On February 14, 1947, Georgii Karpov reported to the Central Committee of the All-Soviet Communist Party (Bolsheviks) that the international authority of the Moscow Patriarchate had reached a point that alloweD it to take the leadership of world Orthodoxy. This was the end of the initial phase of Stalin’s project to create an Orthodox VaticaN.1 By that time, the Russian Orthodox Church of Patriarch Alexii had settled its major problems in the postwar Soviet territories: Its bishops were installed in the Western eparchies; the Renovationist and Estonian schisms were overcome; the question of the Georgian autocephaly was settled; the Ukrainian and Transcarpathian Uniates were reunited; the Mukachevo eparchy was integrated. In addition, the Moscow Patriarchate had spread its jurisdiction over the Russian parishes in Eastern and Central Europe as well as over the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia. The reunion of Russian church communities in areas fTee of Soviet military control seemed an achievable goal. Despite the continued fight of the Moscow Patriarchate with the Orthodox Poles about the abolishment of the autocephaly granted them by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, this problem too was expected to soon be resolved. At the same time, the Russian church leadership established close relations with the Orthodox churches in the Balkan people’s democracies and became a decisive factor in their postwar development. Finally, its influence penetrated the Middle Eastern Orthodox communities. In all these areas, the Moscow Patriarchate and the Soviet government successfully collaborated despite the different nature of their aims.
World History
