From the history of Soviet-Vatican relations: E. Flynn’s mission to Moscow in March 1945 and the assessment of its results in the Vatican
https://doi.org/10.15829/2686-973X-2025-221
EDN: UUBTLZ
Abstract
The article in the context of attempts by Western powers to restrain the anti-religious policy of the Soviet authorities examines the efforts of American diplomacy in this direction. Special attention is paid to the mission of E. Flynn, an American lawyer and politician, one of the leading Democratic politicians of the mid-20th century, a close associate of F. D. Roosevelt, who was sent by the American president to Moscow in March 1945 in order to normalize Soviet-Vatican relations. The documents attached to the article also show the assessment of Flynn’s mission by the Vatican. Made by the head of the Vatican’s Foreign policy department, Monsignor D. Tardini’s notes allow us to establish that the Vatican did not find grounds for normalization of Soviet-Vatican relations, and perceived F. D. Roosevelt’s initiative as aimed at increasing the prestige of the United States in the international arena and in the eyes of American Catholics.
About the Author
E. S. TokarevaRussian Federation
Evgenya S. Tokareva - Doctor of Historical Sciences, Leading Researcher, Department of Modern and Contemporary History
Moscow
References
1. Beglov, A. L. and Fadeev, I. A. (2023). American representatives in the USSR and the fate of Soviet religious policy at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. From the correspondence of Father Leopold Brown in 1941. Modern and Contemporary History, (3), 207-227. (In Russ.) doi:10.31857/S013038640024937-8.
2. Beglov, A. L. (2018). The "Prayer Crusade" of 1930 and the reaction to it in the USSR. Electronic scientific and educational journal "History", 9(4). [electronic resource]. Access for registered users. URL: http://history.jes.su/s207987840002219-9-1. (In Russ.)
3. Beglov A. L. and Tokareva E. S. (2024). What the Vatican thought about the religious revival in the occupied territory of the USSR in 1942. Bulletin of the Moscow State Pedagogical University. Series II: History. History of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vol. 120, 163-179. (In Russ.)
4. Zhdanova, E. S. (2025). The Catholic question in the work of the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR in 1944–1945. Modern and Contemporary History, 69(5), 192-204. (In Russ.)
5. Karlov, Yu. E. (2003). The Soviet government and the Vatican in 1917–1924. Russia and the Vatican in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Edited by E. S. Tokareva and A. V. Yudin. St. Petersburg: Alethea, 158-184. (In Russ.)
6. Kertzer, D. (2024). The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler. M.
7. Tokareva, E. S. (2023). The Vatican is in the focus of Soviet politics and propaganda, M. (In Russ.)
8. Tokareva, E. S. (2024). The Catholic Church in Russia in the context of the "New Religious Course" of I. V. Stalin (1944–1946). Electronic scientific and educational journal "History", 15(12). Part I. URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840033623-4-1/. (In Russ.) doi:10.18254/S207987840033623-4.
9. Tokareva, E. S. (2025). Negotiations between the allies of the Anti-Hitler Coalition and the Vatican in 1944–1945 on Soviet-Vatican relations, peace conditions and the post-war structure. Modern and Contemporary History, 69(5), 174-191. (In Russ.) doi:10.31857/S0130386425050137.
10. Di Nolfo, E. (1976). Il Vaticano e Stati Uniti. 1939–1953. Milano: Angeli.
11. Fejérdy, A. (2022). Modus vivendi with Moscow? The 1945 Flynn Mission and the Eastern Policy of Pius XII, Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique, 3-4, 711-734.
Review
For citations:
Tokareva E.S. From the history of Soviet-Vatican relations: E. Flynn’s mission to Moscow in March 1945 and the assessment of its results in the Vatican. Russian Journal of Church History. 2025;6(4):146-166. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.15829/2686-973X-2025-221. EDN: UUBTLZ




















