As part of reporting for a piece in this week’s issue about the relationship between the Russian state and the Russian Orthodox church, we spoke to Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, the church’s external affairs boss. The full transcript, lightly edited for readability, is published here.
The Economist: I'd like to start with the church’s role in a sense of national identity of Russians and how the church’s role in that national identity has changed since the end of communism.
I think if we look at the history of the Russian nation and of the Russian state it would be very difficult to overestimate the role the Orthodox church played in the fashioning of the Russian national identity. And if you look at the Russian culture, not speaking of the medieval culture with its churches and icons and church singing, even if we look at the...Continue reading
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