re: #328 Prof. Backpfeifengesicht, PhD

Still there is a difference between being forced to be allies (USSR) and being an ally on own free will (and being an influential force, at that).

In the case of the ROC, I’d say that the institution (not, as you note, the lower echelons) was co-opted so long ago that it would take a great upheaval in the church to make them anything but eager to collaborate. And that they were just as eager to ally themselves with the new Soviet government — the (enormous) force applied was more an argument about terms after the Bolsheviks gave up on eradicating them.