Materials of white emigrant Church organizations in China as a source on the Orthodox Church history

Abstract

The paper deals with various aspects of the Orthodox Church history in China on the basis of a rich source - materials of white emigrant Church organizations collected in one large file of the Fund 9145 «Collections of individual documents of various emigrant organizations» of the state archive of the Russian Federation. This file contains correspondence on specific issues as well as various flyers, brochures, newspaper articles, posters, announcements, reports, statements, notes with the characteristics of various aspects of Orthodox history and covers the time period from 1924 to 1936. Articles from the Newspapers «Zarya», «Gong Bao» as well as a spiritual magazine «Bread heavenly», etc. deal with the key issues of the transition of the Chinese clergy under the control of the Synod of bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia under the canonical jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, etc. Unfortunately, despite the considerable interest in the history of Russian emigration in the second quarter of the 20th century in China, as well as in the history of Orthodoxy in the country, the documents of this file have not been widely known, although they are the supplement of the little-known pages of Orthodox history.