The Great Patriotic War was a new stage in the life of the Russian Orthodox Church; the patriotic service of the clergy and believers became an expression of the natural feeling of love for the Motherland.

The head of the Church, Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), addressed his flock on the very first day of the war, 12 days earlier than Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili). “This is not the first time that the Russian people have had to endure trials,” wrote Bishop Sergius. “With God’s help, this time too he will scatter the fascist enemy force into dust.” Our ancestors did not lose heart even in worse situations because they remembered not about personal dangers and benefits, but about their sacred duty to the Motherland and faith, and emerged victorious. Let us not disgrace their glorious name, and we, the Orthodox, are relatives to them both in flesh and in faith. The Fatherland is defended by weapons and a common national feat, a common readiness to serve the Fatherland in difficult times of trial with everything that everyone can.”

The next day of the war, June 23, at the suggestion of Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky), Leningrad parishes began collecting donations for the Defense Fund and the Soviet Red Cross.

On June 26, 1941, a prayer service was held in the Epiphany Cathedral for the granting of Victory.

After the prayer service, Metropolitan Sergius addressed the believers with a sermon, which included the following words: “Let the storm come. We know that it brings not only disasters, but also benefits: it refreshes the air and drives out all sorts of miasmas: indifference to the good of the Fatherland, double-dealing, serving personal gain, etc. We already have some signs of such a recovery. Isn’t it joyful, for example, to see that with the first strikes of the thunderstorm, we have gathered in such a large number in our church and are consecrating the beginning of our nationwide feat in defense of our native land with a church service.”

On the same day, Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad addressed his flock with an archpastoral message, calling on them to defend the Motherland. The influence of these messages can be judged by the attitude of the occupation authorities towards the dissemination of pastoral messages. In September 1941, for reading the first message of Metropolitan Sergius in churches in Kyiv, Archimandrite Alexander (Vishnyakov) - rector of the St. Nicholas Embankment Church - and Archpriest Pavel Ostrensky were shot; in Simferopol, Archpriest Nikolai Shvets, a deacon, was shot for reading and distributing this patriotic appeal Alexander Bondarenko, Elder Vincent.

The messages of the Primate of the Church (and there were over 20 of them during the war) were not only of a consolidating nature, but also had explanatory purposes. They determined the firm position of the Church in relation to the invaders and the war in general.

On October 4, 1941, when Moscow was in mortal danger and the population was going through anxious days, Metropolitan Sergius issued an Message to the Moscow flock, calling for calm among the laity and warning the wavering clergy: “There are rumors, which we would not like to believe, that there are among our Orthodox the faces of shepherds who are ready to go into the service of the enemies of our Motherland and the Church are marked with a pagan swastika instead of the holy cross. I don’t want to believe this, but if, despite everything, such shepherds were found, I would remind them that the Saint of our Church, in addition to the word of admonition, was also given by the Lord a spiritual sword, punishing those who violate the oath.”

In November 1941, already in Ulyanovsk, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) addressed a message that strengthened the people’s confidence in the approaching hour of Victory: “May the all-wise and all-good Arbiter of human destinies crown our efforts with final victories and send successes to the Russian army, the guarantee of the moral and cultural prosperity of mankind.”

In his messages, Metropolitan Sergius paid special attention to believers in the temporarily occupied territories. In January 1942, in a special address, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens reminded the Orthodox that, while in captivity of the enemy, they should not forget that they are Russians, and that they would not, consciously or through thoughtlessness, turn out to be traitors to their Motherland. Metropolitan Sergius also contributed to the organization of the partisan movement. Thus, the message emphasizes: “Let your local partisans be for you not only an example and approval, but also a subject of constant care. Remember that every service rendered to a partisan is a merit to the Motherland and an extra step towards your own liberation from fascist captivity.”

The metropolitan's messages violated Soviet laws, for they prohibited any activity of the Church outside the walls of the temple and any interference in the affairs of the state. Nevertheless, all the appeals and messages issued by the locum tenens responded to all the main events in the military life of the fighting country. The patriotic position of the Church was noticed by the country's leadership from the first days of the war. On July 16, 1941, the Soviet press began publishing positive materials about the Church and believers in the USSR. Pravda published information about the patriotic activities of the Orthodox clergy for the first time. Such reports in the central press have become regular. In total, from this time to July 1945, over 100 articles and messages were published in the central press (the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia), which to one degree or another touched upon religious problems and the topic of the patriotic participation of believers in the Great Patriotic War.

Guided by civic feelings, hierarchs, priests and believers did not limit themselves to prayers for granting victory to the Red Army, but from the first days of the war participated in providing material assistance to the front and rear. The clergy in Gorky and Kharkov, and then throughout the country, organized a collection of warm clothes and gifts for the soldiers. Money, gold and silver items, and government bonds were contributed to the Defense Fund.

In fact, Metropolitan Sergius managed to legalize the collection of money and belongings of believers (illegal according to the decree “On Religious Associations” of April 8, 1929) only in 1943, after a telegram to I. Stalin (Dzhugashvili) dated January 5. It said: “I cordially greet you on behalf of the Orthodox Russian Church. In the New Year, I prayerfully wish you health and success in all your endeavors for the benefit of your native country entrusted to you. With our special message I invite the clergy and believers to donate for the construction of a column of tanks named after Dmitry Donskoy. To begin with, the Patriarchate contributes 100 thousand rubles, the Elokhovsky Cathedral in Moscow contributes 300 thousand, and the rector of the cathedral, Nikolai Fedorovich Kolchitsky, contributes 100 thousand. We ask the State Bank to open a special account. May the national feat led by you end in victory over the dark forces of fascism. Patriarchal Locum Tenens Sergius, Metropolitan of Moscow."

In the response telegram, permission to open an account was given. There were also words of gratitude to the Church for its activities: “To the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Sergius, Metropolitan of Moscow. I ask you to convey to the Orthodox clergy and believers my greetings and gratitude to the Red Army for caring for the armored forces of the Red Army. Instructions to open a special account in the State Bank have been given. I. Stalin."

With this permission, the Church de facto received the right of a legal entity. At the end of 1944, each diocese sent to the Synod a report on its activities in total terms from June 22, 1941 to July 1, 1944. The clergy and believers collected funds for defense needs, gifts to soldiers of the Red Army, the sick and wounded in hospitals , to provide assistance to disabled people of the Patriotic War, children and child care institutions, and families of Red soldiers. The collections were not only monetary, but also precious items, food and necessary things, such as, for example, waffle towels for hospitals. During the reporting period, contributions from parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church amounted to 200 million rubles. The total amount of funds collected during the entire war period exceeded 300 million rubles.

Of this amount of money collected, 8 million rubles were used to purchase 40 T-34 tanks built at the Chelyabinsk tank plant. They formed a column with inscriptions on the turrets of combat vehicles: “Dmitry Donskoy.” The transfer of the column to the Red Army units took place in the village of Gorenki, which is 5 kilometers northwest of Tula, at the location of the military units being completed.

The 38th and 516th separate tank regiments received formidable equipment. By this time, both had gone through difficult battle paths. The first took part in the battles on the Demyansk bridgehead, near Vyazma and Rzhev, liberated the cities of Nevel and Velikiye Luki, and beat the enemy near Leningrad and Novgorod. Near Tula, the combat paths of the regiments will diverge. The 38th will go to the southwestern regions of Ukraine, the 516th to Belarus. The military fate of the Dmitry Donskoy combat vehicles will be different. It will be short and bright for the 38th regiment, and long for the 516th. But on March 8, 1944, the day the church column was presented, they stood on the same snow-covered field. According to the state, each was entitled to 21 tanks. Only the 516th regiment received this number, the 38th received nineteen.

Considering the high significance of the patriotic act of believers, on the day of the transfer of the column a solemn meeting was held, at which Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) of Krutitsky spoke to the tank crews on behalf of Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky). This was the first official meeting of a representative of the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church with soldiers and commanders of the Red Army.

The 38th separate tank regiment was the first to receive baptism of fire in the Uman-Botoshan operation, participating as part of the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in the liberation of the southwestern regions of Ukraine and part of Bessarabia. Having completed a 12-day combined march in the area of ​​Uman, the regiment took battle on the night of March 23-24, 1944. By March 25, together with the rifle units of the 94th Guards Rifle Division of the 53rd Army, the settlements of Kazatskoye, Korytnoye, and Bendzari were liberated. The first battles brought the first losses of combat vehicles. At the beginning of April 1944, only 9 tanks remained in the regiment. But the will to win and the desire of the army to carry the name of Dmitry Donskoy on the armor with honor did not weaken. The personnel of the 38th Regiment distinguished themselves by their heroic actions during the crossing of the Dniester River and subsequent access to the state border of the USSR. For the successful completion of combat missions, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of April 8, 1944, the regiment was given the honorary name “Dnestrovsky”. In less than two months, the regiment fought over 130 km, and managed to overcome more than 500 km by marching off-road in its tanks. During this period, the tankers destroyed about 1,420 Nazis, 40 different guns, 108 machine guns, knocked out and captured 38 tanks, 17 armored personnel carriers, 101 transport vehicles, captured 3 fuel depots and captured 84 German soldiers and officers.

Twenty-one soldiers and ten officers of the regiment died a brave death on the battlefields. For their courage, valor and heroism, 49 tank crews were awarded orders and medals of the USSR.

Subsequently, while in the reserve of the Headquarters, the 38th regiment was renamed the 74th separate heavy tank, and then reorganized into the 364th heavy self-propelled artillery regiment. At the same time, taking into account the high combat merits of the personnel during the Uman-Botosha operation, he was awarded the title “Guards” and retained the honorary name “Dnestrovsky”.

Another regiment that received combat vehicles from the Dmitry Donskoy column, the 516th separate flamethrower tank, began combat operations on July 16, 1944, together with the 2nd assault engineer brigade of the 1st Belorussian Front. Due to the flamethrower weapons installed on the tanks (which were secret at that time), units of this regiment were involved in special combat missions and in especially difficult sectors of the front in cooperation with assault battalions. In the letter of gratitude from the regiment command addressed to Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) there were the following words: “You said:“ Drive out the hated enemy from our Great Rus'. Let the glorious name of Dmitry Donskoy lead us to battle, brother warriors.” Fulfilling this order, privates, sergeants and officers of our unit, on the tanks handed over to you, full of love for their Mother Motherland, for their people, successfully defeat the sworn enemy, expelling him from our land... The name of the great Russian commander Dmitry Donskoy is like unfading glory weapons, we carried on the armor of our tanks forward to the West, to complete and final victory.”

The tankers kept their word. In January 1945, they boldly acted in the assault on the strong fortifications of Poznan, and in the spring they fought on the Zeyalovsky Heights. Tanks "Dmitry Donskoy" reached Berlin.

The boundless courage and heroism of the tankers is evidenced by the fact that 19 people, fighting until their last breath, burned in their combat vehicles. Among them, tank platoon commander Lieutenant A.K. Gogin and driver mechanic A.A. Solomko were posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

Thus, in the struggle for common ideals during the Great Patriotic War, the patriotic aspirations of Russian believers and clergy merged with the heroism and valor of the Red Army soldiers. As many years ago, the banners of Dmitry Donskoy floated above them, symbolizing victory over a strong enemy.

There is no doubt that fundraising for the Defense Fund, for gifts to the Red Army, to help orphans, disabled soldiers, and families of the dead was an important part of the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church during the war. But there was another most important form of activity - prayers for the victory of the Russian army. One of the greatest prayer books during the war years was Hieroschemamonk Seraphim Vyritsky.

When the Germans entered the city, the elder reassured many who were confused, saying that not a single residential building would be destroyed. (In Vyritsa, indeed, only the station, the savings bank and the bridge were destroyed.) For a thousand days he stood in prayer for the salvation of Russia. He offered constant prayer not only in his cell, but also in the garden on a stone in front of an icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov feeding a wild bear, built on a pine tree. The elder called this corner “Sarov”. In 1942, Father Seraphim wrote about his vigils:

“Both in joy and in sorrow, monk, sick elder
He goes to the holy icon in the garden, in the silence of the night.
To pray to God for the world and all people
And he will bow to the elder about his homeland.
Pray to the Good Queen, Great Seraphim,
She is Christ's right hand, a helper to the sick.
Intercessor for the poor, clothing for the naked,
In great sorrows he will save his servants...
We perish in sins, having retreated from God,
And we insult God in our actions.”

The elder saw the Victory, which he was bringing closer with his prayers. Father Seraphim did not stop receiving people after the war. There are even more of them. These were mostly relatives of missing soldiers.

Particular mention should be made of the patriotic activities of the Church in the temporarily occupied territory. Priests were sometimes the only link between the partisans and local residents and received the glorious nickname “partisan priests.”

The “Partisan of the Patriotic War” medal recognized the activities of Father Fyodor Puzanov from the village of Brodovichi-Zapolye in the Pskov region. During the war he became a scout for the 5th Partisan Brigade. St. George's Knight of the First World War, he, taking advantage of the relative freedom of movement allowed to him by the occupiers as a priest of a rural parish, conducted reconnaissance work, supplied the partisans with bread and clothing, was the first to give them his cow, and reported data on the movements of the Germans. In addition, he held conversations with believers and, moving from village to village, introduced residents to the situation in the country and at the fronts. In January 1944, during the retreat of German troops, Father Theodore saved more than 300 of his fellow countrymen from being deported to Germany.

Father Vasily Kopychko, rector of the Odrizhinskaya Assumption Church in the Ivanovo district of the Pinsk region in Belarus, was also a “partisan priest.” From the beginning of the war, he performed divine services at night, without lighting, so as not to be noticed by the Germans. The pastor introduced the parishioners to the reports of the Information Bureau and the messages of Metropolitan Sergius. Later, Father Vasily became a partisan liaison and continued to be one until the liberation of Belarus.

The monastics also made their contribution to the victory. (At the end of the war, not a single active monastery remained on the territory of the RSFSR; only in the annexed regions of Moldova, Ukraine, and Belarus there were 46.) During the years of occupation, 29 Orthodox monasteries resumed their activities in the territory temporarily occupied by the enemy. For example, the Kursk Holy Trinity Convent began operating in March 1942. In just a few months of 1944, the nuns donated 70 thousand rubles to the Defense Fund, the Dnepropetrovsk Tikhvin Convent - 50 thousand, the Odessa Mikhailovsky Convent - 100 thousand . rubles. The nuns helped the Red Army not only with donations, but also by collecting warm clothes and towels, which were so needed in hospitals and medical battalions. The nuns of the Odessa St. Michael's Convent, together with their abbess, Abbess Anatolia (Bukach), collected and donated a significant amount of medicines to military doctors.

Patriotic church activities in the first years of the war were noticed and appreciated by the Soviet leadership, having a certain influence on the change in the religious policy of the state during the war period.

On the day of Easter, May 6, 1945, in his diary the writer M. M. Prishvin wrote: “... We were near the Church of St. John the Warrior in a close crowd, going far beyond the church fence into the street. Steam from the breath of those standing in the church poured out of the side door above their heads. If only a foreigner could see how Russians pray and what they rejoice at! When “Christ is Risen!” was heard from the church. and all the people joined in - it was joy!

No, the victory was not achieved by cold calculation alone: ​​the roots of victory must be sought here, in this joy of closed breaths. I know that it was not Christ who led people to war and no one was happy about the war, but again, it was not just calculation and external calculation that determined victory. And when now every commoner, led by his interlocutor into thinking about life, says: “No, there is something!” - he turns this “no” to the atheists and to himself, who did not believe in victory. And then “something” is God, who determines, as in this Matins, his internal organization and free order, and this “something” (God) is!”

Plan

Introduction

1. Russian Orthodox Church on the eve of World War II (1937-1941)

1.1. Bolshevik terror and the Russian Orthodox Church

1.2. Beginning of World War II. Russian Orthodox Church and Bolshevik propaganda in the near abroad.

2. Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)

2.1. The reaction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the country's entry into the great battle.

2.2. Religious policy of Nazi Germany in the occupied territories

3. Changes in the policy of the atheistic state in relation to the Russian Orthodox Church during the Second World War

3.1. A turning point in relations between the Church and the Bolsheviks

3.2. Russian Orthodox Church under His Holiness Patriarch Sergius

3.3. The period of triumph of the Red Army. Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Alexy I.

4. Attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church during the apogee of Stalinism (1945-1953)

Conclusion

Applications

Bibliography

Introduction

Forever and ever, remembering the gloom

Ages that have passed once and for all,

I saw that it was not to the Mausoleum, but to your altar

The banners of the enemy regiments fell.

I. Kochubeev

Relevance of the topic:

The Russian Orthodox Church played an important role during the Great Patriotic War, supporting and helping the people to withstand this unequal battle with extermination, when it itself was subject to persecution not only by the enemy, but also by the authorities.

Nevertheless, during the Great Patriotic War, the Church addressed its parishioners with a call to defend the Motherland to the end, for the Lord will not leave the Russian people in trouble if they fiercely defend their land and fervently pray to God.

The support of the Russian Orthodox Church was significant, its power was also appreciated by the Bolsheviks, therefore, during the most intense period of the war, the atheist state suddenly changed the course of its religious policy, starting cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church. And although it did not last long, this fact did not pass without a trace in the history of our country.

In this regard, this essay has the following objectives:

1. Consider the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church on the eve of World War II.

2. Analyze the policy of the Bolsheviks in relation to the Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War.

3. Establish the relationship between the situation on the WWII fronts and the relationship between the Bolsheviks and the Church.

4. Draw conclusions about how the atheism of the Bolshevik system affected modern Russian society.

1. Russian Orthodox Church on the eve II World War (1937-1941)

1.1. Bolshevik terror and the Russian Orthodox Church

The results of the census signaled a colossal failure of the “Union of Militant Atheists.” For this, the union of five million people was subjected to “cleansing”. About half of its members were arrested, many were shot as enemies of the people. The authorities did not have any other reliable means of atheistic education of the population other than terror. And it fell upon the Orthodox Church in 1937 with such total coverage that it seemed to lead to the eradication of church life in the country.

At the very beginning of 1937, a campaign of mass church closures began. At a meeting on February 10, 1937 alone, the permanent commission on religious issues considered 74 cases of liquidation of religious communities and did not support the closure of churches only in 22 cases, and in just one year over 8 thousand churches were closed. And, of course, all this destruction was carried out “at the numerous requests of the working collectives” in order to “improve the layout of the city.” As a result of this devastation and ruin, about 100 churches remained in the vast expanses of the RSFSR, almost all in large cities, mainly those where foreigners were allowed. These temples were called “demonstrative”. Slightly more, up to 3% of pre-revolutionary parishes, have survived in Ukraine. In the Kyiv diocese, which in 1917 numbered 1,710 churches, 1,435 priests, 277 deacons, 1,410 psalm-readers, 23 monasteries and 5,193 monastics, in 1939 there were only 2 parishes with 3 priests, 1 deacon and 2 psalm-readers. In Odessa, there is only one functioning church left in the cemetery.

During the years of pre-war terror, mortal danger loomed over the existence of the Patriarchate itself and the entire church organization. By 1939, from the Russian episcopate, in addition to the head of the Church - the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius, 3 bishops remained in the departments - Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad, Archbishop of Dmitrovsky and administrator of the Patriarchate Sergius (Voskresensky) and Archbishop of Peterhof Nikolai (Yarushevich), administrator of the Novgorod and Pskov dioceses.

1.2. The beginning of the Second World War. The Russian Orthodox Church and Bolshevik propaganda in the near abroad

On September 1, 1939, the Second World War began with the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland. Not only in human life, but also in the life of nations, the destinies of civilizations, disasters come as a result of sins. The unparalleled persecution of the Church, the civil war and regicide in Russia, the racist rampage of the Nazis and the rivalry over the spheres of influence of the European and Pacific powers, the decline of morals that swept through European and American society - all this overflowed the cup of God’s wrath. There were still 2 years of peaceful life left for Russia, but there was no peace within the country itself. The war of the Bolshevik government with its people and the internal party struggle of the communist elite did not stop; there was no peaceful silence on the borders of the Soviet empire. After the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and 16 days after the German attack on Poland, the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Polish border and occupied its eastern voivodeships - the original Russian and Orthodox lands: Western Belarus and Volyn, separated from Russia by the Treaty of Riga (1921) of the Soviet government with Poland, as well as Galicia, which for centuries was separated from Rus'. On June 27, 1940, the Soviet government demanded that Romania, within four days, clear the territory of Bessarabia, which belonged to Russia until 1918, and Northern Bukovina, cut off from Rus' in the Middle Ages, but where the majority of the population had Russian roots. Romania was forced to submit to the ultimatum. In the summer of 1940, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which belonged to Russia before the revolution and civil war, were annexed to the Soviet Union.

The expansion of the borders of the Soviet state to the west territorially expanded the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Moscow Patriarchate received the opportunity to actually manage the dioceses of the Baltic states, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine and Moldova.

The establishment of the Soviet regime in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus was accompanied by repressions. In Volyn and Polesie alone, 53 clergy were arrested. However, they did not destroy the church life of Western Rus'. Almost all parishes that survived during the Polish occupation were not closed by the Soviet authorities. Monasteries also continued to exist; True, the number of inhabitants in them was significantly reduced; some were forcibly removed from the monasteries, others left them themselves. Land plots and other real estate were confiscated from monasteries and churches, churches were nationalized and transferred for use to religious communities, and civil taxes were established on “clergy.” A serious blow to the Church was the closure of the Kremenets Theological Seminary.

Bolshevik propaganda through newspapers and radio tried to discredit the Orthodox clergy in the eyes of the masses, to kill faith in Christ in the hearts of people, the “Union of Militant Atheists” opened its branches in the newly annexed regions. Its chairman, E. Yaroslavsky, lashed out at parents who did not want to send their children to Soviet atheistic schools that had opened in the western regions. In Volyn and Belarus, brigades were created from hooligan teenagers and Komsomol members who caused scandals near churches during services, especially on holidays. For such atheistic activities for the celebration of Easter in 1940, the “Union of Militant Atheists” received 2.8 million rubles from the state treasury, which was not rich at that time. They were spent mainly in the western regions, because there the people openly celebrated the Resurrection of Christ and Easter services were performed in every village.

In 1939–1941 In legal forms, church life was essentially preserved only in Western dioceses. More than 90% of all parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church were located here, monasteries operated, all dioceses were governed by bishops. In the rest of the country, the church organization was destroyed: in 1939 there were only 4 departments occupied by bishops, including the head of the Church, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, about 100 parishes and not a single monastery. Mostly elderly women came to the churches, but religious life was preserved even in these conditions, it glimmered not only in the wild, but also in the countless camps that disfigured Russia, where priest-confessors cared for the condemned and even served the liturgy on carefully hidden antimensions.

In the last pre-war years, the wave of anti-church repressions subsided, partly because almost everything that could be destroyed was already destroyed, and everything that could be trampled was trampled. The Soviet leaders considered it premature to strike the final blow for various reasons. There was probably one special reason: the war was raging near the borders of the Soviet Union. Despite the ostentatious peacefulness of their declarations and assurances of the strength of friendly relations with Germany, they knew that war was inevitable and were unlikely to be so blinded by their own propaganda as to create illusions about the readiness of the masses to defend communist ideals. By sacrificing themselves, people could only fight for their homeland, and then the communist leaders turned to the patriotic feelings of citizens.

2. Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)

2.1. The reaction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the country's entry into the great battle

On June 9/22, 1941, All Saints' Day, the Great Patriotic War began. For the second time in the 20th century. Germany entered into a mortal struggle with Russia, which turned into a national disaster for the Germans. The leaders of Nazi Germany openly rejected Christian moral values ​​and tried to revive the ancient German pagan cult. In their propaganda appeals to the Russian people, the Nazis, speculating on the tragic events of Soviet history, sought to appear in the guise of defenders of religion, but the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius, on the very first day of the war wrote a “Message to the Pastors and Flock of Christ’s Orthodox Church,” in which he called on the Russian people to defend the Fatherland:

“Fascist robbers attacked our Motherland... The times of Batu, the German knights, Charles of Sweden, and Napoleon are being repeated. The pathetic descendants of the enemies of Orthodox Christianity want to once again try to bring our people to their knees before untruth... With God's help, this time too he will scatter the fascist enemy force into dust... Let us remember the holy leaders of the Russian people, for example, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, who laid down their souls for the people and the Motherland... Let us remember the countless thousands of simple Orthodox soldiers... Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. She endured trials with him and was consoled by his successes. She will not leave her people even now. She blesses with heavenly blessing the upcoming national feat. If anyone, then it is we who need to remember the commandment of Christ: No one has more sowing love, but whoever lays down his life for his friends(John 15:13). For us, the shepherds of the Church, at a time when the Fatherland calls everyone to heroic deeds, it would be unworthy to just silently look at what is happening around us, not to encourage the faint-hearted, not to console the saddened, not to remind the hesitant of duty and the will of God. And if, moreover, the shepherd’s silence, his lack of concern for what his flock is experiencing, is also explained by crafty considerations about possible benefits on the other side of the border, then this will be a direct betrayal of the Motherland and his pastoral duty... Let us lay down our souls together with our flock. .. The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland. The Lord will grant us victory"

Unlike Stalin, who took 10 days to address the people with a speech, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne immediately found the most precise and most necessary words. A quarter of a century before the fascist aggression, when the Bolsheviks were openly preparing the military defeat of Russia, the pastors of the Church inspired the Orthodox Russian people to repel the enemy, who was even then coming from Germany. The patriotism of the Church is traditional. The leader of the communists, who led Russia to defeat in the First World War, catastrophe and collapse, and shortly before the Patriotic War argued that such concepts as the Motherland and patriotism, bourgeois and false, were now not easy to combine in his speech the name of a militant atheist and the founder of the party Bolsheviks with the holy names of Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy. Not by coincidence, but by deliberate borrowing, Stalin repeated some thoughts of the head of the Orthodox Church in his address to his compatriots. In a speech at the Council of Bishops in 1943, Metropolitan Sergius, recalling the beginning of the war, said that there was no need to think about what position our Church should take, because “before we had time to somehow determine our position, it had already been determined - the Nazis attacked our country is being devastated, our compatriots are being taken captive."

On June 26, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne performed a prayer service for the victory of the Russian army in the Epiphany Cathedral; at the end, Metropolitan Sergius expressed the hope that just as a thunderstorm refreshes the air, so a real military thunderstorm will serve “to improve our spiritual atmosphere.” These words express a judgment about the state of society on the eve of the war, in which there was general fear, denunciation, extrajudicial murders were committed, and the hope that the war would bring with it changes for the better for the Church of Christ. In all the Orthodox churches of the Russian land that have not yet been destroyed or desecrated, a prayer was read with minor changes during the service, which was compiled during the Patriotic War of 1812 (see Appendix 1). It was mainly peasants who were mobilized into the Red Army, who, at least in the older generations, still remained faithful to the Orthodox Church. Front-line life in the hourly expectation of death, suffering from wounds, and the death of fighting friends awakened religious feelings and thoughts in Russian soldiers; during the war, religious sentiments among the people deepened and intensified.

The first months of the war were a time of defeats and defeat of the Red Army. The entire west of the country was occupied by the Germans. The mother of Russian cities, the original capital of Rus', Kyiv, was taken. The northern capital of the lost Russian Empire is blocked. In the fall of 1941, the front line was approaching Moscow. In this situation, Metropolitan Sergius drew up a will on October 12, in which, in the event of his death, he transferred the powers of Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne to Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad. On the Feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God, Metropolitan Sergius addressed a message addressed to the Orthodox and God-loving flock of Moscow. Metropolitan Sergius expressed firm confidence in the final victory of Russian weapons, sternly warned the faint-hearted against betrayal and, mentioning the pastors who cherish hopes of changing the situation of the Church for the better in the event of Hitler's victory, threatened them with defrocking and ecclesiastical judgment. At the conclusion of the message, he blessed the selfless defenders of the Holy Church and Motherland.

This was the farewell address of Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow to the capital's flock before the evacuation from Moscow. Back on October 7, the Moscow City Council ordered the evacuation of the Patriarchate to the Urals in Chkalov (Orenburg); the Soviet government itself moved to Samara (Kuibyshev).

On November 24, Metropolitan Sergius addressed, together with Metropolitan Nicholas of Kyiv and Galicia, Archbishops Andrei of Kuibyshev, Sergius of Mozhaisk and John of Ulyanovsk, with a new message to the flock: “Hitler’s Moloch continues to broadcast to the world that he raised the sword “to defend religion” and “salvation” supposedly desecrated faith. But the whole world knows that this fiend of hell only covers up his atrocities with the false mask of piety. In all the countries he enslaved, he commits vile outrages against freedom of conscience, mocks shrines, destroys the churches of God with bombs, throws Christian shepherds into prison and executes, rots in prison believers who rebelled against his insane pride, against his plans to assert his satanic power over all earth. Orthodox Christians who fled from fascist captivity told us about the fascists' mockery of churches... It is clear to the whole world that fascist monsters are satanic enemies of faith and Christianity. The Russian people, everyone who cherishes our Fatherland, now has one goal - to defeat the enemy at all costs.”

In his Easter message, the high priest revealed the anti-Christian orientation of Nazi ideology: “The fascists, who had the audacity to recognize the pagan swastika as their banner instead of the Cross of Christ, cannot win. Let's not forget the words: You will win. It is not the swastika, but the cross that is called upon to lead our Christian culture, our Christian “living.” In Nazi Germany they claim that Christianity has failed and is not suitable for future world progress. This means that Germany, destined to rule the world of the future, must forget Christ and follow its own new path. For these crazy words, may the righteous Judge strike Hitler and all his accomplices.”

After these words of Metropolitan Sergius, many remembered that not only the leaders of Nazi Germany argued that “Christianity has failed and is not suitable for future world progress.” And to everyone who heard this message read out in Orthodox churches, it was clear that it was not the fascist swastika, nor the red pentagram, but the cross that was called upon to “lead our Christian culture.”

On the first anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, Metropolitan Sergius issued two messages - one for Muscovites, and the other for the all-Russian flock. In his Moscow message, the Locum Tenens expressed his joy at the defeat of the Germans near Moscow. In a message to the entire Church, its head denounced the Nazis, who, for propaganda purposes, arrogated to themselves the mission of defenders of Christian Europe from the invasion of communists, and also consoled the flock with the hope of victory over the enemy. In his Christmas message of 1943, Metropolitan Sergius wrote that we now not only believe, but also see that victory has definitely passed to our side. The Easter message of 1943 ends with the words: “With God's help, our valiant Russian army will drive out the fascist evil spirits from the borders of our Motherland. May God rise again and let His enemies be scattered(Ps. 67.2).” In a message compiled for the second anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War, Metropolitan Sergius asked the Lord for blessings for the continuation of “patriotic feats both at the front and in the rear, and may the Lord grant that the third year of military suffering that is beginning will become for us a year of victory.”

The closest associates of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitans Alexy (Simansky) and Nikolai (Yarushevich), also addressed patriotic messages to the flock.

Throughout the terrible days of the blockade, Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad was not separated from his flock. At the beginning of the war, there were five active Orthodox churches left in Leningrad: St. Nicholas Morskoy, Prince Vladimir and Transfiguration Cathedrals and two cemetery churches. The city's churches were overflowing with worshipers and communicants. Even on weekdays, mountains of notes about health and repose were given. The temperature in the temples often dropped below zero, and the singers could barely stand on their feet from hunger. Due to frequent shelling and bomb explosions, the windows in the temples were broken by an air wave, and a frosty wind blew through the temples. Metropolitan Alexy lived at St. Nicholas Cathedral and served there every Sunday, often without a deacon. With his sermons and messages, he supported courage and hope in people left in inhuman conditions in the blockade ring. On Palm Sunday, his archpastoral address was read in Leningrad churches, calling on believers to selflessly help soldiers through honest work in the rear.

2.2. Religious policy of Nazi Germany in the occupied territories

In the first months of the war, the German Wehrmacht occupied vast territories in the west of the country - almost half of the European part of the Soviet Union: the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, and the western regions of the Russian Federation. On the Karelian Isthmus and in Karelia, Finnish troops fought on the side of Germany. In Moldova, Transnistria, Crimea, and southern Ukraine, German troops were reinforced by Italian, Romanian and Hungarian units. In Transcaucasia and the Far East, Türkiye and Japan posed a constant threat.

In all the cities and in many villages abandoned by the Soviet administration, priests were announced who were either exiled there, or hiding underground, or earning a living by some kind of craft or service. These priests received permission from the occupation commandants to perform services in closed but not destroyed churches.

The goal of the war for Hitler and the leadership of the Nazi party was the dismemberment of our country and the enslavement of the Slavic peoples, therefore, in the event of a German victory, the Orthodox Church, the highest national shrine of the Russian people, was threatened with severe persecution. But fascist ideologists covered up their predatory war in the name of God and called it a crusade against communism. For propaganda purposes, the occupation authorities issued permits to open churches. Rosenberg outlined the basic principles of German religious policy in the occupied territories: 1) religious groups are strictly prohibited from engaging in politics; 2) religious groups should be divided according to national and territorial characteristics; 3) religious societies should not interfere with the activities of the occupation authorities.

The believing people, hungry, poor, devastated by war, selflessly worked to restore the churches of God, decorated them with icons that had survived in their houses and donated ones, and brought liturgical books that had been hidden in secret. Divine services were performed in churches overcrowded with people. A great multitude of people, both children and adults, were baptized. In Ukraine and Belarus, almost everyone who came from Orthodox families, but did not receive baptism during the years of persecution of the Church, was baptized within a few months after the German occupation. Many believers came to the festive services, processions of the cross were held, in which thousands of Orthodox Christians took part.

The opposite was also observed. The new Soviet intelligentsia, urban working youth, under the influence of atheistic propaganda, for the most part turned away from the faith of their fathers. In Kyiv, 26 churches were opened, except for St. Andrew's Church, all the rest were on the outskirts. For a large city this was still small compared to provincial cities, but these churches were not filled with praying people even on Sundays.

By giving permission to open churches, the German occupiers, to put it mildly, did not set an example of Christian morality and Christian mentality. In the front line, where power was in the hands of the military administration, Orthodox Christians met with sincere sympathy from the Germans, but in the deep rear, where party functionaries and SS units set the tone, only propaganda and political considerations dictated to the occupation authorities a certain tolerance towards the Orthodox Church .

In the occupied territories, most of the Soviet legislation was retained, which turned out to be very convenient for the new owners, including Lenin’s decree “On the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church.” It was forbidden to teach the law of God in elementary schools and vocational schools. As in Germany itself, children were raised in a National Socialist, racist and neo-pagan spirit.

Gross mockery of the feelings of believers and the believers themselves were a daily reality in the occupied territories. Thus, in Vasilkov, during the harvest, the authorities of the regional agricultural department prohibited religious services even on Sundays. When people who came to pray began to ask the local priest to serve mass, the head of the department ordered the people to be dispersed from the church with whips.

Guerrilla warfare raged throughout the vast territory of the occupied lands, and the local population had to reckon with the partisans as a real force. But the partisans were not united; they acted under different banners and with different goals.

In the east of Ukraine and Belarus, the Soviet partisan movement predominated, organized by underground fighters left behind by the communists during the retreat; These detachments included officers and soldiers who had escaped from captivity, as well as local residents, first of all, of course, communists and Komsomol members. In the west of Belarus, Polish partisans and underground fighters operated, whose goal was the revival of the Polish state, and within the borders that it occupied before 1939, therefore, although the Soviet and Polish partisans had a common enemy, their interests did not coincide. The Polish underground saw its opponents not only in the Germans and Soviet partisans, but also in the local population.

In Ukraine, an insurgent movement of Ukrainian nationalists - Bendera and Melnikovites - arose. The Bendera movement did not immediately become partisan and hostile to the Germans; at first, they pinned their hopes on the help of the occupiers in creating an “independent independent Ukrainian state,” naively believing that for fascist Germany, a sufficient reward for a difficult bloody war would not be the colonization of Ukraine, but the formation of a Ukrainian state friendly to Germany .

None of the partisan movements sympathized with the Orthodox Church. The core of the Soviet partisan detachments were militant atheists. Orthodox canonical priests died due to the fault of both the invaders and the partisans, but the real terror against them was unleashed by Ukrainian nationalists in the interests of the autocephalous group.

The outrages of schismatics in Ukraine caused a quick and harsh reaction from the hierarchy of the Russian Church. On February 5, 1942, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius, addressed the Orthodox flock of Ukraine with a message in which he denounced the canonical groundlessness of the unauthorized actions of Polycarp (Sikorsky) (see Appendix 2)

The influence of autocephalists and autonomists was distributed unevenly in different parts of Ukraine. But the overwhelming majority of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine remained within the Autonomous Church.

At the end of 1942, the attitude of the German authorities towards the two church groups in Ukraine changed noticeably. The general strategic line to divide and rule in the occupied lands remained, of course, unchanged, but the previous focus on supporting predominantly autocephalists gave way to a more favorable attitude towards the Autonomous Church. The reason for the change was that the autocephalists, closely associated with Ukrainian political nationalism, were gradually turning into a force in opposition to the Hitlerite regime.

Over time, Ukrainian nationalists began an armed partisan struggle against both the occupiers and the Red partisans. The autocephalous bishops Mstislav (Skrypnik) and Platon (Artemyuk) maintained contact with the Ukrainian nationalist partisan movement. The administrator Polycarp (Sikorsky) undoubtedly sympathized with them. The Autonomous Church, which united people of sincere and deep religiosity, tried to remain as apolitical as possible from the beginning to the end of the occupation, and the German authorities over time began to consider it more acceptable to themselves. At the beginning of the war, the occupiers encouraged the Germanophile Ukrainian nationalism of the autocephalists.

In October 1943, the German occupation authorities formed the Belarusian Central Rada - a kind of puppet government headed by President Radoslav (Roman) Kazimirovich Ostrovsky. A department for church affairs was created under the Rada, which gathered Belarusian activists who had long been at war with the Orthodox clergy of Belarus.

The territories of Moldova, Northern Bukovina and the Odessa region during their occupation were included in the Romanian state. The Romanian Patriarchate extended its jurisdiction to them without agreement with the Moscow Patriarchate. As the front approached, the majority of the Romanian clergy fled to the west, to Bessarabia, then to Romania. Priests of Russian and Ukrainian origin remained in the parishes, who, of course, enjoyed incomparably greater trust and love of the people.

The occupied Baltic states, like Belarus, were part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland (East). The leading bishop in the Baltic states was the exarch of Latvia and Estonia, Metropolitan of Vilna and Lithuania Sergius (Voskresensky). When the war began, Metropolitan Sergius was supposed to be evacuated from Vilnius, but he wished to remain with his flock and, in order to avoid evacuation, hid in the crypt of the cathedral. After the capture of Vilnius, the German authorities arrested Bishop Sergius, but after 4 days he was released and was able to fulfill his duties in managing the churches of the Baltic states. He was allowed to remain in canonical obedience to the Moscow Patriarchate and to lift up the name of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne during divine services. Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky) had to pay for the tolerant attitude of the occupation authorities towards his canonical connection with the Patriarchate with a number of public statements directed against the government of the Soviet Union, waging war with Germany, and assurances of loyalty to the German authorities. In a circle of completely trusted people, he said: “It was not such people who were deceived... but these sausage makers are not difficult to deceive.”

3. Change in the policy of the atheist state towards the Orthodox Church (1943-1944)

3.1. A turning point in relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Bolsheviks

The consistently patriotic position of the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church during the days of the war did not go unanswered by the Soviet authorities. In 1942, there were clear signs of a softening of the government's anti-church policies; True, these were more demonstrative gestures than real steps towards the many millions of believing people who shed blood for the salvation of the Fatherland, and therefore, as it turned out, for the preservation of Soviet power.

On November 7, 1942, newspapers published an anniversary greeting to J.V. Stalin on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution from Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Kallistratus (Tsintsadze), from the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius, from Metropolitan Nicholas of Kyiv and from Alexander Vvedensky. As a contemporary wrote, who read these telegrams with surprise: “What was unexpected was not that church leaders express feelings of devotion and patriotism - this has been customary since the 20s, what was new was that in response to these loyal assurances they did not respond with spitting and ridicule, but they print it on the first page."

But more important for the Church was the opportunity that arose then to open several new parishes and resume worship in abandoned, neglected, unused churches. In addition to permission to replace dowager sees and new episcopal consecrations, another act of the Soviet government, designed to demonstrate a favorable attitude towards the Orthodox Church and other religious communities, was the almost complete cessation of anti-religious attacks in the periodical press. The "Union of Militant Atheists" ceased to exist without official dissolution. In 1943, its permanent leader Emelyan Yaroslavsky died. Some anti-religious museums were also closed, but, of course, not the one that was located in the Kazan Cathedral in Leningrad.

What prompted the Bolshevik government to change its policy towards the Church? The reasons for this were different. First of all, it became an unaffordable luxury to simultaneously wage a war against Germany and wage a war with one’s Orthodox people. Over a quarter of a century, the majority of the clergy have proven their apoliticality and willingness to sacrifice many things, but not faith itself; During the war years, the patriotism of archpastors and shepherds turned out to be compatible with Soviet patriotism - both the communists and the believing people sincerely wanted the defeat of the fascists.

The softening of the anti-religious policy of the authorities was also a consequence of the serious metamorphosis that Soviet ideology underwent already in the mid-30s. After hopes of a world revolution had vanished like smoke, bizarre changes occurred in the ideology of the Bolshevik Party. The remnants of revolutionary internationalism and natural love for the motherland, although it had lost its nationally Russian and imperial features, were combined by communist ideologists in the new concept of “Soviet patriotism.” From the mid-30s. Soviet propagandists, in addition to the rebels and revolutionaries who were revered since 1917, also extracted from the history of the country other examples worthy of imitation: portraits of Suvorov and Kutuzov, whom the Marxist historian of the 20s. M.N. Pokrovsky branded them as imperialists, chauvinists, stranglers of freedom, who ended up in Stalin’s office. The names of the holy princes Alexander Nevsky and Demetrius Donskoy were mentioned in a positive context, and even the Baptism of Rus' began to be written in history textbooks as a relatively progressive event. Thus, Soviet ideology, in the struggle for survival, revealed its adaptability to circumstances, and during the war years it turned out to be quite flexible and even with a liberal tint in relation to the Church.

There was another, diplomatic, underlying reason for changes in government policy towards religious communities in the country. US President F. Roosevelt's plans to declare war on Germany, widely discussed in America, met with objections from the American Council of Churches of Christ, which at its conference adopted a resolution stating that US participation in the war on the side of the Soviet Union was unacceptable simply because the Soviet Union - This is a godless state. After this, Roosevelt instructed the US Ambassador in Moscow to collect and present material that would show that the situation of religious communities in the USSR complies with democratic standards. Of course, Roosevelt was well aware of the real situation of the Church in the USSR, but entry into the war, conditioned by political calculations, had to be presented to the Christian public in the United States as a manifestation of concern for the situation of believers in the Soviet Union.

The concerns of religious circles in America came to the attention of the Soviet leadership; and one of the results of this was the publication by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1942 of the book “The Truth about Religion in Russia,” intended mainly for distribution abroad. Both the preface of Metropolitan Sergius and the articles in the book contained, of course, half-truths about the position of the Orthodox Church in Russia and were intended for an intelligent reader, but the publication of this book drew attention to the very fact of the existence of the Church in our country. The partial normalization of relations between the state and the Church should also have encouraged patriotic emigration to reconcile with the Soviet regime. The improvement of the position of the Church also facilitated the propaganda tasks of the Soviet leadership among the Orthodox Balkan peoples at a time when Romania was at war with the Soviet Union, occupying Bessarabia, Transnistria and a significant part of Ukraine, including Odessa, and Bulgaria, without declaring war on the Soviet Union, was an ally of Germany in the fight against their neighbors of the same faith - Greece and Yugoslavia.

At the end of August 1943, the civil authorities invited the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), to return to Moscow. On September 4, a representative of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union called the Patriarchate and reported the government's desire to receive the highest hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Sergius thanked for the attention to the needs of the Church and expressed the wish that the visit take place without delay. The head of the 4th Department of the III Directorate of the NKVD for the fight against church-sectarian counter-revolution, Colonel G. G. Karpov, called the Patriarchate after a conversation with Stalin and on his orders.

Later Karpov wrote down the contents of the conversation. Stalin said that “it is necessary to create a special body that would communicate with the leadership of the Church.” Karpov proposed to form a department for religious affairs under the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the model of the Commission for religious affairs under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, but Stalin decided that it would be a Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church not under the Supreme Council, but under the government.

Their conversation with Stalin, V.M. Molotov and G.G. Karpov about the relationship between the Church and the state continued for about two hours in a huge wood-panelled office. “Briefly noting,” as Karpov writes, “the positive significance of the patriotic activity of the Church during the war, Stalin asked Metropolitans Sergius, Alexy and Nikolai to speak out about the urgent but unresolved issues that the Patriarchate and they personally had.” Metropolitan Sergius said that the most important and urgent question is about the central leadership of the Church, that he has been the Patriarchal Locum Tenens for almost 18 years and thinks that it is hardly possible anywhere else that since 1935 there has been no Synod in the Church. He asks permission to convene a Council of Bishops, which will elect the Patriarch and form the Holy Synod under the head of the Church as an advisory body consisting of 5-6 bishops. Stalin agreed with the metropolitan’s proposal and also allowed him to accept the title “Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.” We agreed that the Council of Bishops would meet in Moscow on September 8. Metropolitan Sergius refused subsidies.

Then the issue of opening religious educational institutions was discussed. Metropolitan Sergius declared the need for the widespread opening of theological schools, since the Church lacks cadres of clergy. Stalin suddenly broke the silence: “Why don’t you have personnel?” - he asked, taking the pipe out of his mouth and looking intently at his interlocutors. Alexy and Nikolai were embarrassed... Everyone knew that the cadres had been killed in the camps. But Metropolitan Sergius was not embarrassed: “We don’t have personnel for various reasons. One of them: we are training a priest, and he becomes a marshal of the Soviet Union.” A satisfied smile touched the dictator's lips. He said: “Yes, yes, of course. I am a seminarian. I heard about you then.”

Metropolitans Sergius and Alexy asked Stalin for permission to open theological courses in several dioceses. As Karpov writes, Stalin, agreeing with this, at the same time asked why they were raising the question of theological courses, while the government could allow the organization of a theological academy and the opening of theological seminaries in all dioceses where this was needed.

Metropolitan Sergius spoke about resuming the publication of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. “The magazine can and should be published,” said Stalin. Metropolitan Sergius raised the most important issue for the Church about the opening of parishes and the resumption of normal parish life in the country. Metropolitans Alexy and Nikolay noted the uneven distribution of churches in the Soviet Union and expressed the desire, first of all, to open churches in regions and territories where there are none at all or where there are few of them.

Metropolitan Alexy took upon himself the risk of raising the most painful and risky topic with Stalin. He asked for the release of bishops who were in exile, prisons and camps. Stalin replied: “Imagine such a list, we will consider it.” Metropolitan Sergius raised the issue of the right of clergy to free residence and movement within the Union, the lifting of restrictions related to the passport regime for them, and that the authorities allow those clergy who have been released from prison to worship. Stalin suggested that he study this issue.

Following this, Metropolitan Alexy spoke about the financial problems of the Church and the structure of church government. Metropolitan Nicholas asked to give dioceses the right to open candle factories. According to Karpov, Stalin once again emphasized that the Church can count on the full support of the government in all matters related to its organizational strengthening and development within the USSR. It is necessary to ensure the right of the bishop to dispose of church funds and not create obstacles to the organization of seminaries, candle factories, etc.

Turning to the personal circumstances of the hierarchs’ lives, Stalin noted: “Comrade Karpov reported to me that you live very poorly: your apartment is cramped, you buy food at the market, you don’t have any transport. Therefore, the government would like to know what your needs are and what you would like to receive from the government." Metropolitan Sergius asked to provide the former abbot's building in the Novodevichy Monastery for the location of the Patriarchate. “The premises in the Novodevichy Convent,” Stalin answered, “Comrade Karpov looked, and they are not at all comfortable, they require major repairs, and in order to occupy them, a lot of time is still needed. It is damp and cold there. After all, we must take into account that these buildings were built in the 16th century, the Government can provide you tomorrow with a completely comfortable and prepared building: a three-story mansion in Chisty Lane, which was previously occupied by the former German ambassador Schulenburg. But this building is Soviet, not German, so you can live in it completely calmly. We are providing you with the mansion with all the property and furniture that is in the mansion, and in order to have an idea of ​​this building, we will now show you its plan.”

Stalin did not ignore the supply of food to the Patriarchate; he promised to provide 2-3 passenger cars with fuel in the coming days. Then Stalin asked Metropolitan Sergius and his companions if they had any other questions for him, or if the Church had any other needs. All three stated that they no longer have any special requests, but sometimes in the localities there is an overtaxation of the clergy with income taxes. And then Stalin informed the metropolitans that the government was going to form a Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church and proposed to appoint G. G. Karpov as its chairman. This proposal alarmed them: Karpov was known in church circles as a security officer who handled the affairs of clergy with extreme cruelty. But “all three,” as Karpov writes, “stated that they were very grateful to the government and personally to Comrade Stalin for this and very favorably accepted the appointment of Comrade Karpov to this post.” Stalin suggested selecting 2-3 assistants who would be members of the Council, forming an apparatus, but remembering that Karpov was not the Chief Prosecutor and that through his activities he should more emphasize the independence of the Church.

At the end of the conversation, Stalin suggested that Molotov draw up a draft communiqué for radio and newspapers. Stalin and Metropolitans Sergius and Alexy took part in the discussion of the text of the communiqué. The text was published the next day in Izvestia. Stalin escorted the metropolitans to the door of his office, and taking Metropolitan Sergius “by the arm, carefully, like a real subdeacon, he led him down the stairs and said to him goodbye: “Vladyka! That's all I can do for you at the moment."

The moment in the history of the Russian Church was truly historical. The government, allowing the election of the Patriarch and the opening of parishes and theological schools, openly recognized the impossibility of the Bolshevik plans to completely destroy the Church and eliminate it from the life of the people. Essentially, the terms of a kind of “concordat” were concluded, which the state authorities basically observed until the beginning of Khrushchev’s persecutions.

The change in the policy of the atheist state towards the Orthodox Church in 1943 was a tactical step under the pressure of military circumstances. The Marxist idea of ​​class solidarity of the proletariat crashed against the “Myth of the 20th Century” by Rosenberg, the ideologist of the German workers’ socialist party (that was the name of Adolf Hitler’s party). Stalin had to appeal to the historical memory and national self-awareness of the Russian people, and here it was impossible to discount the Russian Orthodox Church, especially since in the first days of the war it was she, defeated and legally non-existent, who was the first to call on the Orthodox people to defend the Fatherland.

The Council of Bishops took place four days after the meeting in the Kremlin - on September 8, 1943 in the new building of the Patriarchate in Chisty Lane. This was the first Council after 1918. It was opened by the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius, with a brief report “On the activities of the Orthodox Church during the two years of the Patriotic War.” This was, of course, not a report in the generally accepted sense of the word, because there was no opportunity to speak openly about the life of the Church in the years following the Local Council of 1917–1918, and there were other topics besides the patriotic service of the Church during the war, Metropolitan Sergius did not touch upon it. He said in particular: “I have issued twenty-three different messages on different occasions, and their theme, of course, is the same: hope in God that He, as in the past, will not leave us now and will grant us the final victory. Our the people willingly responded to our call. We called upon them to make sacrifices for the needs of the war... These were the sacrifices of ordinary pilgrims who made their usual contribution... Random donations amounted to millions. I... at one time turned to our church society. with a proposal to raise funds for the construction of a tank column named after Demetrius Donskoy, I was guided by the desire to repeat the example of St. Sergius, who sent his two schema-monks to the battlefield.” The report ended with a reminder of the favorable meeting for the Church in the Kremlin.

Then the Council heard a report by Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad, “The duty of a Christian to the Church and the Motherland in the current era of the Patriotic War.” Comparing the Great Patriotic War with the Patriotic War of 1812, Metropolitan Alexy defined the moral conditions for the success of Russian weapons, common to all times, these are “firm faith in God, who blesses a just war; religious uplifting of the spirit; consciousness of the truth of the war; consciousness of duty to God and the Motherland. This is an inexhaustible source, never diminishing, a source of faith with an impulse of repentance, correction of life, desire for moral purity. It is nourished and warmed by prayers, deeds and - together - finds its expression in them." Then Metropolitan Alexy spoke about the election of His Holiness the Patriarch, for which the Council of Bishops was convened. Metropolitan Sergius was elected. Then the Holy Synod under the Patriarch was elected from three permanent and three temporary members. The Local Council provided for a more independent status for the Synod.

But the bitter experience acquired by the Russian Church in the terrible 20s and 30s showed the special responsibility of the high priest’s ministry, since in times of persecution, with external and internal schisms and divisions, for the multi-million flock the main spiritual guideline, helping to discern where the Orthodox Church is , and where the schisms were, there was the personality of the first bishop - Patriarch Tikhon, then Metropolitans Peter and Sergius.

The Council’s appeal to the Soviet government said: “Deeply touched by the sympathetic attitude of our national leader, the head of the Soviet government, I.V. Stalin, to the needs of the Russian Orthodox Church and to the humble labors of our humble servants, we bring to the government our all-conciliar sincere gratitude and joyful assurance “that, encouraged by this sympathy, we will increase our share of work in the nationwide feat for the salvation of the Motherland. May the Heavenly Head of the Church bless the efforts of the government with his constructive blessing and may he crown our struggle for a just cause with the longed-for victory and liberation of suffering humanity from the dark bonds of fascism.”

3.2. Russian Orthodox Church under His Holiness Patriarch Sergius

The enthronement of the newly elected Patriarch took place in the Epiphany Patriarchal Cathedral on August 30 (September 12) on the day of remembrance of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky, the heavenly patron of the Russian land. His Holiness Patriarch Sergius informed the Eastern Patriarchs about his election and enthronement, sending them letters of notification. Return telegrams of greetings from the Patriarchs were received from Istanbul, Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem, as well as congratulations from the heads of heterodox Churches and from other church leaders of the Christian East and West.

Patriarch Sergius addressed his first message to his flock on the day of his enthronement. In it, he not only informed the people of God about his election and appointment and asked the flock to pray for him, but also, mainly, focused attention on the moods, on the painful ulcers of church life, which stemmed from the extremely abnormal conditions in which the Church was placed and which were the result of cruel persecution against her. The Patriarch calls on sincerely believing lay people to be vigilant, to monitor the actions of parish councils, which were already decisively different from the selflessly devoted Church of the twenties of the 20s and 30s; now, as a rule, they were selected by the authorities that controlled church life.

On October 8, 1943, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church was formed under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR under the chairmanship of G. G. Karpov. It was Karpov who Stalin instructed to implement a new policy towards the Church, which in literature was called the “concordat”. The absolute omnipotence of Stalin and the Politburo excluded any possibility for the Church to effectively insist on observing its rights and fulfilling the terms of the agreement. There was essentially no agreement; there was a broad gesture of the “most august” mercy of the godless government towards the Church it persecuted. One cannot think that it stemmed from Stalin’s personal tyranny and caprice. Behind this was a sober political calculation and an understanding that the eradication of religion is a utopian and unattainable goal. In turn, according to the contents of the message to the flock issued by Patriarch Sergius on November 7, the day of the October Revolution, one can judge what steps towards the government were taken by the church authorities in the spirit of an unspoken “concordat”.

There is no assessment of the October Revolution in this message - the date of November 7 is designated simply as the anniversary of the Soviet state. The policy of the Soviet government is praised for organizing resistance to the enemy and for the fact that it “encouraged the cultural development of each tribe and nationality in the national spirit... At an outsider’s superficial glance, such freedom seems to lead to a weakening of internal ties between parts of the state, threatening its disintegration And suddenly, instead of a poorly united mass of different tribes, our Union met its enemies, united to the point of inextricability by the selfless love of all tribes for the common Motherland, their readiness to make any sacrifice, if only the Motherland was free from the fascist yoke. Where did such unanimity come from? so to unite our seemingly disparate tribes? Of course, much of this is explained by the wise national policy of the government, which gives each tribe the opportunity to feel at home on Soviet soil... But faith does not hesitate to show us the highest reason from which the wise policy itself comes.

On November 28, 1943, Council of People's Commissars Resolution No. 1325 "On the procedure for opening churches" was adopted. The procedure was complex and, of course, was designed to slow down the process of returning the Church to its ruined churches, but the process itself was still set in motion.

On September 12, 1943, the first issue of the renewed “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” was published. The first issues of the magazine published official church materials from the Bishops' Council of 1943, addresses of the Patriarch, articles devoted mainly to the patriotic service of the Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War, and reports on the destruction of churches and monasteries by the Germans.

After the election of the Patriarch, contacts of the Russian Church with other Orthodox and heterodox Churches became more intense. On the agenda was the issue of normalizing relations with the Georgian Church, whose unauthorized separation in 1917 was not recognized by either Patriarch Tikhon or the Local Council that was meeting at that time. In October 1943, Patriarch Sergius sent Archbishop Anthony (Romanovsky) of Stavropol to Tbilisi for negotiations with Patriarch Kallistratos of Georgia. These negotiations culminated in the resumption of canonical communion between the Russian and Georgian Churches.

3.3. The period of triumph of the Red Army. ROC under

Patriarch Alexy I

The end of 1943–1944 was a time of continuous victories of Russian weapons over the aggressor troops. In the fall of 1943, Eastern Ukraine was liberated. On November 6, the Red Army took Kyiv, and on February 2, 1944, Lutsk. In the spring of 1944, Soviet troops reached the state border; On July 27, Lviv was cleared of Germans. On August 23, Kharkov was captured by the Red Army.

Most of the bishops and almost all the clergy of the Autonomous Church remained in their homeland when the Germans fled from Ukraine. Many of the clergy were arrested by the NKVD on suspicion of collaboration with the occupiers, which, as a rule, was expressed only in the fact that the priests opened churches and performed divine services with the permission of the German authorities.

In 1944, the Red Army advanced almost unstoppably to the west; the outcome of the war was already predetermined. The Easter message to the flock of His Holiness Patriarch Sergius in 1944 ended with an expression of gratitude to God for His blessings and a call to prayer for all who bear the cross of serving God and their neighbors. Patriarch Sergius performed divine services almost all days of Holy and Easter Week. The works of His Holiness on the current management of the Russian Orthodox Church also followed their course.

On May 15, Archimandrite John (Razumov) found His Holiness lifeless. On May 16, the remains of Patriarch Sergius were transferred for burial from the Patriarchate to the Epiphany Cathedral. A countless crowd of Orthodox believers awaited the coffin at the cathedral.

On the day of the death of Patriarch Sergius, his will, drawn up at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, was opened. In accordance with the will of the deceased high priest, the Holy Synod confirmed Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad as Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne.

Telegrams and letters expressing condolences on the occasion of the death of His Holiness Patriarch Sergius were sent by Patriarchs Benjamin of Constantinople, Christopher of Alexandria, Alexander of Antioch, Timothy of Jerusalem, Georgian Kallistratus, Coptic Macarius; hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate who served abroad: Metropolitans Veniamin (Fedchenkov), Sergius (Tikhomirov), Bishop Theodore (Tekuchev); Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, embassies of Great Britain, Canada and China in Moscow, head of the French military mission in Moscow E. Petty.

On May 28, Metropolitan Alexy addressed the archpastors, shepherds and faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church with his first epistle, announcing that he had assumed the duties of the Primate of the Church, and promised to follow the path outlined by Patriarch Sergius, calling on his flock to do the same. The locum tenens of the patriarchal throne repaid a debt of love and gratitude to his deceased predecessor for his wise high priestly service. The war was still ongoing, and the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church called on the believing people to strengthen their prayers for the victory of Russian weapons. He repeated his call in a message on the eve of the third anniversary of the start of the war.

4. Attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church during the apogee of Stalinism (1945-1953)

In 1944, the liberation of Ukraine ended; in May, the Red Army broke through the German defenses between Vitebsk and Orsha and launched a rapid offensive to the west. The front line moved beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. In July of the same year, the Allies opened a second front in Western Europe. The final stage of the Second World War began. When news of the Anglo-American landing in France arrived in Moscow, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne sent a telegram to the British Ambassador in Moscow A. Kerr and through him to the Archbishop of Canterbury with “a prayerful heartfelt wish for God’s help and great success to the valiant fraternal allied armies in the sacred the feat of liberation of European peoples from the worst enemy of civilization - fascism."

After the entry of the Red Army into Belarus, the Belarusian bishops moved to Grodno, and from there on July 7, 1944 they were evacuated by the Germans to Germany. Among them was the head of the Belarusian Church, Metropolitan Panteleimon (Rozhnovsky). In August 1944, the Red Army, having liberated Moldova, crossed the Prut and entered the territory of Romania. Metropolitan of Chisinau of Romanian jurisdiction Ephraim (Tighineanu) and his vicars left Moldavia along with Romanian troops and authorities.

On September 8, the Red Army crossed the Romanian-Bulgarian border and began to advance into the interior of the country, without encountering real resistance from the Bulgarian troops. The new government broke the alliance with Germany and declared war on it. The Primate of the Bulgarian Church, Metropolitan Stefan, blessed the new state policy. In the fall of 1944, the Red Army liberated the Baltic states, with the exception of the Courland Peninsula, where the remnants of the defeated German troops resisted until May 1945.

The situation in Estonia was more complicated than in Lithuania and Latvia, where during the occupation a split occurred and part of the parishes led by Metropolitan Alexander (Paulus) separated from the exarch of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky).

On November 21–23, 1944, a Bishops' Council was held in the Patriarchate building in Chisty Lane. On November 24, Chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church G. G. Karpov, in particular, said: “The Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War showed how it, together with all the people, loves its Motherland and defends it by all means available to the Church.. German policy sought to use the Russian Orthodox Church as a weapon to achieve its predatory plans, to fight the Soviet regime, the Soviet people... But it ran into an insurmountable obstacle - the love and loyalty of the clergy and believers to their Motherland... Those phenomena. , which are now taking place in the life of the Church, in the relationship between the Church and the state, do not represent something accidental, unexpected, are not temporary in nature, are not a tactical maneuver, as some ill-wishers try to present this matter or as it is sometimes expressed in philistine reasoning. These events follow from a trend that had emerged even before the war." G. G. Karpov’s speech at the meeting with the participants of the Council inspired the bishops with hope for the sustainable nature of changes for the better in the church policy of the Soviet leadership.

Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad was elected Patriarch. His enthronement took place on February 4, 1945 at the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow. It was a day of great celebration for Orthodox residents and guests of the capital. There were then more than 5,000 pilgrims in and around the temple.

The historical significance of the Local Council of 1945 is not limited to the replacement of the patriarchal see and the adoption of the “Regulations on the management of the Russian Orthodox Church,” which streamlined parish life. The Council was evidence that the supervised Church, which experienced terrible persecution, remained alive by the grace of God that abided in it.

On April 10, 1945, a meeting between Patriarch Alexy and Stalin took place, in which Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) and Protopresbyter Nikolai Kolchitsky, manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, participated from the church side; The government, besides Stalin, was represented by V. M. Molotov. The conversation discussed issues related to the patriotic activities of the Church at the final stage of the war; Stalin said that the Russian Church had to make a huge contribution to strengthening the international positions of the Soviet state and establishing external contacts. The possibility of expanding the network of theological schools and the creation by the Church of its own publishing and printing base were also discussed.

Conclusion

On May 9, the Great Patriotic War ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany and Patriarch Alexy addressed the all-Russian flock with words of joy and pride for the victory of Russian weapons: “Glory and thanks to God! Remembering with reverence the exploits of our valiant army and those of our loved ones who sacrificed for our happiness of temporary life in the hope of receiving eternal life, we will never stop praying for them and in this we will draw consolation in the sorrow of the loss of those dear to our hearts and strengthen our faith in God’s endless mercy towards them, who have departed to the heavenly world, and in God’s omnipotent help to us, left for the continuation of earthly achievements and for the improvement of life throughout the world."

The softening of state policy towards the Orthodox Church forces the authorities to legalize in 1945 the remaining Baptist communities, to which Pentecostals organizationally joined, the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists becoming the coordinating center. Some Seventh-day Adventist communities were also able to obtain official registration (for obvious reasons, beyond the Ural Range). The awakening of religious life in the first post-war years came to an abrupt end in 1950.

Having survived the revolution and the terrible fratricidal massacre of the civil war, the horror of mass repressions and the terror of collectivization, Russia showed miracles of heroism and courage on the fields of the Second World War - the Great Patriotic War, saving its Western allies. It would seem that the times of mutual hostility should have become a thing of the past, giving way to a new alliance sealed with great blood. But no. Before the roar of the last battles had died down, the Western allies radically changed their attitude towards Russia. Independent and strong – no one needed her.

“By sowing chaos in Russia,” said American General Allen Dulles, head of US political intelligence in Europe, who later became director of the CIA, in 1945, “we will quietly replace their values ​​with false ones and force them to believe in these false values. How? We will find our like-minded people, our assistants and allies in Russia itself. Episode after episode, the grandiose tragedy of the death of the most rebellious people on earth, the final, irreversible extinction of their self-awareness, will play out. From literature and art, for example, we will gradually erase their social essence. Let's wean artists off, let's discourage them from engaging in depictions and researching the processes that take place in the depths of the masses. Literature, theaters, cinema - everything will depict and glorify the basest human feelings. We will in every possible way support and raise the so-called creators who will plant and hammer into human consciousness the cult of sex, violence, sadism, betrayal - in a word, all immorality.”

Did they succeed? Looking at our modern society even with the “naked eye” it is easy to answer this question. It is more difficult to answer why this happened. Our country won the great unequal battle, but could not withstand peacetime. Or maybe it’s all about what we believe?...

Sources and literature

1. Sources

1.1. http://www.kds.eparhia.ru/bibliot/istorserkvi/cupin/

1.2. http://www.bogoslov.ru/biblio/text/255665/index.html

1.3. http://www.sotnia.ru/ch_sotnia/t2001/t9312.html

2. Literature

2.1. Anti-religious (magazine). 1929, no. 9. P.106-107

2.2. Anti-religious (magazine). 1938, No. 5. pp. 15-16

2.3. Badak A.N., Voynich I.E., Volchek N.M. World History: The Eve of World War II. – M.: AST, 2002. – 528 p.

2.4. Demin V.N. Secrets of the Russian people. – M.: Publishing House “Veche”, 2005. – 320 p.

2.5. Perevezentsev S.V. Russia. Great destiny. – M.: White City, 2005. – 704 p.

V. Tsypin “History of the Russian Church 1917-1997”

From the message of Metropolitan Sergius to the flock, November 24, 1941.

A policy that assumes equality of parties and mutual obligations.

Relations between the Soviet government and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Great Patriotic War caused an increase in religious sentiment in the country. On the very first day of the war, the locum tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Sergius (Stragorodsky), appealed to church pastors and believers to stand up for the defense of the Motherland and do everything necessary to stop the enemy’s aggression. The Metropolitan emphasized that in the ongoing battle with fascism, the Church is on the side of the Soviet state. “Our Orthodox Church,” he said, “has always shared the fate of the people... Do not abandon your people now. She blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland.” Pastoral messages were sent to all church parishes. The overwhelming majority of clergy from their pulpits called on the people to self-sacrifice and resistance to the invaders. The church began collecting funds necessary to arm the army, support the wounded, sick, and orphans. Thanks to the funds raised by the church, combat vehicles were built for the Dmitry Donskoy tank column and the Alexander Nevsky squadron. During the Great Patriotic War, hierarchs of other traditional faiths of the USSR - Islam, Buddhism and Judaism - took a patriotic position. Soon after the invasion of Hitler's troops into the territory of the Soviet Union, the Main Directorate of Reich Security of Germany issued special directives allowing the opening of church parishes in the occupied territories. Father Sergius’s special appeal to believers who remained in enemy-occupied territory contained a call not to believe German propaganda, which claimed that the Wehrmacht army entered the territory of the Soviet Union in the name of liberating the church from atheists. In the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, the German attack on the Soviet Union was perceived differently. For a long time, the Church Abroad did not express its attitude towards the war. However, Hitler’s leadership was unable to obtain from the head of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky), an appeal to the Russian people about the assistance of the German army. Many hierarchs of the Church Abroad took an anti-German position during the war. Among them was John of Shanghai (Maksimovich), who organized money collections for the needs of the Red Army, and Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev), who forbade emigrants to fight against Russia. Metropolitan Benjamin, who was in America, carried out enormous patriotic work among the Russian colony in America; at the end of 1941, he became the honorary chairman of the Russian-American “Committee for Assistance to Russia.” Many figures of the Russian Orthodox Church took an active part in the European Resistance Movement. Others made their contribution to the cause of comprehensive assistance to the Soviet Union in countries such as the USA and Canada, China and Argentina. The sermon of Metropolitan Nicholas of Kyiv and Galicia in the Church of the Transfiguration about the responsibilities of believers in the fight against fascism stopped the activities of the “Union of Militant Atheists” (established in 1925), and closed anti-religious periodicals. In 1942, Metropolitans Alexy (Simansky) and Nikolay were invited to participate in the Commission to investigate the atrocities of the Nazis. The threat of a fascist invasion, the position of the Church, which declared the war against Germany “sacred” and supported the Soviet government in the fight against the enemy, forced the leaders of the USSR to change their attitude towards the Church. In September 1941, on September 4, 1943, the three highest hierarchs of the Russian Church, led by Metropolitan Sergius, were invited by the head of the Soviet state, J.V. Stalin, to the Kremlin. The meeting indicated the beginning of a new stage in relations between state power and the Church. At the mentioned meeting, a decision was made to convene a Council of Bishops and return the surviving bishops from exile. The Council of Bishops took place on September 8, 1943. Built at the expense of funds collected by the Russian Orthodox Church, 19 bishops took part in it (some of them were released from prison for this purpose). The council confirmed Metropolitan Sergius as patriarch. In October 1943, the Council for Religious Affairs under the Government of the USSR was created. On November 28, 1943, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On the procedure for opening churches” was issued. According to this decree, churches began to open in the country. If in 1939 there were just over 100 churches and four monasteries operating in the USSR, then by 1948 the number of open churches increased to 14.5 thousand, with 13 thousand priests serving in them. The number of monasteries increased to 85. The growth of religious educational institutions was also observed - 8 seminaries and 2 academies. The “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” began to appear, and the Bible, prayer books and other church literature were published. Since 1943, due to the destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1931, the Elokhovsky Epiphany Cathedral, where the Patriarchal Chair was located, became the main temple of the country. After the death of Patriarch Sergius on May 15, 1944, Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad and Novgorod became locum tenens of the Throne, according to his will. On January 31 - February 2, 1945, the First Local Council of the Russian Church took place. In addition to the bishops of the Russian Church, the cathedral was attended by the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, and representatives of other local Orthodox churches. In the “Regulations on the Russian Orthodox Church” approved at the Council, the structure of the Church was determined, and a new Patriarch was elected. This was the Metropolitan of Leningrad, Alexy (Simansky). One of the priority areas of his activity was the development of international relations with Orthodox churches. Conflicts between the Bulgarian and Constantinople Churches were resolved. Many supporters of the Church Abroad, the so-called Renovationists and Grigorievists, joined the Russian Orthodox Church, relations with the Georgian Orthodox Church were restored, and in the churches in the territories liberated from occupation the clergy was cleared of fascist collaborators. In August 1945, according to a decree of the authorities, the church received the right to acquire buildings and objects of worship. In 1945, according to a decree of the authorities, the church received the right to acquire buildings and objects of worship. The decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 1946-1947 were received with great enthusiasm in the church environment of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USSR and abroad. on the right to grant Soviet citizenship to citizens of the Russian Empire living abroad. Metropolitan Evlogy was the first Russian emigrant to receive a Soviet passport. After many years of emigration, many bishops and priests returned to the USSR. Among them were Metropolitan of Saratov - Benjamin, who arrived from the USA, Metropolitan Seraphim, Metropolitan of Novosibirsk and Barnaul - Nestor, Archbishop of Krasnodar and Kuban - Victor, Archbishop of Izhevsk and Udmurtia - Yuvenaly, Bishop of Vologda - Gabriel, who arrived from China, Archimandrite Mstislav, who came from Germany, rector of the Cathedral in Kherson, Archpriest Boris Stark (from France), Protopresbyter Mikhail Rogozhin (from Australia) and many others. As the years of the Great Patriotic War showed, religion, which contained enormous spiritual and moral potential, which it has retained to this day, helped our people withstand the aggression of Nazi forces and defeat them.

Historical sources:

Russian Orthodox Church and the Great Patriotic War. Collection of church documents. M., 1943.

“I have always strived to serve the people and save people. And I would have saved them much more if you had not dragged me around prisons and camps.”

22.06.2018 Metropolitan of Petrozavodsk and Karelian Konstantin 7 686

“They weren’t the ones who were deceived; they dealt with the NKVD, but it’s not difficult to deceive these sausage makers.” The Pskov mission covered a vast territory from Pskov to Leningrad. At the beginning, it should be noted that entering into a direct military clash with the USSR was the main prerequisite for the implementation of the goal of destroying the Russian state, liquidating and enslaving its population, transforming all of Russia into a colony and a place for the settlement of the German “master” race, proclaimed by Hitler back in Mein Kampf. . This was long before the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This goal was well known in the West. The actions of leading Western countries in the 30s of the last century were clearly aimed at helping Hitler prepare for war with the USSR. Hitler was pushed to the East, convinced that he had nothing to look for in the West: there was no living space for Germans there.

Unleashed by fascist Germany with the connivance of the “Western democracies” after the Munich Agreement in the fall of 1938, the Second World War was a terrible disaster for the whole world and especially for the USSR. But the ways of the Lord are inscrutable, and God’s providence, which knows how to turn evil into good, has made it possible for the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to revive. In 1914, there were 117 million Orthodox Christians in the Russian Empire, who lived in 67 dioceses governed by 130 bishops, and more than 50 thousand priests and deacons served in 48 thousand parish churches. The Church administered 35 thousand primary schools and 58 seminaries, 4 academies, as well as more than a thousand active monasteries with almost 95 thousand monastics (1). As a result of the communist destruction of the Church, by September 1, 1939, only 100 churches, four bishops, and 200 priests remained on the vast territory of the Soviet Union. But by the middle of 1940, as a result of the annexation of Western Ukraine and Belarus, the Baltic states, where churches were not closed by the new government for political reasons, the number of churches increased to 4000, which made it possible for the Russian Orthodox Church to at least partially revive from the terrible pogrom it experienced. The government could not help but take into account the new masses of the Orthodox population (2).

During the war, the Church did not succumb to the temptation to pay for the severe blow inflicted on it. The patriotism of the Orthodox clergy and laity turned out to be stronger than the resentment and hatred caused by long years of persecution of religion. Everyone knows that the Great Patriotic War began on June 22, 1941. But not many people know that this Sunday was according to the church calendar “The Sunday of all Saints who shone in the Russian land”. This holiday was established on the eve of severe persecutions and trials for the Russian Church and was a kind of eschatological sign of the martyrdom period in the history of Russia, but in 1941 it providentially became the beginning of the liberation and revival of the Church. Russian saints became the spiritual wall that stopped an armored German car with an occult swastika.

On the very first day of the war, 11 days before Stalin’s famous speech, without any pressure from the authorities, purely on his own initiative, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) wrote his famous “Message to the pastors and flock of the Christian Orthodox Church”:

“Fascist robbers attacked our Motherland. Trampling all sorts of treaties and promises, they suddenly fell upon us, and now the blood of civilians is already irrigating our native land. The times of Batu, the German knights, Charles of Sweden, and Napoleon are repeated. The pitiful descendants of the enemies of Orthodox Christianity want to once again try to bring our people to their knees before untruth, to force them through naked violence to sacrifice the good and integrity of the Motherland, the blood covenants of love for their Fatherland... Our ancestors did not lose heart even in the worst situation, because they did not remember personal dangers and benefits, but about their sacred duty to the Motherland and faith, and emerged victorious. Let us not disgrace their glorious name, and we, the Orthodox, are relatives to them in flesh and faith. The Fatherland is defended by weapons and common national feats... Let us remember the holy leaders of the Russian people, for example, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, who laid down their souls for the people and the Motherland... The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland” (3).

The significance of this Message is difficult to overestimate. The persecuted Orthodox Church itself extended a helping hand, but not so much to the atheistic authorities as to the lost and unfortunate Russian people. In the Message of the Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius, we speak only about the people and the national feat, not a word about the leaders, who at that time were practically silent. Russian Orthodox patriotism, persecuted, spat upon and ridiculed by cosmopolitan communists, was restored in its meaning. Let us remember the famous words of Lenin: “I don’t care about Russia because I’m a Bolshevik.” Let us also recall Lenin’s calls for the defeat of Russia in the First World War, when Russian soldiers fought on the German front. From the Locum Tenens’ recollection of the holy leaders of the Russian people - Alexander Nevsky and Dimitri Donskoy - a red thread stretches to the government orders of the same name and to Stalin’s words from the speech of July 3: “Under the banners of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Minin and Pozharsky - forward to victory!”. Metropolitan Sergius breathed into the souls of the Russian people faith in victory and hope in God’s providence: “But this is not the first time the Russian people have had to endure such tests. With God’s help, this time too he will scatter the fascist enemy force into dust... The Lord will grant us victory.” Through the mouth of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, the Church declared the fate of the people as its own: “Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. She endured trials with him and was consoled by his successes. She will not leave her people even now. He blesses with heavenly blessing the upcoming national feat...”

The Message explained the spiritual meaning of not only military feats, but also peaceful labor in the rear. “We need to remember the commandment of Christ: “No one has greater love than he sows, but whoever lays down his life for his friends.” Not only the one who is killed on the battlefield for his people and their good lays down his soul, but also everyone who sacrifices himself, his health or profit for the sake of his homeland.” Metropolitan Sergius also defined the tasks of the clergy: “ For us, the shepherds of the Church, at a time when the Fatherland calls everyone to heroic deeds, it would be unworthy to just silently look at what is happening around us, not to encourage the faint-hearted, not to console the saddened, not to remind the hesitant of duty and the will of God.” (4).

Metropolitans Sergius, Alexy, and Nicholas were not prevented from spreading their patriotic appeals, although this was a violation of the law. Metropolitan Sergius perspicaciously discerned the satanic essence of fascism. He expressed his understanding in his Message of November 11, 1941: “It is clear to the whole world that fascist monsters are satanic enemies of faith and Christianity. The fascists, with their beliefs and actions, are, of course, not at all on the path to follow Christ and Christian culture.” Later, in the Easter message of 1942, Metropolitan Sergius would write: “Darkness will not defeat the light... Moreover, the fascists, who had the audacity to recognize the pagan swastika as their banner instead of the Cross of Christ, will not win... Let us not forget the words: “By this you will conquer.” It is not the swastika, but the Cross that is called upon to lead Christian culture, our “Christian life.” . In fascist Germany they claim that Christianity has failed and is not suitable for future world progress. This means that Germany, destined to rule the world of the future, must forget Christ and follow its own, new path. For these insane words, may the righteous Judge strike Hitler and all his accomplices.” (5).

Indeed, the Soviet Union was an anti-Christian state, but not anti-Christ, it was atheistic, but not occult. On the contrary, the system of government of the Third Reich, built by Hitler, was occult and anti-Christ in its essence. “The stunning novelty of Nazi Germany is that magical thought for the first time took science and technology as its assistants... Hitlerism is, in a sense, magic plus armored divisions”(6). But the point here is not only in the appeal to German pagan images and in occult programs like the Ahnenerbe, on which huge amounts of money and effort were spent in the Third Reich. What was dangerous was that Hitler’s propagandists sought to mix pagan occultism with Christianity: the image of the Unknown Soldier was blasphemously combined with the face of Christ, Hitler himself appeared to his adherents in the guise of the Messiah (7), the so-called. The spear of the centurion Longinus, which pierced the heart of Christ, became a magical talisman in the hands of Hitler, and on the belt buckles of the soldiers who went to kill, rob and atrocize the civilian population, words from the messianic prophecy of Isaiah were written: "God is with us" (Isa. 8:8). The cross on German planes that bombed schools and hospitals was one of the most disgusting sacrileges over the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross in history, but also a sign of pseudo-Christian, and at the last depths, anti-Christian Western European civilization. The fact that one of the ultimate goals of the Nazis was to proclaim Hitler as the messiah and to recognize him as such by the conquered peoples of the entire earth is shown by the following blasphemous prayer in the likeness of the “Our Father,” which was actively distributed in leaflets: “Adolf Hitler, you are our leader, your name inspires fear in your enemies, may your third empire come. And may your will be done on earth." (8).

It is very significant that, by and large, only the primates of the majority of Orthodox churches condemned fascism: the Vatican remained silent both about the Nazi conquests (including Catholic countries), and about the extermination of entire peoples (not only and not so much Jews, but before total Slavs - Russians, Serbs, Belarusians). Moreover, some Catholic hierarchs not only blessed the Nazi terror, but also actively participated in it, for example, the Croatian Cardinal of Zagreb Kvaternik. It is no coincidence that it was the Orthodox countries - Yugoslavia, Greece, Russia - and the Orthodox peoples who became the objects of Nazi aggression: this was reflected in the anti-Orthodox and anti-Christ spirit of Western Europe, which, under the leadership of Hitler, went on a crusade to the East. We do not want to say that ordinary Catholic or Protestant clergy did not suffer from fascism; on the contrary, in Poland alone, before January 1941, 700 Catholic priests were killed, 3000 were imprisoned in concentration camps (9), but the Vatican did not react in any way on the reports of the Polish Archbishop Glonda.

As for the leaders of some Protestant churches, especially in Germany, they directly recognized Hitler as a God-given leader. Although, however, there were isolated cases of resistance there too. Against this background, the condemnation of fascism from a Christian perspective was extremely important.

The Russian Orthodox Church played a major role not only in the mobilization of the Russian people, but also in organizing assistance from the allies, and indirectly in the opening of the Second Front. Already in the Message dedicated to the first anniversary of the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, Metropolitan Sergius writes: “We are not alone in the fight against the fascists. The other day we received a telegram from America from New York from the Committee for Military Assistance to the Russians. Fifteen thousand religious communities in the United States organized special prayers for Russian Christians on June 20-21 (the eve of the start of the war) in order to commemorate the Russian resistance to the fascist invaders and to encourage the American people to help the Russians in their struggle against the aggressors.”(10). The Russian Orthodox Church contributed greatly to the creation of a positive image of Soviet Russia among its allies. Even German intelligence noted the success of the influence of the factor of the revival of the Church in the USSR on the allies.

The Russian Orthodox Church has done much to spiritually strengthen and encourage the Resistance movement in Europe. In the messages of Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) to the Slavs and other Orthodox peoples occupied by fascism, one can see ardent love for Orthodox and half-brothers, and a fiery call to resist the fascists shines through them:

“We earnestly pray to the Lord that He will support your strength and your courage for the remaining time of the war. May the lamp of Orthodoxy burn even brighter for you, may your love for your homeland and its freedom be even more ardent, and may your aversion to any attempts to soften, if not break, your resistance to the enemy and his pathetic servants be even more irreconcilable.

Will the Serbs, who have publicly laid down their lives more than once for their faith and fatherland, ever calm down under the fascist boot? Will their eagle cry ever fall silent: “Let Dusan know that the Serbs are alive, the Serbs are free?” Can the Orthodox Greek people really remain on the fascist chain? (11)... Brothers Slavs! The hour of great events on the fronts has approached. Decisive battles are coming. Let there not be a single one among us who would not contribute with all his strength and capabilities to the victorious defeat of our common hated enemy: both on the battlefields, and in the rear, and with the powerful blows of the people's avengers-partisans. We will all be as one".

Of particular importance in the ideological struggle against fascism and its allies were the messages of Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) of Kyiv and Galicia to the Romanian pastors and flock, as well as to the Romanian soldiers:

“What is the role of the ordinary Romanian people, Romanian Orthodox Christians, in the modern war, what lies ahead for them? They probably did not take part in the anti-Christian and predatory bargaining called the “new order in Europe”, but were victims of the political intrigues of their rulers. What could Romanian Orthodox Christians have in common with the Nazis, who are reviving the cult of the pagan god Wotan?” (12) … " And we, Russians, are brothers with you in faith, brothers in a peaceful neighborhood. The Romanian soldier cannot forget that the blood of Russian soldiers in the war of 1877-78 won the state independence and freedom of national existence of Romania... Your Christian duty is to immediately leave the German ranks and go over to the side of the Russians in order to atone for the great sin of complicity in the crimes of the Germans and to contribute to the defeat of the enemy of humanity" (13).

We can talk about many types of patriotic activities of the Russian Orthodox Church. First of all, these are liturgical and preaching activities, often in the front line and under enemy fire. At the decisive moments of the Battle of Stalingrad, Metropolitan Nicholas of Kiev and Galicia served prayers before the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (14).

The feat of the Leningrad clergy was especially great. Divine services in cathedrals and cemetery churches were held under shelling and bombing, but for the most part neither the clergy nor the believers went to shelters, only the air defense posts on duty took their places. Almost worse than the bombs were the cold and hunger. The services were held in bitter cold, and the singers sang in their coats. Due to famine, by the spring of 1942, out of 6 clergy of the Transfiguration Cathedral, only two remained alive. And yet, the surviving priests, mostly elderly, continued to serve, despite hunger and cold. This is how I.V. Dubrovitskaya recalls her father, Archpriest Vladimir Dubrovitsky: “Throughout the war there was not a day when my father did not go to work. Sometimes he would sway from hunger, I would cry, begging him to stay at home, I was afraid he would fall and freeze somewhere in a snowdrift, and he would answer:“I have no right to weaken, daughter. We must go, lift people’s spirits, console them in grief, strengthen them, encourage them.” (15).

The consequence of the selfless service of the clergy in besieged Leningrad was an increase in the religiosity of the people. During the terrible winter of the siege, priests performed funeral services for 100-200 people. In 1944, funeral services were performed for 48% of the dead. The process of religious upsurge swept all of Russia. NKVD reports reported the presence of a large number of military personnel at the Easter service on April 15, 1944: in the Trinity Church in Podolsk - 100 people, in the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky (Biryulyovo village, Leninsky district) - 275 people, etc. (16) Both ordinary soldiers and military leaders came to faith (or remembered it). From the testimony of contemporaries it is known that the Chief of the General Staff B.M. Shaposhnikov (former colonel of the tsarist army) wore the image of St. Nicholas and prayed: “Lord, save Russia and my people.” Throughout the war, G.K. Zhukov carried with him the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which he then donated to one of the Kyiv churches. Marshal L.A. Govorov, commander of the Leningrad Front, publicly expressed his faith. The hero of the Battle of Stalingrad, General V.I. Chuikov, often visited the temples.

Particularly striking were the cases of people coming to faith from Komsomol atheism. The poem found in the overcoat of a simple Russian soldier Andrei Zatsepa, killed in 1942, is indicative:

“Listen, God, never in my life have I
I haven't talked to you, but today
I want to greet you...
You know, from childhood I was told,
That you are not there. And I, a fool, believed it.
I have never contemplated your creations.
And today I looked
From the crater that was knocked out by a grenade
To the starry sky that was above me.
I suddenly realized, admiring the universe,
How cruel deception can be...
Isn't it strange that in the midst of a terrifying hell
Suddenly the light opened up to me and I recognized You.
We are scheduled to attack at midnight,
But I'm not scared. You are looking at us...
But I think I'm crying, oh my God. You see,
What happened to me is that today I have seen the light.
Goodbye my God. I'm going and I'm unlikely to return
How strange, but now I’m not afraid of death.” (17).

The massive rise of religious sentiment in the army is evidenced, for example, by the following request sent by telegram to the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army from the 4th Ukrainian Front, certified by Lieutenant Colonel Lesnovsky: “As the need arises, urgently send the materials of the Synod for delivery on the day of the celebration of the anniversary of the October Revolution, as well as a number of other guiding materials of the Orthodox Church.”(18). Such a seemingly paradoxical combination of Soviet and Orthodox principles was not uncommon for those years; Here is a letter from soldier M.F. Cherkasov: “Mom, I joined the party... Mom, pray to God for me” (19).

Many priests contributed to the Victory not only through their church service, but also through military feats. It should be noted the direct participation of hundreds of clergy in the hostilities, including those who served time in a camp and exile before the war, or went straight from the camp. A somewhat sensitive question may arise here: how much does this correlate with the canons prohibiting clergymen performing the Bloodless Sacrifice from shedding blood. It should be noted that the canons were created for a specific era and specific situation of the Eastern Roman Empire, when it was unacceptable to mix priesthood and military craft, but above the canons there are the gospel commandments, including the following: “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”(John 15, 13). In the history of the Church there were many cases when clergy had to take up arms: the defense of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and Smolensk, the armed struggle of Serbian and Montenegrin priests, and even metropolitans against Turkish enslavers, etc.

In the context of the Nazi invasion, which ultimately brought occultism and the physical destruction of Slavic and other peoples, it was unacceptable to remain aloof from the armed struggle; moreover, most priests joined the army in obedience to the authorities. Many of them became famous for their exploits and were awarded. Here are at least a few portraits. Having already been imprisoned, S.M. Izvekov, the future Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Pimen, at the very beginning of the war, became deputy company commander, went through the entire war and ended it with the rank of major. The abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery in the fifties - the first half of the seventies of the twentieth century, Archimandrite Alypiy (Voronov) - a talented icon painter and active shepherd - while already in office, defended Moscow, fought for all four years, was wounded several times, and was awarded military orders. The future Metropolitan of Kalinin and Kashinsky Alexy (Konoplev) was a machine gunner at the front; in 1943 he returned to the priesthood with the medal “For Military Merit.” Archpriest Boris Vasiliev, before the war a deacon of the Kostroma Cathedral, commanded a reconnaissance platoon in Stalingrad, and then fought as deputy chief of regimental intelligence (20). The report of the Commissioner of the Council of People's Commissars for Religious Affairs G. Karpov indicated a number of awarded clergymen: thus, priest Rantsev (Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) was awarded the Order of the Red Star, Protodeacon Zverev and Deacon Khitkov were each awarded four military medals, etc. (21)

The Russian Orthodox Church did a lot not only to inspire soldiers, but also to develop the partisan movement. This is what locum tenens Metropolitan Sergius wrote in particular on June 22, on the anniversary of the start of the war: “In the memory of the inhabitants of places temporarily occupied by the enemy, the centuries-old struggle of the Orthodox Cossacks and their services to the Church and the Motherland are undoubtedly alive... Currently, hundreds and thousands of national heroes are rising from our midst, waging a brave fight behind enemy lines. Let us be worthy of both these sacred memories of antiquity and these modern heroes: “ Let us not disgrace the Russian land", as they said in the old days. Perhaps not everyone can join the partisan detachments and share their grief, dangers and exploits, but everyone can and should consider the cause of the partisans his own, personal matter, surround them with his concerns, supply them with weapons and food, and everything that is , shelter them from the enemy and generally help them in every possible way” (22).

The clergy took an active part in the partisan movement, especially in Belarus, and many of them paid for it with their lives. In the Polesie diocese alone, more than half of the priests (55%) were shot for assisting the partisans (23). Some priests, such as Fr. Vasily Kapychko, " guerrilla pop"(whom the author knew personally), served as priests in the Belarusian partisan detachments, confessed, and received communion. The forms of assistance were very diverse: priests hid those who lagged behind during the retreat from Red Army units, escaped prisoners of war, such as the priest Govorov in the Kursk region, who hid pilots who had escaped from captivity (24). The clergy conducted patriotic agitation and collected funds for the Dmitry Donskoy tank column. An example of this is the civic feat of the priest Feodor Puzanov from the village of Brodovichi-Zapolye, who was able to collect half a million rubles worth of money and valuables in the German-occupied Pskov region and transport them through the partisans to the mainland (25). Many of the clergy fought in partisan detachments, several dozen of them were later awarded the medal: “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War.” Thus, Archpriest Alexander Romanushko from Polesie from 1942 to 1944 personally participated in partisan combat operations and personally went on reconnaissance missions. In 1943, when they buried the murdered policeman, in front of all the people and armed comrades of the murdered man, Fr. Alexander said: " Brothers and sisters, I understand the great grief of the father and mother of the murdered man, but not our prayers and “Rest with the saints” with his life he deserved in the grave. He is a traitor to the Motherland and a murderer of innocent children and old people. Instead of “Eternal Memory” we will say: “Anathema”.”. And then, approaching the policemen, he called on them to atone for their guilt and turn their weapons against the Germans. These words impressed people so much that many went straight from the cemetery to become partisans (26).

The clergy took part in digging trenches and organizing air defense, including in besieged Leningrad. Here is just one example: a certificate issued on October 17, 1943 to Archimandrite Vladimir (Kobets) by the Vasileostrovsky district housing administration stated: “He is a member of the self-defense group at home, actively participates in all activities of the defense of Leningrad, is on duty, and participates in extinguishing incendiary bombs.”

Often, clergy, by their personal example, called parishioners to the most urgent work, going straight from Sunday services to collective farm work. One of the areas of patriotic work was patronage of hospitals and care for the sick and wounded. In the front-line zone, there were shelters for the elderly and children near the churches, as well as dressing stations, which were especially important during the period of retreat of 1941-42, when many church parishes took upon themselves the care of the wounded abandoned to the mercy of fate.

Immediately after the liberation of Kyiv (November 6, 1943), the Intercession Convent, exclusively at its own expense and on its own, equipped a hospital, which was entirely served by the sisters of the monastery as nurses and orderlies. When the monastery hospital became a military evacuation hospital, the sisters continued to work in it and did so until 1946. For this feat, the monastery received a number of government thanks. And this is not the only case (27).

A special page is the work of the outstanding surgeon Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky). During his Krasnoyarsk exile, at the beginning of the war, he, on his own initiative, encountering resistance from the authorities, began working in an evacuation hospital in Krasnoyarsk, subsequently taking the position of chief surgeon. Since 1943, having become the Bishop of Tambov, he headed the Tambov Evacuation Hospital, where he worked until 1945, performing several operations every day. Thanks to his work, thousands of Red Army soldiers were saved and cured. He had an icon hanging in the operating room; he did not begin operations without prayer. The following fact is indicative: when he was presented with an award for his dedicated work, they expressed the hope that he would continue to operate and consult. To this, the Bishop said: “I have always strived to serve the people and save people. And I would have saved them much more if you had not dragged me around prisons and camps.” Everyone was stunned. Then someone from the authorities timidly remarked that you can’t just remember everything, you have to forget sometimes. And again the thunderous bass of the Lord was heard: "Well, I do not. I will never forget this". For his fundamental work “Essays on Purulent Surgery,” Archbishop Luka was awarded the Stalin Prize, 1st degree, in 1945, most of which he donated to help orphans.

Of great importance were the collections of funds by the Church to help the army, as well as to help orphans and restore devastated areas of the country. Metropolitan Sergius almost illegally began church collections for the defense of the country. On January 5, 1943, he sent a telegram to Stalin, asking his permission for the Church to open a bank account into which all the money donated for defense in all the churches of the country would be deposited. Stalin gave his written consent and, on behalf of the Red Army, thanked the Church for its labors. Telegram from Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad to I.V. Stalin on May 13, 1943:

“The Leningrad diocese, fulfilling the promise given to you to continue its assistance to our valiant Red Army in every possible way and fulfilling your call to contribute in every possible way to the defense capability of our Motherland, collected and contributed in addition to the previously transferred 3,682,143 rubles another 1,769,200 rubles and continues to raise funds for the tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy. The clergy and believers are filled with firm faith in our imminent victory over evil fascism, and we all trust in God’s help to you and the Russian army under your supreme leadership, defending the legal cause and bringing freedom to our brothers and sisters who have temporarily fallen under the heavy yoke of the enemy. I pray to God to send His victorious power to our Fatherland and to you.”

In total, Orthodox residents of Leningrad donated about 16 million rubles. A story has been preserved about how an unknown pilgrim placed one hundred and fifty gold Nicholas chervonets in the Vladimir Cathedral under the icon of St. Nicholas: for a starving city this was a whole treasure (29).

The name of the tank column “Dimitri Donskoy”, as well as the squadron “Alexander Nevsky”, is not accidental: in his sermons, Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad constantly emphasized that these saints won victories not simply thanks to their patriotism, but thanks to “the deep faith of the Russian people that God will help in a just cause... So now we believe, therefore, that all heavenly powers are with us.” For the church's six million, 40 tanks were built, forming the Dmitry Donskoy column. Funds for it were collected not only in besieged Leningrad, but also in the occupied territory.

Noteworthy is the word spoken by Nikolai, Metropolitan of Krutitsky and Kolomensky when handing over a tank column to Red Army units, and the response of the Red Army soldiers. The Metropolitan addressed this: “Drive out the hated enemy from our Great Rus'. Let the glorious name of Dmitry Donskoy lead you to the battle for the sacred Russian land! Forward to victory, warrior brothers!” In response, the unit command stated the following: “Fulfilling your order, the privates, sergeants and officers of our unit, on the tanks handed over by you, full of love for their mother Motherland, are crushing the sworn enemy, expelling him from our land.”

It should be noted that the “Dmitry Donskoy” column and the “Alexander Nevsky” squadron are only a drop in the ocean of church donations. In total, they amounted to at least four hundred million rubles, not counting things and valuables, and in a number of cases they were purposefully directed towards the creation of one or another tank or aviation unit. Thus, Orthodox believers in Novosibirsk donated more than 110,000 rubles to the Siberian squadron “For the Motherland.”

The hierarchy found itself in rather difficult conditions in the territory occupied by the Germans. It is incorrect to say that the Germans opened churches in the occupied territory: in fact, they only did not prevent believers from opening them. It was the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians – residents of the occupied territories – who invested their efforts and resources, often the last ones. In the policy of the Germans in the occupied territories, two lines collided: one - from representatives of the middle (only partly and higher) military circles, interested in the loyalty of the population of the occupied regions, and, consequently, in a single canonical church organization. The other line, emanating from Rosenberg and Hitler, was aimed at demoralization, disunity, and ultimately the destruction of the Russian people and, therefore, initiated religious chaos and church schism. This is what Hitler said at the meeting on April 11, 1942: “It is necessary to prohibit the establishment of unified churches for any significant Russian territories. It would be in our interests for a situation in which each village had its own sect, where its own special ideas about God would develop. Even if in this case shamanic cults, like Negro or American-Indian cults, arose in individual villages, we could only welcome this, because this would only increase the number of factors crushing Russian space into small units.”(thirty). The quote is quite eloquent and very topical. Isn’t the same thing happening now on the territory of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus, when only according to official data there are several hundred sects with up to a million adherents, and most of them were created with Western money?

Based on Hitler's instructions, the German authorities sought in every possible way to split the Church in the occupied territories. German policy towards the Orthodox Church in Belarus was formulated by Rosenberg after a meeting with Hitler and Bormann. On May 8, 1942, Rosenberg wrote to his two Reich Commissioners that the Russian Orthodox Church should not extend its influence to Orthodox Belarusians, and its activities should not extend beyond the borders of the Great Russians. This policy led to the complete separation of the so-called Belarusian Autonomous Church from the Exarchate in the Baltic states. The Germans imposed independence (autocephaly) on the Church in Belarus, but the episcopate, led by Metropolitan Panteleimon, ultimately did not accept it.

In Ukraine, thanks to the nationalist factor fueled by the German General Staff since 1914, the Church was split. In addition to the canonical Ukrainian Autonomous Church, led by Metropolitan Alexy (Hromadsky), an anti-Russian autocephalous church was formed, led by Metropolitan Polycarp (Sikorsky), which fully supported the fascists. There was intense agitation all the time against Metropolitan Alexy (Hromadsky) as an enemy of Ukraine, and on May 7, 1943, he was killed in an ambush near the Pochaev Lavra by Bandera. In August of the same 1943, Bishop Manuil (Tarnovsky), belonging to the hierarchy of the canonical Ukrainian Church, was hanged by the Banderaites (31). The majority of the episcopate remained loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate, but even some of those who left canonical subordination, such as Bishop Alexander of Pinsk and Polesie, secretly helped the partisans with food and medicine.

The phenomenon of Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky) of Vilna and Lithuania, Exarch of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Baltics, deserves special attention. It should be noted that he managed to maintain unity, despite all the pressure from the Germans. His relationship with the Germans was built entirely on anti-communist, and not anti-Russian, soil. Arrested by the Gestapo immediately after the occupation of Riga, Metropolitan Sergius was soon released, having convinced the Germans of his anti-communism, and obtained permission to open the Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church. He himself considered his so-called cooperation with the Germans as a complex game for the benefit of the Church and Russia. He often said: “They weren’t the ones who were deceived; they dealt with the NKVD, but it’s not difficult to deceive these sausage makers.”(32). The Pskov mission covered a vast territory from Pskov to Leningrad. The success of the Mission exceeded all expectations. As a result, 200 churches were opened in the Pskov region alone. Thanks to the Mission, tens of thousands of Russian people were baptized, and thousands received the rudiments of religious education. Theological courses were opened in Pskov, Riga and Vilnius, where dozens of future pastors of the Russian Orthodox Church received theological education. One of the members of the Mission, Fr. Alexy Ionov emphasized that the work was carried out without any directives from the occupation authorities: “The Mission did not receive any special or specific instructions from the German authorities. If these instructions had been given or imposed, it is unlikely that our Mission would have taken place. I knew well the mood of the Mission members"(33). The educational activities of the Pskov mission clearly expressed a patriotic principle: its catechists and teachers called for the revival of Russia “single and indivisible” as a counterbalance to the racist line of Hitler-Rosenberg, who preferred to see Russia divided into a number of puppet republics and governor-generals. However, a meeting with the partisans for a member of the Mission ended in death.

The most significant event was the transfer of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God to the Church. The icon was rescued from a burnt church in Tikhvin and given to the Church by the Germans, who tried to use the transfer for propaganda purposes. A platform was erected on the cathedral square in Pskov, and on it was a lectern, where the icon was placed. There, in front of a huge gathering of people, the secretary of the Mission, priest George Bennigsen, fearlessly delivered a sermon in which he spoke about the feat of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky, who liberated Pskov and Novgorod from foreign invasion (34).

The Mission existed from August 1941 to February 1944. Metropolitan Sergius himself was killed by SD officers in the spring on the eve of Easter 1944 for his patriotic activities. All those involved in the Mission’s activities who remained on the territory of the USSR were subsequently arrested and sent to camps to almost certain death. “And today,” one of the missionaries rightly wrote, “they want to portray our struggle as cooperation with the fascists. God is the judge of those who want to tarnish our holy and bright cause, for which some of our workers, including priests and bishops, died from the bullets of Bolshevik agents, others were arrested and killed by Hitler’s Gestapo.”.

The recently deceased confessor of the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy, Archimandrite Kirill (Nachis), was arrested by the MGB on October 13, 1950 for his work in the Pskov Mission. Sentenced by the OSO to ten years in labor camp. He served time in the Mineralny camp. Released from the camp on October 15, 1955. Rehabilitated on May 21, 1957. He graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy with a candidate of theology degree, was a professorial fellow, a teacher at the seminary and the Academy, took holy orders, was tonsured a monk, and elevated to the rank of archimandrite (1976) (35).

Like the entire Russian people, the Russian Orthodox Church suffered heavily during the Great Patriotic War. According to the far incomplete and inaccurate estimates of the commission investigating Nazi atrocities, the Germans destroyed or destroyed 1,670 churches and 69 chapels. If, on the one hand, this number included a large number of churches destroyed by the communists before the war, then on the other hand, it did not take into account all the modest village churches burned along with the people locked in them by punitive forces in Belarus and Ukraine. Often, German Sonderkommandos gathered all the people in Belarusian villages into church, filtered out the young and strong and drove them to work in Germany, and locked the rest in the church and burned them. Such a tragedy occurred, for example, on February 15, 1943 in the village of Hvorostovo, Minsk region, when during the Sretensky service, the Germans drove all the residents into the temple, supposedly for prayer. Anticipating evil, the rector of the church, Fr. John Loiko called on all parishioners to pray fervently and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. While singing “I Believe,” they began to forcibly take young women and girls out of the church to be sent to Germany. Father John asked the officer not to interrupt the service. In response, the fascist knocked him down. And then the doors of the temple were clogged and several sleighs with straw drove up to it... Later, the police testified at the trial that from the burning church a nationwide singing was heard: “Receive the Body of Christ, taste the Immortal Source.”. And this is just one of many hundreds of similar cases.

By personal example, the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church called for the mobilization of all forces to help defend and strengthen the rear. All this could not but have an impact on the religious policy of the Soviet government. At the beginning of the war, anti-religious propaganda completely ceased, and the activities of the “Union of Militant Atheists” were curtailed. Stalin recommended that the “chief atheist” E. Yaroslavsky (Gubelman) publicly note the patriotic position of the Church. He did not dare to disobey and, after much doubt, on September 2 he prepared the article “Why are religious people against Hitler”, however, he signed it with the hardly recognizable pseudonym Katsiy Adamiani (36).

A turning point in relations between the Church and the state occurred in 1943. Thus, the Izvestia newspaper reported: “On September 4, the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Comrade I.V. Stalin, held a reception, during which a conversation took place with the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad and the Exarch of Ukraine, Metropolitan Nikolai of Kyiv and Galicia. During the conversation, Metropolitan Sergius brought to the attention of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars that in the leadership circles of the Orthodox Church there is an intention to convene a Council of Bishops in the near future to elect the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' and form the Holy Synod under the Patriarch. The Head of the Government, Comrade I.V. Stalin, was sympathetic to these proposals and stated that there would be no obstacles to this from the Government. Present at the conversation was the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Comrade. V. M. Molotov" (37).

The number of clergy killed during the war cannot be counted, especially since it is difficult to separate those killed during the war from those repressed, and, by and large, until the last fifteen years no one was engaged in such research. Only occasionally in the literature about the Great Patriotic War did information about dead clergy appear, most often in one or two lines. For example: " Priest Alexander Novik with his wife and children was shot... Priest Nazarevsky and his daughter were burned... 72-year-old Archpriest Pavel Sosnovsky and an 11-year-old boy were killed... After painful torture, 47-year-old priest Fr. Pavel Shcherba"(38).

Moreover, the Khrushchev-Brezhnev government and its propagandists often turned out to be ungrateful to those who fought for the Motherland and laid down their lives for it, if they were clergy. One of the evidence of this is the monument to those burned in the village of Khvorostovo (Polesie), where among all the victims named there is not only one name - the priest John Loiko. Testimonies about warrior priests and partisan priests were purposefully removed from military documentary literature. For example, in I. Shubitidze’s book “The Polesie Were,” published in Minsk in 1969, the names of clergy were mentioned, but in the 1974 edition they were not. In extensive works on the history of the Great Patriotic War, the Church’s contribution to the victory was purposefully hushed up, and sometimes clearly slanderous books were written like “The Union of the Sword and the Cross” (1969). Only recently have publications begun to appear that truthfully and objectively highlight the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the war, especially the works of M.V. Shkarovsky.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the Great Patriotic War is not over for us, it continues with huge losses today, only so far without bombing and artillery shelling. Let me clarify my words. At a meeting at headquarters a few days before the start of the war, on June 16, 1941, Hitler said: “ We must consciously pursue a policy to reduce the population. By means of propaganda, especially through the press, radio, cinema, leaflets, reports, constantly instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have many children. It is necessary to show how much money it costs to raise children and what could be purchased with these funds. The widest possible propaganda of contraceptives must be launched. It is necessary to promote in every possible way the expansion of the network of abortion clinics... Do not provide any support to kindergartens and other similar institutions... No assistance to large families... Throughout Russian territory, in every possible way to promote the development and promotion of the use of alcoholic beverages in a wide range and at any time... This mass of racially inferior, stupid people needs alcoholism and guidance" (39).

If we look at what is happening around us, we will be surprised to see that absolutely everything listed here is being fulfilled to one degree or another. Six million unborn children are killed in Russia every year. Every year in Russia, 300,000 people die from alcohol poisoning alone; there are at least seven million chronic alcoholics and four million drug addicts in the country. If we - both representatives of the Church and the public - do not raise our powerful voice against this quiet murder, the invisible information war, then in twenty to thirty years Russia will be able to be taken with bare hands - there will be no one to defend it and no one to work in it. Then we will find ourselves unworthy of the memory of our fallen ancestors, including millions of believers and hundreds of clergy, and Hitler’s characterization, unfortunately, will be absolutely correct.

We must strictly tell the world the whole truth about that war; let’s not forget that 66.2% of Russians died during the Second World War. And there is no need to be afraid of the slander that has unfolded on a wide front against the great feat of our people. But in order for us to win this fight, we need will, and for it - faith in God, God's providence and the purpose of Russia - the kind of faith that the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Nicholas of Kyiv, Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad, Archbishop Luke had ( Voino-Yasenetsky), Archpriest Alexander Romanushko and hundreds of other devotees of piety. And may God help us in acquiring such faith for the salvation of Russia and the Russian people.

Victory Day on May 9, 1945 fell on the postponed (according to the church calendar, because of Easter) day of remembrance of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, the heavenly patron of the Christian army. From fascist Germany, the Act of Unconditional Surrender was signed by Admiral Dennitz and this is also significant: St. George defeated Dennitz.

Metropolitan of Petrozavodsk and Karelian Konstantin (Goryanov O. A.)
Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Chairman of the Synodal Liturgical Commission, professor

Links:
1. Pospelovsky D.V. Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century. M., 1995. P. 35.
2. Ibid. P. 183.
3. The Russian Orthodox Church and the Great Patriotic War. Collection of documents. M., 1943. P. 3-4.
4. Ibid. P. 9.
5. Ibid. P. 9.
6. Louis Pauvel, Jacques Bergier. Morning of the magicians. Per. from fr. K.: “Sofia”, 1994. P. 295.
7. Weiss I. Adolf Hitler. M., 1993. T. 2. P. 243.
8. Sergius (Larin). Orthodoxy and Hitlerism. Odessa, 1946-47. (Manuscript). P. 23.
9. Rudenko R.A. Nuremberg trials. T. 2. M., 1966. P. 130.
10. Russian Orthodox Church and the Great Patriotic War. Sat. documents. M., 1943. P.31.
11. Ibid. P. 86.
12. Message of December 9, 1942 to the Romanian pastors and flock //Russian Orthodox Church in the Great Patriotic War…. P. 81.
13. Message of November 22, 1942 to the Romanian soldiers // Russian Orthodox Church in the Great Patriotic War….S. 78.
14. Saulkin V. Cleansing test // Radonezh, 1995. N 3. P. 5.
15. Kanonenko V. Amendment to the law of conservation of energy // Science and religion, 1985, No. 5. P. 9.
16. Shkarovsky M.V. Russian Orthodox Church under Stalin and Khrushchev. M., 1999. P. 125.
17. Forgive me, stars of the Lord. Fryazino, 1999. P. 256.
18. State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), f. 6991. Op. 2, building 3. l. 45.
19. Soviet Russia, 1990, September 13. C.2.
20. Priests at the front // Science and religion, 1995. N5. C. 4-6.
21. Yakunin V.N. Special storage evidences // Science and religion. 1995. N 5. P. 15.
22. Russian Orthodox Church and the Great Patriotic War. Sat. documents. M., 1943. P.31.
23. Vasilyeva O.Yu. Russian Orthodox Church in 1927-1943. // Questions of History, 1994. P. 43.
24. Russian Center for Storage and Study of Documents of Contemporary History (RCKHIDNI), f. 17, op. 125, d. 407, l. 73.
25. Moscow Church Bulletin, 1989, N 2. P. 6.
26. Yakunin V.N. Great is the God of the Russian Land // Military Historical Journal. 1995 No. 1. P. 37.
27. Quiet Abodes // Science and Religion. 1995 N 5. P. 9.
28. History of the Russian Orthodox Church. From the restoration of the Patriarchate to the present day. Volume 1: years 1917 – 1970. Ch. ed. Danilushkin M. B. St. Petersburg, 1997. P. 877.
29. Pospelovsky D.N. Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century. M, 1995. P. 187.
30. Dashichev V.I. The bankruptcy of the strategy of German fascism. Historical essays. Documents and materials. T. 1. Preparation and deployment of fascist aggression in Europe 1933-41. M., 1973.
31. The Orthodox Church in Ukraine and Poland in the 20th century: 1917 – 1950. Sat. edited by Fotiev K., archpriest, Svitich A.M., 1997. P. 270.
32. Regelson L. Tragedy of the Russian Church. M., 1996. P. 511.
33. Raevskaya-Hughes O. About the Pskov mission // Bennigsen G., Archpriest. Not by bread alone. M., 1997. P. 232.
34. Ibid. P. 233.
35. Golikov A., priest, Fomin S. Whitened in Blood: Martyrs and Confessors of the North-West of Russia and the Baltic States (1940 - 1955). M.: Pilgrim. 1999. P. 176.
36. Shkarovsky M.V. Right there. P. 196.
37. Reception by I.V. Stalin of Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Alexy and Metropolitan Nicholas // Izvestia. 19439.5.
38. Crimes of the Nazi occupiers in Belarus in 1944. Minsk, 1965. P. 314-348.
39. “Top secret. For command only." The strategy of Nazi Germany in the war against the USSR. Documents and materials. M., 1967. P. 116.

On Sunday June 22, 1941, the day of all saints who shone in the Russian land, fascist Germany entered into war with the Russian people. On the very first day of the war, the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Sergius, wrote and typed with his own hand “Message to the shepherds and flocks of Christ’s Orthodox Church,” in which he called on the Russian people to defend the Fatherland. Unlike Stalin, who took 10 days to address the people with a speech, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne immediately found the most precise and most necessary words. In a speech at the Council of Bishops in 1943, Metropolitan Sergius, recalling the beginning of the war, said that then there was no need to think about what position our Church should take, because “before we had time to somehow determine our position, it had already been determined - the Nazis attacked our country, devastated it, took our compatriots into captivity.” On June 26, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne performed a prayer service for the victory of the Russian army in the Epiphany Cathedral.

The first months of the war were a time of defeats and defeat of the Red Army. The entire west of the country was occupied by the Germans. Kyiv was taken, Leningrad was blocked. In the fall of 1941, the front line was approaching Moscow. In this situation, Metropolitan Sergius drew up a will on October 12, in which, in the event of his death, he transferred his powers as Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne to Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad.

On October 7, the Moscow City Council ordered the evacuation of the Patriarchate to the Urals, to Chkalov (Orenburg), the Soviet government itself moved to Samara (Kuibyshev). Apparently, the state authorities did not fully trust Metropolitan Sergius, fearing a repetition of what his close assistant, Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky), Exarch of the Baltic states, did in the 30s. During the evacuation from Riga before the arrival of the Germans, he hid in the crypt of the temple and remained in the occupied territory along with his flock, taking a loyal position to the occupation authorities. At the same time, Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky) remained in canonical obedience to the Patriarchate and, as far as he could, defended the interests of Orthodoxy and the Russian communities of the Baltics before the German administration. The Patriarchate managed to obtain permission to travel not to distant Orenburg, but to Ulyanovsk, former Simbirsk. The administration of the renovationist group was also evacuated to the same city. By that time, Alexander Vvedensky had acquired the title of “Holy and Blessed First Hierarch” and pushed the elderly “Metropolitan” Vitaly to a secondary role in the Renovation Synod. They traveled on the same train with the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne. The Patriarchate was located in a small house on the outskirts of the city. Next to the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church were the Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Nikolai Kolchitsky, and the cell attendant of the Locum Tenens, Hierodeacon John (Razumov). The outskirts of a quiet provincial town became the spiritual center of Russia during the war years. Here, in Ulyanovsk, the Exarch of Ukraine who remained in Moscow, Metropolitan Nicholas of Kiev and Galicia, Archbishops Sergius (Grishin) of Mozhaisk, Andrei (Komarov) of Kuibyshevsk and other bishops came to visit the Primate of the Russian Church.

On November 30, Metropolitan Sergius consecrated a church on Vodnikov Street, in a building that had previously been used as a hostel. The main altar of the temple was dedicated to the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The first liturgy was served without a professional choir, with the singing of the people who had gathered with great joy in the church, which essentially became a patriarchal cathedral. And on the outskirts of Simbirsk, in Kulikovka, in a building that was once a temple, and then disfigured, with holy domes, was used as a warehouse, a renovationist church was built. Alexander Vvedensky, the self-appointed first hierarch, “Metropolitan” Vitaly Vvedensky, and the renovationist false archbishop of Ulyanovsk Andrei Rastorguev served there. About 10 people came to their services, some only out of curiosity, and the church on Vodnikov Street was always crowded with praying people. This tiny temple for some time became the spiritual center of Orthodox Russia.

In the First Hierarchal messages to the flock, which Metropolitan Sergius sent from Ulyanovsk to the churches of Russia, he denounced the invaders for their atrocities, for the shedding of innocent blood, for the desecration of religious and national shrines. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church called on the inhabitants of the regions captured by the enemy to courage and patience.

On the first anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, Metropolitan Sergius issued two messages - one for Muscovites, and the other for the all-Russian flock. In his Moscow message, the locum tenens expressed joy at the defeat of the Germans near Moscow. In a message to the entire Church, its head denounced the Nazis, who, for propaganda purposes, arrogated to themselves the mission of defenders of Christian Europe from the invasion of communists, and also consoled the flock with the hope of victory over the enemy.

The closest associates of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitans Alexy (Simansky) and Nikolai (Yarushevich), also addressed patriotic messages to the flock. Metropolitan Nicholas two weeks before the fascist invasion left Kyiv for Moscow. Soon after this, on July 15, 1941, he, retaining the title of Exarch of Ukraine, became Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia. But throughout the war he remained in Moscow, acting as administrator of the Moscow diocese. He often went to the front line, performing services in local churches, delivering sermons with which he consoled the suffering people, instilling hope in God's almighty help, calling on his flock to be faithful to the Fatherland.

Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad did not separate from his flock throughout the terrible days of the blockade. At the beginning of the war, there were only five functioning Orthodox churches in Leningrad. Even on weekdays, mountains of notes about health and repose were given. Due to frequent shelling and bomb explosions, the windows in the temples were broken by the blast wave, and a frosty wind blew through the temples. The temperature in the temples often dropped below zero, and the singers could barely stand on their feet from hunger. Metropolitan Alexy lived at St. Nicholas Cathedral and served there every Sunday, often without a deacon. With his sermons and messages, he supported courage and hope in people left in inhuman conditions in the blockade ring. In Leningrad churches, his messages were read, calling on believers to selflessly help soldiers with honest work in the rear.

Throughout the country, prayers for the granting of victory were held in Orthodox churches. Every day during the divine service a prayer was offered: “For the hedgehog to give unremitting, irresistible and victorious strength, strength and courage with courage to our army to crush our enemies and our adversary and all their cunning slander...”

The defeat of Hitler's troops at Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical turning point in the course of the war. However, the enemy still had powerful military potential at that time. Its defeat required enormous effort. For decisive military operations, the Red Army needed powerful armored vehicles. Tank factory workers worked tirelessly. Fundraising was underway throughout the country for the construction of new combat vehicles. By December 1942 alone, about 150 tank columns were built with these funds.

Nationwide concern for the needs of the Red Army did not bypass the Church, which sought to make its feasible contribution to the victory over the Nazi invaders. On December 30, 1942, Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius called on all believers in the country to send “to our army for the upcoming decisive battle, along with our prayers and blessings, material evidence of our participation in the common feat in the form of the construction of a column of tanks named after Dmitry Donskoy.” The entire Church responded to the call. In the Moscow Epiphany Cathedral, the clergy and laity collected more than 400 thousand rubles. The entire church of Moscow collected over 2 million rubles; in besieged Leningrad, Orthodox Christians collected one million rubles for the needs of the army. In Kuibyshev, old people and women donated 650 thousand rubles. In Tobolsk, one of the donors brought 12 thousand rubles and wished to remain anonymous. A resident of the village of Cheborkul, Chelyabinsk region, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vodolaev wrote to the Patriarchate: “I am elderly, childless, with all my soul I join the call of Metropolitan Sergius and contribute 1000 rubles from my labor savings, with a prayer for the speedy expulsion of the enemy from the sacred borders of our land.” The supernumerary priest of the Kalinin diocese, Mikhail Mikhailovich Kolokolov, donated a priestly cross, 4 silver vestments from icons, a silver spoon and all his bonds to the tank column. Unknown pilgrims brought a package to one Leningrad church and placed it near the icon of St. Nicholas. The package contained 150 gold ten-ruble coins of royal minting. Large training camps were held in Vologda, Kazan, Saratov, Perm, Ufa, Kaluga and other cities. There was not a single parish, even a rural one, on land free from fascist invaders that did not make its contribution to the national cause. In total, more than 8 million rubles and a large number of gold and silver items were collected for the tank column.

Workers from the Chelyabinsk tank plant took the baton from the believers. The workers worked day and night at their places. In a short time, 40 T-34 tanks were built. They formed a church-wide tank column. Its transfer to Red Army units took place near the village of Gorelki, five kilometers northwest of Tula. The 38th and 516th separate tank regiments received formidable equipment. By that time, both had already gone through a difficult battle path.

Considering the high significance of the patriotic contribution of the clergy and ordinary believers, on the day of the transfer of the column, March 7, 1944, a solemn meeting was held. The main organizer and inspirer of the creation of the tank column, Patriarch Sergius, due to serious illness, was unable to personally be present at the transfer of tanks to units of the Red Army. With his blessing, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) spoke to the personnel of the regiments. Having reported on the patriotic activities of the Church and its unbreakable unity with the people, Metropolitan Nicholas gave parting instructions to the defenders of the Motherland.

At the end of the meeting, Metropolitan Nikolai, in memory of the significant event, presented the tankers with gifts from the Russian Orthodox Church: the officers received engraved watches, and the rest of the crew members received folding knives with many accessories.

This event was celebrated in Moscow. Chairman of the Affairs Council

G. G. Karpov gave a special reception to the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on March 30, 1944. It was attended by: from the Military Council of Armored and Mechanized Troops of the Red Army - Lieutenant General N.I. Biryukov and Colonel N.A. Kolosov, from the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Sergius and Metropolitans Alexy and Nikolai. Lieutenant General N.I. Biryukov conveyed to Patriarch Sergius the gratitude of the Soviet command and an album of photographs capturing the solemn moment of the transfer of the tank column to the wars of the Red Army.

For their courage and heroism, 49 tankmen of the Dimitri Donskoy column from the 38th regiment were awarded orders and medals of the USSR. Another, the 516th Lodz Separate Flamethrower Tank Regiment, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 5, 1945.

The tankers summed up the results of their battle in Berlin. By May 9, 1945, they had destroyed: over 3,820 enemy soldiers and officers, 48 ​​tanks and self-propelled guns, 130 various guns, 400 machine gun emplacements, 47 bunkers, 37 mortars; about 2,526 soldiers and officers captured; captured 32 military warehouses and much more.

The moral impact of the tank column on our army was even greater. After all, she bore the blessing of the Orthodox Church and her incessant prayer for the success of Russian weapons. The church column gave the believers the comforting knowledge that Orthodox Christians did not stand aside and that, according to their strengths and capabilities, each of them participated in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

In total, more than 200 million rubles were collected from parishes during the war for the needs of the front. In addition to money, believers also collected warm clothes for the soldiers: felt boots, mittens, padded jackets.

During the war years, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens addressed believers with patriotic messages 24 times, responding to all the main events in the military life of the country. The patriotic position of the Church was of particular importance for Orthodox Christians of the USSR, millions of whom participated in combat operations at the front and in partisan detachments, and worked in the rear. The difficult trials and hardships of the war became one of the reasons for the significant increase in people's religious feelings. Representatives of different segments of the population sought and found support and consolation in the Church. In his messages and sermons, Metropolitan Sergius not only consoled believers in sorrow, but also encouraged them to selflessly work in the rear and courageously participate in military operations. He condemned desertion, surrender, and collaboration with the occupiers. Maintained faith in the final victory over the enemy.

The patriotic activity of the Russian Orthodox Church, manifested from the first day of the war in moral and material assistance to the front, quickly won recognition and respect both among believers and atheists. Soldiers and commanders of the active army, home front workers, public and religious figures and citizens of allied and friendly states wrote about this to the USSR Government. A number of telegrams from representatives of the Orthodox clergy with messages about the transfer of funds for defense needs appear on the pages of the central newspapers Pravda and Izvestia. Anti-religious attacks in periodicals cease completely. Stops

its existence as the “Union of Militant Atheists” without official dissolution. Some anti-religious museums are closing. Temples are starting to open without legal registration. On Easter 1942, by order of the commandant of Moscow, unhindered movement around the city was allowed for the entire Easter night. In the spring of 1943, the Government opened access to the Iveron Mother of God icon, which was transported from the closed Donskoy Monastery for worship at the Resurrection Church in Sokolniki. In March 1942, the first Council of Bishops during the war years met in Ulyanovsk, which examined the situation in the Russian Orthodox Church and condemned the pro-fascist actions of Bishop Polycarp (Sikorsky). More and more often in Stalin's speeches one hears a call to follow the behests of the great ancestors. According to his instructions, one of the most revered Russian saints, Alexander Nevsky, along with other commanders of the past, is again declared a national hero. On July 29, 1942, the Military Order of Alexander Nevsky was established in the USSR - the direct successor to the order of the same saint, created by Peter the Great. For the first time in the entire history of the existence of the Soviet state, the hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church takes part in the work of one of the state commissions - on November 2, 1942, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Nikolai (Yarushevich), administrator of the Moscow diocese, becomes, according to the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, one of the ten members Extraordinary State Commission to establish and investigate the atrocities of the Nazi invaders.

In the first years of the war, with the permission of the authorities, several bishops' sees were replaced. During these years, episcopal consecrations were also carried out, mainly of widowed archpriests of advanced years, who managed to receive spiritual education in the pre-revolutionary era.

But 1943 was preparing even greater changes for the Russian Orthodox Church.