Russian nationalism has many faces. Most are familiar stock characters, either populists on a Kremlin leash or caveman Hitler aficionados. But how about a hipster in John Lennon-style color glasses who is also an Orthodox priest and a sitcom star?
Meet Ivan Okhlobystin, 45, known to the general populace as Dr. Andrei Bykov, an ironic Russian counterpart to Gregory House, M.D., cracking salty jokes to patients in TNT's hit show "The Interns."
Off-screen he advocates a doctrine of "aristocratic national-patriotism." Just last month he spoke to an enthusiastic audience of 20,000 at Moscow's Luzhniki stadium. Last week, he requested thatPatriarch Kirillallow him to join the Russian March, the notorious annual ultranationalist rally set for Friday.
"I have legitimized the term 'national-patriotism,'" the pony-tailed Okhlobystin said with pride in a recent interview with The Moscow Times.
"It was the weekend, and everyone was at their dachas," he continued softly, offering a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how he got away with the massive, politically charged event in central Moscow, where such happenings are very much frowned upon.
He sported jeans and a battered leather jacket during an interview at a Moscow cafe last month. It is a far cry from the priest's frock he was entitled to wear until recently and may yet don again, once he winds up his acting career.
Okhlobystin made a name for himself as an actor in the 1990s and early 2000s, when he starred in a dozen-plus films, peaking with the main role in cult classic "Down House" (2001), a surrealist take on Dostoevsky's "The Idiot."
But he took a sharp career turn at the end of that decade, announcing in 2001 that he was ordained into priesthood by an Orthodox Christian bishop in Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent.
He served as a priest for several years in Moscow, but his restless nature got the better of him, and he returned to the movie set, first as a screenwriter — a short story of his was behind the grim action film "Paragraph 78" (2007) — and then as an actor.
Some of his roles resonated well with his newfound faith — he starred, for example, in Pavel Lungin's "Tsar" (2009), a spiritual study of a despot's soul. But even there, he played a fool, while in the made-for-TV "Conspiracy" (2007), he depicted Grigory Rasputin.
Okhlobystin also embraced mass culture again, starring in "The Interns," appearing at musical awards shows — usually in his trademark orange glasses — and even taking up the job of a creative director at mobile phone retailer Yevroset.
Church hierarchs eventually demanded that he choose between the laity and the clergy, and Patriarch Kirill suspended him from priesthood. But he still has the option of returning to being an active priest, and indicated he intends to do so — just not right now.
"I'll remain devoted to the church even if it declares me an anathema, because this institution played a formative role in my life. Because of it, I have a strong family," said Okhlobystin, a father of six.
During his speech in Luzhniki, Okhlobystin declared the late Metropolitan Ioann Ladozhsky, a nationalist-leaning Orthodox Christian bishop, as his "teacher." Ladozhsky, known for his anti-Semitic views, became an icon for the nationalist movement after his death in 1995.
Source:The Moscow Times
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