The cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the
Communist regime is known as ‘Sergianism’ after its founder Metropolitan
Sergius (1867-1944). Sergianism did not simply pledge obedience to the civil
authority, but complete oneness of mind with the atheistic regime which was, at
the same time, imprisoning and executing thousands of Orthodox Christians.
Although the Russian Church under the Soviets retained an outward liturgical
conservatism, Sergianism involved substantial theological modernisation,
particularly in the area of the relationship between the Church and the state.
In his declaration of July 20th 1927, Metropolitan Sergius
stated: ‘We want to be Orthodox, and at the same time to see the Soviet Union
as our civil Fatherland, whose joys and successes are also our joys and
successes, whose failures are our failures.’ He also praised Joseph Stalin as a
‘great, God given leader of the Russian people.’[1] For his loyalty
to the USSR, Metropolitan Sergius was appointed as Patriarch of the Russian
Orthodox Church in 1943 by Joseph Stalin. Later Patriarchs were similarly
rewarded: Patriarch Alexis II (agent DROZDOV) was awarded an honorary citation
by the USSR KGB chairman for services to state security.[2]
Undoubtedly, these were difficult times, and many bishops
and priests cooperated unwillingly with the Soviet regime. Some, placing
themselves in great danger, outwardly cooperated, but were secretly spreading
the truth about the oppression of Christians under Communism. Father Vladimir
Rusak, imprisoned in the USSR for spreading religious literature, explained the
terrible dilemma that many faced: ‘I love my Church, I grieve for its fate and
I want to serve it, but of course, not at the price of subservience, that terrible price which our Church leadership is paying and
which it proposes that I also should pay’.[3]
In the USSR, the Christians who had separated themselves
from the Sergianist Church were known as the Catacomb Church and worshipped in
secret. Many were betrayed by bishops and priests of the official Church and
ended their lives as martyrs. However, the bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate
consistently proclaimed, without a trace of irony, that there was no religious
persecution in the USSR. According to Metropolitan Philaret of Kiev and
Galicia, (later to become ‘Patriarch’ of the Ukrainian Church): ‘no one is
persecuted for religious convictions in the Soviet Union...The attitude of the Soviet
State to the needs of the Church is considerate and understanding’.[4]
Sergianism was not simply a Russian phenomenon, but was
adopted by all Orthodox Churches within the territories controlled by the
Soviets. It is also possible to see the influence of Sergianism in the
‘official’ Orthodox Churches today – an outwardly correct ‘canonical’ Orthodoxy
is maintained, but many of the bishops fight against Orthodox Tradition. Christians
that oppose these innovations are punished by their own church, and in some
countries the ‘official Churches’ are also able to call upon the state to carry
out judicial and extra-judicial punishments.
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| Solovki Monastery. Turned into a Gulag (concentration camp) by the Soviets. Many members of the Catacomb Church were imprisoned here. |
Sergianism teaches complete obedience to the hierarchy – even when this hierarchy is betraying
Orthodoxy. This false obedience has penetrated into the minds of many Orthodox
Christians who believe that obedience to their bishop, rather than to the
Orthodox Faith, is the only requirement for Orthodoxy. On the contrary,
faithful Orthodox Christians should not, in any circumstances, consent to a
betrayal of Orthodoxy but should separate themselves from these wolves in
sheep’s clothing (cf. Matt. 7:15).
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