Aa Léopold L. S. Braun

In Lubianka's Shadow

The Memoirs of an American Priest in Stalin's Moscow, 1934-1945
Herausgeber: Hamburg, G. M.

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In Lubianka's Shadow chronicles the extraordinary life of a young American Catholic priest, Father Léopold Braun, who, as pastor of a small Catholic church near the Lubianka political prison in the heart of Moscow, witnessed Stalin's purges, the Soviet government's campaign against organized religion, and the destruction of World War II. These memoirs, recently discovered in the archive of Fr. Bruan's Assumptionist order by Soviet scholar Gary Hamburg, offer an intimate account of Fr. Braun's valiant effort to uphold Christian worship in the only Catholic church allowed to operate in Stalin's Moscow. Posted to Moscow in 1934 as chaplain of the United States embassy, Father Braun served the embassy staff and local parishioners in the Saint Louis des Français Church at a moment when Stalin's anti-religious campaign was reaching a crescendo. He describes the Soviet government's intimidation and arrest of his parishioners, police surveillance of the church building, and personal harassment designed to force him out of the country. Father Braun's responses to these pressures-sometimes amusing, sometimes heart-rending, but always intelligent and soulful-tell us much about the capacity of ordinary people to respond to extraordinary circumstances. Under his pen, Soviet society comes alive, with its citizens' poverty, cynicism, humor, and courage on full display. Accompanying the memoirs is an introductory, historical essay by G. M. Hamburg. In Lubianka's Shadow is required reading for anyone interested in modern Russian history and for those concerned about the survival of religious faith under political assault.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: University of Notre Dame Press
• Seitenzahl: 454
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. Oktober 2006
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 157mm x 29mm
• Gewicht: 803g
• ISBN-13: 9780268021993
• ISBN-10: 0268021996
• Artikelnr.: 22078447

Autorenporträt

Father Marie-Leopold Braun (1903-1964), an American Catholic priest of the Augustinian Assumptionists Order, was ordained in 1932 and appointed to Moscow as a chaplain at the US Embassy in Russia in 1934. He was the de facto head of the Catholic Church in Russia from 1936-1945. He left the Soviet Union because he had received word that Premier Stalin had given an order to "exterminate" him. Father Braun left shortly after Christmas of 1945 in the private plane of James F. Byrnes, then Secretary of State, who had been attending a conference in Moscow. Braun served as spiritual adviser to American diplomats as well as Catholics of many nationalities, until his death.