Potemkin villages of Serhii Dumenko

A bused-in crowd in the Dormition Cathedral in Volodymyr. Photo: OCU

Members of all three OCU parishes in Novovolynsk publicly thanked their mayor, B. Karpus, for providing transportation to Volodymyr for Serhii Dumenko’s “service” in the Dormition Cathedral taken from the UOC. In doing so, OCU members naïvely “gave up” the mayor – revealing that he used budget funds to manufacture the “picture” of nationwide support for Epifaniy and his structure.

Since there were indeed quite a lot of people at the “liturgy” on January 31 in the Dormition Cathedral, one can safely assume that the authorities organized shuttles not only from Novovolynsk, but from other towns in the region as well. And here an unavoidable question arises – why? Why block off streets for Dumenko’s arrival? Because the very next day, at the Sunday “liturgy” in that same Dormition Cathedral seized from the UOC, there were no more than a dozen people.

History has a legend about the “Potemkin villages”, when Prince Potemkin, escorting Catherine II through the newly conquered Crimea, built houses and stage scenery along the road to create the illusion that the land was settled and flourishing. For the duration of the empress’s journey, peasants were also brought into these makeshift “villages”, promised a reward (which they never received). Catherine was pleased, convinced that Russia’s new Crimean lands were thriving.

So the question is – who, in Dumenko’s “services”, plays the role of Catherine? Because in Volodymyr, in Cherkasy, in Bila Tserkva, and in other seized UOC cathedrals that Serhii Petrovych visits, his motorcades are followed by buses of bused-in extras. Dumenko leaves – and the “Potemkin peasants” disperse. The clearest example is the Kyiv–Pechersk Lavra. When Dumenko “serves” in the Dormition Cathedral or the Refectory Church, there are people (and there are buses near the Lavra’s walls). When Dumenko is absent –  there are 5–10 people standing in the church at OCU “liturgies”.

We know that inside the OCU itself, those dissatisfied with Serhii Dumenko’s rule call him behind his back by a certain fairy-tale female name. But perhaps he truly believes that all those who appear at his “services” are the real parishioners of these churches? If so, the name of the Russian empress would suit him even better.

Read also