Russian Christian-Democrat Conference Looks Ahead to Constitutional Convention

July-August 1993

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—"The evil genius that created the power of the Soviets in this very city has not yet been completely defeated," said Father Gleb Yakunin in opening the third conference of the Russian Christian-Democrat Union (RCDU) on May 15, just three weeks prior to the opening of the "constitutional convention" called by Russian president, Boris Yeltsin. Speaking from the podium of the city council chamber of the town hail (Marinsky Dvorets) on the square of St. Isaac's Cathedral, Yakunin urged fellow citizens to work together to build on the success of the April 25 national referendum that showed strong popular support for democratic reforms and substantial dissatisfaction with the old-guard communists still ensconced in the legislature.

The big question now, said Yakunin, is whether a broad popular consensus can be developed to support a new constitution. Yakunin, a frequently quoted spokesman for a legislative coalition known as "Democratic Russia," heads up the RCDU jointly with Vitaly Savitsky (from St. Petersburg) and Valery Borshchev (a member of the presidium of the Moscow City Council).

With support from Christian-Democrat International (CDI), headquartered in Brussels, the RCDU brought to this conference participants from the Baltic states, other parts of the former Soviet Union, Scandinavia, Western Europe, and North America. The purpose of the conference was to begin a deeper examination of the foundations of a Christian-democratic approach to politics—both its principles and its practice.

The conference could not have been the success it was without the untiring efforts of Anthony de Meeus, a political adviser to the CDI who, over the past two decades, personally helped to create and sustain an international network of democratically oriented Christians in Russia and Eastern Europe. Foreign guest speakers included Wilfried Martens, former prime minister of Belgium who now chairs the European Union of Christian Democrats; Georgios Savvos, a member of the European Parliament from Greece; and Monique Badenes, secretary general of the women's organization of the European People's Party. It was also through de Meeus that Rockne McCarthy—who chairs the board of the Association for Public justice—got acquainted with the RCDU last year, leading to an invitation to APJ's director James Skillen to speak at this year's conference.

What did the conference achieve? What will it help to promote? Beyond immediate encouragement to the participants and plans to publish the proceedings in Russian, the consequences will become clear only gradually. The difficulties facing political reform in Russia are immense. Popular skepticism, cynicism, and distrust run very deep. A new political culture, and not simply new democratic mechanisms, must be created. That will take time.

Alexander Rudenko, a businessman who hosted one conference dinner, is now worried about the likelihood of a corrupt form of capitalism coming to dominate his country before adequate political reforms are made. "For seventy years we lived as slaves in this society," he said. "Changing over to a market economy during the past two years has been like walking into an oriental bazaar." In the immediate future, he warned, Russia runs the danger of being overwhelmed by monopolistic capitalism. "Between 1987 and 1989, various Communist leaders took advantage of their positions to begin setting themselves up for a headstart in exploiting the emerging market." Since very few people in this country have power and wealth, Rudenko explained, they are the ones who are most likely to become the new monopolists. What Russia needs now are laws and institutions to help create and sustain thousands of small businesses in a non-monopolistic market economy consisting of genuinely creative and competitive entrepreneurs. "That is why I have decided to join the Russian Christian-Democrat Union," Rudenko announced, "in order to take sides with those who want to build both an economy and a political order on Christian-democratic foundations."

Father Vsevolod Tschapline, speaking for the Russian Orthodox Church, said that the Church is beginning to reform itself—something that Father Gleb Yakunin argued would have to take place. Through its councils, said Tschapline, the Church is now working to develop a contemporary Christian social doctrine—one that will support free expression of opinion, that will deny support to all sides in ethnic conflicts, and that will encourage the development of a moral society without aligning the Church with any particular political party.

Vitaly Savitsky reported on some of his recent research into earlier foundations of Christian democracy in Russia. Back in 1906, for example, a St. Petersburg Brotherhood published a program advocating equality, freedom, land reform, and the development of labor unions. Since that time other efforts, most of them little known, have been tried within Christian circles. At last, Savitsky said, it appears that we now have a greater possibility than ever before of developing a democratic movement on a Christian basis.

Valery Borshchev explained that a great barrier facing the RCDU is that Russia does not have a tradition of independent political parties or a stable government. We must build from scratch in a way that amounts to more than simply a quest for power, he said. Our chief principle must be civic solidarity in order to resist the country's breakup into nationalist ideologies.

Asked at a press conference whether the RCDU had a unifying idea for Russia's future, Gleb Yakunin responded by saying that Christianity is by its nature international without denying national and individual particularity. The question is how to articulate universal moral principles that can help to create a willing solidarity in Russia—a solidarity quite different from an artificial and forcefully imposed uniformity.

That task will not be easy. The connection between Christian Orthodoxy and democracy is not yet obvious in Russia. Furthermore, the practice of democracy has not yet really begun. Advice from some of the foreign speakers, therefore, may not be what the RCDU most needs at this point. Wilfried Martens, for instance, urged the RCDU to cooperate with all who agree with the principles of human solidarity and political subsidiarity (the latter being the idea that social and economic problems should be resolved at the level where they arise). Those allies do not have to be Christian, said Martens. Italian Emilio Colombo, currently president of CDI, urged much the same thing—presenting the Western European practice as the norm. Christian democrats in Europe, he said, see their value in their deeds—deeds that bear witness to the truth. We support a high view of the human person who should enjoy freedom and the protection of human rights. On that basis we can cooperate with people of differing outlooks and work for international solidarity.

But is this an adequate basis for a new Christian democratic movement in Russia? The foundations of culture and politics are shaking at this moment in Western Europe and North America as well as in Russia. The West has not produced the ideal model of social solidarity and political order. When Boris Yeltsin opened the constitutional drafting convention in Moscow on June 5, the need for civic solidarity in Russia was all too evident by its absence. To be sure, the RCDU must try to help create a climate of civic cooperation that will enable a newly elected government and parliament to govern well. But in face of a divided public, which does not share a common political ideology, what should be the RCDU's distinctive message?

"Most of the Christian Democrat parties in Europe are no longer confessional parties," Skillen explained in his prepared remarks. "Some of those parties are seeking to shed ideological distinctiveness in order to be able to fill a larger role in the middle of the political spectrum between Liberalism and Socialism." Without discounting the need for Russians to work at building a society-wide sense of civic solidarity, Skillen implied that it is a mistake to assume that a few slogans about solidarity, human rights, and the value of the person are sufficient to provide the foundation for a political party made up of people with diverse religious and ideological commitments.

"Here is where we need to face up to the crisis of modern humanism itself," Skillen went on. "If constitutionally limited governments, human rights, and other important features of responsible government in an open society are dependent, to a significant degree, on Christian presuppositions, is it possible for healthy democracy to be sustained on some other foundation—on a foundation, for example, defined by nothing more than the claims of human solidarity or the power of the people? I think not."

"To be sure, those of us who find solidarity in Christian faith must engage in serious self-criticism and repentance because Christians have, for too many centuries, wedded themselves to ancient and modern traditions of human pride, antagonisms, and systems of oppression. Christians have all too often been among this world's power mongers," Skillen said. "No wonder many of our neighbors remain skeptical of the idea that Christianity might have something fresh, liberating, and constructive to offer in the political arena.

"But the time for hesitancy and embarrassment on the part of Christians is past. Today we live in a world where the violent, authoritarian, and often-totalitarian claims of many modern ideologies are being exposed as errors and failures. The time has come to offer a new vision of hope to a world in pain. Morally and spiritually speaking, much of the world seems to be empty and hungry for answers to life's deepest questions, including questions about justice, peace, and national fulfillment. Modern states, whether democratically organized or not, will compete—often ruthlessly—to try to satisfy these human longings."

Now is the time for Christians to return with a new sense of urgency to the oldest and most fundamental questions about political order. "The time is right for fresh thinking and biblically inspired approaches to law and politics—in America as well as in Russia, in Europe as well as in Asia, Africa, and Latin America." Christian-democratic advocates need to do more, not less, than they are now doing, Skillen urged, to develop and explain the implications of their convictions that human beings are created in the image of God, that governments are called by God to do justice as they exercise their limited authority, and that justice holds people accountable internationally and not only domestically.

"I am convinced," said Skillen, "that the strongest possible foundation for an open, pluralist, non-discriminatory society is to be found in Christian principles. Of course this is something that must be demonstrated and not simply asserted. But strong and detailed argument is precisely what we need today in the United States, in Russia, and elsewhere in the world."