Soviet model for managing the religious process under the conditions of Great Patriotic War: center - peripheral aspect

The paper presents line of behaviour of the USSR, who tried to use patriotic spirit of the Orthodox clergy for mobilizing all forces of the country to fight back the invaders. The paper emphasizes that new religious policy of the Stalinist regime was a political manoeuvre for complete subordination of the Church institution to the interests of the state. A new model for managing the religious process in the country is characterized: the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR - the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church - the institution of ombudsmen for local religious affairs. The example of the Ural region shows the effectiveness of the activities of these authorities in interaction with the Orthodox clergy and believers. The paper concludes that the center-peripheral system for managing the religious process made it possible to maximize its use in the interests of social consolidation without releasing it beyond the framework of state regulation.