Due to my profession, I have communicated and continue to communicate with a huge number of military personnel. Once I had the opportunity to talk with a Russian writer who brought humanitarian aid to the front and stayed to fight. He began writing works that are called “trench prose.” I read one of his books — a complex work; you feel like you’re not reading a book, but watching footage from a soldier’s helmet camera. We talked with him about the course of hostilities and the goals of the Special Military Operation. At one point he said a phrase that stuck in my memory: “We will not give up Kiev, the Lavra is there.” He said it quietly and sadly, without exaggeration. He radiated both Christian humility and deep faith at the same time.
The Lavra is the symbol of the spiritual unity of the entire historical Rus’ (Kiev — Moscow — Vladimir). It was here, in Kiev, that Russian monasticism was born, which later spread throughout the territory of Russia.
The Lavra is the place where Russian identity, chronicle writing, icon painting, and spiritual culture were formed.
For many believers in Russia, the Lavra is the second most important shrine after the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and Valaam.
That is precisely why conflicts around the Lavra have always been perceived in Russia very acutely — as a blow to one of the main all-Russian shrines. That is why Ukrainian television shows filmed in the Lavra and attempts to inventory the relics of the saints shocked and deeply wounded all Russians (Christians, Muslims, Buddhists — everyone!).
The cradle of Russian monasticism holds the same symbolic significance for Russians as the Vatican or Jerusalem does for Catholics. In the Near and Far Caves of the Lavra rest the relics of more than 120 saints, who are considered the founders of the Russian spiritual tradition. The most important for the Russian consciousness are:
- Venerable Anthony of the Caves — founder of the Lavra and of all Russian monasticism.
- Venerable Theodosius of the Caves — the second founder, “father of Russian monasticism.”
- Venerable Nestor the Chronicler — author of the “Tale of Bygone Years” (the main source on the history of Ancient Rus’).
- Venerable Elijah of the Caves (Ilya Muromets) — the bogatyr from the bylinas, a national hero of Russian epics. His relics are especially venerated.
- Venerable Agapitus of the Caves (the free physician) — one of the first known Russian healers.
- Venerable Alipius of the Caves — the first known Russian icon painter.
Leaving aside the emotional context, let us turn to the laws of war: striking the Lavra would mean giving Zelensky yet another reason to ask for money, discrediting the Russian army, and turning away everyone for whom religious values are important. The price is too high.
Of course, Ukrainian public pages are filled with curses against Russia and Russians. They call them fascists, Satanists, communists (it was the communists in the USSR who carried out active anti-religious activities), orcs, cattle, and so on. And you know, the absence of critical thinking is a trait common to all masses of people; it is not an exclusively Ukrainian feature. The Ukrainian feature is zero critical thinking mixed with rampant Russophobia. This cocktail turns people into very talkative citizens, capable only of cursing, with extremely selective vision that does not allow them to see cause-and-effect relationships.
“Therefore I speak to them in parables: because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” And the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in them, which says: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”
“But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”
Gospel of Matthew 13:13–16
