Lesninsky Holy Theotokos Convent in the Conditions of Interfaith Confrontation in Yugoslavia During the Nazi Occupation

Abstract

The article examines one of the important periods in the history of the Lesninsky Holy Theotokos Convent, one of the largest women's monasteries of the Russian Empire, which found itself in exile after the revolution. Using his example, the little-studied, contradictory assessments of the topic of church life of the Russian diaspora in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany, in particular, in Serbia, where since 1921 The Supreme Church Administration Abroad (the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, ROCA) was located, the peculiarities of the religious policy of the Nazi state in the Serbian territories are revealed, where power passed into the hands of the Ustashi — the fascist ultra-right national clerical organization. This task is solved taking into account the published documents of the Nazis related to their religious policy. To reveal the topic, the history of the Lesninsky Monastery is briefly described, as well as the history of political events in Serbia, the process of forming an environment of inter-confessional confrontation in the country. The situation of the convent under occupation is compared with the current situation in Ukraine, where the Orthodox Church is experiencing open persecution by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime.