The death of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia closes a truly landmark page in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. Very different assessments of this phase of church history, its features and trends will likely be forthcoming for some time. At least in part, they will be based on those disputes that are taking place in Russian society today.
Yet hardly anyone will deny that the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in society changed dramatically under Alexy II. The church became a formational part of modern Russian reality and was able to influence many of its important characteristics: social attitudes toward religion, the nature of public discussion on complex moral issues, values declared by politicians, and, indirectly to some extent, the state’s ideology.
It would hardly be possible to suggest something similar in 1990 when Alexy II took the patriarchal throne. Today’s image of the Russian Orthodox Church is quite likely to be permanently associated with his name.
It seems that the fate of Alexei Ridiger, who came from a noble family, was defined by the changes that led many to question wherein lies truth and what tomorrow will bring. The future patriarch was born in 1929 in Estonia. His father, a native of St. Petersburg, was ordained as an Orthodox priest in 1942 in German-occupied Tallinn. Alexei, by his own admission, also decided to become a priest in the early 1940s. In 1941-1944, he served as an altar boy in several Orthodox churches in Estonia. The decision to become an Orthodox pastor – albeit made by a boy rather than an adult male – in those years and in those circumstances would have required difficult choices.
The pain and suffering during the war years were particularly visible. The Orthodox community in German-occupied Estonia consisted of diverse groups that sometimes had difficulty coming together due to historical differences. It included Russian residents, including Russian immigrants who stayed out of the war. Tallinn’s Orthodox churches were regularly visited by combatants who were part of the Russenland division that was originally formed by White
