Legal dispute over the ownership of St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York City as stated in the GARF documents (1947–1950)

Abstract

The article attempts to consider one of the pages of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States of America, namely the judicial confrontation between the American Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church and the autonomous American Metropolis for the right to own the St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York, that went on for more than 10 years (late 1940s – early 1960s). The author tried to consider and analyze the positions taken in that process by the religious figures, Soviet authorities and official authorities of the United States and civil society, judges of various instances and lawyers, Soviet, American and world media representing the parties in court, as well as to understand why New York Cathedral and the trial for many years remained the focus of global attention. The author places particular emphasis on the court files that have not previously been published and, first of all, on the materials from the Fund of the Council for Religious Affairs (F – P6991) of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, as well as on the materials from the US Reference Fund (F 129) of the Archives of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation. Moreover, the author paid attention to the American interpretation of the laws defining relations between the religious organizations and civil authorities in the United States.