Unknown Episode of Soviet-Greek Contacts in 1945: Meeting of Patriarch Alexy (Simansky) of Moscow and All Russia with Greek Politicians in Egypt

Abstract

The publication introduces into scientific circulation a note by G. G. Karpov, Chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, on the meeting of Patriarch Alexy (Simansky) of Moscow and All Russia with representatives of the Greek political emigration in Egypt in June 1945. The meeting took place during a large-scale visit of a delegation of the Russian Church to the Middle East and Egypt. While the patriarch was in Alexandria, he was visited by the former head of the Greek government in exile, Sofoklos Venizelos, and the former deputy prime minister of that government, Georgios Roussos. Their visit, in fact, was an attempt by liberal political figures in Greece to establish contact with the Soviet leadership through the mediation of the Primate of the Russian Church.