Ideas of the "Russian World" and Ukraine: Value Epicrises on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Under the Moscow Patriarchate

Against the background of the identity, jurisdictional, and institutional crossroads in which contemporary Ukrainian Orthodoxy finds itself, the authors analyze the mental, value-related, and personal (linked to the “human factor”) influences in Ukraine of the destructive and militant ideology of the “Russian World” (Russkiy Mir), as well as the degree of involvement of leading functionaries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the dissemination of these influences. The article reveals the mechanisms of the corrosion of spirituality among the ecclesiastical elites of Russia and their satellites in Ukraine. This corrosion is manifested in the substitution of the Church’s mission with ideological service and the performance of political and geopolitical tasks – even to the point of apologetics for war. The authors demonstrate the connection between the contemporary doctrine of the Russian World and the ideology of the Russian Empire of the early twentieth century. The article focuses attention on the ideas and patterns of activity of Patriarch Cyril (Kirill Gundyaev) and Metropolitan Onuphrius (Onufrii Berezovskyi). The article’s materials draw heavily on the analysis of empirical data from parish practices, as well as on contextual study of a wide range of church documents from Russia and Ukraine, materials of church journalism, and the rhetoric of religious figures.