The Russian Church Enters a New Era
Nicolaevsky, Boris J.
The Russian Church Enters a New Era Stalin Devises a New Weapon of Foreign Policy By Boris J. Nicolaevsky CERTAIN features of the recent developments in the Russian Orthodox Church, which is...
...Everywhere within the Church the Government had agents among priests and even bishops who recorded not only decisions reached, but also opinions voiced and remarks made in confidential conversations...
...In December 1938, when the purge ended, the Government showed more tolerance toward the Church, and persecution of Jirieih) ceased...
...In August, 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt held their first conference at Quebec...
...It tried to disintegrate the old Church organisation by winning over those within the Church who were striving for reforms...
...Its frustration became the main purpose of his policy, and so he promptlj started to mobilise all his trumps...
...Having risen to...
...Yet the present development goes far beyond that As a result of ths recent changes the Church has become something more than a legalised religious body...
...Yet ths fset that ths partisans of these reforms now had the support of a Government which used terror against religion, was felt to be a disgrsee by all sincere believers...
...It will truly be a historic burlesque if he, "the heir of Lenin," » the one to achieve this goal...
...On the other hand, the Government attempted to weaken the Church by supporting other sects, in particular those whose tenets contained elements of primitive Communism...
...The proportion of bishops and priests eliminated by the Government in 1937-1938 is supposed to have reached 80 percent of the total...
...Preparations for the realisation of thia plan are under way, and the Council will certainly be created in tht near future, for Stalin has so decreed...
...But before doing so he subjected the Church apparatus to another surgical operation,' to a radical purge from top to bottom...
...After 1930 a policy of ruthless extermination of preachers was pursued...
...The rm introduced the factor of foreign policy which nom determine* the attitude of the ttat* toward the Chunk, Since its outbreak, the Church has given to the war unswerving support...
...He inaugurated the reforms to gab the Church's support for his international objectives...
...This question was of vital importance to the Church since the rightfully elected Patriarch alone gavs the Church s stable inner organisation...
...as a matter of fact, the high clergymen assembled there were most ardentlj interested in foreign policy...
...The iatraaaigeaat and uncompromising were perishing in jails and concentration ramps...
...In special emergency courses thousands of candidates' are being trained to fill vacant clerical posts...
...The deliberations of the conclave were not confined to Russian domestic affairs...
...A large printing shop which has been transferred for the exclusive use of the Patriarchate is busy 24 hours a day printing missals, prsyer books and other religious literature the publication of which was strictly forbidden for almost twenty years...
...If the Tsarina so wishes," cynically declared one of the Metropolitans (Anton...
...His colorful personality deserves certain attention...
...One of the friends of his youth had joined the revolutionary movement and was jailed for 20 years in the notorious Shlisselburg Fortress...
...Anti religious propaganda continued, but wgj restrained...
...a The Soviet Government started lie it niggle against the Church from ths very tint days of its existence, but the methods varied...
...All the available information shows that It now appears in a very different light: the Church ia actually made part of a complex state apparatus, and enjoys sll the privileges flowing from this position...
...This is implied in the very date of his meeting with Church representatives mentioned above: September, 1943, was the month when the war in Russia lost iti purely defensive nature, to be transformed into a struggle for the complete annihilation of "Hitlerite Germany...
...In July, 1948, the Russian armies launched the decisive offensive, and when Stalin conferred witk the Church leaders, he already knew that under ths pressure of this offensive and as a result of Mussolinii fall, the German General Staff had decided on a retreat on the Russian front...
...Earlier these relations were determined by the role played by the Church in the inner life of the country...
...All this material was now carefully studied, and all churchmen who, on the basis of this material, were classed ss politically unreliable, were ruthlessly eliminated...
...For Instance, in 1929 youth organisations founded by sectarians numbered ever 3,000,000 members...
...The Church was ewe ef these trumps ia bis international game...
...It was this possibility that caused Stalin's mis giving then, just as it does now...
...It constantly became stricter snd penetrated ever more deeply in the centralized Church body...
...These declarations hava certainly contributed to bolstering the fighting spirit in the nation, but did not indues Stalin to make further concessions to the Church...
...Metropolitan Sergii became Patriarch in 1943 and died in 1944...
...At this juncture Stalin conceived a new policy, taking advantage of the transformation that had been going on among the leading clergymen...
...Khrapovitski), "we will make a black boar into a bishop...
...It was not at the moment when...
...Stalin summoned the highest dignitaries of the Church to the Kremlin on Sept...
...The Russian Church Enters a New Era Stalin Devises a New Weapon of Foreign Policy By Boris J. Nicolaevsky CERTAIN features of the recent developments in the Russian Orthodox Church, which is entering s new period in its long history, reveal some general trends of present day Russia...
...Above all, Stalin needed the Rnaaiaa Church in him struggle against the V at wan...
...Realising this ths Government chsnged its policy of supporting the sects Into one of bloody persecution...
...consolidated—beaded by the Metropolitan Bishop Sergii, who after 1928 performed the duties ef Acting Pstriarch...
...ThUS all'attempts to destroy the Church were unavailing...
...Thanks to his seminary education, Stalin * certainly well versed in Church history...
...Like the terroristic policy of the Soviet government in genera), this persecution was a crime against the nation...
...Gradually these "adaptable...
...The end of the persecution of ths Orthodox Church can only be welcomed...
...The reformers snstched churches from the old religious organisations, but the faithful abandoned them...
...But the sects took a more sctive part in the peasantry's struggle against forcible collectivization than did the official Church, and precisely those sects which were most radical in their teachings put up the strongest opposition...
...This policy met with a certain success...
...Automobiles are placed st the disposal of the Patriarch and the bishops...
...The expulsion ef Mneseliui aad the cam tag alignment ef IUly with the Allies implied increasing influence of the Vatican in the Allied camp...
...The idea of uniting all Eastern Churches, the eight Eastern Patriachatas, in one bloc to counteract the Vatican is an old idea, which has been nourished It) many churchmen and statesmen of the anti-Cathols camp...
...It was hoped that these religious bodies could be msds to imbue ths peasantry with pro-Soviet feeling...
...on the other hand, he sharply repudiated any reform of the old rites and canons, and maintained strict centralisation...
...After 1922 the government adopted shrewder tactics...
...From 1917 to 1922, the Government pursued the primitive policy of "storming the sky," seeking to destroy the Church by means of executions and vulgar anti-religious propaganda...
...The "storm,'' however, proved a failure...
...The whole struggle sgalnst religion proved a failure...
...A dire protean had taken place asseug the clergymen, a process ef "natural selectieu" end ef sar-vival ef "the meat adaptable...
...This did not prevent Sergii later from bailing out this friend (Novorusski) and from keeping him in his house (at that time he was Bishop of Vyborg...
...He was member of the Holy Synod, and it was in his apartment that the bishops, members of the Synod, reached their famous decision to ordain as a bishop the monk Varnava, an illiterate friend of the ill-famed Rasputin...
...The Church convention held last February was a striking demonstration of the changes that had taken place...
...A special Committee on Church Affairs has been formed at the Council of the People's Commissars, and the chairman ef this Committee, G. Ksrpov, who now plays the role of the former Attorney General of the s Holy Synod, sees to it that all Church needs are taken care of...
...The Church was given the status of u acknowledged aad tolerated organisation con troika] from above...
...His policy was two-edged: on one hand, ha was ready to go to any lengths to prove his loyalty to the Government, and repeatedly urged the clergy to be loyal...
...T * • ' ' ' 1 HE war marked a new phase In the development ef relations between the state and the Church...
...which supported the PeHsh Government after Stalin severed relatione with if...
...Police surveillance over churchmen had been carried on for many years...
...A learned monk, formerly Rector of the Church Academy in Petrograd, he had earlier displayed great skill in tacking to avoid hidden reefs and in trimming his sails to political winds...
...He teas anxioim to pertuad* the Government that it wat to it* beet inUreit to deal with a centralized Church loyal to it, rather than with a variety of revolutionary teet* with'democratic tendeneie...
...Stalin needed the Church for the mobilizstioi of the nation's morale that he permitted the electioi of the Patriarch and the betterment of the situatiet of the Church...
...In 1937, when it became clear that sll attempts to eliminate religious feeling among the people were in vain, Stalin decided to follow the road suggested by Metropolitan Sergii...
...Yet at the same time Sergii maintained the beet of relations with the most reactionary hierarchs under tfaf last Tzar...
...Yet the attitude of thess sects remained favorable to the Government only so long ss its policy was not altogether unacceptable to the peasants...
...Ac ting Patriarch under the Bolsheviks, Sergii performed miracles in adapting himself to the new situation, all the while providing for the maintenance of the Church organization...
...The fruits of this policy were exactly opposite to whst the Government b»d expected...
...Yet recent information from the N*w East shows that the idea haa not been abandoned...
...In the days of Quebs there loomed the possibility of an agreement betweVi America and Britain on all important political que* tions, an agreement without Stalin and possibly again* him...
...The attempt at a Russisn Reformation suffered a crushing blow...
...Only those who Were clever enough te adjust theassetvee te the new dream-ataacee kept afloat...
...Not only has the Soviet state ceased fighting the Church, it now supports her by every means, including bounffful financial help...
...4, 1943, and granted them permission, denied for nearly two decades since the desth of Patriarch Tikhon, to elect a new Patriarch...
...It ia generally known that Stalin waa greatly displeaaed with the conference and reacted to it by recalling his Ambassadors Litvinov ii Washington and Maiski in London...
...Any doubt on this score was dissipated after tht Church conclave that was held in Moscow last February...
...The tendency toward Church reforms was very strong in Russia, and started long ago...
...Servants of the cult," as clergymen are styled, the outcasts of yesterday, deprived even of "floorspace," now receive whole houses for their use everywhere throughout the country (for instance, the Moscow Patriarchate has received one of the capital's best privste residences, a building in Chisty Street which before the war housed the German Embassy...
...Stalin sought te counterbalance this influence with that of Ike Russian Church...
...This proposal was not accepted because Orthodox Churches in countries not yet occupied by the Red Army are vacillating ss u this proposal...
...Metropolitan Benjaaii of North America proposed the creation of a World Council of Orthodox Churches...
...The manhandling was cruel...
...The causes of hit displeasure are also known...
...Of course, no precise figures are available, but it ia known, for instance, that at the beginning of 1938 there were 10,000 vacant church parishes...
...Ths sects converted a conaiderabls number of believers...
...The Church promptly took advantage of this permission, snd on September 8 a new Patriarch was elected st an extraordinary conclave of bishops...
...As Ysroslavsky stated publicly, it sppesred In 1937 that believers constituted two-thirds of the rural snd one-third of the urban population...
...All declarations made by Church dignitaries have been strictly in this vein...
Vol. 28 • April 1945 • No. 14
