Nicholas (Yarushevich)

Metropolitan Nicholas (Russian: Митрополит Николай, born as Boris Dorofeyevich Yarushevich (Борис Дорофеевич Ярушевич; Juanuary 13, 1892 (December 31, 1891 OS), Kovno – December 13, 1961, Moscow), was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church.

He supported the controversial 1927 declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, pledging loyalty of the Church to the Soviet authorities against the will of the imprisoned Patriarchal locum tenens, Peter of Krutitsy, and Sergius' subsequent collaboration with them.

In 1941 he became Metropolitan of Volhynia and Lutsk and later, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia. Later, as the German troops advanced, he was evacuated to Moscow.

On September 4, 1943, together with Metropolitan Sergius and Metropolitan Alexy, Nikolay had a meeting with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, where the latter proposed to reestablish the Moscow Patriarchate and elect the Patriarch. On September 8, 1943, when the Moscow Patriarchate was reestablished, Nikolay became a permanent member of the Holy Synod. In 1944 he was appointed Metropolian of Krutitsy. In 1946, when the External Church Relations Department was established within the Patriarchate, Metropolitan Nikolay became its chairman. In 1947 he became Meptropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna.

In 1950 he became a member of the World Peace Council, occupying a staunchly pro-Soviet position.^[1]

Nikolay held Joseph Stalin in high esteem. However, his increasingly open opposition to atheism put him at odds with the Soviet leadership under Nikita Khrushchev. In 1960 he was dismissed from the position of the Chairman of the External Church Relations Department and later left the position of Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna.

1. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805739,00.html