"Orthodox Factor" in Soviet Diplomacy: International Communications of the Moscow Patriarchate in the mid-i940s

Abstract

This article analyses materials of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, the official correspondence, and the personal cases of the bishops in order to understand the models and practices of diplomatic work of the Moscow Patriarchate in the postwar USSR. The author discusses how the priority of different “areas of activities” was created, how the foreign visits of Church delegations were organized, and how the government managed the cases of those priests who wished to repatriate from abroad. The author comes to the following conclusion: in post-war period the interests of the state and the Church coincided: the state wanted to use the Church as a factor of international politics, and the Church strived to regain its international status among other Orthodox Churches as well as to bring back Russian emigre communities under its jurisdiction.