The Influence of the Political Situation on the Inner-Church Life and the Appointment of Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in Germany, China and the USA in the 1930s.

The article examines archival correspondence of hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Out-side Russia (ROCOR) to analyze the impact of the political situation of the 1930s on the religious life of Russian emigration communities in Germany, China, and the USA. In 1935, a policy of unification of Russian parishes in the Western European Exarchate under Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky) commenced in Germany, involving their forcible transfer to the jurisdiction of the German Diocese of ROCOR. Opposition publications affiliated with the Paris jurisdiction, notably those disseminated by Tsarsky Vestnik magazine, cast aspersions on the German Dio-cese and posed a risk of significant ecclesiastical and communal discord. At that time, China was faced with a number of foreign and domestic political and military crises, which affected the lives of representatives of the Or-thodox emigration. The risk factors were, on the one hand, the power struggle between militarists, nationalists and communists, on the other, the threat of external invasion, primarily from Japan. During the Great Depression, the US authorities were looking for ways out of the economic crisis and were interested in any support from society, including in the religious sphere.