‘They conceived the light not as something that leads, but as beholding one of the emanations from God.’ Photo: Book cover of Patterns of Russia: History, culture and spaces, by Robin Milner-Gulland
Patterns of Russia: History, culture and spaces, by Robin Milner-Gulland
Author: Robin Milner-Gulland. Review by Reg Naulty
This is another of those ‘personality and place’ books which are now becoming common. In this book, the place is Russia.
The country is well known as a place of three cities – Kiev, Moscow and St Petersburg – but its extent is better conveyed by three ports: Archangel, Odessa, and Astrakhan.The author lays out the geography and, on it, the history is spread out in all its astonishing diversity. We begin with the Vikings, who penetrated the Russian river systems to the Black Sea. The earliest Russian princes were Scandinavian, perhaps the most famous being Svyatoslav Igorevich, the grand prince of Kiev. His thinking was European in scope; he was planning to move his capital to the Danube delta, but was killed in an ambush. Scandinavian-originated dynasties endured in Russia until Fyodor in 1598.
The book gives much attention to architecture. It contains many beautiful photographs of churches, and the art and icons that they contain. Russia adopted Byzantine Christianity in 988, learning from the southern slavs.
In his discussion of icons, Robin Milner-Gulland moves on to the doctrines behind them, one of which is Hesychasm, which means Quietism, and is of particular interest to Friends. The doctrine developed in Mount Athos in the fourteenth century, where its greatest exponent was Gregory Palamas. Its devotees cultivated silence and inward prayer, which, they maintained, give us access to an inward light. In contrast to Friends, however, they conceived the light not as something that leads, but as beholding one of the emanations from God. They thought of these as the ‘divine energies’, rather like the gravitational field of the earth. This spiritual light became visible in Christ’s transfiguration and in other saints. When George Fox was riding through Cambridge on one occasion, the crowd exclaimed ‘Oh how he shines Oh how he glisters!’
The final chapter is given to the Solovetsky Islands. These comprise a boulder-strewn archipelago in the White Sea, which is warmed by a remnant of the Gulf Stream so its central parts never freeze. Despite that, the archipelago has six months of winter. In 1436, a monastery was established there, 160 kilometres from the Arctic Circle. Some of Russia’s most famous churchmen spent time here. British warships bombarded it during the Crimean war. The Bolsheviks closed it down in 1920; later, it was re-opened as a work camp. In its early years it was fairly liberal. Visitors were permitted and inmates pursued research interests but, gradually, it became more repressive and part of the gulag. Now the monks are back, and it is a World Heritage Site. The book is beautifully produced.
