Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War. Priest Alexander Kolesov Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War

Seryugina Alexandra

Victory in the Great Patriotic War was not easy: huge losses, devastation and the nightmare of concentration camps went down in the history of the Fatherland forever. The most important role in the outcome of the war was played by the heroism of the people, their dedication and fighting spirit. This heroism was inspired not only by patriotism and the thirst for revenge, but also by faith. They believed in Stalin, in Zhukov, and they also believed in God. More and more often we hear from the media about the contribution of the Russian Orthodox Church to the victory. This topic has been poorly studied, since for a long time in our country little attention was paid to the church, many religious traditions were simply forgotten, since the official policy of the state was atheism. Therefore, materials about the activities of the church during the war years were accessible to few people and were kept in archives. Now we have the opportunity to obtain reliable information and give an objective assessment of the role of the Orthodox Church in the Great Patriotic War. Was there really a significant contribution? Or maybe it's just a myth?

Download:

Preview:

Research

The Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War

Seryugina Alexandra,

8th grade student

GBOU Secondary School No. 1 "OTs"

railway Shentala station

Scientific adviser:

Kasimova Galina Leonidovna,

history and social studies teacher

GBOU Secondary School No. 1 "OTs"

railway Shentala station

Introduction.	C 3
Chapter 1. Church and power.	C 5
The position of the Church before the war. 1.2. Church and government during the war
Chapter 2. Church and people.	From 11
2.1. Patriotic activity of the Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War. 2.2. Faith in God at the rear and at the front.
Conclusion.	From 16
Sources	From 18
Application.	From 19

Introduction.

Currently, many scientists and ordinary people note a decrease in humanity in society (crime is growing, people’s indifference to each other). For a long time, Orthodoxy in Russia personified humanistic principles. The Church has not lost its role in our time. Therefore, the topic of the work is relevant, the history of the Church is the history of spiritual culture, and if we want to live in a humanistic society, this history must not be forgotten.

Target: determine the patriotic role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Great Patriotic War, in raising the morale of the people.

Tasks:

1) To monitor the relationship of the Russian Orthodox Church with the authorities in the pre-war period and during the Great Patriotic War, to determine the main trends and changes in these relationships.

2) Identify the main directions of patriotic activity of the Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War.

3) Find out and analyze evidence about the population’s attitude towards Orthodoxy in the time period under study.

Hypothesis:

I assume that during the Great Patriotic War there was a change in the attitude of the authorities towards the church. The Church was active in patriotic activities, and faith in God morally supported people in the rear and at the front.

Chronological framework:

The main attention in the work is paid to the period of the Great Patriotic War in Russia - 1941-1945. The pre-war period from 1917 is also considered, since without this it is impossible to reveal some aspects of the work.

Research methods:analysis, systematization, description, interviewing.

Review of sources

Material on aspects of Orthodoxy during the Great Patriotic War is dispersed in various publications. We can say that the topic of the work is new and little researched.

The documentary film “For Our Friends” is dedicated to the Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War, as well as the feature film “Pop”...

The work used data from collections of materials from scientific conferences “Church and State: Past and Present”, “Samara Region: History in Documents”. Information was used from the manual for theological seminaries “History of the Russian Orthodox Church”, etc. Part of the material used in the work is contained in scientific journals. In the article by T.A. Chumachenko “The Soviet State and the Russian Orthodox Church in 1941-1961.” from the scientific and theoretical journal “Religious Studies” (No. 1, 2002) the magazine of Russian writers “Our Contemporary” (No. 5, 2002) published an article by Gennady Gusev “The Russian Orthodox Church and the Great Patriotic War”, in which the author cites historical documents of 1941 -1946: messages from the church lover Sergius to the people, Stalin’s telegram to Sergius. The work also contains information from the Internet. These are excerpts from the books of M. Zhukova and Archpriest V. Shvets about the role of Orthodoxy on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War and among the rear. In the article “Was there a godless five-year plan?” posted on the websitewww.religion.ng.ruand in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, historian S. Firsov writes that, despite the oppression of the Church under the communist government before the war, the population believed in God.

Many works of fiction have been written about the war. The work uses the memories of participants in the Great Patriotic War from the book by S. Aleksievich “War does not have a woman’s face.” Other works of art by such authors as Mikhail Sholokhov (“The Fate of a Man”), Vasil Bykov (“Obelisk,” “Alpine Ballad”), and Viktor Astafiev (“Cursed and Killed”) also help to comprehend the magnitude of the human tragedy of the Great Patriotic War. .

Chapter 1. Church and power

1.1. Position of the Church before the war

Russia adopted Orthodoxy as the state religion in 988. At that time, this was necessary to maintain statehood. A common faith helps unite people. Now Russia is a country with more than a thousand years of Orthodox history. Orthodoxy has always brought peace of mind and a sense of protection from above into the difficult life of the Russian peasant. The church was involved in charity work, and children were given primary education in parochial schools. These were the main activities of the local Orthodox churches, but in addition to this, clergy and bishops were involved in many other affairs of the dioceses. They often stood up for the offended, one way or another, gave their assessment of political transformations, that is, they took an active position in the life of the state. Ho

With the advent of the new government in 1917, the position of the Church in Russia sharply worsened. With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, difficult times came for the Church. In the conditions of the post-revolutionary period, the new government did not want to allow Orthodoxy to exist on a par with the unified communist ideology of Marxism. Religion was declared a relic of tsarism.

At first, the Bolsheviks did not have a clear program for the destruction of the Orthodox Church. But since 1922 they had this program, and soon the implementation of anti-religious decrees began. In 1922, a Commission for the Separation of Church and State (Anti-Religious Commission in 1928-1929) appeared under the Central Committee of the RCP (b).

An atheistic union was created with the printed publication “Atheist” ( Appendix No. 1)

In 1922, a Decree was issued on the confiscation of church valuables. ( Appendix No. 2) Officially, this was due to the famine of 1921; unofficially, the authorities perceived the confiscation of church values as a way to weaken the influence of the Church in Russia.

In March 1930, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks issued a resolution “On the fight against distortions of the party line in the collective farm movement.”( Appendix No. 3 ) In it, the Central Committee demanded “a decisive end to the practice of closing churches administratively.” But the process did not stop, but, on the contrary, only accelerated.

Priests continued to be exiled and shot. The repressions of the 30s affected most of the churchmen. Thus, among the hierarchs, 32 people were arrested in 1931-1934, and in 1935-1937. - 84. As a rule, they were charged with “counter-revolutionary and espionage activities.”

The policy of militant atheism did not bring the expected results. This is evidenced by the 1937 population census. On the personal instructions of Stalin, a question about religious beliefs was included in the census questionnaires. The results, corrected by the authorities, are as follows: of the 30 million illiterate people over 16 years of age, 84% recognized themselves as believers, and of the 68.5 million literate people - 45%. (3) This was less than during the heyday of Orthodoxy. But these results clearly did not live up to the expectations of the atheists. .( Appendix No. 4)

The position of the church in our region.

In our area, before the revolution, in the period from 1850-1910, churches were built from good brick in the villages of Old Shentala, Kondurcha Fortress, Tuarma, New Kuvak. In other settlements there were prayer houses of wooden construction.

Churches and houses of worship in large settlements in our area were built in the period 1850-1910. Solid brick temples of God adorned the territories of the villages of Old Shentala, Kondurcha Fortress, Tuarma, New Kuvak. In other settlements there were prayer houses of wooden construction.

As a rule, the walls inside the church were painted with paintings of the Old and New Testaments. The Gospel was valuable. The vestments of the priests were rich. At that time, government agencies were loyal to the church and believers.

After the revolution, attitudes towards the church changed. On the ground, village activists rushed things I. This happened in the village of Bagan, in the village of Rodina, where in 1928, at a meeting of citizens, they were the first in the area to decide to transfer the church building to a cultural and educational institution.

When this issue was decided, the following were present at the meeting: 623 men, 231 women, out of a total of 1309 voters enjoying the right to vote.

And surprisingly, the clergyman Rozhdestvensky himself said in his report that he really intoxicated the population in order to profit and get money for subsistence from these false sermons. Most likely, pressure was put on him.

At that meeting it was decided: “Having heard Rozhdestvensky’s report “Religion and the Church,” we, citizens of the village of Bagan and the village of Rodina, were convinced that religion and the church are opium for the people, and therefore we unanimously renounce the church and transfer it with all its property under cultural property. - educational institution...

Chairman of the Vodovatov meeting; members Skvortsov Vasily Kosmin Fedor, Pogyakin Taras, Mokshanov Naum; Secretary of AoGolube"(State Archives of the Kuibyshev Region f. 1239, op.Z, d. 7, sheet 83-C.

The question of religion in the country is becoming more acute. On May 28, 1933, the 6th Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks recognized the need to remove bells from existing and inactive churches to provide bronze for industrial enterprises.

After such a decision, some of the churches in our area were demolished, the materials were used for the construction of schools and club institutions.

The destruction of churches did not proceed at the same pace as the atheists wanted. On October 21, 1933, the second document of the party commission of the Kuibyshev region appeared, where among the shortcomings in the work of the party bodies the following was noted: of the remaining 2234 churches and prayer buildings existing in the region, 1173 were closed, of which only 501 buildings were converted into cultural | educational institutions.

Then came the second stage of the destruction of God's temples. In the village of Tuarma, a church was completely destroyed. Whole bricks were used for the construction of a livestock farm; the remaining fragments of bricks were transported on carts to lay the Tuarma-Balandaevo road.

The foundation of a hospital under construction in the regional center was built from the bricks of the Staroshentalinskaya church. A similar fate befell the Saleika Church, which was erected in 1912. As old-timers say, there were 4 bells in the church, one of them weighed 26 pounds, and the others were much less. And so, on orders from above, in 1937, the bells were removed by I.P. Pomoschnikov and V.S. Sidorov. The people were completely outraged by the event.

They began to dismantle the church in the village of Novy Kuvak. But, apart from removing the domes and bells, the destroyers did not go any further, since the temple was built from excellent folding material, and the cement was mixed with egg solution and whey. For many years this church served as a cultural institution.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there was not a single functioning church left in the area.

1.2. Church and Power during the Great Patriotic War

« Brothers and sisters! I am addressing you, my friends."

Stalin began his famous address on July 3, 1941 with the words “brothers and sisters.” This is how Orthodox priests addressed parishioners. With these words, Stalin supports the unity of Russians in the fight against the invaders.( Appendix No. 5)

The years of the Great Patriotic War became a turning point in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, when, after many years of persecution that brought the church to the brink of destruction, its position radically changed, and a long process of revival began, which continues to this day.

With the outbreak of war with Germany, the position of the church in Soviet society changed. The danger looming over our country, the need for national unity to defeat the enemy, and the patriotic position of the Russian Orthodox Church prompted the Soviet government to change religious policy. Parishes that had been closed in the 1930s began to reopen; many of the surviving clergy were released from the camps and were able to resume serving in churches. At the same time, there is a gradual replacement and restoration of archiepiscopal sees that had previously ceased to exist. Bishops who returned from camps, exile, and forced “retirement” were appointed to them. The people openly flocked to the church. The authorities highly valued her patriotic activities in collecting money and things for the needs of the front. The church was given the printing house of the Union of Militant Atheists. In 1942, it published a large book entitled “The Truth about Religion in Russia.”

September 12, 1941 Archbishop Andrei (Komarov) ( Appendix No. 6 ) was appointed ruling bishop of the Kuibyshev diocese. In October 1941, Bishop Alexy (Palitsyn)(Appendix No. 7) appointed Archbishop of Volokolamsk.

Fearing the possible success of the German offensive on Moscow, the government in early October 1941 decided to evacuate the leaders of church centers to Chkalov (Orenburg). This was done with the sole purpose of preventing the possibility of the church hierarchs being captured by German troops in the event of the fall of the capital and their further use by the Germans. Metropolitan Sergius in writing instructed Archbishop Alexy of Volokolamsk to be his representative in Moscow. He was given instructions in the event of occupation to behave with the Germans as with foreigners, having only business relationships. However, due to the illness of Metropolitan Sergius(Appendix No. 8), the authorities decided to place the evacuated hierarchs not in distant Orenburg, but in closer Ulyanovsk. Correspondence from other dioceses arrived there, bishops came with reports.

In the first two years of the war, with the permission of the authorities, several bishops' sees were again replaced; Archbishops John (Sokolov), Alexy (Sergeev), Alexy (Palitsyn), Sergius (Grishin), Bishops Luka (Voino-Yasenetsky), John ( Bratolyubov), Alexander (Tolstopyatov). In 1941-1943, episcopal consecrations were also carried out, mainly of widowed elderly archpriests who took monastic vows a few days before and managed to receive spiritual education in the pre-revolutionary era: Pitirim (Sviridov), Grigory Chukov, Bartholomew (Gorodtsev), Dmitry (Gradusov), Eleutheria (Vorontsova). Permission to replace dowager sees and to make new episcopal consecrations was a step towards the church on the part of the Soviet authorities, designed to demonstrate a favorable attitude towards it.

Very important for the church was the opportunity that arose then to open new parishes and resume services in abandoned, neglected churches. Metropolitan Sergius instructed Archpriest Alexy Smirnov to open parishes in villages neighboring Ulyanovsk. At the direction of the locum tenens, he accepted the keys to the temple in the village of Plodomasovo and began to perform priestly duties. In March and September 1942, bishops' councils of the Russian Orthodox Church were held in Ulyanovsk. They were organized in an extremely short time with the help of the authorities.

In the spring of 1942, in respect of the requests of believers, night travel around Moscow on Easter was allowed. And on September 4, 1943, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin received three metropolitans and kindly discussed with them the situation of the church, proposing effective measures aimed at its revival. The famous Ofrosimov mansion in Chisty Lane, where the German embassy had previously been located, was placed at their disposal. It was allowed to convene a Council of Bishops to elect a patriarch and form the Holy Synod under him.

The Council of Bishops took place 4 days after the meeting in the Kremlin - on September 8, 1943, in which 19 bishops participated. Metropolitan Alexy made a proposal to elect Metropolitan Sergius as patriarch, which met with the unanimous approval of the bishops.(Appendix No. 9) From a religious and civil standpoint, the Council condemned the traitors to the Motherland who collaborated with the fascists: “Anyone guilty of treason against the general church cause and who has gone over to the side of fascism, as an opponent of the cross of the Lord, shall be considered excommunicated, and a bishop or cleric defrocked.”

On December 15, 1943, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin received a letter from the hierarchs of the Orthodox Church:

“To the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Marshal of the Soviet Union Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin

Enclosing an appeal to the pastors and believers of the liberated Donbass, as well as a welcoming address from the congress of district deans in the Stalin (now Donetsk region) region, we notify the head of the Soviet state that we have opened bank accounts to accept donations from churches for the construction of a tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy, as well as to Red Cross hospitals. In a short period of time, more than one hundred thousand rubles have already been deposited. Except Togo, Churches everywhere take constant patronage of hospitals, systematically put in their efforts to collect food, things, linen, wash linen, and the like.

We assure you as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Marshal of the Soviet Union, that our assistance will increase every day and the patriotic impulse of the many thousands of believers in Donbass will strengthen the general confidence that by the force of arms of our invincible, world-famous Red Army under your brilliant command and with God's help, the enemy ours will be completely defeated.”

By the end of the war, there were 10,547 Orthodox churches and 75 monasteries operating in the USSR, while before the start of World War II there were only about 380 churches and not one active monastery. Open churches have become new centers of Russian national identity

Vivoly:

So, the communist government fought against Orthodoxy as a relic of tsarism and an ideology incompatible with Marxism. Even before the war, after the population census, the authorities began to think about the need to change the tactics of religious activity. According to the 1937 census, the majority of respondents remained Orthodox. The policy of militant atheism did not bring the expected results. With the outbreak of the war, radical changes occurred in the position of the Church in Russia. The authorities began to encourage her activities. The single Orthodox religion contributed to the unification of the Orthodox people in the fight against Hitler. In addition, the government needed to show potential allied countries that Russia respected the principles of democracy, such as freedom of religion. However, on the one hand, easing the pressure on the Church, the authorities, already during the war, sought to strengthen atheistic work through educational activities. This suggests that with the end of the war, the authorities were not ready to continue the initiated policy of loyalty to religion. In the post-war period, the desire of the authorities to prevent insults to the Church, which was strengthened during the war, remained. But militant atheism was replaced by a new policy of scientific and educational form of struggle against Orthodoxy.

Chapter 2. Church and people

2 .1. Patriotic activity of the Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War

Already on June 22, 1941, the head of the Orthodox Church in Russia, Sergius, addressed the pastors and believers with a message, typed in his own hand and sent to all parishes. In this message, he expresses confidence that “with God’s help, this time too they (the Russian people - author’s note) will scatter the fascist enemy force into dust.” The Metropolitan recalls the names of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy and epic heroes. He recalls “countless thousands of our Orthodox soldiers” who sacrificed their lives for the sake of faith and homeland. Sergius calls on everyone in the “difficult hour of trial” to help the Fatherland in whatever way he can.

The messages of the clergy to the people, as well as the appeals of the secular authorities (Molotov, Stalin), contain the idea that “our cause is just”, the war of the Russians with the fascists is a holy war of the people with a single Motherland, a single faith against pagan Satanists. The Nazis declared their campaign on Russian soil to be a “crusade,” but the Russian Orthodox Church denied this.

During the war years there were many messages similar to this, designed to boost morale. But already in this, the very first, the Russian Orthodox Church outlined its position during the war. The Church is inseparable from the state and, along with others, it must work for the benefit of common victory. "

The results of the Church’s patriotic activities were also materially tangible. Although considerable funds were required to restore churches after their massive destruction, the Church considered it wrong during the war and in the period of post-war devastation to care about its own well-being rather than the people’s.

Bishop Bartholomew, Archbishop of Novosibirsk and Barnaul, called on people to donate to the needs of the army, performing services in churches in Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, Tyumen, Omsk, Tobolsk, Biysk and other cities. The fees were used to purchase warm clothes for soldiers, maintain hospitals and orphanages, restore areas damaged during the German occupation and help disabled war veterans.

In the very first years of the war, more than three million rubles were collected in Moscow churches for the needs of the front and defense. The churches of Leningrad collected 5.5 million rubles. The church communities of Nizhny Novgorod collected more than four million rubles for the defense fund in 1941-1942. During the first half of 1944, the Novosibirsk diocese collected about two million rubles for wartime needs. With funds raised by the Church, an air squadron named after Alexander Nevsky and a tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy were created.

Many clergy themselves directly took part in the hostilities and made a great contribution to the cause of Victory.

Priest Fyodor Puzanov ( Appendix No. 10), a participant in two world wars, awarded three St. George Crosses, the St. George Medal of the 2nd degree and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War” of the 2nd degree. He took holy orders in 1926. In 1929 he was sent to prison, then served in a rural church. During the war, he collected 500,000 rubles in the villages of Zapolye and Borodich and transferred them through the partisans to Leningrad to create a tank column of the Red Army, and helped the partisans.

Archimandrite Alypiy (in the worldIvan Mikhailovich Voronov)(Appendix No. 11) was on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since 1942. He went through the combat route from Moscow to Berlin as part of the Fourth Tank Army. Participated in many operations on the Central, Western, Bryansk, and 1st Ukrainian fronts. Order of the Red Star, medal for courage, several medals for military merit.

Archimandrite Nifont (in the world Nikolai Glazov) ( Appendix No. 12) received a pedagogical education and taught at school. In 1939 he was called to serve in Transbaikalia. When the Great Patriotic War began, Nikolai Glazov initially continued to serve in Transbaikalia, and then was sent to study at one of the military schools.

After graduating from college, anti-aircraft artilleryman Lieutenant Glazov began fighting on the Kursk Bulge. Soon he was appointed commander of an anti-aircraft battery. Senior Lieutenant Glazov had to fight his last battle in Hungary near Lake Balaton in March 1945. Nikolai Dmitrievich was wounded. At the end of 1945, a very young senior lieutenant returned to Kemerovo, on whose jacket were the Orders of the Patriotic War, the Red Star, medals: “For Courage”, “For the Capture of Budapest”, “For Victory over Germany”. He became a psalm-reader in the Church of the Sign of the Sign in Kemerovo.

(Appendix No. 13) She went to the front from her third year at the Moscow Aviation Institute and was sent to reconnaissance. She took part in the defense of Moscow and carried a wounded man out from under fire. She was sent to the headquarters of K. Rokossovsky. She took part in the battles at Kursk and Stalingrad. In Stalingrad she negotiated with the Nazis, calling on them to surrender. I reached Berlin.

2.2. Faith in God at the rear and at the front

Orthodoxy, like any other religion, exists for people. What was the attitude of the population towards Orthodoxy in Russia and the Soviet Union during the war?

Faith in God in the rear and at the front took slightly different forms. Old men, women and children remained in the rear. They worried about their loved ones who were at the front, but they could not protect them from death. All that remained was to pray, to ask God to protect and protect. Who can make the war end? Stalin? Hitler? For people, God turned out to be closer than Stalin or Hitler. . Prayers helped to find at least minimal peace of mind, and this turned out to be very expensive in turbulent wartime.

Of course, there were those who remained convinced atheists during the war. But most of the rear people believed in God as the last hope for justice, a protector from above.

During the war years, there was a legend among the people that during the attack on Moscow, an icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God was placed on the plane, the plane flew around Moscow and consecrated the borders. Let us remember the history of Ancient Rus', when an icon was often taken to the battlefield so that the Lord would protect the country. Even if it was unreliable information, people believed it, which means they expected something similar from the authorities.

At the front, soldiers often made the sign of the cross before a battle - they asked the Almighty to protect them. The majority perceived Orthodoxy as a national religion.

The famous Marshal Zhukov, together with the soldiers, said before the battle: “Well, with God!” The people maintain a legend that Zhukov carried the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God along the front lines. Not long ago, Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) confirmed this. In Kyiv there is the miraculous Gerbovetsky Icon of the Mother of God, which Marshal Zhukov recaptured from the Nazis.

In the book “Russia before the Second Coming,” Archpriest Vasily Shvets cites the memories of one of the soldiers who participated in the assault on Konigsberg. When the strength of the Soviet soldiers was already running out, the front commander, officers and priests arrived with an icon. They served a prayer service and went with the icon to the front line. The soldiers were skeptical about this. But the priests walked along the front line, under fire, and the bullets did not hit them. Suddenly the shooting from the German side stopped. The command was given to storm the fortress. Most likely, the events during the oral transmission were embellished, but from the fact that such stories were widespread among the people, we can conclude: people believed.

Conclusions:. The Orthodox Church united with the secular authorities in the fight against the fascists. The war was declared holy, liberating, and the Church blessed this war. In addition to material assistance, the Church morally supported people at the front and in the rear. At the front they believed in the miraculous power of icons and the sign of the cross. Prayers acted as peace of mind. In their prayers, the rear workers asked God to protect their relatives from death.

Conclusion

So, summarizing the material of the work, we can draw the following conclusions. In the history of the Russian Orthodox Church there was a period of communist oppression. After the revolution, churches were closed, anti-religious decrees were issued, organizations for anti-religious work were formed, and many clergy were repressed. The most plausible explanation for this is that the authorities did not allow the existence of any other ideology other than Marxism in communist Russia. Traditionally in Russia they believed in God. Widespread anti-religious activities did not bring the expected results. Clandestine religious work was carried out; according to the 1937 census, the majority of Soviet citizens identified themselves as Orthodox. With the outbreak of the war, the Church acquired a new status. She united with the authorities and began active patriotic activities. Temples were reopened, the authorities began to show their positive attitude towards Orthodoxy. At that time, unity was necessary, the unification of the population in a sacred struggle. Orthodoxy is the traditional universal religion of the Russian people. During the war, assistance to the Orthodox Church consisted of two directions - spiritual and material. Considerable sums were collected for the needs of the front. Orthodoxy helped people find relative peace of mind and hope for the victory of Russia and the Soviet Union. In the rear, many prayed for the front-line soldiers. At the front they often believed in the divine power of icons and crosses (attributes of religion). Answering the question about the topic of the work, we can say, arguing with numerous facts, that the Orthodox Church made a significant contribution to the fight against the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. The position of the Orthodox Church in Soviet Russia strengthened for a time. But the government followed, first of all, its own interests, and this strengthening was only temporary. Ordinary people often believed in God and relied on him as support from above.

Used sources:

Internet resources

Literature:

1. Alexievich S. War does not have a woman’s face. - M., 2004. - pp. 47, 51, 252, 270.

2. Gusev G. Russian Orthodox Church and the Great Patriotic War //

Our contemporary. - 2000. - No. 5. - pp. 212-226.

3. . Tsypin V. History of the Russian Orthodox Church: a textbook for

Orthodox theological seminaries. - Moscow: Chronicle, 1994. - pp. 109-117.

4. Chumachenko T.A. The Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church in

1941-1961 // Religious Studies. - 2002. - No. 1. - pp. 14-37.

5. Yakunin V. Changes in state-church relations over the years

Great Patriotic War // Power. - 2002. - No. 12. - p.67-74

6. Timashev V.F. How it was. - Book LLC, Samara, 2001. – page 102-

105.

Applications

Appendix No. 12

Archimandrite Nifont (in the world Nikolai Glazov)

(1918-2004)

Appendix No. 13

(1921-2012)

Appendix No. 1

Appendix No. 2

№ 23-41

Resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) “on the assistant to Comrade Trotsky for the confiscation of valuables.” From the minutes of the Politburo meeting No. 5, paragraph 8
dated May 4, 1922

TOP SECRET

8. - About Comrade Trotsky’s assistant in confiscating valuables.

Instruct the Organizing Bureau to find two assistants to Comrade Trotsky within 3 days to work on confiscating valuables.

SECRETARY OF THE Central Committee

L. 61. Typewritten copy of a later extract on the letterhead of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - RCP (Bolsheviks) of the 1930s. Below are handwritten notes referring to the resolution of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), protocol No. 14, paragraph 2 of May 5, 1922 and to the resolution of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), protocol No. 15, paragraph 4 of May 8, 1922. (see note to No. 23-41).

APRF, f. 3, op. 1, d. 274, l. 7. Draft minutes of the Politburo meeting. Handwritten original on a sheet of lined paper. At the bottom left is a note about the mailing list: “Orgburo. Trotsky." For a list of those present, see No. 23-40.

№ 23-42

Resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) on the progress of the campaign to confiscate church valuables. From the minutes of the Politburo meeting No. 5, paragraph 15
dated May 4, 1922

TOP SECRET

15. - About the campaign to confiscate church valuables. (Comrade Trotsky).

Having heard a report on the progress of the campaign to confiscate valuables, the Politburo notes the extreme slowness and sluggishness of its implementation and brings this to the attention of all its participants.

SECRETARY OF THE Central Committee

L. 62. Typewritten copy of a later extract on the letterhead of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - RCP (Bolsheviks) of the 1930s.

APRF, f. 3, op. 1, d. 274, l. 14. Draft minutes of the Politburo meeting. Handwritten original on a sheet of lined paper. At the bottom left is a record of the mailing: “Members of the commission: Comrade Trotsky, Sapronov, Yakovlev, Unshlikht, Beloborodov, Kalinin.” For a list of those present, see No. 23-40.

Appendix No. 3

№ 118

Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the fight against distortions of the party line in the collective farm movement 1 *

All national Central Committees, regional and regional committees, secretaries of district committees with the obligation to make a copy of this directive and send it to the secretaries of district committees.

Stating that in a short period of time the party has achieved the greatest successes in the matter of collectivization (over 50% of farms have already been collectivized, the five-year plan has already been more than doubled), the Central Committee considers the most important task of the party to consolidate the achieved successes, strengthen the positions gained for the further successful development and strengthening of collectivization . This task can only be accomplished through a decisive, merciless struggle against the distortions of party policy in the collective farm movement. K obliges party organizations, under the personal responsibility of the secretaries of district, district and regional committees:

1. Focus all attention on the economic improvement of collective farms, on the organization of field work, on strengthening political work, especially where elements of forced collectivization were allowed, and ensure, through appropriate economic and party-political measures, the consolidation of the achieved successes of collectivization and the organizational and economic development of the agricultural sector. x artels.

2. Correct the mistakes made in practice and eliminate contradictions with the charter of the artel in the area of socialization of poultry, cows, small livestock, household land, etc. etc., that is, return all this to the collective farmers for individual use, if the collective farmers themselves demand this.

3. When carrying out contracting of agricultural products, prevent the closure of markets, restore bazaars, and do not restrict peasants and in particular collective farmers from selling their products on the market.

4. Immediately stop forced collectivization in any form. Resolutely fight against the use of any kind of repression against peasants who do not yet go to the collective farm. At the same time, carry out further hard work to involve the peasantry in collective farms on the basis of voluntariness.

5. In accordance with the previous directives of the Central Committee, ensure the actual participation in the governing bodies of collective farms of both poor and middle peasants who are capable of organizing agricultural production, encouraging their activity and initiative in every possible way.

6. Immediately check the lists of dispossessed people and correct the mistakes made in relation to the middle peasants, former Red partisans and family members of the Red Army and Red Navy (private and command), returning the confiscated property to them.

7. In view of the facts noted in a number of areas that kulaks were sent out without clothing and food, take all necessary measures to correct these mistakes, and the OGPU propose not to accept kulaks for deportation from those areas where such phenomena will be allowed.

8. Immediately check the lists of those deprived of voting rights and correct mistakes regarding middle peasants, teachers and other workers. To propose to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR to issue a special resolution on the restoration of the rights of those illegally deprived and on strict compliance with the established procedure for deprivation of voting rights and control over this by higher Soviet bodies 107 .

9. Decisively stop the practice of closing churches administratively, fictitiously covered up by the public and voluntary desire of the population. Allow the closure of churches only if the overwhelming majority of peasants truly desire it, and not otherwise than after the approval of the relevant decisions of the meetings by the regional executive committees. For mocking antics against the religious feelings of peasants, bring the perpetrators to the strictest responsibility.

10. Strictly guided by the rule about preventing kulaks and other persons deprived of voting rights from entering collective farms, allow an exception from this rule for members of those families that include Red partisans, Red Army soldiers and Red Navy men (private and command personnel) dedicated to the cause of Soviet power), rural teachers and female teachers, subject to their guarantee for their family members.

11. To oblige the editors of Pravda, based on this resolution, to adopt an appropriate tone, to highlight the tasks of the party in the collective farm movement in accordance with these directives, and to systematically expose the distortions of the party line.

Appendix No. 4

V.B. Zhiromskaya

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Institute of Russian History RAS,

Leading Researcher

"Historical Bulletin", No. 5 (1, 2000), website of the Voronezh diocese, November 2000.

THE RELIGIOUSNESS OF THE PEOPLE IN 1937

(Based on materials from the All-Union Population Census)

The first Russian census in 1897 asked about religion, which was determined either by parents or by ethnicity. In the 1937 census, respondents had to first determine their attitude towards religion, and then believers had to name their own religion. The question about religion was introduced into the census form personally by Stalin, who edited the last version of the questionnaire on the eve of the census. None of the statisticians dared to object to him. The population aged 16 years and older was surveyed. We cannot know what considerations Stalin was guided by when he posed this question, but the thesis about the “complete atheism of the population,” which the census was supposed to confirm, was deliberately advertised in the mass media. However, this kind of expectation was not met.

The census took place on the night of January 5-6 and was well received by the population; people willingly answered all questions. The exception was the question of religion. In many areas, especially rural areas, it caused a stir. It is not difficult to understand the reasons for this if we recall the situation in the country in those years (forced relocations of the dispossessed, the growing wave of repression, etc.), as well as the official attitude towards religious beliefs as “a relic of the past in the minds of backward people.” The respondents were put in a difficult position. On the one hand, they feared for themselves and for their family and friends, and on the other, “God’s punishment” for renouncing the Faith.

As stated in the documents, many priests from the church pulpit called on believers to answer frankly the question about religion, since they also hoped for the opening of churches10. Their calls were regarded by local authorities as “provocative” and “aimed at disrupting the census.” In cases where priests were engaged in such “agitation” not in the church, but went from house to house, the “relevant authorities” dealt with them11.

There were also opportunistic considerations on the part of the population: it is better for non-believers to sign up, then the cooperatives will provide more goods; or you have to register as believers, since in the event of war and the victory of Hitler’s Germany, non-believers will be shot (western regions of the Ukrainian SSR, BSSR)12.

Finding themselves in such a difficult situation, believers behaved differently. However, most of them did not hide their beliefs. The enumerators give typical answers in the Perm region: “No matter how much you ask us about religion, you won’t convince us; write us as believers,” or: “Even though they say that all believers will be fired from the construction site, write us as believers”13. There was a case when all seven women who lived in the same room in the dormitory of the Promodezhda factory (Perm) registered as believers14 Be that as it may, 80% of the population surveyed answered the question about religion20. Only 1 million people chose to remain silent, citing the fact that they are “responsible only to God” or that “God knows whether I am a believer or not.” A significant part of those who refused to answer were schismatic Old Believers and sectarians.

According to the census, in the USSR there were more believers among people aged 16 years and older than non-believers: 55.3 million versus 42.2 million, or 56.7% versus 43.3% of all those who expressed their attitude towards religion21. In reality, there were, of course, even more believers. Some of the answers may have been insincere. In addition, it is more likely that those who did not answer the question about religion were mostly believers.

The census has preserved for us valuable information about the sex and age composition of believers of different faiths. There were more women who recognized themselves as believers than men: 64% versus 36% (of all believers)22.

Let us consider the age composition of believers23. The largest age groups among literate and illiterate believers were groups of men and women aged 20-29 and 30-39 years. The groups of people over 50 years of age accounted for a small percentage of believers among the literate and a slightly larger percentage among the illiterate. Among believers, almost 34% were 20-29 years old and more than 44% were 30-39 years old. Elderly people, over 50 years old, were about 12%. In the latter case, of course, the small number of elderly people in the age structure of the population affects it. However, even taking this into account, one cannot help but admit that the opinion that believers are exclusively elderly people did not correspond to reality.

Another common stereotype in the propaganda literature of those years was the idea that the bulk of believers were elderly women, and illiterate ones at that. Census data suggested otherwise. Among all believers, more than 75% of men aged 16-49 were literate, and 88% of women of this age were literate. Consequently, among the believers, a significant part were men and women of young and mature age, trained to read and write.

Among literate religious men under the age of 30 there were 32.6%, and among literate women of this age - 48.4%. These were mainly those who had studied at schools or had completed them. At that time, primary education predominated. But there were many who studied at technical schools and universities, especially at the age of 19-25. In other words, among people of such a young age there were few “who read syllables and knew how to write their last name,” i.e. who have only gone through educational program school. Naturally, the illiterate believers were mostly elderly and much less young. Although neither the 1937 census nor the 1939 census that took place immediately after it showed “complete” literacy, the coverage of the population, primarily young people, with universal education was very wide.

Data from the 1937 census indicate that religiosity also increases with age. Among literate men, the proportion of believers increases sharply when moving from 20-29 years to 30-39 years. In literate women, this transition is observed at a younger age: from 16-19 years to 20-29 years. This is explained by the earlier maturity of women in connection with marriage and motherhood and the associated responsibility and anxiety for the lives and fates of children, for maintaining a home, etc.

Among illiterate men and women, the proportion of believers increases evenly from one age group to another. This may be due to the fact that there are slightly more believers in youth groups than in literate groups. Of interest is the analysis of the data in Table. 1.

Table 1

Ratio of believers and non-believers among age groups of both sexes24

From the data in table. 1 we can draw the following conclusion. Firstly, the illiterate and uneducated were less influenced by an atheistic upbringing, and among them there were more believers; secondly, nevertheless, there is not a single age group in which there would be no believers; their number is significant even among young people who are literate and educated

Appendix No. 5

Appendix No. 6 Appendix No. 7

Bishop Andrei governs the Kuibyshev diocese,

Appendix No. 8

Patriarch Sergius

Appendix No. 9

Council of Bishops 1943

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 Kiev, 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 words 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 by 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!”

Shvechikov A.N., Ph.D., Associate Professor

On the eve of the Patriotic War, the Russian Orthodox Church was subjected to unprecedented defeat and repression. The task of completely eliminating the Russian Orthodox Church was close to completion. To imagine the scale of this church pogrom, let’s look at the facts and compare what happened and what remains.

By the beginning of the October Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church had 48 thousand parish churches, about 25 thousand chapels of all kinds. They were served by more than 100 thousand clergy. About 130 bishops served in 67 dioceses. The Church owned 35 thousand parish schools, 58 theological seminaries, 4 theological academies.

As a result of the forced destruction of the Orthodox Church by state and party authorities, especially in the second half of the 30s, by 1941 the Russian Orthodox Church managed to retain only pitiful remnants of its former influence.

On the territory of the former RSFSR, in 25 regions there was not a single operating church left, and in 20 regions there were no more than 5 of them. In total, on the territory of the USSR (without the Western regions of Ukraine and Belarus annexed on the eve of the war) at the beginning of 1941 there were slightly more than 100 operating churches . Of the nearly one and a half hundred bishops in 1917, by the beginning of 1939 only 4 remained active. In 1936 and 1937 alone, more than 70 bishops were arrested, many of whom were either immediately shot, or later died in camps and prisons, or sent into exile. . More than 50 thousand clergy were killed. We can rightfully say that the Russian Orthodox Church was in ruins at the beginning of the war. The party and the state managed to crush the Church through terror, repression and prohibitions, but they failed to completely kill the Orthodox faith among the people. The All-Union Population Census, conducted in January 1937, showed that two-thirds of the rural and one-third of the urban population of the USSR considered themselves believers.

There is no doubt that the religious faith of the Soviet people, in addition to all other conditions, helped us survive the war and defeat an insidious and powerful enemy.

Despite the insults inflicted, the outrage committed against it, the pogrom and endless humiliations from the authorities, the Russian Orthodox Church, in difficult times for the country and people, without any hesitation or doubt, stood in the ranks of the defenders of the Fatherland and spiritually sanctified the future Victory.

Already on the first day of the war, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius, addressed the “Message to the Shepherds and Flock of Christ’s Orthodox Church,” in which he called on the entire Orthodox people to defend the Fatherland. In his message, he wrote, in particular: “The pathetic descendants of the enemies of Orthodox Christianity want to once again try to bring our people to their knees before untruth. But this is not the first time that 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 Church immediately drew the attention of believers to the fact that Hitler’s propaganda hypocritically promises to return religious freedom to our people. On the contrary, fascism aims to destroy all religious denominations on the territory of the USSR and replace them with sectarian, pagan and occult organizations. Therefore, while defending the territory of our Motherland, we also defend the right to preserve our traditional faith. “It is not the swastika, but the Cross that is called upon to lead our Christian culture, our Christian life,” wrote Metropolitan Sergius in his Easter message on April 2, 1942.

The closest associates of the Locum Tenens: Metropolitans Alexy (Leningrad) and Nicholas (Kiev) also addressed the flock with patriotic messages. Throughout the country, prayers were served in Orthodox churches for the coming victory.

Fundraising to help the front begins among believers for gifts for soldiers and for the maintenance of wounded and orphaned children.

On the initiative of the Church, funds are being raised to create a tank column named after. Dmitry Donskoy, then to an aviation squadron. In total, during the war years, the Russian Orthodox Church contributed more than 300 million rubles to the Defense Fund.

In Leningrad, despite the difficult conditions of the blockade from 1941 to 1944, Orthodox believers contributed more than 13 million rubles to the Defense Fund.

The active role of the Russian Orthodox Church in resisting the invaders was highly appreciated by the leadership of the party and state. In a telegram to Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius dated February 25, 1943, J.V. Stalin wrote: “I ask you to convey to the Orthodox clergy and believers, who collected 6 million rubles, gold and silver items for the construction of a tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy, my sincere greetings and gratitude to the Red Army "

The patriotic activities of the Russian Orthodox Church and its leadership in the first years of the war played an important, if not decisive role in the authorities’ radical change in their attitude towards the Church for the better.

For the first time in the last two decades, Stalin went to a personal meeting with the top leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. Such a meeting took place on September 4, 1943 in the Kremlin. At the meeting were: from the side of the Russian Orthodox Church - Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad and Metropolitan Nikolay of Kiev; on the part of the Government - I.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov and G.G. Karpov (future chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People's Commissars).

This meeting became a turning point in relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet state. The authorities made a drastic change in religious policy. At the meeting, an agreement was received from Stalin for holding a Council of Bishops and electing a Patriarch, for the opening of church educational institutions, church publications, for the return of churches and some of the repressed clergy, for material support of the church, etc. After this meeting, the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church virtually ceased. The Russian Orthodox Church received support and a good impetus to expand its activities.

Previously closed parishes are beginning to open throughout the country (more than 200 churches were opened from January to November 1944 alone; clergy are being ordained, spiritual education is being resumed - the Theological Institute is opening in Moscow, clergy are returning from prisons, camps and exile.

The Orthodox Church is gradually beginning to revive. This is evidenced by the following facts: from 1941 to 1951 in the Russian Orthodox Church the number of registered parishes increased almost 5 times. and amounted to approximately 14.5 thousand, the number of monasteries reached 89 (with 4.6 thousand monastics)

Thus, in a time of difficult trials for the country, the Church, with its selfless patriotic service, convinced the authorities not only of its loyalty to it, but also of its devotion to its country and people, its fidelity to its calling - to be the spiritual shepherd of the Orthodox people.

Bibliography

To prepare this work, materials from the site were used

The Church is often called the “second power”; most secular tsars perceived Orthodoxy as a tool for maintaining their autocracy. The authorities tried not to spoil relations with the Orthodox Church. Representatives of the clergy had privileges and a special status. Orthodoxy has always brought peace of mind and a sense of protection from above into the difficult life of the Russian peasant. The church was involved in charity work, and children were given primary education in parochial schools. She often stood up for the offended, one way or another, gave her assessment of political transformations, that is, she took an active position in the life of the state.

The Bolsheviks, when they came to power, did not openly advocate atheism, although their leaders had long ago lost touch with religion. The first events also said nothing about the colossal disruption that would unfold in the coming years. IN AND. Lenin wrote on November 20, 1917 in an address “To all working Muslims of Russia and the East”: “Muslims of Russia, Tatars of the Volga region and Crimea, Kyrgyz and Sarts of Siberia, Turkestan, Turks and Tatars of Transcaucasia, Chechens and highlanders of the Caucasus, all those mosques and "Whose prayer houses were destroyed, whose beliefs and customs were trampled upon by the tsars and oppressors of Russia! From now on, your beliefs and customs, your national and cultural institutions are declared free and inviolable."

One of the first decrees of the Soviet government was the decree on the separation of church and state of January 23, 1918. The decree itself did not carry an anti-religious, anti-church connotation. In most European countries, the church was separated from the state back in the era of bourgeois revolutions. Western society is undoubtedly secular in nature. But in most countries, the state officially supports those religious organizations that are most consistent with national interests and traditions. In England it is the Anglican Church (its head is the Queen), in Sweden, Norway, Denmark it is Lutheran; in Spain, Portugal - Catholic, etc. As for Eastern societies, they are characterized by the inseparability of the secular and religious spheres of life. Consequently, the act of separation of church and state in Russia meant a movement in a Western direction.

However, this act was accepted and in fact became the legislative basis for persecution against the church. The first to come under attack was the Orthodox Church as the official church of old Russia. In addition, other churches were located in territories where there was not yet Bolshevik power. The closure of churches, the confiscation of church valuables, and reprisals against clergy began already in the first months after the October events of 1917. On October 13, 1918, Patriarch Tikhon addressed the Council of People's Commissars with a message in which he wrote: "...Bishops, clergy, monks and nuns are being executed , not guilty of anything, but simply on a sweeping accusation of some vague and indefinite counter-revolutionism."

On the territory of pre-revolutionary Russia there were 78 thousand Orthodox churches, 25 thousand mosques, more than 6 thousand synagogues, 4.4 thousand Catholic churches, more than 200 Old Believer churches of Georgia and Armenia. The number of churches in Russia by 1941 had decreased by 20 times. Most of the temples were closed in the 30s. By 1938, more than 40 thousand houses of worship were closed. These are not only Orthodox churches, but also mosques, synagogues, etc. In 1935-1936. The government banned the activities of the Synod and the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. In 25 regions there was not a single functioning temple, and in 20 regions there were 1-5 temples.

The clergy were also destroyed. IN AND. Lenin, in a secret instruction dated August 19, 1922, wrote: “The more representatives of the reactionary clergy and the reactionary bourgeoisie we manage to shoot on this occasion, the better.” Thus, the clergy and the bourgeoisie are concepts of the same order for Lenin. This is true from the point of view of civilizational affiliation. The creation of a new one could be successful only if the spiritual foundation was destroyed and its carriers were destroyed.

In 1926, the “Union of Atheists of the USSR to Fight Religion” was created, which was then renamed the “Union of Militant Atheists.” The number of its members grew: 1926 - approximately 87 thousand people; 1929 – more than 465 thousand; 1930 – 3.5 million people; 1931 - approximately 51 million. The growth in the number of active fighters against religion shows how rapidly the spiritual sphere was collapsing. It is curious that pro-Western movements in Christianity, especially such as Baptistism, which seemed stupid and savage, were persecuted most cruelly. However, it was not possible to eliminate religion.

Half-strangled religious confessions were nationalized, subordinated to party-state control and carried out in their activities only those things that did not contradict socialist ideology, that is, in practice there was not separation from the state, as the Decree of 1918 provided, but the subordination of the church to the state.

In an effort to keep their inner world in balance, many people stubbornly clung to traditional religious beliefs. Anti-religious campaigns, while achieving some success, in a number of cases caused the opposite reaction. Previously banned materials from the 1937 All-Union Population Census show that, despite the obvious fear of revealing adherence to religion, a significant part of the population admitted that they believed in God. Of the nearly 30 million illiterate adults (over 16 years of age), more than 25 million (84%) are registered as believers. Of the 68.5 million literate population, 30 million (44%) were also believers.

Generations that grew up in Soviet times had no idea about the role of traditional religions in society and perceived the activities of church organizations negatively. However, that part of society that had lost contact with traditional religion accepted a new one. It had its own paraphernalia: red corners, portraits and monuments of leaders, etc. Its own ritual, its own dogma. Marxism-Leninism was only an outer shell, under which traditional Russian values were often hidden.

The idea of the messianic, saving role of Russia was transformed into the idea of the USSR as the vanguard of the world revolution, which should pave the way to the future for all peoples and help them on this difficult path. Internationalism in fact turned out to be the basis for a harsh Russification policy and the imposition of the Russian model. Leaders, who were perceived as bearers and interpreters of higher values, also became objects of worship. The process of charismatization of the leaders began immediately and gained momentum as the Bolshevik Party consolidated its hold on power. Gradually V.I. Lenin developed into a charismatic leader and then, after his death, was canonized as the new Christ or Prophet Muhammad.

IN AND. Lenin always behaved like a prophet, surrounded by disciples and followers, and not like the leader of a political party. It is well known that in the Bolshevik Party and in his circle he did not tolerate people who disagreed with him and showed independence in judgment and behavior. This resulted in constant splits, exceptions, and demarcations, starting from the Second Congress of the RSDLP and until the end of his life.

The formation of the image of a charismatic leader began after the Bolsheviks came to power. However, little was achieved during Lenin's lifetime. In the full sense of the word, he became a charismatic leader, almost a god, after his death. "Lenin lived, Lenin is alive, Lenin will live!" - this slogan could be found both on the streets of the capital and in a small village. Why not “Christ is Risen!”

New leader I.V. Stalin took over as a faithful disciple, a faithful Leninist. His charismatization occurred in the 30s. He became a god during his lifetime. His portraits hung everywhere, and monuments were erected in cities and towns. Cities, streets, schools, factories, collective farms, divisions, regiments, etc. were named after him. The press glorified the leader. Here are lines from the pages of the Pravda newspaper. January 8, 1935: “Long live the one whose genius led us to unprecedented successes - the great organizer of the victories of Soviet power, the great leader, friend and teacher - our Stalin!” March 8, 1939: “Let the father live, long live our dear father - Stalin the sun!”

The deification of the leaders imparted “holiness” to the regime. In the mass consciousness, this meant the adoption of new values and new life guidelines. The system, which was largely based on violence, acquired a spiritual basis.

It is characteristic that during the war years the emphasis was placed on the Russian people. Russian patriotism became one of the most important sources of victory. I.V. constantly addressed the Russian theme. Stayin, especially in the first, most difficult period of the war, on November 6, 1941, he spoke about the impossibility of defeating “... the great Russian nation, the nation of Plekhanov and Lenin, Belinsky and Chernyshevsky, Pushkin and Tolstoy, ... Suvorov and Kutuzov.”

Christianity has always carried a charge of great moral strength, which was especially important during the war years. They drew consolation and strength from religion for life and work in the most difficult conditions of war. The Russian Orthodox Church called for humility and patience, mercy and brotherhood. The war revealed the best features of Russian Orthodoxy.

In 1943, the orders of A. Nevsky, A. Suvorov, M. Kutuzov, and other prominent Russian military leaders and naval commanders were established, the St. George Ribbon was introduced, and the pre-revolutionary uniform of the Russian army was returned. Orthodoxy received greater freedom than other faiths. Already on June 22, 1941, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius made an appeal to believers, calling on them to stand up for the defense of the Motherland in their hands and take part in raising funds for the defense fund.

A number of telegrams from representatives of the Orthodox clergy with messages about the transfer of funds for defense needs in the first months of the war appeared on the pages of the central newspapers Pravda and Izvestia, information about the work of the Orthodox Church was also given there, and biographies of the newly elected Patriarchs Sergius and Alexy were published. That is, the patriotic activities of the Church were covered in the press and recognized by the authorities. Dozens of clergy were released from the camps, including 6 archbishops and 5 bishops.

On Easter 1942, Moscow allowed unhindered traffic throughout the city throughout the night. In 1942, the first Council of Bishops during the entire war was convened in Ulyanovsk. In the spring of 1943, the government opened access to the Iveron Mother of God icon, which was brought from the closed Donskoy Monastery for worship at the Resurrection Church in Moscow.

For the period from 1941 to 1944. The church contributed more than 200 million rubles to the country's defense fund. In the very first years of the war, more than three million rubles were collected in Moscow churches for the needs of the front and defense. The churches of Leningrad collected 5.5 million rubles. The church communities of Nizhny Novgorod collected more than four million rubles for the defense fund in 1941-1942. During the first half of 1944, the Novosibirsk diocese collected about two million rubles for wartime needs. With funds raised by the Church, an air squadron named after Alexander Nevsky and a tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy were created.

Here are some more examples. Bishop Bartholomew, Archbishop of Novosibirsk and Barnaul, called on people to donate to the needs of the army, performing services in churches in Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, Tyumen, Omsk, Tobolsk, Biysk and other cities. The fees were used to purchase warm clothes for soldiers, maintain hospitals and orphanages, restore areas damaged during the German occupation and help disabled war veterans.

Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad remained with his flock in besieged Leningrad throughout the siege. “...ignites the hearts of soldiers by the spirit of unity and inspiration that now lives the entire Russian people,” read his address to believers on Palm Sunday.

On September 4, 1943, Stalin met with the highest hierarchs of the Orthodox Church. It marked a warming in relations between the authorities and the church. The regime decided to use traditional religion to mobilize forces and resources in the fight against the external enemy. By order of I.V. Stalin was given the task of restoring the normal practice of religious rites “at a Bolshevik pace.” A decision was also made to create theological academies in Moscow, Kyiv and Leningrad. Stalin agreed with the clergy on the need to publish church books. Under the patriarch, it was decided to form the Holy Synod of three permanent and three temporary members. A decision was made to form the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In general, it should be noted that the war had a significant and positive impact on the relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Soviet government. After the war, the People's Commissariat of Education issued a decree on the preferential admission of front-line soldiers to educational institutions. In this matter, the church followed the decision of the authorities; a lot of front-line soldiers were studying at the seminary at that time. For example, I.D. Pavlov, the future Archimandrite Kirill, he became the confessor of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II.

During the war years, there was a legend among the people that during the attack on Moscow, an icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God was placed on a plane, the plane flew around Moscow and consecrated the borders, as in Ancient Rus', when an icon was often taken to the battlefield so that the Lord would protect the country. Even if it was unreliable information, people believed it, which means they expected something similar from the authorities.

At the front, soldiers often made the sign of the cross before battle - asking the Almighty to protect them. The majority perceived Orthodoxy as a national religion. The famous Marshal Zhukov, together with the soldiers, said before the battle: “Well, with God!” The people maintain a legend that Zhukov carried the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God along the front lines.

During the “period of change” (1917-1941), the Bolsheviks abandoned the traditional Russian religion. But during the war, “the time to collect stones,” it was necessary to return to the original Russian, traditions helped unite the people on the basis of a common, common religion. Hitler understood this well. One of his instructions was that the fascists should prevent the influence of one church on a large area, but the emergence of sects in the occupied territories, as a form of schism and disunity, should be encouraged.

Stalin did not organize church revival, he restrained it. In the Pskov region, before the arrival of the Germans, there were 3 churches, and by the time the Soviet troops returned, there were 200 of them. In the Kursk region, before the Germans, there were 2, but there were 282, but in the Tambov region, where Soviet power remained unchanged, there remained 3 churches. Thus, the first 18 churches were allowed to open only almost six months after Stalin’s meeting with the metropolitans by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of February 5, 1944. And of the total number of requests from believers for the opening of churches received in 1944-1947, the Council of Ministers satisfied only 17%.
On November 16, 1948, the Synod was forced to make a decision to prohibit turning sermons in churches into lessons on the Law of God for children. Moreover, in the late 40s and early 50s, churches again began to be taken over for clubs and warehouses. In 1951, during the harvest in the Kursk region alone, by order of the district executive committees, about 40 buildings of existing churches were covered with grain for many months. Communists and Komsomol members who performed religious rites began to be persecuted. A new wave of arrests of the most active clergy began. For example, in September 1948, Archbishop Manuil (Lemeshevsky) was arrested for the seventh time. If on January 1, 1949, there were 14,447 officially opened Orthodox churches in the country, then by January 1, 1952, their number decreased to 13,786 (120 of which were not operational due to their use for grain storage).

During and after the war, Stalin's policy towards the Church saw two turning points. Today, the positive turnaround of 1943-1944 is more often remembered, but we should not forget the new “ice age” that began in the second half of 1948. Stalin wanted to make Moscow an Orthodox Vatican, the center of all Orthodox churches in the world. But in July 1948, the Pan-Orthodox Conference (with the participation of Metropolitan Elijah) did not lead to the result expected in the Kremlin: the hierarchs of churches that found themselves far from Soviet tanks (primarily Greece and Turkey) showed intransigence. And Stalin, realizing that he would not be able to use religious resources in global politics, sharply lost interest in church affairs. So, the cynical pragmatism of Stalin’s church policy during the war and the immediate transition to new persecutions in 1948 indicate that Stalin did not have any ideological crisis, conversion, or return to faith.

Several departments were responsible for the implementation of religious policy in the occupied territory of the Nazis - from the special Ministry of Religions to the military command and the Gestapo. In the occupied territories, at the beginning of the war, the Germans allowed churches to operate. Some priests accepted fascist culture, citing the fact that the Church was being persecuted in Russia. And yet, most clergy showed themselves humbly during the war, forgetting past grievances. The Nazis stopped the practice of opening churches because the priests conducted patriotic sermons among the population. Now priests were beaten and shot.

The Orthodox Church united with the secular authorities in the fight against the fascists. The war was declared holy, liberating, and the Church blessed this war. In addition to material assistance, the Church morally supported people at the front and in the rear. At the front they believed in the miraculous power of icons and the sign of the cross. Prayers acted as peace of mind. In their prayers, the rear workers asked God to protect their relatives from death. The Orthodox Church made a significant contribution to the all-Soviet struggle against the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. The position of the Orthodox Church in Soviet Russia strengthened for a time. But the government followed, first of all, its own interests, and this strengthening was only temporary. Ordinary people often believed in God and relied on him as support from above.

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 Dmitrov 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