Patriarch Kirill describes war veterans as saviors of Russia

5/5/2010

About 137 thousand veterans of the Second World War live in Russia. Another 200 thousand toiled on the home front during the war. And every year, war veterans are dwindling in number. As they gathered in Russia’s main cathedral, the veterans were happy to see and greet each other ahead of the V-Day celebrations. All were greeted by Patriarch Kirill.

Veterans are the nation’s living legends, the patriarch said, they are endlessly dear to us like brothers and sisters, those who faced death but survived the horrors of the war, those of whom the present generation know so little about. Their experience comes as priceless legacy for the young, who were born and grew up in peace and comfort. This legacy has a vast power – the power of persuasion. People believe the veterans because what they say comes from their personal experience. One of the war veterans, Ivan Lytkin, a reconnaissance officer during the war, believes that people ought to know the truth about the war:”I’m proud that at just 18 years of age I was able to help my people crush the Nazis, he says. I got three bullet wounds. I’m strongly against any attempts to re-write history and the history of the war in particular. We must proceed from the truth, not from the myths. And the truth is that we faced everything on our way – the military might of the enemy and our victories. It hurts so much when some attempt to distort the facts. Those who fought through the war will never forget a single moment of it. Ivan Lytkin recalls how he, brought up in the atheistic traditions, used to pray to God in his own words at particularly critical moments, when he was overwhelmed by despair. Many laid their hopes on God in the war years, for death was everywhere and everyone could fall prey to it any moment. Priests fought side by side with the soldiers. The Nazis counted on the Russian Orthodox Church to side with them, on the assumption that the clergy had suffered at the hands of the Soviets so much. But no such support was forthcoming. When the Nazis understood that, they began to carry out public executions of Orthodox clergymen in an attempt to break the nation’s spirit. The war turned the atheistic government’s approach to the Orthodox Church. The 1943 Bishop Council elected Patriarch Sergiy, reinstated the episcopate and brought back Orthodox dioceses throughout Russia.”

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