Academic Periodical

The article explores the work of Nikodim (Rotov), Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod, who grew up in the Soviet Union only to become the most influential church leader of his time. He was appointed Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations in July 1960, during one of the hardest stretches in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). At the age of the antireligious campaign for the abolition of the church and all church institutions, strict control by the Soviet state did not prevent Metropolitan Nikodim from establishing and fostering relationships with the Roman Catholic Church and numerous protestant churches. He was also able to facilitate the consilidation of the Russian Church’s position in the USSR.