The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, in which Moscow's Patriarch was elected in 1945, was held under the control of the People's Commissariat of State Security (NKVD), which was the Soviet KGB predecessor.
This is evidenced by the archival documents of the former head office of the KGB of Ukraine, which the Security Service of Ukraine has declassified, and which have been published in the form of photocopies and are being discussed on social networks, reports Espresso TV citing the Russian edition Znak.
As RISU learned, the documents were discovered by Lviv historian Roman Skakun at the 9th SBU Archive Fund in Kyiv. He sent the photocopies of the materials to Russian colleagues who are studying this issue.
It becomes clear from the declassified documents that the NKGB USSR and its subdivisions in the Union and autonomous republics, territories and regions were engaged in the selection of candidates for participation in the Council of the representatives of the clergy and laity. To this end, it was necessary to identify “persons who enjoy religious authority among the clergy and believers, and at the same time are the persons proven in the intelligence or patriotic work”.
“It is important to ensure that among the nominated candidates the NKGB agents were prevailing to pursue our strategy at the Council,” goes the letter sent in September 1944 and signed by Fedotov, chief of the 2nd Division of the NKVD USSR and Karpov, chief of the 5th Division, 2nd Directorate.
Background: In 1943, in response to the revived activity of the Orthodox churches in the USSR under the Nazi occupation, Stalin, with propaganda purposes, decided to lift the ban on the activities of the ROC.
The Local Council, which was held in the winter of 1945, adopted a regulation on the governance of the Russian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Alexiy (Simansky) of Leningrad by open vote elected as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. In addition, the Council approved the name of the Russian Orthodox Church.