http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/23/europe/russia.1-138821.php
Welcome or not, Russian Orthodoxy is back in public schools By Clifford J. Levy Sunday, September 23, 2007 KOLOMNA, Russia: One of the most discordant debates in Russian society is playing out in public schools like those in this city not far from Moscow, where the other day a teacher named Irina Donshina set aside her textbooks, strode before her second-graders and, as if speaking from a pulpit, posed a simple question: "Whom should we learn to do good from?" "From God!" the children said. "Right!" Donshina said. "Because people he created crucified him. But did he accuse them or curse them or hate them? Of course not! He continued loving and feeling pity for them, though he could have eliminated all of us and the whole world in a fraction of a second." Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the return of religion to public life, localities in Russia are increasingly decreeing that to receive a proper public school education, children should be steeped in the ways of the Russian Orthodox Church, including its traditions, liturgy and important people. The lessons are typically introduced at the urging of church leaders, who say that the enforced atheism of communism left Russians out of touch with a faith that was once at the core of their identity. The new curriculum reflects the nation's continuing struggle to define what it means to be Russian in the post-communist era and what role religion should play after being brutally suppressed under Soviet rule. Yet the drive by a revitalized church to weave its tenets into the education system has prompted a backlash, and not only from the remains of the Communist Party. Opponents assert that the Russian Orthodox leadership is weakening the constitutional separation of church and state by proselytizing in public schools. They say Russia is a multiethnic, pluralistic nation and risks alienating its large Muslim minority if Russian Orthodoxy takes on the trappings of a state religion. The church calls those accusations unfounded, maintaining that the courses are cultural, not religious. In Donshina's class at least, the children seem to have their own understanding of a primary theme of the course. "One has to love God," said Kristina Posobilova. "We should believe in God only." The dispute came to a head recently when 10 prominent Russian scientists, including two Nobel laureates, sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin, protesting what they termed the "growing clericalization" of Russian society. In addition to criticizing religious teachings in public schools, the scientists attacked church efforts to obtain recognition of degrees in theology, and the presence of Russian Orthodox chaplains in the military. Local officials carry out education policy under Moscow's oversight, with some latitude. Some regions require these courses in Russian Othodoxy, while others allow parents to remove their children from them, though they rarely, if ever, do. Other areas have not adopted them. Putin, though usually not reluctant to overrule local authorities, has skirted the issue. He said in September that he preferred that children learn about religion in general, especially four faiths with longstanding ties to Russia - Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. But the president, who has been photographed wearing a crucifix and sometimes attends church services and other church events, did not say current practices should be scaled back. "We have to find a form acceptable for the entire society," he said. "Let's think about it together." Polls show that roughly half to two-thirds of Russians consider themselves Russian Orthodox, a sharp increase since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. Clergy frequently take part in government events, and people often wear crucifixes. But Russia remains deeply secular, and most Russians say that they never attend church. About 10 percent to 15 percent of Russians are Muslim, most of whom live in the south, though Moscow and other major cities have large Muslim populations. With emigration and assimilation, the Jewish population has dwindled to a few hundred thousand people out of 140 million. Muslim and Jewish leaders have generally opposed Russian Othodoxy courses, though some say that schools should be permitted to offer them as extracurricular activities. "We do not want Muslim children forced to study other religions," said Marat Khazrat Murtazin, rector of the Moscow Islamic University. "Muslims should study their own religion." In Imperial Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church wielded enormous influence as the official religion, and virtually all children took a Russian Orthodox course known as the Law of God. One of the scientists who signed the letter to Putin, Zhores Alferov, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000, said that he feared that the country was returning to those days. He recalled that his own father had to study the Law of God under the last czar, Nicholas II. "The church would like to have more believers," said Alferov, a member of Parliament in the Communist bloc. "But they can have their religious schools and their Sunday schools. In normal government schools, absolutely not." Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, leader of the church, has repeatedly asserted that to appreciate the arts, literature, heritage and history of Russia, children need to know about Russian Orthodoxy. He described the scientists' letter to Putin as "an echo of the atheistic propaganda of the past." Five years ago, Kolomna, 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, south of Moscow, was one of the first cities to take up the curriculum. Local church and education officials noted that before the revolution, Kolomna was a Russian Orthodox center, site of many cathedrals and monasteries that were demolished or used as warehouses and the like under communism. Given the area's history, they asked, is it not fitting that students learn about Russian Orthodoxy? "The goal, I would say, is that all the powers that be, the church and the government, make sure that people, children, know their history and their roots," said the Reverend Vladimir Pakhachev, a church leader here who helps oversee the curriculum.
