Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency JPRS translation reproduces an interview published in the Soviet journal Sotsiologicheskiye Issledovaniya, signed to press on 8 July 1988. In it, deputy chief editor Gennadiy Batygin talks with Innokentiy, a teacher at the Leningrad seminary. The conversation takes place during the millennium of the Christianization of Russia. They discuss religion under glasnost and perestroyka, ideological prohibitions, the shortage of Bibles, preservation of church monuments and the position of believers in Soviet society. The document contains no UFO material.
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## Document 2 of 3 superimposes a 'strange' imprint on their consciousness. Here we see similar problems, but 'in reverse.' The unsatisfactory catechization of parishioners is well known, and few understand the meaning of the liturgy, and very few know the basis of the Orthodox doctrine-- the 'Articles of Faith.' As a result of the low level of religiosity in the structure of religious behavior the sphere of ritual is over-emphasized, but the main issue remains a man's soul. What is happening here? It seems to me that sometimes, even if in exceptional cases, religiosity acquires the form of a unique cultural-ecological ghetto' whence a person surveys the world with the detestation of an outsider. 68. Perhaps future researchers on the destiny of Christianity will note among the trials it endures not only persecution (which is powerless to destroy the faith) but also spiritual pharisaism, devouring--in equal measure--the souls of believers and nonbelievers. Let us remember what Pasternak said: ''Everything is drowning in pharisaism.'" 69. Why am I absorbed with these generally trivial details? Obviously a church separated from the state, or more accurately the Orthodox community, possesses one 'advantage' over other non-state public associations, even unofficial ones, namely, it is 'unofficially' separated from society and is a certain 'internal border' (I take this idea from the religious expert Sergey Filatov). It is impossible to insure normal activity for any and all congregations in a society merely by decree. What is needed is normal democracy, political culture and the habit of respect for human rights. 70. It is not enough to establish freedom of conscience by decree. Conscience is the kind of thing that needs no permission; it is or it is not. Freedom of religion becomes a reality only when conscience becomes a matter of the personal freedom of each person, a matter of personal choice. Today we talk about freedom, alternative thinking and the need for different thinking and political pluralism. But the renewal of life is possible only given the rejection of the 'image of the enemy'' and total acceptance of the doctrine of nonviolence as an ethic and principle of the interrelationships between people. And of peace as a state of the soul, of moral purity and belief in good. There are values that cannot but be sacred for believers and nonbelievers if, of course, a person has not lost his humanity. These are 'thou shalt not kill,' 'thou shalt not steal,' 'honor thy father and thy mother,' 'they shalt not bear false witness'... 71. [Innokentiy] You have talked about peace as a state of the soul... The great suppliant of Russia, the Reverend Serafim Sarovskiy said: 'Acquire a soul at peace and thousands around you will be
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 19 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.