Baton and the Cross: Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin

Temporarily out of stock

For more than a millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church has shown astonishing survival skills - from the Mongol yoke, to tsarist demagoguery and enlightenment, Soviet atheism, the chaotic 1990s and now two decades of Vladimir Putin.

In this provocative new book, Lucy Ash reveals how, under Putin, religion is being stripped of its spiritual content and used as a weapon to control the population in a way never seen before. Orthodox clerics and their acolytes are trying to drag Russia backwards into a new Middle Ages.

Combining historical research with vivid present-day reportage, The Baton and the Cross explores the impact the Church is having on millions of Russians' lives - from the tower blocks of Moscow and the big cities to far-flung villages in Siberia. Delving into the underbelly of politics, state security and big money, Ash shows how these forces have formed an unholy alliance with Orthodoxy.

AUTHOR:
Lucy Ash is an award-winning presenter of radio and TV documentaries. An expert on Russia and post-Soviet countries she was first sent to Moscow by the BBC in 1990 and has been covering the region's social, political, and cultural issues ever since. The Baton and the Cross is her first book.

ISBN: 9781837731831
Author: ASH, LUCY
Format: Hardcover
Publication date: 01/02/2025
RRP: $59.99
Pages: 320
Dimension: 234mm X 156mm
Imprint: Icon Books