Ontological-anthropological dichotomy and metaphysical incompatibility of the “russkii mir” and the Ukrainian world

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN WARTIME: CURRENT UKRAINIAN CONTEXT

Abstract

The ideas about the world and man on the worldview maps of the Ukrainian world and the "russkii mir" are mutually exclusive. This is actually the reason for one of the Kremlin's stated goals of this war: the "denazification" of Ukrainians, which actually means the destruction of our identity in all cultural and intellectual discourses. In the system of identities of a person, religious, church and confessional identity are connected with civil identity, because a believer of a particular denomination realizes himself at the same time as a citizen of a particular country; and historical, discursive-basic for the "memory of the family" and understanding of one's own origins, place in modernity and socio-civilizational perspectives. A whole spectrum of confessions is simultaneously present in both Ukraine and Russia. Moreover, these confessions often have a common origin due to a long historical period during which the territory of Ukraine, due to previous occupation by Muscovy, existed as part of the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union (an imperial clone of Muscovy in the last century). For thirty years, the confessional development of independent Ukraine took place independently or at a distance. Muscovy's war of aggression against Ukraine raised the question of the commonality/incompatibility of those confessions whose representatives were on different sides of the front. In the article, we will find out whether the doctrinal discourses of these confessions are connected with the worldview maps of the "russkii mir" and the Ukrainian world? How do they answer fundamental metaphysical questions about the meaning of life and the price of human death, about the possibility of destroying part of the actualized world in light of the expediency of modern war and the specific frontline situation, where Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims, pagans, Protestants, supported by their religious preachers, are on different sides?

The author compares the two included positions of the subject regarding reality: 1) real (typical for Ukrainians, in which the subject is included in the event, perceives reality as an ontological given, with which, in interaction with others who are also in this event and share the same (adequate reality) worldview parameters and self-define as a conscious responsible actor, including God (for believers), co-creates the future taking into account the past and the jointly formulated proper; 2) simulacrum, inherent in the bearers of the "russkii mir", in which their worldview model is recognized as exemplary, while reality is refuted, destroyed, and becomes material for the embodiment of the "correct picture of the world" imposed by the Kremlin. Accordingly, being on the battlefield from different sides (Ukrainians defending their world and actualized life, and Russians who want to destroy Ukraine and Ukrainians), representatives of the same religions cannot actually profess the same God, for the same Lord cannot be the Creator and the Destroyer, the author of the real world and the Liar who imposes his lies on the world.