Missionary activities of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the occupied territory of the RSFSR during the Great Patriotic War and the position of the Russian bishops

During the Second World War, the Romanian Patriarchate was the largest Local Orthodox Church that pursued the expansion policy of the Axis powers. Wanting to extend their influence to the territory that the Romanian authorities considered to be legitimately theirs (Bessarabia and Transnistria), the Romanian archpastors and pastors also wanted to strengthen their influence in the Russian territories occupied by Germans. The Romanian clergy could exert a greatest influence on the believers in the Crimean Peninsula. In Tavria, the Romanians began the process of religious revival and found allies among the local clergy of various jurisdictions: from Renovationists to Ukrainian autocephalists. The Germans, who had their own plans for the Orthodox parishes of the Crimean Peninsula, did not like this activity of the Romanians in 1941-1942. In 1943, the Germans and their supporters among the local Russian population prohibited the missionary activity of the Romanians. The service of the Romanian clergy was limited only to Romanian military units located in Crimea. Another zone where the Romanians managed to spread their influence was the South of Russia and, specifically, Rostov-on-the Don. The local Orthodox clergy, who had previously been in the renovationist schism, considered the possibility of submission to the Romanian patriarch as the most canonical solution to their own problems. The short Nazi occupation of the city led to the fact that the former “renovationists” transferred to the jurisdiction of the Romanian Orthodox Church while being already on the territory of Ukraine. The Romanians's craving was growing, as they were supported by the “renovationists” of the occupied regions in the North Caucasus. It is noteworthy that many Russian hierarchs who transferred to the Romanians subsequently fled to Romania, where later the Red Army captures them. Surprisingly, such a good cause as the revival of parish life in the occupied territories failed, largely due to the hostile and cautious position of the Germans.

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