PATRIOTIC ACTIVITY OF THE ORTHODOX CLERGY OF PERM KAMA REGION DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR (BASED ON TELEGRAMS TO JOSEPH STALIN)

During the Great Patriotic War, the relations between the Soviet State and the Russian Orthodox Church had radically changed. The consistent patriotic position of the Church and its active charity led to a new Stalin course of religious policy. From the first days of the war, the Orthodox clergy and the believers began to raise funds for the needs of defense. The raised money, jewelry, warm clothes and necessities went to special state funds and directly to the front. Some priests of the Molotov (Perm) diocese collected large sums of money for the construction of tanks and planes. They accompanied their patriotic contribution with personal telegrams to the Supreme Commander-inChief Joseph Stalin. However, the analysis of the financial position of the Orthodox clergy showed that large contributions of the priests were the propaganda campaigns, systematically held by the public authorities, first of all by the Council for Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church at CPC (the Council of People's Commissars) of the USSR.