![]() ![]() Such beliefs about sacred imagery being a window into another realm may date back to Paleolithic times. The cliff near the Holy Spirit is a sign of spiritual fortitude. The tree in the center is the Tree of Life. The angel on the left is the first member of the Trinity, God the Father, and the third angel represents the Holy Spirit. The chalice in the center is a symbol of Christ's redemptive sacrifice. 1, 5 The angel in the center represents the second person of the holy Trinity-Christ, depicted in traditional clothing. It represents the Old Testament Hospitality of Abraham and presents to the viewer a triune God in the form of 3 angels seated around a table. It was created for Trinity Cathedral for the iconostasis, a partition or screen decorated with icons that separated the sanctuary from the rest of the church, in Trinity–St Sergius Monastery. His masterpiece, the Old Testament Trinity (cover), is considered to be the most perfect and beautiful of Russian icons. Andrei Rublev is the leading icon painter of that era. In the 14th century, veneration of an icon is believed to have aided in casting off the yoke of the Mongol invaders. At the icon's surface, outer form and inner content are meant to harmonize and bring the believer face to face with a sense of timeless spiritual presence. ![]() 3Įastern Orthodox icon paintings were a special category that had religious significance. Happy families, dutiful mothers, contented workers in fields or factories, heroic soldiers, and idealized leaders were favored. Lenin maintained tolerance toward art, and Leon Trotsky, a leader of the revolution, argued that artistic freedom is the antidote to“lies, hypocrisy, and the spirit of conformity.” 2 (p157) Yet in the 1930s, under Stalin, modern art was declared decadent, and experimentation in the arts was replaced by socialist realism, which had to be proletarian (relevant to the workers and understandable to them), show scenes of everyday life, contain realistic representations, and support the aims of the state and the party. Initially revolutionary politics and radical nontraditional art were seen as complementary, with the exception of religious icons. Thousands of churches reopened and 10 new theological schools opened the regime permitted religious publications, and church membership grew dramatically. Yet the atheistic plan was abandoned in the wake of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, which forced Stalin to enlist the Russian Orthodox Church as an ally to arouse Russian patriotism against foreign aggression, but only after the church agreed to express loyalty to the Communist party. And its holiest shrine in Moscow had been demolished. 1 By 1939, with only about 100 churches officially functioning, the church had essentially ceased to exist as an organization. By 1932, 80 000 monks, nuns, and clergy had lost their lives, half the number serving before 1917. Stalin issued a 5-year atheistic plan to banish the idea of God. Some churches did remain open.Īfter Lenin, Joseph Stalin's rule in the late 1920s and 1930s intensified the bloody persecution of the church and claimed thousands of lives. ![]() Such tactics were unsuccessful because hardships and shortages intensified religious feeling. He called the clergy callous when they did not fully comply. In March 1922, Lenin used the severe famine as a pretext to order the church to surrender its treasure and its consecrated vessels used for religious services to be sold for famine relief. During 1918-1919, 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and more than 1200 priests were reported killed. 1 The patriarch's efforts did not deter the Bolsheviks, who confiscated religious property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. 1 The patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Tikhon of Moscow, responded to the decree by excommunicating the“open or disguised enemies of Christ,” without naming the government specifically. On January 20, 1918, the Bolsheviks decreed the formal separation of church and state, deprived the church of legal rights, and nationalized all church property.
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