During the Great Patriotic War (Word War II, 1941–1945) were events that seemed to go on in the background; they were not covered in newspapers or the radio. At requests of the faithful, churches were reopened... in defiance of the godless policies of the State, but by its decrees. Thus, people found another source of strength in their fight against the enemy. We can’t help but recall the words of St. Seraphim of Vyritsa: “One ascetic can save whole cities and towns by prayer.”
Church and State. The Eve of the Great Patriotic War
In April 1938, the USSR Government abolished the Commission on Religious Cults under the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, which had been responsible, among other things, for the closure of places of worship. The Commission’s work had lost its relevance, as during the previous years, especially in 1937–1938, almost all communities with official registrations had been wiped out, and the vast majority of the clergy had been repressed. However, the country’s population census showed that the number of believers exceeded 53 million.
Clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, prisoners of the Solovki Special Camp The functions of the Commission were transferred to the State security agencies, which had departments for work with religious associations. It is hard to say how accurate the statistics on the closure of churches were at that time. But the available figures are shocking; in the early 1930s, there were about 37,000 active churches in the Soviet Union, and in 1938—only 8000, including 3617 on the territory of the RSFSR.
At the same time, in the late 1930s, the Government’s attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church was ambiguous. In 1937, an article by the historian Sergei Bakhrushin on the significance of the Baptism of Russia appeared in the Marxist Historian scientific journal. In 1938, a piece on the same subject was published in the Bezbozhnik (“Godless”) anti-religious satirical magazine. But the faithful were still recognized as “enemies of the people and socialism”, and religion was viewed as the “opium of the people”. There were calls to put an end to the “reactionary influence of religion” in the following decade. But atheist propaganda was stalling. It was obvious that it was impossible to destroy Orthodoxy. The secret (catacomb) Church life was becoming more and more active in response to the closure of churches. In addition, in the late 1930s, there were requests not to close churches—not only from believers, but also from factory workers. Politics was blending with economics, which was dangerous in the situation of impending war with Nazi Germany. The authorities’ religious policies had to be more circumspect. This problem became particularly acute after 1939 and 1940.
But in Moscow, until 1941, the destruction of churches and the repression of clergy went on as usual. Church property was often simply burned, and church books were used as waste paper. Unfortunately, the number of “non-religious” villages, towns, and urban areas was growing. A whole “society without God” was being built. Nevertheless, there were far fewer arrests of clergy in the fall of 1941. Convicted clergymen were returning from labor camps and prisons. But these Government moves did not last.
On the eve of the war and throughout 1941, there was still a threat of the closure and demolition of churches in the capital. Thus, the Church of the Icon of the Savior, “Not-Made-by-Hands”, in Gireyevo (now Perovo) was closed. On June 22, 1941, a second attempt was scheduled to close the Church of St. Elias in Obydensky Lane. Services at the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Kolomenskoye were banned. Alas, this sad list is very long.
According to the 1941 reference, “Information Received by Telephone from Some Regions and Territories of the RSFSR on the Number of Active Churches”, in the Moscow region services were celebrated in 115 churches, and in Moscow—in forty-five. This information is questionable and obviously overstated. There are also other figures; there were only thirty-two active churches in Moscow and its suburbs. Many churches were unused, since there were no priests.
The Great Patriotic War
On June 22, the Feast of All Saints, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Metropolitan Sergei, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, wrote a “Message to the Pastors and Flock of the Orthodox Church of Christ”. On June 26, he celebrated a prayer service “For the Granting of Victory” at the Theophany Cathedral in Yelokhovo in Moscow.
Patriarch Sergei (Stragorodsky)
During the Great Patriotic War, many priests went to the front, fought and received awards, were in the partisan movement, and worked at hospitals. They also hid and rescued Soviet soldiers and officers, extinguished incendiary bombs on the roofs of houses, set up bomb shelters, sanitary facilities, shelters for children and the elderly in church vaults, and collected medicine and money. For example, an air raid shelter was equipped at the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit at the Danilovskoye Cemetery through the efforts of Archpriest Pavel Uspensky.
Priests’ sons fought at the front. Three sons of the rector of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, “The Unexpected Joy”, in Maryina Roshcha, Archpriest Peter Filonov, served in the army.
And most importantly, priests prayed tirelessly! And they were clairvoyant, predicting the victory of the Soviet Army in the most difficult and hopeless situations of that terrible war.
In addition, the Russian Orthodox Church collected donations for the front. Thus, the Diocese of Moscow raised over 12 million rubles in the first years of the war. Of these, two million were allocated to the Dimitry Donskoy Tank Column (40 T 34-80 tanks), and over a million to the St. Alexander Nevsky Squadron. It is noteworthy that the Renovationist and Old Believer Churches also donated to the cause.
At that time, the Government saw the Orthodox Church as a force capable of uniting the people. But the Church was still considered a haven for spies and saboteurs, and religion was regarded as a relic of capitalism and even an enemy of patriotism. However, the impossible began to happen: More and more people appealed for the opening of churches. And they were reopened. Between 1941 and 1943, forty-four churches were reopened in the Moscow region.
There were other significant events too. In 1942, after the Battle of Moscow, Pascha was openly celebrated for the first time. The following year, 1943, went down in the country’s history as a turning point in the relations between the Soviet Government and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The “Religious Thaw”
In early September 1943, at a meeting with Joseph Stalin, it was suggested that a Commission on Religious Affairs under the Supreme Soviet of the USSR be set up. Georgy Karpov, head of the Fifth Department for Combating Church and Sectarian Counterrevolution of the Secret Political Directorate of the NKGB (the People’s Commissariat for State Security), came up with this idea. Stalin made adjustments and suggested setting up a commission under the Government of the USSR, which would not have the right to make independent decisions. This is how the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults appeared.
ROC Affairs Council meeting
Late in the evening of September 4, the Kremlin hosted a historic meeting between Stalin, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, and Molotov, his deputy, with Metropolitan Sergei of Moscow and Kolomna, Metropolitan Alexei of Leningrad and Novgorod, and Metropolitan Nikolai of Kiev and Galicia, Exarch of Ukraine. As a result, it was decided to convene a Council of Bishops, which took place on September 8, 1943, in the presence of nineteen hierarchs. In addition, the Russian Orthodox Church was recognized as the only religious association, and the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate was revived.
However, there were secret documents on preventing the disintegration of the Renovationist Church and its transfer to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Diocese. It was noted that if such actions took place, they should not be hindered by the authorities. So the first steps were taken to abolish Renovationism, its parishes and dioceses, and return the churches to the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1943, a house on Chisty Lane was allocated for the residence of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. The nearest active church was the Church of St. Elias, which had not been closed and which during the war years had raised 50,000 rubles to the USSR Defense Fund.
Was the Government sincere in its actions towards the Church? Beyond all doubt, it was a very practical move. Thus, many issues were resolved, including “freedom of conscience in the USSR”, which was important on the threshold of the conference in Tehran (the meeting of the leaders of the “Big Three” in November-December 1943). It was impossible not to recognize the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in uniting people to fight the enemy.
Opening of Churches in Wartime
In 1943–1945, the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR passed about twenty resolutions concerning the Russian Orthodox Church. On November 28, 1943, a document, “On the Procedure for Opening of Churches”, was issued, according to which petitions for the reopening of churches would be submitted to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People’s Commissars. This structure would find out who the initiator of every petition was, and what his interests and relations with the Church were in the past. Further, the number of believers and the reason for the closure of the particular church were established. The petition had to be signed by twenty people with accurate information about themselves. The initiative group could not include priests who had their “selfish ends” for the reopening of churches.
A cross procession in one of the villages occupied by Germans
On December 1, 1944, another decree was issued, which stated that, first of all, the churches that had not been closed officially should be reopened. It was prescribed to find out the structural conditions of each building, the need and cost of repairs, and the availability of housing for clergy. The issue of the number of churches in the inhabited locality was considered important as well. On April 20, 1944, an instructive letter of the Chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church Georgy Karpov says what could serve as a reason for the denial of a petition: the absence of a building, the use of a church building for other purposes, the impossibility of vacating it, operational unsuitability, and the loss of church appearance.
If the inspection results were satisfactory, the documents were submitted to the executive committee of the regional Council of Workers’ Deputies, which made the decision. The petition would be submitted from the executive committee to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church. On its approval, the documents were sent to the Government of the USSR. On receiving a positive verdict, the parish was registered, an agreement was concluded on the transfer of the church building, and its rector was appointed.
During 1944–1945 alone, the Council considered thousands of applications from across the country. 4,850 petitions were rejected for various reasons. 529 churches were reopened, confirming Karpov’s words that the reopening of churches was not intended to become widespread.
Indeed, churches began to be reopened. But the process was complicated and ambiguous. Some churches were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church from the Renovationists. Others were simply reopened after their closure and the transfer of their buildings to various offices.
Moscow Churches Occupied by Renovationists and Returned to the Russian Orthodox Church
In May 1922, with the active participation of the State, a schismatic movement appeared in the USSR, which went down in history as Renovationism. Renovationists began to seize churches. In 1936, there were 2,876 Renovationist parishes in the USSR. In 1937 in Moscow, Renovationist services were held in seven churches. According to other sources, there were nine Renovationist communities. It should be remembered that the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which the Renovationists had seized, blown up in 1931.
The blown-up Cathedral of Christ the Savior In 1943, the following churches were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church:
1. The Church of the holy Martyrs Adrian and Natalia in Babushkino, built in 1914–1916 on Troitskaya Road.
2. The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Altufievo. The church was first mentioned in 1564, and the stone building was constructed in 1760–1763.
3. The Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Sokolniki, founded in 1909. In 1945, the Local Council of the ROC was held there, electing Alexei I as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. In 1948, an assembly of the primates and representatives of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches was held there.
4. The refectory of St. Nicholas Church at the Transfiguration Cemetery, built in 1784–1790 and rebuilt in the nineteenth century.
5. The Holy Trinity Church at the Pyatnitskoye Cemetery, built in 1830–1835.
In 1944, after many years, to the Church were returned:
1. The Church of St. Elizabeth at the Dorogomilovskoye Cemetery. It was founded in 1772 and pulled down in 1948. The cemetery has since been destroyed and the area built up with residential buildings.
2. The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, “Joy of All Who Sorrow”, at the Kalitnikovskoye Cemetery, built in 1834–1836.
3. The Church in honor of the Renewal of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem at the Vagankovo Cemetery. It was constructed in 1819–1831.
In 1946, after the death of one of the ideologues and leaders of the Renovationist movement, Alexander Vvedensky, the “last bastion” of the Renovationists fell. It was the Church of St. Poemen the Great in Novye Vorotniki, built in 1696–1702. In 1937, parishioners held a rally outside this church, asking not to transfer it to the Renovationists, who had previously taken over the demolished Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Bolshaya Spasskaya Street.
Churches Returned After Their Closure
It was quite hard to return the closed churches. Many of them had been considerably transformed and “rationally used” as living quarters, clubs, factory workshops, warehouses and, at best, museums. Consequently, the Moscow City Council had difficulty in finding new premises for these occupants, which in wartime Moscow was a complicated, laborious and time-consuming task. Despite this, churches were still returned.
Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Kolomenskoye
In 1942, the authorities reopened the church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Kolomenskoye, built in 1649–1653, and which had been closed in 1941–1942. Services have been celebrated in it ever since.
In 1944, services resumed at the Transfiguration Church-Over-the-Gate at the Novodevichy Stavropegic Convent, built in 1687–1689. Between 1922 and 1926, it housed the warehouse of the Goskhran (the USSR State Storage of Valuables). The convent was converted into the Princess Sophia and Streltsy Museum, then the Museum of Women’s Emancipation, the History, Household and Art Museum, and in 1934, a branch of the State History Museum. In 1943, theological courses were opened in the Lopukhin Chambers, and in 1944, it became the Theological Institute.
In 1945, the following churches became active again:
1. The Dormition Refectory Church at the Novodevichy Convent, built at the behest of Princess Sophia Alexeyevna (1657–1704) in 1685–1687. It was closed in 1922, and for many years it housed, among other things, an institution of military cartography.
2. The All Saints’ Church in Vsekhsvyatskoye (in Sokol), founded in 1683 and rebuilt in stone in 1733–1736. In 1923, there were plans to convert the church into a factory club, but in the end it was given to the Renovationists. In 1939, the church was closed and turned into a warehouse. The five-tier iconostasis was burned in the churchyard. The church’s return was largely thanks to Olga Bogoslovskaya, a companion of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna Romanova, a member of the community of the Convent of Sts. Martha and Mary, and the head of the Romashka sanatorium for children from poor families with skeletal tuberculosis in the village of Vsesvyatskoye.
In 1946, the Small Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God of Don at the Donskoy Monastery, built in 1591–1593, was returned. In 1925, the holy Patriarch Tikhon was buried there. In the 1930s, the cathedral and the bell tower were transferred to the Metrostroy as a dormitory. Between 1946 and the 1960s, services were held at the cathedral. The complete return to the Church took place in 1948 thanks to the petition of Patriarch Alexei I to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church and in the run-up to the assembly of the primates and representatives of the Autocephalous Churches.
Victory!
On June 24, 1945, the Victory Parade took place on Red Square in Moscow. Patriarch Alexei I (Simansky) of Moscow and All Russia was present alongside the members of the Government at the Lenin Mausoleum rostrum. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were on the guest stands: Archpriest Alexander Smirnov, Protopresbyter Nikolai Kolchitsky, and Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) of Krutitsy and Kolomna. It was the USSR Government’s recognition of the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the victory. After all, many priests became heroes during the war. According to the documents, in September 1944 and January 1945, twenty priests from Moscow and Tula were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Moscow”.
Patriarch Alexei I (Simansky) of Moscow and All Russia
After the Great Victory, many soldiers and officers devoted their lives to God, becoming priests and monks. God’s ways are mysterious. God alone knows His plans for the world and for each one of us.
But was there ringing of bells in the capital celebrating the Victory? Indeed, from ancient times, a “victory bell” would sound for a quarter of an hour in honor of military victories. Unfortunately, it was not until August 22, 1945, that the Council of People’s Commissars issued a decree not to prevent the ringing of bells if a church had them.
