A necessary condition for social bullying and persecution is a total situation of “personal neglect” initiated or encouraged by the authorities. But another condition has arisen in history: the split in the Russian world, which has been repeated many times, accompanied by terror and persecution. The split resulted not only in “disregard for the individual”, but also new ideologems and imaginary moral guidelines that were taking Russian people further and further away from the Truth and from God.
Academician Alexander Mikhailovich Panchenko spoke about the development of Grozny's “political theology”, which served as the basis for terror and persecution and the religious and ideological prerequisites for splitting the world into “oprichnina” and “zemshchina” (Excerpts).
Moscow Russia. Sixteenth century. The reign of Ivan the Terrible. The rationale and conditions for punitive ideology. The consequences of the split of the Russian world into oprichnina and Zemstvo.
“The sixteenth century can be called the century of Russian loneliness. This condition is not the rule but the exception for Russia. In the Middle Ages, it was part of the Orthodox community led by Byzantium. Everything changed in the 16th century. Byzantium and the Balkans recently became provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Of the Orthodox powers, only Russia and Georgia (there were no regular ties with it) retained their independence. Loneliness was realized, as evidenced by the conclusion of the 1st edition of the Russian Chronograph, an official essay that arose just in the era when Moscow “brought together” specific Russia. The Lord, it is said here, handed over pious kingdoms to the infidels for our (read Orthodox) sins. But we must not despair (...); we must repent; we must hope that the spark that smolders “in the ashes in the darkness of the unfaithful authorities” (i.e. Muslims) will ignite a flame, and then the Orthodox will come to life and rise up. “Our Russian land, by the grace and prayers of the Most Pure Virgin Mary and all holy wonderworkers, is growing and growing young and rising. May she, the merciful Christ, grow and grow younger and expand to the end of time.” This means that Russia has been spared and Russia has been elected. The Orthodox brothers are under yoke, and the Russian principalities, of which there were many until recently, have gathered under the high hand of Moscow, which has freed itself from the Horde dependence and will soon conquer Kazan and Astrakhan. But cultural loneliness is a problem. We must determine our own path, despite the fact that it seems to be the only correct one in advance, because Moscow is the Third (and last) Rome, and there will never be a fourth Rome. Only in Moscow is truth, piety and light; only here can an Orthodox tsar stay. Ivan the Terrible became the first tsar to be married, that is, the legitimate tsar. (...) It was natural for the newly-minted tsar of Moscow to look to Tsargrad and conform to Byzantine political concepts. From these, Moscow adopted the religious interpretation of royal prerogatives. Russian publicists of various genres agreed that God is the “king of heaven” and the tsar is the “earthly God”. (...)
.. so the idea of an “earthly God” has become popular and has become public use. Grozny also willingly took advantage of it. (...) Having broken with the “chosen parliament”, with Adashev, Sylvester and Kurbsky, he never tires of scolding them from abroad for “admiring the teaching rank” and for daring to be tsarist mentors and advisers. The Tsar never tires of emphasizing that he does not want anyone and will not listen to anyone.
Perhaps he intends to take lessons at history school? It never happened. If he resorts to it, it is only to find support and justification for his position as the king's autarky. He needs the actions of premature rulers, Old Testament, Byzantine and others, for one purpose — to emphasize that those monarchs who listened to advisers, spiritual or secular, “to the death of a priest.” On the other hand, those who did not give them a vote defeated all their enemies and became famous. The only tradition that deserves attention and imitation is the “custom” of not listening to anyone and not learning from any of the people.
The king's authority comes from God, and only the Divine can offer him a model of conduct. But the deity is threefold, and it is impossible to “cut” the Trinity. This is a terrible sin; it is a path to destruction. A “cut” will upset the balance of royal behavior, the balance between law and love for one's neighbor, between strength and meekness. (...) As for Ivan the Terrible, he did not stop “cutting” and preferred the first person of the Trinity, God Father Sabaoth, a formidable and punishing god. Another model for the Russian Monarch was Mikhail the Archangel. (...)
“The Terrible Tsar's Name” was simply a titular formula that meant an autocratic sovereign whose power was unlimited by anyone or anything.
Ivan the Terrible executed and imprisoned not only villains; he shed blood without caring about the victims' guilt or innocence, and was not at all embarrassed about it. (...)
Where does such an unshakeable self-confidence come from? It is due precisely to a religious view of history. Grozny imitates Savaof, who can punish without apparent guilt: after all, the common evil of the world is being punished... (...).
The Tsar imitates Archangel Michael: after all, the Archangel is not only a “royal angel”, but also an “angel of death”. Before leading his soul through twenty ordeals in the afterlife, he ejects it with a fiery trident. (...)
“I confess and know,” the king proclaimed, “that those who live in evil and break God's commandments not only suffer there, but also here are destined to drink the cup of the Lord's rage for their evil deeds and experience various punishments...”
This is truly a religion of power; it is an earthly hell.
Both Kurbsky and Metropolitan Philip Kolychev, who was tortured by Malyuta, called the guardsmen “shepherds” and a “Satanic regiment”. Academician S.B. Veselovsky's arguments can serve as a comment: “Words are synonymous, in addition to being synonymous. According to the ideas of the underworld at that time, the “kingdom of God” was a realm of eternal light, beyond which was the realm of eternal darkness, “the kingdom of Satan”... The expressions pitch and pitch, formed by analogy with the words opric, oprichny and oprichnik, were not only a play on words, but at the same time branded the guardsmen as originals children of hell, as servants of Satan.”
There is no need to think that Grozny “reviewed” this language association when establishing the oprichnina. Most likely, this brilliant stylist foresaw it. If the king is like God, the guardsmen are like demons. They are “dark” like a hellish army, dressed from head to toe in black and ride on black hollows (...). The doctrine of punishment, as it has developed in Grozny's political theology, is in fact extremely simple. It can be expressed by parallelism: in the next world, punishment is determined by God, but Satan and demons carry out punishment. In this world, the king disgraces, and sheer guardsmen are engaged in punitive practices.
Like demons, they abuse the soul. They cut through bodies, and it's not pointless violence. In the Russian version of Orthodoxy, there was (and still is) a popular misconception that in order to stand up for the Last Judgment, you must “have a body”, even if it has decayed, even bones. And after the guardsmen, pieces of meat were left, and even dogs ate them, because it was forbidden to bury the executed. Guardsmen kill “everywhere” with families, including children and elders, so that there are no loved ones left, so that there will be no one to offer funeral prayers that somehow alleviate the fate of the dead. Guardsmen use the most sophisticated tools of torture and execution because they focus on apocryphal descriptions of hell. Orthodox hell is both very hot and very cold at the same time. Therefore, winter, frost, frozen rivers — everything suits the guardsmen, just as a huge frying pan specially forged to roast people suits them.
And what is all this being done for? How does Grozny explain this?
“I am diligently trying to turn people to truth and light so that they may know the one true God, glorified in the Trinity, and the sovereign given to them by God, and abandon internecine strife and criminal life that undermine kingdoms... After all, this is sweetness and light!” (...)
By his old age, the king had developed something like a reflection. By his order, the Synodikon of the Disgraced was formed (to remember them), and he began to make heart-to-heart contributions... But it was too late.
Tyranny has not only ruined the country; it has corrupted it. Betting on the worst, embodied in oprichnin, removed decent people from power, and made the worst even worse. When joining the “Satanic Regiment”, it was mandatory to swear an oath of renunciation from parents, that is, a direct violation of the fifth commandment. Lying has become the behavioral principle of those who wanted to “break out”...
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