Alexis I

Alexis I (born Oct. 27 [Nov. 8, New Style], 1877, Moscow, Russia—died April 17, 1970, Moscow) was the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (1945–70) whose allegiance to the Soviet government helped him strengthen the structure of the church within an officially atheistic country.

Born to an aristocratic family, Simansky received a law degree from the University of Moscow in 1899 before turning to religion. In 1902 he became a monk, receiving his doctoral degree in theology from the Moscow Theological Academy in 1904. By 1913 he had been consecrated bishop of Tivhkin and suffragan (subordinate bishop) of Novgorod, positions he was holding at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

During the years 1918–41, while the new communist government operated under its antireligious policies, Alexis worked to stabilize church life, gaining renown within the church as bishop of Yamburg and suffragan of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in 1921, metropolitan of Novgorod in 1932, and metropolitan of Leningrad in 1933. Joseph Stalin relaxed his opposition to the church in the face of Adolf Hitler’s 1941 attack on the Soviet Union, and Alexis was notable for remaining in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) to organize the church’s support of the Red Army.

When the church was officially reestablished in Russia in 1943, Alexis was elected a permanent member of the Holy Synod, and in 1945 he succeeded Patriarch Sergius as patriarch of Moscow, leader of the Russian Orthodox church. He actively supported Soviet political policies and attempted to unite Eastern Orthodoxy in the Western Hemisphere. One of his last acts was to establish an Independent Orthodox church in the United States.