The church underground in Moldova in 1944-1964: emergence, shapes, participants

Abstract

The post-war period in the history of state-church relations in Soviet Moldova developed under the permanent pressure of the authorities on church institutions and clergy, with the attempts to gradually oust religion and the church from the lives of citizens. In response to the large-scale attack on the church, the population of Moldova was looking for ways and means to meet their religious needs. One of these ways was going into the church underground. The reduction in the number of “official” parishes and registered white clergy revitalized the so-called impostors, who satisfied the religious needs of believers in non-functioning temples or in their own houses. Knowing that, according to the canonical rules, the divine services were possible only if there was an antimension consecrated by the bishop, the representatives of the religious “twenties” actively hid antimensions when parishes were closed to provide them to the “legal” clergy, impostors or the self-appointed for services at the first opportunity. Though the monastic system was eliminated and the number of working parish churches was reduced, the number of religious services remained almost unchanged throughout the period under study, which was possible in some degree due to the activities of the church underground of Moldova, whose participants were both believers and representatives of the local clergy.