Marking the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory. Russian Orthodox Church during the war

On the eve of Easter Sunday, which is celebrated this year on April 19, the Presidential Library provides unique materials on the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War.

The collection of church documents “Russian Orthodox Church and the Great Patriotic War” is presented at the Presidential Library’s collections. The fate of this book is unique in its own way. It was found on the street by the specialist of the Presidential Library, the main bibliographer of the user service department, Maria Bishokova, and transferred to the library for digitization.

A large section of the collection is dedicated to the epistles to the clergy and believers of the Russian Orthodox Church during the initial period of World War II. On June 22, 1941 the head of the Orthodox Church in Russia, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Sergius blessed all Orthodox Christians “to protect the sacred borders of our Motherland”. On the same day, his appeal was sent to all parishes.

Metropolitan Sergius compared the attack on the USSR by Nazi Germany with the invasions of Batu, Karl of Sweden, Napoleon. In this regard, he remarks: “This is not the first time that the Russian people have to endure such tests. With God's help, this time it will also scatter the enemy’s power to dust”.

In October 1941, when Moscow was in immediate danger, Metropolitan Sergius addressed everyone with the following message: “The enemy is strong, but “the God of the Russian land is great”, as Mamai exclaimed at Kulikovo Field, defeated by the Russian army. The God allows us to repeat this exclamation to our present enemy. Above us is the cover of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the ever-present Intercessor of the Russian land. For us, the prayers of the whole luminous host of saints who shone in our land”.

A separate block of documents in the book is devoted to the fight against those who have sided with the enemy.

In an appeal from January 1942 to the Orthodox people of the temporarily occupied territory, Metropolitan Sergius describes the troubles that believers had to face in these places.

Marking the anniversary of the start of World War II, on June 22, 1942, Metropolitan Sergius reported on financial assistance provided by parishioners to the front: “In response to the call of archpastors, Moscow churches raised more than three million rubles, except for warm clothes. The Nizhny Novgorod church community, not shaming the memory of Kozma Minin, provided more than a million rubles for gifts (to the military) and up to hundreds of thousands for warm clothes”.

Of great interest is the correspondence of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church with the authorities, in particular, a number of telegrams addressed to J. V. Stalin and the answers received from him in 1942-1943.

One of the sections of the collection is devoted to the messages of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church to Christians of other countries. For example, a letter from Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensky Sergius and Metropolitan of Kiev and Galitsky Nicholas, exarch of Ukraine of November 1942.

The Presidential Library, as a center for storing documents on the history of Russian statehood, pays great attention to materials which spotlight the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. Via electronic form, readers are provided with such unique editions as the Ostromir Gospel, the Eleazar Gospel, rare books about the spiritual exploits of Alexander Nevsky, John of Kronstadt and other saints. A lot of work is being done on digitizing the archives of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the Alexander Svir Monastery, documents of the Holy Synod, the building of which also houses the Presidential Library today.

The portal provides the collection History of the Russian Orthodox Church, which includes the fundamental works of significant church figures and church historians; the collection Orthodox Russia. Monasteries and Icons features materials from the 19th and early 20th centuries that spotlight the history of individual Orthodox monasteries and especially revered icons.