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    Angels and artillery: a cathedral to Russia's new national identity

    Cathedral of the Armed Forces blends militarism, patriotism and Orthodox Christianity to controversial effect
    by Shaun Walker at Patriot Park Oct 20, 2020 4 minutes
    The Cathedral of the Armed forces, in Patriot Park, Kubinka. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/TASS

    Angels hover above artillery, religious images are adorned with Kalashnikovs and the Virgin Mary strikes a pose reminiscent of a Soviet second world war poster. The imagery inside Russia’s vast Cathedral of the Armed Forces blends militarism, patriotism and Orthodox Christianity to breathtaking and highly controversial effect.

    An hour’s drive from Moscow, the cathedral has a metallic, khaki-green exterior, topped with golden domes and crosses that rise to 95 metres (312ft). Inside is the largest amount of mosaic of any church in the world, with many of the work depicting battles from Russian history and the second world war in particular.

    During Vladimir Putin’s two decades in charge of Russia, the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic

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