Mission of the military chaplain on the battlefield and the Orthodox ethics during the World War I (on the example of Orenburg and Siberian Cossack troops

Military clergy was one of the core translators of military norms and regulations in the Russian army during the early XX century. The goal of this article is to examine the concepts of Orthodox culture within the ethics of war of the military chaplains. Leaning on the memoirs of A. Turundaevsky and archival documents of the Orenburg and Siberian Cossack troops, the article reconstructs the mission of the military chaplain on the battlefield, analyzes the structure of concepts of Orthodox ethics therein. The study of the structure of the elements of Orthodox ethics in the mission of the military chaplain reveals the key ethical principles that are fundamental to military conflicts, when one of the parties grounds its military regulations on the Orthodox culture. It is determined that in the conditions of new requirements established for military clergy during the World War I (1914–1918), there were instances that the norms of the Orthodox ethics contradicted the mission of the chaplain on the battlefield. The acquired results reveal that the underlying principle of the mission of military chaplain, as the representative of the “militant church”, on the battlefield was “love for one's neighbor”. The understanding of Russia as the center of Orthodox culture and the perception of soldiers as “warriors of the church” prompted the clergy to implement the concept of “meekness” in their actions, as well as the concepts of “recumbence”, “Divine Providence”, etc. for comprehension of their actions.

INVOLVEMENT OF MILITARY CHAPLAINS IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT OF BORDER GUARDS

The article deals with the views of psychologists on the relevance of use of the religious faith potential in the context of the individual mental health maintaining. The state and problematic issues that arise during the introduction of the institute of military chaplaincy in the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine are considered. The need for involvement of Border Guard military chaplains and military psychologists in the psychological support of professional activity of the border guards of joint actions during psychoprophylactic, psychohygienic, psychotherapeutic, psychocorrectional measures is defined.Key words: mental health, religion, military chaplain, border guard, psychological support.

Hungarian Accounts from the Ottoman Fronts of the First World War

Even though the annexation of Bosnia by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1908 raised the tension between the Monarchy and the Ottomans, Hungaro-Turkish political, economic, and cultural relations significantly improved from the beginning of the twentieth century until the end of the First World War. With the eruption of the Great War these friendly relations turned into a war alliance, where suddenly the battlefields became fields of joint effort. As a consequence, the outbreak of the war caused intensification of mutual visits and the arrival of Hungarian soldiers, journalists, and even artists and religious representatives in greater numbers in the Ottoman Empire. In this paper the author mainly focuses on Hungarian accounts of different Ottoman fronts during the First World War, while not forgetting to put all these activities in the frame of the wartime alliance. War correspondents like Béla Landauer, István Dobay, and Jenő Heltai from different Hungarian journals, soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian Army like Dr Emil Vidéky and Dr László Király, the painter Géza Maróti, and even a military chaplain, Pál Schrotty left behind detailed memoirs of environments ranging from the picturesque Bay of Izmir to the desert of Palestine. These mostly unknown depictions reveal the cruelty of the war, research the healthcare system of the capital, and provide detailed accounts of the Berlin-Bagdad line and historical sites in the Empire, while also raising questions regarding the situation of Turkish women.