In 1054 the Western and Eastern branches of the church split in the so-called Great Schism. At this time it was a sign that the emerging Western civilization was rising and felt itself unique and distinct from the Orthodox Byzantine civilization, which can be regarded as part of the Oriental civilization.
Recently the Ukrainian Orthodox church gained autocephaly meaning that its break with the Moscow Patriarchate was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The situation may be seen as similar to the Great Schism 1000 years ago. Not because of the schism between the Russian and Ukrainian churches, but because of the ensuing break of the Moscow Patriarchate with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This is the true new Great Schism. Politically seen the branches of the Orthodox church under the Patriarch in Constantinople have become representatives of the now all-dominant Western civilization. The Russian Patriarchate can be seen as a representative of a potential emerging East European civilization wanting to liberate itself further from the West. Therefore it had to take this step, creating a schism. Just as the Western church to liberate itself from the Byzantine or Oriental civilization broke of from the Eastern church in 1054.
Obviously like in 1054 lots of political and power-related conflicts are mixed into the present schism.
In earlier posts I have talked about the phenomenon called a pseudomorphosis . It is the name for situations where a new civilization is dominated or overlain by an all-mighty older one which in its modernity has expanded into areas of an emerging new civilization. This causes the new civilization to develop in the forms of the older dominating one. If there indeed now is a new civilization rising in Eastern Europe, it has to develop in Western forms. Instead of a feudal order normal for early civilizations we see political forms of the Western modernity. But the dominance is manifesting itself in all spheres, not only the political. A such domination creates a resistance from the dominated, a resistance which can be difficult to understand in the dominating civilization, which believes itself to be in a state (in our case liberal democracy) which is a step in all historical developments and lies on the way to an ever better future. But this state is in the specific form of only one civilization. For others it is alien and creates resistance, a resistance which cannot merely be seen as the result of political propaganda from the state. Two thousand years ago the emerging Oriental civilization was rising under a comparable domination from the old Greco-Roman world. This caused extreme resistance, eg. from the Jews. Only the continuous reduction of the cultural radiance of the declining older civilization permits the new one to exert its uniqueness. This may be what is happening with Russia today. Culturally Russia is still dominated by the West, but opposing this more and more.
The rest of Eastern Europe may be part of the same emerging civilization as Russia. But because of historical experiences and because of the power of Russia, the rise of this civilization with its feeling of new uniqueness strengthens the political opposition against Russia in parts of East Europe. This even though the underlying cultural trends may be the same as in Russia. This political antagonism between Russia and parts of East Europe is worsened because the degree of Westernization is greater in East Europe than in Russia. For natural reasons the political resistance towards Russia is bigger the closer geographically a country is to Russia. We see this in Poland and the Baltic states. This means that the least westernized country, Ukraine, shows the greatest resistance towards Russia.
But the opposition against Western liberal democracy and openness is very clear in East Europe, not only in, but also outside Russia. Thus an emerging East European civilization is part of the explanation for the increasing estrangement between the eastern and western countries of the EU. Obviously we also see populist opposition to this system in the West, but here this development is only a sign of the general political decline in the late modernity of the West. The radiance from our modernity is vanishing causing a contagious spread of decline and a deplorable loss of human rights both within and beyond the core of the Western civilization.
As mentioned there was a comparable situation two thousand years ago in the Middle East where the Oriental civilization was dominated by the Greco-Roman civilization and trying to liberate itself. In this case large parts of the whole area of the new civilization, ie. the area from Egypt and Asia Minor to the limits of India, were culturally dominated by Hellenism. Politically and militarily only the western parts of the large area were under Roman control. Much of the rest was part of the Parthian Empire. The areas under Roman control can be compared to East Europe today, while the Parthian areas resemble Russia. Obviously the parts under Roman control were mostly Hellenized.
Parthia and Russia, even though heavily Westernized, felt/feel it as their mission to defend the emerging civilization from being swallowed completely. Even though as said emerging civilizations normally are on primitive levels when it concerns political and military organization and technology, the need for defense against the civilizations to the west forced and forces Parthia and Russia to match their opponents. Naturally this is especially relevant for todays Russia. The closest we get to the feudal knights typical for early civilizations may be the oligarchs in parts of east Europe and Russia.
Militarily and when it concerns political allegiance from countries, the Western civilization may continue to dominate a few centuries still. But culturally and especially when we talk about political ideals, the West is already loosing its appeal as the political decline and the splitting of the societies get worse.
In the 90es East Europe enthusiastically embraced the West. Our culture, our stable political systems and our wealth were seen as indivisible parts of a whole. Now this is turning out to be an illusion. Wealth did not result for everybody, and now politics are decaying. This is another reason why East Europe is beginning to find its own way in opposition to both the West and Russia. As the West stagnates and declines further, also culturally, and the new East European civilization gains strength, the cultural influence will begin to reverse and go westwards.
Obviously this does not mean that East Europe automatically will become politically integrated into Russia. Civilizations are not normally politically united. As the West emerged as its own civilization around 1000, it had to break definitively with the Oriental world, ie. the Byzantine Empire and the Caliphates and Emirates of the Muslim world. The Great Schism in 1054 marked this. But except for short periods of unification under the Carolingians the West was split into different countries, not united into one. Similarly the emerging East European civilization will be split into several countries in the area from Poland and Serbia to Siberia. (We may see the short de facto unification from the Iron Curtain to Vladivostok from the end of WW2 as a phenomenon similar to the short Carolingian unification of the West). For some time the Eastern European countries will continue to stay culturally Westernized in different degrees, mostly in the western parts. They will liberate themselves gradually from this Western cultural dominance with the Eastern parts as frontrunners.
This gradual liberation from the West is the true meaning of the schism between Moscow and Constantinople. It is also part of the dynamics in the Russian behavior towards the West and in Ukraine. In reality this is defensive and a result of the Western political and military expansion into its sphere of interest AND landscapes containing cultural roots of Russia, roots considered holy. In the short term this Western expansion will cause a further Westernization of parts of East Europe, parts which historically were Russian. Religion is of immense importance for early civilizations. Also therefore the Westernization of the Ukrainian church on holy Russian grounds is seen as an extreme provocation.
NOTE
In the above I am talking about trends in the intermediate term. Obviously short term developments are not linear. In East Europe like elsewhere incompetent governments, political demonstrations and elections can mean shifts between administrations following more and less liberal democratic ideals and between pro- and anti-russian policies.
