On the question of the reasons for the support of patriarch Saint Tikhon (Bellavin) by patriarch Meletios

The article is devoted to a historical paradox: how could it happen that the modernist Patriarch of Constantinople, Meletios (Metaxakis), who pursued a policy openly hostile to the Russian Orthodox Church and previously expressed readiness to send its representatives to the Moscow Renovationist Congress, refused to support the Renovationists at the last moment and defended Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin)? According to the author, the answer to this question lies not so much in the church, but in the political plane. Patriarch Meletius’ complete orientation towards Great Britain in the conditions of an acute Soviet-British diplomatic conflict in the spring of 1923, which threatened to escalate into a military clash, left him no room for maneuver in relations with Russian schismatics who carried out the Bolsheviks’ political order against Patriarch Tikhon. The situational interest of the head of the Fanar in attracting Russian foreign hierarchs to his side for their participation in the so-called Pan-Orthodox Congress in Constantinople (aimed mainly at facilitating unification with the Anglicans) also played a role.