Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior (pictured here) in Moscow, Russia, reflects the struggle and faith of the Church of Russia. During the Soviet era, when the atheist state sought to repress and wipe out Christianity in the Soviet Union, the cathedral was destroyed. The original cathedral took 40 years to build and was consecrated on May 26, 1883. In the Fall of 1917, the Bolsheviks seized control of Moscow and by 1922 the Soviet Union was officially established as a communist state. During this period the Church faced fierce oppression as church properties were confiscated and bishops, priests, and monastics were abducted to be imprisoned and/or killed.

 

Under the leadership of Stalin as head of the communist state, a decision was made to destroy the cathedral; this plan also included the construction of the "Palace of the Soviets" on the site of the demolished cathedral. The proposed Palace was meant to be a monument to "victorious communism and Lenin". The Soviets wanted a new Moscow with no traces of the "cursed past and its monuments"; A massive wave of propaganda preceded the actual destruction. The newspapers wrote, "the Cathedral is grotesque and totally inartistic", that "the Cathedral is a poisonous mushroom on Moscow's face" and that it was "a source of slothfulness" and so forth.

 

The first explosions hit the cathedral on December 5, 1931, by the decision of Stalin's political bureau. The most important church in Russia had been vandalized and destroyed. Christians continued to be persecuted; by 1939, active parishes numbered in the low hundreds. During the leadership of Khruschev (1950s), Moscow built an enormous swimming pool (named Moskva Pool) instead of the Palace on the site where the cathedral once stood. On February 1990, when the Soviet Union was near collapse, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church asked the government for permission to resurrect the cathedral on its original site. In 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a decree is signed by Yeltsin (president of Russia) to reconstruct Christ the Savior Cathedral. Reconstruction of the cathedral began in 1994. On April 14, 1996, Patriarch Aleksy II conducted the first service in the partially completed cathedral. On August 19, 2000, Patriarch Aleksy II leads all of the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Great Consecration of the Cathedral.

 

Many lessons can be learned from this dark era; we are reminded that in the end, God wins. When evil seems to "triumph" in the world, let us remember that Christ has already triumphed over sin and death. God, after all, cannot be killed or defeated, even if regimes and secular powers claim so. And even in moments of hardship and persecution, God does not abandon His people; but most importantly, we are reminded to remain in prayer always, keeping our hope and trust in the Lord until our last breath. God offers us something better than a "workers paradise"; He offers us eternity in a spiritual paradise. Like the early martyrs, the new martyrs of Russia were willing to die for the Truth, knowing that nothing—not even death—could separate them from eternity with God. Let us ask ourselves: How committed are we to God's Church? Are we willing to give our life for the Truth which we proclaim? Who do we recognize as the Supreme authority in a secular and atheist society?

 

“The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:5)