“A symbol of reconciliation between the Russian nation and the Lord would be removing the remains of the main persecutor and torturer of the XX century from Red Square and destroying the monuments dedicated to him, all symbols of catastrophe, tragedy and destruction of the sovereignty given by God. The same goes for the cities, regions and streets that have been deprived of their original historical names”. This is asked for in a letter by six members of the Episcopal Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, who live outside their home country. The letter, read out in the churches of diaspora last Sunday, is about the “100^th anniversary of the tragic Russian revolution and the start of godless persecutions”. However, 2017 also marks the “100^th anniversary of the reinstatement of the Patriarchate in Russia”, as the metropolitan bishops write, with the enthronement of St Tichon, the patriarch of all Russia, in 1917. “Now we must make sense of our history”, and he lists, as one of “the reasons Russia fell unto such terrible tribulations”, “apostasy, leaving faith in Christ, and rejecting a government based on God’s rules”. Being aware of the history of the Russian martyrs of the XX century “is not a political matter”, it is a matter of spiritual awareness, so that “every Russian may follow the commandments of their own conscience” and may understand “that, in their country, which God preserved, there’s no room for the symbols of an atheist state or for the names of atheist militants”.