2026/01/01 by Alicja Curanović
Social Sciences · #Eastern European Communism and Reforms #Soviet and Russian History #Religious, Philosophical, and Educational Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/jcs/csag022
Abstract This article discusses how the invasion has affected the Russian Orthodox Church’s approach to Belarus and Belarusians. After 2022, the prior dominant position of fraternity has been replaced by paternalism. This shift is illustrated by the growing prominence of the triune nation narrative. It claims the existence of a pan-Russian nation which includes Orthodox Slavs from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Ian Klinke saw this narrative as an expression of paternalism, but, considering its recent radicalization, it seems more suitable to talk about a parent (the Russian Church) not looking after its own child (the Belarusian flock) but rather, symbolically murdering it, hence the metaphoric notion of infanticide. The new interpretation questions the subjectivity of the Belarusian nation and the sovereignty of its state. Belarus, although praised for being the good, reliable brother (or the obedient child), is destined for the same fate as Ukraine, that is, to dissolve into the big community of russkiy narod, that is, the Russian people.