THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN THE WAR YEARS

When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22nd 1941, Metropolitan Sergius, acting as a Russian Patriarch, used a typewriter to personally type a message to the pastors and the congregation of the Russian Orthodox Church, which read: “The fascist brigands have attacked our Motherland. They trampled underfoot all treaties and pledges and treacherously fell on us, and now Russian soil is being soaked with the blood of peaceful civilians. The times of Batu Khan, German knights, the Swedish King Charles XII and Napoleon seem to have returned. The wretched descendants of the enemies of Orthodox Christianity are again set on using untruth and brutal violence to bring our people to their knees and make them sacrifice the good and territorial integrity of the Motherland, our ancestors’ behests to love our country. But it’s not for the first time that the Russian people have had to live through the time of trial. This time, too, our Lord will help us to defeat the enemy force, the Nazis. Our forefathers had to face much worse situations, but they never lost courage because they prayed not for their own lives, but for their sacred duty to their Motherland and their faith, and they emerged victorious. Can we, the Orthodox people, allow their names to be put to shame, we, who are related to them in flesh and faith?”

The Metropolitan’s address reached its emotional pitch at the very end: “The Church of Christ gives its blessing to all the Orthodox believers on defending the sacred borders of our Motherland. God will grant us victory.”

In the face of a general danger the Church did not accuse Soviet Government of destroying churches and persecuting believers. It called for national accord, for pooling efforts to fight the Nazi invaders. The Church blessed the nation’s Patriotic War, and the Blessing was approved by Heaven. Archpriest Shvets said that when the war broke out, the Patriarch of Antioch Alexander III appealed to all Christians of the world to pray for and materially assist Russia. One of those praying for this country was the Metropolitan of the Antioch Patriarchate Elias, who went into a cave, ate no food and prayed to Virgin Mary so She would tell him about the way to help Russia. When he was in the fourth day of his vigil, the Mother of God appeared before him and told him he had been chosen to pass God’s will for Russia and the people of Russia. Russia would perish unless it obeyed God’s will. Virgin Mary said that all churches, monasteries, convents, theological academies and colleges should be re-opened throughout the country. Priests must be brought back from the frontline or released from prisons to resume their service. Plans are now being drawn up for surrendering Leningrad (now St.Petersburg), Virgin Mary said, but this, She warned, must not be done. The Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan must be carried in religious procession around the city to prevent the enemy from ever setting foot on the city’s sacred land. It’s a select city. A religious service must be held before the Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan in Moscow, and then the Icon must be taken to Stalingrad, which should never be surrendered to the enemy. The Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan must follow the Russian troops to the national borders.”

God’s will was passed on to the Russian Church hierarchs. The war turned out to be a kind of purifying thunderstorm for the Soviet people. The ordeal of the horrible war gave rise to the feeling of Orthodox revival in millions upon millions of this country’s citizens. People again began to attend church services, and Soviet government lifted many of its earlier bans on the Church activities. 

The residents of the besieged Leningrad were first astonished and then inspired by the sight of the miracle-working Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, which was carried in religious procession. After that the Icon was taken to Moscow, where Stalin ordered putting it on board a fighter-plane and flying the Icon around the city. Rumours began to spread that on the very same day a group of Nazi tanks that had fought their way almost to the city outskirts came to a halt because the tank engines died and would not re-start for no obvious reason. The Nazi tanks remained there until wiped out by the Moscow defenders. 

Later on the Icon of the Mother of God of Kazan was set in a place in Stalingrad, on the right bank of the Volga, and the German troops never succeeded in crossing the river. Actually the Battle of Stalingrad began with a prayer before the Icon, rather than with the shouts “Forward! For comrade Stalin!” as had always been the case before. 

True, the ideas of socialism brought many people together in the war against Nazi Germany. But in case of Russia the Nazis’ obsession with the plan to wipe out this country as a nation turned the world war into a patriotic one. So it was natural that in a bid to overpower the enemy the nation turned to their imperial tradition and to Russian history. The Orthodoxy was the Russian man’s main spiritual basis. Stalin just couldn’t fail to realize this, so it is small wonder that he sought assistance from the Church during that dangerous period of time in this country’s history.

20,000 churches were opened during the war years. In spring 1942 Soviet Government allowed Easter celebrations for the first time in many years. On September 4th 1943 Stalin invited the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Kremlin to discuss the need for reviving religious life in the USSR and the speedy election of a Patriarch.