Lessons from History I: Is Russia a Christian Nation?

Background material about my philosophy of history

I majored in history in undergraduate school.  But I never developed a philosophy of history until I studied Jewish history under Rabbai Jonathan Plaut, who was the Rabbai in the Reformed tradition at Temple Emanuel, San Jose, California when I knew him.  His father was an illustrous scholar in the Reformed movement before him.  His instruction on the significance of history in understanding the Jewish mind enriched my discernment how one's past is embedded in one's own self-identity.  Accordingly, I embrace some notion of the collective unconscious espoused by psychoanalysts, early in its analysis of the mental, such as (I think) Karl Jaspers.

Understanding history in terms of cultural clashes

To question the existence of the collective unconcious is to fail to take history seriously.  Stalin, in an apparent effort to rid Russia of non-Russian ways, attempted to kill off its Armenian population, as had the Turks during WWI, Hitler tried to rid Germany of any remnant of Jewish influence by waging a holocaust on the Jewish people. Pol Pot of Cambodia aimed at killing off those who embraced Western ways, particularly, inculcated by the French, in order to return his nation to its humbler beginnings. Mao of China wanted to return his country to its agrarian beginnings, too, forsaking Western influence as alien to the Asian Mind.  Today, the Afghans bolt at giving up their tribal traditions. 

Some nations have attempted to integrate the "new" with the "old." You can see this in Africa, where Christianity is accepted within a broader framework of native religions whose elements still remain; and you can see this in Haiti whose people are known to practice indigenous voodo yet go to Catholic church on Sunday.  The "old" in China is Confusianism that has been embedded into the very fabric of Chinese culture; and the "new" is Buddhism and Chrisitianity--the latter only accepted to a modest degree, today, because of its insistence on affecting the everyday life of the believer, whereas the former emphasizes a spiritual, non-practical ascendence of the believer through everyday religious practice. The important point is that the "old" has precedence within a cultural framework.  The "new" must be integrated into its primordial foundation.  Indeed, most cultures have a religious structure inherent to them, because it is the means by which a societal member is identified as a person or being of that culture.  It is not an accident that churches in the US had retained the birth and death records of their parishoners long before the local government were given that task regarding its citizenry.

Let's look at Russia today as a case-in-point how instructive paying attention to the remembered beginnings of a people is.  For, I regard the Russian mind today as molded from its origins when Russians were Tartars. Essentially nomadic, the Tartars were a fierce, rough society, strongly rooted in their traditions that could be carried with them and practiced wherever they went.  Each clan was an outspoken group, dedicated to boldly insinuate their interests into the society at large.  The Tsars had a tough time controlling these independent groups, who would go their own way; so did Stalin; and so does President Putin in 2014! Currently, the Muslims want their own independence to become just like the other satellite states who have asserted themselves as independent nations. Yet The Russian Confederation of Independent States, composed of its several states, each work together to retain the overall Federation structure, while maintaining their separate languages and their own governmental structure and politic.

It is true that the Eastern Orthodox Church was established centuries ago in Russia, but I see it as an "add-on" to be integrated with what had gone before. 

One may ask, why did some Russian authorities urge me to stay on in Russia after I had provided input from the 1980s into the makings of the new Russian Constitution.  It is because I understood their point of view and respected who they are as a people with longings and potentials especial to them.