The expulsion of Patriarch Constantine VI from Constantinople in January 1925: a view from the USSR
Abstract
The article is devoted to the reaction of Soviet circles to the expulsion of the Patriarch of Constantinople (1924-1925) Konstantin (Araboglu) by the Turks. The top party leadership-the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) – did not delve into the problem. The NKID of the USSR had to deal with the issue mainly. Also, the pro-Soviet schismatics-renovationists, who were secretly closely connected with the OGPU, who sought to rely on the Fanar in the fight against the Orthodox Russian Church, showed special concern about the fate of Constantine VI. The expulsion of the Greek patriarch and the international reaction to this event were covered in sufficient detail by the leading Soviet periodicals (the newspapers “Pravda” and “Izvestia”), and if at first the presentation of information was relatively neutral, then the position of the Turkish side became more justified. The decisive point was the view of the Commissar of Foreign Affairs G. V. Chicherin, who was convinced that the Soviet Union should not “get involved in this matter” and “perceive the old tsarist function of patronage of the Orthodox Church in the East”. The profile Anti-Religious Commission under the Central Committee of the RCP(b), in which there was a strong influence of representatives of the OGPU, it seemed that it was possible to use the intrigue around Araboglu in the interests of the USSR, but in the end the position of the NKID prevailed. The appeals of the Renovationists to Chicherin to intercede for Patriarch Konstantin were consistently rejected by the Commissar. The Patriarchal Orthodox Russian Church did not defend Constantine VI, both for objective and subjective reasons. As a result, the crisis was resolved without any far-reaching church-political consequences.
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