No nation can be understood without reference to three major factors which shape the personality of each of its members. These are the land in which its people inhabit, the history they have experienced, and the religion they have embraced. Religion belongs always to the most intimate, well-guarded aspects of a country’s personal and national life. Heroism and cowardice, kindness and brutality, hopes and fears, noble aspirations and low passions are intrinsically bound up with people’s attitude towards their deity. All that people possess of good or evil finds expression in their respective religion. Never can a country’s policy be so unselfish or so aggressive as when inflamed by religious zeal and attracted by a goal which is beyond immediate …show more content…
Through the early period of the consolidation of Russian lands, Mongolian conquest, subsequent invasions throughout centuries, and then under tsarist Russia, the Orthodox Church served to inspire and to maintain the national identity of the Russian people while influencing Russia’s political policy. The idea that a particular group of people are the “chosen people of God” is a characteristic of nearly every religion. This proclamation delivers a feeling of superiority and exclusivity to a people that encourage optimism within their respective membership. They are special and God favors them above all. Political religions, on the contrary, are primarily concerned with achieving purely religious goals. Such goals are not geographically defined and are deemed to be universal. The fusion of the two can be messy, but, this politicization shapes the politics of a country. It penetrates all spheres of social life and contributes to the reconstruction of an ‘improved’ society. In my paper, I will examine the cultural and political importance of the Christianization of Russia facilitated by the Orthodox Church and its impact on the political culture of an ‘improved’