The Real Leviathan

Stephen M. Norris

February 5, 2015

Russia Behind the Headlines

One of the watchwords of Vladimir Putin’s presidency is patriotism. The Russian president has attempted to define his system as one where ordinary Russians can feel a sense of pride in their country, and where feeling patriotic in turn makes a true Russian citizen.

Russia’s current social contract, in the concept of governance made famous by philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s 1651 Leviathan, is one where the leader and his citizens are bound together by a sense of patriotism.

A Russian Child's Clean Monday Remembered

Ivan Shmelyov or Shmelev (1873-1950) was a Russian émigré writer best known for his full-blooded idyllic recreations of the pre-revolutionary past spent in the merchant district of Moscow. His first published story appeared in 1895; in the same year he visited Valaam Monastery, a trip that had a deep spiritual influence on him and resulted in his first book, Na skalakh Valaama ['On the Cliffs of Valaam'] (1897).

In his beloved book Anno Domini ['The Year of the Lord'], Shmelyov reminisces about the vanished traditional Russia of his childhood. In the excerpt below is the author's child's eye view of Clean Monday and the beginning of Great Lent in pre-revolutionary Moscow.

Mikhail Shvydkoi: Russian Literature Has a Holy Attitude to the Word

Former Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi shares his thoughts on the relationship between art and reality and what it is that makes Russian literature so special.

Mikhail Shvydkoi

February 6, 2015

Rossiyskaya Gazeta

The Read Russia project, which has been very successful abroad, will now turn its focus inwards, and I am confident it will benefit everyone – no matter what literary preferences they have. People like to lament that modern Russia is devoid of good literature, but this is about as justified as claiming that we do not play football. Contemporary Russian literature – including what is written in the languages of the various ethnic groups that comprise our country – reflects the level of national self-examination. This idea that any given country is devoid of good literature has been around since time immemorial – I am sure it existed in Pushkin’s day too.

Fr. Themi: The Atheist Rocker Who Became an Orthodox Priest and Missionary In Africa

He succeeded in forming his own music band in the era when the Beatles and Rolling Stones were at their height, and they called themselves The Flies. From the halls of the School of Business Science at the University of Melbourne, he moved on to singing beside Mick Jagger in fulfillment of a dream. Now he is found in Africa as a missionary.

How did this Greek, Themi Adamopoulos, come to choose to help the needy? Why did he renounce fame in order to seek a more peaceful yet sacrificial existence?

The Orthodoxy of Tom Hanks

An interesting article recently appeared regarding Tom Hanks and his happiness in being Greek Orthodox (see article below). But how Orthodox is Tom Hanks? Though he is not very vocal about his Orthodox faith, we can get a few glimpses of his Orthodoxy through his interviews and many successful films.

Tom Hanks was an adherent of a number of different Christian denominations while growing up, including Catholic, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), Nazarene, and a Fundamentalist Christian group. His jump from one faith to another mainly was due to the various relationships his divorced parents got into that left him with a very troubled and confused childhood. From an interview published in George magazine, April 1998: