<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Father Dimitri Dudko’s fame as a popular 1970s Soviet Orthodox priest and his public ‘recantating’ and subsequent disgrace in 1980 shed light on several aspects of religion in the late Cold War. Diasporas like the ROCOR fostered practices and beliefs-especially conservative ones-forced to go underground in the homeland. Soviet atheism responded to revived religious practice worldwide, with Dudko’s persecution being a part of that response. The formal and informal relationships between ROCOR clerics and Dudko, and between Dudko and the KGB, suggest that Dudko’s apparent about-face may have had deeper roots and longer-lasting effects than previously suspected.</p>
</abstract>

Father Dimitri Dudko’s fame as a popular 1970s Soviet Orthodox priest and his public ‘recantating’ and subsequent disgrace in 1980 shed light on several aspects of religion in the late Cold War. Diasporas like the ROCOR fostered practices and beliefs-especially conservative ones-forced to go underground in the homeland. Soviet atheism responded to revived religious practice worldwide, with Dudko’s persecution being a part of that response. The formal and informal relationships between ROCOR clerics and Dudko, and between Dudko and the KGB, suggest that Dudko’s apparent about-face may have had deeper roots and longer-lasting effects than previously suspected.

Father Dimitri Dudko and the Intersection of late Cold War Underground, Official,  and Diaspora Russian Orthodox Church Opinion

Nadieszda Kizenko, Professor of History, University at Albany

Review of Ecumenical Studies Sibiu

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Father Dimitri Dudko’s fame as a popular 1970s Soviet Orthodox priest and his public ‘recantating’ and subsequent disgrace in 1980 shed light on several...

Father Dimitri Dudko and the Intersection of late Cold War Underground, Official, and Diaspora Russian Orthodox Church Opinion

Published Online: Nov 10, 2022

Page range: 289 - 309

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ress-2022-0106

Keywords
Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), Cold War, Dissidents, Soviet Union, Dimitri Dudko

© 2022 Nadieszda Kizenko, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Father Dimitri Dudko and the Intersection of late Cold War Underground, Official, and Diaspora Russian Orthodox Church Opinion

Published Online: Nov 10, 2022

Page range: 289 - 309

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ress-2022-0106

KeywordsRussian Orthodox Church (ROC), Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), Cold War, Dissidents, Soviet Union, Dimitri Dudko

© 2022 Nadieszda Kizenko, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), Cold War, Dissidents, Soviet Union, Dimitri Dudko