"The Orthodox Church is deeply embedded in Russia [...] the Orthodox Church played a part in bringing literature, writing, and reading," the priest says, noting that "what's interesting is that although the Soviets tried for 70 years to destroy the church, they were never really able to. In Russia, unlike what we see happening in the West, it seems to be a real sense of coexistence."
"If we talk about Orthodoxy and Islam, we have been integrated for a long time. [...] both Islam and Orthodoxy, they approximately at the same time appeared on the modern territory of the Russian Federation and that's how they moved in parallel throughout this period; we are elements of one whole Russian culture," he says.
"This cultural diversity, cultural identity, was extremely actively supported. And the national languages of even the smallest community have always been supported and continue to be so at present, because Russia is a federation with many national republics, regions, and they have a gigantic cultural autonomy in matters of cultural identity, religion and so on," Kurennoy highlights.
The podcast is presented with the support of Directorate of the World Youth Festival.