P. V. Krylov. Review of a monograph with publication of sources: Tokareva E. S. The Vatican
in the Focus of Soviet Policy and Propaganda. 1921–1941. Moscow, Ves’ Mir publ., 2023. 784 p. //
Petersburg Historical Journal, no. 2, 2026, pp. 250–255.

DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2026_2_250

Abstract:

The present review examines the book by E. S. Tokareva, which is dedicated to the relations between the Holy See and Soviet Russia in 1921–1941, with the publication of relevant documents. The book elucidates the modus operandi of the Republic of Soviets’ non-public diplomacy towards the Roman Catholic Church in the context of overcoming the diplomatic blockade of the USSR by the leading world powers.

Key words: History of the USSR, international relations, the Vatican, aid to the starving, the Roman Catholic Church.

Author:

Krylov, Pavel Valentinovich — PhD in History, Senior Researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia).
E-mail: pavel_kryloff@mail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-5936-1551

References:

Kotel’nikov, K. D. Russkii Berlin 1919–1933: problemy i mekhanizmy adaptatsii russkoi emigratsii
v Germanii [Russian Berlin 1919–1933: Problems and Mechanisms of Adaptation of Russian Emigration in Germany. In Russ.]. Moscow, DPK-Press publ., 2022, 238 p.

Majner, S. M. Stalinskaya svyashchennaya voina: religiya, natsionalizm i soyuznicheskaya politika,
1941–1945 [Stalin’s Holy War: Religion, Nationalism, and Allied Politics, 1941–1945. In Russ.]. Moscow, ROSSPEN publ., 2010, 453 p.

Mordzilovich, A. A. General i nuntsii: k istorii vzaimootnoshenii Erikha Lyudendorfa i Eudzhenio Pachelli [The General and the Nuncio: On the History of the Relationship between Erich Ludendorff and Eugenio Pacelli. In Russ.]. In Vestnik Tambovskogo universiteta. Ser. Gumanitarnye nauki. 2022. Vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 276–287.

Tokareva, E. S. Vatikan v fokuse sovetskoi politiki i propagandy. 1921–1941 gody [The Vatican in the Focus of Soviet Politics and Propaganda. 1921–1941. In Russ.]. Moscow, Ves’ Mir publ., 2023, 784 p.

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