The Russian Church calls out to the world… From the history of the Soviet-American church forums of the Cold War Era

Relevance. In the current state of international relations, the historical experience of building and maintaining communication by actors of public diplomacy (confessional structures) in conflict periods is of particular importance. One of the most difficult periods in national history was the period of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. At the moment, however, the forces of the political and diplomatic structures of Russia's key historical denomination, the Russian Orthodox Church, were aimed at maintaining and developing a constant dialogue with the confessional organizations of the key geopolitical opponent. The central theme of this interaction was the international peacekeeping movement. It was designed to prevent the confrontation from escalating into an open conflict and formed a significant event agenda (events and forums) at which representatives of the church structures of two (and more often in a wider international composition) countries interacted, exchanged views and formed consolidated content: statements, notes, proclamations postulating the need to preserve peace in the name of higher Christian values and the preservation of lives.

The purpose of the study is to examine the practice of church diplomatic activity of the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church in the interaction of the Department of External Church Relations and the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Objectives: to reveal the specifics and characteristic features of the practical diplomatic organizational work of church structures in the organization of church forums in Soviet Russia in the early 1970s.

Methodology. The principles of objectivity and historicism were applied during the research. To solve the tasks set by the author, historical-genetic, historical-systemic, historical-comparative, typological, retrospective methods were used.

Results. The study of unique, previously unexplored and published sources allowed an unbiased reconstruction of the process of organizing a church forum in the development of the "peacekeeping activities" of the Russian Orthodox Church in the early 1970s.

Conclusions. The sources demonstrate the development of the practice of church diplomatic work, allow us to reconstruct the specifics, course, timing, dynamics and circumstances of the organization of the peacekeeping forum of the Russian Orthodox Church in the conditions of Soviet reality in the early 1970s. The role of church structures is marked and described (the Publishing Department and its chairman, the Moscow Theological Academy), directly and formally unrelated to the conduct of international work.

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