I. V. Stalin met the representatives of Russian Orthodox Church

From the very first days of the Soviet state Stalin had uneasy relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church. But during the Great Patriotic war the power and the church realized that it was necessary to unite their efforts in order to defend the country. As a result on September 4, 1943 there was organized a meeting between the head of state and the supreme clergy. 

I. V. Stalin invited to the Kremlin the patriarch’s metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Sergey (Stragorodsky), metropolitan Kievsky and Galitsky Nikolai (Yarushevitch) and metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod Alexei (Simansky). At the meeting were also present V. Molotov, L. Beria and the colonel of People’s Committee of state security G. Karpov, the future chairman of the Council of Russian Orthodox Church affairs.

During two-hour conversation the problems tormenting the Russian church for decades, such as bishops’ council, patriarch’s election and his entitlement (patriarch of Moscow and All Russia), opening of theological courses under dioceses, publishing of “Moscow patriarchate magazine”, opening of churches, abolishment of travel limitation for priests previously convicted, patriarch’s removal to the former mansion of German ambassador V. fon Shulenburg, etc. were quickly solved.

In his turn Stalin highly evaluated the patriotic activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in war conditions and thanked its representatives for the contribution of 150 million rubles that the believers donated to the defense fund.

The meeting favored the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia and fixed the conditions under which it should coexist with active power.

Lit.: Ахмедов Р. М. Государство и церковь в российском обществе XX столетия: историко-правовое исследование. Уфа, 2002; Записка Г. Г. Карпова о приеме И. В. Сталиным иерархов Русской православной церкви // Одинцов М.И. Русские патриархи ХХ в. М., 1994; Кашеваров А. Н. Государство и церковь. Из истории взаимоотношений Советской власти и Русской Православной Церкви, 1917–1945 гг. СПб., 1995.