it's primitive paleolithic thinking embedded in all of us. With education and development of critical thinking, however, anyone can get free of religion and become intelligent (though it IS a lot of work that most are too lazy for).
As a Russian, can confirm this article is quite accurate - my family only ever celebrates New Years, it's the same as Christmas is usually in the West, and Ded Moroz is totally a thing.
Correct artice and being from ex communist country even after more than 25 years I certainly have issues celebrating christmas. "They were able to celebrate Christmas, but they had never done it before." most resonates with me.
Makes me realize the importance of traditions and how fragile they are.
You do? We (Russian Americans in the US) celebrate two Christmases and two New Years, both by the "new" calendar (Dec 25/Jan 1) and by the old (Jan 7 Christmas, Jan 13 "Old" New Year). Because, as they say in Russia, "there's no reason not to drink".
Serbians also still celebrate Christmas and New Years according to the old Julian calendar. In a few thousand years they really will have Christmas in July.
Sure we have this drinking excuse as well! (Mind that even our anthem is basicly a toast)
But Christmas went more into comsumerism with crowded shopping malls, excessive buying etc.
We stil have some people celebrating santa and others dedek mraz.
Mostyl correct but it somehow gives impression that religon pracitce was banned in USSR ("After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, religious practice became legal again.").
Which is not true. There were still churches and priests and religious practice. While being religious was seriously frowned upon and would not allow you to have any serious hopes for making a bigger career it was legal. I remember my mother telling stories about "Christmas patrols" but I guess those were the years around the WWII, because we used to have a Christmas tree and Christmas Eve celebration without much fear.
Religious practice was certainly illegal, unless it was official Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish etc. There was no way to organize a non-canonical congregation, unless it was a clandestine operation for a dozen people.
There was an article in the RSFSR Felony codex ("breaking the laws of separation of the church from the state, and of the school from the church", #142) the sole purpose of which was to outlaw religious congregations.
Many baptists (mostly Ukrainian) were imprisoned indefinitely - well into eighties - for refusing to obtain passports.
Finally the idea of "legality" of something for which you get persecuted and mocked by state and party officials (as part of their line of duty), and get auto-fired from a significant part of the economy in a state with no (legal) private economy seems a little twisted.
We also had "Ded Moroz" in communist Romania, translated to "Moș Gerilă".
It was imported due to the soviet occupation after WWII and the subsequent adoption of communism. The word Christmas was censored in 1948. In the 80s our beloved supreme leader wanted to associate those presents with the state instead of Moș Gerilă, so things got a little weird with the state propaganda.
After the revolution in 1989 we changed the holiday to the Christmas in the Gregorian calendar and Santa Claus, translated as "Moș Crăciun" (Father Christmas).
According to [1], "Ded" (literally Grandfather) is used here in the sense of an old man or an ancestor. Snegurochka is his daughter. Ded Moroz's mother was Baba Yaga, and his wife was the Snow Queen. Hope this clears everything up.
> Santa Claus is one of several manifestations of a particular wintertime character, probably originating with the pagan, pre-Christian Germanic and Norse god Odin.
No, 'Santa Slaus' is a distortion of st. nicholas, to which people may or may not have ascribed characteristics of previous 'wintertime characters', as attested to by the further examples of: Sinterklaas, Mikulás, which are both actually not distinct entities, but both 'St Nicholas' in their respective languages. One can make some anthropological case that these are 'manifestations', but in the case of 'Santa Klaus', the core 'identity' is still a 'nicholas figure' to which people may or may not have ascribed other attributes. Lineage and conceptual transactions are important here, esp. since this makes a less appealing narrative to spin, when one is trying to downplay the second-ranked feast day in the official state religion of an empire that viewed itself as the direct and legitimate successor of imperial christian rome.
e.g:
"It wasn’t really a festival exactly, but more of a somber religious holiday marked by fasting and long church services in Old Church Slavonic"
This is what feast days (aka 'festivals') are in orthodoxy. Followed by a 'feast'. So yes, it was a festival, "exactly".
Christmas was a major day of important significance in imperial russia, and Fr. Frost was directly promoted as a secular replacement for St. Nicholas, because soviet-style communists are militantly athiest and hostilly anti-religion. The very fact that this figure exists is a testimonial to the need to provide a 'foil' for the people to accept his removal, rather than just some casual 'cultural shift' to a different 'winter character manifestation'.
As for people 'forgetting how to celebrate christmas' during soviet times, please recall (whether positively or negatively) that Mr. Putin's mother had him baptized in secret from his communist father and he makes pilgrimages to monasteries regularly. The current high place of the church in russian society did not just originate in some ideological vaccum, many never gave up in the face of overt and militant religious hostility.
I live in Poland. Before 89 when my country was occupied by Russia, "Soviet Santa" was forced here to replace Santa Clous. It was one of many things that was made to erase Christianity and replace it with atheism and communism. Fake Christmas, fake Santa, zero beliefs. I was young back than but i felt its shallow and dark. So for me Soviet Santa is a symbol of the occupation and Russian tyrrany Poland was under until 89...
I did not know about Poland to be occupied, but recall myself when Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) had similar fate for almost 50 years - everything related to Christmas was translated somehow to New Year and real christian celebration was effectively banned. I remember having strange remarks in school (in mid-80ies) when we had Santa Claus instead official DedMaroz in home secretly. Nothing serious anymore then. Next interesting time was in 90ies with re-independence, all it was converted back to very christian and churches were packed in Christmas eve. New Year was regarded as soviet thing for some time. Now we see some revival of more joyful new year celebrations and current agnostic president did not even go to the christmas mass. Which was small scandal but a sign of times also.
Also, please don't take HN threads into religious or ideological flamewar. Your comment doesn't exactly go there but it's a step in that direction, and we're trying to avoid that on this site.
history is never one-sided like hand-picking of facts and interpretations tends to present. Together with the "occupation by Russia" Poland also got to annex significant parts of German territories (some of those had had no valid Polish claim, like for example the Prussia, some had been historically contested between German and Poland) - it was practically spoils of war gifted by the "Russian occupiers" to Poland (any gratitude for the gift?). The "occupation" has ended 30 years ago, and that is basically a right thing. Any plans on giving the annexed territories back?
Polish borders were decided in Postdam conferrence between USA, UK and USSR with a pupped goverment that acted as reprezentation of Poland. But they were USSR designates. Polish government in excile was not invited to the talks. So Poland could not annex anything. The big 3 decided how to draw borders.
Could you elaborate on "Poland was occupied by Russia"?
Let's put alone that in 89 it was USSR so Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, etc. all together.
In any case there were no Russian troops stationed in Poland. Quite opposite, Poland and its army was one of leading members of Warsaw Pact (the name, sic!).
Our leaders were Polish but their words came directly from Moscow. There were Soviet troops stationed in Poland ready for action were those words repeated without the necessary accuracy or zeal. I think the word ‘occupation’ is 100% correct.
Not OP, but see Hungary '56 and Czechoslovakia '68 for what happens to 'leading warsaw pact members' who decide they want to deviate from the soviet party line.
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Add to this the fact that in the 70s and likely later, people were still migrating from rural villages to the cities, with the whole baggage of inherited religiosity and mishmash of folk beliefs. My grandmother put in plenty of time in prayer each day. Icons or whole arrangements of them are a feature in many homes, cars and sometimes, more rarely, offices. And I still receive messages from my parents each year, commemorating birth and then the resurrection of Christ. Folk culture doesn't tend to follow an official doctrine, as exemplified by troves of Soviet jokes—and is also not big on ideological clarity, so many didn't see a problem in subscribing to both socialism and Christianity, along with crystal healing, magical powers of thought and a bouquet of other fringe beliefs.
In the 90s, my home city already had a bunch of churches including at least one large temple, and one or two monasteries—and I don't think they popped up recently.
Notably also, even Bolsheviks preserved old and unassuming Karelian wooden churches, recognizing them as architectural and cultural monuments—while demolishing some huge temples in Moscow. Like the Kondopoga church, built in 1774 and which somebody burned down in August of 2018: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Church_of_the_Do...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormition_Church,_Kondopoga
For this reason, I doubt religion will ever die. It will be with us always.
The pronunciation is close to “dee-yet mah-ross”
click the speaker
Deleted Comment
New Year was still wayyy bigger deal.
There was an article in the RSFSR Felony codex ("breaking the laws of separation of the church from the state, and of the school from the church", #142) the sole purpose of which was to outlaw religious congregations.
Many baptists (mostly Ukrainian) were imprisoned indefinitely - well into eighties - for refusing to obtain passports.
Finally the idea of "legality" of something for which you get persecuted and mocked by state and party officials (as part of their line of duty), and get auto-fired from a significant part of the economy in a state with no (legal) private economy seems a little twisted.
It was imported due to the soviet occupation after WWII and the subsequent adoption of communism. The word Christmas was censored in 1948. In the 80s our beloved supreme leader wanted to associate those presents with the state instead of Moș Gerilă, so things got a little weird with the state propaganda.
After the revolution in 1989 we changed the holiday to the Christmas in the Gregorian calendar and Santa Claus, translated as "Moș Crăciun" (Father Christmas).
[1] https://cb-rzhev.blogspot.com/2013/11/blog-post_4347.html
No, 'Santa Slaus' is a distortion of st. nicholas, to which people may or may not have ascribed characteristics of previous 'wintertime characters', as attested to by the further examples of: Sinterklaas, Mikulás, which are both actually not distinct entities, but both 'St Nicholas' in their respective languages. One can make some anthropological case that these are 'manifestations', but in the case of 'Santa Klaus', the core 'identity' is still a 'nicholas figure' to which people may or may not have ascribed other attributes. Lineage and conceptual transactions are important here, esp. since this makes a less appealing narrative to spin, when one is trying to downplay the second-ranked feast day in the official state religion of an empire that viewed itself as the direct and legitimate successor of imperial christian rome.
e.g:
"It wasn’t really a festival exactly, but more of a somber religious holiday marked by fasting and long church services in Old Church Slavonic"
This is what feast days (aka 'festivals') are in orthodoxy. Followed by a 'feast'. So yes, it was a festival, "exactly".
Christmas was a major day of important significance in imperial russia, and Fr. Frost was directly promoted as a secular replacement for St. Nicholas, because soviet-style communists are militantly athiest and hostilly anti-religion. The very fact that this figure exists is a testimonial to the need to provide a 'foil' for the people to accept his removal, rather than just some casual 'cultural shift' to a different 'winter character manifestation'.
As for people 'forgetting how to celebrate christmas' during soviet times, please recall (whether positively or negatively) that Mr. Putin's mother had him baptized in secret from his communist father and he makes pilgrimages to monasteries regularly. The current high place of the church in russian society did not just originate in some ideological vaccum, many never gave up in the face of overt and militant religious hostility.
Dead Comment
Nor any other day on HN.
Also, please don't take HN threads into religious or ideological flamewar. Your comment doesn't exactly go there but it's a step in that direction, and we're trying to avoid that on this site.
Sure, if the Germans give it back to [the original Prussians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussians), it would only be fair.
Let's put alone that in 89 it was USSR so Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, etc. all together.
In any case there were no Russian troops stationed in Poland. Quite opposite, Poland and its army was one of leading members of Warsaw Pact (the name, sic!).
So what does "occupation" mean in your statement?
Wheter it was occupation or not is debatable.