Though not even two decades have passed since the Soviet state collapsed in 1991, the Orthodox Russians who came to France to flee communism say they’re starting to view Moscow with mistrust again. The reason: the recent move by Russia to take control of a dazzling Orthodox cathedral built in Nice during the reign of Czar Nicholas II, which some opponents say is part a wider, nationalistic power play by Moscow to regain symbols of Russia’s historical, cultural and religious grandeur abroad.
The tussle centers on the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas ”” a breathtaking church topped with spires and domes that was built in 1912 on land that Nicolas’ grandfather, Alexander II, had purchased a half century earlier. Initially intended as a place of worship for the Russian aristocrats and industrialists who flocked to the Côte d’Azur before the 1917 Russian Revolution, the cathedral became a spiritual and cultural focal point for the mass of exiles who fled to Nice during the Soviet era. Since the fall of communism nearly 19 years ago, the so-called “white Russian” community and its offspring has been joined by Russian jet-setters who’ve grown extremely wealthy under the country’s current leadership and bought pricey mansions in Nice to use as their second homes. (See a brief history of Russians and vodka.)
To the Russian diaspora, as well as the 85,000 paying tourists who visit the church every year, the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas has represented a slice of Mother Russia on the shores of the Mediterranean. And that’s exactly the logic the Russian government used to win a court case in France on Jan. 20 that recognized Moscow’s ownership of the church. The Nice Russian Orthodox Cultural Association (ACOR), which managed the church under a 99-year lease it signed with the czarist regime in 1909, had maintained that it effectively inherited the cathedral when Russia’s royal family was executed during the revolution. But the court upheld the Russian government’s position that since the czarists had bought the land and built the church using state money, the cathedral remains the property of the Russian government, meaning that Moscow could legally reclaim it now that ACOR’s lease has expired. Decades of Soviet uninterest in the property, the court decided, did not undermine Russia’s entitlement to it today.
Sure sounds familiar for some reason……..
Grandmother in SC
Are they sure that France did not pass the Denise Canon to lay its property claim?
Intercessor
Intercessor, please not while I am drinking tea and reading the laptop at the same time …
Yes, but such amusing jokes aside, perhaps we can look deeper and see some striking similarities in what’s happening here.
I’d put it this way. Both Anglicanism and Russian Orthodoxy are struggling mightily because they’ve been corrupted by their state church heritage into being far too compliant and meekly submissive to the cultural powers that be. And both traditions are now suffering from a sort of “Edifice Complex,” preoccupied with property ownership and maintenance, even to the point of costly lawsuits, etc. It’s just more blatant and overt when a stark cypocrite like Putin is the puppet master pulling the strings.
David Handy+
Passionate advocate of Post-Constantinian, Post-Christendom style Christianity