“Please Open Our Church… in the Name of Historical and Human Value of Socialism”. Orthodox Believers’ Letters to Power, 1960s–Early 1970s

Abstract

The article is intended as an introduction into the study of a particular source on the Soviet-period history of the Church. It demonstrates potential for the interdisciplinary survey of “letters to power” as an action and a source within broader contexts of the Orthodox Church’s integration into a Soviet society and its defensive strategies. Soviet believers’ letters, written in defense of their Church and their religious rights, became the most widespread form of their protest against discriminatory policy pursued by the state. In the first part the author provides a general overview of believers’ petitioning (as the text and the action) focusing on their reasons for writing letters, their self-representation and the view of the authorities. The author also examines discursive techniques and rhetorical conventions used it the letter. In the second part of the article the author examines a revealing case: the petitioning campaign of Orthodox believers from Chernihiv in defense of St. Trinity Church as it is presented in their letters written between 1962 and 1972.