Michail V. Škarovskij: Istorija russkoj cerkovnoj ėmigracii [Geschichte der russischen kirchlichen Emigration]. S.-Peterburg: Aletejja, 2009. 359 S., Abb. ISBN: 978-5-91419-170-9

Michail V. Škarovskij: Istorija russkoj cerkovnoj ėmigracii [Geschichte der russischen kirchlichen Emigration]. S.-Peterburg: Aletejja, 2009. 359 S., Abb. ISBN: 978-5-91419-170-9.

This substantial volume provides an objective, detailed account of the Russian Orthodox Churches in Central and Southeastern Europe during World War II. The existing scholarship, as the author notes (pp. 17–19), is exceedingly thin and draws on a very narrow set of sources. Škarovskij’s monograph goes far to rectify that empirical deficiency; it uses materials from twelve state archives and five church archives in Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Croatia, and the United States. That intensive research enables the author to reconstruct the institutional and political history of Orthodoxy in the Balkans (chapter one) and Central and Eastern Europe (chapter two), with separate subsections on nine different countries. This study focuses mainly on the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), but also gives attention to other Orthodox groups as well. The author meticulously sifts the contradictory evidence (citing, for example, different statistics on the number of Orthodox believers in Germany in 1933 [p. 184]) and reproduces long passages from archival documents (for example, from a letter and a memorandum on pp. 71–72). The result is a balanced, comprehensive survey of the political and ecclesiastical history of Russian Orthodoxy in Germany and Nazi-occupied or dominated territories. This study overlaps and amplifies two of Škarovskij’s prior publications: „Die Kirchenpolitik des Dritten Reiches gegenüber der Orthodoxen Kirchen in Osteuropa (1939–1945)” (Münster 2004) and „Krest i svastika: Nacistskaja Germanjia i pravoslavnaja cerkov’“ (Moskva 2007).

This study suggests two main findings. First, the Russian Orthodox Church in emigration – notwithstanding the anti-Soviet sentiments of the many émigrés (who regarded Nazi Germany as the lesser evil) – kept the Nazi regime at arm’s length. In the author’s words: “not one of the parts or jurisdictions of the Orthodox Church collaborated with the national socialists” (p. 17). Rather, most leading clergy remained cautiously distant, au fond hoping that the invasion would destroy the godless Stalinist regime and ignite a national and religious revival in a liberated Russia (pp. 34–35). Significantly, the head of ROCA, Metropolitan Anastasij (Gribanovskij), rejected pressure to issue a proclamation in support of the German invasion (p. 33). Second, the author shows that Russian Church leaders found it increasingly difficult to understand and deal with the Nazi regime, partly because the responsible German ministry (Reichsministerium für die kirchlichen Angelegenheiten) – which was most predisposed toward the Orthodox – steadily lost influence vis-à-vis the NSDAP and the Foreign Ministry (pp. 13–15, 35). That became especially evident after the summer of 1941, when Nazi designs left absolutely no room for an Orthodox future in the East and Berlin firmly rejected attempts by ROCA to organize missionary activities in occupied Soviet territories.

This monograph lays the basis for future research, and much indeed remains to be done. First, while the author demonstrates that a leading prelate like Metropolitan Anastasij kept his distance from the Nazis, much more research is needed to ascertain how parish and lay believers responded to the Nazi assault on the atheistic regime to the East. The author briefly indicates that many émigrés saw the Germans as a lesser evil, and that some bishops and priests initially welcomed the invasion (pp. 34–35), but one would like to know much more about this dark side of Orthodox émigré politics. Second, this study focuses on political and ecclesiastical history: it does not seek to examine popular piety and patterns of observance, whether as perceived by the parish clergy or as practiced by parishioners. The author does briefly describe the émigrés’ vibrant theological life, in particular at the theological faculty of Sofia University in Belgrade, but does not attempt to analyze Orthodox religious thought and theology. No doubt much of that history has been irretrievably lost, with the destruction of churches (such as St. Nicholas in Belgrade) and the personal archives of leading Orthodox intellectuals like N. N. Glubokovskij (pp. 78–79). Indeed, even the institutional archives have major lacunae – important but missing documents (pp. 47, 52). Finally, future studies should incorporate a more comparative, contextual framework, one that integrates the Russian case into the scholarship on Nazi religious policy and shows how the treatment of the Russian Orthodox churches fits into the broader politics of the Kirchenkampf.

Nevertheless, this is a stunning piece of research, an objective account that offers fresh insight into the plight of the émigré Orthodox churches in areas under Nazi dominance in World War II.

Gregory L. Freeze, Waltham, MA

Zitierweise: Gregory L. Freeze über: Michail V. Škarovskij: Istorija russkoj cerkovnoj ėmigracii [Geschichte der russischen kirchlichen Emigration]. S.-Peterburg: Aletejja, 2009. 359 S., Abb. ISBN: 978-5-91419-170-9, http://www.dokumente.ios-regensburg.de/JGO/Rez/Freeze_Skarovskij_Istorija_russkoj_cerkovnoj_emigracii.html (Datum des Seitenbesuchs)

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