The reasons and consequences of cooperation between the worshippers movement of Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich and the organization of Dimitri Letich "Zbor" in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Timonina Ekaterina ORCID: 0009-0000-2553-9190 Postgraduate Student, Department of Church History, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119192, Russia, Moscow, Moscow, Lomonosovsky Prospekt str., 27, building 4 timonina202020@mail.ru

The close ties between Orthodoxy and the identity of the people have always been an important characteristic of Serbian history. By the 19th century, religion and politics had become two more or less separate spheres of life; nevertheless, a strong relationship remained ^{[11, p. 250]}. This close connection was formed partly by the actual development of the process of nation-building, the role of the Orthodox clergy in the Ottoman system of government and, since the XVIII century, the struggle for national independence.

The Serbian Orthodox Church has established a tradition of "positive" unification of Church and State: she claimed a central role in the Serbian national movement and in national life in general. The most important moments in church history were the issues of the clergy's preservation of national culture, identity and memory of this very history, not to mention the need for Orthodoxy for the survival of the nation. The preservation of all these roles largely depended on the social and political status of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Thus, the more unreliable the position, the more radical the rhetoric. Interestingly, until the end of the XIX century, secular politicians and intellectuals largely accepted this point of view and did not challenge it too directly.

However, at the turn of the century, the views of the Church and the secular, liberal political elite were divided. Contradictions between the Church and the political elite of society grew during the interwar period. One of the main points of disagreement concerned the answer to the question whether belonging to Orthodoxy is the main characteristic of Serbian identity ^{[11, p. 250]}. In the second half of the 1930s, nationalism and anti-modernism led some of the clergy, as well as the laity involved, into the embrace of extreme nationalist and even fascist movements. In Croatia - Ustashi, and in Serbia, right-wing believers turned to the Great Serbian monarchists-Chetniks and Dimitri Letich and his Zbor movement ^{[1, p. 552]}.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, people began to appear in Serbia, who were clearly distinguished by their special religiosity in comparison with the overwhelming majority of the population. For the most part, they were the most ordinary peasants who preached the Gospel, distinguished themselves by a pure life imbued with Christian norms of morality and morality. They did not miss divine services, often confessed and received communion, loved to visit holy places and monasteries, did not have bad habits common in Serbian society at that time (such as drinking alcoholic beverages, smoking, swearing). These people considered themselves true Orthodox Christians, followers of the teachings of the Holy Fathers and active adherents of the Serbian Orthodox Church. They called themselves worshippers. This movement has become an exceptionally distinctive phenomenon in the history not only of Serbia and the Serbian Church, but also in principle in the history of religious movements. Chronological framework of the existence of the pilgrimage: from the 1860s up to our time. The period of the active activity of the prayer movement fell during the time between the two world wars. This is due to the favorable conditions that developed at that time for the unification of the spontaneous amorphous current into one official organization under the leadership of Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich – the Orthodox People's Christian Union (PNKHZ). This organization of worshippers existed from 1920 to 1941.

We argue that the paths of the pilgrimage movement and the pro-fascist movement of the Zbor intersected in a rather tangible way, because extreme nationalism was indeed characteristic of a large number of worshippers from the laity and clergy, which could encourage them to join the ranks of the Letich organization in parallel, which should first be given a brief description and only then proceed to analyze the relationship between the members of the PNKHZ and the Zbor.

Dimitri Letich appeared on the Serbian political scene as an independent actor in the early 1930s. Prior to that, he was a member of the Serbian Radical Party from 1920 to 1929 and never held any prominent position in it. Letich enthusiastically welcomed the dictatorship introduced by King Alexander, and in 1931 was appointed by order of the King himself, thanks to the Letich family's ties with the royal dynasty, Minister of Justice in the government of Petar Zhivkovich. However, Letich held this position for only a few months, since he resigned after King Alexander rejected his amended version of the Constitution, which was developed by him personally in accordance with the principles of the corporate state. Then, in 1935, Letich formed and headed the Zbor, which won a total of 0.86% of the votes in the 1935 elections (this means that none of its members were elected to the People's Assembly).

It is worth noting that the process of forming the Zbor organization was not easy, because for this it was necessary to negotiate with all the leaders of similar in ideology, but disparate and tiny political groups to unite into one more or less large. Such movements and groups in Yugoslavia were the Yugoslav Action (UA), the Union of Fighters of Yugoslavia (COMBAT) and the group of Dimitri Letich, which emerged a little later ^{[9, p. 11]}.

The unification of groups with a similar ideology to create a single pan-Slavic organization began with the appearance of various newspapers glorifying the corporate system and various other forms of state organization, which resembled fascism in Germany and Italy. The newspapers and magazines belonging to them were "Fatherland", "Zbor" and "Awakening" ^{[9, p. 22]}. Dimitri Letich wrote articles for everyone and exerted a decisive influence on editorial policy. Already formed before Letich, the nationalist groups Yugoslav Action and the Union of Fighters of Yugoslavia in 1934 were experiencing a crisis due to internal conflicts in the leadership of the groups.

Almost the same views as the Letich group in Belgrade, gathered around the newspaper "Fatherland", were held by the group in Herzegovina, gathered around Ratka Parezhanin and Radmila Grcic ^{[9, p. 23]}. This group criticized the overall political, economic and cultural state of the country and proposed solutions that would "heal the Yugoslav society." She chose the word "Zbor" as her name. According to Parezhanin's explanation, the word "Zbor" is an abbreviation of terms that reflect the main points of the program, as well as the activities and aspirations of the movement. The letters of this abbreviation, according to him, should mean: 3 = zadruzhnaya (from the word "zadruga", denoting a large multi-generational family leading a common household), B = combat, O = organization, P = labor (from Serb. "glad"). The group adopted the name, and soon their newspaper "Zbor" appeared, the editor of which was Bogolyub Konstantinovich ^{[9, p. 23]}.

Subsequently, negotiations were held between representatives of the groups on the issues of the program and the technique of unification. It was noted at the meetings that the views of all groups on the solution of modern economic, social and political issues are identical. An organized meeting of their representatives took place on October 6, 1934 in Belgrade. The authorized delegates signed the text of the agreement containing the decision on the liquidation of these groups and the creation of a unified movement throughout the country ^{[9, p. 24]}. On December 4, 1934, the second meeting of delegates took place in Zagreb, at which Letich's group received a leading role ^{[9, p. 25]}. Already at the end of December 1934, all groups published the Basic Principles and Direction of work, and on January 6, 1935 (this day was chosen symbolically), a document on the creation of the Yugoslav People's Movement Zbor was signed in the apartment of Vinka Zorc in Ljubljana.

Lawyers, doctors, judges, average landowners prevailed in the composition of the Zbor, while the representatives of the organization in the province were mainly farmers, priests, lawyers, merchants, teachers and butchers ^{[8, p. 97]}. There is no reliable data on the number of members of this organization. Approximate estimates range from several hundred to several thousand on the territory of the whole of Yugoslavia, but no more than eight thousand people, which is significantly inferior to the number of members of the PNKHZ, in which there were about two hundred thousand. Thus, physically, most of the worshippers could not officially belong to this organization. However, this does not necessarily mean that there were few worshippers who shared the views and ideology of Zbor Letich. But it is not possible to verify this at the moment from a sociological point of view. That's why this question is so difficult to study.

Despite the fact that the Leticians were opponents of parliamentary democracy, they still took part in the parliamentary elections in 1935 and 1938. In these elections, they could not get a single deputy mandate, which indicates the small number of members of the Zbor movement and the population supporting their ideas ^{[8, p. 98]}. The leader of Zbor, despite everything, convinced his followers that they were destined for a messianic role - few, but chosen.

Letich's supporters were more educated than many other participants in the political life of Yugoslavia. According to historian Neboisha Popov, the members of the Zbor were famous for their determination and belligerence, especially against political and ideological opponents, primarily Communists. If their opponents prevented them from holding congresses, they always responded in kind, resorting to harsh measures up to murder. The Leticians adhered to strict discipline, which made them look like Communists in this respect. Among student circles, and among students there was a popular division into groups according to political preferences with bloody conflicts between them from time to time, the Communists and the Leticians were the most organized groups. Just after one such fatal collision, the Macek-Tsvetkovich government tried to ban this organization. After the prohibition of some issues of the "Fatherland" in 1940, the Zbor itself was banned ^{[8, p. 99]}. Active members of the movement from October 1940 to March 1941 were arrested, and the leader Dimitri Letich was forced into hiding.

While on March 27, 1941, mass demonstrations were held in all major cities of Yugoslavia against the country's accession to the Triple Pact, Zbor went down in history as the only organization that did not participate in the demonstrations. Letich justified this by saying that he saw unreasonable actions in repulsing the invaders, entailing the death of the state and the nation. Similar opinions distinguish Zborovites from worshippers. The members of the PNKHZ have never supported or spoken out against resistance to the invaders. They were united with the Zborovites only by the emphasis on the high level of religiosity and piety of the members of their organizations, as well as to some extent anti-communist and anti-Semitic views. As for the political program, the "common place" here was monarchism and resistance to liberalism.

Even before the occupation, the Leticevites had major connections in the army of Yugoslavia ^{[8, p. 100]}. The connection with General Milan Nedic and his closest associates became especially obvious during the occupation of Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany. During the occupation, Dimitri Letich worked closely with the occupation authorities and the Government of Milan Nedic.

After the surrender of the Yugoslav army on April 30, 1941, according to the agreement with the occupation authorities, in which Letich played an important role, a Civil Commissariat was formed, which included two Zborovites. Dimitri Letich also contributed to the formation of the Government of National Salvation headed by Nedich in September 1941. During this period, the ties between the PNKHZ and the Zbor were significantly reduced, although this did not prevent some of the worshippers, including from the clergy, from maintaining an openly pro-fascist course further, which was motivated by a strong anti-communist mood and a desire to prevent a "greater evil" - a possible decline of religiosity in the country following the example of the USSR due to the proclamation of Marxism as the dominant ideology.

On September 15, 1941, the Serbian Volunteer Corps (KFOR) was formed - in essence, the Zborov army, which was commanded throughout the entire period of occupation by Letich's confidant Kosta Mushicki (shot together with Dragee Mikhailovich by the Communists on July 17, 1946) ^{[8, p. 100]}. During this period, the soldiers of this military organization were popularly called "leticians". The main goal of this military formation is the destruction of communist partisans. However, from time to time, they also engaged in armed clashes with the Chetniks of Drazhi Mikhailovich. And if the Chetniks only from time to time came into contact with the occupation authorities, then the Leticevites cooperated with the occupiers constantly, justifying their actions with the crimes of the Ustashe and Communists and the "irresponsible adventurism" of the Chetniks. The volunteers positioned themselves as defenders and saviors of the suffering Serbian people. Equipped with German weapons and uniforms, the volunteers were considered the most combat-ready military organization in the country.

During this period, Dimitri Letich became an important figure in the political arena. From the previously inaccessible radio, his speeches and speeches poured out that if his words had been listened to earlier, the catastrophe would not have happened ^{[8, p. 101]}. If earlier Letich constantly talked about belligerence, heroism, "unastve" (Serbian – valor, courage), now, on the contrary, he began to propagandize passivity, the senselessness of resistance to the occupation authorities, the perniciousness of the popular uprising, which will lead to even greater suffering and torment of the Serbian people. With the formation of the Nedich government, propaganda has only intensified. Every peasant was called upon to fight against those who oppose the power of the occupiers.

Due to the fact that various military groups competed with each other for the right to be the very army that would meet the king in Belgrade after the war, it was not possible to unite efforts and become a single and really strong army capable of resisting the Communists. Dimitri Letich especially insisted on uniting all groups into one army, striving to convene for a common struggle not only the Chetniks of Kostya Pechants, Dragee Mikhailovich, Leticevites, "Ravnogorets", but even the army of the Soviet collaborator General Vlasov and the Cossack corps, with whom he came into contact for this purpose ^{[8, pp. 102-103]}. According to his plan, this was to be a union not only of all national and Yugoslav forces, but also of all Orthodox forces.

However, Dimitri Letich did not have time to follow the implementation of this project. He died in a car accident right before the long-awaited formation of the front against the Communists. In 1944, with a part of the KFOR, Letich fled to Slovenia, to the headquarters of voivode Momcilo Djuic, in order to unite the remnants of the defeated forces and greet Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich on the eve of his departure from Slovenia, but he died in April 1945 in Aydovshchina. He was buried in Gorica. The dead body of Dimitri Letich was moved to the chapel of the Dinaric Chetnic Division, where, after the wake, Bishop Nicholas delivered the following speech illustrating his attitude towards this man, which did not change until the end of his life:

"Dimitri Letich was a statesman, a teacher and a Christian. He was not only a statesman, he was a Christian statesman. Over the past hundred and fifty years, we have had great politicians, great people like Garashanin, Jovan Ristic and Nikola Pasic, but these people were great for their time and within the borders of Serbia, while Dimitri Letich entered the big circles of world politics. It was a politician with a cross. I had the opportunity to hear him in the monastery of Zici, when he said: “The Serbian people will not be happy until the whole world is happy.”... He was a representative of the Serbian soul and heart, Serbian charm and truth. He was an ideologist of Christian nationalism" ^[5].

Let's move on to a more detailed consideration of the political, nationalist and religious views of the representatives of the Zbor movement. This is especially true of the views of the main personality personifying the organization. Letich advocated a patriarchal society and a vertical of power, for the monarchy, because the king is the master of his power. Also for a class society, because parties are not a natural, but a false phenomenon, whereas estates are real popular, naturally arisen, social groups. In the field of economics, a planned economy seemed to him the most rational option. Letich is a moralist by nature. The main condition for the good development of politics and the economy is a healthy spirit and a healthy morality ^{[8, pp. 88-89]}. This was especially reinforced by his penchant for Orthodox fundamentalism. "The people" is a key concept for Letich, which he interprets as a "racial-historical community" ^{[8, p. 89]}. Given the complex political context in which Zbor functioned, it is not surprising that Letich's nationalism is difficult to assess. He referred to both the Yugoslav nation and the Serbian people, without actually explaining what he meant by the first concept. Most likely, his understanding of Yugoslavism can be interpreted as the spread of Serbian nationalism to all the peoples of Yugoslavia. One of the arguments in favor of this interpretation is the fact that the connection between Orthodoxy and Serbian nationalism was one of his main ideas. For example, Zbor had an indicative motto: "With faith in God and the victory of Zbor" ("With faith in God and the victory of Zbor"). The same idea of the connection between Orthodoxy and nationalism was also characteristic of the worshippers, which forced the latter to identify the Leticians as "their own", without delving deeply into the subtleties of Dimitri Letich's ideology, which were already not shared by the bulk of the worshippers – for example, his economic and domestic political ideas, sympathy for racial theory.

Dimitri Letich advocated collectivism and believed that an ideological struggle should be undertaken against the very idea of individualism. It was he who gave birth to Marxism, Bolshevism, liberalism. Democracy, in his opinion, has become weak, is no longer able to meet the needs of the state and has outlived itself. The Zborovites actively opposed modernism, as well as the pilgrims, in the sphere of culture and art, as an individualistic liberal phenomenon and a threat to national identity ^{[8, p. 90]}. Also against feminism as a phenomenon that destroys the people's way of life.

According to Letich, normal national development is closely linked to God, the Fatherland and the household in a system that was supposed to ensure the stability and well-being of the nation. In this respect, he distinguished the ideology and program of Zbor from German National Socialism and Italian fascism. He wrote that fascism and Nazism were based on purely pagan concepts of ancient Rome and medieval Germanic tribes, respectively; that Italian fascism represented the deification of the state, while Nazism valued race. In this sense, both ideologies saw the divine in incorrect concepts and thus did not see the real divinity of the world. For Letich, it was a vivid example of an "atheistic and anti-Christian understanding of the world" ^{[7, p. 75]}.

It is worth mentioning separately the pronounced anti-Semitism that was inherent in all members of the Zbor, as well as many prominent figures of the pilgrimage movement. Dimitri Letich blamed Jews for many problems of European modernity: strikes, capitalism, socialism, atheism, communism, religious tolerance, and so on. And in the official journal of the PNKHZ, articles of an anti-Semitic nature periodically appeared, including on behalf of representatives of the top of the worshippers' movement, for example, Dionysius Milivojevich.

In Letich's program work "The Drama of Modern Humanity", he describes the drama of this dying world, which is being played out in front of modern society, and which is directed by a Director, by which the Jewish people are meant. Even Adolf Hitler himself unleashes a war only for the reason that it is written in the Jewish script:

"Some will notice: you have made the Jews omnipotent. Did they create Hitler, Stalin, Chamberlain, Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Wilson? Did I ever say that? No, they didn't create them. But they put this drama into action, they select a suitable role for everyone, and they do it so cleverly that Hitler himself, who, as we believed, completely penetrated the Jewish plans, plays in the end —albeit unconsciously (but with maximum efficiency) — according to the scenario drawn up by Israel "... " That's why we have been talking for a long time that Hitler unknowingly became a Jewish agent. Thinking that he was doing everything for the happiness and greatness of his native Germany, he actually caused the war. And now all his huge, equipped force of an unprecedented disciplined people is hitting the Anglo-French wall, guided by the Soviet helmsman, for the sake of the goal that Israel has set" ^[6].

Along with the propaganda of the class system and the planned economy, the Leticians sought to ensure that the idea of the importance and value of religion was spread even more and more widely among the people. The Zborovites fiercely fought against materialism, on which the ideology of communism is based. They initially hated the Communists and considered them their most important political opponents. For this reason, as already noted, some of the Zborovites joined the PNKHZ, as well as some of the worshipers joined the Zbor.

Letich himself, being a very religious man and a sworn opponent of Marxism, sought to win as many supporters as possible from the ranks of the faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Church ^{[9, p. 31]}. According to Mladen Stefanovic, he proceeded from the fact that religion is recognized and supported by the state, and that there are a large number of uneducated people, especially in rural areas, who can be significantly influenced by priests, like-minded Letich. Therefore, he wanted to make Orthodox priests an instrument of his movement and his political struggle. He went on to tell them that if the Communists won, religion would be oppressed and, consequently, it would cast doubt on their lives and the continued existence of the Church.  Therefore, he urged the priests to be resolute in the fight against the Communists. Since 1935, Letich was a member of the Branichev Diocesan Council, whose headquarters were located in Pozharevets, and at the same time, as its chairman, he was also a member of the Patriarchal Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade ^{[9, p. 31]}. This fact allowed him to gain respect and sympathy in church circles and trust among a large number of worshippers. Thanks to his ecclesiastical position, he established strong ties with the leader of the worshippers, Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, under whose influence, among other things, a considerable part of the PNKHZ joined the ranks of the Zbor movement, since he also enjoyed great respect and trust, and some of them even became Zbor functionaries who held important posts. No wonder one of Letich's nicknames was "Mitya Bogomolets".

Velimirovich, being one of the largest Serbian religious thinkers of that time, had a significant intellectual influence on Letich as well ^{[11, p. 248]}. Since the leader of the prayer movement himself was connected by friendly ties with the leader of a political organization, his movement itself could not have done without gaining confidence in the Zbor organization, which was friendly to them, as colleagues in the field of religious propaganda.

Maria Falina believes that Velimirovich's views themselves, despite the fact that they inspired Letich and his followers, cannot be called fascist, since they belong to another tradition linking religion and nationalism ^{[11, p. 249]}. Indeed, living in the conditions of Serbian reality, it was virtually impossible to abandon nationalist rhetoric in their speeches, just as people who consider themselves nationalists could not abandon Christian, and specifically Orthodox, rhetoric.

According to Velimirovich, Christianity is the essence of Serbian history, and the main characteristics of the latter are that it is dramatic and tragic: the historical fate of the Serbian people is identical to the fate of Christ, because it has always been a history of suffering and humiliation, but at the same time a history of resurrection and glorification. The Serbian people, in the understanding of Velimirovich, is a "God-bearing people". The Serbs were a Messianic people, in whose past all the contradictions of Christian history were resolved in the best way. Needless to say, the idea that a certain nation had its own mission in world history is not new and is not exclusively Serbian. This fact, however, does not make it a less important aspect of Velimirovich's philosophy.

In combination with these Messianic views on "Serbishness", obvious anti-modernist ideas are important for Velimirovich. He rejected contemporary European culture on the grounds that it had lost its Christian faith and, consequently, its connection with the divine. Thus, the historical "mission" of the Serbian people was to connect the West and the East, since it is symbolically located not between them, but above them. These concepts are completely in tune with the ideas of Letich himself and predetermined, respectively, a positive correlation between the views and ideals of the members of the PNKHZ and Zbor.

Bishop Nicholas, before the Second World War, appreciated Letich as a pious and highly moral person, there is no doubt about it. It is worth noting that some of Velimirovich's close associates even joined Zbor Letich before the war, for example, Archpriest Alex Todorovich, Dimitri Naidanovich. In 1940, when the Tsvetkovich-Macek government persecuted Zbor, Velimirovich came to the defense of his arrested colleague, Doctor of Philosophy Dimitri Naidanovich. However, during the Second World War, their paths diverge. Nikolai Velimirovich no longer supports Letich in his attitude towards the invaders.

The commander of the southern front, Alexander von Lehr, was ordered to "destroy the Serbian intelligentsia, behead the top of the Serbian Orthodox Church, first of all Patriarch Gavriil Dojic, Metropolitan Zimonich and Bishop of Zich, Nikolai Velimirovich, as well as monks and nuns of Serbian monasteries" ^{[10, p. 25]}. Thus, during the Civil War in 1941-1945, Bishop Nicholas had to go through many misadventures. In 1941, the German occupiers imprisoned him in the Lyubostin monastery, from where in December 1942 he was moved to the Voylovitsa monastery, near Panchev. Being in prolonged imprisonment in the monastery, Bishop Nicholas constantly prayed, and also diligently wrote many of his famous works: "Theodule", "The Middle System", "Letters from India", "A Hundred Words about love". In mid-September 1944, together with Patriarch Gabriel (Dozhich), Bishop Nicholas found himself in the Dachau concentration camp. Thanks to intervention and hassle  He was released from the camp by Nedich and Dimitri Letich ^{[10, p. 26]}. It was only thanks to Letich's proximity to the occupation authorities that he managed to rescue the most high-status concentration camp prisoners in history. Probably, Velimirovich remained grateful to his pre-war friend. Together with the Patriarch, he later supported Serbian nationalist and anti-communist forces in Slovenia, which concentrated there to fight against Joseph Broz Tito and his partisans, then in Austria.

During the putsch on March 27, 1941, Bishop Nicholas was on the side of the putschists, and Letich was for not challenging Germany and for Yugoslavia not to participate in the war. It is also known that during the war Bishop Nicholas was always in touch with General Mikhailovich, the Minister of War of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and that his ties with Letich were interrupted. Vladimir Dimitrievich believes, justifying the speech at Letich's funeral, that he uttered it because he rejoiced at Letich's readiness to stand under Drazhi's command in the struggle for the return of King Peter II to the throne and the salvation of the Serbian people from communism ^{[3, p. 24]}. It is also known that he considered General Mikhailovich and Nedich, as well as Letich, to be people who fought for Serbia. For him, as a monarchist and an open supporter of legitimate official power, during the Second World War, General Dragee was the closest. General Mikhailovich was the Minister of War of the royal government in London, under the command of King Peter II, and the Yugoslav army in the Fatherland was the legitimate army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Patriarch Gabriel and the entire Serbian Orthodox Church shared the same opinion. Cooperation with emigrants, at one time members of the Zbora, was continued by Nikolai after the war - he had one of the most famous figures of both the PNKHZ and the Zbora Archpriest Alex Todorovich as his right hand in the publication of the Svechanik library ^{[3, p. 24]}.

The Communists who came to power after the war accused Bishop Nicholas of being a "Zborovets" and on this basis deprived him of citizenship. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the FNRY deprived Nikolai Velimirovich of citizenship on September 27, 1951 for being "a member of the anti-people political organization Zbor and, as an accomplice of the occupiers, fled the country before liberation" ^{[3, p. 24]}. However, Bishop Nicholas was not a member of the "Zbora", and he collaborated with the "Zborovites" both before and after the Second World War, only as Christians, for reasons of common views regarding religion.

Now we would like to give examples of cases of parallel membership of worshippers both in the PNKHZ and in the Zbor. Real stories from the biographies of these people clearly demonstrate the blurred connections between these movements and how they interpenetrated and how they reflected on each other. Among these worshipers there are both men and women; and priests, and laypeople; and ordinary worshipers, and even the leadership of the PNKHZ.

Among those who had "dual membership" were such as the already mentioned Dimitri Naidanovic and Joko Sliepcevic, who wrote a fundamental work on the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church. They both actively collaborated in the early 1930s with the theological journal of the University of Belgrade "Svetosavle".

The chairman of the Main Department of the PNKHZ was Archpriest Alexa Todorovich, previously mentioned in this study, the right hand of St. Vladyka Nicholas in the pilgrimage movement. Born in 1899. He was a parish priest in Aril, Bresnica, Goce, and then a bishop's vicar in Kraljeva, Belgrade. The worshippers respected him very much. Among them, he was famous as a great speaker. A gifted writer and an excellent singer, as Vladyka wrote about him. During the war, the confessor of the KFOR retreated with volunteers, went through camps and stayed in Germany as a Munich parish priest. Todorovich died in 1990 ^{[4, p. 11]}.

During the Second World War, many worshipers suffered, among other things, for being members of the Zbora, KFOR and accomplices of the occupiers. Believing sincerely that the invaders were a lesser evil for the Church in comparison with the victory of communism, they gave their lives and died at the hands of the partisans of Broza Tito ^{[4, p. 15]}.

For example, Priest Vojislav Stoilovich, a parish priest from Srednevo, a member of the prayer movement and a Zborovets, suffered at the hands of the Communists in September 1941 in the village of Rabrovo. Tied to a car, they dragged him through the mud for about 9 km, and then brutally tortured him. In the end, his tortured body was fed to the dogs. The priest and professor Dragutin Bulich, one of the oldest Zbora fighters and the pre-war chairman of the PNKHZ in Chachka, again an important person in the pilgrimage movement, was also killed, but this time by the Chetniks at the end of July 1942. He was 32 years old. He was cut by daggers and killed by 12 revolver bullets. He saved thousands of Serbs and entire communities from the pogrom ^{[4, p. 15]}.

The pilgrims, of course, also suffered from the Germans. For example, an active member of the PNKHZ, Archdeacon Valerian Lekich, a pre-war Zborovets. A 26-year-old monk, an associate of St. Vladyka Nicholas, was caught in the Lubostini monastery after Velimirovich left at the end of 1942. He was taken to Krusevac, where he was tortured with the most terrible tortures, from which he went mad. Lekich was shot in front of the people ^{[4, p. 16]}. Perhaps he was killed by the Germans, because he was no longer a Zborovets at that time.

A smaller number of worshipers sought peace of mind in one of the monasteries. Archpriest Radislav Paunovich (1890-1960), another bright personality, a well-known preacher from pre-war prayer cathedrals and one of the founders of this movement in Banat, a member of the church court of the diocese of Vrshachska, one of the leaders of the Zbor movement. During the war, in addition to all his duties, he also visited the holy Bishop Nicholas, when the latter was staying at the monastery of Voylovitsy, and brought him food weekly. He also brought letters from Letich and Nedich to the Patriarch and bishop. Retreating with volunteers, he arrived in Germany, where he served until his death, helping many Serbian refugees ^{[4, p. 16]}.

After the end of the war, large-scale persecution of worshippers by the new government followed precisely for the reason that many of them were associated with accomplices of the occupiers, which is clearly demonstrated by the example of Nikolai Velimirovich himself. Already at the end of October, Archpriest Paun Protic, one of the leaders of the Zbor movement, was killed in Shabats. The priest Dragoslav Uchina, also a member of the Zbor movement, was also brought to court in April 1945 in Kraljevo. He was sentenced to be shot ^{[4, p. 17]}.

As an example of a typical Serbian pilgrim emigrant, the case of Jovan Saracevich is indicative. He was born in 1902. He was educated in Gorny Milanovets and Chachka. He studied law in Belgrade. He is known and recognized as the best judge in Chachka. From his student days he was an active member of the prayer movement. He worked diligently with the magazine PNKHZ "Missionary". Nikolai Velimirovich loved and appreciated him. Because of his membership in the movement, Zbor was sent to Gnjilane, where he did not stay for a long time, because he moved to Belgrade, to the place of a judge of the commercial court. Then he was transferred to the Supreme Prosecutor's Office. During the war, he was captured by the Germans as a reserve officer, where he remained until early 1943, when, due to a serious illness, he was released. After recovering, he joined the ranks of the Serbian Volunteer Corps. After leaving for Italy because the KFOR was only retreating at the end of the war, he met Russian emigrants and went with them to Argentina. There he took vows in the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, receiving the name Savva. He was elected Bishop of Edmonton in 1957. He died in 1973 ^{[4, p. 16]}. And this is not the only example of a person who had dual membership and escaped in exile, or died at home on the orders of the new authorities. Because of such cases, the Communists were distrustful of the entire Church as a whole, although not all of its members, and even members of the PNKHZ alone, sided with anyone. In any case, it was not a mass phenomenon. Most of them were just trying to survive, just like during any war.

Summing up the topic of the relationship between the bishop and the leader of Zbor, we can conclude that Letich was not just a spiritual follower of Velimirovich, but also his good friend. Speaking more broadly about Dimitri Letich's ties with representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church ^{[2, p. 7]}, there was individual support, but Letich's "Zbor" was for the most part an insignificant political group consisting of eight thousand members for the SPC. This movement has never had full support from the SPC, but only support from individuals in its ranks. The same cannot be said about Patriarch Gavriil Dojic, who did not support Zbor and Letich himself. Unlike the patriarch, Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich had excellent relations, truly friendly with Letich, especially before the war, since he believed that his friend was a sincere Christian, as many others who knew him and saw his strict religious life also believed. They also shared some common views when it comes to politics. However, during the war, Bishop Nicholas was isolated, first in the Voylovitsa monastery, and then in a concentration camp. The bishop never spoke about his attitude to Nazism and occupation in a positive way and did not support Letich at that time. The speech of Vladyka Nicholas at the funeral of Dimitri Letich was the word of a confessor and friend and in no way reflects the attitude of all Orthodox Christians in Yugoslavia to Zbor or KFOR.

Having analyzed the connection between the PNKHZ and the Zbor, we come to the following conclusion: due to the politicization of part of the prayer movement, their involvement in the confrontation between various political groups and military units for the right to determine the post-war structure of Yugoslav society, the Orthodox People's Christian Union fell out of favor with the communist authorities. The connection with the Zbor and the KFOR gave rise to accuse the worshippers of aiding the occupiers and anti-people activities, which added fuel to the already inflamed anti-religious and anti-church propaganda. This fact intensified the persecution, including against most of the worshippers who had never cooperated with pro-fascist movements, and contributed to the future attenuation of the activity of worshippers and the liquidation of most of the fraternities of the PNKHZ in the post-war years.