
Soviet Santa - mr_golyadkin
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/soviet-santa
======
aasasd
Even though we're behind Europe in religiosity and far behind the US, Orthodox
Christianity was alive and well here after the fall of the SU, and Christmas
and Easter are variously observed. It's rather notable that despite the
Bolsheviks' no-nonsense and literal approach to eradicating religion,
Christianity and the church have survived the Soviet era pretty well. One
reason for this is said to be that in the ramp-up to the Great Patriotic War,
the government dropped the anti-religious rhetoric and adopted instead the
position of ‘unite and defend your motherland and the people’.

Add to this the fact that in the 70s and likely later, people were still
migrating from rural villages to the cities, with the whole baggage of
inherited religiosity and mishmash of folk beliefs. My grandmother put in
plenty of time in prayer each day. Icons or whole arrangements of them are a
feature in many homes, cars and sometimes, more rarely, offices. And I still
receive messages from my parents each year, commemorating birth and then the
resurrection of Christ. Folk culture doesn't tend to follow an official
doctrine, as exemplified by troves of Soviet jokes—and is also not big on
ideological clarity, so many didn't see a problem in subscribing to both
socialism and Christianity, along with crystal healing, magical powers of
thought and a bouquet of other fringe beliefs.

In the 90s, my home city already had a bunch of churches including at least
one large temple, and one or two monasteries—and I don't think they popped up
recently.

Notably also, even Bolsheviks preserved old and unassuming Karelian wooden
churches, recognizing them as architectural and cultural monuments—while
demolishing some huge temples in Moscow. Like the Kondopoga church, built in
1774 and which somebody burned down in August of 2018:
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Church_of_the_Do...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Church_of_the_Dormition_of_the_Theotokos_\(Kondopoga\))

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormition_Church,_Kondopoga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormition_Church,_Kondopoga)

~~~
RickJWagner
It's just my opinion, but it's not uncommon. I believe Blaise Pascal (the
brilliant French mathematician) got it right when he said "There is a God-
shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any
created thing....."

For this reason, I doubt religion will ever die. It will be with us always.

~~~
skrebbel
I'd wager that most atheists assume that God is very much a "created thing",
which makes that quote feel pretty awkward.

~~~
aasasd
I vaguely heard some theories that in the absence of better explanations,
humans gravitate to attributing weird phenomenons to divine will. Not sure if
this is in any way scientific. Inventing forest spirits seems to come pretty
naturally by anthropomorphizing a variety of things, but I guess it gets
complicated when dealing with lightning and such, and the deities evolve
accordingly.

Afaik neuroscience also can induce ‘divine’ experience by applying current in
a proper place.

------
andreyk
As a Russian, can confirm this article is quite accurate - my family only ever
celebrates New Years, it's the same as Christmas is usually in the West, and
Ded Moroz is totally a thing.

~~~
dmix
How do you pronounce Ded Moroz in an anglophone way? I noticed you used “Dez”
instead of Ded.

~~~
firstbabylonian
That’s a typo.

The pronunciation is close to “dee-yet mah-ross”

~~~
izacus
Yep, we called him "Dedek Mraz" in the balkans which also literaly translates
into Grandfather Frost.

(Although we did celebrate christmas since the anti-religion clampdown wasn't
that aggressive in Yugoslavia.)

~~~
xmars
Mraz, sounds like мразь, not a very good word :))

~~~
pandaman
The word literally means "something that causes chills" so it's not that
different from slavic "mraz". It just had been used exclusively in a
figurative meaning to describe something that is so disgusting that it makes
one shake.

------
twooclock
Correct artice and being from ex communist country even after more than 25
years I certainly have issues celebrating christmas. "They were able to
celebrate Christmas, but they had never done it before." most resonates with
me. Makes me realize the importance of traditions and how fragile they are.

~~~
m0zg
You do? We (Russian Americans in the US) celebrate two Christmases and two New
Years, both by the "new" calendar (Dec 25/Jan 1) and by the old (Jan 7
Christmas, Jan 13 "Old" New Year). Because, as they say in Russia, "there's no
reason not to drink".

~~~
nradov
Serbians also still celebrate Christmas and New Years according to the old
Julian calendar. In a few thousand years they really will have Christmas in
July.

~~~
peapicker
It moves 3 days forward versus the Gregorian calendar every 400 years. So
about 24,000 years (a little less) to hit July

~~~
ddsea
Think positive: it's just another reason to drink in July in 400 years.

~~~
m0zg
It shows that you're not an Eastern European. There they need a reason to stay
sober. Drinking is the natural state, hence the lower life expectancy.

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bad_user
We also had "Ded Moroz" in communist Romania, translated to "Moș Gerilă".

It was imported due to the soviet occupation after WWII and the subsequent
adoption of communism. The word Christmas was censored in 1948. In the 80s our
beloved supreme leader wanted to associate those presents with the state
instead of Moș Gerilă, so things got a little weird with the state propaganda.

After the revolution in 1989 we changed the holiday to the Christmas in the
Gregorian calendar and Santa Claus, translated as "Moș Crăciun" (Father
Christmas).

------
jimbobimbo
We still don't know who was Ded Moroz's son or daughter though.

~~~
xmars
Снегурочка. But she is probably granddaughter

~~~
to1y
Shes not related to Ded Moroz. If anything shes depicted as his wife

~~~
xmars
Wtf, she is always with him on performances and helping him. And check wiki,
she is his granddaughter. She is too young relatively to him))

------
cat199
> Santa Claus is one of several manifestations of a particular wintertime
> character, probably originating with the pagan, pre-Christian Germanic and
> Norse god Odin.

No, 'Santa Slaus' is a distortion of st. nicholas, to which people may or may
not have ascribed characteristics of previous 'wintertime characters', as
attested to by the further examples of: Sinterklaas, Mikulás, which are both
actually not distinct entities, but both 'St Nicholas' in their respective
languages. One can make some anthropological case that these are
'manifestations', but in the case of 'Santa Klaus', the core 'identity' is
still a 'nicholas figure' to which people may or may not have ascribed other
attributes. Lineage and conceptual transactions are important here, esp. since
this makes a less appealing narrative to spin, when one is trying to downplay
the second-ranked feast day in the official state religion of an empire that
viewed itself as the direct and legitimate successor of imperial christian
rome.

e.g:

"It wasn’t really a festival exactly, but more of a somber religious holiday
marked by fasting and long church services in Old Church Slavonic"

This is what feast days (aka 'festivals') _are_ in orthodoxy. Followed by a
'feast'. So yes, it was a festival, "exactly".

Christmas was a major day of important significance in imperial russia, and
Fr. Frost was directly promoted as a secular replacement for St. Nicholas,
because soviet-style communists are militantly athiest and hostilly anti-
religion. The very fact that this figure exists is a testimonial to the need
to provide a 'foil' for the people to accept his removal, rather than just
some casual 'cultural shift' to a different 'winter character manifestation'.

As for people 'forgetting how to celebrate christmas' during soviet times,
please recall (whether positively or negatively) that Mr. Putin's mother had
him baptized in secret from his communist father and he makes pilgrimages to
monasteries regularly. The current high place of the church in russian society
did not just originate in some ideological vaccum, many never gave up in the
face of overt and militant religious hostility.

------
tomaszs
I live in Poland. Before 89 when my country was occupied by Russia, "Soviet
Santa" was forced here to replace Santa Clous. It was one of many things that
was made to erase Christianity and replace it with atheism and communism. Fake
Christmas, fake Santa, zero beliefs. I was young back than but i felt its
shallow and dark. So for me Soviet Santa is a symbol of the occupation and
Russian tyrrany Poland was under until 89...

~~~
c-smile
Could you elaborate on "Poland was occupied by Russia"?

Let's put alone that in 89 it was USSR so Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, etc.
all together.

In any case there were no Russian troops stationed in Poland. Quite opposite,
Poland and its army was one of leading members of Warsaw Pact (the name,
sic!).

So what does "occupation" mean in your statement?

~~~
cat199
Not OP, but see Hungary '56 and Czechoslovakia '68 for what happens to
'leading warsaw pact members' who decide they want to deviate from the soviet
party line.

~~~
lucian1900
Yes, we should be so sad that fascist uprisings threatening to exterminate the
poor, disabled and non-native were instead defeated with help from friendly
socialist countries.

Not all protests, uprisings and revolutions are good. Look at their class
character and composition.

~~~
cat199
a) Thread context was communist poland being a vassal of the USSR, whose
policy was subordinate to the CPSU. These examples highlight that policy was
not in fact independent in these countries, and, when significant deviation
occured, soviet military invasion was a consequence. Whether the uprisings /
deviations are good or bad is secondary to this point.

b) As for 'facism': show me the 'facism' in the key documents:

HU:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demands_of_Hungarian_Revolutio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demands_of_Hungarian_Revolutionaries_of_1956)

CS:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_with_a_human_face](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_with_a_human_face)

(yes, wikipedia scholarship, better sources welcome)

while I have no doubt that facists would piggy-back on to any anti-communist
movement to seize a moment of opportunity, framing either of these as 'facist'
at their core is at best poor analysis. Even hard-core bolsheviks would
differentiate betwean 'bourgeois-democratic reactionaries' and 'facists' since
being clear in distinction is necessary for proper argument/strategy.

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kuzko_topia
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