Icon and Swastika. The Russian Orthodox Church under Nazi and Soviet Control

During the four years of Nazi occupation of Russian territories in World War II, the Orthodox Church staged a religious revival without precedent in its history. Harvey Fireside examines prewar Soviet policy toward the Church and then depicts the chilling effect of German controls on the people, their turning to the Church as an independent force, their success in resisting manipulative efforts of Nazi administrators and local nationalists. Finally, he gauges the effect of the Church’s vindication of its loyalty on the Soviet regime’s inauguration of a religious truce in 1943.