Reports of the Authorized Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow and the Moscow Region as a Source of Information about Parish Life in the Moscow Diocese in the 1944–1946

Abstract

The article analyzes information about the parish life of Moscow and the Moscow region churches in the 1944–1946 contained in the reports of the Commissioner for Moscow and the Moscow region of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church made by A.A. Trushin according to the funds of the Central State Archive of the Moscow region. The paper provides data on the number of churches operating in the first post-war years, as well as on how many churches closed in the 1920s and 1930s were used for economic and cultural needs, which, according to the author, in most cases, contributed to their preservation until the period of mass transfer to the Church. To analyze the changes in the manifestations of popular religiosity in the mid-1940s, information on the attendance of Easter services is taken as a basis, participation in which is considered as an open manifestation by believers of their attitude to the Church. These materials record a steady increase in the number of parishioners during the period under review, not only in Moscow, but also in cit- ies near Moscow and rural parishes of remote areas – Taldomsky, Lukhovitsky, etc. The main reasons for the rise of popular religiosity, according to the author, were the victory in the Great Patriotic War, as well as the expectations of changes in anti-church policy on the part of the state in the USSR that appeared after the meeting of I.V. Stalin with the metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church in September 1943. The great interest in the array of documents under consideration is represented by the data on the percentage of young people in the total number of believers and military personnel in the temples