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Author : Metropolitan Kliment
The interview was conducted by Yelena Studneva, International Affairs ' commentator. Metropolitan of
Kaluga and Borovsk Kliment (GM. Kapalin), Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchy Publishing Council,
Rector of Kaluga Theological Seminary, Candidate of Science (History)
In the 1980s, I served as a bishop in the United States and
Canada. I visited Orthodox churches in Alaska and ob-
served a unique phenomenon: 120 years after Russia sold
Alaska and the region changed culturally and politically, it
became Americanized but most of the local people still
adhered to Orthodoxy and said that their faith was Russ-
ian.
The presence of the ROC in America amounted to the
presence of Russian culture, which continued to influence
Alaska's natives, countering the American supranational
English-language culture. More than that, the active Russ-
ian Church imparted to all of America the basic values of Russian civilization.
All these present-day realities in Russia remind us about America of the 19th century where our Church,
our bishops and clergy were gaining experience under similar circumstances. After the sale of Alaska
in 1867, the Russian Church for the first time found itself in another country, in conditions of freedom
of religious views and equality of religious organizations before the law, without support from local
and national governments. At that time, there remained in Alaska thousands of native residents of Or-
thodox faith.
The churches are visited by people of different generations, including children and young people. This
is the main piece of evidence that Orthodoxy in Alaska is not dying out.
Of great significance was that the natives volunteered in spreading Orthodox customs, organizing and
maintaining church activities. The greatest zeal was shown by toyons, or chiefs of tribes, who pulled
weight among their members. Russian fur hunters, followed by the Russian-American Company and
missionaries, relied on them in their activities.
Since the end of the 19th century, Church activities began picking up in the rest of America. It was
Saint Innocent who wrote about a big potential of the Orthodox Church in this country.
Yet another important thing is to establish the historical truth even if its presentation is inevitably sub-
jective. It often happens that owing to the scarcity of sources, ideological considerations or some other
reasons historical events get misrepresented. I believe it is very important to reconstruct the true his-
toriographical picture in all instances where previous researchers failed to study facts sufficiently well,
omitted them or commented on them with partiality.
My new book on the propagation of Orthodox faith in Alaska is currently being prepared for publica-
tion. The first volume is intended to establish as accurately as possible facts pertaining to this process
and the chronology of events. The book focuses on interconnections in this process and studies the
ways it was being influenced by the Russian state, the Holy Synod, Orthodox missionaries, local resi-
dents, and missionaries of other faiths.
220 Years of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska