Relations Between the Soviet Union and the Vatican, According to Soviet Documents

Abstract

If Stalin’s religious policy underwent radical changes after 1943, when the Moscow Patriarchate was re-established, in the context of post- war international relations and the configuration of spheres of influence, Nikita Khrushchev returns to the attitude of persecuting the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union since year 1958, the reasons being completely different from those of Stalin. But, towards the middle of the 1960s, a change in the anti-religious attitude took shape in Khrushchevs case as well. An example in this sense are two documents from the Soviet archives, which show Khrushchevs position towards the establishment of relations between the Vatican and the Soviet Union, reflected in the instructions sent by the Soviet leader to the USSR ambassador in Cuba and the meeting with the American journalist Norman Cousins, on which occasion he the issue of the release of the Greek-Catholic archbishop Slipyi was addressed in particular.