861.404/2–945: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Kennan ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 10—4:45 a.m.]
375. Izvestiya for February 9 announces that Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria and representatives of Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem left Moscow February 8.81
[Page 1124]Izvestiya also announces that Yugoslav Church delegation was received February 7 by G. G. Karpov, President of the Council for Affairs of Russian Orthodox Church, in presence of Patriarch Alexei, Metropolitan Nicolai of Krutitsky [Krutitsy] and Metropolitan Ioann of Kiev and Galicia.83
Sent to Department; repeated to Rome as 13, Cairo as 21 and Ankara as 9.
- The American Chargé in Damascus, Joseph C. Satterthwaite, informed the Department in despatch 258, March 7, that Patriarch Alexandros of Antioch upon his return had had no illusions that “the members of the Soviet Government have suddenly become devotees of the Church, and remarked on the fact that a large proportion of the faithful seem to be women. He said, however, that the Soviet Government does appear to be truly appreciative of the valuable support which the Orthodox Church has given the Government in its war effort and expressed the opinion that the comparative freedom which the Church now enjoys is probably a reward for this support.” (861.404/3–745)↩
- Ioann was Metropolitan of Kiev and Galich, Patriarchal Exarch of the Ukraine.↩