Authors

Discussion

Scholarship on the institution of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) during the perestroika period has focused predominantly on developments inside the USSR. Yet the Church also played an important role in communicating Soviet reform policies abroad, and this can be used as a lens through which to observe aspects of institutional dynamics within the Church. In the case of the GDR, advertising perestroika met firm resistance from the GDR authorities, whereas East German society was enthusiastic about Gorbi and GDR churches offered refuge for members of opposition. This paper shows how the ROC (that found itself in a precarious position within the Soviet state and had to come to terms itself with the state's reformist course, as well as with the ROC’s manifold inherent challenges) advertised perestroika in the GDR in compliance with the official Soviet policy -- while gradually reorienting its 'mission' and eventually directing it toward the Soviet state itself. The paper will argue that this was a multifaceted process involving various Church actors who spoke not as one ‘voice of institutional Orthodoxy,' but at times in a polyphony of voices.