Perceptions of the Living Church from Abroad in the 1920's: Based on Materials in the Journal Tserkovnye Vedomosti
In this article, the author describes the position of the higher structures of church administration of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) with respect to the various Renovationist church organizations that sprouted in Soviet Russia in the 1920's. Some of these organizations gained the support of the Soviet government, which used them in its atempt to create a “revolutionary” religious community opposed to Patriarch Tikhon's Church. Tserkovnyye Vedomosti, the official journal of the ROCOR, regularly published materials from Soviet and foreign secular and ecclesiastical press about the events in the life of the church in the USSR. Tese questions were also considered at the meetings of the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR. We can state that Russian emigres in the 1920's had a more holistic and objective picture of these processes than their contemporaries in Soviet Russia and, later, Soviet historians. Today it is possible to analyze and summarize these useful data. Te article covers the period between 1922 and 1923, from Patriarch Tikhon's arrest to his release.