By Stanislav Minakov(Orthodox Christianity) | 77 Comments
Originally appeared at: Orthodox Christianity
June 28, 2021
Once settled in the United States, he developed seventeen types of aircraft and eighteen helicopters. He was a pioneer inventor of large passenger planes, among them the four-engine biplane "Ilya Muromets"—a giant flying clipper, the pride of the Russian pre-revolutionary aviation industry. His company, "Sikorsky Aircraft", founded in 1923, is still operating to this day. A little-known fact: at the beginning of the 1920s, Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov saved Igor Sikorsky and his company from bankruptcy by sending him a check for $5,000. A few years later, Sikorsky returned the money with interest.
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was one of those honest-to-God Russians: a devout Christian committed to the ideals of monarchism.
Despite ending up in emigration, Sikorsky remained true to himself. He headed the Tolstoy and Pushkin Societies and was a member of the Russian National Union in the USA.
The Skies and The Heaven, I. SikorskySome Kievans may still remember the Letnoye Field where young Igor Sikorsky, as well as Pyotr Nesterov, conducted the first, even if sometimes unsuccessful, flights. Today the area is encased in asphalt. But God saved everything, so the unexpected stream of thoughts and ideas of our former [Russian] countrymen, steeped in the true spirit of Orthodoxy, reached us through the thick of the past century, unrest, and global cataclysms.
As for Sikorsky, we must point out that the religious and philosophical side of his talent has remained practically unknown to us. Some even consider Sikorsky an Orthodox theologian and a missionary.
As we begin to discover I.I. Sikorsky as a philosopher, we are instantly soothed by a comforting thought that not all the "front-runners of the modern civilization" were spiritually clueless. Sikorsky asserts a thought about the futility of the progressivism, the uselessness of technological inventions and social projects if they are devoid of the authentic truth of the Gospel.
His book of select spiritual writings, published in Russia a few years ago, presents Sikorsky to the Russian readers as a solid Orthodox theologian and a missionary.
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On his Facebook page, Very Rev. Fr. Vladimir Vigilyansky invites readers to grasp the meaning of some of the scientist's thoughts and offers quotes from Sikorsky's essay, "Approaching the Precipice":
Christian faith provided the most powerful life-saving vaccine that has protected men and nations from the deadly effects of the sinister powers of evil that are always present and ready to strike as soon as men slack off morally and spiritually. The advent of the modern era saw the gradual weakening of religious influence until it nearly disappeared from the face of the earth. Respectively, the spiritual powers of evil succeeded in gaining unprecedented dominion and, to a large extent, were able to legalize its principles, goals, and the means to achieve them on a worldwide scale.
A wise Christian of olden time, when asked about the main rule of Christian life, replied, "Never lie to anyone and to yourself, in particular."
In striking contradistinction to the above, modern life is lately based on shocking self-deception and purposefully calculated disinformation of a less enlightened part of mankind. The casual amateurish lies of the past are now superseded by the real science of misinforming the unintelligent. As a result of all this, an honest exchange of opinions and dialogue between groups and nations got further complicated. Words, promises, and solemn obligations become perverse and meaningless, thus elevating intimidation, coercion, and violence to a point when they become the only convincing arguments in the dialogue of groups and nations.
Indeed, a great part of mankind does not want a universal totalitarian tyranny as a form of governance of the global community. What they want and expect is the benevolent and liberal association of peace-loving nations able to prevent war and promote the common good. However, the predominant world ideology and, consequently, the trend of events generated by it, do not leave much hope for such an outcome. In fact, behind the confusingly complicated course of events, the tempting promises of moralistic clairvoyants, and the dense smokescreen of misleading slogans and statements, there surely emerges an outline of a tyrannical super-totalitarian world state.
Ivan Sikorsky, the father of the engineer
Sikorsky, the engineer and the theologian, prophesied not only ahead of his time but likely for another hundred (and probably even more) years to come:
"It is already possible to recognize its [super-totalitarian world state's] fundamental working principles. The first of them will be "bread"; however, not merely bread as help for the destitute, but mainly in the form of universal control over the necessities of life, or as the means of the utmost physical intimidation and coercion. The second principle will be the deification of the leaders' personas. Over time, any criticism would be forbidden and the ensuing in-depth propaganda would create a one-of-a-kind halo of sanctity around an almost supernatural authority and power of the leaders. The third principle is the limitless use of deception, coercion and violence on an unprecedented scale, which means a complete moral downfall or, figuratively speaking, the worship of the devil. This is where our civilization is heading today.
A man may never even think of the devil; he may lead a life of an ascetic; more than that, he can even be a faithful supporter of a certain patriotic or humanitarian idea. Yet, at the same time, he can still become, in a strict sense, a follower of the devil if he confidently accepts and promotes the fundamental mystical principles of evil as the only correct ones.
The assistance rendered by the evil mystical powers isn't explicitly material in its manifestation. It is essentially the peculiar powerful inspiration that nevertheless works exclusively upon the lowermost and the ugliest traits of human character, first and foremost, hatred. It amplifies hatred to a superhuman level and enables the "possessed" man to exercise an exceptionally commanding influence tainting other men with his evil passions. Once subject to this influence, they are blinded by hatred and can lose the ability to pay heed to their voice of reason. They can even lose conscience and become an obedient, yet blind and violent, force of destruction capable of suppressing, crushing, and destroying any obstacles on the "possessed" leader's way to gain power he so ardently desired.
This process can become the fastest shortcut to a power grab. Undoubtedly, this destructive process physically brings down a great number of innocent people just as it is even more spiritually destructive to those who actively participate in this process. It begins with a lie and increasingly continues to be fuelled by an even greater lie required to keep the hatred up, as well as by way of slander to justify the crimes that have been committed. This utterly dreadful and ultimately appalling process self-generates brutal force and violence dragging the masses down to spiritual ruin.
The two opposing ideologies, which are now in deeper conflict as ever before, could be defined as follows: the main principles of Christian ideology include the salvation by way of leading the righteous life, exhibiting the love of neighbor, and living in peace. Their antitheses are the essential elements of opposing ideology, that is, salvation of mankind by way of "temporary" use of deception, hatred, and coercion.
Please go to Russian Faith to read more.
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These greatest inventions were stolen from Russia. Why weren't the Russians able to patent them?
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