Holy See–Russia relations, i.e. the bilateral relationship between the two countries, Vatican City and Russia, have always rather tense, both before and after the establishment of full diplomatic relations. Before the Revolution of 1917, these were the relations between two sovereign states officially representing two major contraposing Christian denominations, with a lot of restrains being historically set on Catholicism in Russia. After the Revolution, official Catholicism, which explicitly opposed violence and communism, became again unwelcome in the nearly born atheistic and communist state — both as an ideologically confronting structure and as a religion.
The dissolution of the USSR in 1991 and the renunciation of its ideological legacy, which included the declaration of religious freedom and the separation of church and state, might have seemed a turning point in the Holy See–Russia relations, eventually brought to the full diplomatic level in 2009. However, they remain rather problematic, with both parties being cautious, in most of the areas of cooperation, including: property restitution issues, distribution of state support for religious organisations and communities, Catholic presence in modern Russia, relations with third parties, etc.
The main reason for this is that the Holy See–Russia relations remain largely linked to ecumenical relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and the increasing de-secularisation of the contemporary Russian state.
Therefore, I am working on exploring the underlying issues behind the Holy See–Russia relations, with a focus on religion as a hidden source of the lack of cooperation and the impact of religion on international relations, which is still present in the modern world.
