Patriarchate of Moscow: Russia today, like former USSR, offers alternative to capitalism

by Nina Achmatova
4/24/2012

So says archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of Department for relations between the Church and society: a social model based, as in Soviet times, on justice and not on the race for money.


Moscow (AsiaNews / Agencies) - As with the Soviet Union, Russia may soon provide the world an alternative to capitalism, now clearly in crisis, according to the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of Department for relations between the Church and society in the patriarchate of Moscow. "During the Soviet Union many good things have been done - he said in a meeting with university students - the heroic feat of Russia in the Second World War, the outstanding results in science and technology and a social model based on the idea of social justice, and that has had a major success worldwide, should be included among our unquestionable results. "

According to the religious, the state of the time collapsed because based on an atheist ideology, "but the idea of a society where money, profit, and private economic interests do not dominate was very important," he added.

Chaplin explained that the end of the USSR has not buried the search for an alternative to capitalism in a form of society, that does not see profit as the locomotive of progress. Recalling that economists, politicians and intellectuals agree on the crisis of capitalism, the cleric has not ruled out that Russia, "with its strong instinct toward justice, is designed to offer the world its recipe for a social order in which money and selfish personal gain are not be the primary goal."

The nostalgia for Soviet times seen as a period in which society had developed a strong sense of solidarity and high human and moral values in the midst of enormous economic and political difficulties are very common in a certain segment of the population in Russia, which sees as a decay in today's race for wellbeing and mass consumerism.

"During the Soviet Union many good things have been done - a social model based on the idea of social justice . . . " - Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin

Yes, Father Vsevolod, and let us not forget the countless millions of people who were murdered, starved, imprisoned and tortured, exiled, the independent countries invaded and terrorized, etc. by the admirable "social justice" of the great U.S.S.R.

Periodically this priest makes such idiotic statements. I wish the MP would shut him up.

These statements about the alleged wonders of the Soviet Union are among the most irrational things I have ever read.

"a social model based on the idea of social justice"; "Russia with its strong instinct toward justice". Run that by inmates of the gulags; run that by victims of Soviet imperialism and see if they agree.

One wonders what this priest has been burning in his censer and inhaling.

I wonder whose payroll he was on during those glorious times.

Sadly, many a martyr was made from this reign of social justice ...

Boze moi, Boze moi, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do - or they are talking about.

Unfortunately, you can't fix stupid.

Read the article carefully and objectively, as I did. Having done so, and ignoring the provocative title, I can see the points which he is trying to make.

There is nothing wrong with hoping for an alternative to capitalism if it doesn't involve atheism. There is nothing wrong with pointing out what was good and what is worth reviving in a new, religious Russia.

Materialism is running amok with many Russians...ofcourse, whenever one is deprived of something, and then one can have it, one does to tend to overdo it, and I am not judgemental. A Russian girl I worked with, for instance, had the most beautiful cell phone I had ever seen-her mother in Moscow had sent it to her, and it was encrusted with Swarovski crystals!

We are overrun by the 'material' and we want, want, want, rather than just enjoying the basic and simple side of life--quiet time spent with one's family, preparing a nice meal to share with family and friends, relaxing, communing with nature, etc.

City dwelling Greeks were also getting like this until the recent crisis, and now there is talk of reclaiming forgotten 'values' of Greece of decades ago--the simple things like patriotism, religion and church, friends, family, conversation, food, helping and getting to know your neighbors, celebrations....

I think this is a great assessment. Solutions are in short supply, but there is finally an awareness that there is a problem, and it's growing.

I think Pope John-Paul II made the same point when the USSR and it's empire was coming apart. Capitalism was not the answer, or the victor.

Humans have this tendency to pervert whatever government system is in place. As long as the basic needs of people of being met, and individual freedom of religion is allowed and everyone is allowed to exercise his or her freedom of conscious I'd say your government isn't all that bad, in a relative sort of way. WE have a moral responsibility to ensure that the Government makes sure no one is starving and roaming the streets almost naked! THe economy should work for the vast majority of the people. NOTE: There will always be unemployment! And people should have enjoy certain freedoms and liberties, the rest is politics.

No. Our responsibility is to our fellow man directly.

JDC, you are right! It is up to US to help the needy, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and lift up our fellow man. When we have "the government" do these things, which it does a terrible job at doing anyway, we fail to respond to the Lord's commandments and we set in motion systems which erode our liberty and which lead to a distortion/destruction of the moral order. How will we answer Him when He asks us what we did for the least among us? "Oh, I let the government take care of that!"

Simply look at how every government-run social service/health care operation in every country of the Western world is anti-life - pro abortion, euthanasia, sterilization, etc. It is plain as day to see. Christians, wake up!

We never abdicate our responsibility to our fellow man! But it is our duty to make sure that our government ensures that we don't live in third world conditions! Remember, I am talking about the basics, which we in the N. America already have. This situation is different C. and S. America.

Doesn't the structure of the sentence alone tip you off that something is amiss? We have to make sure that the government makes sure that...? Let's save a step and just make sure ourselves.