Church Diplomacy in the Conditions of the Cold War: Directions of International Activity of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Period of Detente International Tension in the 1970s

Abstract

The article provides an overview of the international activities of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate during the 1970s. The following directions of church international activity are described: 1) Peacekeeping activities, and the transformation of the USSR into a springboard for interreligious efforts to limit the arms race and reduce the nuclear threat. Throughout the 1970s, the USSR positioned itself as a platform for dialogue on the problems of peacemaking, not only inter-Christian, but also inter-religious; 2) Building a new system of relations with the Orthodox and Ancient Eastern Churches, which acquired new significance in connection with the transfer of the confrontation between the two superpowers to the countries of the third world; 3) Participation in the work of international religious institutions, which in the 1970s became important actors in the process of defusing international tension and the Helsinki process. The Russian Church to some extent became an element of the Soviet “soft power” in the conditions of the detente of the 1970s, was one of the actors in the detente of international tension as much as it was possible in the context of the Soviet bureaucratic system.