The Number of Orthodox Churches before and after the Khrushchev Antireligious Drive

Slavic Review ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 612-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Davis

Glasnost has made available to scholars many of the postwar files of the Soviet Council for Religious Affairs. These files, covering the activities between World War II and 1966 of the Council for Russian Orthodox Church Affairs and the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults, have been deposited in the Central Governmental Archives in Moscow. Five thin volumes of indexes refer to thousands of pages of material, including signed original documents, initialed carbons, and reports from individual inspectors and district commissioners. The materials appear to be genuine, even though they are not complete.

Author(s):  
Ruslan Rustamovich Ibragimov ◽  
Aivaz Minnegosmanovich Fazliev ◽  
Chulpan Khamitovna Samatova ◽  
Boturzhon Khamidovich Alimov

The objective of the research was to study Russian State and Orthodox church relations in the context of world war II and the early post-war years. The line of this article is due to the important role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the history, modern political and cultural life of Russia. In this sense, the period of State-Church relations in the USSR during world war II, known in Russia as a great patriotic war, is of great scientific interest because it was the time when the government was forced to make adjustments to its religion policy. Methodologically based on a wide range of documentary sources, the authors of the article have identified the place and role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the foreign policy of the USSR during the approach. In this sense, it is felt that the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in building relations with the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition and its place in the expansion of the Soviet political system in Eastern Europe was of paramount importance as a foreign policy factor.


Author(s):  
Marina V. Kochergina

The article is devoted to the difficult fate of the old believers' priests of the Russian Orthodox Church of Old Believers in the period of Stalin's repression, the events on the World War II East Front and the postwar period, associated with a new oppression against the Church. The author restores the fate of old believers' priests from the ancient centres of Starodub and Vietka, who managed to preserve, despite the repression by the Soviet authorities, the faith of their ancestors, to show selflessness in relation to their flock, love for the Motherland, patriotism. The analysis of published biographies of old believers' priests of the Russian Orthodox Church of Old Believers, the memories of old believers themselves, recorded by the author, allow tracing the difficult way of restoring the spiritual life of old believer communities of Starodub and Vietka in this period, to show the regional aspects of the activity of old believers' priests in the field of state-confessional relations, their interaction with members of communities.


Author(s):  
Sergey M. Zinchuk

The author describes in the article some important components and features of Church life in the period initiated by Nikita Khrushchev and known as the parish reform, which, among other things, was aimed at undermining the fi nancial base of the Russian Orthodox Church (hereinafter referred to as the Church) in the USSR. It is noted that Stalin's post-war system of state-Church relations had a serious defect in the form of ineffective legal consolidation: in addition, after the end of the World War II, the question if the Soviet power praised Orthodoxy and other religions stood no longer disappeared. All this allowed Stalin's successors carrying out a number of serious measures aimed at weakening the Church. Khrushchev's religious policy differed from the persecution of the 1920s-1930s, because it included measures aimed at indirect destruction of Orthodoxy, primarily through administrative pressure on the clergy and laity. The parish reform, aimed at depriving deans of fi nancial powers and handing them over to churchwardens, appointed, in fact, by local authorities, which allowed to ruin churches and monasteries with compliance with the formalities of the regime's toleration, can be considered to be a typical manifestation of that trend.


1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bohdan R. Bociurkiw

In 1944, the Soviet Army recaptured Galicia and Transcarpathia from the Germans, and the last stronghold of Ukrainian Greek Catholicism fell under Soviet control. Following the arrests of all Uniate bishops and of the “recalcitrant” clergy, the Lviv Sobor of March 1946 nullified the 1596 Union of Brest, which first established the Greek Catholic Church, and forcibly “reunified” the Uniates with the state-controlled Russian Orthodox Church. The post-World War II period saw the gradual suppression of the Uniate Church throughout Carpatho-Ukraine, Poland, and Eastern Slovakia, and marked the beginning of more than four decades of struggle for Eastern Rite Ukrainian Catholics in the USSR to maintain their banned Church against the overpowering alliance of the Soviet regime and the Russian Orthodox Church. Despite the enforced “reunification,” the Greek Catholic Church has remained the most important cultural and institutional preserve of national identity in Western Ukraine. The following is an examination of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church's attempts to assert its right to legal existence since the beginning of political and social revitalization under Mikhail Gorbachev.


Author(s):  
T. Zholdassuly ◽  
◽  
K.M. Ilyassova ◽  

This article intends the change in the Soviet Religion Politics during the World War II. At first the Soviet Religion Politics and the Soviet opression against religion after the WWII is explained. It reveals how the Soviet Religion Politics changed abruptly, futhermore their appeal to clergy to unite the believers against enemy. The formation of the Russian Orthodox Church and four Spiritual Administrations of Muslims has also been mentioned in this work. Besides, it explains that The Soviets had to give freedom to religion in order to get foreign and local Muslims’ support and did every possible means to raise people’s spirit. The information that all believers, especially Muslims contributed to the victory also that they financially and materially supported the soldiers, families is given with archive documents. This contribution lasted after the war. Accordingly Muslims were praised for it, resulting in Islam and State reconciliation.


Author(s):  
Konrad Kuczara

Relations between the Ukrainian Church and Constantinople were difficult. This goes back as far as 988, when the Christianisation of the Rus created a strong alliance between Kiev and the Byzantine Empire. There were times when Constantinople had no influence over the Kiev Metropolis. During the Mongolian invasion in 1240, the Ukranian region was broken up and Kiev lost its power. The headquarters of the Kiev Metropolis were first moved to Wlodzimierz nad Klazma in 1299 and then to Moscow in1325. In 1458 the Metropolis of Kiev was divided into two; Kiev and Moscow, but Kiev still remained under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Since that time, the orthodox hierarchs of Moscow no longer adhered to the title Bishop of Kiev and the whole of Rus and in 1588 the Patriarchate of Moscow was founded. In 1596 when  the Union of Brest was formed,  the orthodox church of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth was not liquidated. Instead it was formally revived in 1620 and in 1632 it was officially recognized by king Wladyslaw Waza. In 1686 the Metropolis of Kiev which until that time was under the Patriarchate of Constantinople was handed over to the jurisdiction of Moscow. It was tsarist diplomats that bribed the Ottoman Sultan of the time to force the Patriarchate to issue a decree giving Moscow jurisdiction over the Metropolis of Kiev. In the beginning of the 19th century, Kiev lost its Metropolitan status and became a regular diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. Only in the beginning of the 20thcentury, during the time of the Ukrainian revolution were efforts made to create an independent Church of Ukraine. In 1919 the autocephaly was announced, but the Patriarchate of Constantinople did not recognize it. . The structure of this Church was soon to be liquidated and it was restored again after the second world war at the time when Hitler occupied the Ukraine. In 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when Ukraine gained its independence, the Metropolitan of Kiev requested that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine becomes autocephalous but his request was rejected by the Patriarchate of Moscow. Until 2018 the Patriarchate of Kiev and the autocephalous Church remained unrecognized and thus considered schismatic. In 2018 the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople looked  into the matter and on 5thJanuary 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine received it’s tomos of autocephaly from Constantinople. The Patriarchate of Moscow opposed the decision of Constantinople and as a result refused to perform a common Eucharist with the new Church of Ukraine and with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.


Author(s):  
Natalya Shafazhinskaya

The article is devoted to the theme of Patriotic and social service of Russian Orthodox Church in the tragic and, along with that glorious period of the great Patriotic war of 1941-1945 was marked by important achievements of the Patriotic service of the spiritual hierarchs and leaders of Orthodox culture in the context of the events of the liberation struggle of the Soviet people in the great Patriotic war. It describes some of the fate of ascetics, both in the Soviet Union and abroad, who, in the face of opposition to the Nazi regime, continued to serve, performed Christian feats and made a significant contribution to the approach of the great Victory in the great Patriotic war and World War II. The importance of a thorough study of the activities of religious figures throughout the war period is associated with the need for a more objective assessment of the contribution of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Great Victory. The importance of a thorough study of the activities of religious figures throughout the war period is associated with the need for a more objective assessment of the contribution of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Great Victory. In addition, the Ministry of Orthodox leaders and Christian ascetics should be reflected in the program of Patriotic education of students and schoolchildren as a necessary component of comprehensive humanitarian and spiritual and moral education of modern youth.


2014 ◽  
Vol 66 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 395-422
Author(s):  
Dragan Djukanovic

The history of Montenegro in the 20th and the early 21st century shows that the divisions were very prominent, these including the moment when the Kingdom of Montenegro had been created (after 1918), the period during World War II (1941-1945) as well as the time when its state and legal position was to be resolved. Similar lines of divisions in the Montenegrin society became dominant again during the dissolution of former SFR Yugoslavia (1991-1999) as well as immediately before and after the referendum on the status of the state in 2006 concerning primarily the set of the so-called identity issues. Those issues include the images and contents of Montenegro?s state symbols, the official language (the Montenegrin language since 2007) and the status of the canonically unrecognised Montenegrin Orthodox Church. At the same time, the author points to the disagreements of political actors in Montenegro regarding its membership in the NATO. This prevents the possibility of achieving as broad as possible consensus on the foreign policy identity and orientation of this country. Finally, the author concludes that it is necessary to achieve a broad internal consensus and make a compromise in Montenegro concerning the set of identity issues mentioned above in order to prevent the traditional division in the society.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Jordan Hupka

It has been said that the Second World War saved the Russian Orthodox Church from extermination. Ever since the Revolution of 1917, the religious peoples of Russia were constantly persecuted by Soviet ideologists and politicians. Prior to Operation Barbarossa, in 1941, it seemed that the days of the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest religious institution in the Soviet Union, were numbered. However, the unique climate of the Second World War forced the Soviet government to end its war against the church. The Kremlin soon saw the Church as a useful tool to help aid in the re- occupation of Eastern Europe.


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