The Fate of the Catholic Church of St. Louis of the French in Soviet Moscow: the Perspective of an American Assumptionist

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8 (106)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Alexey Beglov

From 1938 to 1992, the Church of St. Louis of the French was the only legally operating Roman Catholic parish church in Moscow. The peculiarity of the parish was that its core membership and its “executive bodies” comprised foreign nationals and representatives of the diplomatic corps, primarily of France and the United States. In the second half of the 1940s, amid rising tensions with the West, the Soviet authorities subjected the community of St. Louis and its clergy to their control. Today, it is possible to detail the circumstances of this case not only thanks to the Russian archival materials but also to the document published below, a copy of a memorandum by Fr. Leopold Braun, A. A., an American priest who administered the Church of St. Louis in 1934—1945. The document, originally forwarded to the US State Department in February 1954, was found in the Archives of the North American Province of the Assumptionists in the Provincial House in Boston, MA. In this document, Fr. Braun describes the history of the church in the Soviet period, focusing on the confrontation between its clergy and parishioners, on the one hand, and the Soviet authorities, on the other. He also suggests that the US Government intervene in the situation and return control of the church to Catholics of all nationalities, including those who do not have Soviet citizenship. The basis for such interference, from the point of view of Fr. L. Braun, was the Roosevelt — Litvinov agreements of 1933, which contained guarantees of religious freedoms for American citizens in the USSR.

Author(s):  
Danylo Kravets

The aim of the Ukrainian Bureau in Washington was propaganda of Ukrainian question among US government and American publicity in general. Functioning of the Bureau is not represented non in Ukrainian neither in foreign historiographies, so that’s why the main goal of presented paper is to investigate its activity. The research is based on personal papers of Ukrainian diaspora representatives (O. Granovskyi, E. Skotzko, E. Onatskyi) and articles from American and Ukrainian newspapers. The second mass immigration of Ukrainians to the US (1914‒1930s) has often been called the «military» immigration and what it lacked in numbers, it made up in quality. Most immigrants were educated, some with college degrees. The founder of the Ukrainian Bureau Eugene Skotzko was born near Western Ukrainian town of Zoloczhiv and immigrated to the United States in late 1920s after graduating from Lviv Polytechnic University. In New York he began to collaborate with OUN member O. Senyk-Hrabivskyi who gave E. Skotzko task to create informational bureau for propaganda of Ukrainian case. On March 23 1939 the Bureau was founded in Washington D. C. E. Skotzko was an editor of its Informational Bulletins. The Bureau biggest problem was lack of financial support. It was the main reason why it stopped functioning in May 1940. During 14 months of functioning Ukrainian Bureau in Washington posted dozens of informational bulletins and send it to hundreds of addressees; E. Skotzko, as a director, personally wrote to American governmental institutions and foreign diplomats informing about Ukrainian problem in Europe. Ukrainian Bureau activity is an inspiring example for those who care for informational policy of modern Ukraine.Keywords: Ukrainian small encyclopedia, Yevhen Onatsky, journalism, worldview, Ukrainian state. Keywords: Ukrainian Bureau in Washington, Eugene Skotzko, public opinion, history of journalism, diaspora.


Author(s):  
Earl H. Fry

This article examines the ebb and flow of the Quebec government’s economic and commercial relations with the United States in the period 1994–2017. The topic demonstrates the impact of three major forces on Quebec’s economic and commercial ties with the US: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became operational in 1994 and was fully implemented over a 15-year period; (2) the onerous security policies put in place by the US government in the decade following the horrific events of 11 September 2001; and (3) changing economic circumstances in the United States ranging from robust growth to the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The article also indicates that the Quebec government continues to sponsor a wide range of activities in the United States, often more elaborate and extensive than comparable activities pursued by many nation-states with representation in the US. 1 1 Stéphane Paquin, ‘Quebec-U.S. Relations: The Big Picture’, American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (2016): 149–61.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 33-53
Author(s):  
Jan Pacholski

From travel accounts to guidebooks: The beginnings of guidebooks to the Giant Mountains Karkonosze for travellers in the late 18th and early 19th centuryIn the history of European tourism the Giant Mountains Karkonosze occupy a unique place thanks to the Chapel of St. Lawrence, funded by Count Christoph Leopold Schaffgotsch and located on the summit of Śnieżka. Its construction in the Habsburg dominions in the turbulent period of the Counter-Reformation was meant to finally put an end to the Silesian-Bohemian border dispute and become a visible sign of Catholic rule over the highest mountain range of the two neighbouring countries. The construction of the chapel also marked the beginning of tourism in the highest range of the Sudetes; initially, its nature was religious and focused on pilgrimages to the summit of Śnieżka, featuring, in addition to local inhabitants, also sanatorium visitors to Cieplice Warmbrunn, which was owned by the Schaffgotschs.After the three Silesian Wars, as a result of which the lands to the north of the mountains were separated from the Habsburgs’ Kingdom of Bohemia, the situation in the region changed radically. The Counter-Reformation pressure ceased and the Lutherans began to grow in importance, supported as they were by the decidedly pro-Protestant Prussian state, governed by its tolerant monarch.The period was also marked by an unprecedented growth in the literature on the Giant Mountains — there were poems Tralles, nature studies Volkmar and travel accounts GutsMuths, Troschel and others written about the highest range of the Sudetes. A special role among these writings was played by works aimed at introducing the public from the capital Berlin to the new province of the Kingdom of Prussia, especially to the mountains, so exotic from the point of view of the “groves and sands” of Brandenburg. These publications were written primarily by Lutheran clergymen, which was not without significance to the nature of the works. This was also a time when the first guidebooks to the Giant Mountains were written, with many of their authors also coming from the same milieu.What emerges from this image is a kind of confessionalisation of tourism in the highest mountains of Silesia and Bohemia: on the one hand there are mass Catholic pilgrimages and on the other — a new type of individual tourists who, with a book in hand, traverse mountain paths in a decidedly more independent fashion.


Sæculum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-112
Author(s):  
Vlad Alui Gheorghe

AbstractIndividual identity crisis became an obsessive theme of the Central-European literature, lived intensively in this space. From this point of view, the generations and literary promotions of the 1960 and 1970’s Romania benefited from a specific openness due to a complex of social, political and historical factors. The 80s generation appeared in a full process of strengthening the ideological vigilance after the famous July Theses introduced by Nicolae Ceausescu following the North Korean model. Although there were the same rules and the same barriers for beginners of the era, the issue was treated and felt differently. While some suffer from the delay of the debut, others are patient because they trust their chance, others give up. Even if the overall context was an oppressive one and the institution of censorship was the one that controlled the literature during the communist period, authors managed to adapt and write no matter what, they found accepted ways that did not alter their message and they published under conditions that today we can hardly call without doubt honourable. The published authors had visibility and were united around some literary circles, forming what Allen Ginsberg called in The Best Minds of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats, «circles of liberation.»


Author(s):  
Bohdan Tykhyi

The article is devoted to the history of the monastery of the Order of Bernardines in Berezhany in Ternopil region. The analysis of the architectural features of the complex is main purpose of the work. The monastery is located in the northwest corner of the city. The territory of the was surrounded by defensive bastion fortifications. The monastery fortifications were a part of the city defensive lines. The mountain, on which the monastery located, is called - "St. Nicholas Mountain". On the place of the present monastery was a boyar's manor in the XIV century, and then the orthodox church of St. Nicholas.The construction of a defensive complex of monastic buildings began in 1630. The Bernardine complex includes - the Catholic Church of St. Nicholas, the house of the monastery cells, defensive walls and ramparts. The complex occupied the highest position in the north-western wing of the city's defense system. It was an important strategic point that controlled the Lviv-Berezhany road. The construction of all the objects of the monastery lasted 112 years until 1742.In 1809–1812, the Austrian authorities liquidated the city's powerful defenses. In particular, the ramparts and bastions that were on the territory of the monastery were eliminated. Today there is only a fragment of a defensive wall and a moat on the southern slope of the mountain, which separated the territory of the monastery from the urban areas of the New Town. The fortifications of the monastery are shown on the map of 1720 by Major Johann von Fürstenhof. The bastion belt of the monastery had underground structures. In 2010, murals were found in the interior of the church. According to the author, the carved stone decoration of the church (columns, capitals) was made by the sculptor Johann Pfister (in 1630–1642). The altars, with carved figures of saints, were probably made by the artist Georg Ioan Pinzel from Buchach. The architecture of the monastery's defensive structures needs further research. In the temple there are several valuable icons of the prophetic series of iconostasis. These are works originating from the famous Krasnopushchany iconostasis by Gnat Stobynsky and Fr. Theodosius of Sichynskyi. This iconostasis was donated in 1912 by Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi. Restoration work on the monastery began in 2007 after a visit by President Victor Yushchenko. First of all, the roof of the temple was repaired. Work is underway to restore and recreate the interior of the temple. Archaeological research of lost fortifications needs special attention.


2019 ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Tricia C. Bruce

Exploring sociological literature across almost three-quarters of a century, this chapter maps the origins and trajectory of sociologists’ exploration of the parish from the 1950s to today. From its contentious start to its largely applied orientation today, the chapter highlights several eras of parish research and argues that our current lack of sociological research on Catholic parishes can be traced to the tenuous relationship between the academy and the institutional Catholic Church. The chapter concludes by asserting that parish studies can be simultaneously good for the academy and good for the church. The future of sociological studies of the parish rest upon the willingness of both the academy and the church to accept this proposition.


2021 ◽  
pp. 57-88
Author(s):  
Artur Antoni Kasprzak

Every story has its beginning. Most stories have their end. An attempt at a synthetic analysis of the history of the beginning of the Charismatic Renewal in the Roman Catholic Church turns out to be confronted with a  certain initial reality: not only does this history not have a specific beginning, but it also has no end. It is a story that is still open. In celebrating its fiftieth birthday in the Roman Catholic Church recently (2017), a symbolic experience was taken as the original reference date. The receipt of charisms by members of a small group of American students on 18 February 1967, in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) in the United States, is a date and place that is in a sense only symbolic. Neither that moment nor that event exhausts the vast and much broader charismatic experience of the Holy Spirit in the Church, which can be seen in various and numerous moments in the history of the Church. This study efforts to explain this singular experience from the perspective of analysing the essential elements of the first structuring of the Charismatic Renewal in the Roman Catholic Church in the 20th century. The study is also an attempt at a synthetic look at the history, but also at its authors, including Ralph Martin, Steve Clark, Gerry Rauch, Veronica O'Brien, Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens and Pope Paul VI.


Lumen et Vita ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-28
Author(s):  
Stephen Nicholson, SJ

The challenges confronting the church in the 21st century, especially that of persistent systemic racism, call for a methodological shift in ecclesiology.  This paper explores the meaning and benefits of Natalia’s Imperatori-Lee’s narrative ecclesiology within the context of race in the United States Catholic Church.  By turning to the story of God’s people, especially the silenced and oppressed, ecclesiology is empowered to challenge false histories and overturn theologies which justify oppression.  Furthermore, the work of the Holy Spirit and the responses of the faithful are made evident in lives of “uncommon faithfulness,” such as those of Black Catholics in the US.  To be guided by narrative ecclesiology today, members of the church must engage in an embodied struggle for liberation and so hear the story of God’s people anew.


Author(s):  
А.Х. Хадикова

В статье анализируются основные достижения научного алановедения советского периода, рассматриваются фундаментальные изыскательские направления, сложившиеся либо продолжавшиеся в это время. Наиболее приоритетными становятся вопросы происхождения алан и условий их выхода на историческую арену. Безусловно, главные гипотезы были обозначены ранее, но именно советские исследователи историки, лингвисты, археологи и др. сформулировали основные подходы и наиболее жизнеспособные концепции. И, конечно же, новый импульс отечественное алановедение получило в связи с усилением интереса ученых к скифославянской проблематике. В статье последовательно и обстоятельно систематизируются выдвинутые в рассматриваемый период версии истории алан с учетом двух классификационных групп, в рамках которых и развивались изыскания советских ученых автохтонистской и миграционной. Помимо этого, в обзоре нашли свое отражение и достаточно казуистические предположения, отрицающие этническое содержание самого термина аланы . В анализе историографии аланской проблематики в советский период учитывается хронологический принцип формирования концептуальных взглядов, а в случае, когда это необходимо и их научной критики. То немалое значение, которое играли аланы в средневековой истории юговостока СССР, предопределило появление широкого ряда исследований, затрагивающих общие и частные вопросы истории алан на Северном Кавказе, а также их культурной и генетической преемственности с живыми этносами этого региона. Указанное направление изначально связано с этногенезом осетин. В статье представлен анализ разработок и этого вопроса в трудах ученых. Советская наука с ее внушительной историографической традицией внесла значительный вклад в полуторавековую историю развития отечественной и мировой аланистики. The article analyzes the main achievements of the Soviet period ofscientificAlanic studies. The fundamental research directions that developed or were being continued at that time in the Alanic studies are considered. The most priority issues are the origin of the Alans and the context of their entry into the historical arena. The main relevant hypotheses had been outlined earlier, but due to the Soviet researchers historians, linguists, archaeologists, etc. the main approaches and the most viable conceptswere formulated. And, of course, the Alanicstudies receiveda new impetus in connection with the increased interest of the scientists in the ScythianSlavic problems. The article consistently and in great detail systematizes all the versions of the main Alanian problem put forward in the Soviet period, taking into account the two classification groups, within which the research of Soviet scientists developedalongsideautochthonous and migration lines. In addition, this review considers rather casuistic assumptions, for example, the one denying the ethnic content of the term Alans. The analysis of the historiography of the Alanian problems in the Soviet period takes into account the chronological principle of the formation of conceptual views, and when necessary their scientific criticism. The considerable importance played by the Alans in the medieval history of the SouthEast of the USSR, predetermined a wide range of studies dealing with general and particular issues of the history of the Alans in the North Caucasus, their cultural and genetic relationship with the living ethnic groups of the region. This line was originally associated with the ethnogenesis of the Ossetians. The article presents an analysis of this issue in the works of major Soviet scientists as well. The Soviet science, with its impressive historiographic tradition, has made a very significant contribution to the history of a century and a half of development of domestic and world Alanic studies.


Author(s):  
Max M. Edling

Habitually interpreted as the fundamental law of the American republic, the US Constitution was in fact designed as an instrument of union between thirteen American republics and as a form of government for their common central government. It offered an organizational solution to the security concerns of the newly independent American states. Confederation was an established means for weak states to maintain their independence by joining in union to manage relations with the outside world from a position of strength. Confederation also transformed the immediate international environment by turning neighboring states from potential enemies into sister states in a common union or peace pact. The US Constitution profoundly altered the structure of the American union and made the federal government more effective than under the defunct Articles of Confederation. But it did not transform the fundamental purpose of the federal union, which remained the management of relations between the American states, on the one hand, and between the American states and foreign powers, on the other. As had been the case under the articles, the states regulated the social, economic, and civic life of their citizens and inhabitants with only limited supervision and control from the federal government. This book demonstrates that interpreting the Constitution as an instrument of union has important implications for the understanding of the American founding. The Constitution mattered much more to the international than to the domestic history of the United States. Its importance to the latter was dwarfed by that of state constitutions and legislation.


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