During the interwar period the Moscow Patriarchate was alone in its struggle to preserve its canonical and administrative jurisdiction over the Orthodox communities in Finland, Estonia, Poland, and Latvia. The Bolsheviks not only distanced themselves fTom this cause but, by imprisoning Patriarch Tikhon (1922-1923), created conditions for the involvement of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople: initially to take care of the Orthodox population in the new independent states established on the territory of the former Russian Empire, but then to spread his own jurisdiction and even to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in interwar Poland. This policy was abandoned in 1939, when the annexation oF Eastern Poland placed 90 percent of the parishes of the Polish Orthodox Church under Soviet control.21 Now the Red commissars permitted the Moscow Patriarchate to restore its administrative jurisdiction over the Orthodox eparchies of Galicia, Volhynia, and Western Belarus, which had been considered “Russian and Orthodox lands since times primordial.”22 AT the same time, previous Polish assaults on Orthodoxy in Galicia facilitated Soviet propaganda presenting the Sergian Church as a champion of its adherents who had remained outside interwar RussiA.23 THerefore, the Soviet government needed the assistantship of the Moscow Patriarchate.24
For the first time, Metropolitan Sergii (Starogorodskii) was in a position to ask and expect concessions fTom the KremliN.25 He did not wait long. Soon after the partition of Poland, the Moscow Patriarchate received the freedom to exercise its canonical rights of mother church over the Polish Orthodox Church. Its first act was to denounce the Polish autocephaly not only in words but also in deedS.26 There was no reaction from the head of the autocephalous Polish Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Dionisii, as the Nazis had put him in jail in the first months of the war. Then one of the four acting metropolitans of the Sergian ecclesiastical administration—Metropolitan Sergii (Voskresenskii)—took charge of the church affairs in Western Belarus and Galicia. In the beginning he was sent to Kremenets in Volhynia, but in the summer of 1940 he was transferred to the Baltic regioN.27 For a while, his functions in the former Polish dioceses were executed by the Bishop of Grodno, Panteleymon (Rozhnovskii).28 In this regard it is important to mention that this hierarch had refused to join the autocephalous Polish Orthodox Church and thus had been kept in isolation in the monastery of Zhirovitsy before September 1939. After the division of Poland, he “opted for the now vacant See of the Diocese of Grodno, under the Soviets,” and his request was satisfied by the Moscow locum tenens, Metropolitan Sergii (Starogorodskii).29
After the occupation of the Baltic States, the city of Vilnius, which had belonged to Poland until September 1939, was transferred to the Lithuanian Orthodox Church in parallel with the establishment of the Soviet Republic of Lithuania. Most parishes and clergy of the former diocese of Vilnius, however, remained under Bishop Panteleymon of Grodno. On June 24, 1940, the Moscow Patriarchate issued a decree that elevated him to the rank of Archbishop of Grodno and VilniuS.30 In the next month, however, he was retired by the locum tenens “because of advanced age.”3 1 His duties were taken over by Hegumen VeneDikt (Bobkovskii), who was consecrated as vicar bishop of Panteleymon in March 1941. Both hierarchs had their residence in Zhirovitskii Monastery.32
In the summer of 1940, the care of the Orthodox dioceses in Western Ukraine and Belarus was assumed by another Moscow envoy, Nikolay (Yarushevich). In the beginning he was appointed as Archbishop of Volhynia and Lutsk and in March 1941 was elevated to the rank of metropolitan. On the eve of the Nazi invasion, Metropolitan Nikolay was ordered to return to the old Soviet territories, where, on July 15, 1941, he was appointed as Metropolitan of Kiev and Galich and Exarch of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.33 DUring his stay in the western territories, the Sergian Church undertook energetic steps to integrate the former Polish dioceses. According to the historiographers of the Moscow Patriarchate, Nikolay (Yarushevich) was accepted by Ukrainian Orthodox clergy “with love and filial obedience.”34 He found there seven Orthodox hierarchs: Archbishop Theodosii (Theodosyev) of Vilnius and Lithuania, Archbishop Alexander (Inozemtsev) of Polesye and Pinsk, Archbishop Alexii (Alexander Gromadskii) of Volhynia and Kremenets, Bishop Simon (Ivanovskii), Bishop Antonii (Martsenko), Bishop Polikarp (Sikorsky), and Bishop Panteleymon (Rozhnovskii).35
Generally, these local Orthodox bishops had to pass through special procedures before beinG incorporated into the Sergian Church. The main condition to preserve their previous church ranks was to recognize Moscow’s jurisdiction. Some hierarchs, such as Bishop Polikarp (Sikorsky)36 and Archbishop Alexii (Gromadskii),37 did so after spending some time in Soviet jail.38 THose who resisted were removed from their positions under the pretext of advanced age. One of these was Archbishop Alexander (Inozemtsev) of Polesye and Pinsk, who “did not accept the invitation of the Patriarchate to go to Moscow” and refused to recognize its jurisdiction. As a result, he was retired “on his own wIll” by the 3ocum tenens, Metropolitan Sergii (Starogorodskii).39 His place was taken by Veniamin (Novitskii), the former archimandrite fTom the Pochaev Monastery, consecrated as bishop in Lutsk in the beginning of June 1941.40 THe sacrament was conducted by Metropolitan Nikolay (Yarushevich) and Bishop Polikarp (Sikorsky). The participation of the latter as a hierarch who formerly belonged to the Polish Orthodox Church had a symbolic meaning: By this act he recognized the right of Metropolitan Sergii (Starogorodskii) to administrate the Orthodox dioceses in the western borderlands as a canonical successor of Patriarch Tikhon.41
The energetic Exarch Nikolay also took care of the eparchial structure of the western provinces. He restored the ancient Orthodox eparchy of Lviv after a Three-century nonexistence. In March 1941, Panteleymon (Rudyk), another monk from the Pochaev Monastery, was consecrated in Moscow as Bishop of Lviv.42 It is significant that the newly consecrated episcopate for the dioceses, previously situated in Eastern Poland, originated from the Pochaev and Zhirovitskii monasteries. Their brotherhoods, famous for their loyalty to the locum tenens Sergii, were persecuted by the Polish authorities during the interwar period. Meanwhile, The Sergian Church made some changes in the government of the Pochaev Monastery. It appointed a new abbot, Archimandrite Pankratii (Kashperuk), together with his assistant, Nektarii.43
The Soviet policy concerning the religious communities in the western parts of Ukraine and Belarus included a confiscation of their lands and a nationalization of their church buildings. The Orthodox seminary in Kremenets was closed dowN.44 In parallel, the Militant Atheists League spread its activity in the so-called reunited territorieS.45 Despite these measures, however, “the believers and the clergy were subjected to limited persecution compared with the Soviet standards.”46 The number of clergy was reduced, but the Orthodox churches were not closed. There is evidence of the arrest of fifty-three priests, some of whom were killed, while the others were exiled. The clerGy who continued executing their priestly duties had to pay the same taxes as their colleagues in the old Soviet territories. Even the brotherhood of the tolerated Pochaev Monastery was reduced from 300 to 80 monkS.47 Here is no evidence about the destiny of those monks who “left” the monastery. This relatively mild antireligious policy of the Soviet authorities in the western borderlands aimed to avoid “strong opposition from the population, which they could not risk provoking in the face of the German military threat.”48 THe fact that the Kremlin entrusted the ecclesiastical affairs in the occupied areas to the Sergian Church reveals that it considered this particular religious institution more suitable than the Living Church for this task. In the beginning of June, days before the Nazi invasion, the Moscow Patriarchate ordered its envoys to leave the western territories. Metropolitan Nikolay (Yarushevich) obeyed the order and returned to Moscow, but Sergii (Voskresenskii) remained in the Baltic region.
World History
