Religious Life in the USSR and the Allied Policy of 1943: the Perspective of an American Assumptionist

Abstract

The article considers one of the aspects of the transformation of the religious policy of the Soviet leaders during the Great Patriotic War. In 1941–1943 one of the main addressees of this policy were the allies of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition. The document on which this article is centred reflects the British view of the rapprochement between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church of England in 1943. It is a report to the Vatican compiled by Fr Leopold Braun AA, Rector of the Catholic parish of St Louis in Moscow. The American priest describes the overall picture of religious and near-religious life in the country from the summer to the autumn of 1943; informs the Holy See of the circumstances of the 1943 Council of the Russian Orthodox Church and the election of Patriarch Sergius; details the visit to Moscow of Archbishop Cyril Garbett of York. Fr Braun emphasises the religious dimension of this visit. He claims that some members of the British diplomatic corps and journalists expected liturgical communion to be established between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church of England. These assumptions were not confirmed by members of the British delegation, but reflected the sentiments of part of British society.