The scandal surrounding the church without a cross on the five thousand dollar bill cast a shadow on the Central Bank

The scandal surrounding the church without a cross on the five thousand dollar bill cast a shadow on the Central Bank

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Ambiguous symbol

The devil, as we know, is in the details. To awaken, for example, the devil of interethnic enmity, sometimes such trifles are required that you are simply amazed. This is a subtle sphere, dangerous, explosive. And even if we assume that the leadership of the Central Bank did not know about all its intricacies, did not know what they were doing when approving the design of the updated thousand-ruble bill, then ignorance does not in any way excuse them from responsibility for the mistake they made.

Responsibility is at least moral. There is, however, an opinion that it is time to open a criminal case against the country’s main bankers. According to available information, activists of the “Forty Forties” movement appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a demand to check the leadership of the Central Bank for the presence of incitement to hatred and enmity in its actions, as well as humiliation of “the dignity of a group of people based on belonging to a social group of citizens of the Orthodox faith and Russian nationality.” .

This, of course, is an example of an inadequate reaction. But one cannot expect adequate reactions at all in this minefield. Don’t just wander into this field unnecessarily. And what was the need for an image on the banknote of a “castrated” Orthodox church, deprived of a cross – and, moreover, next to the minaret tower, on which the Muslim crescent flaunts? We would venture to guess – absolutely nothing.

Let us remind you that the new thousand-ruble banknote is dedicated to Nizhny Novgorod and the Volga Federal District. A scandal erupted around the Museum of the History of Statehood of the Tatar People and the Republic of Tatarstan and the Syuyumbike Tower displayed on the reverse side of the banknote. Both architectural monuments are located on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin, next to each other.

The Syuyumbike Tower is an architectural symbol of Kazan, and its appearance on the banknote does not raise any questions. With the museum located in the building of the Palace Church of the Kazan Kremlin, everything is much more complicated. Yes, this is also, of course, a Kazan symbol. And the design on the banknote is not distorted at all: the original does not have a cross on the top either. He disappeared after the revolution, during the era of the fight against the “religious dope,” and then did not return. But this does not at all remove the question of the appropriateness of the building’s appearance on the new thousand-ruble site.

In principle, questions could arise here about the very fact of placing the museum of Tatar and Tatarstan statehood in a “gutted” Orthodox church. This solution does not seem obvious at all. But since this does not cause any dissonance among the residents of Kazan, or even among the Russian Orthodox Church, there is no reason for us to develop this topic.

It is necessary, however, to understand that after being placed on banknotes, the uprooted temple ceased to be a symbol of Kazan alone. Now it is a symbol of all of Russia. And the symbol is, to put it mildly, ambiguous.

Was it possible to do without the image of the museum on the banknote? Easily. It was possible to leave one Syuyumbike tower. It was possible to give the image from a different angle, so that next to the tower one could see the Annunciation Cathedral of the Kazan Kremlin, whose crosses are in perfect order. It was finally possible to display next to another Muslim symbol of Kazan and the Kremlin – the Kul-Sharif mosque. In general, there were different options.

Why did you stop at the one you stopped at? Whatever professional conspiracy theorists and dedicated Orthodox activists may say on this score, it is unlikely that our “central” bankers were tormented for long by the agony of choice, deciding how to more painfully humiliate citizens of the Orthodox faith and Russian nationality, how to further fan the fire of interethnic enmity.

Something tells me that everything was much simpler, more prosaic. We ordered it, looked at the project and, without thinking twice, approved it. And if a shadow of doubt flashed, we tried to drive it away as quickly as possible. Like, that will do. Don’t really redo it – the money has already been spent.

But don’t rush to consider this version a “all clear.” The anxiety remains, and still what. After all, if you think that the Central Bank solves issues related to monetary policy in the same “balanced” and “thoughtful” way… No, it’s better not to even think.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29138 dated October 18, 2023

Newspaper headline:
There is no cross on them

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