This article is aimed to evaluate the Soviet security services’ documents as a historical source for Metropolitan Seraphim’s (Chichagof) biography and political stance. The author compares information in the Central and Local power’s official documents, official papers and ego-documents. Comparative method helps to make a conclusion about some important facts about pontiff’s life, but these sources should be regarded with caution and analysed scrupulously. As the author states, while writing the official materials soviet secret services’ officials followed the narrative about the allegedly counterrevolutionary conservative ‘pro-Tihon’ Orthodox Priesthood. This tendency led to the serious distortions in the description of the interrelations between Soviet Power and the Orthodox Church. The analysis reveals that the documents’ narrative was significantly over-simplified. In many cases, inter alia in the case of metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagof), the religious organisations’ representatives were ready to compromises in their relations with Soviet Regime, but it was necessary to observe the basic religious rights. Particularly Holy Martyr Seraphim (Chichagof) since the moment of the 1917-year Revolution adhered to the position which can be described as ‘apolitical’ rather than ‘counterrevolutionary’. The key question for him was the maintenance of Orthodox Church’s governance in accordance with the Church Canons, struggle with the Renovationist’s movement, and with other noncanonical Church movements, which were created with the Soviet Power’s assistance. In many other questions, which were not connected with these problems, Seraphim was ready to make considerable concessions. Particularly this tendency vividly revealed in 1922 year, when he supported the Church Valuables’ alienation. Despite all these facts, he was described in the OGPU materials in the 1920-s as the Soviet Power’s implacable enemy. The most considerable distortions characterize the sources created in the 1930-s years. In the previous period the Soviet Secret Services’ officials gathered information for their analytical documents from the agents planted into the religious organizations, but in the 1930-s they used the data about ‘counterrevolutionary priesthood’ taken from the investigation files. Consequently, they took for granted information about anti-Soviet complots which was fabricated by their colleagues. This fact diminishes significantly the value of this historical source about the Russian Orthodox Church in this period.
Aleksandr Viktorovich Sipeikin (Thu,) studied this question.