The “Elective Affinities” between Orthodox Christianity and the 1917 Russian Revolution

The main hypothesis of this project is that one of the contributing factors for the success of the 1917 revolution in Russia were the values and teachings of Orthodox Christianity which at the time were the source of hegemonic cultural values and the customary semantic background on which the majority of the population relied to understand the changing political and social reality, evaluate radical ideals and support the revolution. By looking at the particulars of Orthodox Christian utopian and collectivist dimensions and their appropriation into secularized political discourse before the revolution and their transformation into practical political forms during the revolution the project aims to open a discussion about the hitherto unstudied possible “elective affinities” between Orthodox Christianity and left radicalism.