Correspondence to Moscow

Ekaterina, 22 years, signed several times in front of the cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Despite his young age, this student of moscow human sciences do not ignore that this imposing building with its golden dome has also had a checkered past. Built in the Nineteenth century to commemorate the victories over Napoleon, the church was dynamited by Stalin in 1931. The communists wanted first to build in its place a palace of the Soviets, but the project never saw the light of day. A swimming pool was built on the site at the end of the 1950s. It is only in the 1990s that the cathedral was rebuilt to the identical.

” READ ALSO – The historical pictures of the burning of Notre-Dame de Paris

On the steps of the church, on Tuesday morning, there was no intention on the part of the faithful Russian, that words of compassion towards the tragedy in paris. “Just as the Christ-the Saviour which was rebuilt, I believe that the church in paris will also be and a such a beautiful way,” says the young woman of orthodox confession. None of the visitors cross this morning has never visited the spiritual edifice of the island of the City, but each has in mind the Victor Hugo novel and feels its partial destruction as a wound.

” READ ALSO – Folder on the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris

The cathedral in 1895, before its destruction by the communists, and then its reconstruction in the 1990s. Rue des Archives/© Granger NYC/Rue des Archives

“Every civilized man, whether he believes or not in God, and sympathizes with all the French,” says Sergei, an official Russian cravaté. “All the political problems that we fight with other countries are nothing next to these issues that affect the universal and the spiritual,” says this forty-something woman, who gathers once a month in this cathedral became the spiritual heart of the Russian capital.

some theories of apocalyptic heard in the morning on the waves of Russian, according to which the fire of Our Lady would be evidence of the decline of the West, place, here, to expressions of empathy. “When I was young, I was an atheist. But now I understand that Notre Dame represents for France and the world. It is the beauty that collapsed,” says Tatiana, a young retiree. “To restore the Christ-Saviour, all the world has given money and worked on Saturdays. Now it is necessary to do the same thing in Paris, and it is necessary to help, say so, we’ll do it!”, she concludes away.

” check out our special issue dedicated to Notre-Dame de Paris