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Russian Women of the Holy Land in the Vicissitudes of the Cold War: The History of the Replenishment of Convents in the 1950s

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Abstract

The history of Russian female monasticism in the Holy Land is presented in the context of the formation of the State of Israel and the unfolding of the Cold War. The materials of the nuns’ ego-documents show the escalation of the conflict between supporters of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the emigrant structures of Russian Orthodoxy. Archival materials trace the motives for the participation of representatives of Soviet authorities in the selection of candidates to replenish Russian convents and hermitages in Palestine. Thus, by the beginning of the 1950s, the number of elderly nuns in the Gornenskii Convent was rapidly declining, and the decrease in the Russian presence in Israel caused serious concern to representatives of the USSR Foreign Ministry. Various departments of the secular Soviet state participated in the maintenance of elderly nuns of the Holy Land, stimulated the selection of new nuns, and took part in the selection of candidates for the post of abbess.

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Notes

  1. M. S. Shapovalov, A. Yu. Bokatov, A. A. Valitov, V. A. Gerasimova, E. R. Grigoryan, L. N. Mantsevich, K. A. Murastova, and D. L. Shevelev, Imagining Palestine: The Holy Land and Russian Identity in the 19th and early 21st Centuries (St. Petersburg, 2021) [in Russian].

  2. Letters of Patriarch Alexius I to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the USSR Council of People’s Commissars (later the Council of Ministers) 1945–1970, Ed. by N. A. Krivova (Moscow, 2010), Vol. 2; Russia and the Christian East in documents of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, Ed. by O. N. Kopylova (Moscow, 2015); O. Kopylova, B. Dodonov, and K. Lukina, “Resolutions and orders of the Soviet government concerning relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet state with the Eastern Patriarchates (1940s–1950s), and materials thereto (from the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation),” in Jerusalem Orthodox Seminar (Moscow, 2019), p. 148208; E. V. Palamarenko, “Letters of Russian nuns from Jerusalem in 1945–1967,” Khristianstvo Blizh. Vostok., No. 5, 4–186 (2020); E. V. Palamarenko, “History of the Gornenskii Monastery, written by Hieromonk Isaiah (Babinin) in 1950,” Khristianstvo Blizh. Vostok., No. 3, 4–32 (2020).

  3. See in more detail: M. G. Agapov, “‘Take an effective part in the fate of Palestine’: USSR policy on the Palestinian question in 1944–1947,” Vestn. Mosk. Gos. Gumanitar. Univ imeni M.A. Sholokhova, Ser. Ist. Politol., No. 1, 33–43 (2012); T. V. Nosenko, “Policy of the USSR and the USA on the issue of creating the State of Israel (1945–1948),” Vestn. Mosk. Univ., Ser. 25: Mezhdunar. Otn. Mir. Polit., No. 2, 71–74 (2016).

  4. S. V. Bolotov, The Russian Orthodox Church and the International Policy of the USSR in the 1930s–1950s. (Moscow, 2011), pp. 153–174; M. V. Kail’, “‘Orthodox factor’ in Soviet diplomacy: International communications of the Moscow Patriarchate in the mid-1940s,” Gos., Rel., Tserkov’ Ross. Za Rubezh., No. 1, 19–40 (2017).

  5. M. V. Kail’, “Church diplomacy and the visit of Patriarch Alexius (Simanskii) to the Holy Land in 1945,” Vestn. Tver. Gos. Univ., Ser. Istoriya, No. 4, 12–15 (2020).

  6. N. A. Beliakova and M. V. Kail’, “Soviet presence in the Middle East in the unfolding Cold War: Church institutions and actors of influence in Palestine,” Nov. Noveish. Ist., No. 6, 107–120 (2021).

  7. N. A. Semenchenko, “Russian community in Palestine after the First World War,” Vost. Arkhiv, No. 1, 53–56 (2012).

  8. E. V. Palamarenko, “History”…, pp. 25–29.

  9. State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), Fund 6991, Inventory 1, File 15, Fols. 149, 150. Published: E. V. Palamarenko, Letters…, p. 168.

  10. E. V. Palamarenko, Letters…, p. 168.

  11. A. R. Penkower, Palestine to Israel: Mandate to State, 1945–1948, Vol. 2: Into the International Arena, 1947–1948 (Boston, 2018).

  12. A. Beglov and N. Beliakova, “International activity of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Cold War: The results and the future prospects of study,” in Christian World Community and the Cold War. International Research Conference, Ed. by J. Filo (Bratislava, 2012), pp. 171–191; N. A. Beliakova and N. Yu. Pi-vovarov, “Religious diplomacy in the service of the Soviet state during the Cold War (during the period of N.S. Khrushchev and L.I. Brezhnev),” Kontury Glob. Transform.: Polit. Ekon. Pravo 11 (4), 130–149 (2018).

  13. E. V. Palamarenko, Activities of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem in 1948–1967, Cand. Sci. (Geol.) Dissertation (OTsAD, Moscow, 2019), p. 76.

  14. A. Kholodyuk, Abbess of Olives Tamara (Munich, 2017) [in Russian].

  15. E. V. Palamarenko, Letters…, p. 169.

  16. E. V. Palamarenko, Letters…, p. 13.

  17. GARF, Fund 6991, Inventory 1, File 15, Fols. 66, 67. Published: E. V. Palamarenko, Letters…, p. 20.

  18. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 985, Fol. 170.

  19. GARF, Fund 6991, Inventory 2, File 107, Fols. 173–175; E. V. Palamarenko, Letters…, p. 171.

  20. Nicodemus (Rotov), History of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem (St. Petersburg, 2019), p. 40.

  21. V. A. Gerasimova, “Bishop Methodius of Campania and the practice of pilgrimage to the Holy Land from the Russian Abroad: (re)invention of tradition,” Gos., Rel., Tserkov’ Ross. Za Rubezh., No. 38, 294–317 (2020).

  22. O. Kopylova, B. Dodonov, and K. Lukina, “Resolutions”…, p. 190.

  23. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 985, Fol. 45.

  24. GARF, Fund 6991, Inventory 1, File 15, Fold. 66, 67.

  25. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 985, Fol. 39.

  26. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 985, Fol. 104.

  27. Different amounts are indicated on different statements.

  28. GARF, Fund 6991, Inventory 1, File 985, Fol. 53.

  29. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 985, Fol. 137.

  30. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 2, File 133, Fol. 69.

  31. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 958, Fol. 57.

  32. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 1324, Fol. 143.

  33. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 985, Fol. 210.

  34. The adopted daughter of Abbess Athanasia, Evangelina, who was 14 years old at the time of writing the letter.

  35. GARF, Fund 6991, Inventory 1, File 1324, Fol. 142.

  36. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 1324, Fol. 14.

  37. GARF, Fund R-6991, Inventory 1, File 1324, Fol. 142.

  38. Archbishop of Saratov and Vol’sk Pimen (Khmelevskii), Diaries: Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem 1955–1957 (Saratov, 2008), pp. 484, 485.

  39. Branch State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine (GDA SBU), Fund 2, Inventory 1, File 2868. I am grateful to my colleague R. Skakun, who kindly provided the opportunity to familiarize myself with this file.

  40. GDA SBU, Fund 2, Inventory 1, File 2868, Fol. 43.

  41. GDA SBU, Fund 2, Inventory 1, File 2868, Fol. 4343 verso.

  42. Abbess Athanasia wanted to arrange for her to study in Moscow.

  43. GARF, Fund 6991, Inventory 1, File 1327, Fol. 73.

  44. GARF, Fund 6991, Inventory 1, File 1324, Fols. 143, 144.

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  1. Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    N. A. Beliakova

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Correspondence to N. A. Beliakova.

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Translated by B. Alekseev

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Nadezhda Alekseevna Beliakova, Cand. Sci. (Hist.), is a Senior Researcher at the RAS Institute of World History.

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Beliakova, N.A. Russian Women of the Holy Land in the Vicissitudes of the Cold War: The History of the Replenishment of Convents in the 1950s. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 93 (Suppl 1), S89–S97 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331623070043

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