Writings

For first-time readers

If you are visiting this archive for the first time, these texts offer a place to begin. Together, they trace several connected concerns in my work: the Russian Church’s relationship to empire and state power; Christian conscience under the pressure of war; the persecution of believers; and the use of sacred images in public ideology.

• A Church of Empire — Why the Russian Church Chose to Bless Empire
  First Things, 2015. A longer historical view of the ecclesial and political logic that preceded Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
• Why Have You Forgotten the Truth of God? An Open Letter to Russian Orthodox Bishops
  Public Orthodoxy, 2023. An appeal to bishops in Russia on truth, responsibility, and the Christian meaning of witness in time of war.
• Faith Under Pressure: Religious Repression and the Myth of “Traditional Values” in Putin’s Russia
  Free Russia Foundation, 2026. A policy paper on religious repression and the instrumental use of “traditional values” by the Russian state and its religious allies.
• One Year in Putin’s Dungeon
  Public Orthodoxy, 2026. A close account of persecution, imprisonment, and the human cost borne by believers who refuse complicity with the war.
• The Right Icon in the Right Place: How Putin and Patriarch Kirill Use an Icon to Promote Their War
  Public Orthodoxy, 2026. On iconography, political ritual, and the transformation of sacred images into instruments of wartime propaganda.
• Post-Soviet Civil Religion as a Substitute for Orthodox Christianity
  Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Theologia Catholica Latina, 2023. A more academic account of how civil religion has come to displace Orthodox Christianity in post-Soviet Russia.