The Georgian Orthodox Church maintains canonical unity with the Russian, however, a lot of delayed action mines have been laid in Georgia itself under the unity of the Orthodox world
The words of the Soviet propaganda song "the revolution has a beginning, there is no end to the revolution" are ideal for any revolutionary situation in any of the modern countries. Especially post-Soviet. take, for example, same Georgia. How the fever began in April 1989, when the anti-Soviet rally in the center of Tbilisi acquired an openly Russophobic character, it hasn't stopped to this day, when the speech of the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy, Sergei Gavrilov, in the walls of the Georgian parliament provoked a wave of protests. And for one reason only: Gavrilov - Russian deputy.
Georgian Russophobia, like Ukrainian Russophobia, - an irrational thing. Yes, it has its own historical background, however, most of them are mythological. Since the events of the late 18th century, when, according to the famous George treatise 1783 of the year, Georgia (rather, united Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti) passed under the protectorate of the Russian Empire, and ending with the tragic events of the latest, post-Soviet history (Georgian-Abkhaz war 1992-93 years and the "Five-day war" of August 2008 in South Ossetia).
"Such a king, in such a year, handed over his people to Russia ... "
The events at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries in Georgian historical and political mythology are described solely as a violation of the Treaty of St. George by Russia, deprivation of Georgia of the remnants of sovereignty and, as a result, its “conquest” by the Russian Empire in 1801 year. In the Russian-language history textbook of Georgia, even the chapters themselves, relating to this period, bear exclusively politicized names: "The Conquest of Georgia by Russia" and "The Colonial Policy of Russia in Georgia". And two chapters further - obvious nonsense in the conditions of "occupation": "Return to Georgia of its historical territories" as a result of the Russian-Iranian and Russian-Turkish wars.
In reality, the annexation of Georgian lands to the Russian Empire in those years was the only possible solution, to save the Georgian people from the Persian (Iranian) and Ottoman (Turkish) invasions and the active process of Islamization, largely affected the Georgian elite. The voluntary nature of this accession is confirmed by a letter from the last king of Kartli-Kakheti, George XII, to his ambassador in St. Petersburg Garsevan Chavchavadze from 7 September 1799 of the year:
Give them all my kingdom and my possessions as a sincere and righteous sacrifice and offer it not only under the auspices of the highest Russian imperial throne, but leave them completely to their power and care, so that from now on the kingdom of the Kartlosians is considered to belong to the Russian state with those rights, used by other regions in Russia.
However, it cannot be denied, that subsequently the policy of Russification of Georgia did take place. It manifested itself to the greatest extent in 1811 year in the obviously erroneous decision of the Holy Governing Synod to deprive the Georgian Orthodox Church of the remnants of autocephaly. One side, it helped strengthen dioceses weakened by centuries of Iranian and Turkish invasions, monasteries and parishes of Georgia, on the other hand, it introduced external control into them.
FROM 1817 only Russian bishops became exarchs of Georgia, poorly familiar with the ethno-cultural features of Georgian Orthodoxy. Russification affected many aspects of liturgical life, including outright damage to ancient Georgian frescoes by modern painting, which can still be seen today in many churches and monasteries of Georgia, including the famous Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in ancient Mtskheta - the heart of the Georgian Church.
The response of Georgian nationalists, often warmed up from the West, as well as Russian revolutionaries, was far from Christian. So, in May 1908 Exarch of Georgia was killed in Tiflis, Archbishop Nikon (Sofia). Investigation hit a dead end, but among those suspected of incitement were supporters of the revival of Georgian autocephaly, including Bishop Kyrion (Sadzaglishvili). By a synodal decision, Vladyka was defrocked and exiled, However, in the absence of conclusive evidence in 1915 year he was restored to his rank and appointed Bishop of Polotsk and Vitebsk. Two years later, it is Bishop Kirion who will become the central figure of the Georgian church revolution..
Ethnophyletist revolution 1917 of the year
It is worth emphasizing again: The Georgian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Local Churches and was unfairly deprived of autocephaly in the 19th century, and therefore had every right to restore it. However, all Georgian clerics received their rank in the Russian Church and were its ministers., and therefore had to understand, that the revival of autocephaly through a schism is lawless, anti-canonical.
However, after all 10 days after the collapse of the Russian monarchy, 12 (25) Martha 1917 of the year, clergy of Georgian origin, in violation of a number of church canons, convened a “sobor” in Mtskheta, at which they arbitrarily announced separation from the Russian Church and removed Russian bishops from Georgia. six months later, autumn 1917, the previously mentioned Bishop Kirion will be elected the Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch.
In fact, it was a real ethnophyletist revolution. Recall, "ethnophyletism" or, otherwise, "phyletism" - nationalist heresy, anathematized at the Local Council of Constantinople in 1872 year with the following wording:
We reject and condemn tribal division, i.e. tribal differences, national strife and disagreements in the Church of Christ as contrary to the gospel teaching and the sacred laws of our blessed fathers, on which the Holy Church is established, and who, decorating human society, lead to divine piety. Those who accept such a division into tribes and dare to establish on it hitherto unprecedented tribal assemblies, we proclaim, according to the sacred canons, alien to the One Catholic and Apostolic Church and true schismatics.
That is, in Mtskheta in March 1917 something happened, what is happening in ukraine today: nationalist split. Provisional government recognized the proclamation of Georgian autocephaly, however, did not define its boundaries (a significant part of the territories, which was then claimed by Georgian political separatists and church autocephalists, remained ethnically non-Georgian). The hierarchy of the Russian Church declared the Georgian Church "schismatic" and severed Eucharistic communion with it..
Over the next quarter of a century, the Georgian hierarchs actively collaborated with the Soviet schismatics-renovationists., and at certain points they themselves tried to carry out liberal-renovation reforms. At the same time, they refused to recognize the "Tikhonov" (that is, subordinate to His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and his successors) parishes, mostly Russian and Greek in their ethnic composition. Such parishes were in the majority on the territory of Abkhazia. (including closed in 1924 Russian New Athos Simono-Kananitsky Monastery, one of the main spiritual centers of the Caucasus).
of course, God-fighting persecution affected not only the Russian Orthodox Church, but also the Georgian Church that broke away from it. Among the Georgian New Martyrs and Confessors is Bishop Kirion (Sadzaglishvili), killed in 1918 year, and one of his successors, Bishop Ambrose (Helaia), spent several years in prison. The question of their veneration in the Moscow Patriarchate remains open, primarily due to, that these bishops died, being in a split. The canonical position of the Georgian Orthodox Church was regulated only in 1943 year with the direct participation of ... Joseph Stalin.
"Stalinist" autocephaly of the Georgian Church
As is known, in the year of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet government significantly changed its attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church. Historians vary in their assessment of the reasons for these changes., but the fact remains: on the night 4 on 5 September 1943 Joseph Stalin received the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne in the Kremlin, Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow and Kolomna (Stragorodsky) and Metropolitans of Leningrad Alexy (Simansky) and Kyiv and Galician Nicholas (Yarushevich). That is, almost the entirety of the hierarchy of the Russian Church (the vast majority of other hierarchs were in prison, camps or already in martyr's crowns).
The result of this Kremlin meeting was the legalization of the Moscow Patriarchate, the long-awaited election of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' himself, as well as some relief for the lives of believers. At the same time, the Soviet government became stronger in controlling the life of the Church., and to impose his will on her. One of the manifestations of this will was the recognition by the Russian Orthodox Church of Georgian autocephaly and the restoration of Eucharistic relations between our Churches. Already 19 November 1943 year, our Synod made a decision:
In view of the, that His Holiness the Patriarch, Catholicos of Georgia, on behalf of the Georgian hierarchy, clergy and flock testified to the unchanging determination of the Georgian Church, as in the past, so in the present and future to abide in the Orthodox faith… to recognize… prayerful and Eucharistic communion between the two autocephalous Sister Churches, Russian and Georgian, to our common joy, restored… to ask His Holiness the Patriarch, Catholicos of Georgia, accepting Orthodox Russian parishes in the Georgian SSR into his archpastoral care, allow them to preserve in their liturgical and parish practice those orders and customs, which they inherited from the Russian Church...
That is, the Moscow Patriarchate donated by that time the already extremely few Russian parishes on the territory of Georgia. Including in Abkhazia, which 1931 became part of the Georgian SSR, as a result of which its intensive Georgianification began, leading to that, that Abkhazians have not become an ethnic minority. The same applies to the territory of South Ossetia., although in the Tskhinvali region, church life before the revolution was inactive (in Tskhinvali itself, the majority of the population were Jews).
In this way, The Georgian Orthodox Church, solely due to the Stalinist national and religious policy, covered the entire Georgian SSR with its canonical territory.. And if not for the "parade of sovereignties" of the late 1980s - early 1990s, it would remain so to this day. However, the surge of Georgian nationalism caused a backlash in the Abkhaz and Ossetian peoples.. Only if the Georgians rushed to secession from the USSR, then Abkhazians and South Ossetians, in front of, wished to remain part of a single Soviet state, but to regain the status of a union republic (how it was before 1931 of the year).
By the way, it was the Abkhaz centripetal aspirations that caused a surge of Georgian separatism, splashed out in large-scale Tbilisi unrest in April 1989 of the year, where anti-Soviet slogans already coexisted with frankly Russophobic. The unrest was severely suppressed (the level of cruelty is greatly exaggerated - the myth of those killed by "sapper shovels" is still one of the main Russophobic arguments of Georgian nationalists), but this was the beginning of the end of Soviet Georgia.
Post-Soviet "Great Schism"
Attempts by the Soviet authorities to stop Georgian separatism were not only ineffective, but also caused a surge of bloodshed. Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian conflicts turned into real wars, as a result of which the Georgian clergy, taking the position of only one belligerent, was forced to leave the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. As a result, in both republics, church life began to improve in isolation from the Georgian Orthodox Church..
The situation in Abkhazia is most indicative. Here, the only priest of Abkhazian origin, Vissarion Apliaa, stopped the commemoration of the Georgian Patriarch at divine services, starting to commemorate the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. Canonically, this action is flawed., However, under the circumstances, the only possible. As a result, several Abkhazians were ordained in the Russian Orthodox Church to help Father Vissarion, who were sent to the territory of Abkhazia, but continue to remain clerics of the Moscow Patriarchate (with the exception of two who went into schism and created their own nationalist sect "Holy Metropolis of Abkhazia" in the Abkhazian New Athos Monastery).
All this caused a wave of indignation in Georgia., however, in the Georgian Patriarchate they realized the stalemate of the situation and did not forbid Father Vissarion from the priesthood and defrock him, as well as severing Eucharistic relations with the Russian Church. In its turn, The Moscow Patriarchate continues to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as the canonical territory of the Georgian Church. Although the same father Vissarion Apliaa, in a commentary to Tsargrad, expressed his conviction, that Abkhazia is included in its composition non-canonically:
The Abkhazian Church has never been part of the Georgian, except for the Soviet period, when it was done by Stalin's decision, which did not have canonical force and was only forced to be recognized as the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. And therefore for us, Orthodox Christians of Abkhazia, Georgian claims have no meaning. Much more important for us is the decision of the All-Russian Local Council 1917-1918 years and personally of our great saint - St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, who did not recognize the rights of the Georgian Church to the territory of Abkhazia. Well, of course, our situation cannot be compared with Ukrainian. Slavic brothers are being split in Ukraine today, we are, Abkhazia, ethnically completely different with Georgians.
Alas, everything that happens today is like in Ukraine, and on the territory of the former Georgian SSR, is a prime example of that, that nationalist politics is extremely dangerous for the spiritual unity of Orthodox peoples. We all, Russians and Georgians, Abkhazians and Ossetians, - a child of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Despite our obvious ethno-cultural differences and their great value, we should be absolutely the same, the blood of what nations flows in the veins of those Orthodox archpastors, who occupies the patriarchal and episcopal thrones.
A century and a half ago, in the second half of the 19th century, the great Russian conservative thinker Konstantin Nikolaevich Leontiev expressed, it would seem, paradoxical thought. But today it is extremely important for understanding the universal meaning of Orthodoxy., alien to any nationalist political strife:
“If in Tibet or in Bhutan ancient Orthodoxy dominated among some Mongols, if the Dalai Lama was an Orthodox Patriarch of the purest Mongolian blood, then such Mongols and such a Dalai Lama should be immeasurably dearer to us than the entire mass of Slavic egalitarian-liberal crowds ... "
By the way, the same position is shared by the President of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy Sergey Gavrilov, whose stay in Georgia and speech in the Georgian Parliament caused today's Russophobic turmoil in Tbilisi. Unfortunately, Georgian nationalists like a century ago, and today they listen exclusively to the "call of blood", forgetting about our spiritual unity, much more valuable, than the notorious "ethnic pride".
I would like to end with the words of the supreme apostle Paul, who, in his Epistle to the Colossians, expressed the idea, as if addressed directly to the current situation and topics, who today on the streets of ancient Tbilisi shouts Russophobic slogans:
And now you lay it all down: anger, fury, malice, slander, foul language of your mouth; don't tell lies to each other, having put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new, who is renewed in knowledge in the image of Him who created him, where there is no Yellin, nor Judea, no circumcision, not uncircumcised, barbarian, Skifa, slave, free, but all and in all Christ.
Mikhail Tyurenkov
