Is the “New Course” of Religious Policy: a historical necessity or a “genius” mistake of the Soviet leadership? Modern trajectories of the historiography of Church-state relations in the USSR in 1943–1948

Abstract

The article shows some achievements of recent years in the development of the Historiography of the scientific problem of the influence of the “new course” of religious policy of the Soviet leadership on the situation of Christian denominations in the USSR and abroad. The most striking studies of this topic have been made in relation to regional specifics, as well as in the direction of studying the peculiarities of the influence of the “new course” on the situation of Western Christian denominations. Modern scholars have paid special attention to how the state of the religious question changed in the second half of the 1940s, including the formation of a new type of clergy and believing citizens in the USSR. A high degree of relevance is characterized by works that study the state of the Moscow Patriarchy in the post-war period and the trends towards an increasing departure from the decisions and principles of the Local Council of 1917–1918. New studies of this complex topic have shown a serious prospect for further creative study of such church-historical subjects.

Keywords

• moscow patriarchy
• “new course” of religious policy
• council for the russian orthodox church
• patriarch sergius
• roman catholic church