Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on this day in 1941. By June 1941, most of the Russian Church abroad existed in territories controlled by Axis powers. Many Russian émigrés interpreted the invasion of the Soviet Union as a promise of going home soon. Russian priests in Serbia and Bulgaria would petition the first-hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky), and they wished to serve their people back in Russia. Metropolitan Anastassy drafted a memorandum to the Germans about the necessity of having an ecclesiastical council in “liberated Russia.” The Russians in Nazi-controlled countries and their allies either did not realize or did not want to realize that according to German Realpolitik, Russia was supposed to be a colony of the Third Reich. Among the Russians abroad, the most resistance to Germans was in France (the future Metropolitan Anthony, then Andrei Blum, was among them). Some fought the Nazis in British and American armed forces. The majority of people in Russia were unanimous in resisting the invaders, realizing that they were threatening their very existence. There is no family in Russia that has not been affected by war. Therefore, conversations about the war are often very personal. War is one of the things that can unite people together, and the Russian state has exploited this aspect to the uttermost recently. If there is a mythology about the war in Russia, it also exists in the Russian diaspora. A friend's wife grew up in St. Petersburg, and she told me how she was shocked when a prominent archpriest who grew up abroad told her that the blockade of Leningrad in 1941-1944 was fake news. At the same time, it is prohibited in Russia to study whether the Soviet Union was preparing to attack Germany first, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and especially to study Russian collaborationists to understand why over a million Soviet citizens enlisted in German military units. This number cannot be explained solely through survivalist instinct. The victory in World War Two became a triumph for all the people of Russia. Russia became the first country to stop the German blitzkrieg. Having toppled the German dictatorship, the Russian people did not release themselves from their captivity. Moreover, as a result of this victory, a number of the countries in the Baltics and Eastern Europe became enslaved, too. The German invasion divided the church as well. Metropolitan Sergii (Starogordskii) in Moscow addressed the Russian people on the same day of the invasion, even before Stalin. At the same time, his close associate Metropolitan Sergii (Voskresenskii) did not evacuate with the Soviet authorities from Riga and, under occupation, communicated the Nazis’ talking points. For me, the time when taboo is removed from war themes in Russia will signify a healing of Russia's historical memory. This liberation should also benefit the Russian diaspora. Relevant Resources: Peter N. Paley, "The First Year in German Captivity," Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. More sources are at the end of this article: "Archpriest George Mitrofanov," Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. | 
