The information below is excerpted from the 1997 book "Советский режим и советская церковь [Soviet regime and the Soviet church]" which was authored by S.V. Shumilo. It appears here, for the first time in the English language, being kindly translated by Seraphim Larin. It has been edited and adapted by Gregor Isiopili.
 |
| Photo of the book "Советский режим и советская церковь"
|
CHAPTER THREE.
In examining the question of convening a council, it has been decided that due to political considerations, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) will be proclaimed “Patriarch of Russia” and not “All of Russia”, while the Church itself will be called “Russian” and not “Of Russia”, as it was during the time of Patriarch Tikhon (Belavin). Turning to the Metropolitans, Stalin said that in order to uphold the international image of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Government is ready to allot the essential monetary means. He also announced that a fully furnished three story mansion – the former residence of the German ambassador Shulenberg – is also being given to house the MP Chancellery. Apparently, this gift was presented to spite the Germans, as they were opening Orthodox churches in their occupied territories.
At the end of the meeting, Stalin stated that he is preparing to create a special section to control the Church - the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church. In response, the Metropolitans thanked the Government and Stalin personally for the meeting and the enormous help and respect shown to the Church, and assured the president of the Soviet People’s Committee of their patriotic stance. They also noted their well-disposed view toward the establishment of the Government section dealing with Orthodox Church matters and the appointment of G. Karpov (Major-General of NKVD) as its president. Turning to Metropolitan Sergius, Molotov asked him when in his opinion would be the best time to receive the delegation from the Anglican Church. Sergius answered that once the Council was convened in 4 days time and the Patriarch chosen, then the delegation should be received any time after this. After hearing them out, Molotov concluded that it would be advantageous to welcome them in one month’s time i.e. on the eve of the Teheran Conference. Stalin concurred.
The meeting was concluded. Once again, Metropolitan Sergius warmly thanked Stalin personally and the Government of the USSR for their reception and support of the Church’s needs, and pledged the clergy’s and laity’s full support for the politics of the party and the Government.”
Just as Stalin decreed, the so-called “Bishops’ Council” was organized at “Bolshevik speed” being held on the 8th of September 1943. There were 19 participating Bishops: six were former Renovationists who were hastily re-ordained before the “Council”, and a number of loyal [Sergianist] Bishops who were especially released from prison and brought to Moscow by air. At this gathering, there were no Bishops from the occupied territories, or from the overseas immigrant communities, moreover, the Bishops who were opposed to Sergius’s Church politics, and continued to languish in Soviet concentration camps were also absent. According to the Patriarchal historian, D. Pospelovsk: "...at this time at least dozens of bishops languished in exile and camps ... Some of the imprisoned bishops refused to recognize Sergius' church policy, even though they were promised freedom if they were to do so. The Catacomb Church was still very active at this time."
Thus, the Moscow Council of 1943, at which 70% of the hierarchs of the Russian Church were absent – was not an expression of the fullness of Russian Orthodoxy and therefore cannot be regarded as legitimate and canonical, nor can its “decrees” be considered as bearing any canonical force. Nonetheless, despite all the artificiality and tension – as was pre-decided, Sergius – being the sole candidate - was proclaimed as the first Soviet Patriarch. Of course, this contradicted the canonical norms of Ecumenical Orthodoxy, and likewise those which were established by the Local Council of 1917-1918 regarding the procedure of electing a Patriarch. Regarding this perversion, Metropolitan Alexis boldly stated after "putting forward" Sergius's candidature, “I think this question is continuously lightened for us because we already have a bearer of Patriarchal authority (Personally vested by Stalin – author). That’s why I consider that the election with all its details, which normally accompanies it, appears to us as being not needed”. The delegates at the gathering were left with no options but to submit to the will of the “father of the people Joseph Stalin” while responding to the ironical question of Metropolitan Sergius: “Is there anyone with a different view?” with a subservient “No, we unanimously accept this!”.
At the end of the meeting, the council adopted a decree - which was unprecedented in its amorality and non-canonicity - which was read out by Sergius stating that “everyone who is guilty of betrayal of general Church matters and has gone over to the side of Fascism, is an opponent of the Lord’s Cross and is to be regarded as being excommunicated, with Bishops or clerics – being deposed”. Thus, practically the whole Russian population, the clergy in occupied territories (except, of course, the Red partisans) and the 7.5 million Russian prisoners of war who were captured by the Germans, fell under this anathema of the Soviet Church...
This “Council of Stalin” didn’t pass without offering manifold laudations to the a “God-given Great Leader and Teacher of the Communist Party and Government". In finalizing this Government measure, after 4 days – on the 12th of September 1943, an official ceremony of the enthronement of the first Soviet Patriarch took place in the Moscow Epiphany Cathedral. In a speech uttered before the enthronement, Sergius acknowledged: “As patriarchal locum tenens, I felt myself to be in a temporary position and was not very fearful of possible mistakes I could make. I thought, when a Patriarch would be elected, he would correct all such mistakes”.
Whether Sergius was genuine in these words or not, is not for us to judge. However, his “mistakes” were never corrected by him, nor by his successors.
A month after his enthronement and by the Soviet People’s Committee’s directive, Sergius greeted the long awaited Anglican Church’s delegation with its head, Archbishop Cyril Garbet in Moscow...
In all, shortly before the Teheran Conference, the politics of the Soviet regime were quite “reconstructed”, and not only regarding the Moscow Patriarchate and the Vatican; for in October of 1943, support was also given to the official Georgian Orthodox and Armenian-Gregorian Churches. With regard to the Muslims, the regime co-operated in conducting an assembly in Tashkent of loyal Muslim clergy and laity; and facilitated the opening of Muslim theological schools in Buhar, Tashkent, and elsewhere.
However, a full grant of freedom to religious organizations in the USSR did not occur and it would be a total mistake to think that this “thawing” was reflective of such. Notwithstanding the outward freedom, the religious activists in the country – without exception – remained hostages to the totalitarian system, and existed under the continuous and strict surveillance of Soviet Special Forces. Concerning the so-called “Unreliables” – just as before – they continued to be persecuted by the Communist apparatus, although the religious leaders themselves officially denied this reality. By this they presented, to those "abroad", the false notion that there was full freedom of conscience and for religious organizations within the USSR. They did this quite successfully in fact. As V. Alexeev noted: “deeply devotional (sic! Translator) T. D. Roosevelt was greatly satisfied with the new attitude of the authorities towards the Church in the USSR. These measures taken by Stalin evoked approval in England, Canada and France, where the positions held by religious organizations within the society were very strong. Stalin’s measures also satisfied many from the Russian émigré communities.”
It was indeed because of the false Soviet propaganda that after World War II, tens of thousands of immigrants, among whom were a considerable number of clergy - and even Bishops, believing in the mirage of freedom, began to return to the USSR where concentration camps were waiting for them. Apart from this, at the conclusion of the war, with the co-operation of the western allies, the forcible repatriation to the USSR of more than 6 million “Soviet” prisoners of war, “Eastern” workers from Europe, America, Africa, refugees and immigrants, took place, the majority of whom perished behind the walls of Stalin’s NKVD. These tragic pages of our history are stamped on all the future generations with rivers of innocent blood. And much of the blame for this - for the tens of thousands of destroyed lives and wrecked fates, lies with the first soviet Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky), who served the theomachist Soviet totalitarian system in word and deed.
On the 25th of October (O.S.), the 7th of November (N.S.), 1943, on the occasion of the anniversary of the October Bolshevik revolution, when thousands of true priests and laity – those in the concentration camps or in the catacombs; or those in foreign lands were performing mourning panikhidas and molebens for the innocent dead of the Communist regime, the Soviet Patriarch performed a triumphant Liturgy in the Epiphany Cathedral. In contrast to the overwhelming majority of the Orthodox churches throughout the world, the service held in this cathedral was for “our God protected country and her leaders, headed by a leader conferred by God”, and at the same time “Many years” was proclaimed to antichrist”. The Christian Church has never known such blasphemy and mockery...
Such deceitful crimes of the Sergianists, both at this time, and throughout their history, are exemplified in a story that has been passed on. Thus, as tradition reveals, “Once, while taking a walk in the garden of his residence, Sergius saw in spirit a frightening scene: behind him stretched a queue of some kilometers long – all being black Bishops. They were black Ethiopians, pygmies with rotating eyeballs and bald heads who were carrying in their armscast iron scrolls of sins. The movement of the queue reminded one of a huge long snake of several kilometers. Sergius’s heart faltered: like a bolt of lightning, a distinct thought pierced his consciousness – this was the image of the Church that he had created.”
After being proclaimed the first Soviet Patriarch, his health worsened… The illnesses never stopped… He refused to serve in church. A terrible hopelessness tormented him. They say that not long before his death, Sergius beheld a vision of Christ, after which he sobbed over the crimes he had commited. He died on the 15th of May – 8 months after he was uncanonically declared Patriarch. Although Metropolitan Sergius was now gone, his mistakes endured...”.
CHAPTER FOUR.
THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD (1944-1953).
The front-line changes and the advance of the Soviet army in 1943, resulting in the German forces being slowly pushed out of former Soviet territories, led to a change in the lives of the local population as well as the Orthodox Church. Distrustful of the pro-Soviet propaganda of the hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate, practically all the Episcopate of Orthodox jurisdictions in Ukraine, Belorussia and the Baltics, as well a significant number of the general population including clergy, began to forsake their Motherland, migrating to Europe. It’s worth noting that during these tragic days, it was only the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad – under the leadership of Metropolitan Anastasius (Gribanovsky) – that came out in the defense of the hundreds of thousands of refugees, workers (“skeletons”) and prisoners of war, securing them visas and formal documents for departure to America and other countries, thereby averting their forceful repatriation to the USSR...
Having renewed their bloody terror and with the aid of the partisans, the NKVD began, yet again, to forcibly fill the prisons and labor camps with ordinary citizens. The return of the Commune-Socialist tyranny brought outward liberation from the same type of tyranny [of the Nazis], only under a different name; thus new repressions began against the peaceful populace and the Church. At the time, an ordinary soldier having absorbed all the onerous horrors of war, while battling in foreign lands, believed that victory over the National-Socialists would bring freedom for himself as well as to all the people. However, having spent the war behind the rear-lines, the specialist NKVD agents arrived in the liberated territories after the victorious army units and recommenced a repression of unprecedented cruelty against the relatives and friends of these very soldiers – believers and unbelievers, indiscriminately charging them with “betraying The Fatherland” and with “Anti-Soviet activities.” At the beginning of 1944, all the hierarchs that were unable or unwilling to emigrate were arrested. Clergy, believers and ordinary citizens attracted judicial process for “serving the Nazi regime.” Under the guise of the re-establishment of “Socialist justice”, whole families and indeed, whole settlements were exiled to Siberia, mainly from the Western Ukraine, Belorussia and the Baltics. Up unto the end of the 40’s, by orders from Soviet Marshal Zhukov, some 600,000 people from Western Ukraine alone were forcibly resettled in Siberia, Kazakhstan and other regions. Following upon the Soviet occupation of the liberated territories, an influx of “loyal hierarchs” appointed by Sergius’s Synod, began to arrive who hastily occuppied the Sees which were vacated as a result of the arrest or migration of their predecessors.
4.1. New Soviet Patriarch. Utilization of the Church by Stalin’s external politics.
As noted in the previous chapter, in order to attract the allied Western countries, Stalin changed the external politics regarding the Church by granting liturgical freedom to the loyal Moscow Patriarchate. Continuing to perpetrate its bloody crimes, the Soviet regime began to use the Patriarchate as a cover, demanding from its hierarchs their false witness that in the USSR, there was full freedom of conscience. As confirmed by V. Alexeev, Stalin “acted according to a previously formulated plan, whereby with time the Church was given an exclusive place in the created aura of a democratic Government which tolerated religion.”
After the death of Patriarch Sergius in 1944, with the blessing of the [Soviet] Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, Sergius’s “right hand man”, the former Renovationist Metropolitan Alexis (Simansky) of Leningrad was appointed Locum tenens. His first act was to send a telegram on the 19th of May 1944 to Stalin, in which he thanked him for the trust shown to him, and promised to unconditionally continue Sergius’s policies, while also pledging his love and dedication to the Parties' cause and to Stalin personally. This telegram read as follows: “Dear Joseph Vissarionovich! Our Church has been visited by a heavy trial. Patriarch Sergius has died after governing the Russian Church for 18 years. You are well aware how unsparingly he carried out his obedience. You are also aware about his love for his Fatherland and his patriotism, which inspirited him through the ordeals of the war period. And to us – his closest adherents, it’s nigh known of his very genuine love and loyalty to you as the wise God given leader (this was his constant expression) of the people of our great Union... In line with the deceased Patriarch’s Last Will, God has judged for me to assume the responsibilities of the Patriarchal Locum tenens. At this most responsible moment of my life, I feel that I must express to you, dear Joseph Vissarionovich, my personal feelings. In the activities that are facing me, I shall unalterably and unfailingly manage those key points of the Church activities, distinguished by the reposed Patriarch: on the one hand, follow the canons and Church determinations, and on the other, maintain an unvarying loyalty to the Government of our Fatherland, headed by you. Acting in full unison with the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, I, together with the Holy Synod established by the late Patriarch, will be guaranteed against mistakes and misdirected steps. I ask you, deeply respected and dear Joseph Vissarionovich, to receive my assurance with the same certainty as they emanate from me, and believe in my feelings of gratitude and deep love toward you, which all my Church workers are inspirited with.”
As anticipated, Stalin had to respond to these obsequious assurances with permission to convene a council and the election of a new Patriarch. Yet, despite the fact that some 8 months ago – on the eve of the Teheran Conference – Stalin hastily convened a council; now, it appeared he wasn’t very anxious to do so. However, such suspicions were in error. As expressed by V. Alexeev, the talented initiator, “according to a previously devised plan”, was certainly not going to cease utilizing the Church for his criminal purposes. As it became known, he postponed the convening of the council for the beginning of 1945, i.e. just shortly before the official meeting of the heads of state of the USSR, USA and Great Britain on the 4th-12th of February in Yalta, which had a strategically important meaning to Stalin. With this in mind, at the end of November 1944, there was an assembly of Bishops in Moscow, where every Bishop was given special directives and instructions about the conduct of the council and their individual roles in it.
Here, the projects of the council documents were adopted, and the order for the election of the new Soviet Patriarch. The former Catacomb Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasentsk), having joined the Patriarchate after being released from a labor camp during the war, reminded the assembly of the decree of the Local Council (1917-1918), which stated that the Patriarch has to be elected by secret ballot from a number of candidates. But none of the Sergianist Bishops supported this and according to plan, the only candidate left was Metropolitan Alexis (Simansky). Not agreeing to the violation of canonical norms, Archbishop Luke was excluded from the council due to the efforts of Protopriest Nicholas Koltchitsko and Metropolitan Alexis, and therefore took no part in the election.
In January 1945, the so-called “Local Council” itself was held. Stalin allocated a substantial sum of money for preparing and directing it. The participants were provided with the best hotels – “Metropole” and “National”, feted with Government funding; provided Government cars “Zis”, as well as being given a very comfortable mansion and many other bestowals. Stalin was also concerned about the arrival of the representatives of overseas Churches, so as to give the event an international significance. As V. Alekseev notes: “...Stalin took steps to prevent possible new accusations being hurled [against the Soviet government and its patriarchate] by the overseas part of the Orthodox clergy, of, for example, unauthorization, lack of representation, of the conduct of the Local Council for the election of the new Patriarch. So as there would be no doubt about the fact of the Patriarch’s election, invitations to Moscow were first sent to the Patriarchs of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and the Near East. Although only the Patriarchs of Georgia, Alexandria, and Antioch participated in the Council, some representatives of other Local Churches were flown in by the air force to Moscow.
At the opening of the Council on the 31st of March 1945, Major-General Karpov greeted the participants in the name of Stalin’s regime. He noted that the Council ‘appears as an outstanding event in the life of the Church’, whose activities are directed ‘at helping the Soviet people to achieve the greatest historical mission,’ i.e. the building of a “Communist society.”
In its turn, the Council didn’t waste its opportunity to once again express its gratitude and to pledge its genuine loyalty to the Communist Party, the Government and to Stalin personally. “In profoundly valuing the trust and attentive attitude of the highest order on the part of the Government authorities to all Church beginnings… The Council expresses its genuine and grateful feelings.”
Just as planned, the Council confirmed the new Soviet Patriarch – Metropolitan Alexis (Simansky) of Leningrad. Apart from this, it adopted a “Temporary situation about the governance of the ROC”, which was drafted by employees of the ruling department and Protopriest Nicholas Kolchitsk which, in essence, contradicted the canonical principles of Orthodoxy. “This situation turned the Moscow Patriarchate into nothing other than a totalitarian structure, where three people headed by the so-called ‘Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia’ received a greater authority than the Local Council - receiving greater administrative powers over the Church than Tsar Peter’s Synod. However, if the Emperors before 1917 were regarded as Orthodox Christians, then now the official structures of the Church have completely subordinated themselves to the will of the leaders of a theomachist regime. Church history, for 2000 years, had never known such a fall.”
The acceptance in 1945 of the new Situation concerning the governance of the Russian Orthodox Church contradicted, from beginning to end, what had been affirmed at the All Russian Local Church Council of 1917-1918 regarding the counciliar-canonical governance of the Church. By this, the Moscow Patriarchate once again confirmed its personal Soviet path of initiating and developing, as well as its lack of any type of interconnection with and succession from the canonical Church of Patriarch Tikhon - which existed lawfully in the country until 1927.
However, due to the foresight of the Soviet apparatus, the possibility of presenting such accusations – as noted earlier – were “set aside” because of the presence of the delegation of Eastern hierarchs. For their participation in the Council and acknowledgement of its “legitimacy” and “canonicity”, the eastern hierarchs and other foreign guests were richly rewarded by Stalin’s regime. Stalin personally directed the gifting of 42 items from the Moscow museum and 28 from the government museum of Zagorsk, the main object being gold-threaded church vestments and precious church service utensils, which were presented as gifts to the Eastern Patriarchs. Thus, for example, Patriarch Christopher received an antique panagia inlaid with precious stones, a golden cross with precious stones, complete Archbishop’s vestments made from gold cloth, an antique miter with precious stones and other items. Patriarch Alexander of Antioch was gifted a golden panagia with precious stones, a velvet miter sewn with gold, complete Archbishop’s vestments and others. The other guests were not left without gifts either. Among the gifts was the icon of the Saviour in a precious chasuble, an icon of Saints Kirill and Methodius in a precious setting and many other objects. The value of all these items was determined to be half a million roubles. It’s obvious that all these vestments, panagias and miters were removed from Orthodox hierarchs that were executed in Stalin’s camps.
However, for the Eastern patriarchs, as also Alexis Simansky, this seemed of no concern to them. This is what Patriarch Christopher declared at the “Metropole” banquet upon the enthronement of Alexis: “Marshal Stalin appears as one of the greatest figures of our era: nurtures trust towards the Church and treats her favorably... Marshall Stalin, the Supreme Commander under whose leadership military operations are conducted on an unseen scale, and for this has divine grace and blessing, and under the genius leadership of their great leader, the Russian people are delivering shattering blows to their age-old enemies”. Becoming somewhat daring from an immoderate consumption of Caucasian wines and cognacs at the banquet and feeling that the gifts offered to him were insufficient, Patriarch Christopher even began to hint at the essentiality of establishing a permanent government funding for his Patriarchate. “The Eastern Patriarchs… will expect Russian patronage to spread in a purely Christian spirit, in agreement with the people’s traditions and its past favorable attention toward the Orthodox East”, declared the Patriarch.
Now, it’s not so surprising that immediately after the meeting of the uncanonical “Council”, practically all the Eastern Patriarchs recognized the legality of the “elected” Alexis Simansky, having hurried to enlist his support– as head of the largest, richest Patriarchate, and to once again receive its “sovereign mercy”. This fact is shamelessly confirmed by Patriarch Alexis himself in his letter to G. Karpov, dated the 20th of November 1947. It says in part: “... Along with notional gravitation toward Moscow, the Antioch Patriarchate has hopes that the Russian Church – especially the Russian Government – will resume the pastime tradition of the systematic material aid to the poor Church of Antioch... Precisely the State itself and not through the Church as in the pre-revolutionary times, when it widely subsidized the Antiochian Church that came from the State’s considerations... Metropolitan Elias (Livansky) called upon himself to be our unofficial intermediary between us and the Greek patriarchs; here, according to his opinion, will be the determining factor of the extent of our possibility of shoving money at them.”
On the whole, inspired by the Communist dictator, the pre-Yalta action which was held under the banner of the “Local Council” was successful and brought the regime the desired results. During the course of the Yalta Conference, Stalin secured essential concessions on the question of the preliminary division of Europe: on the forcible repatriation (“return”) to the USSR of prisoners of war (who were declared by Stalin’s regime as traitors and betrayers just because they were taken prisoner by the Germans – Order No. 26 September 1941), migrants, and many others. As a result of this decision (up to 1948) with the help of bayonets, automatic rifles and rubber truncheons, there were some 6 million “Soviet” immigrants – Russian, Ukrainian, Belo-russians, Baltic people, Poles and other nationalities – who were repatriated from Europe, America and Australia - the majority of these perished in Stalin’s prisons and concentration camps. Practically all the European nations participated in this crime against humanity. Tragedies occurred in camps at Kempten, Dachau, Platling and Badaibling (Germany); Rimin, Piza (Italy); Ravensburg and Vangen (France); Yudenburg and Lienz (Austria); in North Africa, Denmark, Norway and other countries. Even neutral Switzerland sullied itself by forcibly deporting internees and refugees from the USSR.
So as not to fall into the hands of the NKVD, many of those who were to be repatriated (men, women, and children), went on huger strikes or else committed suicide by slicing the main arteries on their necks or hands with razor blades or broken glass; they disemboweled themselves, while others drowned themselves or jumped from the fast moving trains which were taking them back to the USSR. Attempting to avert mass suicides and the possible breakdown in the Yalta talks, the English and American troops in charge of the unarmed and trusting “White Cossacks”, “Vlasovites” and other anti-Soviet groups - who had voluntarily went over to the side of Western democracy - were in convoys forcibly handed over to the Soviet tribunal. In Lienz, with the aid of automatic weaponry and truncheons, 70 thousand White Cossacks that migrated to Europe in the 1920s were forcibly repatriated. The same method of intimidation was applied to thousands of their wives and children, who after refusing to voluntarily repatriate to the USSR, were attacked by the English soldiers applying bats, rifle-butts and even flame-throwers. Hundreds of wives threw themselves and their children under English tanks that were enforcing the repatriation, in the hope that this may stop it. Others threw themselves and their children into the river Drav while others cut their throats. This terror was so barbarous that one Major, having witnessed it, lost his mind. The next day saw the English soldiers joining the Communist forces on a hunt for the those survivors who fled into the hills – the overall number of victims was 150...
Analogical scenes were unfolding in all others camps for prisoners of war, immigrants, workers and refugees. This is what the American military newspaper “Stars and Stripes” wrote in their issue of the 23rd of January 1946 about the tragedy in Dachau (Bavaria):
“Dachau, 22.01.46. – Afraid of returning to the country they had betrayed, the Russian prisoners of war fought like beasts so as to self-destruct… Ten individuals committed suicide during a battle with the guards. Another one died in the hospital some time later (they wanted to “edify” and stop the Americans and with this, to save the rest, - author.).
Twenty other people wounded themselves seriously, but at this moment they are recovering. When the guards burst into the barracks of the Russians who were subject to return to their Russian Fatherland, two of them were attempting to slay themselves with broken glass. Two others slashed one another’s throat.
Another Russian stuck his head out a broken window and rotated his head against the jagged glass until his throat was slashed. The American soldiers stated that these scenes were completely inhuman. At that moment, these were not human beings but berserk animals.
The Americans began to swiftly cut the ropes on which many successfully hung themselves. However, those who regained consciousness began to cry out in Russian and pointing to the guards’ rifles and asked to be shot on the spot. When attempts were made to help and send them to the hospital, they refused all efforts to save their lives. One of them struck his chest with a knife and seemed to die. They threw him on a stretcher and carried him to a truck, but he suddenly jumped up and began to flee. With every movement a stream of blood flowed from the wound. The military police couldn’t deal with him. Two of them broke their rifle butts against his head. Officials stated that when the prisoners of war were unable to kill themselves, they became rabid and were not themselves. The reason for such similar mass suicides was the unwillingness of the prisoners of war, workers, refugees, immigrants, and anti-Communists to return to an alien country, where more cruel and inhuman mockery, torture and execution awaited them. The killing of five “white” Generals can serve as an indication of such types of executions. They were Generals Peter Krasnov, Andrew Shkuro, Sultan Girey, Timothy Domanov and Semen Krasnov. These were handed over by the English to the Soviets in January of 1947. The Soviets then executed them in the courtyard of Leforto prison using an especially cruel method – they hung them with a sharp hook under the jaw.
All these crimes by the nations of “Western democracies”, which contradicted all common human and Christian principles of morality, as well as the Geneva Convention of 1929 regarding the treatment of prisoners of war, without any investigation or trial, were to gratify the “peacemaker” Stalin – all were happening just when the allied nations were triumphantly signing the decree (26.06.1945) and in the Nuremberg process (20.11.1945 – 01.10.1946), had judged the defeated Nazis for “the most heinous crimes against humanity...”
Leaders of anti-Soviet opposition and the first wave of immigrants, the ROCA Synod and others wrote memorandums to the governments of the Western nations, explaining the true situation in the USSR in the hopes of being understood and helped. There were collective letters sent to King George VI, to the League of Nations, to the International Red Cross, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to President Roosevelt, to Rome’s Pope Pius XII, to Generals Eisenhower and De Gaulle.
In order to block the overseas protests of immigrant religious leaders, the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate was once again enlisted, who officially announced “the dirty slander, aimed at disrupting peaceful talks” between the USSR and her allies. Yielding to the mendacious Soviet propaganda, the leaders of the Western nations attempted to resolutely carry out the Yalta agreement about the forceful deportation of the prisoners of war, workers, immigrants and refugees back to the USSR.
Of all the countries in the whole world, only one small (its area covered 157 square kilometers) but noble Principality of Lichtenstein categorically refused to hand over to the Soviets what was left of the General Holmston-Smilovsk army, granting them political refuge on its territory. Soviet military leaders threatened the Lichtenstein’s government with political and economic sanctions, to which the head of the Principality – A. Frik responded: “Well, that’s your affair, but I don’t want my grand-children to say one day that their grandfather was a murderer.”
This was the tragic aftermath of the “Moscow Council” in 1945 for millions of people, because T. Roosevelt (USA) and W. Churchill (Great Britain) were indeed greatly influenced by their belief in Stalin’s “democratic image” and signed his proposal.
For handling the “Council” so successfully, NKVD Major-General Karpov was decorated with the highest government award, the “Order of Lenin”. Likewise, Patriarch Alexis and other participants of the “Council” were amply rewarded. Soon after the Council, on the 10th of April 1945, Stalin personally met with Alexis. At the meeting, apart from Stalin, were the People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov, the MP Metropolitan Nicholas (Yarushevich) who was soon to become President of the new Department of (i.e. international) External Church Relations, and Protopriest N. Kolchitsky who was a specialist on questions of international relations. Concerning this meeting Patriarch Alexis stated: “...While there is complete elation to be face to face with him, whose name alone is pronounced with love, and not only in every corner of our country but in all freedom-loving and peace-loving nations, we express our gratitude to Joseph Visarionovich... The talk was a completely unrestrained conversation of a father with his children.”
As affirmed by V. Alekseev, who alluded to the correspondence between A. Simansky and G. Karpov, at the meeting priority was given “besides to the inner problems of the Church, the dialogue primarily was to define the tasks of Church leaders in forming international attitudes… According to Stalin’s contrivance, the Church should play a significant role in mending the USSR’s international contacts by utilizing its channels."
Shortly after the meeting on the 28th of May 1945, Patriarch Alexis unexpectedly went on a “pilgrimage” to the Near East, where he met not only prominent religious personages, but the heads of state and other influential politicians. Metropolitan Nicholas, having accompanied the Patriarch, after visiting the Near Eastern countries, left for England at the end of June, to be received by King George VI at Buckingham Palace. Metropolitan Nicholas successfully achieved a political effect on the King with the aim of forming a “democratic image” of Stalin’s totalitarian regime in Britain’s ruling circles. All of these “international jaunts” and “pilgrimages” were realized at the government’s expense...
And all this - as we repeat, in many ways was thanks to the successful holding of the so-called Moscow “Local Council” of 1945.
4. 2. Fate of the alternative Church structures.
The internal positive consequences of this Moscow Council for the Soviet regime, was that due to the participation of the Eastern Patriarchs in the Council itself, this Stalin-inspired move succeeded in offering the appearance of “legitimacy” and “canonicity”, leading astray not only part of the immigrant Orthodox clergy and hierarchs abroad, but many true-Orthodox Catacomb pastors in the USSR, who naively ignored the possibility of the anti-canonical crimes associated with it.
The first one to acknowledge the new Soviet patriarch was the former Catacomb Bishop Athanasius (Sakharov) who, together with a hieromonk of his, sent out an appeal to the clergy and laity of the Catacomb Church, concerning the “legitimacy of the newly elected Patriarch” and ostensibly announcing the beginning of the “rebirth of canonical Orthodoxy” in Russia. Juxtapositioning the “Council-elected” Patriarch Alexis with the illegal seizure of authority by Sergius (Stragorodsky), Bishop Athanasius assured the faithful that with the death of the latter and with the “canonical election of Patriarch” Alexis (Simansky), that he reasons that led to the schism in the Church were automatically removed. This thinking of Bishop Athanasius was also supported by the former Bishop Gabriel (Abalimov) and some others.
Trusting the call of these Archpastors and assured by the Eastern Patriarchs and the Moscow Patriarchate itself, many “not understanding” priests (especially those in the former occupied territories), followed their example and agreed to emerge from the catacombs and receive their official registration. Shortly after, the majority of them were retired by the hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate - while those who were daring enough to disagree, were arrested by NKVD and were once again sent to the concentration camps.
On the 30th of August 1946, Bishop Athanasius was arrested and spent 11 years in confinement. After his release in 1957, he was subjected to continuous slander and oppression by the hierarchs of the Patriarchate, having never received an appointment to a See. He died in complete poverty in October of 1962 in a village called Petushk in the Vladimir region.
However, not all true Orthodox pastors succumbed to the new allure. A significant part of the Catacomb clergy, as well as the many newly ordained priests during the German occupation, preferred to remain in an illegal position. The fate of three friends – priests Fr. Alexander Koltipin, Fr. Panteleimon and Fr. T. Tomofeev who served in the Donetsk province, can serve as an indicative example characterizing the situation at that time. In 1927, they ceased to commemorate Metropolitan Sergius, and after the closure of their churches in the ‘30s, they turned to conducting illegal Church services. With the arrival of the German army, they emerged from the underground and began to re-establish their parishes. Protopriest Alexander was appointed by Bishop Dimitri of Ekaterinoslavsk as Dean of the province, where he was continuously assisted by Fathers Panteleimon and Timothy. With the advance of the Soviet army, Fr. Timothy, Fr. Dimitri and other clergy migrated to Europe. Initially, the remaining clergy were not touched by the Soviet instrumentalities, who permitted them to freely conduct church services in their parishes... After it was announced that Alexis Simansky was enthroned as Patriarch in 1945, all the clergy of the Grishin region (presently Krasnoarmeisk) were assembled, where they were demanded to write a statement of their loyalty and faithfulness to the MP. Father Alexander was forced to agree, for which he was allowed to continue conducting services in his church. But the second priest, Father Panteleimon categorically refused to acknowledge the Soviet Patriarch, stating: “I give witness to the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church , but you – I don’t know, and I will not sign your petition.” Returning to his illegal position, Fr. Panteleimon settled in Andreevka, where he conducted secret church services, for which he was arrested and sent to Siberia, where he died.
Similar fates befell many other true-Christian pastors. Denied their churches in the previously occupied territories, they were once again forced to go underground. And again, as in the ‘30s, repressions were resurrected against the clergy that didn’t accept the “Soviet Church.” Thus, while in 1941 there were 10 Catacomb churches in the Moscow region, in 1945 - after indiscriminate searches by the NKVD - all the True Orthodox Church clergy were arrested.
In the middle of the ‘40s, special commissions were established under the NKVD that engaged in the surveillance, unearthing and liquidating of such [catacomb] groups. As well, a special new division called “Section 5” was created within the NKVD to handle Church matters and as such, was called “Liquidator.” The seriousness which the Soviets displayed concerning the activities and spread of influence of the Catacomb Church, as well as the measures undertaken by the government as a response, is
manifested in a note sent on the 5th of October 1944 by G .Karpov to the Deputy President of the Soviet People’s Committee of the USSR, V. Molotov. In part, it states:
“In provinces which have a insignificant number of active churches and in regions where there are no churches, there is a notable mass spreading of group church services, either in the homes of the faithful or under open sky – in cemeteries, in church buildings - attracting hundreds of faithful. With that, the invitations to partake of these rites are made by clergy that are not registered as such. Church services are performed systematically... Those belonging to these unregistered groups and clergy possess a disposition of opposition toward the legal Patriarchal Orthodox Church, and condemn it for its loyalty to the Soviet authority... A large number of religious fanatics who are under the influence of these groups, sharply differ in their sentiments from the faithful groups that are under the influence of the patriotically (pro-Soviet – author) leaning clergy who have accepted a legalization. Thus the faithful seek fulfillment in their religious inquiries in the underground, building forest, cave and catacomb churches." General Karpov introduced a Jesuit proposal in the battle against, and in order to gain control over, such faithful: “… The aims of the battle with the illegal church groups are - where they have developed over a wide area, to widen the net of active [Soviet] churches up to 2 or 3 per region, and also to allowing a increase of church openings in the provinces and territories that have significant numbers of active churches, and in those areas where there are not.”
Having before them the evident example of Nazi Germany which achieved loyalty and a reduction of opposition on behalf of the local population in the territories they occupied [by allowing Church life], the Soviet regime – besides the convening of the Council and the "electing" of a Patriarch - decided to ease their repression on religion... As already noted, in their striving to control the activities of the faithful and in order to destroy the life of the alternative underground Orthodox communities, in many regions of the country, churches started to reopen whose clergy were then obliged to inform the local NKVD (converted to MVD in 1946) of the full details of the church-parish life.
In this context alone is it possible to understand the opening, across the entire country, of the previously closed churches by the Soviets. Thus, in the initial years of its existence (1943-1944) the Soviet Church Department issued permissions reluctantly, as can be seen in the Gorkov province where in 1945, of the 212 applications submitted, only 14 were granted. As well, in January 1945, there were only 22 functioning churches in the whole of the province, while the closed churches numbered 1011. Whereas in 1946-1948, the scene changed dramatically. As noted in the protocols of the Department, from the 17th of March 1947, of the 64 examined applications [to open legalized churches] – all were approved; while from the 20th of May 1947, of the 67 applications – 62 were approved. Thus, from 1944 to 1947, some 1270 churches were opened within the newly formed Patriarchate.
As expected, thanks to the arrests of the active clergy and parishioners of the Catacomb Church, as well as due to the opening of churches of the Patriarchate, the government was able to reduce the numbers of “headless underground groups”, whose passive members began to turn to the legal clergy, while the “obdurate fanatics” began to “isolate” themselves from the outside world.
Apart from this, in order to successfully expose the illegal communities of the Catacomb Church, the Soviet Patriarchate was drawn into the struggle - cooperating with the Soviet secret police. This was the so-called “struggle against sectarianism”. There are many known cases when monks or priests of the Patriarchate – being enlisted by the MVD, were sent into Catacomb communities in order to inform on their members. The most active catacombniks were then arrested. This "informing system" soon got the results which the Soviet regime had hoped: in the ‘50s, more than 50% of the Catacomb communities and monasteries were “dissolved” in the USSR, thereby not only halting the increase of Catacomb Church members, but also curbing the influence of the Catacomb Church on the population.