The Presidential Library to digitize a unique book about the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War

The collection of church documents "Russian Orthodox Church and the Great Patriotic War" of 1943 will soon be digitized and enrich the Presidential Library’s e-collections, numbering more than 770,000 various documents.

The fate of this book is unique in its own way. It was accidentally found on the street by the Chief Bibliographer of the Presidential Library User Service Department Maria Bishokova.

The first section of the collection is devoted to the epistles to the clergy and believers of the Russian Orthodox Church in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War. Already on June 22, 1941, the head of the Orthodox Church in Russia, Patriarchal locum tenens, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Sergius blessed all Orthodox to "protect the sacred borders of our Motherland". On the same day, his appeal was sent to all parishes.

Metropolitan Sergius compared the attack on the USSR by fascist Germany with the invasions of Batu, Karl of Sweden, Napoleon. In this regard, he notes: “It is not the first time that the Russian people have to endure such trials. With God's help, they will dispel the enemy force this time too”.

A separate block of documents in the book is dedicated to the fight against people, including clerics, who have gone over to the side of the enemy.

In a letter of January 1942 to the Orthodox people of the temporarily occupied territory, Metropolitan Sergius describes the evils that believers had to face in these places: “The temples are destroyed. For example, a unique monument of church architecture, the famous temple in New Jerusalem, a copy of the Church of the Resurrection in old Jerusalem, was blown up. Many churches were destroyed in the Kalininsky region, Vereisky, Borovsky and other areas. Churches, hospitals and other charitable and cultural institutions are set on fire, with the sick and wounded Red Army men lying there burned alive”.

On the first anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War, June 22, 1942, Metropolitan Sergius speaks out, among other things, about the financial assistance provided by parishioners to the Soviet state: “The Moscow churches in response to the call of archpastors collected more than three million rubles, except for warm things. The Nizhny Novgorod church community, without disgracing the memory of Kozma Minin, provided more than a million rubles for gifts (to the military) and up to hundreds of thousands for warm clothes”.

Of great interest is the correspondence of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church with the secular authorities, in particular, a number of telegrams addressed to Joseph Stalin and received from him in response to 1942-1943.

Another message refers to raising funds for the tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy. And J. V. Stalin replies in his telegram: “I ask to give Orthodox Russian clergy and believers, who collected 6 million rubles, gold and silver to the construction of the Dmitry Donskoy tank column, my sincere greetings and thanks to the Red Army”.

Finally, a large section of the collection is devoted to the messages of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church to Christians from other countries. For example, a letter from Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Sergei and Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Nicholas, Exarch of Ukraine, dated November 1942: “Brothers in faith! Soldiers of the Romanian army ... We are turning our word to you! We believe in the same with you God and our Lord Jesus Christ, we belong to the same Orthodox Church of Christ. But you and the Hitlerite robber gangs attacked us. <...> Get over yourself, our centuries-old neighbors, our brothers in the Orthodox faith!"

The Presidential Library’s portal provides access to the collection “Orthodox Russia. Monasteries and icons” dedicated to the Russian Orthodox Church, and “The Memory of the Great Victory” collection dedicated to the Great Patriotic War.