The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

This article publishes, for the first time, the correspondence concerning the establishment of the “Brotherhood of the Members of the All-Russian Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church”. Until now, no documents have been made available that illuminate the efforts of ordinary members of the 1917–1918 Local Council to unite under the conditions in emigration. The aim of the study is to analyse this correspondence and provide a historical commentary. The research identifies General Igor V. Novitsky as the initiator of the Brotherhood and reconstructs his strategy for recruiting new members. Ten confirmed members have been identified, along with three additional individuals who received invitations. A comparative examination of the Brotherhood’s aims across different documents reveals substantive discrepancies in their formulation. The study also analyses Novitsky’s interactions with the Russian Orthodox parish of St. Nicholas in Prague and demonstrates disagreement regarding the parish’s involvement in the political life of the Russian émigré community. The article clarifies the fates of two Local Council members — S. V. Kondratyev and A. A. Kotsar — and identifies I. V. Novitsky as the author of an unsigned letter. It offers commentary on key historical events referenced in the correspondence, notably the Karlovci Council of 1921 and the arrest of Patriarch Tikhon, and identifies the positions of several Brotherhood members on these issues. The study employs chronological, biographical and descriptive-historical methods, as well as the author’s digital database on the Russian ecclesiastical emigration in interwar Czechoslovakia. The publication is relevant to scholars of Russian church history and to researchers investigating the members of the 1917–1918 Local Council.