Forgiving your persecutors? Yes, a Christian attitude. "Honoring the king"? Yes, certainly (I Pt 2:17).
Giving a public prize honoring the leading figure of the organizational successor of the very same unrepentant Atheistic Materialistic Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist political party that martyred as many of your ancestors in the faith as they could and that tried to wipe out any trace of Christianity from your land with cruelty and ferocity unsurpassed since Apostolic times? Well, that is quite unexpected.
From the website of the Moscow Patriarchate:
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill congratulates G.A. Zyuganov's 70th birthday. [June 26, 2014]To the Chairman of the CPRF [Communist Party of the Russian Federation] faction in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, G.A. Zyuganov
Dear Gennady Andreyevich!
With all my heart, I wish to congratulate you on this remarkable date.
Being one of the most prominent politicians of modern Russia, you seek to care for the people's wellbeing and protect the traditional moral values.
I hope that your fruitful activity will continue to promote socially important initiatives and the moral transformation of the society.
I wish you robust health, peace, and heavenly aid in all your good deeds and initiatives.
I deem it to be fit to award you with the "Order of Glory and Honor", 3rd degree.
Respectfully,
+ Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
At least someone is keeping orthodoxy -- party orthodoxy, we mean:
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| Zyuganov: "I'm with those guys!" [The lettering simply mentions the name of his party] Campaign material for the 2012 presidential elections, in which Mr. Zyuganov was the Party candidate |
Notes: 1. Mr. Zyuganov is also the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (since 1993) and Chairman of the Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the "Soviet Union" (UCP-CPSU) (since 2001), a well-known admirer of the most famous General Secretary of the Party that preceded his, the CPSU, J. Stalin, and an author of many works praising him and his legacy. On the specific matter of religion, Zyuganov declared in 2012 that his party was, “a party of scientific communism, which means also scientific, though not militant, atheism.”
2. The "Order of Honor and Glory" is second-highest of the honorific awards of the Moscow Patriarchate.
[Thanks to reader for translation]