Orthodox Rift: The Image of Russia and the Russian World in the Public Opinion of Orthodox Believers in Modern Poland

The Orthodox area of Poland, geographically extensive but numerically insignificant, represents a particularly interesting phenomenon in terms of its confessional, linguistic and cultural specificity. This study focuses on how the image of modern Russia and the concept of the Russian world are reflected in public opinion in Poland. These reflections are widely represented and are not limited to media publications alone. The goal of this study is to determine the main vectors through which these phenomena are assessed, based on cases that have become part of public discourse in Poland, especially among those who assess the area of Polish Orthodoxy from within the Polish Orthodox community itself. The objectives of the study are as follows: 1) to substantiate a relevant methodology for analyzing public opinion in the light of expert assessments of one of the parties to the public discussion; 2) to clarify modern approaches to the concept of the Orthodox Pole and to reveal the institutional features of Polish Orthodoxy; 3) to describe the specifics of the phenomenon of Russophobia as one of the variants of the negative image of Russia and to identify its historical foundations and modern emphases in Polish society; 4) to identify the linguocultural specifics of current processes in modern Polish Orthodoxy based on confessional vocabulary, as well as to determine the evaluative linguocultural markers associated with the peculiarities of the perception of Polish Orthodoxy through the lens of the image of Russia and the Russian world in modern Poland; 5) to establish the specifics of Polish societal attitudes towards the Cyrillic alphabet as a shared heritage of the Slavic peoples in the context of modern national-cultural, confessional and ethno-religious distinctions. The study is based on comparative and axiological approaches and uses the methods of imagology and linguacultural studies. Specific research methods of expert interviews, discourse and SWOT analysis, and the case study method are also used. The research materials include publications of Polish media (including Orthodox ones), journalism, fiction, philosophical and scientific works, as well as expert assessments of problems related to Orthodoxy in Poland and the perception of the image of Russia and the Russian world in the country. As a result, the study reveals the existence of a civilizational rift running along the line of self-identification of Orthodox Poles, one of the key markers of which, paradoxically, is the attitude to Russian culture. The study substantiates the role of imagology and linguacultural studies in the analysis of the specifics of public opinion, which today is based on the image of Russia and the Russian world, even within the framework of Polish Orthodoxy. Analysis of approaches to the very concept of an Orthodox Pole reveals a shift in its content from the ethno-confessional specification to community’s self-description in the language of national-cultural and civil identity. In turn, a clarification of the influence of the institutional features of modern Polish Orthodoxy shows the presence of “fractures” (for example, the problem of recognizing the legitimacy of receiving autocephaly from the Patriarch of Constantinople or Moscow) in the very organizational structure of this confession. As a result, Russophobia is intensifying in the form of objectifying the negative image of Russia, multiplying stereotypes and complicating the processes of self-perception for Orthodox Poles themselves. The linguocultural specificity of modern Polish Orthodoxy is reflected in evaluative polarities within its own self-perception, because of which the images of Russia and the Russian world often take on a pejorative role. At the same time, the Cyrillic alphabet, perceived through lenses of science, church life and politics as the shared heritage of the Slavic peoples, the custodian of which is Poland, has clearly positive connotations among Poles.

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