Existential problems of orthodoxy in China in the first half of the 1950s

The article characterizes the difficulties that existed in the Orthodox Church in China in the first half of the 1950s. To date, this problematic has found only partial coverage in scientific and popular scientific literature. The researchers focus on the activities of the Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in the country, mentioning less the East Asian Exarchate. The authors speak mainly about general trends in the development of Orthodoxy or only about the specific problems, for example, the constant lack of finances even for current needs. The use of a systematic approach along with the methods of historical science has allowed based on the analysis of only one document to identify a set of problems in the Chinese Orthodox Church, which, in fact, determined the fate of Orthodoxy in China. The author thinks that lacking of funds is only one of the problems related to the absence of any serious action to improve the situation on the part of the church leadership. Beside the financial problems, more of them appeared later: a number of bans from the Chinese authorities, the lack of constant communication with the Moscow Patriarchate and no opportunities to travel to the North, Northeast and West of China, problems in the administrative management of the Exarchate and its unclear status, and the confrontment between the chief of the Ecclesiastical Mission, the head of the East Asian Exarchate Archbishop Victor (Svyatin) and Bishop Symeon (Du) of Shanghai. In the first half of the 1950s the leadership of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in China was unable to cope with the complex of problems which led to the active cultivation of creating an independent Chinese Orthodox Church.