The Baton and the Cross
Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin
For more than a millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church has shown astonishing survival skills - from the Mongol yoke to tsarist demagoguery and enlightenment, from Soviet atheism to the chaotic 1990s. Now again, it is at the right hand of power, sanctifying Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
In this provocative new book, Lucy Ash reveals how, under Putin, religion is being stripped of its spiritual content and used as a weapon to control the population. Orthodox clerics and their acolytes distort theology as they preach Slav Christian supremacy and drag Russia backwards into a new Middle Ages.
“A vivid picture of the ways seismic moments of Russia’s religious past are reverberating today”
“Her extensive reading, linguistic gifts and objectivity make this an important book”
Recent reviews
In ‘The Baton and the Cross’ Lucy Ash Portrays the Russian Church’s Fall From Grace
The Moscow Times
The Baton and the Cross by Lucy Ash review — Russia’s toxic relationship with the Orthodox church
The Times
The Baton and the Cross – Putin’s cynical co-opting of Russia’s church
The Financial Times
Church and state: The Russian Orthodox Church’s embrace of aggressive conservatism
The Times Literary Supplement
The unholy alliance of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin
The Economist
How Orthodoxy can save Russia’s soul
UnHerd
Book review: The Baton and the Cross
Church Times
Clerics & Crooks (PDF)
The Literary Review
The Baton and The Cross has been selected as one of the books of the year by History Today magazine.
Related articles
The Tablet
Putin's Culture Wars
by Lucy Ash
The Moscow Times
How the War in Ukraine Split the Orthodox Church
by Lucy Ash
The New European
Putin’s hotline to God
by Lucy Ash
Media appearances
Sunday
Lucy Ash talks to William Crawley.
1st December 2024
Start the Week
Timothy Snyder, Oksana Maksymchuk and Lucy Ash discuss tyranny and freedom in the US, Russia and Ukraine, with Tom Sutcliffe.
16th September 2024
Ukraine: The Latest
How the Russian Orthodox Church became a vital force in Putin’s existential war against Ukraine.
Events
The Baton and The Cross: Russia's Church and its Embrace of State Power
Thursday 13th February 2025
6:00—7:30pm
Using interviews gathered across the country and evidence from the archives, Ash has assembled a compelling picture of an institution with a distinct line of politics. She tracks its engagement with the KGB, the FSB, and Russia’s current incursions into Africa, showing how the Church has long been part of the Kremlin's geopolitical ‘crusade’ for multipolarity. In conversation with Denis Maksimov, Ash will uncover some surprising tenets of Russia's ‘official' spirituality.
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