Church and State in Soviet Russia: Russian Orthodoxy from World War II to the Khrushchev Years

Church-state relations during the Soviet period were much more complex and changeable than is generally assumed. Drawing from access to previously closed archives, the author documents the twists and turns of those relations to provide a background to the post-Soviet relationship.
Church-state relations during the Soviet period were much more complex and changeable than is generally assumed. From the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 until the 21st Party Congress in 1961, the Communist regime's attitude toward the Russian Orthodox Church zigzagged from indifference and opportunism to hostility and repression. Drawing from new access to previously closed archives, historian Tatiana Chumachenko has documented the twists and turns and human dramas of church-state relations during these decades. This rich material provides essential background to the post-Soviet Russian government's controversial relationship to the Russian Orthodox Church today.