The Reaction of the the Russion Orthodox Church During the First Year of Communist Persecution
Graduation Date
Spring 1962
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
On October 25, 1917, according to the Russian calendar, the Bolshevik Revolution, which ushered on to the world scene the dictatorship of Communism, began in Petrograd and spread rapidly to other Russian cities and towns and ultimately engulfed the whole country. Its effect upon all classes of society was immediate and, in most cases, drastic. The old Russian Empire had fallen and a new and terrible rule had taken the vast Russian lands and people.
The red flag of Communism proclaimed the new government. Wherever it was seen there followed death and destruction. Russia was now truly red with the blood of her own people. Thousands were killed for political reasons, and countless thousands died as martyrs for their faith. Communism had a job to do and human life could not be spared if that life threatened or opposed the Communist dictatorship.
Next to the imperial government itself, the Russian Orthodox Church was an Mediate objective of Consist attack. It was the clearly defined intention of the revolutionaries to eliminate the Church along with the old state. When the Bolsheviks took over the great city of Moscow, once called the Third Rome, her people saw their beloved shrine of Our Lady of Tver torn from the gates of the Kremlin, and a large sign put in its place which read: "Religion is the opium of the people". This Communist doctrine inspired the greatest persecution ever undergone by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Many churches and monasteries were closed; bishops, priests, monks, nuns and faithful were put to death or driven into exile. But the clergy and faithful had the will and courage to resist and were determined to fight the atheistically motivated methods employed by the Communists to kill God and the Church in the lives of the people. The Russian Orthodox Church did not remain silent; the reaction was loud and widespread.
This dissertation covers a period crowded with crucial events and traces the attack and counterattack in the bitter conflict between Communist State and the Russian Orthodox Church. It was impossible for the Church, so closely linked to the tsarist throne, not to feel repercussion of the Emperors downfall, especially after the Communist coup d’ état in October 1917. During its first years, the government used police power to terrorize, arrest, exile and murder; the Church denounced the Bolshevik revolutionists as traitors to God and country.