The Battle for Russia

Metropolitan IOANN

The Battle for Russia

Translated from the Russian

Russia has only two loyal
allies: her army and her fleet.
-- Emperor Alexander III

he path of history is winding and unpredictable. Contrary to widely-held opinion, her course is not the result of the "struggle between good and evil". That error, the error of moral dualism -- in other words placing the all-living God on the same level as His fallen creation, on the same level as that cherubim who turned into a gloomy demon after his fall from grace -- continues to this day to be a source of many ruinous errors and misunderstandings in all areas of life.

The force of good immeasurably exceeds the possibilities of evil. The source of all earthly discord lies in the fact that evil, namely evil, struggles against good, trying to destroy the world's Divine and Providential order which God intends through his mercy to culminate in the complete uprooting of passions and sin. And if man, esteemed above all living creatures by God and possessing the god-like freedom of moral choice, didn't misuse that freedom, foolishly succumbing to the temptation of evil, the forces of darkness would find no place for action in the world.

Reflection on his own moral powerlessness moves man to strive for improvement. When the striving for purity and holiness takes hold of an entire people they become the carrier and guardian of an idea so sublime, so strong, that the world order is altered as a result. Such is the fate of the Russian people. Inevitably that people and its government will undergo the severests of trials and the most merciless and sinister of assaults. Such is the fate of Russia.

Hard and thorny is the way of our Motherland. Her ten centuries are awash with wars and chaos, alien invasions and the intrigues of the enemies of our faith. Having declared her intention to embody the moral-religious shrine of faith, Russia at once stood in the way of those who, having rejected the commandments of compassion, humility and brotherly-love, aimed to order man's existence according to the law of the jungle, cruel, greedy, and merciless.

Today, as never before, we need to understand that everything happening today to our country is but an episode in this centuries-old battle for Russia, a spiritual organism holding in her depths the life-giving secret of a way of life guided by higher religious conscience and illuminated by faith. Having understood that, we will be able to overcome the yawning gap, like a painful and bleeding wound, which has existed in our society as a result of the second Time of Troubles tormenting our land and our people for more than 70 years now. [The Time of Troubles, a period of chaos and occupation, began in 1610 and lasted until the enthronement of Mikhail Romanov in 1613. -- Webmaster]

We can no longer allow ourselves to be divided into "whites" and "reds". If we want to survive, we must return to the acknowledgment of goals so high, authorities so unquestionable, ideals so sublime, that they simply cannot be called into question by sane, morally healthy people. Such are the shrines of our faith. It's no accident that over the course of centuries the Church was always the main target for those who would destroy Russia. Recently, we've been so carried away with unbridled "peaceableness" (which looks, upon closer examination, more like paralysis of the public will) that it would not hurt to perhaps remind the reader of the never-ending skein of plots weaved around our country century after century. So let's delve into a little history.

Around the turn of the Tenth Century A.D. near the middle reaches of the Dnieper arose a union of Slavic tribes which was later to form the backbone of the Russian state. The Christianization of Russia by Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev in 988 A.D. marked the birth of Russia as a political power: centralized, united by a common faith, common ideals, and a common understanding of the purpose and meaning of life on Earth.

In 1054 a terrible cataclysm befell Christendom: the Catholic West, succumbing to vanity and the false glory of worldly greatness, fell away from the universal fullness of the True Orthodox Church. Russia remained true to Orthodoxy, foregoing political advantage and temptations for the sake of zealous devotion and the spiritual abundance of the Church. From that moment onward and to this day the unending war against Russia has continued.

The Russian people were forced endlessly to make war. From 1055 to 1462 historians record 245 mentions of invasions and foreign conflicts. From 1240 to 1462 hardly a year went by without war. Of the 537 years from the Battle of Kulikov Field to the end of World War One 334 were war years. During that same period 134 years were spent warring against various anti-Russian coalitions and alliances -- in one war Russia faced ten enemies simultaneously, in two wars five enemies simultanously, in five wars three enemies, and in 37 wars two enemies at once.

The overwhelming majority of Russian wars were defensive. And those which could be termed aggressive were waged with the goal of preventing attack, or for the destruction of those conspiratorial international forces which threatened Europe with endless shocks from the late Eighteenth Century onward.

The bravery and stoicism and the talents of war and statecraft exhibited by our people over the course of this centuries-old battle are unparalleled in the world. In 400 years Russia's territory expanded 400 times! Moldavian gospodars, Georgian kings, Ukranian hetmans and the nomad chiefs of Central Asia humbly begged, sometimes for a hundred years at a stretch, for the Tsar's protectorship, for a place under the wide Russian umbrella.

There were wars of conquest also. When patience had run out on a neighbor's cruelty and perfidiousness. From the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Centuries Russia's Eastern neighbors, the Turks and the Tatars, captured and enslaved around 5 million Russians. And how many more perished in predatory raids will never be known. In Kazan alone, which was taken by Russian forces after a prolonged storm in 1552, languished 100,000 Russian captives. [... and in the year 2000 one may read the following graffiti scrawled on walls of the Chechen capital Grozny: "Russians, don't leave! We need slaves!" -- Webmaster] As recently as the early Seventeenth Century most Venetian and French slave galleys were manned by Russian slaves, condemned to a lifetime of hard labor.

Nonetheless, in spite of the endless raids and frightful military tension under which the Russian people lived from century to century, Russia strengthened and grew. In 1480 European Russia had a population of two million souls (nine times less than France at the time). By 1648, the year when Russian explorers discovered the sea lane from the Arctic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, expanding the nation's borders to the Easternmost limit, her population had reached the 12 million mark (against France's 19 million). By 1880 the number of Russian subjects topped 84 million, overtaking France by two-and-a-half times. On the eve of World War One Russia already had 190 million, and if it had not been for the social cataclysms of succeeding decades, the Russian population, according to demographers' estimates, would have topped 300 million by 1950.

Such is the enormous life energy of the Russian people which made itself felt over the expanses of Holy Russia. Fearful and inexplicable to the cold outside observer, this energy readily opens itself up to him who approaches with love and hope, to him who comes seeking help and support, knowledge and instruction. The secret is simple: at the foundation of outward greatness and strength Russian genius placed the "stone of faith" -- the age-old experience of spiritual unity, carefully nurtured and preserved by the Orthodox Church. The personal experience of virtue and the irrefutable inner witness of God's truth enflamed with faith and manliness the hearts of Russian warriors on the field of battle, Russian hermits in their distant wanderings and primitive caves and Russian princes in the business of management of affairs of state.

Many times Russia's enemies concocted clever plans for her enslavement. Here are just a few examples of how they proposed to destroy the disobedient country which they so hated.

The surest method was to deprive Russia of her religious identity, her Orthodox shrines, by "absorbing" her into Western Catholicism. Already during the lifetime of Saint Olga, in the middle of the Tenth Century, Rome had sent its first emissaries into Russia. Pope Clement III approached Russian princes in 1080 with an offer of "union". In 1207 Pope Innocent writes, in his epistle to the Russian people, that he can no longer "suppress in himself fatherly feelings" and "calls them to himself".

Remaining unanswered, the "fatherly feelings" of the Vatican expressed themselves in the organization of a powerful military buildup on Russia's Western borders. Having concentrated spiritual and temporal power in their hands through their wiles and political intriguing, the popes of the Thirteenth Century did everything they could to exploit Russia's state of prostration under the Mongols: to wage war against an Orthodox nation they sent Danes, Hungarians, militarized Catholic monastic orders, Swedes and Germans. By 1147 Pope Eugenius III gave his blessing to the "First German Crusade against the Slavs".

Nor did the West disdain anti-Russian intrigues at the court of Batiya [the Mongol chief who occupied Russia at the time -- Webmaster] It's no accident that one of the Khan's advisors was the Knight of Saint Mary Alfred von Stumpfenhausen. In 1245 Minorite Ioann de Plano Carpini, accompanied by two Dominican monks Asceline and Simone de Saint-Kent, were sent by Pope Innocent IV to visit the Great Khan himself in Mongolia. The Dutch monk Ryuksbrook was sent to Khan Mengu in Karakorum by the King of France Louis IX. European rulers couldn't have been more interested in the continuation of the Tatar raids against Russia. "We must be circumspect", writes Emperor Friedrich III Staufen. "While the enemy destroys our neighbor we'll think of how to defend ourselves".

The cynicism of "enlightened Europe" is simply beyond words: When yet another attempt to set the Mongols upon Russia failed, due to the diplomatic talents of Aleksandr Nevsky, the Pope, without batting an eyelid, proposed to Aleksandr an alliance against the Khan, upon the condition, of course, that the prince recognize the primacy of the Vatican. In this manner, using lies, flattery and force, they try to uproot the spirit of Russia from Europe.

Nonetheless, in spite of it all, Russia stood firm, repulsing nomad hordes from the East and crusaders from the West. She stood firm, and grew strong and manly. However, that did nothing to deter those who, again and again, wished to test her firmness.

In 1564, for example, a certain Heinrich Staden, a burgher's son from a small city in Westphalia, came to Russia to try his luck. He remained the "land of Muscovites" 13 years, knew no need, earned his keep bootlegging, developed a wide acquaintance and in 1576 returned of his own free will to his homeland. This is where the interesting part begins.

Staden spent the next two years in the Alsatian castle of Viscount Georg Gans, Lucelstein, where he scrupulously and unhurriedly worked out a plan for the seizure and destruction of Russia. We must give him credit: the plan was both boldly and broadly conceived, on a global political scale. It was proposed to draw Prussia, Poland, Livonia, Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire into the anti-Russian coalition. At audiences with the Emperor and sessions of the Reichstag the warlike Viscount was able to obtain funds for the building of a mighty Baltic fleet to be used in the attack. Heinrich Staden was given the title of adviser, expert and consultant on "the Russian question".

"Your Roman Imperial Highness", he wrote, "must appoint one of the brothers of Your Highness to seize and rule over that country [Russia -- Webmaster] Monasteries and churches must be closed. Cities and villages must be opened for looting by soldiers..." Further on Staden developed a detailed plan for the seizure and occupation of Russia from the North.

"Advance further and loot Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda", recommends the author, "and occupy the town with a detachment of 2000 soldiers. ... Then loot Trinity Monastery". After that, in his opinion, "Moscow can be taken without a single shot being fired". To fortify the victory and deprive Russians of their traditional charismatic leadership, Tsar Ivan "along with his sons, all bound like prisoners, must be taken away" as far as possible from from his native country.

You must agree that the creators of "Operation Barbarossa" [Hitler's plan for the invasion of Russia -- Webmaster] had worthy predecessors!

Hardly three decades had passed after the failure of this global enterprise than those desiring to take advantage of Russia's weakness, this time resulting from a prolonged dynastic crisis, decided to try their luck once again. This time the talents of acknowleged professionals, Jesuit monks of the Catholic "Society of Jesus", were brought to bear. The monks, who understood perfectly that the foundation of Russian might lies in the spiritual realm, decided to shake that foundation with the help of so-called "union", by forcing the Russian Church to submit to primacy of the Roman Pope.

From the outside Russia presented a sorry picture of disorder and chaos. The Jesuit fathers knew, however, that Russian chaos can be deceptive, and gave their pupil, the usurper False Dmitry the First, who had already occupied the Russian throne by that time, the following instructions:

"His Highness must mention "union" only rarely and cautiously. giving the impression that the idea is not his, but arose from among the people. Let them offer to reform a few unimportant articles of the faith, and this will pave the way eventually to union;

"Issue a law requiring the Church to strictly observe the rules of the Councils and the Greek Fathers, and then entrust the enforcement of the law to reliable adherents of union. Quarrels will arise, they'll appeal to His Highness. He'll appoint a council which can proceed to institute union;

"To the black clergy [monks -- Webmaster] promise entitlements, to the white clergy [priests -- Webmaster] awards, and to the people ... freedom;

"Found seminaries, and invite learned but worldly people from abroad to teach in them...."

Doesn't this all remind you of something? It's as if the ideologues of perestroika just changed the terminology a bit. But then the tactics of hypocrisy and cunning are always the same...

Three hundred years passed. Little changed in the relationship between Russia and the West, except that Russia's enemies, covert and overt, had increased their power enough to allow them to put the question of the destruction of Russian statehood and of submitting the country to a system of international, supra-national dictatorship. Accordingly, the ideological, political and economic means of attaining this end had changed. At this time a curious document made its appearance in the world. Today it's widely known under the name The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Perhaps no single document in the past eighty years has aroused such heated debate, and that's not surprising: in its pages is set forth a plan for the conquest of and dominion over the world, a plan so cynical and base, so overflowing with such obvious contempt for Man, so openly worshipful of evil, and so cleverly formulated, that one does not wish to believe in the existence of an organization which could have given birth to it.

Some historians accept the authenticity of the "Protocols" without reservation. Others just as unconditionally reject them as a forgery. I'm far from qualified to sit as judge in this matter. The history of the "Protocols" is rather murky. They first saw the broad light of day in 1905 when they were published by the Russian spiritual writer Sergei Nilus as an appendix to his book "The Great in the Small". [Today the book has been republished in Russia -- without the appendix! -- Webmaster]

This fact was later used to assert that the "Protocols" were forged by the Tsar's Okhranka [security police -- Webmaster], allegedly to shift the blame for the revolution of 1905 to allegedly non-existent "dark forces". This accusation does not hold up, for the simple reason that a small printing of the "Protocols" (100 hectograph copies) was made as far back as 1895 or 1896 by the chamberlain of the Office of the Moscow Synod, F.P. Sukhotin. One year later the "Protocols" were duplicated in the gubernia printing office on order of A.I. Klepovsky, the special assignments clerk of Grand Prince Sergei Aleksandrovich.

Be that as it may, the question of how the document got to Russia in the first place remains unanswered. But that is not what interests us: the "Protocols" may or may not be authentic, but the eighty years which have passed since their appearance gives us ample material for reflection, for world history, as if submitting to the will of an unseen dictator, has followed the plan laid forth in the "Protocols'" pages to a surprising degree. And this time the common fate of Mankind has not passed Russia by. Judge for yourself:

"Our watchword is force and make-believe", announce the anonymous authors of the document. "Force must be elevated to a principle, cunning and hypocrisy to a law. ... To more quickly achieve our aims we must pose as advocates and defenders of society, interested in improving the lot of the poor. But in reality we must strive to master and control the movements of public opinion. ... In this way we can arouse the masses when it suits us. We will use them as a weapon to topple thrones (Russia) and create revolution, and both of these catastrophes will advance our enterprise as if on giant's steps, moving us closer to our goal: mastery of the entire Earth."

The "learned elders" identify the destruction and desecration of a nation's religion as the main precondition of success. "We must undermine faith, uproot by force the principles of Spirit and Godliness from the minds of the people, replacing them with arithmetical calculations, purely material desires and interests. ... We've already done much to discredit the clergy. ... The authority of priests over the people continues to fall year by year -- license is promoted and proclaimed as a virtue. It follows that only a few years separate us from the complete annihilation of the Christian faith, our most dangerous opponent...". Those who understand the terrible destructive role played by our mass-media in the recent past [and even more so in the present! -- Webmaster] will find the following lines, written by the "Zionist elders" 100 years ago, to be of interest: "If gold is the first force on Earth, then the press is the second. We will achieve our aims only when the press is entirely in our hands. Our people must control the daily publications. We're cunning and nimble, and we have the money, money which we know how to use to reach our goals. We need more political publications: newspapers which form public opinion, didactic literature and dramas. In this way we'll squeeze out Christianity bit by bit and dictate to the world what to believe, what to respect, and what to hate. With the press in our hands, we can turn wrong into right, dishonor into honor. We can strike the first blow against what remains to this day a sacred institution, the family, which we must bring to a state of decomposition. We'll then be able to tear out by the roots that which was previously held in reverence ... and in its place we'll raise up a human army maddened by passions. ... We can then openly declare war against everything which is still held in respect, everything which our enemies still revere.

"We've created a mindless, filthy, disgusting literature, especially in so-called "progressive" countries. ... We've left our mark on those cornerstones of social life, education and child-rearing. We've debauched, narcotized and stupefied the youth."

For those who require concrete facts we'll mention that the "Protocols" foretold both World Wars, the rise of political systems decades before the fact, the course of the world's economic development, the features of credit-financial policy and many other details in the life of the "world community" with astonishing exactitude. Here's a picture of the fall of independent national states described in the "Protocols" at the end of the last century. Compare it to what's happening today in Russia:

"When we introduced the poison of liberalism into the state organism, its whole political makeup changed: states grew sick with a fatal disease, a corruption of the blood. All that remains is to watch the end of their death agonies. From liberalism constitutional government was born, and the constitution, as you well know, is nothing other than a school of conflict, discord, argument, disagreement, and fruitless partisan agitation -- in a word, a school of everything which increases the irresponsibility of the state. The parliamentary tribune, just as effectively as the press, condemned the state to inaction and helplessness. Then we replaced governmental administration with its caricature: a president, picked from the mob, the mob which we ourselves created...

"All nations are tormented; they call out for peace, for which they're ready to sacrifice everything, but we'll give them no peace until they agree to accept our international super-government, openly and humbly."

Every rational man can draw his own conclusions. For my own part, I'll remark that the destructive principles outlined in the above citations have not aged a bit; on the contrary, they're confirmed in every detail by the events of our day. What's more, these processes are happening more and more openly, on the highest political level. Having survived revolution and the fratricidal bloodbath of civil war, the horrors of mass repression and the terror of collectivization, Russia was able to save her Western allies, displaying wonders of heroism and manliness on the battlefields of the Second World War. It would seem that the era of mutual enmity should have retreated into the past, giving way to an alliance paid for by common sacrifice, but no. Hardly had the echoes of battle died down, than the Western allies sharply changed their attitude towards Russia. As a strong independent state she was of no use to anyone.

"By sowing chaos in Russia", said the American general Allen Dulles, head of US political intelligence in Europe and later Director of the CIA, in 1945, "we'll imperceptibly replace their values with false ones, which we'll force them to believe in. How? We'll find our accomplices, helpers and allies in Russia herself. In a series of episodes a tragedy, grandiose in scale, will be played out: the demise of the the last unbroken nation on Earth, the final, irrevocable extinguishment of her national self-consciousness. From art and literature, for example, we'll gradually exterminate the social element. We'll retrain artists, discourage in them the desire to depict the world and examine those processes taking place in the masses of the people. Literature, the theater and the cinema will all proclaim the basest of human feelings. We'll use all our means to support and promote those so-called creators who will hammer into the people's consciousness the cult of sex, violence, sadism and betrayal, in a word, immorality.

"We'll create chaos and confusion in the workings of the government. We'll actively but unnoticeably encourage bureaucratic stupidity and bribe-taking. Bureaucratic red-tape will be elevated to a virtue. Honesty and orderliness will be ridiculed as being of no use to anyone, an anachronism. Rudeness and insolence, lies and deceit, drunkenness and drug-addiction, animal fear of everyone and everything, indecency, betrayal, nationalism and strife between ethnic groups, and above all hatred for the Russian ethnos: we'll cultivate all of that, quietly and skillfully. ... And only the few, the very few, will guess or understand what's happening. But we'll put such people in a helpless situation, turn them into objects of ridicule. We'll find a way to slander them and declare them the dregs of society."

Let's take a good look around us. What other evidence do we need to understand that a war is being waged against Russia and the Russian people, a war which is base, dirty, well-financed, carefully-planned, continuous and merciless. And this is a war to the death, for the aim of its diabolical creators is none other than the total destruction of an entire country, of her people as such, for faithfulness to its historical calling and religious service, for having survived centuries of chaos, uprisings and wars and preserved through it all the shrine of religious morality, the secret, concealed in Christ, of the Creation and its Divine meaning, the indestructible faith in the final victory of good over evil.

"Out of the godless throngs emerged a whirlwind of uprising and anarchy, and against the Russian realm it rages with especial savagery, as against a zealous defender of lawful power, order and peace", warned Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow in the middle of the last century, foreseeing the great battles to come. Today the time has come to sum up and settle accounts accumulating for centuries. May shame and the curse of our descendants fall upon us if we prove unable to draw the necessary conclusions from our bitter historical experience, if we fritter away our Russia, smothering her in the verbal refuse of meetings, debates and conferences. Lord forbid!

It's time to learn to live relying only on God and ourselves. No one but we ourselves will do the heavy and difficult work necessary for the rebirth of Russia. The hour has come to remember the words of Emperor Alexander III, who on his deathbed said to the heir-tsarevich: "Know that Russia has no friends. They fear our enormousness...". In his last will and testament one hundred years ago the autocrat-ruler of Russia said much which it would behoove all those not indifferent to the fate of Russia to pay attention to. Here's what Nikolai II heard from the lips of his dying father:

"You will have to take onto your shoulders the heavy burden of power and carry it to the grave, just as I and our forebears did. I transfer to you the empire which God entrusted to me... Only one thing was of interest to me: the good of my people and the greatness of Russia. I strove to keep peace within the country and without, so that the nation could calmly develop, become stronger and prosper. Autocracy created Russia's historical individuality. If autocracy falls, God forbid, then Russia will fall too. The destruction of Russia's traditional form of power will open an era of endless discord and civil strife.

"I command you to love everything which serves the good, honor and dignity of Russia... You bear responsibility for the fate of your subjects before the throne of the Almighty. Be firm and manly. In foreign policy maintain an independent position. Avoid wars. In internal matters protect above all the Church. She has saved Russia more than once in her hour of need. Strengthen the family, which is the foundation of the nation."

May God help us understand, at long last, the full measure of our responsibility, the importance of the moment, the full horror of the catastrophe which awaits us if we fail to find the strength to oppose the savage forces of evil tormenting our country. I pray for this and firmly believe: Russia will wake up from her slumber! Amen.