East and West. Religions and Laws

I wrote a book on the history of religions

“East and West. Religions and Laws”

https://www.amazon.com/East-West-Religions-Galina-Popovici/dp/1073688038/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=galina+popovici&qid=1565575437&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Бесплатная доставка в любую страну:

https://www.bookdepository.com/East-West-Galina-Popovici/9781073688036?ref=grid-view&qid=1565569227973&sr=1-4

CONTENTS Introduction Part I Pre-Christian religions

1.    Paganism                                                                                 12

2.  Sumerian civilization                                                               15

3.  Civilization of ancient Egypt                                                  19

4.  Judaism                                                                                    24

5.  Religions of East Asia                                                             31

Taoism. Confucianism. Buddhism.      Eastern teaching about life 6.   Zoroastrianism                                                                        42 Part II                                               Christianity 7.   The creed of Jesus Christ                                                        50 8.   The spread of Christianity in the first millennium AD           60 9.    Early Christianity                                                                   63        10.   Christianity after the Church split                                         65      Orthodox Church.       Catholic Church.        11.   Reformation and Protestantism                                              68      Beginning of the reformation      The peasant war in Germany (1524-1525)      Significance of the Reformation      Protestant denominations        12.   Religion in the USA                                                               80      Constitution of the United States of America.         Religion in the USA today 13.   Orthodox church in the second millennium CE                     85 14.   Orthodox Church in Russia                                                    88        Baptism of Russia.        Anointing of Ivan IV, the Terrible to the kingdom        The split of the Russian Orthodox Church.        Moscovy of XVI-XVII centuries through the eyes of Europeans        Rapprochement of Russia with Europe.        Peter I the Great       Russia after Peter I.        Peter Chaadaev on East and West        Church and Peasant Reform 1861        Protestant denominations in Russia        in the second half of XIX century.        Religion in the USSR and the Russian Federation     15.    East and West                                                                          126        Horizontal and vertical relationships in society        Acknowledgements                                                               131        References                                                                              132 INTRODUCTION     At some level of development, people began to ask how the world works and how to live. They tried to explain why there is day and night, winter and summer, why there are storms, droughts, fires, floods, or what happens to a person after his death. Religions tried to answer these questions. Answers have changed with the development and transformation of society.     At first, people believed that the world was inhabited by invisible spirits, elements of nature deities and souls of deceased ancestors, supernatural beings, good and evil. It was believed that they are actively involved in people's lives. These first beliefs were called pagan or folk.     With the evolution of mankind, religions appeared that were based on a common belief in one God or a group of gods. As a rule, religions provided for participation in prayer and rituals, and often contained a moral code regulating human behavior.      In the beginning, when people lived in tribes, there was no need for laws, since all relationships, like in the family were determined by feelings of love, hatred, or jealousy.    The word civilization is derived from the Latin word civitas — city, and civis — a resident of the city. When people began to live in cities and united into states, there was a need to order their relations between themselves and the state, i.e. create a code of laws. To be a civilized person is to abide the laws.     Historically, codes of law were formulated on the basis of moral teachings of religions. The laws of society — civil laws — usually apply for a period of time. They change with the development and transformation of society.     At first, some religions had two tasks: they explained the material structure of the world and answered the question of how to live. But already in the middle of the first millennium BCE, Eastern religions appeared: Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, which answered the question of how to live and gave no explanation for the appearance and structure of the world. It was believed that the world always existed. In these religions, believers worship their teachers — Lao Tzu, Confucius, and Buddha.     Over time, the theme of the material organization of the world turned to science. But the answer to the question of how to live has remained for religions. In the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus showed that the Earth is not the center of the universe. Scientists have found that the creation of the world given in the Old Testament is wrong. Many atheists appeared among educated people. Together with the scientific mistakes of the Christian religion, atheists automatically rejected the achievements of religion in the moral field. They threw out the baby with the bathwater.    Religions define culture as a lifestyle built by a group of people and passed on from one generation to another. Culture tells people how to behave in one or another occasion, and usually this behavior is determined by the prevailing religion of a given society.     I will give a few examples.     In Buddhism, it is believed that life is suffering, so you should rejoice at the death of any individual, even the closest one, because he was freed of suffering. Of course, a person can be hurt if someone close to him died, but he should not show his grief.   I will tell one case from Thailand, a Buddhist country. The man died. He was 82 years old. He was laid in the monastery hall, in an open coffin for 3 days, during which people came to show respect to him. When we entered, his joyful, smiling sister greeted us and behaved as if we were at a birthday party, not at a funeral. Everyone smiled and rejoiced.     The opposite attitude to death is in the Christian culture, where a person's life is considered the highest good. If a loved one dies, you don’t have to hide your pain.     Another case. In some Arab countries, Islam prohibits women from driving a car, going outside without being accompanied by their husbands, obliges them to wear the burqa. Girls are brought up in the belief that such a life is the right and only possible one.     Once I talked with a female student from an Arab country. I told her that she was trying to get a diploma that she would not need in her country since she would not be able to work or even drive a car. She replied that she was studying not for her diploma, but for her development. In her country, she will marry and take care of her husband and children, live happy, she hopes, family life. The student said that she is very sorry for American women whose lives are spent in work and stress: 8 hours of work, where a woman should strive to be the best or at least a good worker, otherwise they will take someone else; the road with its peak hours, where people often lose time and nerves, and then they hurry to kindergartens or schools to pick up children. The life of American women is constant stress. The student said she would not want such a life. I must note that Arab students studying in America come from rich or at least well-off families. I do not know how a woman from a less prosperous social class would answer my question.     Another student told me that her husband can take a second wife when they return home because men are now allowed to have four wives. That was the greatest fear of her life.      Anyone who has been abroad can cite many such examples.       Even atheists have to admit that they live according to Christian culture if they live in countries where the Christian church is predominant.     This book examines the relationship and interdependence of religion and laws, their history and their influence on the fate of humanity, the influence of religions on the culture and history of the East and the West.

HBO Series "Chernobyl"

Russian

The story of the heroes

 Unhappy is the country that needs heroes.

Berthold Brecht

 A hero is a man of exceptional dedication, courage, and valor. In a prosperous country, in normal everyday life, there is no need for heroes. Heroes solve difficult tasks that a country cannot solve except by demanding exceptional courage and sometimes even life from its citizens.  In Russia, there has always been a cult of the Hero, because Russia is a country that needs Heroes.

       Chernobyl is a good movie. It is multifaceted. I will tell very briefly only about two sides of this film:

 1. collaboration science and the KGB (The all-powerful intelligence and security service of the U.S.S.R)

 2. heroism of the people

      Since Soviet science mainly worked for military needs, which are related to secrets, the participation of the KGB at all stages of decision-making was mandatory. The KGB in science was omnipresent and omnipotent. Nobody dared to disobey their decisions, because the position of a person in science, in society, depended on it, and even life itself depended. KGB decisions were often incompetent, but in all cases they were binding.

     All this is convincingly shown in the dramatic fate of Valery Legasov, who was a member of the government commission to investigate the causes and to eliminate the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (ChNPP).

    The construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant named after VI Lenin began in 1970. It was a military strategic object included in the plan of the Soviet army because it was producing, besides energy, weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear bombs.
 The ChNPP was to become the largest nuclear power plant in the world with 12 RBMK reactors, each with a capacity of 1000 MW.

    The first unit was launched in 1977, the next - in December 1978, 1981 and 1983, another 2 had already been built. The fourth block was put into operation ahead of time, without security checks.

    The main designer of RBMK reactors was the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. The reactor was not equipped with a modern security system, the level of automatic control and monitoring was too low. One of the scientists wrote an article about the unsatisfactory reactor safety system. He lost his job and then disappeared. The KGB did not want to know about the problems, as this would postpone the implementation of the plan, which was usually associated with medals, bonuses, and promotions.

    The disaster at the power plant happened on April 26, 1986 [1].

     The Soviet press has always called this catastrophe an accident, not an explosion of a reactor.

      Initially, only one scientist, Professor Valery Legasov, was sent to Chernobyl. He served as Deputy Director for Science of the Kurchatov Institute. He was not a nuclear physicist. His specialty was inorganic chemistry. He came to the Kurchatov Institute after the design of the reactor was completed. His career was typical of a Soviet scientist who achieved administrative advancement. He was a talented scientist, an active Komsomol activist in his youth, and then an active party member. The KGB saw him as incompetent in nuclear physics, an obedient employee who would carry out all orders. But they were wrong. Legasov behaved like a real scientist and a patriot. He was a hero because he started a battle with the party leadership and the KGB, and this saved many lives. Boris Shcherbina, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Chairman of the Commission for the Elimination of the Consequences of the Accident, worked closely with Legasov and helped him much.

    Upon arrival, Legasov was informed that there were pieces of graphite on the ground near the reactor. Graphite was located in the reactor on the retarding rods. If graphite was outside the reactor, it meant that there was an explosion. All measurements of radioactivity made before the arrival of Legasov were fake and were reduced thousands of times. This data was sent to Gorbachev. The party leadership of the Chernobyl NPP assured that there is no big problem, and everything will be adjusted in the coming days. In order not to create panic, it was forbidden to leave the zone around the reactor and the city of Pripyat, located 3 km from the reactor. The press was forbidden to mention the accident.

    Legasov himself made measurements in the dangerous zone and realized that the explosion really took place. At the same time, he himself received a high dose of radiation, much higher than the allowable one.

     It was necessary to urgently evacuate the population living in the zone of high radiation. The KGB did not agree. But the Western press helped. Less than a day later, the radioactive cloud reached Sweden and other western countries. They did not know the reason, but they were sure that something terrible had happened. For KGB, there was no longer worth keeping a secret anymore. Pripyat evacuated.

    The radiation from the reactor was very strong. At 1 hour, it was equal to the explosion of 2 Bombs dropped on Hiroshima. And every hour was adding the radiation of two Hiroshima bombs.

     On the roof of the reactor was a lot of graphite ejected during the explosion. To drop the graphite from the roof, a robot was bought in Germany. The robot thrown on the roof was immediately killed by radiation. The KGB gave a much smaller figure for radiation than it actually was. The robot was not designed for such a high dose. The robot cost several million dollars. Robots for higher radiation would be much more expensive. KGB found a cheap way. It used Bio robots. The job was made by the soldiers who were on the roof for only 1.5 minutes and dumped graphite with shovels. A total of 3826 soldiers were involved. Each of them received a premium of 800 rubles and large doses of radiation. They became heroes, not of their own accord. They were ordered to be heroes.

    To reduce radiation, it was decided to dump sand mixed with Boron directly into the reactor. This was done by helicopters. Pilots who worked on helicopters also received a large portion of radiation.

   There was another problem. Immediately after the accident, firefighters poured a large amount of water into the reactor. That was a big mistake. Now the reactor fuel heated the water and raised its pressure, and if there was a new explosion, it would have killed everything around for hundreds of kilometers. It was necessary to drain the water. Three people went to the reactor building.  They knew the reactor plan well and could open the lock for water release. All three were volunteers. They agreed in total darkness, without protective equipment, in some scuba tanks to descend into radioactive water under a burning reactor to open the gateway and prevent a potentially more dangerous new catastrophe. They went to a painful radioactive death consciously.

    The film has many examples of the heroic behavior of the people.

     Two weeks after the atomic explosion, the Soviet state authorities decided to cover the destroyed power unit with a sarcophagus, a reinforced concrete structure with its own cooling system. Inside the sarcophagus is at least 95% of the irradiated nuclear fuel from the destroyed reactor. In 2018, a new sarcophagus was built, which should protect against radiation for the next 100 years.

    Professor Legasov received a large dose of radiation. He had 5 years left to live. He constantly had trouble at work. The KGB and its cooperating science bosses paid him for disobedience. On the day of the second anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, he committed suicide.
    A. Alexandrov,  Director of the Kurchatov Institute, Academician and President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1975–1986), the official author of the RBMK reactor project, a great KGB collaborator, until the end of his life (1994) refused to admit that design flaw contributed to the catastrophe. In Russia, many RBMK reactors worked and KGB did not want "to create panic".

     There is a lot of truth in the film. That is its value.

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[1] https://www.chernobylwel.com/en/istorija-cernobylja

© Galina Popovici, 2019         All rights reserved

Сериал HBO “Чернобыль”

English

Сериал HBO “Чернобыль”

Рассказ о героях

 Несчастна та страна, которая нуждается в героях.

Бертольд Брехт 

 Герой - это человек, исключительной самоотверженности, смелости и доблести. В благополучной стране, в нормальной повседневной жизни в героях нет необходимости. Герои разрешают трудные задачи, которые страна не может разрешить иначе, как требуя от своих граждан исключительного мужества и самозабвения, а иногда даже и жизни. В России всегда был культ Героя, потому что Россия - это страна, которая нуждается в Героях.

Чернобыль-хороший фильм. Он многогранный. Я расскажу очень коротко только o двух гранях этого фильма:  

 1. cотрудничество науки и КГБ

 2. героизм народа

Tак как Советская наука в основном работала на военные нужды, которые связаны с секретами, участие КГБ на всех этапах принятия решений было обязательным. КГБ в науке было вездесущим и всемогущим.  Hикто не смел ослушаться их решений, потому что от этого зависило положение человека в науке, в обществе, и зависилa даже сама жизнь. Решения КГБ часто были некомпетентными, но во всех случаях были обязательными для выполнения.

Все это убедительно показано в фильме на драматической судьбе Валерия Легасова, который был членом правительственной комиссии по расследованию причин и по ликвидации последствий аварии на Чернобыльской атомной электростанции (ЧАЭС).

Строительство ЧАЭС имени В. И. Ленина началось в 1970 году. Это был военно-стратегический объект, входящий в план Советской армии,   потому что он производил, помимо энергии, плутоний для ядерных бомб. ЧАЭС ​​должна была стать крупнейшей атомной электростанцией в мире с 12 реакторами РБМК, каждый мощностью 1000 МВт.

  Первый энергоблок был запушен в 1977 г, последующие - в декабре 1978, 1981 и 1983 г, eще 2 уже строились. Четвёртый блок был сдан в работу досрочно, без проверок системы безопасности.

Главным проектировщиком реакторов РБМК был Курчатовский институт атомной энергии.  Реактор не был оснащен современной системой безопасности, уровень автоматического управления и контроля был слишком низок.  Один из ученых написал статью о неудовлетворительной системе безопасности реактора.  Он потерял работу, а потом исчез. КГБ не хотел знать о проблемах, так как это откладывало бы выполнение плана, с которым обычно были связаны ордена и медали, премии, и повышения в должности.

Катастрофа на электростанции случилась 26 апреля 1986 года [1]. 

Советская пресса всегда называла эту катастрофу аварией, а не взрывом реакторa.

Вначале в Чернобыль был послан только один ученый, профессор Валерий Легасов.  Он занимал должность заместителя директора по научной части Курчатовскogo институтa. Он не был физиком ядерщиком. Его специальностью была неорганическая химия. Он пришёл в Курчатовский институт уже после того, как проектирование реактора было закончено. Его карьера была типичной для советского научного работника, добившегося административного продвижения. Он был талантливым ученым, активным комсомольским деятелем в юности, а потом активным партийцем. КГБ видела в нём некомпетентного в ядерной физике, послушного сотрудника, который будет выполнять все приказы. Но они ошиблись. Легасов вел себя, как настоящий ученый и патриот. Он был героем, потому что начал битву с партийным руководством и КГБ - змеем Горынычем Советской эпохи, и этим спас много жизней.  С Легасовым близко сотрудничал и помогал во всём Борис Щербина, заместитель председателя Совета министров СССР, председстель комиссии по ликвидации последствий аварии.

По приезде, Легасову доложили, что на земле были куски графита. Графит был расположен в реакторе на замедляющих стержнях. Если графит оказался вне реактора, это значило, что был взрыв. Все замеры радиоактивности, сделанные до приезда Легасова, были фальшивыми и были уменьшены в тысячи раз. Эти данные были посланны Горбачёву. Партийное руководство ЧАЭС уверяло, что большой проблемы нет, и все будет налажено в ближайшие дни.  Чтобы не создавать паники, было запрещено покидать зону вокруг реактора и город Припять, расположенный в 3 км от реактора. Прессе было запрещено упоминать об аварии.

Легасов сам сделал измерения в горячей зоне и понял, что взрыв действительно имел место. При этом сам он получил высокую дoзу радиации, намного превышающей допустимую.

Надо было срочно эвакуировать население, жившие в зоне большой радиации.  КГБ был не согласен. Но помогла Западная пресса. Меньше, чем через день pадиоактивное облако достигло западной Европы и их газеты и телевизионные станции говорили о том, что радиация идет из Советского Союза. Они не знали причину, но были уверены, что случилось что-то страшное. Дальше держать секрет уже не имело смысла. На четвёртый день после аварии было приказано эвакуировать город Припять. 

Радиация из реактора была очень сильной. В 1 час она равнялась взрыву 2 Бомб, сброшенных на Хиросиму. И так каждый час.

  На крыше реактора было много графита, выброшенного во время взрыва. Чтобы сбросить графит с крыши, в ФРГ был куплен робот. Робот, сброшенный на крышу сразу же погиб от радиации. КГБ дал гораздо меньшую цифру по радиации, чем было на самом деле. Робот не был рассчитан на такую высокую дозу. Робот стоил несколько миллионов долларов. Роботы для более высокой радиации были бы гораздо дороже. Нашли дешевый способ. Применили Био роботов. Это были солдаты, которые находились на крыше только 1.5 минуты и сбрасывали графит лопатами. В общей сложности были задействовано 3826 солдат. Каждый из них получил премию 800 руб и большие дозы радиации.  Они стали героями не по собственной воле. Им приказали.

Чтобы уменьшить радиацию, было решено сбрасывать песок смешанный с борoм прямо в реактор. Это делали вертолёты. Лётчики, работавшие на вертолетах, тоже получили большую порцию радиации.

   Появилась ещё одна проблема. Сразу же после аварии пожарники вылили в реактор большое количество воды. Это было большой ошибкой. Теперь реакторное горючее нагревало воду и поднимало ее давление и, если бы произошел новый взрыв, он бы убил все вокруг на сотни километров. Надо было слить воду. В здание реактора пошли три человека, которые хорошо знали план реактора и могли открыть шлюз для выпуска воды. Все трое были добровольцами.  Они согласились в кромешной темноте, без защитного снаряжения, в одних аквалангах спуститься в радиоактивную воду под горящим реактором, чтобы открыть шлюз и предотвратить потенциально куда более опасную новую катастрофу. Они шли на мучительную радиоактивную смерть осознанно.
  В фильме много примеров героического поведения народа.

Былa ещё oднa важная героиня - Водка, бесплатная и в больших количествах. Она  разряжала стресс дo, во время, и после радиоактивных облучений.

Спустя две недели после атомного взрыва, Советские государственные органы управления приняли решение укрыть разрушенный энергоблок саркофагом – железобетонной конструкцией с собственной системой охлаждения. Внутри саркофага находится не менее 95% облученного ядерного топлива из разрушенного реактора.  В 2018 году был построен новый саркофаг, который должен защищать от радиации в течение следующих 100 лет.

Профессор Легасов получил большую дозу излучения. Ему оставалось жить 5 лет. У него постоянно были неприятности на работе. КГБ и сотрудничающие с ним боссы науки платили ему за непослушание. В день второй годовщины Чернобыльской аварии он покончил жизнь самоубийством.

А. Александров, директор Курчатовского института, академик и президент Академии наук СССР (1975–1986), официальный автор проекта реактора РБМК, преданный сотрудник КГБ, до конца своей жизни (1994) отказывался признать, что недостаток дизайна способствовал катастрофе. В России работало много реакторов РБМК, и КГБ не хотел «создавать панику».

В фильме много правды. В этом его ценность.

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[1] https://www.chernobylwel.com/ru/istorija-cernobylja

 

 © 2010 Галина Попович         Все права защищены