Kolov’s dissertation explores the Russian Orthodox Church’s (ROC) contemporary political outlook. What kind of power relations does the official Church support and promote in post-Soviet Russia? How does it do that, and why?
The study argues that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ROC has regained its independent political voice in Russian society. Nevertheless, the Church’s political language remained centred around the imperial idea of Russia’s greatness. Analysing the Church’s official documents and the Patriarchs’ speeches, Kolov finds out that in the last three decades, the liberated ROC has been promoting, in its own right, a statist and imperialist ideology. Thus, it has been gradually contributing to the revival of its former master: an authoritarian and assertive state driven by a sense of righteousness and sublime purpose. The Church’s attachment to such a state, Kolov argues, is underpinned by the myth of Holy Rus’ which provides a fantasmatic ideal of complete and harmonious unity of church, state, people, and land.
The dissertation consists of three case studies examining respectively the ROC’s political representation of ‘the people’, the Moscow Patriarchate’s war discourse since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the narratives around the new ‘main military cathedral’ built in 2020. The study is part of the LegitRuss research project funded by the Research Council of Norway.
Bojidar Angelov Kolov successfully defended his dissertation on February 2 2024.
Trial lecture
Designated topic: "Russian Orthodoxy's conceptual positioning: Eastern Christianity, empire, nation."
Evaluation committee
- Professor Alexander Agadjanian, Yerevan State University (first opponent)
- Associate Professor Alicja Curanović, University of Warsaw (second opponent)
- Associate Professor Helge Blakkisrud, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
- Professor Anne Birgitte Rønning
Supervisors
- Professor emeritus Pål Kolstø, University of Oslo
- Professor Kristina Stöckl, Universität Innsbruck