ABSTRACT
Highly pro-czarist and anti-Communist, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad considers itself the sole true carrier of Russian Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy was introduced among the East Slavs by Grand Duke Vladimir of Kiev in the late 900s. The first charges of phyletism had come from Greek theologians in 1872, when Orthodox Bulgarians sought to establish their own Bulgarian Church. In the Baltic republics, almost all Orthodox believers are immigrants from other parts of the former Soviet Union. The Greek view of phyletism has been accepted in principle by most of the major Orthodox national churches. Belarus lies on the borderline between Orthodoxy and Catholicism in Europe. The Belarusian Orthodox Church was granted autonomous status in 1991, but it still recognizes Patriarch Aleksiy II of Moscow as its spiritual leader. The religious landscape of Ukraine differs considerably from that of Belarus and Moldova. Church politics in Ukraine have been highly turbulent in recent years, and national motives have occupied a central position.
