The Tragic Fate of Priest Dmitry Dudko: Toward a History of the Orthodox Patriotic Movement in the 1970s

This article explores the tragic life and legacy of Dmitry 
Dudko (1924–2004), one of the most prominent and controversial figures associated with the Orthodox patriotic movement in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. It traces his trajectory from that of a peasant’s son who endured his father’s arrest, wartime and occupation — to a student of the Moscow Theological Academy who was arrested in 1948 and sentenced to ten years in labour camps for poems published in a collaborationist periodical during the occupation. Particular attention is given to Dudko’s active pastoral ministry in the 1970s. Father Dmitry became widely known for his bold and emotionally compelling sermons, in which he combined the exposition of Christian doctrine with open criticism of the moral and social problems of Soviet society, including the disintegration of the family, alcoholism, and corruption. He also spoke publicly about the Stalinist labour camps and the pressure exerted by the KGB (Committee for State Security) on the Church. His informal “conversations” following all-night vigils, initially at the Church of the Transfiguration Cemetery in Moscow and later in the villages of Kabanovo and Grebnevo near Moscow, attracted hundreds of listeners, most of them young people, and constituted a unique phenomenon in the religious and social life of the period. Many contemporaries came to regard Dudko as a spiritual leader of an underground Orthodox patriotic movement that positioned itself in opposition both to official Soviet ideology and to liberal dissident circles. His activities, reflected in the publication of his books in the West and in the samizdat newspaper “In the Light of the Transfiguration”, provoked a harsh response from the state authorities. The article details the systematic pressure exerted on the priest by the KGB and church leadership, including forced transfers to remote parishes, harassment of his spiritual followers, and ultimately his arrest in January 1980. The culmination of Dudko’s story was a dramatic personal and ideological rupture. After six months of imprisonment in Lefortovo Prison, he appeared on Soviet television and in other media outlets to deliver a public repentance and renunciation of his earlier activities. This act, widely interpreted by contemporaries as the result of coercion and tortures, led to a definitive break with most of his former associates. In the final period of his life, Dudko’s views changed markedly: he drew closer to neo-Soviet nationalist circles, beFcame a spiritual mentor to the newspaper “Zavtra”, and expressed openly favourable views of Stalin. Despite the contradictions of his biography and the painful conclusion of his public ministry, the article argues that Dmitry Dudko is remembered above all as an exceptional preacher and man of prayer who brought thousands of people to faith during the Brezhnev era.

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