Coronation to Czardom

The answer is obvious: the church. It was the church that created and promoted the concept of the divine origin of power. And it was the church that conducted the ritual that supposedly granted this power — the coronation to czardom.

But here’s the question to which no answer is sought: to whom or to what were monarchs crowned?

We are told: “to the kingdom,” “to rule,” “to the country.” But this is imprecise. To understand the true nature of this ritual, we must first ask another question.

Who is an Emperor?

What is an emperor in Christian tradition? What is his main function?

Is he the head of state? A military commander? A legislator? The father of the nation?

The emperor is a military commander, but first and foremost a defender of the faith. A defender of the church.

Not of the people. Not of territory. Not of the state as such. The emperor exists to protect the church. This is his main purpose, his raison d’être.

The Byzantine concept of “symphony of powers” is not an equality between church and state. It is a family union where the emperor plays a strictly defined role: the role of protector, husband, warrior.

The Emperor’s Wedding to the Church

And now let’s look at the coronation ritual through different eyes.

The Patriarch is the father of the church. This is not a metaphor, this is his official title and function.

The Church is his daughter. The mystical body of believers, the flock that he shepherds like the father of a family.

The coronation to czardom is a ceremony in which the father-patriarch gives his daughter-church in marriage to the emperor.

The emperor is crowned, not to the country. Not to the people. Not to territory as such. He is crowned to the church.

Look at the structure of the coronation ceremony. What does the czar promise?

• To defend the Orthodox faith
• To preserve the purity of the church
• To be a patron of Christianity
• To fight heretics and enemies of the faith

Where are the promises to the people? Where is the oath to serve the welfare of subjects? Where is the contract with society?

They are absent. And why? Because this is not a contract between ruler and people. This is a marital union between emperor and church, blessed by the father-patriarch.

Symphony as Family Hierarchy

The Byzantine “symphony” of kingdom and priesthood is not a political partnership of equals. It is a family structure:

• Patriarch = father, head of the family clan
• Church = daughter, given in marriage
• Emperor = husband, defender of the wife
• Flock = children of this marriage, over whom the emperor has power through marriage to the church

The emperor is married to the church. He is not a ruler of territory — he is the spouse and defender of the church, which owns the flock on this territory.

This is why the emperor has the right to interfere in church affairs: he is the husband, head of the family. This is why the church has power over the emperor: she is the wife, but daughter, of a more powerful father-patriarch.

Territory = Flock

Now the most important part. What is the “Russian Empire” or de facto “Muscovite” in this logic?

It is not a political unit. It is a territory on which the church’s flock resides.

When in 1686 Moscow received the charter for the Kyiv (Ruthenian) Metropolitanate of the Constantinople Patriarchate, it received not administrative control over land. It received the right of church jurisdiction over the flock.

And the Muscovite czar, crowned to the church, supposedly received the right to this flock as property of his wife-church.

This is why the cancellation of the 1686 charter and granting of autocephaly to Ukraine in 2018 caused such hysteria in the Kremlin. This was not just a “church question.”

From the perspective of Muscovite imperial logic, Moscow was robbed of property.

The flock that supposedly by right (it doesn’t) belongs to the ROC (the wife), and therefore to the Muscovite emperor (the husband), is leaving. The children are running away from the family. The property is slipping away.

Putin: Secret Coronation?

Here we approach the most explosive hypothesis.

October 11, 2018, the Constantinople Patriarch announced the beginning of the process of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church.

October 12, 2018 — the next day! — the official Kremlin website reported:

“Vladimir Putin held an operational meeting with permanent members of the Security Council. Meeting participants also exchanged views on the situation of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine…”

Russia’s Security Council. The body responsible for military threats and national security. Gathered urgently. To discuss a church question.

This is not normal from the perspective of a secular state. But it is absolutely logical from the perspective of a czar (emperor) crowned to the church.

Hypothesis: Putin was secretly crowned to the church according to the Byzantine rite.

We don’t know this for certain. But it would explain much:

• Why Patriarch Kirill is present at the Ministry of Defense collegium
• Why church questions are decided at the Security Council level
• Why Putin speaks of the war in Ukraine in religious terms (“metaphysical struggle”)
• Why Ukrainian autocephaly provoked such aggression

If Putin is crowned to the ROC, he is not a president in the Western understanding. He is a defender of the church and its flock. And Ukrainians for him are not citizens of a sovereign state. They are lost children of the church who must be returned to the fold. By force, if necessary.

“Savior” of the Church

In 2012, at a meeting with Patriarch Kirill, Putin called himself a “defender of Orthodoxy.” These are not just beautiful words.

Look at the actions:

• Consecration of nuclear weapons
• Military priests in uniform as part of the army
• Churches at FSB and Rosgvardia bases
• Icons depicting Putin and missiles
• “Holy war” rhetoric

This is not the use of religion for political purposes. This is the realization of the emperor-defender function.

And if the flock in Ukraine refuses to recognize the Moscow church, the defender has the right and obligation to return them. Because they are not strangers — they are the property of the church to which he is crowned.

Obscurantism or Genuine Faith?

One might say: “This is nonsense! Obscurantism! It’s the 21st century!”

One might. But the problem is that they really believe in this.

Putin and the elite surrounding him may sincerely believe in the sacredness of their mission. In the fact that the Muscovite Empire (Russia) is not just a state, but a sacred empire. In the fact that the ROC is not an organization, but a mystical body that must be defended at any cost.

This is precisely what makes them dangerous. A rational politician can be understood, one can negotiate with him. But with a person who considers himself crowned to the church as a defender of the faith, waging a holy war for the flock — negotiation is impossible.

He is ready to kill all Ukrainians for the sake of saving the church. Because in his worldview this is not murder — it is the return of lost children. Forcibly, but for the salvation of their souls.

Language as a Marker of Belonging

Now it’s clear why Russia so fiercely fights to preserve the Russian language in Ukraine?

The language of worship = the language of the church. Ukrainian language in church = the flock’s exit from Moscow’s jurisdiction. This is not a cultural question. This is a question of property.

When Ukrainians switch to the Ukrainian language in worship, they symbolically declare: “We are not your flock. We are not your property. We are not children of your church.”

For the Muscovite emperor-defender, this is a blow to the heart. Because his power is based not on control of territory, but on ownership of the flock through the church.

Coronation to czardom is not the coronation of a ruler of the people. It is the wedding of a defender to the church-property. And as long as this logic operates in the minds of the Russian elite, Ukraine will remain for them not a sovereign state, but a runaway slave who must be returned.