Personal information in the “Conversations” of church hierarchs and representatives of of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church (based on materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51216/2687-072X_2026_3_110-129Keywords:
Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I (Simansky), Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich), G. G. Karpov, V. A. Kuroyedov.Abstract
This article examines the interactions between hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church and representatives of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, both in business and private settings. In the office practice of this body, such meetings were recorded under the name “conversations.” The content of these meetings has been preserved in the form of transcripts and notes in the Council’s documentation. These materials were prepared for several purposes: reporting to the Soviet government, monitoring the dynamics of sentiment in the Church, documenting issues raised and resolved, and for subsequent review by other department employees.
The author focuses on the personal information contained in these documents and how the information was applied in the daily work of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church. Comparative-typological, hermeneutic, logical, and system-analytical methods are used in the study of information from historical sources. The theoretical and practical significance of this study is determined by the objective need to interpret and systematize the vast array of information concentrated in the Collection of Authorized Persons of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church of the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF, F. R-6991). In analyzing private information about the episcopate recorded in the available documentation, a new function of “conversations” was identified, related to the use of these records as a compromising resource.
The author concludes that the personal information accumulated in transcripts and reports from meetings between Council officials and representatives of the senior clergy was intended not only to inform the country’s leadership and meet the agency’s internal operational needs, but also served as an effective mechanism for managerial influence on the Church throughout the existence of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church.
For citation: Lebedev A. S., priest Personal information in the “Conversations” of church hierarchsand representatives of of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church(based on materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation) DOI: https://doi.org/10.51216/2687-072X_2026_3_110-129. EDN: BQXNNY // Theological Collection of Tambov Theological Seminary, 2026, no. 3 (36), pp. 110–129. (In Russian).
Received 13 May 2026.
Accepted for press 17 July 2026.
Conflict of interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.
Funding: This study received no external funding.
The content is available under a license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
ISSN 2687-072Х
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