Nicholas

Who was Nicholas?

Metropolitan Nicholas, 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 without concurrence 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 Alexius, Nicholas 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, Nicholas became a permanent member of the Holy Synod. In 1944 he was appointed Metropolitan of Krutitsy. In 1946, when the External Church Relations Department was established within the Patriarchate, Metropolitan Nicholas became its chairman. In 1947 he became Meptropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna.