Shevchenko, T. I. “FINNISH ISSUE” IN CORRESPONDENCE OF PATRIARCH ALEXEY I WITH CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL FOR AFFAIRS OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH G. G. KARPOV. Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2021;43(2):44–54. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2021.583


Russian history

“FINNISH ISSUE” IN CORRESPONDENCE OF PATRIARCH ALEXEY I WITH CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL FOR AFFAIRS OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH G. G. KARPOV

Shevchenko
T. I. 		St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University of the Humanities
Keywords:
history of Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century
Finnish Orthodox Church
Patriarch Alexey (Simansky)
Council for Affairs of Russian Orthodox Church
Georgy Grigoryevich Karpov
Archbishop Herman (Aav)
autocephaly
soviet-finnish relations
state-church relations		 Summary: The article is devoted to the review of the “Finnish issue” in the correspondence of Patriarch Alexey (Simansky) with the Chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church – G. G. Karpov. The Council was established in 1943. The correspondence covers the period 1945–1953. All correspondence (1945–1970) was published in the two-volume collection of the Russian Political Encyclopedia Publishing House in 2009. The “Finnish issue” included the discussion of measures and strategies for restoring canonical relations between Russian and Finnish Orthodox Churches. In 1921 Moscow Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin) granted autonomy to the Finnish Orthodox Church. In 1923 the Church came under the jurisdiction of Constantinople Patriarch, despite the protest of Patriarch Tikhon. Since then relations between the Russian and Finnish churches have been interrupted before 1957. The difficult situation of the Church in Soviet Russia and the Second World War did not allow both sides to discuss thesituation. In the first post-war years, the Soviet government was interested in promoting the Russian Church’s international policy. The review of the correspondence shows the dynamics of the discussion between Patriarch Alexey and G. G. Karpov on the problem of restoring the canonical communication between Russian and Finnish churches, the new aspects associating with it, and helps to understand why the autocephaly was not granted to the Church of Finland at that time.



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