Author: 11form Teacher: Irina Nikishina Pleskovo Boarding School, 2010

On June 22, 1941, the first day of the war, which coincided with the celebration of the day of All Saints, in the land of Russia, Metropolitan Sergius made a message to the pastors of Christ Orthodox Church, urging the faithful to defend the Fatherland from “the wretched offspring enemies of Orthodox Christianity”. Since November 1942 Metropolitan Sergius, together with Metropolitan Nicholas had repeatedly addressed messages to the Orthodox Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece, to the Christians of other countries occupied by Germany with a call to join the anti-fascist coalition.

During the Battle for Moscow Metropolitan Nicholas often went to the front, performing worships in Moscow and suburban churches, preached sermons, urging Moscovites not to panic and keep the capital.

A true example of courage was the behavior of the Orthodox clergy and ordinary people during the 900-day Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade (Sep Jan ). Being in the besieged city, Metropolitan of Leningrad Alexis (Simansky; later Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia) served the liturgy in St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral and other churches, performed the funeral of victims of the blockade, treated with patriotic appeals to the faithful. His example was followed by the Leningrad clerics, who took pastoral care of the faithful, committed acts of worship, funeral of the victims and provided possible help with medicines and firewood from the parish stocks.

During the first year of the war Orthodox churches in Moscow handed in to the Defense Fund over 3 million rub. A big patriotic work was done by the Orthodox monasteries, where hospitals and orphanages were often arranged. Taking care of the children of soldiers who were fighting on the fronts, the Orthodox Church announced the collection of money among all working cathedrals.The Moscow Patriarchate was the first to donate 1 million rubles. All in all, during the five years of the war, the Moscow Patriarchate, the clergy and the faithful were gathered more than 300 million rubles.

On 30 December 1942 Metropolitan Sergius urged the faithful to donate funds for the making a tank column named after the St. Dimitry of Don. At the Chelyabinsk tank plant 40 tanks were made, which Metropolitan Nicholas gave to the Red Army from the Moscow Patriarchate on March 7, The Dimitri Donskoy column of tanks participated in the liberation of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Poland and came to Berlin.

During the war the facts of the patriotic deeds of the clergy and believers in the occupied territories became known. Orthodox clergy and laity helped partizan units and underground groups. Hundreds of clerics were arrested and imprisoned, were shot or burnt alive for their patriotic activities. Since the autumn of 1943 clergy and active believers had been awarded state orders and medals. The first big award ceremony was held in Leningrad, when a group of clergy was awarded a medal "For the Defense of Leningrad. In 1944, the clergy of the Moscow and Tula dioceses were awarded a medal "For the Defense of Moscow".

The command officer of the 5th partisans' brigade the hero of the Soviet Union K.D. Kamritskiy is awarding the priest F.A. Puzanov the medal "The Partisan of the Second World War" The executive secretary of the Moscow Patriarchia metripolitan Nikolas is awarding the hierarchs of the Church the medals "For the Defense of Moscow". 1944

Stalin praised the patriotic activity of the Russian Orthodox Church during the war. The presence of Patriarch Alexy on the platform of the mausoleum of Lenin during the Victory Parade in Red Square was a striking demonstration of this fact. It was on the 24 June, 1945 Later the Patriarch was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

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Dedicated to The Blessed Memory of Those Millions Of Valiant Men, Women, Children and Old People Who Gave Their Lives in the Sacred Fighting For The Freedom and Independence of Our Motherland During the Great Patriotic War in