The fortuitous – some would say suspicious – unearthing last week of the tomb of Dmitry Donskoi, a fourteenth-century Grand Prince of Moscow, is a reminder not only of a long tradition of the handy “discovery” of relics at useful moments, but also of Vladimir Putin’s efforts to recast his rule and war in religious terms.
Donskoi is one of the state-building heroes of Russian history, the prince who struck the first serious blow against the Mongol-Tatar Golden Horde after a century of their rule.
In 1380, at Kulikovo field on the banks of the River Don, he broke the forces of the Golden Horde through hard fighting and cunning deception.
It would take another century for Russia to truly be free of the Mongols – in 1382 they burned Moscow down. Nonetheless, he was elevated as a hero and in 1988 canonised as a Russian Orthodox saint.
This makes it all the more significant that, in the course of restoration work in the crypt of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael within the Kremlin, three sarcophagi were reportedly discovered, one of which turned out to hold Donskoi’s remains.
This was quickly turned into a story of divine providence and favour. Vladimir Medinsky, a presidential aide who as culture minister pumped money into books, plays and films pushing the state-approved “patriotic” spin on the country’s history, claimed it was a symbol of divine approval, a “smile from God”.
Konstantin Malofeyev, owner of the nationalist news site Tsargrad, was even more fulsome: “In the midst of our fateful confrontation with the collective West, by God’s Providence, Saint Dmitry Donskoi himself once again stands at the head of the Russian army.”
Putin visited the site on Thursday, and there is talk that some of the relics may be sent to the front lines in Ukraine to bolster soldier morale. Relics of another sainted medieval prince, Alexander Nevsky, followed a similar path earlier this year.
Vladimir Putin is trying to use the church to legitimise his war, writes Mark Galeotti (Photo: Viacheslav Prokofiev/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Putin – who is a practicing Orthodox Christian – has long associated his rule with the church. When he annexed Crimea in 2014, he defended the move as securing a location of “enormous civilisational and sacral meaning for Russia”. Crimea was where Vladimir the Great supposedly converted to Orthodox Christianity, bringing the faith to the East Slav peoples.
In recent years, priests have blessed tanks on their way to the front in Ukraine, raised money to buy equipment for soldiers and have encouraged volunteers to join the army. The Church’s leader, Patriarch Kirill, has defended the invasion of Ukraine as a “holy war” in order to “protect the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism”.
The Church has also played a significant role in efforts to mobilise the so-called “Russian World” to generate support for Putin and his war from the diaspora abroad, not least to justify Moscow’s supposed right to authority over Belarus and Ukraine.
In return, Putin has given it an increasingly central role in Russian life, from education to business. And thanks to special laws allowing it to claim back property seized in Soviet times, it has built up a huge property portfolio and also runs a number of businesses, many of them operating tax free. Kirill was photographed wearing a £19,000 gold Breguet watch, much to his embarrassment.
For Putin, couching his war and rule in terms of a religious crusade has an obvious appeal, as war fatigue grows and Ukraine increasingly looks for ways to bring the conflict home to ordinary Russians.
A fire at e-commerce firm Wildberries’ logistics complex near the town of Podolsk, outside Moscow, on 16 August (Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva/AFP)He may hope that identifying himself with the Orthodox Church and wrapping himself in Donskoi’s shroud will make up for his people’s growing discomfort with his war. But it also means undermining his standing as the leader of a multi-confessional state.
The Orthodox Church is already losing authority abroad and at home thanks to its more activist stance, and Putin himself risks alienating a sizeable portion of his own people.
Two-thirds of Russians say they are Orthodox Christian, but Islam accounts for up to 15 per cent of the population. They are disproportionately represented in the army, something Putin would do well to remember.
That said, Putin may see a need to strengthen his legitimacy, with parliamentary elections next month and no clear strategy to stopping Ukraine’s drone strikes across Russia. With his approval ratings falling, and dwindling numbers express confidence in Russia’s future under his leadership, Putin looks notably weaker than in the last decade or two.
This is also hardly the first time that relics have surfaced at convenient moments. A shard of iron found in Antioch in 1098 was spun as the Holy Lance that pierced Christ’s side, heartening the besieged Crusaders enough that they routed their more numerous enemies. Meanwhile, the discovery of “King Arthur’s tomb” in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey after it burnt down in 1184 was used to help raise funds to rebuild it.
Putin will be hoping it works out just as well for him.
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