Plea for help. Letters of orthodox believers to the Pope in 1931: new documents from the Vatican archives
Abstract
The article makes public new documents from the Vatican archives. These are letters to the pope with requests for help written by Orthodox believers in 1931. The author of the article examines these documents in the context of other attempts of communication of believers in the USSR with citisens of other states and representatives of foreign religious institutions. The latter, it was believed, could put pressure on the Soviet authorities to ease the anti-religious onslaught. Such attempts gained special significance after the “Curzon ultimatum” of 1923, with which Orthodox believers in the USSR associated the release of Patriarch Tikhon from prison. The published letters have a number of common features. All of them are a response to the papal “crusade of prayers”, announced in 1930 in defense of believers in the USSR. As can be seen from these documents, ordinary believers in Soviet Russia positively perceived this maneuver of the Roman pontifex. All letters report some information, which, as their authors supposed, will help the pope to protect believers in the USSR. Thus, the author of one of the letters directly wrote about the possible demolition of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and asked the pope to prevent this. The authors turn to the pope for help, often quite specifi c (to protect the Church of Christ the Saviour, to prevent the possible expulsion of peasant refugees in the USSR). Thus, the ideas of transmitting information about the situation in the Soviet Union abroad, as well as seeking help from foreign religious leaders were widespread even in the mass consciousness.
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