Annual Diocesan Report as a Source for Church and Social History: The Vologda Diocese, 1980

The article presents the annual report of the Vologda Diocese for 1980 and analyses it as a valuable for the study of church life during the late Soviet period. Preserved among the archival records of the Vologda Diocesan Administration, the report documents the condition of the diocese during. the first year of Archbishop Mikhail (Mudyugin)'s administration. It records the composition and movements of the clergy, the structure of diocesan finances, the condition of church buildings, and other aspects of diocesan administration. The report also contains little-known evidence concerning Archbishop Mikhail's early ministry and administrative activity. By introducing this document into scholarly circulation, the article highlights the value of annual diocesan reports as sources for reconstructing the institutional, financial, and pastoral life of the Russian Orthodox Church in the late Soviet era. 

1. Balabeykina, Vishnyakov and Slobodchikova 2026 — Balabeykina, O.A., Vishnyakov, A.P. and Slobodchikova, P.S. (2026) Relationships of Vladyka Mikhail (Mudyugin) with the Clergy of the Vologda Diocese (1980s). Theological and Historical Collection, 1(40), 188-366. (In Russ.)

2. Drobotushenko 2019 — Drobotushenko, E.V. (2019) Dynamics of Rites in the Registered Organization of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Chita Region in the Late 1960s — Mid 1980s. Gumanitarnyi vektor (Humanitarian Vector), 3, 8-13. (In Russ.) doi:10.21209/1996-7853-2019-14-3-8-13.

3. Zudov 2025 — Zudov, Yu.V. (2025) Memoirs of Clergy and Laity of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Context of a Historical and Legal Study of State Religious Relations in the USSR in the 1940s–1980s. Problemy ekonomiki i yuridicheskoi praktiki (Problems of Economics and Legal Practice), 5, 14-21. (In Russ.) doi:10.33693/2541-8025-2025-21-5-14-21.

4. Ovchinnikov 2023 — Ovchinnikov, V.A. (2023) The Russian Orthodox Church in the South of Western Siberia at the End of the 20th — Beginning of the 21st Centuries. Vestnik Kuzbasskoi pravoslavnoi dukhovnoi seminarii (Bulletin of the Kuzbass Orthodox Theological Seminary), 4(15), 24-50. (In Russ.) doi:10.56859/29490847_2023_4_24.

5. Panov 2020 — Panov, P. (2020) The Orenburg Diocese under Changing Relations between the State and the Russian Orthodox Church in the Second Half of the 1980s. Vestnik Orenburgskoi dukhovnoi seminarii (Bulletin of the Orenburg Theological Seminary), 2(15), 84-90. (In Russ.)