ASSISTANCE OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TO THE POPULATION USSR DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Ershov Bogdan Anatolyevich

Date of publication: May 25, 2022 DOI: 10.52270/26585561_2022_14_16_92

Historical Sciences

ASSISTANCE OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TO THE POPULATION USSR DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Ershov, Bogdan Anatolyevich1

''Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Academician of RAE, Voronezh State Technical University, 84, 20 years of October Street, Voronezh, Russia, E-mail: bogdan.ershov@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article discusses the assistance of the Russian Orthodox Church to the population of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. Modern Russian reality allows us to rethink many aspects of our entire complex history, helps to understand the drama and dialectic of public life, to abandon many historical dogmas and stereotypes. In modern conditions, there is a formation and formation of a new attitude to the study of such a complex problem as state-church relations during the Soviet system, especially during the Great Patriotic War. This is largely facilitated by the ongoing process of restructuring in the sphere of public consciousness, which finds expression in the expansion of pluralism of opinions on the most acute problems of our past, including the relationship between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War. The importance of this article is determined primarily by the need for a comprehensive assessment of the entire complex of state-church relations during the war, the use of this experience to solve new problems, to extract from history the lessons necessary to understand the present and foresee the future.

Keywords: war, church, Homeland, land, value.

I. INTRODUCTION

The relevance of the problem under consideration, in our opinion, is as follows: firstly, it comprehensively analyzes the history of relations between the state and the church, its patriotic activity during one of the most difficult and historically important periods of our Fatherland. The period of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 occupied a special place in the history of the Fatherland and its Armed Forces, in the history of the state, public organizations of the country, the Russian Orthodox Church.

During these years, as a result of the multifaceted activities of the Soviet state, public organizations, the Russian Orthodox Church to mobilize forces and funds to fight against German fascism, patriotic service to the Fatherland of the Soviet people, soldiers of the army and navy, including believers, the church managed to defend the honor and independence of our Fatherland, defeat German fascism, liberate the peoples of many countries from fascist enslavement.

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II. METHODOLOGY

The methodological basis of the article is the scientific principles of historical knowledge - historicism and objectivity. The author widely relies on general scientific and special-historical research methods used in historical science.

The application of the principle of historicism made it possible to clarify the historical inconsistency of the policy of the Soviet state aimed at combating religion and the church in the pre-war period, to positively assess the essence of the new state policy regarding religion and the church in the extreme historical conditions of the Great Patriotic War. The principle of historicism also made it possible to find out the reason why the foundations of the Christian, Orthodox worldview withstood the severe test of time, especially on the territory of our Fatherland in the 20-40s, and the Russian Orthodox Church, having withstood the onslaught of state atheism in the USSR, was able to develop patriotic activity and contribute a worthy contribution to the common victory of the people over the fascist invaders.

The application of the principle of objectivity made it possible to realistically analyze the activities of all subjects of the process of state-church relations during the Great Patriotic War, to overcome the ideological approach in the analysis of the activities of both the Soviet state, and the Russian Orthodox Church.

III. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS

An analysis of church documents, archival materials, literary sources, historical practice shows that with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the patriotic activity of the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious organizations of the country begins. The essence of the patriotic activity of the church during the war years was the provision of comprehensive assistance to the state in the struggle against the Nazi invaders, making a feasible contribution to the overall victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.

The author studies the patriotic activity of the Russian Orthodox Church during the war years based on the generally accepted periodization of the history of the Great Patriotic War. The activity of the Russian Church in each of the periods of the war has qualitative differences.

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The first period is characterized by the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious organizations unequivocally declared their patriotic position in relation to the Soviet state, conducted a multifaceted prayer and preaching activity, collected donations to the National Defense Fund, believers of various faiths joined the partisan struggle against the invaders, participated in the battles on the fronts of the war, the Church condemned the traitors from among the clergy and episcopate.

The patriotic activity of the church during this period was carried out in such forms as: prayers, sermons, the issuance of special messages from church hierarchs, leaflets, appeals, speeches on the radio, at rallies, the consecration of military units going to battle.

The significance of patriotic activity in the first period lies in the fact that it provided effective assistance to the state in the spiritual mobilization of the entire people to fight the fascist invaders, contributed to the creation of the moral and political cohesion of the people, the defense of the Fatherland in the most difficult period of the Great Patriotic War. Due to the fact that during this period the problem of official state recognition of patriotic activity by the Soviet state had not yet been resolved, the patriotic activity of the church itself was mainly of a spiritual nature.

The second period is characterized by the fact that, continuing to implement the directions, forms, means of patriotic activity, tested in the first period, the church organizes comprehensive assistance to the front and the population, gives priority to the material contribution to the common victory, for which the church collects donations for the creation of a tank column, air squadrons, other military equipment.

On December 30, 1942, Metropolitan Sergius addressed the faithful and the clergy with a message in which he invited them to collect donations for these purposes. March 22, 1944 the tank column of the Russian Church named after Dmitry Donskoy was transferred to units of the Red Army.

The significance of the patriotic activity of the church during this period lies in the fact that it is comprehensive in nature and really contributes to the struggle against the Nazi invaders on the territory of the USSR. This was facilitated by the fact that at that time fundamental changes took place in state-church relations - the Soviet state fully restored relations with the church, which developed into relationships.

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The content of the third period was the improvement of the main directions, forms and means of patriotic activity within the country, as well as the deepening of the international activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, aimed at assisting the state, the Red Army in their liberation mission. This became possible due to the intensification of the entire policy of normalizing relations between the Soviet state and the church.

IV. CONCLUSION

Despite the financial and ideological pressure of the local authorities, the Orthodox clergy launched large-scale patriotic activities to raise funds for the needs of the front and rear. Archival sources make it possible to judge both the personalities of those clergy who led this work in various dioceses, and the sums of money collected in individual rear regions and republics. In addition, the operating parishes provided patronage assistance to hospitals, orphans of the war, families of front-line soldiers, which sometimes was not taken into account anywhere. The material transfers made by the Russian Orthodox Church during the war years eased the lot of those who worked in the rear or fought on the front lines.

The spiritual contribution of the Russian Orthodox Church during the war years is truly great. All her efforts were aimed at strengthening the moral and civic consciousness of people.

In general, the activities of the rear dioceses during the Great Patriotic War not only contributed to strengthening the unity of the front and rear, but also erased the ideological boundaries between believers and the atheistically minded part of Soviet society.

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ПОМОЩЬ РУССКОЙ ПРАВОСЛАВНОЙ ЦЕРКВИ НАСЕЛЕНИЮ СССР В ГОДЫ ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЫ

Ершов Богдан Анатольевич1

1Доктор исторических наук, профессор, академик РАЕ, Воронежский государственный технический университет, ул. 20-летия Октября, 84, Воронеж, Россия, E-mail: bogdan.ershov@yandex.ru

Аннотация

В статье рассматривается помощь Русской Православной Церкви населению СССР в годы Великой Отечественной войны. Современная российская действительность позволяет переосмыслить многие аспекты всей нашей сложной истории, помогает понять драматизм и диалектику общественной жизни, отказаться от многих исторических догм и стереотипов. В современных условиях происходит становление и формирование нового отношения к изучению такой сложной проблемы, как государственно-церковные отношения в период советского строя, особенно в годы Великой Отечественной войны. Этому во многом способствует продолжающийся процесс перестройки в сфере общественного сознания, который находит выражение в расширении плюрализма мнений по наиболее острым проблемам нашего прошлого, в том числе и по взаимоотношениям между Советским государством и Русской Православной Церковью в годы Великой Отечественной войны. Важность данной статьи определяется прежде всего необходимостью всесторонней оценки всего комплекса государственно-церковных отношений в годы войны, использования этого опыта для решения новых задач, извлечения из истории уроков, необходимых для понимания настоящее и предвидения будущего.

Ключевые слова: война, церковь, Родина, земля, ценности.

СПИСОК ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ

Anokhina L.A., Shmeleva M.N. (1966) Religious and everyday survivals of the collective farm peasantry and ways to overcome them (based on the material of the Kalinin, Kostroma and Yaroslavl regions). Issues of overcoming religious remnants in the USSR. M. Pp. 98-108. (in Russ)

Chumachenko T.A. (1995) The New religious policy of the Soviet government: the situation in the Ural village in the 1940s. Chronicle of the Ural villages. Pp. 209-213. (in Russ)

Dobrynin M. (1963) The fiftieth anniversary of the episcopal ministry of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy. Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. Vol. 5. Pp. 64-74. (in Russ)

Ershov B.A., Lubkin Y.Y. (2016) The activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in countering extremism and terrorism in modern Russia. Historical, philosophical, political and legal sciences, cultural studies and art history. Questions of theory and practice. Vol. 11 -2 (73). Pp. 97-99. (in Russ)

Ershov B.A., Nebolsin V.A., Solovieva S.R. (2020) Higher education in technical universities of Russia. 7th International conference on education and social sciences. Abstracts & Proceedings. Pp. 55-58. (in Engl)

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