Soviet ruler keeps eastern church in clemency (8)
I believe the answer is:
lenience
'clemency' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'soviet ruler keeps eastern church' is the wordplay.
'soviet ruler' becomes 'lenin' (Vladimir Lenin. I am not sure about the 'soviet' bit.).
'keeps' is an insertion indicator.
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'lenin' placed around 'e' is 'lenien'.
'lenien'+'ce'='LENIENCE'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lenience that I've seen before include "indulgence" , "Tolerance" , "Quality of mercy in awarding punishment" .)