Historical Aspects

English

The Russian Factor in the Failure of the Pan-Orthodox Council in the 1920–1930s

The article explores the failed attempt of the all-Orthodox (Ecumenical) Council in the 1920–1930s through the prism of relations between the Constantinople Patriarchate, the Russian Church, and the Soviet government. In the situation of a strong Church discord in Russia, provoked by anti-religious policy of the Bolsheviks, the Patriarchate of Constantinople claimed the role of mediator between the Russian Church (“Tikhonovskaia”) and the Pro-Soviet Renovationist schism.

Debates About the Right to Convoke Pan-Orthodox Council in the End of the 19th and the First Half of the 20th Century

The author examines the question of who has the right to convoke a Pan-Orthodox Council with references to contemporary historical circumstances. He proves that this right never exclusively belonged to the Patriarch of Constantinople, technically the first among equals, and this was accepted by some among Greeks. The attempt to grant this right to the Patriarch of Constantinople stems from the situation shaped just after the fall of the Russian Empire when a battle for primacy started to unfold.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Russian Church before the Revolution

The article deals with the ideological and political aspects of the relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The Russian imperial idea was strongly influenced by the idea of Orthodox oikumene, first shaped in Byzantium.