“We need funds, it is like oxygen for us...”: one-day money collecting in church as one of the forms of сharitable activities performed by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad in the first half of the 1920s. (based on materials from the Russian state archive)

This is an attempt to highlight one of the forms of charitable activities performed by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad - one-day money collecting in church in the first half of the 1920s. The research is based on the materials from the Russian State Archive, minutes of the Synod of Bishops, the official periodical publication of the journal Tserkovnye Vedomosti , research by modern historians and memoirs of the participants of those events. Money collecting was arranged with the special blessing of the Synod of Bishops as a response to the desperate requests of Russian emigrants. It was held during divine services and was preceded by a special speech of the clergy, appealing to the parishioners. The article examines a number of appeals to the Synod of Bishops and analyses the general financial situation of the Russian Church Abroad and its members.