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# Crosses vanish from Montmartre on Paris Olympics posters, crosses are removed from the badges of European football clubs, and in Spain a proposal has been made to pull down the monumental cross above the Valley of the Fallen
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/na-plakatakh-k-olimpiade-v-parizhe-s-monmartra-ischezaiut-kresty-s-emblem-evropeiskikh-futbolnykh-klubov-ubiraiut-kresty-v-ispanii-predlozhili-snesti-monumentalnyi-krest-nad-dolinoi-pav/
- Published: 2025-08-18T11:23:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:29:03.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Madrid, Observations, Society, Paris

Crosses [vanish](https://theparnassian.com/na-ofitsialnom-postere-olimpiady-2024-v-parizhe-so-shpilia-na-dome-invalidov-ubrali-khristianskii-krest/?ref=theparnassian.com) from Montmartre on Paris Olympics posters, crosses are removed from the badges of European football clubs, and in Spain a proposal has been made to pull down the monumental cross above the Valley of the Fallen. In Western Europe the wave of “de-crossing”, fuelled by embittered anticlericalism, continues to swell.

But if this looks like a purely Western tendency, it is not: a similar situation is unfolding in Russia. Over the past two years many cases of “cross-fall” have been recorded in various regions of the country. These episodes have already been actively discussed in the media.

In April of this year, in Sergiev Posad, a shop attached to the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius was selling a souvenir depicting the monastic complex without crosses on its domes. A year earlier in Vladimir, beside the Dormition Cathedral, a tactile model of the church for the blind was installed: despite the declared accuracy of reproduction, its domes were without crosses. The project was supported by the Ministry of Culture and the TASS agency. In March it emerged that a textbook for the Unified State Exam published by Phoenix showed Orthodox churches without crosses.

A resonant case occurred two years ago with the 1,000-rouble banknote. The note [depicted](https://theparnassian.com/zampred-tsentrobanka-sergei-belov-rasskazal-v-interviu-izvestiiam-chto-tsb-reshil-polnostiu-otkazatsia-ot-kultovykh-sooruzhenii-v-kachestve-izobrazhenii-na-kupiurakh/?ref=theparnassian.com) the monuments of Kazan, including the Syuyumbike Tower with its crescent, while the domes of the churches were shown without crosses. The Central Bank explained that this was dictated by the need for a “balanced reflection of cultural and confessional diversity”.

On 4 November 2024, on National Unity Day, an image of St Basil’s Cathedral without crosses was circulated in Ulan-Ude; in the same month in Kotelniki, on a poster for a town festival, the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God likewise appeared without a cross.

The debates about “cross-fall” and “crossophobia” have in 2025 already moved to the legal plane: there are [proposals](https://theparnassian.com/v-gosdume-v-i-chtenii-priniat-proekt-zakona-o-zaprete-ispolzovaniia-izobrazhenii-kultovykh-zdanii-i-obektov-bez-religioznykh-simvolov/?ref=theparnassian.com) to apply Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for punishment for insulting the feelings of believers.

The phenomenon of “cross-fall” can be explained as the habit of local elites of voluntarily renouncing historical symbols for the sake of “universal” ideals.

It is widely supposed that Russians are believers “by default”, and so isolated cases of this kind are taken for inattention or accident. In reality, however, contemporary society is in its mass unchurched and not religious. Unlike the West, it is often devoid even of cultural religious habits.

More in the author’s [column.](https://www.centromachiavelli.com/en/2025/07/08/cristianofobia-in-russia-il-fenomeno-della-rimozione-delle-croci/?ref=theparnassian.com)