YAKOV KROTOV

Russian Neo-Byzantinism

Antoine Arjakovsky in his dissertation mentioned the orientation of some Russian theologians of XX c. towards Byzantine Christianity. It seems to be neo-Byzantinism, but what is most interesting is that never before in Russian history we can meet fondness with Byzantium, so "paleo-Byzantinism" didn't exist.

The founder of Russian byzantofilia was Fr. George Florovsky, who left Paris after the II World War and died in America. Next generation of Russian emigration gave two prominent theologians and both were specialists in Byzantine history: priests John Meyendorff and Alexander Schmeman. Now in Russia two names can be called: Fr. Hilarion Alfeyev and Fr. Grigoriy Lourye.

Alfeyev from his youth became the right hand of Metr. Cyrill Gundyaev, he studied theology in Oxford, wrote dissertation on St. Symeone New Theologian, now works in Moscow in the Department of External Church Relations and often is cited as a speaker of the Moscow Patriarchy. Several times he stated that Ukrainian Greek Catholics with their unjust actions against Moscow patriarchy superseded all evils which has been done by Russia towards Greek Catholics of Ukraine. But he is not anti-Semitic or nationalist.

Grigoriy Louryie (born 1962) lives in St. Petersburg, he is the priest of the Russian Orthodox Free Church (lead by bishop Valentine Rusantsev from Suzdal and opposed to Moscow Patriarchy.) Baptized 1982, married, divorced 1994, ordained in 1999, monk from 2000, author of the history of monasticism in Egypt (here is Russian biography) published in 2000. His spiritual father Alexander Zharkov was shot in 1996 and everyone believe that this was done by zealots of the Moscow Patriarchy.

I dare to suggest that for both of them interest for Byzantium is a kind of escapism: of "liberal" escapism for Fr. Alfeyev and "fundamentalist" escapism for Fr. Louryie. Certainly, the problem is whether the diagnoses "escapism" can be applied to any historian or theologian or even to any believer. Still, I think that there is definite difference between usual patrologists and those Russian Church activists who express their own ideas with studies of Christian past.

March 7, 2001, 22.45 PM, Moscow

See also about Neobizantinism in review of Valliere's book.