Termination of the Activity of the Korean Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1948–1949

The Korean Ecclesiastical Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church was established at the end of 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Already in the first years of its existence, its chiefs – Archimandrite Chrysanthes (Shchetkovsky), Paul (Ivanovsky), and others – had to solve numerous problems associated with the political changes that were taking place in Korea. The situation for the Korean Orthodox Mission worsened after the revolutionary upheavals in the Russian Empire itself. There were many emigrants in Korea, who, in turn, often adhered to different political views regarding which path the Orthodox Church should take. Some supported Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) and his “Declaration” of 1927, others were categorically opposed. The Korean Ecclesiastical Mission managed to preserve and continue its activities in part because the mission was transferred under the direct leadership of Metropolitan Sergius (Tikhomirov) of Japan, but without subordination to the Japanese Orthodox Church. After the end of World War II and the death of Metropolitan Sergius in 1945, the situation changed. The result of numerous internal conflicts was the expulsion of the last head of the Korean Ecclesiastical Mission, Archimandrite Polycarp (Priymak) from Korea in 1948–1949. Based on the available research, the article examines precisely this difficult period in the history of the Korean Ecclesiastical Mission. The author comes to the conclusion that the termination of the missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in Korea occurred solely due to political reasons.