AHC: OS - The Orthodox State

With a POD after 1900, make an "Orthodox State" arise. This means a group of extremist Orthodox fundamentalists with at least (or about) the same level of global "projection" capabilities by terrorist attacks as OTL Islamic State.

Bonus points if it controls at least some territory akin to OTL Da'esh.
 
Problem is Europe is neck-deep in nationalism, meaning any movement would appeal first and foremost to the national identity. Maybe if the nationalist card is played up too heavily by someone else, perhaps, leaving religion as the only trump card of this religious group? In that case, maybe a White victory followed by Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo in Russia in the 20s ?
 
Eastern Europe perhaps? Maybe the division of Ottoman Territories goes down in flames, mass persecution against the Orthodox faith leads to increased militarism and the founding of an Orthodox state.

Post-1900 it gets a bit more tricky.
 
Problem is Europe is neck-deep in nationalism, meaning any movement would appeal first and foremost to the national identity. Maybe if the nationalist card is played up too heavily by someone else, perhaps, leaving religion as the only trump card of this religious group? In that case, maybe a White victory followed by Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo in Russia in the 20s ?
Perhaps a certain staretes, takes some roubles from the Tzarina, and leaves beyond a movement.
 
The problem is, the nature of an Orthodox church makes this kind of things difficult since it is hard to have a crazed ideological state when things like Icons are integral parts of the faith and are quite fragile, thus making it pretty hard to defend while also forming an "orthodox state."

My guess is maybe have the Ottomans keep control over Greece, thus little "orthodox" protonationalist groups rise up every once and a while.
 
Russia trounces the Ottomans and experiences a religious revival. Pan-Orthodoxy squares off against Pan-Slavism even though both basically in the end want the same thing, give or take.
 
The decentralized nature of the Orthodox church makes it almost uniquely unfit for something like that. Also, I don't think any of the major Christian denominations have a concept analogous to that of the Caliphate in Islam - which was a key concept in the rise of the IS.

A strong, surviving Ottoman Empire could maybe make it happen - if it keeps (or lapses into) heavy mistreatment of Christians. Not with an after 1900 PoD, though. An early 1800s PoD would be needed at the very latest, to preserve an Orthodox political commonwealth and allow for a broad sense of pan-Orthodox unity.
 
The decentralized nature of the Orthodox church makes it almost uniquely unfit for something like that. Also, I don't think any of the major Christian denominations have a concept analogous to that of the Caliphate in Islam - which was a key concept in the rise of the IS.

In theory (and, in the earliest stages, somewhat in practice), the Holy Roman Emperor is supposed to have been something similar, obviously without the religious authority of the Caliph. I agree, I don't think it would work in the Orthodox Church though.
 
Probably your best bet is something that arises in the aftermath of the collapse of Czarism- if Russia devolves into a warlord era, it's not hard to picture some of the Black Hundreds going ultra-Orthodox and carving out little fiefdoms.
Probably a little slice of hell- rule-by-pogrom.
 
Problem is Europe is neck-deep in nationalism, meaning any movement would appeal first and foremost to the national identity. Maybe if the nationalist card is played up too heavily by someone else, perhaps, leaving religion as the only trump card of this religious group? In that case, maybe a White victory followed by Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo in Russia in the 20s ?

Problematic. Neither Whites nor Reds were a nationalistic movement in any way (indeed, both were highly multinational). Some of the "sideshow" campaigns of the Civil War involved nationalist movements, but as far as I'm aware, they all got cleaned up at the end.

Neither the Whites nor the Reds were even likely to become nationalists. Very very hypothetically, an Alexander Kerensky-type government might start emphasizing Russian nationalism to try and shore itself up against more radical Communist elements, but don't forget that even Kerensky was nominally a Socialist, and the Trudoviks (his party) had members drawn from all over the Empire.

I guess a moderate Republican movement trying to keep the whole Empire together could go Orthodox (as they couldn't go nationalist), but even then - most ethnic minorities in Russia had their own churches, and even the Orthodox ones weren't about to get too far into bed with the Patriarch of Moscow.

Maybe have a stronger Serb-Bosniak or even Serb-Bosniak-Croatian nationalist movement develop in the late 19th/early 20th century, so that when a group of Serbs decides to start "removing kebab" they emphasize their religious identity rather than their nationalist one?
 
Minchandre,
I have difficulty understanding your last paragraph because OTL Serbs, Bosnians and Croatians are divided by religion. As the old empires extended their spheres of influence into the former Yugoslavia, they recruited local hill tribes to do the dirty work of fighting, smuggling, ethnic cleansing, etc.
Russia recruited Serbs and converted them to the Christian Eastern Orthodox faith. Meanwhile, the Holy Roman Empire (mostly Germanic) recruited Croatians and trained them to be good little Roman Catholics. Finally, the Ottoman Empire and converted Kosovars and Bosnians to suppress the other two tribes. Along the way Bosnians and Kosovars converted to Islam.
Many local villagers did not concern themselves with religious differences, so the ocaissonal Croatian family moved into a Bosnian village, etc. Few villages were religiously "pure" or tribally "pure." Serbians married Croatians, etc.

"National" boundaries are squiggly and largely ignored by locals before the former Yugoslavia collapsed into civil war as a handful of opportunistic politicians (e.g. Slobodan Milosovich decided that massacring neighbouring tribes was the best way to increase their personal power. One of Milosovich's biggest hassle was all those pesky Croatian families living in Serbian villages. Even worse were Bosnian villages within Serbian borders. If uncomfortable minorities like not be bullied into moving tithe "correct" side of the border, they were massacred.

After the last (Russian) Empire failed, hill tribes resumed their centuries-old feuds. Infighting during the 1990s was largely funded by smugglers and other organized criminal gangs.
 
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With a POD after 1900, make an "Orthodox State" arise. This means a group of extremist Orthodox fundamentalists with at least (or about) the same level of global "projection" capabilities by terrorist attacks as OTL Islamic State.

Bonus points if it controls at least some territory akin to OTL Da'esh.

Eastern Orthodox Catholics?

Orthodox Jews?

Or an internationalized version of the Partido Ortodoxo of Cuba?
 
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You talk about Eastern European Orthodoxy, But there is a large Orthodox population in Ethiopia. I suppose that in stead of the Durge getting overthrown by secularists Mengistu Haile Mariam, gets deposed by Orthodox extremists?
 
Russia falls into total anarchy with the advent of the Russian Revolution. Orthodox priests attempt to bring some form of order by making a state.
 
Greece if it goes on a neo-Byzantine redux. But it will be Greek foremost, and only secondarily Orthodox; if it sticks around long enough, it might want to play the old Patriarchate card for extra legitimacy. As others have pointed out, though, it runs contrary to the decentralized, many-leaders nature of Orthodoxy and world incur the fear and wrath of non-Greek clerics.
 
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