In RECENT decades, the religious factor in international politics has become the object of attention of political scientists and specialists in international relations, primarily from the point of view of the "return of religion", which is considered in the paradigm of "desecularization"1. Some researchers directly link the need to analyze the role of the religious factor in global processes with the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Accordingly, the emphasis is usually placed on the relationship between religion, violence and conflict, 2 or on the participation of religious actors in the globalization of governance3. In relation to the previous period, namely, the middle-second half of the XX century, it is generally accepted that-

1. See the research review on: Werkner, I., Hidalgo, O. (eds) (2014) Religionen-Global Player in der internationalen Politik, ss. 2-11. Springer VS, and also in: Muehlenbeck, Ph. (ed.) (2012) Religion and the Cold War: A Global Perspective, p. XVII. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press; Hatzopoulos, P., Petito, F. (2003) (Hrsg.) Religion in International Relations. The Return from Exile. New York, Basingstoke.

2. Appleby, R.S. (2000) The Ambivalence of the Sacred. Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation, New York; De Juan, A., Hasenclever, A. (2009) "Das Framing religiöser Konflikte - die Rolle von Eliten in religiös konnotierten Bü rgerkriegen", in Bussmann, M., Hasenclever, A., Schneider, G. (Hrsg.) Identität, Institutionen und Ökonomie. Ursachen innenpolitischer Gewalt (Sonderheft Politische Vierteljahresschrift), ss. 178-205. Wiesbaden; Hurd, E.S. (2015) Beyond Religious Freedom. The New Global Politics of Religion. Princeton. An overview study on religion and peacemaking: Smock, D.R. (Hrsg.) (2006) Religious Contributions to Peacemaking. When Religion Brings Peace, Not War (Peaceworks). Washington, D.C.

3. Baumgart-Ochse, C. (2014) "Religiöse Akteure als Beitrlger zu Global Governance", in Werkner, I., Hidalgo, O. (eds) Religionen - Global Player in der internationalen Politik. ss. 15-32. Springer VS; Hurd, E.S. (2015) Beyond Religious Freedom. The New Global Politics of Religion. Princeton.

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The opinion that church institutions are marginal, that is, that they have no serious influence on the political and cultural spheres, is widely accepted. In the multiplying research on Cold War social and peace initiatives, the religious factor is usually ignored.4 This also applies to a number of projects in the second half of the 2000s devoted to the perception of the "other" and the tools used to form its images5, as well as to the development and transformation of the communications system during the Cold War.

Meanwhile, the conflict between the two political and ideological systems with its characteristic Manichaean dualism and the apocalyptic nature of the nuclear threat, as well as the idea of moral responsibility for the world order that existed in both superpowers, had a religious dimension. An attempt to systematically investigate the role that religious ideas played in this confrontation, especially in relation to the United States, was made by the English historian Diana Kirby, who emphasized that for many Western contemporaries, the Cold War was one of religious wars, namely, a war between God-fearing and godless people.6 Being in antiphase with those historians who were extremely uncomfortable to admit the presence of religious motives in the diplomatic and cultural sphere of the period under study, Kirbay drew attention to the fact that the Americans ' foreign policy activity manifested their traditional self-understanding as carriers of Truth, Justice and Freedom - gifts sent down by God, and that They saw their mission in extending the spiritual and material gifts of God to the rest of humanity. She noted that in the post-war American-

4. The most striking example is the publications of the large Institute for Peace and Security Policy Studies at the University of Hamburg, which simply ignores the problems of peace initiatives of religious structures. See the list of publications: [https://ifsh.de/no_cache/publikationen/gesamtuebersicht/, accessed on 29.03.2017] The issue of the electronic scientific and educational journal "History"is devoted to the review of the trends of modern historiography on the Cold War. 2014. 2(25). Vol. 5 [https://history.jes.su/issue.2014.2.6.2-25, accessed 29.03.2017].

5. Europa im Ostblock. Vorstellungswelten und Kommunikationsrlume im Wandel. See the collection of articles on this topic: Faraldo, von J. M., Gulinska-Jurgiel, P., Domnitz, Ch. (Hrsg.) (2008) Europa im Ostblock. Vorstellungen und Diskurse (1945-1991). Böhlau Verlag; Haak, S. (1998) The Making of the Good War. Hollywood, das Pentagon und die amerikanische Deutung des Zweiten Weltkrieges 1945-1962. Ferdinand Schoening.

6. Kirby, D. (ed) (2003) Religion in the Cold War, p. 4. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

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In Russian society, a sense of mission became one of the most powerful motivating factors, and confrontation with the Soviet Union was also seen as a form of Christian action, since communism was perceived as an evil and a threat to the "American way of life", of which religion was considered an integral part.

A more recent study by J. Herzog, " The Spiritual-Industrial Complex: America's Religious Battle Against Communism in the Early Cold War "(2012), explicitly states that the awareness of Soviet communism as a threat to national security led in the mid-1940s to the fact that American leaders used religion to mobilize American society 7. This was done in two ways: on the one hand, declaring communism the wrong / wrong religion (and not just a competing political or economic system); on the other hand, constructing, as a counterbalance, the American civil religion as a system of institutions, symbols, and images that united American Protestants, Catholics, and Jews and led to a whole new world. a complex of changes in society (from an increase in church attendance to the adoption of the phrase "In God We Trust" as a national motto and the introduction of the practice of opening meetings in the White House with prayer)8.

If in the United States the unfolding ideological confrontation between the two blocs resulted in religious mobilization, then in Western European countries the situation was, apparently, fundamentally different, although we do not yet have generalizing studies on this topic.

Perhaps the best study is of the Vatican's growing political influence during the Cold War. In the post-war period, the Catholic Church ceases to be the church of Europe: it turned out that now its main flock is in third world countries; at the same time, its weight in the United States has increased. Vatican City Communications

7. Herzog, J.P. (2012) The Spiritual-Industrial Complex: America's Religious Battle Against Communism in the Early Cold War. New York: Oxford University Press.

8. Cloud, M.W. (2004) "'One Nation, Under God': Tolerable Acknowledgement of Religion of Unconstitutional Cold War Propaganda Cloaked in American Civil Religion?", Journal of Church and State 46(2): 311-340; Theseira, J.A. (2013) "In God We Trust: The Cold War and the Creation of Modern American Civil Religion", The Undergraduate Journal of Social Studies 4(1). Article 2 [http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/u_ss/vol4/iss1/2, accessed on 29.03.2017].

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Relations with the countries of the socialist bloc during this period are usually considered in the context of not only global ideological confrontations9, but also a complex system of international relations. An important step in the study of specific historical subjects related to the Vatican Ostpolitik was the collection "The Vatican Ostpolitik "1958-1978, prepared in 2015 by the Hungarian Academy in Rome. Responsibility and Witness during John XXIII and Paul VI " 10, which presents primarily a Catholic view.

European Lutheran and Reformed churches also contributed to clarifying the role of inter-Christian communications during the Cold War. The position of European Protestants-active figures in the ecumenical movement, who were members of such major organizations as the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches and the Christian Peace Conference, as well as the perception of the Cold War realities by this part of the Christian community is reflected in the collection "Christian World Community and the Cold War". Openness to the theological and social positions of their Eastern brethren, an attitude of maximum loyalty to socialist ideas, participation in the formation of a whole spectrum of left-liberal public organizations that distanced themselves from the bourgeois-imperialist policies of their states - all this made it possible for Western Christians to assume the presence of genuine solidarity with Christians in Eastern Europe. The latter, however, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, easily minimized communication with this part of the Christian community and revealed complete indifference to liberal ecumenical concepts (sometimes turning into their condemnation).

The above-mentioned collections are of particular interest in the context of the problems of this issue of the journal. They reveal the specifics of the communications that developed in the Cold War, the cliched perception of the "other" and the lack of understanding of its position with the widespread idea of everything-

9. Robert, H.D. (2006) "The Popes and the Cold War: Examining Encyclical Evidence and the Evolution of their Ostpolitik, 1945-1990", Illumine. The Journal of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society Graduate Student Association 5(1): 18-24.

10. FeMprdy, A. (ed.) (2015) The Vatican "Ostpolitik" 1958-1978. Responsibility and Witness during John XXIII and Paul VI. Roma: Istituto Balassi. Accademia d'Ungheria in Roma,Viella.

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the role of the Soviet Union in regulating religious processes in Eastern Europe.

What these communications looked like from the "Eastern" point of view, what goals were pursued by the Soviet authorities, activating the religious factor, and how various actors participated in the formation of communication systems between religious structures in the East and West - all these subjects are important for the presentation. A number of articles in this issue of the journal deal with the foreign policy ambitions and real opportunities of the USSR to influence religious life in the Eastern Bloc countries, as well as the perception of the Soviet Union and socialism in Western religious circles. 11
The materials presented in the framework of the "Main Topic" are devoted to various aspects: the specifics of the international religious policy of the Soviet state, which, however, largely depended on the quality of the activities carried out abroad by representatives of religious organizations; the multipolarity of the "Orthodox world"; as well as attempts by the leadership of Eastern European countries to distance themselves from the" big brother " in religious questions.

M. Kayl's article shows the coordinated work of representatives of state and church structures in the field of designing a policy of remembrance on the example of organizing celebrations dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the autocephaly of the Russian Church (1948), that is, its organizational separation from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with which, in the context of the unfolding Cold War, it was politically "on opposite sides". It also deals with the resumption of the traditional method of communication for the Russian Church with the ancient Eastern Patriarchates in Soviet conditions - through their direct material support with the participation of the state. The researcher also shows that during the Cold War, one of the most important forms of communication is the departure abroad with the approval of the country's top leadership of delegations consisting of representatives of the clergy (read more about the mechanisms for forming Soviet church delegations

11. For the state of research and current problems of international activity of the Russian Church, see: Beglov, A., Beljakova, N. (2012) " International Activity of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Cold War. The results and the future prospects of study", in F. Julius (ed) (2012) Christian World Community and the Cold War. International Research Conference, pp. 171-192. Bratislava: Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava.

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and reception of foreign ones, see the article by N. Pivovarov). The restoration of contacts between the Moscow Patriarchate and Russian Orthodox communities abroad in order to transfer them to its church jurisdiction was of no small importance during the Cold War, since in this way the USSR gained additional "strong points" around the world.

The Soviet government was also involved in strengthening and legalizing Orthodox church structures in Eastern Europe. A. Vishivanyuk analyzes in detail the motives that guided the Soviet government in seeking autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church in the context of difficult relations with the leadership of "fraternal" Poland. D. Kalkandzhieva shows in her article how the new post-war Bulgarian authorities,on the one hand, They helped to normalize the status of the Bulgarian Church in world Orthodoxy, and on the other hand, they blocked the participation of church representatives in the ecumenical movement, since in the late 1940s. The Council of Churches in Geneva was labeled in the socialist camp as an Anglo-American organization that sought to draw the churches of Eastern Europe into the imperialist bloc. In this case, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were used as a guide of the then Soviet line, through which pressure was exerted on the ecumenically minded leadership of the Bulgarian Church. In the end, the Bulgarian authorities removed Exarch Stefan from the post of head of the church and obtained ecclesiastical condemnation of ecumenism.

Since the mid-1940s, the Moscow Patriarchate has also developed contacts with the Orthodox churches of the Middle East, which, being mainly located in the "third world" countries, by the 1960s were in the zone of intense struggle for the division of spheres of influence between the United States and the USSR. T. Chumachenko's article on the involvement of Bishop Vladimir (Kotlyarov), a representative of the Russian Church, in the conflict within the Orthodox Church of Antioch, describes the configuration of forces and trends that reflects the postcolonial situation in the respective region: the confrontation between Greek and Arab clergy, pro-Russian (pro-Soviet) and pro-American bishops, and the complex relations between Syria and Lebanon. which are the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Antioch. Outright interference on the side of one of the groups of the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate, who had a tough impact on the local population.

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Pressure on the Patriarch of Antioch to stop financial assistance from Moscow led to Bishop Vladimir being recognized as persona non grata by the Synod of the Church of Antioch.

Throughout the Cold War, the USSR consistently increased the participation of representatives of religious organizations in the international arena, as N. Pivovarov's research convincingly shows. At the same time, if in the late Stalin period it was mainly about the activity of representatives of the Orthodox Church, then in the Khrushchev period representatives of "Soviet" Protestants and even Catholics, as well as Muslim leaders, were admitted to the international level. At the same time, the number of visits to the USSR by foreign religious figures, who came both through official interreligious relations and on private tourist visas, increased.

At the peak of Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign (September 1960), but in the context of the policy of "defusing international tension", the Council for Religious Cults once again submitted to the Central Committee of the CPSU a lengthy reference "on the use of external activities of religious organizations of the USSR in the interests of the Soviet state", which emphasized the huge potential of confessions in peace and improvement of the country's image in the international arena 12. At first glance, this suggests that the official Soviet concept of religion, according to which religion was supposed to gradually die out during the construction of socialism, contradicted the positive assessment of the participation of representatives of religious organizations in pro-Soviet international activities. On the other hand, in this case we can speak about the specifics of the Soviet political system, in which radical ideology was combined with sober pragmatism. However, the aforementioned study by J. Herzog on the religious mobilization of American society in the early period of the Cold War indicates that the situation in the United States was largely mirrored. Herzog wonders how the American civil religion relates to the United States.-

12. Chairman of the Council for Religious Cults A. Puzin. On the question of using the external activities of religious organizations of the USSR in the interests of the Soviet state (reference). Secret. September 14, 1960 GA RF. F. 6991. Op. 3. D. 211. L. 82-110.

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How did the diplomats interact with the foreign policy activity of the United States: did they communicate with priests of the communist religion or with politicians of a rival state? The policy of defusing international tensions, which developed communications between the religious structures of the opposing camps, was a sign of the strengthening of the policy of realism. At the same time, throughout the cold War, both superpowers had forces representing various religious movements that sought to develop communication between East and West, but at the same time found themselves under the threat of criticism and even reprisals from the state: in the case of the United States - on charges of pro-communist orientation; in the case of the USSR-on charges of aiding and abetting the intelligence services of imperialist countries.

Canadian historian E. Preston argued that both superpowers viewed each other through a religious lens and that it was the "religion/anti-religion" theme that determined the conceptualization of the cold War. 13 M. Shakhnovich shows in his article how the official Soviet ideology presented the role of religious institutions in the bourgeois world through the prism of the "religious front". If until the 1960s the main enemy on this front was the Vatican, which was accused of initiating a "crusade against the USSR" and in close cooperation with "fascism and Nazism", then after the announcement of the US President R. R. Tolkien, it was the Vatican. After the Reagan crusade against the USSR as an "evil empire", the emphasis changed: now Soviet propaganda began to divide the religious circles of the West into progressive ("people of good will") and reactionary, that is, supporting aggressive bourgeois imperialism ("clerical anti-communism"). This was not just a method of ideological struggle used to create a favorable image of socialism among Western religious audiences, but a shift in emphasis towards the problems of the South, where the ideas of the social state and liberation theology were popular.

The Cold War primarily involved the countries of the North, that is, it was a war between the" first world " (capitalist West) and the "second world" (socialist East). However, in the course of the development of the cold war, it became louder and louder.

13. Preston, A. (2012) Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy. NY: Anchor Books.

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The South, the "third world"14, is making itself known, and although post-colonial processes were also taking place against the background of a new division of spheres of influence between the two superpowers, a new conflict has emerged on the world agenda - between the rich North and the poor South. This confrontation was reflected in new theological (more precisely, political-theological) doctrines, with the help of which representatives of different churches positioned themselves as active participants in the reconstruction of the world on the basis of social justice. By the mid-1960s, the relevant theological doctrines gained political weight and had a decisive influence on the direction of the practical work of the World Council of Churches, as well as led to a revision of the theological paradigm of the ecumenical movement as a whole. This is discussed in the article of the German historian K. Coonter, who set out to analyze the internal and external context of developing a common strategy and concrete solutions in the World Council of Churches during the Cold War. The author explains the motives that motivated the WCC leaders and the reasons for the harsh criticism that they were subjected to from different sides-both before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Kunter's article reflects on the diversity of political challenges that Christianity faced in the Cold War-era "confrontation of worlds" situation, because in this case, serious theological reaction was required not only by Marxist-Leninist ideology or the problem of the relationship between Christianity and socialism, but also by civil religion in the United States, as well as the idea of a " church for the poor", which became widespread in the South 15.

Major ecumenical organizations - the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, etc. - have long been "official" participants in international politics, representing recognized church structures of all three "worlds". However, by the 1960s, the situation in the international religious field was becoming more complicated: there appear new, unexpected and often inconvenient actors for high-status religious and political figures, who do the following:

14. See Muehlenbeck, Ph. (2012) Religion and the Cold War, a study whose author went beyond the borders of the United States and Western Europe. A Global Perspective. Vanderbilt University Press.

15. See about it: Canipe, L. (2003) "Under God and Anti-Communist: How the Pledge of Allegiance Got Religion in Cold War America", Journal of Church and State 45(2): 305-323.

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focus on religious freedom, thereby drawing attention to the rights and concerns of ordinary believers. Thus, the religious agenda of the Cold War introduces a human rights theme.

April French's article is dedicated to the work of Michael Bourdeau, who helped collect a unique array of materials about religious life in the USSR and other countries of the socialist camp. At a time when international politics was aimed at defusing tensions, that is, at optimizing relations between the West and the USSR and its satellites, this Anglican pastor (later branded by Soviet propaganda as an agent of all Western intelligence services) took on the mission of being the mouthpiece of persecuted Christians in Eastern Europe. In his research, French draws attention to how behind the iron curtain the image of the "other" was formed through the dichotomies "sufferers for the faith/adaptors to the Soviet system", "true believers/church nomenclature".

Contacts between Protestants living in the USSR and Western co-religionists resumed (after a 15-year break) in the mid-1940s and intensified after Stalin's death. In the 1950s. Western Baptists, including American Baptists, have a question about who the leaders of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists (the organization that united most of the late Protestant denominations in the USSR under its roof) represent when the Soviet government allowed them to have international contacts. This happens when they establish regular contacts with the Baptist World Congress and directly with the Baptists of the United States16, and representatives of evangelical Baptist Christians from the USSR occupy the niche of "peace fighters"in the international arena. It should be noted here that it was largely thanks to the information support provided by the aforementioned Michael Bourdeau that the West in the mid-1960s learned about the uncompromising struggle for freedom of conscience of Baptist initiatives17, who opposed themselves to the official leadership of the ALLKHB, which, according to their opponents from the religious environment, compromised with the godless government. That-

16. См. об этом подробнее: Carlson, G.W. (1987) Russian Protestants and American Evangelicals since the Death of Stalin: Patterns of Interaction and Response. A thesis submitted to the faculty of the graduate school of the university of Minnesota.

17. See, for example, Bourdeaux, M. (1968) Religious Ferment in Russia. Protestant Opposition to Soviet Religious Policy. London, New York: Macmillan.

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Here, for example, the Baptist Aida Skripnikova was widely known in the English-speaking world18, about which few people knew inside the USSR 19.

The attention of the first world representatives to the situation of the Protestant community in the USSR and the protest movement within it, which was a reaction to Khrushchev's anti-religious policy, was connected not only with the protection of religious freedom. Thus, the Central Mennonite Committee (CMC), based in Canada, began its activities in the context of restoring ties with relatives and co-religionists. This story, completely unknown to the Russian-speaking reader, is the subject of an article by Johannes Dick, who first drew on the materials of the CMC archive and showed how Mennonite activists became involved in the big politics of the Cold War era. Using this example, the author analyzed the multi-level and multidimensional communication system that developed in the course of international activities of religious organizations, as well as the presence of strict rules and unwritten conditions of interaction, ignoring which led to the fact that communication participants were "taken out of the game" (as happened with the chairman of the peace section of the CMC Harold Bender). On the other hand, the interest of the representatives of the "Western organization" contributed to the removal of the "Mennonite factor" in the USSR from the shadow and its inclusion in the context of international politics.

The authors of the research published in this issue of the journal repeatedly turn to the analysis of private letters, which were an important means of communication during the Cold War. If, according to the concept of the Russian historian of the human rights movement A. Y. Daniel, the epistolary revolution in the USSR begins in 1968,20 then the materials on religious history allow us to shift this date by a decade
18. Howard-Johnston, X., Bourdeaux, M. (ed.) (1972) Aida of Leningrad: The Story of Aida Skripnikova. London: Mowbrays.

19. See the publication of samizdat materials of her trial in Leningrad in the book: Belyakova N., Dobson M. Women in evangelical communities of the post-war USSR (1940-80-ies). Research and sources. Moscow: Indrik, 2015, pp. 184-209. For tender specifics of religious protest, see: Beliakova, N., Dobson, M. (2016)" Protestant Women in the Late Soviet Era: Gender, Authority, and Dissent", Canadian Slavonic Papers 58(2): 117-140.

20. Daniel mentions this date in a number of his works. For example: Daniel A. Socialism as utopia//Inviolable reserve. 2008. N 4 (60) [http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2008/4/so8.html, accessed from 29.03.2017].

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earlier. At this time, there is a widespread practice of believers writing open letters in which they report on the closure of churches and houses of worship, on the persecution of believers and clergy, thereby expressing their protest against the Khrushchev anti-religious campaign. Pointing out the contrast between the export propaganda rhetoric of "democratic freedoms in the country of victorious socialism" and the real domestic religious policy, ordinary believers try to use the global ideological confrontation to protect their rights.21 Natalia Shlikhta's article explains the role played by the letter of two religious women from Western Ukraine about the persecution of the largest Orthodox monastery in the USSR, the Pochaev Monastery, and the letter is also published in this issue of the magazine. It was this event that made a huge impression on Michael Bourdeau and became an impetus for his further international activity. The growth of information received by the first world due to the massive development of the epistolary protest genre in the societies of socialist countries provided material for Western human rights centers that analyzed the position of religion behind the iron Curtain, such as the Keston Institute or Faith in the Second World (Zurich).

The studies published below, which reflect the complexity of the communication system and the intensity of the transfer of ideas and concepts in the historical period under consideration, show the prospects for further development of stories about the role of the religious factor in the Cold War.

21. Beliakova, N. (2016) "'We Ask You to Put an End to Lawlessness...': Soviet Believers' Letters of 1960-1980s as a Form of Communication with the Government", Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 236: 310-314.

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