The Baton and the Cross: Russia's Church from Pagans to Putin
by Lucy Ash
Vladimir Putin was mocked for being a bore when he lectured Fox News’s Tucker Carlson about Russian history from the 9th century onwards. But this book proves that the past holds many valuable lessons for the Russia of today, in particular the power of the Orthodox Church for would-be rulers of Russia. Ash deftly recounts a concise and never-boring timeline of the collaboration and competition between the Church and the state throughout the centuries, building up a powerful thesis: under Putin’s Russia, the Church has once again become an arm of the state.
Recommendations from our site
“The book does have a historic sweep and looks at the ebb and flow of the Russian Orthodox Church’s relationship with political power, but it’s particularly interested in the current close relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and Putin. It shows there’s always been a kind of tango going on between the Russian Orthodox Church and whoever was in charge. Sometimes they’ve been dancing in harmony, and sometimes—maybe this is such a terrible metaphor that I should abandon it—it’s not a dance at all, and they’re throwing things at each other. But they’re always in a dynamic relationship with each other…The book is based on lots of on-the-ground research in Russia in the last decade or so, and it’s told by a journalist who has considerable expertise of living and working in Russia.” Read more...
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Rebecca Earle, Historian
“Lucy Ash is a journalist with a lot of knowledge and understanding of Russia. She brings her own personal experiences into this book, and that makes it very readable. She takes a very panoramic view of the relationship between the state and the Orthodox Church, between the political and the religious powers, starting from the 7th century. This is the time of Olga, the grandmother of Vladimir the Great. She was the first to be baptized, but Christianity was not yet accepted at that time. Vladimir was baptized and became an Orthodox Christian in 988.” Read more...
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Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, Political Scientist
