“I will write that I no longer respect my colleagues”. Parties in G.P. Fedotov's conflict with the board of St. Sergius Orthodox Institute in Paris (1939)

Historians, who study the history of Post-Revolutionary Russian emigration, the history of St. Sergius Orthodox Institute in Paris, and the biography of Georgy P. Fedotov, are well aware of G.P. Fedotov’s conflict with the Board of this Theological Institute in 1939. For a long time, researchers had only one basic source on these events at their disposal. It is a biographical sketch by G. Fedotov’s wife, which precedes the first volume of his article’s collection published in Ymca-Press publishing house. However, a considerable number of documents (mainly from the Bakhmetiev archive, Columbia University, USA) have been published over the past several decades. They allow considering the conflict in more detail. The author of the article makes an attempt to identify parties of the conflict, their goals and objectives. From his point of view, the published documents point to the complicated nature of the conflict. It had at least two levels: 1) the conflict of G. Fedotov with rector of the Institute, Metropolitan Eulogy (Georgievsky), which was quite quickly resolved, and 2) the conflict of G. Fedotov with some members of the Board who sought his dismissal from the Institute. In contrast to the events of 1936, G. Fedotov was strongly supported by Nikolay Berdyaev and G. Fedotov’s friends from the organisation Pravoslavnoye Delo (mother Maria (Skobtsova), Fedor Pianov and others). It can be supposed with a high degree of probability that the main opponent of G. Fedotov at the Institute was Father Georges (Florovsky). In conformity with indirect data, it can also be assumed that Florovsky was supported by Anton Kartashev and Vasily Zenkovsky. Some members of the Board, father Sergius (Bulgakov), Nikolai Afanasyev, archimandrite Cassian (Bezobrazov), probably remained neutral. The position of the rest members of the Board is still unclear. However, it is clear that no one of the Board supported G. Fedotov. G. Fedotov called the deed of their colleagues dishonest. This conflict can be really described as a conflict of Georgy Fedotov with all the Board of the Institute, and the published documents confirm this point of view.