In July 2023, photographs of the Ukrainian book began to spread in social networks, which allegedly said that killing Russians is not a sin. We decided to check if these messages are true.
The image that has become a viral is made up of two pictures. At the first, the female hand holds a book called “War and the Bible” in Ukrainian. On the second - the table of contents, where one of the sections is called "killing Russians is not a sin." This picture was published by many Telegram channels, including "Ukraine.ru"(301,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Observer🇷🇺🇺🇦"(236,000),"Putin in Telegram"(195 000) and Voblya (167 000).
A book called "War and the Bible" really exists: Its released In 2022, the Ukrainian publishing house "Live Vervitsa", Specializing on religious literature. In the online store "Ark" this book can be bought, also photos of some pages are presented.
After the head of the “Reasons for the Future War,” there is a chapter under the name “who will win in a future war”, and not “killing Russians is not a sin”.
Thus, the contents of the Ukrainian book in a viral photograph and on the store’s website do not coincide. But for fidelity, you should get acquainted with this book in other languages.
"War and the Bible" is the composition of the bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church Nikolai (Velimirovich) (1880–1956), later canonized as St. Nicholas. He studied theology at the University of Berne, then received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Oxford. With the outbreak of World War I, the future bishop returned to Serbia, provided assistance to the wounded and communed the dying at the front. In 1934, Nikolai (Velimirovich) became Bishop Zichsky. During the German occupation, the bishop was arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp, after the Second World War he left for the United States.
“War and the Bible” (1932) is a book in which Bishop Nicholas rethinks the experience of the First World War from religious positions. To understand that we are talking about the same book, you can familiarize yourself with original text in Serbian. There, as in the Ukrainian translation, behind the chapter "The reasons for the future war"The chapter" followsWho will win in a future war".
There is a book by St. Nicholas Serbian and In Russian. And in this translation, as in the rest, the same sequence of chapters remains. The most interesting thing is that this essay is not the first time used by Russian propagandists in the context of the war in Ukraine. In 2022, the general director of the Orthodox television channel "Spas" Boris Korchevnikov and priest Igor Fomin presented their documentary About the war in Ukraine under the name "War and the Bible." The announcement of the film indicated that the nomads and Fomin “went to the Donbass to read this book and, with the help of St. Nicholas Serbian, our military and residents of destroyed cities, find out answers to the main questions about what is happening to us today.”
Thus, the extended photograph with the mention of the head of “killing Russians is not a sin” is a fake, and it is based on the book of the Orthodox Church Priest, who is also revered by convinced supporters of the war with Ukraine.
Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons
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