Psychological content of military-political orientations of the Moscow patriarchate's believers
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Abstract
Introduction. The analysis of the military-political orientations of the UOC (MP)'s believers is of great importance for assessing the state and forecasting the development of the Ukrainians' political and religious consciousness. These orientations should be considered in the context of social identity, religious beliefs, confessional affiliation, ideological prejudices, relations between different communities, religious discrimination, social threats and injustices, and political distrust. Although pro-Ukrainian attitudes prevail among the supporters of the UOC (MP), there are also evasive or pro-Russian ones, which causes the contradictory position of the church in society. The majority of the UOC (MP)'s believers deny the perception of their church as purely pro-Russian, many see it as a victim of persecution.
The purpose of the study was to highlight the military-political orientations of the UOC (MP)'s believers based on the results of psycho-semantic monitoring of the Ukrainians' political consciousness.
Methodology. 1213 respondents were interviewed in all controlled territories according to the all-Ukrainian sample. The basis of the questionnaire were judgments about current areas of public and political life, in particular, with an assessment of the Moscow Patriarchate. The questionnaire also contained questions about a number of social and psychological attitudes of the respondents.
Results. 96 people (7.9%) declared themselves supporters of the UOC (MP). 79% of respondents agreed with the negative assessment of the Moscow Patriarchate, 7.7% disagreed. According to the results of factor analysis of the judgments that correlated with the assessment of the Moscow Patriarchate, four factors were identified: “pro-Russian political and ideological attitudes”, “emotionally saturated patriotic attitudes”, “combination of domestic and foreign policy orientations”, “assessments of war and power”. Along with their devotion to the Moscow Patriarchate, the UOC (MP)'s believers showed a less positive (compared to the majority of respondents) attitude towards the independence of Ukraine, Ukrainian patriotism, the unity of the Ukrainian nation, state power, and assessed pro-Russian inclinations more leniently. They had a lower level of life satisfaction, social optimism, a sense of personal influence and internality.
Conclusions. The psychological situation of the UOC (MP) 's believers is doubly problematic: on the one hand, their views are to some extent dissonant with the pro-Ukrainian views of the majority of society; on the other hand, they are in a state of significant discomfort - both due to disagreement with the majority and due to the experience of real or apparent threats. The lack of subjectivity reduces the ability to cope with a problem situation. The practical significance of the research results lies in revealing the social and psychological problematic situation of several million UOC (MP)'s believers in Ukrainian society. Prospects for further research can be seen in the analysis of the social and psychological prerequisites for overcoming discomfort among the UOC (MP)'s believers, their positive self-determination in modern Ukrainian society, and understanding with the pro-Ukrainian majority.
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