I'm going to go. He's

a-a-ra-s-s-s-s-a-s-s-a-s-a-s- Welcome to the Russian rulers history podcast episode 83 the battle for the Motherland. I hope you're prepared for a monumental

podcast. This will be the longest one I've done to date. It is an important one. It is on the battles of Moscow, Leningrad, and

Stalingrad and some of the greatest loss of life in human history and war. So let's get into it. Last time, we recounted how Stalin went into a

deep funk when he was informed of the sweeping Nazi successes in the Ukraine and Belarus.

But it was all the ruse to gain more power over

subordinates. The boss knew he needed to drum up support from the people,

especially with the war going so poorly.

Because of this, Stalin was made aware that the Metropolitan of the Lebanon Hills

Ilia and how he had gone into an underground cell to pray for Russia.

When he came out after fasting and staying awake for three days, he claimed to have heard

from Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus. He said in a letter, quote,

The churches and monasteries must be reopened throughout the country. Priests must be bought back from imprisonment.

Leningrad must not be surrendered but the sacred icon of Our Lady of Kazan should be

carried around the city boundary, taken on to Moscow where a service should be held, and thence to Stalingrad.

The priests were recalled from the Gulags.

Some 20,000 churches were reopened,

and a patriarch, one metropolitan Sergei,

was by members of the Bolshevik party

for the first time since 1917.

This is in stark contrast to Stalin's 1938 decree

for his godless five-year plan, where the last of the churches were to be shuttered and the last priest taken away.

...