Bargaining for the Participation of Soviet Religious Organizations in the World Council of Churches, 1948–1962

The study analyses the first two stages of the relationship between Soviet religious organizations, including the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church (LELC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) – a period when Soviet participation in the WCC was considered undesirable, and a period when the Soviet government began to plan the accession of several Christian denominations in the USSR to the WCC (LELC joined the WCC in 1962). For the Soviet authorities, this was one way of putting into practice changes in Soviet foreign policy following Stalin’s death, which were aimed at removing the USSR from international isolation, while for churches – an opportunity to create a space of contact with the West, which, despite the control, was freer than before.