No crosses were found on the money – Kommersant

Presentation by the Bank of Russia updated banknotes in denominations of 1 thousand and 5 thousand rubles. caused a scandal. The design of the thousand-ruble bill outraged representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox community.

The banknote depicts the Nikolskaya Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography in Ufa, the Syuyumbike Tower in the Kazan Kremlin and the Museum of the History of Statehood of the Tatar People in Kazan. The latter is located in the building of the former Vvedenskaya Church on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin: in 1918 the temple was looted, the cross was removed, and since then no services have been held in it. In Soviet times, there was a canteen here, but in 2002 the building was restored, but the dome was left without a cross – a museum was opened in the building. At the same time, on the Syuyumbike tower, the crescent moon, also removed during Soviet times, was restored, which is why the symbol appears on the banknote.

This circumstance outraged priest Pavel Ostrovsky, rector of the St. George Church in Nakhabino. In his Telegram channel, he noted that 99% of Russian residents would see on the banknote a temple without a cross and a minaret with a crescent: “Was it really only necessary to take this shot for the whole of Kazan, and it was impossible to find something bringing peace and harmony, and not discord, especially on religious grounds.” “I believe that the selection of images on banknotes should be approached more carefully,” supported the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s department for interaction with the media, Vladimir Legoida. “In order not to create tension where there may well be none. And it simply shouldn’t be.”

“If in this case we are not talking about a church building, then there is absolutely no problem that it is without a cross,” Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, tried to calm passions. “Why should there be a cross there?” if he’s not there in life?” However, later he wrote in his Telegram channel that “there were a million ways to show that Kazan is an interreligious city… (as it really is), but, as they say, alas.”

HRC member Kirill Kabanov said that Orthodox activists from the “Forty Forties” movement have already contacted the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in connection with the design of the bill “to protect their rights, because the Orthodox have the rights and feelings of believers just like believers.” other religions/confessions.”

Polina Yachmennikova