‘Nearly 100 Percent’ of Russian Orthodox Hierarchs were KGB Agents in Soviet Times, Soldatov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 5 – It has been common knowledge at least since glasnost that a large number of the leading figures of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate were agents of the Soviet security services, but archival materials from some post-Soviet states suggests that the real numbers were far higher, Aleksandr Soldatov says.

            In fact, the longtime investigator of Soviet security services says in a new article, archives that he has examined in Latvia and Ukraine suggest that “nearly 100 percent” of the bishops, archbishops and abbots of the ROC MP in Soviet times were agents of those services (gorby.media/articles/2024/08/05/prokliatie-tretego-imeni).

            Some of those churchmen who cooperated with the organs undoubtedly did so either as the only way they could save their church or for patriotic reasons, Soldatov suggests, while others likely felt compelled to do so if they wanted to advance through the ranks of the church or avoid the penalties of not being willing to work with the Soviet security services.

            But the level of KGB penetration of the leadership of the ROC MP was so high that it created a culture that continues to this day; and that, Soldatov stresses, more than anything else is why the Moscow church came out in support of Putin’s war in Ukraine so quickly – and why many in the post-Soviet states view the church with suspicion, fear and even hatred.

            Soldatov drew his conclusions in this article on the basis of archives in Latvia and Ukraine, and it is possible, although he does not address this issue in this article, that KGB penetration was greater in these two historically more restive parts of the Soviet Union. But even if that is the case, his general observations about the ROC MP hold.