Steiner's Digest

During a recent visit to Cairo, I started reading the second volume of Olivia Manning’s brilliant „Fortunes of War“. Based on her own experiences, the author describes the adventures of British expats and soldiers in wartime Egypt, with Rommel at the gates and the Egyptians eagerly awaiting the departure of their English oppressors.

In one scene, a British diplomat tells the following anecdote:

‚They say things are so bad in Russia, they’ve started opening the churches. What I heard was: Stalin was driving out of the Kremlin one night and the headlights of his car lit a poster that said „Religion – the opium of the masses!“ „My God,“ said Stalin, „That’s just what we want these days: opium“ and he ordered the churches to be reopened.‘

In the book, the listener doubts whether Stalin would really have said „My God“. Whether he did or not (It’s possible, after all he received his education at a priests‘ seminary), the story could be true.

As historians point out, the great atheist Stalin did indeed enlist the help of the Russian Orthodox Church in his ‚Great Patriotic War‘ against Nazi Germany. Just as his imperial successor Putin, who attempts to present his war as a contemporary version of the Soviet struggle of 1941–1945, does today.