Russian Women of the Holy Land in the Vicissitudes of the Cold War: The History of the Replenishment of Convents in the 1950s

Abstract

The history of Russian female monasticism in the Holy Land is presented in the context of the formation of the State of Israel and the unfolding of the Cold War. The materials of the nuns’ ego-documents show the escalation of the conflict between supporters of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the emigrant structures of Russian Orthodoxy. Archival materials trace the motives for the participation of representatives of Soviet authorities in the selection of candidates to replenish Russian convents and hermitages in Palestine. Thus, by the beginning of the 1950s, the number of elderly nuns in the Gornenskii Convent was rapidly declining, and the decrease in the Russian presence in Israel caused serious concern to representatives of the USSR Foreign Ministry. Various departments of the secular Soviet state participated in the maintenance of elderly nuns of the Holy Land, stimulated the selection of new nuns, and took part in the selection of candidates for the post of abbess.