Metropolitan Hilarion seeks legal assessment of Lenin’s speeches

New York, November 8, Interfax – Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, has supported the idea of investigating whether or not the works of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin contain elements of extremism.

The Eparchial Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia approved of an appropriate initiative put forth by historian Vladimir Lavrov, the metropolitan said in a letter to Russian Investigative Committee Director Alexander Bastrykin.

In August 2012, Lavrov, chief researcher of the Russian History Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, asked Bastrykin to investigate whether or not Lenin’s works contain elements of extremism.

“A cornerstone of Leninism is the incitement of social hatred and propaganda of people’s inferiority along social lines. The ideology of Leninism permits the use of extreme measures to achieve the desired result,” Lavrov said.

“Lavrov, who is a well-known Russian historian, offered clear evidence of Lenin’s extremist and terrorist views, speeches and acts before and after the October Revolution. The Eparchial Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia hopes that the Russian Investigative Committee, on the basis of these arguments, will soon give a legal assessment of the statements and acts of the “revolution leader”, whose policies cost the Russian people millions of lives,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

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