On Bishop-Agents, Documents of Soviet Security Services, and a Comprehensive Approach to Studying The Church in the Soviet State

Review: Roman Skakun. The NKVD-MGB-KGB agency in the Orthodox episcopate in Ukraine (1939–1964): formation, functions, and behavior models. Lviv: Ukrainian Catholic University Press, 2025. 360 pp.This review article examines a monograph by Lviv historian Roman Skakun, published by the Ukrainian Catholic University Press in 2025. The monograph, whose title promises a shocking exposé of Soviet secret agents within the Orthodox episcopate in the 1940s–1960s, addresses a range of specific and broader issues about the history of the Russian Orthodox Church during the Soviet era. It also introduces previously unknown documents from the archives of the Security Service of Ukraine for scholarly review. Topics include the extent of Soviet security service control over the church environment, the origins of the present-day Russian Orthodox Church, the variety of behavior patterns among bishop-agents, their personal histories, motivations, and character traits, as well as the timeline of official Soviet policies on the “religious question” and key source-related issues. The author raises all these topics, encouraging discussion and enriching our scholarly understanding of both the activities of Soviet secret services and the life of the Church in the USSR

Timeline · Ukrainian · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Soviet and Russian History