Talk • Putin’s Mythology: Quasi-Religious Motivations Behind the Russian War in Ukraine

On March 6, 2022, only several days after Russia waged its war against Ukraine, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill stated that this war “has not a physical, but metaphysical meaning.” Indeed, Putin’s metaphysical ideas about the world and history seem to be a more important driving force for his aggression than his brutality or greed. He demonstrates all the symptoms of being under the spell of ideocracy, i.e., a state of mind when ideas possess a person to the point of completely consuming him or her. The power of ideas upon Putin is compatible with the power of a religious myth. He is both a demiurge and a slave of such a myth. He has created it through the means of propaganda and eventually believed in his own propaganda. What kind of myth is it?

The online event is lectured by Professor Cyril Hovorun. Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, originally from Ukraine, is a professor in Ecclesiology, International Relations and Ecumenism at the University College Stockholm in Sweden.

Link: https://unc.zoom.us/j/9848434321

Passcode: Ukraine

Sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies.