“The unification of the world must be preceded by the unification of Europe, and the latter is unthinkable without the prior unification of the Slavic world.” Exarch STEPHEN I, 1947
In his address, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, opening the International Scientific Conference “Apostle Paul in Antalya: Memory, Testimony”, organized by the Metropolis of Pisidia in the city of Antalya on January 15, 2024, stated: “We have repeatedly emphasized that unity is not simply an internal issue of the Church, precisely because it is inextricably linked to the unity of all humanity. The Church does not exist for itself, but for all humanity and, more broadly, for all creation.”
80 years ago, the removal of the schism from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC) became a topical issue on the international agenda, while at the same time affirming the importance of Russian-Bulgarian historical and spiritual ties through the inter-church interaction of the Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches, illustrating the fact that the Church does not exist on its own. State authorities, as a rule, rely on church hierarchs and often neglect the influence of the believing people on the real embodiment of state religious policy in life.
The State Archives of the Russian Federation, as an important part of the “Russian Political Encyclopedia”, the two-volume edition prepared within the framework of the project “Archive of the Recent History of Russia”, series “Publications”, provided a unique opportunity to work with extremely valuable archival materials, on the basis of which to objectively comprehend the modern Bulgarian church history, by publishing the letters of the All-Russian Patriarch Alexey I (Sergey Vladimirovich Simansky), sent to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) under the Council of People’s Commissars/Council of Ministers of the USSR.
The first volume of the collection represents a unique array of documents and materials illuminating the situation of the Russian Orthodox Church and the history of church-state relations in the period 1945-1953. The letters of Moscow Patriarch Alexey I to the Council for the Affairs of the ROC raise a wide range of problems – from the international activities of the church, counteraction to the increasing anti-religious state propaganda, pressure from local authorities on the clergy and believers, the closure of churches and monasteries, the state’s tax policy towards church organizations and worshipers.
The second volume of the collection of documents contains letters from the period 1954–1970, accompanied by detailed notes revealing the mechanism of interaction between the two structures through the personal contacts of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexey I and the chairmen of the Council G.G. Karpov and V.A. Kuroyedov. The published documents and materials contain extensive information about the internal and external church life of the Russian Orthodox Church. The collection also provides readers with materials with a lack of preliminary thesis and, above all, bias, for studying the international activities of Patriarch Alexey I and the relations of the Russian Orthodox Church with other Orthodox autocephalous churches and denominations, including the processes that took place in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church after September 9, 1944 and the personality of Exarch Stefan I Bulgarian (1878–1957) – “the last revivalist in the history of the Bulgarian Church”!
In 2015, on the occasion of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the lifting of the schism over the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and, at the same time, the election of a Bulgarian exarch in post-war Bulgaria, numerous publications additionally documented, balanced and fairly shed light on these events, based on archival materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation, on archival documents stored in the file of Exarch Stefan I by the secret services of Bulgaria – before and after 1944, which are available in the Archives of the Commission for the Disclosure of Documents and Declaration of Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian People’s Army, as well as in the fund of Exarch Stefan I from a total of 27 archival funds (16 personal and 11 institutional).
I consider it relevant this year, in connection with the 80th anniversary of the lifting of the schism over the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1945. and the election of the Bulgarian Exarch, let us turn once again to some of the letters of the All-Russian Patriarch Alexey from the beginning of his consecration with his election on February 2, 1945 until the death of Exarch Stefan, which have a direct bearing on our most recent church history – all events that took place in the conditions of the purge after September 9, 1944 – just days after the election, held on January 21, 1945 in the church “St. Sophia” and the announcement of Metropolitan Stefan as the Bulgarian Exarch, the first death sentences were issued by the so-called People’s Court – February 1, 1945.
The first letter on the subject, under No. 5 in the collection, sent by the Russian Patriarch to G. Karpov, is from February 14, 1945 and it says that he is sending with this a copy of the statement of the patriarchs on the case of the Bulgarian schism. By 1945, the agenda included not only the restoration of the communion of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church with the other sister Orthodox churches after several decades of isolation from the rest of the Orthodox world, but also the granting of autonomy to the Bulgarian National Church, as a church of an independent state, and from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Thanks to the efforts of Exarch Stefan, following the ideals of Exarch Joseph, and we see also of Patriarch Alexey, the heads and representatives of the four ancient patriarchates who had attended the Local Church Council in Moscow, on February 7 signed a statement in which the following conditions for the lifting of the schism were set:
“1. Submission of an apology by the Bulgarian Synod to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the arbitrary schism.
2. Withdrawal of the Exarch of the Bulgarian Church from Constantinople and transfer of the Bulgarian clergy in Constantinople to the authority of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in accordance with the holy church canons.
3. Limitation of the competences of the Bulgarian Synod within the borders of the Bulgarian state.
After the acceptance of these conditions by the Bulgarian Synod, we believe that 1) an apology will be given to the ruling Ecumenical Patriarchate by the Bulgarian Church, 2) that the schism falls away and that the Bulgarian Church gains independence from the mother church of Constantinople” (F. R-6991. Op. 1. D. 16. L. 33).
There is undoubtedly a connection between the scheduling of the Local Church Council in Moscow and the election of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church with the holding (February 4-11 of this year) of one of the most fateful events of the 20th century – the international conference in Yalta between the leaders of the three main countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
The second letter, sent for approval by the censorship of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, is dated August 17 of this year and contains a draft letter from Patriarch Alexey with a response to the Exarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Stefan of July 25, 1945. The Russian Patriarch expresses hope for the earliest completion of the canonical structure of the Bulgarian Church after the removal of the schism from it and expresses his intention to arrive in Sofia for the celebrations on the occasion of the enthronement of the Exarch.
These first contacts between the two sister churches triggered the exchange of delegations between the Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches in the spring and summer of 1945.
On April 6, 1945, the Russian church delegation arrived in Bulgaria, staying in Bulgaria until April 23, 1945. The visit was made while the war was still in progress – the Third Reich was about to collapse. Another period-marking event occurred on April 12, when the 32nd American President Franklin Theodore Roosevelt passed away – just two months after the Yalta Conference.
A Bulgarian church delegation, headed by Exarch Stefan, returned the visit and visited Soviet Russia in the summer of 1945. On June 26, 1945, the Bulgarian delegation left for Moscow and continued its visit until July 18, 1945. Within the framework of this visit, the Bulgarian head of the church also met with the addressee of the letters of the Russian Patriarch under consideration, Gen. Georgi Karpov, as a representative of the official state authority. Before him, guided by his personal motto “Orthodoxy and Slavism”, Exarch Stefan expressed his idea that the Russian Orthodox Church should take a leading place among the Orthodox Churches and become the Third Rome.
The next letter (No. 47) of Patriarch Alexey to Georgiy Grigorievich Karpov is dated November 3, 1945, in which the text of the patriarchal letter in response to Exarch Stefan is submitted to the state censor for the affairs of the Russian Church for approval, and three letters of the Bulgarian exarch, dated September 9, October 4 and 6, are also attached for familiarization. In his letters, the Exarch congratulates Alexey I on the victory of the USSR over Japan, thanks for the received issues of the church official journal “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate”, for the provision of an interest-free loan of 50 million rubles for the restoration of the buildings of the Synod and churches destroyed by bombing, reports on the letters received from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chairman of the World Interchurch Council on the need for coordinated actions of all churches in the cause of creating a stable and lasting peace. In his letters, Exarch Stefan also expresses his opinion on the interchurch Christian movement, reports on the successes of the Russian Orthodox Church in France, and informs about his visit to Constantinople on September 15 for a meeting with Patriarch Benjamin.
We see the idealistic enthusiasm of this Bulgarian “pioneer” of the ecumenical movement for recent progress in the line of peaceful joint cooperation between all Christian churches in the post-war world, visibly influenced by the fact that one of the key topics related to the post-war peace settlement discussed at the Yalta Conference was the issue of the creation of a new League of Nations – the United Nations (UN).
In his letter, Patriarch Alexey said that it was necessary to get acquainted with Archpriest Spieler before appointing him as rector of the Russian Church in Sofia, among other things, dampening the exarch’s ecumenical enthusiasm, reporting that he had not received letters from either the Archbishop of Canterbury or the chairman of the World Interchurch Council and therefore did not know what the purpose of their statement was about “the need for concerted action by all churches in favor of creating a stable and lasting peace.” Alexey I further asked the exarch to inform him about his visit to Constantinople and the results of his communication with His Holiness the Patriarch: “How does he view our Russian Orthodox Church and how does he treat it and us?” The letter expressed the Russian Patriarch’s conviction that the Bulgarian Church should be headed by a patriarch and expressed his readiness “to cooperate on this issue.” Concluding his letter, Patriarch Alexey sheds light on the situation with the provision of a Bulgarian court in the capital of the USSR: “The issue of a temple for you in Moscow is definitely positive, and when it is resolved in the sense of transferring it to a specific church, I will inform you. Due to the extreme workload of Moscow, it will not be easy to resolve the issue of the parable’s accommodation, but it will also, undoubtedly, be resolved with the assistance of Georgy Grigorievich” (F. R-6991. Op. 1. D. 16. L. 218-218 vol.).
The role of Gen. Karpov as a censor of letters and documents issued on behalf of the Russian patriarch is proven in an indisputable way by the following letter, dated the very next day – November 4, in which the patriarch writes that he is enclosing the corrected letter to Exarch Stefan, apparently in accordance with Karpov’s instructions.
The issue of the Bulgarian ecclesiastical court in post-war Moscow, however, was resolved only in July 1948, when a Pan-Orthodox conference was held in Moscow, in which a Bulgarian church delegation, headed by the then Metropolitan of Sofia and Bulgarian Exarch Stefan, also participated. During this visit, an agreement was concluded with precisely defined conditions, an agreement granting the right to exist for a Bulgarian church representation – a ecclesiastical court in Moscow, and for its needs, the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Taganka was provided from July 17, 1948, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexey I. Today, the ecclesiastical court of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Moscow is served by both the Russian church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on Taganka, and the later renovated church of St. Nicholas on Bolvanovka, which was attached to it, and a residential building was also built. The temples are served by clergy of the Russian Church; the church boards are also of this church.
On January 14, 1946, the Russian Patriarch sent his letter to the Bulgarian Exarch with the alleged date of the trip to Bulgaria, in order to coordinate it whether it was convenient for Gen. Karpov. The letter to the Exarch, dated January 12, contained a notification that his letters of December 6 and 8, 1945, had been received in Moscow and gratitude for the invitation to Bulgaria to the celebrations on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the death of St. John of Rila. The date of the Russian Patriarch’s arrival in Sofia was also indicated – May 5, 1946. Gratitude was also expressed for the “wonderful feelings towards the Russian people and our Russian Church”, expressed by the Exarch in the article “The Blessing of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called over the Russian People”, published in the Bulgarian magazine “Spiritual Culture”.
The following letter to G. G. Karpov dated January 23 of this year contains an extensive analysis of the ecumenical movement, listing all the major Orthodox figures (7 in number) who have regularly participated in world and national conferences and are still permanent members of the Union (the Union for International Friendship with the Help of the Church, formed in London in 1938), among whom, in 3rd and 4th place, are the names of Exarch Stefan Bulgarian and the Bulgarian protopresbyter Prof. S. Tsankov.
The Moscow Patriarch considers it expedient to participate in the work of the World Council of Churches, as, “taking into account the loss of authority among the Orthodox world of the “Ecumenical” Patriarchate of Constantinople”, one of the main goals for the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church would be to show interest in this movement and “to take into our own hands the initiative to create a single Slavic or Balkan Orthodox union to express the upcoming ecumenical conferences in defense of Orthodoxy with a single opinion, for which, first of all, he should address a proposal to all Eastern patriarchs and to the Slavic churches to express their attitude to the ecumenical movement”. And he immediately proposes, taking into account the invitation from the Bulgarian Church for his visit to Bulgaria to the celebrations on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the death of the patron saint of the Bulgarian people, Rev. John of Rila (in the first half of May 1946), to use this visit to Bulgaria to clarify through Exarch Stefan the issue of establishing a unified attitude of the Orthodox, mainly Slavic churches, towards accepting one or another participation in the ecumenical movement. The head of the ROC even proposed the creation of a special Patriarchal Commission to study on site in England the history and materials on the work of the ecumenical assemblies and to get to know the Anglican leaders personally, and to give the Commission the right to negotiate the conditions for accepting participation on the part of the Orthodox Churches (in the margin of the letter against the proposal to begin negotiations with the Anglican leaders is a note from the addressee of the letter: “The latter is early. Karpov”). Among these conditions is the issue of “persuading” (through the Metropolitan of Thyatira Germanos in London or through the mediation of the Bulgarian Exarch Stefan) the Patriarch of Constantinople Benjamin of the need to end his previous policy towards the Russian Orthodox Church and to refuse from now on to “take care” (“temporarily” – according to the tomos of the Patriarch of Constantinople) of the Polish and Finnish Churches.
Gen. Karpov noted in his own hand that he had received the letter on May 13 of this year, and on May 14 he forwarded it to Dr. Utkin for a thorough study of the issue, taking into account the provisions set out in his letter to the Union government – Karpov in his report of May 6 to J. V. Stalin, L. P. Beria and E. K. Voroshilov. Regarding the results of the work of the Moscow Patriarchate on establishing ties with the Orthodox Churches abroad, great attention was paid to the ecumenical movement. The Council believes that the ROC should join the ecumenical movement, and “is obliged to take the initiative to unite the forces of all Orthodox churches in the world” (F. R-6991, op. 1, p. 80, p. 133-134)
The clash of ideologies, interests and ambitions turns the USA and the USSR into opponents who give scope to their subjective ambitions.
Stalin delivers a speech on February 9 (see Speech of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, candidate for deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the Stalin constituency on February 9, 1946), in which he emphasizes the irreconcilability between capitalism and socialism and their inevitable clash: “Our victory means, secondly, that our Soviet state system has won, that our multinational Soviet state has withstood all the trials of the war and proved its viability.”
On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his landmark speech about the “Iron Curtain”: “…an Iron Curtain has descended over the continent. Behind this curtain remain the capitals of many old countries in Eastern Europe: Warsaw, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia. All these famous cities and the populations of their countries are in the Soviet part and they are all, in one form or another, subject not only to Soviet influence but also to a great and increasing control from Moscow” (Fulton /Missouri/, March 6, 1946, Reuters – Bulletin of BTA).
Stalin gave an extensive interview to the newspaper “Pravda” (March 14, 1946) to clarify a number of issues related to Mr. Churchill’s speech, in which he directly put a sign of equality between Hitler and Churchill, between the German racial theory and the English racial theory, only to dominate the other nations of the world.
The following year, Moscow changed its views on the ecumenical movement to the diametrically opposite, which foreshadowed to a large extent the fate of the “patriarch of Orthodox ecumenism” – Exarch Stefan I Bulgarian. D. Nikolchev accepts “that the operational development of Exarch Stefan began as early as 1946 or even in 1945, that the opening of the case “Cloud of March 1, 1948″ has its own prehistory, or more precisely, it is only a continuation of the development already conducted against him by the State Security services”.
This view is also supported by the archival documents that R. Pendzhekova shed light on the distrust (dating back to 1945) on the part of the OF figures, who believe that “…the Exarch… is increasingly beginning to show his true face as a vile political intriguer, communist hater and Anglophile” (TsDA, f. 1B, op. 7, a. f. 346, l. 1–2). Pendzhekova has meticulously investigated the reports to the State Security and the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, in which special attention is paid to the personality of the Exarch and his associates and it is claimed that “this will be a holiday of the reactionary forces in our country” (TsDA, f. 146B, op. 5, a. f. 1129, l. 24), and it is even proposed to postpone the celebration for a year or two. On this occasion, the mortal remains of Tsar Boris III were removed from the Rila Monastery at the idea of G. Dimitrov.
In The draft report of G. Karpov to the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the state of the ecumenical movement as of 1 Jan. 1947 reports on the World Council (in the original “council”) of Churches, the tasks of the ecumenical movement, its missionary activity and the supposed General International Assembly of Churches. In conclusion, he writes that the Geneva Conference of the World Council of Churches “has been scolded for the position of Anglo-American imperialism, which seeks to preserve Germany as a bridgehead and striking force in future aggression against the Slavic countries, and in particular the USSR” (F. R-6991, op. 1, d. 143, l. 297-302).
The Cold War, meanwhile, culminated with the announcement of the Truman Doctrine (March 1947), which proclaimed the decisive role of the USA in international relations and the obligation to defend “free nations”.
In the accompanying letter to the brief information report on the ecumenical movement of Christian churches sent by Gen. G. Karpov to V. M. Molotov, it is noted that “at the present time the true intention of the ecumenical movement is the unification of the Anglo-American church bloc for political purposes”, that one of the tasks of the First World General Assembly convened in Amsterdam in 1948 is the struggle of Christian churches around the world “with communism, totalitarianism, etc.”, that “the leaders of the ecumenical movement are making energetic…attempts to involve the Orthodox autocephalous churches in the movement”, that “the Russian Orthodox Church does not consider itself capable of joining the ecumenical movement as a political movement directed against the Soviet Union” and sets out a number of conditions under which cooperation of Orthodox churches in the ecumenical movement; namely: refusal from politics, limiting the advancement of church-theological issues, redistribution of mandates in the direction of increasing them for the Orthodox Churches, etc.”, and in case of deviation from these conditions “they will limit themselves to sending their representatives as observers to the ecumenical congresses and conferences” (in the above-mentioned letter of the Moscow Patriarch of January 23, in the event of failure of negotiations with the leaders of the ecumenical movement, it is envisaged that the representative of the ROC will participate as a permanent observer of the course and direction of the ecumenical work and a visitor [without a consultative vote] to all assemblies, similar to the practice of the Roman Catholic Church). The Council found “such a statement of the question by the Russian Orthodox Church to be correct” (F. R-6991, op. 1, d. 149, l. 314-316, 317-327).
On March 15, 1946, the next letter was sent to the Chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding the visit of the Russian Patriarch to Bulgaria after Easter with instructions from the Exarch on an approximate date – the beginning of May (see the letter of Exarch Stefan to Alexy of Moscow and All-Russia of December 8, 1945, F. R-6991, op. 1, d. 16, l. 222-222 vol.). In his letter, the Russian Patriarch seeks the consent of the Soviet government and a final determination of the exact date for the trip, as well as coordination of the composition of the six-member Russian church delegation that would accompany him to Bulgaria, since in his response letter of January 12, 1946 to the Exarch he had already accepted the invitation to visit the country in connection with the anniversary celebrations. On April 5 of this year Karpov addressed the Council of Ministers of the USSR with a memorandum to K. E. Voroshilov, in which he set out a request for permission to travel to Bulgaria to participate in the church celebrations for Patriarch Alexey and a delegation of 5 members, and also to allocate 200 thousand Bulgarian leva for expenses (F. R-6991, op. 1, d. 80, 85). And on April 29, G. Karpov sent to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, addressed to Stalin and Beria, another report with a petition for permission for the Moscow Patriarch to go to Bulgaria for the millennium of the founding of the Rila Monastery and to conduct the enthronement of the Bulgarian Metropolitan Stefan. At the same time, the Council for the Affairs of the ROC proposed the following: 10 to allow the Patriarch to go to Bulgaria on May 18, 1946; 2) does not object to the enthronement of Metropolitan Stefan by Patriarch Alexey; 3) G. G. Karpov to refrain from traveling to Bulgaria, since the proposal came from the church, not the government; 4) “in principle considers it possible” to satisfy Metropolitan Stefan’s request “to provide a loan to the Bulgarian Church, as a loan received from the Russian Orthodox Church”; 5) to allow Patriarch Alexey, in personal conversations with Metropolitan Stefan, to specify the amount of the requested loan; to clarify whether Metropolitan Stefan has raised the issue of receiving this loan with the Bulgarian government and what the government’s opinion is; to receive from Metropolitan Stefan a written request for the loan, addressed to Patriarch Alexey.
There is a note on this report: “Reference: 7/V at 9 p.m. Dr. Beria L.P. called me and gave me the following instructions: 1) Patriarch Alexey and the delegation are allowed to leave for Bulgaria; 2) there are no objections to Patriarch Alexey performing the enthronement; 3) Patriarch Alexey can inform Metropolitan Stefan that the loan of 30 million leva can be provided, and to say that if he wants to receive more, he can count on a larger amount. Karpov” (F. R-6991, op. 1, d. 80, l. 120-122).
This is followed by patriarchal letters to the same recipient dated March 16 and May 4 on the occasion of the granting of travel allowances in Bulgarian currency, the issuance of passports for the members of the delegation by the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a response to a letter via the Bulgarian Embassy and two telegrams from Exarch Stefan (available in the fund R-6991 dated March 30) to the Moscow Patriarch.
Document 117 of the first volume of the collection under consideration is a letter from the patriarch dated May 15, 1946, in which he extremely delicately asks Gen. Karpov to mention in a letter to Stefan that the issue that was the subject of their conversation, specifically the loan, will be discussed with him by the patriarch, who has resolved the issue in a positive sense, etc. This would be convenient for both the patriarch and the exarch, for whom this would be an excellent opportunity to start a conversation with Alexey about the thirty million loan, which issue would later arise again with the resignation and exile of the exarch. In 1937, the USSR established the calculation of the value of the ruble on the basis of the American currency and until 1950 the exchange rate was fixed at 5.3 rubles per dollar. During World War II, the rate did not change – the countries did not have time for this. Thus, in 1946, one dollar was equal to 5.3 foreign trade Soviet rubles or 286 Bulgarian leva (a rate that remained almost unchanged in the next few years until the denomination in 1952), therefore one leva was exchanged for approximately 55 Soviet rubles, i.e. the funds provided to the exarch were equivalent to 104,895 US dollars or 556,000 sov. rubles at the rate in 1946.
On June 18, 1946. the Russian Patriarch in his letter reported on the situation of Russian parishes in Bulgaria: “In Bulgaria, recently two churches: namely – 1) in Shipka, a memorial temple and 2) in the city of Plovdiv St. Demetrius of Solunsky – have been handed over to the Russian Church and the rector of them is: in the first – Archimandrite Sergius Chernov, in the second – Archpriest Daniil Zakabluk. In fact, they are already under the authority of Archbishop Seraphim, who governs the Russian Orthodox communities in Bulgaria. But in order for these churches to be legally (ecclesiastical-canonically) attached to the Russian Church, the definition/provision of the Bulgarian Holy Synod is required to be officially communicated to the Russian Holy Synod. Archbishop Seraphim is to take care of this” (about this commission, attributed to Archbishop Seraphim, on July 9, Karpov notified the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Lozovsky” (F. R-6991, op. 1, d. 130, l. 324).
Generous financial support was provided on the basis of two reports with outgoing numbers 50 and 51 of Archbishop Seraphim [Sobolev] on the needs of the Russian church communities in Bulgaria and the intercessory letter of Patriarch Alexey for assistance in allocating in Bulgarian currency from the funds of the Moscow Patriarchate 168,000 leva monthly (for salaries of Russian clergy and church workers according to the attached list of names) and a one-time 600,000 leva (for the construction of a one-story building for the guard and office at the Russian church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Sofia.
In letter No. 266 of 23 Sept. 1947 the Patriarch wrote from Sochi to G. Karpov that he had received from the Bulgarian exarch a telegram of gratitude “for the generous help” (considering the loan provided to the exarch) and that, in turn, he replied to him in Carlsbad, without much confidence that the telegram would reach its addressee abroad from the Soviet Union, since the patriarch’s telegrams to New York and Carlsbad caused a number of confusions and complications in the mail.
In 1947, the clouds over the head of the “Cloud” Exarch Stefan began to thicken. On February 23, Alexey I forwarded to Karpov the letter of December 9, 1946, from Archpriest V.D. Spieler from Bulgaria, which reported on hostile sentiments towards the Moscow Patriarchate on the part of some representatives of the Bulgarian Church, on the center of opposition to Exarch Stefan, on the struggle for the exarchate throne that was taking place in Bulgaria. Karpov reported on May 16, 1947 in the Council of Ministers of the USSR about the “extremely tense situation” that has arisen in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and sets out in detail the positions of the exarch and his opponents. The document sets out the development of anti-Russian tendencies in church circles in Bulgaria.
In conclusion, the report states: “The Council believes that the situation that has arisen in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is undoubtedly connected with the intrigues of the Anglo-American reactionary circles, which have recently intensified their interest in church matters and are trying in every way to use church channels in their political interests. The further development of schismatic activity in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, in the opinion of the Council, may have undesirable consequences in the future for the positions of the Moscow Patriarchate not only in Bulgaria, but also in the Balkans in general. In connection with the above, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR considers it expedient to inform itself about the situation in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria, Comrade Dimitrov, with the aim of the Bulgarian Government drawing the necessary conclusions about the behavior of individual members of the Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and, in particular, Metropolitan Joseph, and also, if possible, to correct Metropolitan Stefan on the position he has taken.”
However, he is still needed by the atheistic totalitarian government for the purpose of supporting and actively participating in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the Orthodox conference planned for 1948 in Moscow. The Moscow Patriarch quickly forwarded to the Deputy Chairman of the Council for the Affairs of the ROC with a letter dated 24 Jan. 1948 the letter received from the Bulgarian Exarch and Metropolitan of Sofia, dated 10.01.1948, in which he informed that he had received the letters of the Russian Patriarch with explanations to the Patriarch of Alexandria Christopher, challenging the right of the Patriarch of Moscow to convene a conference of the heads of the Orthodox autocephalous churches. In this letter to the Patriarch of Alexandria, the head of the ROC proves the canonical groundlessness of the accusations against him that he had usurped the prerogatives of the Ecumenical Patriarch. The avowed Slavophile and ecumenist Metropolitan Stefan, enthusiastic, sincerely exclaims in his letter: “Your answer is admirable, and for the opponents – murderous. Calm and delicate, it is filled with dignity, scientifically argued, demonstrable… I am beginning to be irritated by the frequent Greek reminder that the Church of Constantinople is the mother of our churches, that we are “daughter” churches, and the silence on the fact that these “daughter” churches have been repaying this Greek service for millennia, materially blessing both the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the other Greek Patriarchates… Motherhood in church governance quite optionally entails an advantage in honor and even more in power… The divergence with the Eastern patriarchs is, of course, an unpleasant, sad fact. But it should not be given more importance than it deserves. Our flocks immeasurably surpass the Greek ones; Ours, and especially your Orthodoxy, is purer, more spiritual than the Greek one. We are strong enough to correct and direct our church life without the help of the Greeks…” (F. R-6991, op. 1, d. 418, l. 26-27).
The Soviet government highly appreciated the position of Exarch Stefan, taking into account the conference of the heads of the Orthodox Churches, which was held in the period 8-18 July 1948. On 11 February a copy of the letter of the Bulgarian Exarch was sent by the Council for the Affairs of the ROC to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A. Vyshinsky, and the accompanying letter stated, among other things: “The letter of the Exarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Stefan gives reason to count on the participation of this church in the upcoming conference in Moscow” (F. R-6991, op. 1, d. 418, l. 25).
After his resignation (September 6, 1948) and the coup against him and his removal from the exarchate and metropolitan throne, the Russian patriarch was on vacation and balneotherapy in Crimea, from where on September 13 he wrote to General Karpov, in which he mentioned in passing with relief: “It is pleasant that the case of Exarch Stefan is being postponed. I will not have to urgently jump to Bulgaria after my return.”
(to be continued)
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12. Kostryukov, A. A. Exarch of the Bulgarian Church Metropolitan Stefan and the Moscow Patriarchate. – In: Bulletin of PSTGU. II. History of the Russian Orthodox Church, Issue. 5 (54), 2013, pp. 31-43. 13. Kyoseva, Ts. Bishop Stefan of Sofia and the Russian Emigration in Bulgaria. – In: Makaryev Readings: Materials of the Eighth International Conference (November 21-23, 2009) / ed. V. G. Babin. – Gorno-Altaisk: RIO GAGU, 2009, pp. 260-266.
Lazov, Dimitar. Exarch Stefan I: Jubilee collection on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the metropolitan activity of His Beatitude, Sofia: Collection of the Exarch Stefan I, Metropolitan of Sofia and Exarch of Bulgaria (published by “Artist”), 1947, 432 p. with illustrations, 1 l. : portrait; 25 cm.
15. Miteva, Galya (Radio Plovdiv), Unknown book of Exarch Stefan and 70 years since the end of the schism, published on 17.02.15 at 11:01 | updated on 17.02.15 at 12:54 https://bnr.bg/post/100522680/neizvestna-kniga-na-ekzarh-stefan-i-70-godini-ot-shizmata, 12:34 2025.
16.Nikolchev, Dilyan. Exarch Stefan under the “care” of state security, Sofia: Military Publishing House (ISBN:97895450954672015), 2015, 464 p.
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18.Pendzhekova, R. The Personality and Work of Exarch Stefan in Bulgarian Historical Memory. Smolyan: Otzvuk Press, 2007, 352 p.
19. Letters from Patriarch Alexy I to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People’s Commissars – the Council of Ministers of the USSR. 1945–1970 / [ed. N.A. Krivova; resp. comp. SOUTH. Orlova; comp. O.V. Lavinskaya, K.G. Lyashenko], M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2009 (Publications series, ISBN 978-5-8243-1284-3).
19 (a). Letters from Patriarch Alexy I to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People’s Commissars – the Council of Ministers of the USSR. 1945–1953 (ISBN 978-5-8243-1259-1), vol. 1, 2009, 847 pp.
19 (b). Letters from Patriarch Alexy I to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People’s Commissars – the Council of Ministers of the USSR. 1954–1970 (ISBN 978-5-8243-1389-5), vol. 2, 2010, 671 p.
20. Light from the Cloud. Exarch Stefan in Memoirs and Documents, compiled by Rumyana Ilieva Preshlenova, Sofia: IBCT–BAS, 2023.
21. Tsatsov, Boris. The Hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Sofia, 2003.
22. Shkarovsky, M. C. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church during the Second World War. -In: Church History Journal, No. 3-4 (15-16), 2009, p. 266-304.
***
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19 (а).Письма патриарха Алексия I в Совет по делам Русской православной церкви при Совете народных комиссаров — Совете министров СССР. 1945–1953 гг. (ISBN 978-5-8243-1259-1), т. 1, 2009, 847 с.
19 (б).Письма патриарха Алексия I в Совет по делам Русской православной церкви при Совете народных комиссаров — Совете министров СССР. 1954–1970 гг. (ISBN 978-5-8243-1389-5), т. 2, 2010, 671 с.
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First publication in Bulgarian: Gramatikov, Petar. Inter-church interaction and the international agenda in the letters of Patriarch Alexy I (80 years since the lifting of the schism over the Bulgarian Orthodox Church), part 1. – In: Collection “Thought, Word, Text”, 100 Years of Theological Science in Bulgaria. 15 Years of Theology (Plovdiv), volume 22 (27) new series 2025 (ISSN 2815-2816), Plovdiv University Publishing House “Paisiy Hilendarski”, Plovdiv, 2025, pp. 85-103.
