Russian Orthodox Church and State Surveillance in the Soviet Union, of Vasily Furov's Confidential Report, an English Translation including Original Cyrillic Text, c. 1980

Vasily Grigorievich Furov

Manuscript & Autographs

Vasily Grigorievich Furov (1907–1998) confidential Soviet report on the Russian Orthodox Church,"Church Staff and Measures to Restrict Their Activities Within the Framework of the Law," both Cyrillic and English translation, circa 1980, documenting the internal mechanisms through which the Council for Religious Affairs supervised bishops, clergy, theological education, publishing, and parish life. Prepared from the first émigré publication of Deputy Chairman V. Furov's confidential report, the English translation made available to Western researchers one of the most detailed surviving internal accounts of Soviet management of the Moscow Patriarchate. The report evaluates episcopal loyalty, proposes administrative restrictions "within the framework of the law," and measures the effectiveness of state oversight exercised through the Council for Religious Affairs

Church Staff and Measures to Restrict Their Activities Within the Framework of the Law. Privately circulated English typescript translation with photocopied Russian text, circa 1980. 344 pages, 8 × 10 inches, consisting of 274 pages of English translation followed by 70 pages of photocopied Russian text reproduced from Russkaya Tserkov' Segodnya (1979), pp. 275–344. The English section opens with a title page and a two-page editorial introduction signed “N.S.,” likely Nikita Struve, editor of Vestnik Russkogo Khristianskogo Dvizheniya, though the initials are not expanded in the text. The Russian section reproduces the published Cyrillic text, retaining numerous handwritten annotations, editorial marks, and copied corrections from the source volume. The report analyzes the composition of the episcopate, categorizes bishops according to their relationship with Soviet authorities, reviews the operation of theological seminaries and academies, evaluates church publishing, foreign contacts, and monastic life, and outlines measures adopted by the Council for Religious Affairs to confine ecclesiastical activity within state legal controls.

The report belongs to the late Soviet bureaucracy, where institutions outside the Communist Party were subjected to continuous political oversight through internal reporting rather than public law. The report circulated originally as a confidential memorandum within the Soviet state before reaching the Russian émigré press, where it appeared in 1979 and quickly became one of the principal documentary sources for the study of church-state relations in the USSR. Historians of Soviet religion have relied upon it because it records internal administrative assessments rather than public propaganda, revealing how the Council for Religious Affairs measured episcopal reliability, sought reductions in the number of active clergy, supervised theological education, and monitored contact between the Russian Orthodox Church and foreign religious organizations. The present copy preserves an early English translation together with the Russian source text, reflecting the circulation of documentary evidence among Cold War researchers, religious organizations, and human rights networks at a moment when such material was otherwise difficult to obtain outside the Soviet Union. Corners show curling with minor tears throughout. The title page is detached but remains largely legible. Staples in tact and photocopied text preserves annotations and markings. Overall in good condition.

Item #23623

Price: $750.00