Russian Sunday on the altar of the Fatherland. “To the Altar of the Fatherland. We hope that the people of Moscow will come out to defend the all-Russian shrine

Russian culture at all times was built on feeling and heart, on a free conscience and spontaneous prayer, which, in fact, allowed it to gain amazing strength. Patronage played a huge role in the development of Russian culture.

In past centuries, on the land of our region there were two families that transformed our area beyond recognition. Both the life of the ancient noble family of the Yusupovs, and the life of the new elite that emerged after the abolition of serfdom of the Kharitonenko merchants, was devoted to serving the Fatherland. Two human races, despite their different origins, were guided in their lives by one immutable truth: “Whoever clothed the naked, fed the hungry, visited the prisoner, he clothed Me, fed Me, visited Me” (Gospel of Matthew 25:34-46). The Monk Isaac the Syrian wrote that “nothing can bring the heart closer to God like alms,” and benefactors, according to St. John Chrysostom, always “gave it with joy, thinking that they themselves receive more than they give.” Indeed, according to the conviction of John Chrysostom, “water truly does not, by its nature, wash away the impurities of the body, just as alms by its power wipes away the impurities of the soul.” Perhaps that is why the words of the Ecumenical Saint Basil the Great remain so important for us today: “there is no benefit from charity, which is trumpeted,” because “he who gives alms in order to be glorified by people takes a bribe; he is no longer a giver of alms, he is generous.”

The Yusupovs were engaged in educating the Russian people through their collections and financially supporting talented artists. The new elite is following the same path. Both the Yusupovs and Kharitonenkos are creating new estates, attracting the best artists, sculptors, and architects.

I have already mentioned that my acquaintance with Viktor Ivanovich Ivanchikhin took place when he worked in the city employment service and helped restore work at many enterprises in the region. The closer I got to know this man, the more I admired his talents and his wide heart. It was a discovery for me that at the end of the 90s of the last century, Viktor Ivanovich used his personal savings to publish postcards of pre-revolutionary Belgorod and spoke on regional radio with stories about its past. Such devoted love for the glorious history of our land attracted me to this endless warmth and kindness of a person. Friendly, trusting relations between us quickly grew, I think, also because the enterprise where I worked at that time was connected with the history of our region: before the revolution it belonged to the famous Yusupov family.

Here, in the area where I worked, the Yusupovs at one time built a sugar and brick factory, mechanical agricultural workshops, leather and sheepskin manufacturing enterprises, a cloth, lace and two carpet factories, wind and mechanical mills, forges, laid railways and built six railway stations. They opened parochial and railway schools, a zemstvo hospital, built residential buildings in the Rakitnaya settlement and at the Gotnya railway junction, erected a palace complex with a magnificent park and three cascading ponds in 1840, and in 1832 - the Assumption Church and St. Nicholas Church in settlement Rakitnoye. This settlement was the center of administration of estates in the Kursk, Voronezh, Kharkov and Poltava provinces. The St. Nicholas Church, the palace complex, the building of the agricultural department and the railway station on Gotna, together with the house of the manager of the brick factory, made in the classical style, with four massive columns holding a protruding pediment, in which everyone who arrived to the Yusupovs always stopped, were the calling cards of the villages Rakitnoe and Proletarskoe.

When the plant finally began to breathe and began producing ceramic bricks, I decided to invite Ivanchikhin to Gotnya. I carefully thought through every detail of the upcoming meeting: I wanted to tell him, the servant of the muses, about artists and musicians, writers and poets, whose names were closely connected with the famous family, which did everything possible for the prosperity of my region.

As a child, from the old people who lived out their lives on my native farm, I more than once heard stories about the morals that reigned in the economy of the Yusupov princes. If the manager of the economy, approaching in a chaise, noticed someone working in the field having a rest, he should under no circumstances jump up and create the appearance of a diligent worker, otherwise he might not be counted by the evening. But the entire old guard of Basov’s farm workers considered their work in the economy as a great trust placed in them, and recognized work in the fields of the famous princes Yusupov as a great honor.

I knew a lot about Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov Sr. from previously read books. He often traveled abroad and met prominent writers and philosophers, famous artists and sculptors in Europe. Yusupov was a noble nobleman and a benevolent person, very educated and hardworking. The acquisition of the Arkhangelskoye estate, in the opinion of the prince himself, “finally made him a Muscovite.” Under the guise of an elderly dignitary, he skillfully hid the extraordinary abilities of a psychologist and the refined mind of a practical politician, a talented organizer and a zealous owner with a good spiritual outlook, who influenced many things in his era, because he knew well more than one “secret button” of the domestic state machine.

The first poet of Russia, Pushkin, and the surviving “shard of Catherine’s golden age,” Yusupov, spent a lot of time in frank conversations. The poet with wonderful impulses of soul and the many-wise conservative statist, who always advocated the progressive movement of non-revolutionary reforms, found a common language and enjoyed spending time in smart, solitary conversations. Therefore, the appearance of the sincere words “my Yusupov” in one of Alexander Sergeevich’s letters was not an accident - here, most likely, there was a manifestation of his closeness to a person kindred to him in spirit. Yusupov caught Pushkin’s rebellious mood better than many others, realizing that his state of mind was more a manifestation of the illness of youth than a conscious political choice. It was the poet who dedicated the poem “To the Nobleman” to him.

The Yusupovs in all centuries not only actively showed themselves in public service, but also considered their passion for collecting and philanthropy to be an important part of their life. The collections of these fine art connoisseurs contained all the best of European schools. In Russia, they became acquainted with advanced theatrical and musical culture, not without the help of the rich Yusupov family. But to be a philanthropist meant to have a special gift of intuition, activity and enterprise, to see and promote in the national culture what was of lasting importance. From this point of view, Yusupov’s professionalism was equal to talent. Russia was rich in such talents.

For example, the artist Yu. M. Vasnetsov spoke approvingly of the philanthropist Savva Mamontov, noting his streak of igniting those around him with energy. God gave him a special gift to stimulate the creativity of others. Contemporaries of P. M. Tretyakov noted in him, at first glance, a simple man, a special talent as a patron of the arts. He, without any special education, had an amazing instinct for finding talented artists and carried the entire school of the Wanderers on his shoulders. When the artists walked behind his coffin, everyone was silent. Words were superfluous, there was deep sorrow: a faithful assistant left them, giving everyone the opportunity to do what they loved with financial support.

The lives of such people, according to church ministers, were entirely devoted to serving their Fatherland. The artist Valentin Serov, who painted a portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova in Arkhangelskoye, once complimented her: “If all rich people, princess, were like you, there would be no room for injustice.” Many patrons of the arts, including the Yusupovs, looked at their passion as the fulfillment of a special mission entrusted to them by God and fate. God gave wealth for use, but he will demand an account for it. Patronage was given a special role in the public life of the state, because art lovers did not just support a person in poverty - they supported his natural talent, his extraordinary abilities. The musician, artist, writer and scientist had the opportunity to create.

Inviting Viktor Ivanovich to Gotnya, I met with him to discuss the time and details of our trip. That day, Viktor Ivanovich not only did not let me go with his conversations about the creation of the Yusupov estate Arkhangelskoye, but also told me a lot about the Kharitonenko family of large sugar refiners, who played an equally important role in the development of our Fatherland. A merchant, in the spirit of his profession, must be easy-going and open-minded; he must be a great expert in all matters, knowing the ins and outs of everything, and for this he must have heard about a lot of things and be knowledgeable about a lot of things. Only such people hold the cards. Talking about the emergence of a new elite in the 19th century, Viktor Ivanovich referred to Stasov’s article dedicated to the philanthropist P. I. Tretyakov, which said that “a different breed of merchant family grew up, who, despite their wealth, always had little desire for feasts, for any absurd waste of life; there was an attraction to everything scientific and artistic. And these people are looking for permanent comrades and acquaintances among intelligent, truly educated and talented people, they spend a lot of time with writers and artists, and are interested in the creations of literature, science and art.” Viktor Ivanovich also recalled the statements of the historian M.P. Pogodin that “our merchants did not count their donations and thereby deprived the people's chronicle of beautiful pages. But if you were to count what they did during that century, they amounted to a figure that all of Europe should bow to.”

Ivan Gerasimovich Kharitonenko was just such a patron. As a noble man, he did not show off his donations and did not like to be celebrated on this occasion. Much later, I read about him from the Kharkov Archbishop Ambrose: “The deceased was of humble origin, but the more striking is the convergence of the first and second half of his life - poverty and simplicity, wealth and splendor... There was a feature in his life that distinguished him from the rest. He did not receive a scientific education. But what was striking about him was the development of his mind and the variety of information acquired through self-education. He truly loved the Fatherland and had the right ideas about the means to ensure its well-being. Ivan Gerasimovich passionately loved commercial activities, like a scientist loves his science, like an artist loves his art. He was glad that his institutions were beautiful, that his fields were well-groomed, that the thousands of peasants who worked in his fields had no government arrears. His fortunes were extensive. He was wary of vanity and had no addiction to secular pleasures. He divided his time between work and quiet rest with his family.” The commoner Ivan Gerasimovich Kharitonenko educated his son in Germany and made him a patriot of his country.

The artist Mikhail Nesterov, who knew the Kharitonenko family well, wrote the following words about this man: “He enriched himself with his enormous mind and managed to find a reasonable use for the accumulated millions: shelters, hospitals, almshouses, civil and military schools grew up in Sumy one after another. Thousands of people near Kharitonenki found a comfortable existence.”

In the monastery of Kharitonenko, nestled in a picturesque forest on the banks of the Merchik River in the Bogodukhovsky district of the Kharkov province, generosity and kindness always reigned. Here, at the Natalevka estate, everything was carefully planned and executed with love. Kharitonenko, who proved to everyone that it is possible to be known throughout Russia and in the deep provinces, naturally had good taste. He was never stingy in inviting the best masters of the Russian Empire to his domain for the beauty they created, which delighted the human eye. The famous sculptor S.K. Konenkov, whose skill earned the name of the Russian Rodin, and the architect A.V. Shchusev worked here. A church of rare beauty, designed by A.V. Shchusev, which appeared in the middle of a picturesque park in 1913, became a real decoration of the Kharitonenko estate. Its dome was crowned with a large dome, harmoniously combined with a four-hundred-year-old oak tree, the dominant patriarch of the forests, and slender golden columns of mast pines. The architecture of the church echoed ancient Russian religious architecture. For Kharitonenko, it was important that such works of art were created, at the sight of which thoughts appeared about the memory of their ancestors, about the inseparable unity of the people at all times. Russian emigrants, who found themselves in exile after the events that shook Russia, created a double of this truly swan song by A.V. Shchusev in France on the Cote d'Azur in the city of Nice as a symbol of eternal longing for the Motherland.

I heard a lot about the extraordinary beauty of the Natalevka estate from my friends during my years of study at the Kharkov Aviation Institute. Students who visited this corner unanimously stated that this estate is a real paradise created by human hands. What was the cost of the orchard laid out on the slopes of the ravine! Five semi-circular terraces, oriented towards the south, secured with solid brickwork with copper drainage, performed a miracle. Solar heat accumulated during daylight hours by brick walls prevented plants from dying at night. A kind of amphitheater protected the trees from northern winds and provided natural watering by gravity. But the most important thing was that it accumulated sounds: in the spring - the hum of bees and bumblebees over a flowering garden, the singing of birds; in summer and until late autumn - the rustle of leaves, the melodies of rain; in winter - the whisper of snowfall. All these earthly sounds intensified, merging into mellifluous melodies. The orchard was called “singing terraces”. The garden was decorated with sculptures of lions made by the Russian Rodin S.T. Konenkov, and a water tower in the Gothic style. There were rumors that during its construction, Pavel Ivanovich Kharitonenko rejected the entire batch if out of a thousand bricks falling from a two-meter height, three were broken. In addition to a rare church and an orchard, the estate had beautiful stables and an arena - Kharitonenko loved horses and was an excellent rider. He gave his magnificent horses, which won at Moscow hippodromes, to friends and acquaintances.

Pavel Kharitonenko was talented in everything. He and his wife were passionate lovers of Russian painting and never spared money on purchasing paintings. They visited exhibitions of Peredvizhniki artists and bought their works. The family collections included paintings by such artists as Lemokh and Somov, Polenov and the Vasnetsov brothers, Surikov and Serov, Korovin and Kiprensky, Shishkin and Vereshchagin, Repin and Aivazovsky, Malyavin and Vrubel. Here was also the most complete collection of Nesterov’s works: “Quiet Life”, “Silence”, “Autumn Day”, “Evening Bells”. But the pearl of the collection, without a doubt, was the famous painting “Unknown” by I. Kramskoy. The collection of a large sugar factory also included a rich collection of icons, considered the third most important in Russia.

Pavel Ivanovich Kharitonenko provided the peace and tranquility of his estates to artists and musicians, writers and actors, creating conditions for their creativity. The writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov and the opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin constantly visited the Natalevka estate. Here is the note about the Kharitonenko family that Chekhov left in his notebook: “It would be good if each of us left behind a school, a hospital, at least a well or something like that, so that life would not pass and go into eternity uselessly.” Pavel Ivanovich Kharitonenko was one of the first to respond to Vladimir Ivanovich Tsvetaev’s request for help in the construction and maintenance of the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Kharitonenko family was friends with the artist Nesterov and often visited him. Nesterov spoke warmly about their family: “They were kind, attentive to people, spent a lot of money on their Sumy, on dozens of institutions they created...”. He recalled that “when they reported to Pavel Ivanovich that so-and-so had robbed you of a hundred thousand, he complacently replied: “Who should take it from, if not from us?!” What else can you say..."

In the Yusupovs' estate Arkhangelskoye one could feel the wide scope of the old nobility, its attraction to earthly goods, its alienation from the surrounding bustle, its narcissism, and above all this, like a crown, its subtle aesthetic culture. Here is what the famous historian of those years N.M. Karamzin wrote about him in the book “A Journey Around Moscow”: “Russians feel the beauty of nature, they even know how to decorate it. For example, the village of Arkhangelskoye, 18 versts from Moscow, can surprise even the British lord with the taste and splendor of its gardens; a happy, rare location still enhances their beauty.”

The Yusupovs' open house warmly welcomed writers and poets, artists and musicians; Here the writer Karamzin, the poets Pushkin and Vyazemsky, the artists Serov and Repin, Korovin and Benois, and many others often found inspiration. The Yusupov estate was also visited by important royal persons: Alexander I and Nicholas I, Alexander II and Alexander III. Nicholas II was honored more than once to visit their hospitable hosts.

We are also indebted to the Yusupov family for the Roman hall - one of the richest halls of the Rumyantsev Museum of Fine Arts (now the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin). This is what was written in the diary of Vladimir Ivanovich Tsvetaev on August 2, 1898: “Prince Yusupov, having arrived in Moscow in August, at his first meeting with me, on behalf of Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna, took a hall worth 46,650 rubles. The name Yusupovsky is justified in a worthy manner.”

Listening to Ivanchikhin’s stories, I was amazed at how similar in their views on life these two enlightened people of their century were - Princess Zinaida Yusupova and large sugar refiner Pavel Kharitonenko. They belonged to different social groups: the Yusupovs belonged to the nobility, the ruling class, and the Kharitonenkos belonged to the merchant class, which, unlike the nobility and clergy, was not privileged; it was subject to the “sovereign tax” and all taxes and duties. In all other respects, they were similar: both received an excellent secular education, both surrounded themselves with the intelligentsia, both passionately loved their Fatherland, patronized artists, musicians, writers and actors, giving them the opportunity to create. People are different, but the spirit is the same.

We must note the courage of these enlightened people of their century in illness.

Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova became seriously ill at the age of 23, and the best doctors of that time could not help her. But in her illness she did not grumble about fate and did not fall into despair, but completely submitted to the Providence of God. One sleepless night she wanted to see Fr. John of Kronstadt, not at all hoping for a miracle of his healing. Father John, having learned about her illness, immediately came, and she remembered how he prayed. A few days later, he gave Holy Communion to Princess Yusupova, and for the first time she fell asleep peacefully, and when she woke up, she felt healthy.

Pavel Ivanovich Kharitonenko, who increased his father’s fortune sixfold, fell ill with consumption at the age of 62, an incurable disease at that time. He, just like Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova, without any grumbling about his fate, resigns himself to what is happening to him and does not fall into despair. As before, he travels around all his estates by car, and still resolves urgent matters at his then advanced production facilities.

Why did the disease happen to them right on takeoff? Maybe because God, according to St. Theophan the Recluse, sometimes shields others with illness from misfortune that they could not escape if they were healthy.

No one will remember today's people, endowed with wealth, but who lived their lives for the sake of funny spectacles and fleeting pleasures, for the sake of sea yachts and European football clubs purchased at fabulous prices. But the names of the patrons who laid down their lives on the altar of the Fatherland will remain for centuries. Works of art and paintings will remain, because they are an eternal delight, reflecting our quickly slipping time.

The eternal question that all caring people ask me haunts me: will we be able to preserve the beauty of our native Fatherland created by our great powers, its priceless soul?

... I'm afraid, I'm afraid, like a free strong bird,

Break your wings and see no more miracles!

I'm afraid that there will be no mysterious power over us,

That, having sailed out on a boat, I can reach everywhere with a pole,

That, understanding everything, I will go to the grave without sadness...

Fatherland and freedom - stay, my deity!

(N. Rubtsov)

Peter Maltsev

The soldiers of the Kulikovo Field are buried near the walls of the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery in the ancient cemetery. Over the years, Muscovites of different classes and soldiers of Russia’s four wars have found their final refuge here.

The burials of noble boyar families are adjacent to the mass grave of homeless and poor people - the poor woman. Victims of the Bolshevik terror of the 20s are buried here. They were brought here in wagons (there is a railway nearby), shot and thrown into pits.
Under Soviet rule, the cemetery was razed to the ground. A Bolshevik concentration camp was set up in the monastery, and later a shooting gallery and kebab house were built. In the dashing 90s, these objects were owned by resourceful people, and none of them were left alive. Their place has been taken by new owners, who in turn are trying to build their “happiness” on the ancient graveyard.

Three years ago, the old burnt shooting gallery was demolished, and in its place, under the guise of reconstruction, a new permanent building with completely different dimensions was built. The builders used excavators to pull out the soil mixed with bones and wanted to take it out, but the parishioners of the temple turned 15 loaded KAMAZ trucks around and forced them to pour the soil into the cemetery. In the 90s, the territory of the cemetery was transferred to the department of the church, and a temple-chapel of Dmitry Donskoy has already been built here, but this does not stop the builders. They are guided by their personal master plan. Not knowing what they are doing, they continue to tempt fate. The Old Testament prophet Hosea noted that the Lord also punishes people for lack of knowledge.

Now the soil is scattered throughout the cemetery, community members are collecting and digging up human bones, interring them according to all church canons.
When the next burial ceremony was going on, the owner of the kebab shop literally went berserk. He jumped into the grave and interfered with the burial of the remains. After all, these burials interfere with the implementation of his “Napoleonic” plans - to take away the land adjacent to his construction through the courts, roll the cemetery into asphalt, and demolish the temple-chapel.
The Spaso-Andronnikov Monastery still remains the Central Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art named after. Andrei Rublev, but since 1990, the oldest surviving Moscow Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands, which was consecrated by St. Sergius of Radonezh, has been operating here again since 1990. The arches of the altar windows even preserve details of frescoes from the time of St. Andrei Rublev.

In 1989, icon painter Archpriest Vyacheslav Savinykh was appointed rector of the Spassky Cathedral.
In 1993, during excavations in the altar of the Spassky Cathedral, six relics were found. According to eyewitnesses, the relics exuded a wonderful fragrance. Studies of the relics showed that two of the deceased were icon painters. Subsequently it was established that these were the relics of Andrei Rublev and
Daniil the Black, they were laid to rest in this temple in 1430.
The Andronikov Monastery arose with the blessing of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow. In 1356, he was returning from Constantinople, where the Patriarch of Constantinople blessed him with the icon of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands. A terrible storm began, and, praying before the Image of the Savior donated by the Patriarch, Metropolitan Alexy of Moscow made a vow that if he was saved in this storm, he would erect a temple. He descended to earth on the day of the celebration of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands!
A disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Andronik, was appointed abbot of the new monastery. The Monk Sergius also took part in the consecration of the Church of the Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, and more than once visited the monastery of his disciple. To this day, a kilometer from the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery stands the “Forgiveness” chapel, built in 1890 at the site of the parting of St. Sergius and Andronik.
The walls of the current cathedral are a stone chronicle of our Fatherland. The Second Rome still shone with its greatness - Constantinople with a million people, and Rus' was under the yoke, but was already straightening its back. And the symbol of this Russian revival was the construction of a monastery cathedral, the main shrine of which was a miraculous icon brought from the Second Rome, which was fading into history, as a gift to the future Third Rome!
Even the “Golden Horn” stream, which flows into the Yauza at the Andronikov Monastery, was named so by Metropolitan Alexy after the Golden Horn Bay in Constantinople. It is so symbolically etched forever that THIS IS THE SOURCE OF THE THIRD ROME!
The then white-stone Kremlin had not yet taken on its usual shape. But then Constantinople fell, the thousand-year-old Byzantine Empire disappeared, and Moscow became Rome III. The current Kremlin ensemble, rebuilt by Ivan III, visibly established the greatness of Russia.A monastery was also built, the refectory of the monastery is sister and contemporary to the Faceted Chamber.

In the basement of the refectory, the indomitable archpriest Aaavkum was languishing and, according to legend, an angel appeared to him here.
The bell tower of the monastery rose almost as high as Ivan the Great, but during the Soviet period, the Hammer and Sickle cultural center was built from its bricks.
Now it is important that spiritual life be revived here; we need a living flow of human souls. It is important to make an effort, to work with your heart. Come to venerate the relics of Andrei Rublev, to honor the memory of our ancestors-warriors of the Kulikov field, Muscovites of all classes who laid down their lives for the Fatherland. We are here now because they were then.
On central channels they talked about the problems of the Andronikov Monastery, but one of the philosophers said that the over-organization of our social life results in the organization of thoughtlessness.

Central channels address everyone at once and no one personally.
Russian people are compassionate, but busy with the hustle and bustle of life within the confines of their “treadmill”. If they talk about a problem on the central channel, then the person thinks that the authorities are already dealing with the current situation. But in life there is always a place for our feasible feat. A lot depends on personal diligence without looking around. As the Apostle James said, “ships, no matter how large they are and no matter how strong the winds blow, are guided by a small rudder” (3:4).
What we saw in the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery is the state of Russia as a whole, presented in miniature.

Our ancestors bore the heaviest burden; they built, defended, and created our Fatherland and the city of Moscow for centuries. They worked so successfully that Moscow became a huge metropolis, one of the capitals of the world. The price of Moscow land is the highest, and now they themselves have nowhere to rest. And for the sake of this land and temporary possession of it, some people are ready to do anything.
For already the fifth generation of Russian people is cursed for desecration of the Fatherland, for rebellion and regicide, cursed with historical amnesia. Although in Russia and beyond, on various platforms and in the media, they are already talking and talking about the Russian world, about the importance of preserving the value of our special civilization... about the special path of Russia... And here, in the graveyard of an ancient monastery, in the center of Moscow, bones crunch underfoot builders of this Russian World. Russian people of different eras and classes, saints, their remains are mixed together, their ashes are one whole, this is the people's cathedral of previous generations - the altar of the Fatherland. According to research, the density of burials here is 10 people per square meter.

What do you think about when you walk on the ground strewn with bones? About the frailty and brevity of our hectic life. What will we leave behind? How will we raise the next generation, and how will they treat our remains?
How many destinies, books of life, stories, known only to God and the souls of the departed, are there, how many strong feelings were experienced by these people?
They lived, hoped, believed, loved. Their souls are already with the Lord. The Lord will no longer ask anything from them, they have already passed their test of life, He will ask from us.
The holy fathers and heroes of the past stand for us, but we act, and they believe in us. Not only do we believe in God, but the Lord also believes in us.
Once upon a time, Sergius of Radonezh, having labored in the forest, cut down a cell for himself and, standing in prayer, saw hordes of demons around him, surrounding him and shouting, “get away from this place!”
- Why are you chasing me? - asked Sergius.
- No, it’s you who are driving us out of here!
A storm came and swept away the trees around the cell, but Sergius only intensified his prayer: everything around was swept away, but he remained unharmed.
Now the lamp of faith has been lit again in the Andronnikov Monastery, but for now there is a museum here, and the temple community has bird rights. The community maintains a perimeter defense, while at the same time being involved in a number of conflicts with the owners of the shooting range. There is a grueling legal battle with the owner of the former kebab shop building.

Museum director Mindlin amazes with the scope of his plans.He decided to significantly rebuild and modernize a number of buildings, including the Church of the Archangel Michael, in which dozens of representatives of the Lopukhin family are buried, and at the same time demolish the iconostasis in the Spassky Cathedral, where the Divine Liturgy is now being celebrated, so that tourists can view the altar part of the temple. This is nothing more than blasphemy and a criminal insult to the feelings of believers.

A Russian man who stands up to pray is shouted again: “Get out of this place!”
So a storm that suddenly hit Moscow knocked down the trees around the Church of Dmitry Donskoy, but the temple remained safe and sound.

And neither the Minister of Culture Medinsky nor other official and semi-official persons are here. Do they really all understand that now business is sacred? A person has invested money, he must return it, build a shooting range, and to add to it, bowling alley, sauna, billiards, fitness, restaurant...

It seems that the best thing that the owners of the shooting range and kebab shop can do is to demolish their buildings and spend the rest of their lives in repentance. But they continue to go against the grain and experience the greatness of God, and whoever experiences the greatness of God will be crushed by Him. Let us remember how in 1941 the Lord bowed to the almighty Stalin, he then opened churches and released priests from prisons.
The previous owner of the kebab shop realized at the last moment that business on bones was a terrible sin, and began to build a temple, but did not have time.
Nevertheless, the temple was completed, and on June 2, on the Day of Remembrance of the Grand Duke, the Divine Liturgy and Procession of the Cross took place in the temple-chapel of Dmitry Donskoy, located on the ancient necropolis, near the walls of the monastery.
Near the monastery on May 28, 2017, the Poklonny cross, installed
at the source, which was discovered by the founder of the monastery Andronik. The Cross was desecrated, and a few hours later a hurricane passed through Moscow. It took the lives of people, injured many, and damaged property. We remember how in Kyiv the demoniacs cut down the cross. The people of Kiev then for the most part did not show zeal and did not consolidate in order to protect the shrine from desecration. The cross disappeared, and the infernal forces were not slow to show their strength - a political hurricane broke out over Kiev.
We went to inspect the cross chopped by a vandal, and then the phone rang. They say that the owner of the shooting range arrived and was outraged by the installation of the monument stone. It turned out that the desecration of the Worship Cross is just the tip of the iceberg.
It’s good that Aleksey Toporov, a journalist from the Tsargrad TV channel, was with us. We began recording the conflict on video; it was clear that the co-owner of the shooting range was not ready for this. A person devoid of the fear of God does not realize that he is incurring the curse of Ham, which will echo for many generations. Today's capitalists, whom God did not take away in the 90s, are no less terrible in their essence than the “faithful Leninists” of the 20s. Without show, pomp or pathos, they destroy everything that can be destroyed, they grab everything that can be grabbed. Blinded by the irrepressible passion for profit, they undermine the supporting pillars of Russian civilization. They cannot act differently. After all, anyone who does not give in to training the “golden calf” is quickly rejected by it and leaves the arena of the fierce struggle for the blessings of life.

On June 3, Parents' Saturday, we, representatives of public organizations of Greater Novorossia, helped the community by working in this ancient cemetery, tidied up the paths and graves, and prepared the territory for the opening of the foundation stone with the inscription:

“The necropolis of the Spaso-Andronnikov Monastery will be recreated here. In this holy land, the heroes who fell in the Battle of Kulikovo, in the battles of the Northern War, the Seven Years' War, the Patriotic War of 1812, victims of the Red Terror, prisoners of the Androniev camp (1919 -1922) united in their resting place. Representatives of glorious families who have become a symbol of selfless service to Russia: the Bakhmetevs, Baratynskys, Volkonskys, Golovins, Lopukhins, Musins, Pushkins, Naryshkins, Orlovs, Stroganovs, Rimsky-Korsakovs, Tolstoys, Trubetskoys; monks, many ordinary people, prayer books, pilgrims of the Russian land.”

The next day, on the feast of the Holy Trinity, a divine service was held in the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery in the Spassky Cathedral, and then a religious procession and the opening of the foundation stone of the future monument to all Muscovites, soldiers, monks and representatives of ancient aristocratic families buried in this place over 660 years of existence the oldest Moscow monastic necropolis. The stone was consecrated by the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Vyacheslav Savinykh.
The image of Russia is inextricably linked with the image of the Trinity, which the brilliant icon painter Andrei Rublev saw and transferred to the icon; his creativity and asceticism are the glory of Russia, its national treasure. Works are written about this, dissertations are defended.

Together with Daniil Cherny, Rublev painted the Cathedral of the Andronikov Monastery.
It was in this monastery that jubilant Muscovites solemnly welcomed the holy noble prince Dmitry, who became Donskoy after the Battle of Kulikovo. Here his warriors marched in formation, winning a great victory over their enslavers; they are now forever inscribed in the historical memory of our people.
The image of the Blessed Prince more than once helped to win victories in subsequent eras. During the Great Patriotic War, a tank column named after Dmitry Donskoy smashed the fascist beast. The beginning of the Russian Spring in Kharkov on March 1, 2014 is also associated with the image of the Don Icon of the Mother of God. For the first battle at the Donetsk airport on May 26, 2014, volunteers from Moscow went on the day of memory of Dmitry Donskoy according to the old style, May 19, 2014.
It is no coincidence that at the opening of the monument there were many representatives of Novorossiya and political emigrants from Ukraine. The assembly point of the Russian people cannot be changed!
Public figures, historians, archaeologists and parishioners who spoke at the ceremony were unanimous that it is necessary to stop the desecration of the necropolis and return our all-Russian shrine - the Andronikov Monastery - to the Church!
The church community of the Andronikov Monastery has, in fact, been in a state of siege for many years. The head of the Moscow public movement “Restoration of the Andronikov Monastery” Sergei Karnaukhov is fighting at this place almost alone, but today reinforcements have arrived.

We hope that the people of Moscow will come out to defend the ALL-RUSSIAN SACRED!!!

We naively thought that the greater Novorossiya would return to Russia, raising an uprising in Kharkov in March 2014, but in three years our illusions have dissipated. We saw that there is no Russia to which we want to return. It turned out that there was no end to the work here either.
Tarkovsky's film "Andrei Rublev" ends with an episode in which the boy boldly undertook to cast a bell, telling the prince that his father had given him the secret of casting. The bell was cast. The prince was amazed, the people rejoiced, and the overseas guests were amazed at the wondrous sound of the Russian gospel.
And the boy fell, crying bitterly. Andrei Rublev raises him: saying, why are you doing this? Do you see what a holiday you made for people!? And the boy did not tell him the secret; he took it with him to the grave.

But what happened? God will not allow anyone who trusts in him to be put to shame and revealed to the youth the secret of casting the bell anew.
After decades of historical oblivion, we will have to rediscover the secret of Russia's greatness in today's struggle.
We must DEFEND THE FATHERLAND ALTAR and expel the traders from the Temple!

Sergey Moiseev
Chairman of the Board
Kharkov regional
public organization
"Triune Rus'"

photo by Elena Stepanova, Sergei and Mikhail Moiseev

“What a country! How it grinds everything and everyone, transforms, absorbs.”

From a word about Russia by Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna

(wife of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich Romanov)

Apparently, one of the most important and pressing demands of our time is interethnic and interfaith peace. In this regard, Russia has enormous historical and spiritual experience in the peaceful life of Russians with their large multinational relatives.

The peaceful coexistence of a multinational family was based on the Christian idea set forth by the Apostle Paul: for Christ there is “neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female.” That is why the problem of nationality has never arisen in Russia and even in the passport, as is well known, there has never been such a column. Only the religion of the Russian subject mattered. Therefore, it is not surprising that in different years the Russified French (K. Bryullov and N. Ge), Germans (V. .I.Gau and V.G.Perov), Armenians (I.Aivazovsky and Martiros Saryan), Kalmyk Alexey Egorov and Greek Arkhip Kuindzhi, etc. All of them grew up on Russian soil, in the original atmosphere of the Russian world, on a deep mastery of the fundamentals and traditions of Russian culture.

Many foreigners who came to Russia became so familiar and imbued with Russian life that over time they began to recognize themselves as Russians, and some even accepted Orthodoxy. But even those who continued to remain citizens of their country, nevertheless, began to live in the interests of Russia, making their own, sometimes, significant contribution to the history of Russian art.

Just one example. Auguste Montferrand, the author of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, upon learning that Emperor Nicholas 1 wanted to invite foreign painters to paint it, was unusually indignant. Having achieved an audience with the Sovereign, he began to passionately argue: “Why do WE need foreigners? - said Monferand, - when WE have our own! “Who, who? - the emperor asked with a smile. “Ours, the Russians!”, - without hesitation, the Frenchman Montferand answered with the same fervor. Thanks to his persistence, such famous masters as V.K. Shebuev, F.A. Bruni, P.V. Basin and the first among them, the outstanding Russian artist K.P. Bryullov, decorated the walls of the cathedral with their talent.

His distant ancestors were French Huguenots. Fearing persecution, they fled to Germany, where they accepted Lutheranism, and subsequently moved to Russia. Here their original surname Brullello changed to Brullo, and then simply Russified, taking on the form familiar to Russians. A Lutheran who remained faithful to the faith of his fathers, Karl Bryullov was buried in Italy according to the Lutheran rite. But how much he did to glorify Russian art.

His famous painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”, presented at an exhibition at the Paris Salon, leaving far behind all its competitors, received the Grand Prix and Gold Medal.

It was Bryullov who for the first time, not only in Russian but also in world art, created the image of the collapse of the pagan world and the birth of a new world - the Christian. Bryullov's historicism is also manifested in the fact that the images of each of these religions occupy their own place in the composition, assigned to them by history: dying paganism is in the background, and young Christianity is in the foreground. With this compositional solution, Bryullov ideologically connects with Pushkin, completely sharing his thought, but embodying it in his own way: “In Christianity,... this sacred element,” the poet wrote, “the world disappeared and was renewed.” The figure of a Christian priest in the picture became a symbol of such a religious renewal of human consciousness. We recognize this man as a church minister not only by his pectoral cross, but also by the objects that the artist put in his hands: a chalice and a censer. These are not just church utensils, but temple shrines, without which there can be no worship, much less its sacrament and holiness. One of the symbols of incense is the gracious breath of the Holy Spirit, uniting everyone: parishioners and the priesthood led by Christ. With its conciliar meaning, the censer is directly related to the chalice - the cup from which Christians receive communion, individually uniting with God not only spiritually, but also physically, and through Him with all people, as brothers and sisters in Christ. Thus, the artist, preaching the idea of ​​Christian brotherly love, for the first time reveals the nature of the transformation of spiritual love into one’s spiritual hypostasis. Having become an expression of the most important Christian values, this figure grows in its generalization into a collective image of the Church of Christ. And it is here, towards the priest, that the author begins to turn the movement of the crowd of running, fleeing people. And then the very idea of ​​salvation takes on not only a physical meaning, as the salvation of life, but also a spiritual meaning, as the salvation of the soul. Without suspecting it, Bryullov entered into a kind of polemic with his contemporaries. Although they assessed their age differently, they always had a negative connotation. And if, in particular, Pushkin in “his cruel age glorified ... freedom,” then Bryullov “in the current painful time,” which Metropolitan Philaret considered similar “to the last,” “glorified” Love. And the one of the heart, by which this world is held together, and the one, the spiritual, by which it is saved. European art had never known anything like this. And therefore, it is no coincidence that at the Academy of Arts, at the triumphant meeting of Bryullov’s return from abroad, the master of historical painting, the same Kalmyk Alexei Egorov, with whom Bryullov studied, enthusiastically said with tears in his eyes: “You praise God with your brush, Karl Pavlych.”

Alexey Egorov himself, who converted to Orthodoxy, was a deeply religious man and in his work he paid most attention to religious painting, although he was also a good portrait painter who knew how to bring a high, sublime mood to the work. When he was once asked why he had so few portraits, he answered: “I don’t paint portraits of people. I paint portraits of saints." We leave aside the analysis of this statement. What is important in this case is the very fact of the religious orientation of the art of the master who was able to educate such a talented student.

The creativity of both Egorov himself and K. Bryullov not only does not fall out of the context of Russian art, but is its natural and consistent development. Their predecessors were artists of the 18th century. and, above all, historical painters - representatives of the leading genre from the very beginning preached in their works the ideas of Christian love, Christian brotherly love, the triumph of spiritual forces over human passions. It was then that the spiritual connection between young, professional secular art and the art of the Russian Middle Ages, which had been destroyed since the time of Peter 1, was restored. And throughout the 19th century. Russian art did not betray its spiritual foundations, its ontological nature.

Vasily Perov, whose father was a Russified German, embarked on an independent creative path at the turn of the 50s - 60s, in the era of critical realism, when everything was criticized: both the past and the present, way of life, traditions, foundations. And since the church was at the forefront of the manifestation of all these forms of national life, it was she who took the main blow of the opposition. 20-year-old Perov, who still had nothing in his soul: no established worldview, no life and artistic experience, found himself subject to the trends of the times. And only in France, where he was sent for an internship as a medalist at the Academy of Arts, did the young artist suddenly awaken to the latent, latent awareness of himself as a Russian person. It was there, far from Russia, that Perov’s Russian roots on his mother’s side finally absorbed and dissolved the German blood of his father, Baron G.K. Kridener. It is possible that the sexton from whom Perov received his first school knowledge, who stood at the origins of the formation of his personality, planted seeds in his soul that, many years later, only in a foreign land, sprouted with an awareness of his own involvement in his country and his people. It was there, in Paris, that he finally formulated the concept of “everyday genre” as “a reflection of the character and moral way of life of the people.” A follower of the ideas of Venetsianov, who created a spiritual image of Russia in his cycle “Seasons”, heir to P. Fedotov’s “moral-critical scenes”, which caused laughter through tears, Perov was the first to talk about tears invisible to the world. The focus of his artistic attention is not on the humiliated and insulted, but on the moral character of people who are humiliated and insulted.

It was Perov, in the film “Seeing Off the Dead Man” (1865), who was the first to touch the most intimate thing - what is called “the secret of the Russian soul.” And with all the figurative structure of his picture he reveals it as a humble carrying of his cross. That's the whole secret!

It was Perov, in the canvas “The Last Tavern at the Outpost”, who for the first time in Russian art posed and brilliantly solved the problem of a person’s moral choice of his life path: either to destruction - to the tavern, or to salvation - to the church. It is difficult to overestimate the master’s contribution to Russian art. He is the creator of a psychological portrait, and the pinnacle of his portrait art is a spiritual portrait, reflecting the spiritual essence of a person. In “Portrait of Dostoevsky,” the artist follows the writer, who believed that it is the spiritual essence of a person that determines the “main idea of ​​the face” in a portrait. And therefore, it is no coincidence that Perov’s thought was born: “Happiness has only one eye on the top of its head, directed to Heaven, where God lives.”

In this regard, it is completely natural and even logical for the artist to turn to religious painting. In his painting “Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane,” by consciously denying himself the use of the most grace-filled, most expressive element in the psychological characteristics of the image - the face of Christ, Perov thereby narrows the range of his possibilities as much as possible. He leaves aside the philosophical understanding of the inner world of Christ. And then the perception of Him as a person, which was characteristic of Ivanov, and then will become characteristic of Kramskoy, Ge, Polenov and others, recedes into the background. And although the human nature of Christ is preserved, His other hypostasis - His Divinity - becomes a priority. Thus, for the first time, not only in Russian, but also in European secular art, the dual nature of Christ was reflected. And as a consistent development of this sacred theme, for the first time in this picture the image of the borderland between matter and spirit, between heaven and earth, between time and eternity appears.

The work of Ivan Aivazovsky, the first marine painter in Russian art, does not fall out of the ontological nature of Russian art. His works, devoid of narrative, are very dynamic, filled with the life of the sea, the state of being of the sea element. Aivazovsky also did not change his Gregorian faith, but just like all academicians, he knew the language of Christian symbolism very well. And just like them, skillfully using the language of allegory, he preached Christian ideas and values, testifying to how much the religious consciousness of the artist, who does not profess Orthodoxy, is saturated and permeated with the spiritual principle of the Russian world.

The artist increasingly turns to the language of Christian symbolism, with the help of which, especially in the painting “The Wave” (1889, Russian Russian Museum), he achieves extraordinary spiritual heights.

Aivazovsky gives the entire vast field of the canvas to the sea, not leaving even a millimeter for the image of the sky. And thus the artist removes the narrative character in the image of the raging sea, which sucked an entire ship into the resulting funnel, threatening the death of the handful of people who are trying to resist the sea elements. But the image of a powerful wave approaching from the crown, so to speak, in close-up, filling the entire artistic space of the picture, suggests its religious basis. After all, according to Christian symbolism, water is the sea of ​​life, i.e. the world of our passions, overwhelming both our consciousness and our soul. And just like this sea funnel, drawing them into itself, suppressing and destroying them. But the light that bursts from God knows where surrounds the funnel with its whiteness, associated in Christian symbolism with the Light of Christ, which gives strength in confronting the sea of ​​life, strengthening in the struggle of passions and bringing hope for salvation. And then the plot, at first glance, filled with tragedy, losing its everyday meaning, is filled with a completely different content, which is based on the gospel idea of ​​salvation.

The “deep-thought Greek,” as Kramskoy called Arkhip Kuindzhi, was born and raised on Russian soil, lived and thought as an Orthodox person, and by this alone he found himself attached to those spiritual roots, those life-giving juices that nourished the Russian soul, and Russian thought, and Russian art. He was a follower of Venetsianov, in whose landscapes contemplation appears not only as a spontaneous manifestation of the mentality of the people, but above all as a special, SPIRITUAL state of his soul. A state that arises only in a symphony, only in the unity of man and God, who opens the spiritual eyes with which the world around us is contemplated as God’s creation. The peculiarity of Kuindzhi’s creativity, whose works are characterized by both contemplation and the integrity of the perception of the world, its planetary scale, was also determined by the fact that, following his own path in art, Kuindzhi “constantly grew beyond the framework of the prevailing realistic aesthetics.” His “religious soul” protested against a purely worldly perception of life and did not allow him to cling to the ground. She dictated to him the ascending rhythm in his compositions, as an aid to his takeoff. “After all... all his life he actually “flew” - in his work - over the expanses of the earth, across the vast expanses of heaven, which he conveyed with such love and skill.” Hence this predominance of “heavenly expanses” in his paintings, this view from heaven and at the “earthly expanses”. Hence this originality, this epic scope of his canvases, but also the special atmosphere that reigns in them - bright, magical, spiritual.

The originality of art of the second half of the 19th century. determines its confessional character. The very high note of confession first sounded in A. Ivanov’s brilliant work “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” Having chosen a gospel story for himself, the artist, unlike his predecessors, does not even try to interpret it, but uses it as an opportunity to express his religious thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Moreover, not in relation to the plot, but brings them into the picture as a revelation of his religious soul. That is why the confessional note was heard and perceived by artists of all other genres, i.e. acquired a universal character, becoming one of the main features of Russian art of that time.

This period in Russian art is extremely complex and contradictory. It was then that the search for God in one’s heart, as the Lord commanded, was opposed to the search for Him on the paths of an enlightened mind. Then, through confession, the nature of each person’s faith was revealed: which Christ does a person confess - the Theanthropic Christ or His human-divinity. Leo Tolstoy, whom Nikolai Ge considered his spiritual mentor, wrote then: “If there is no higher reason (and there is none, and nothing can prove it), then reason is the creator of life for me.” But such a conclusion did not bring clarity, but only led further into a dead end. In search of a way out, Tolstoy, and after him the entire de-churched intellectual elite, nevertheless strove for such an understanding, “so that every inexplicable situation would appear to me,” he wrote, “as a necessity of reason, and not as an obligation to believe.” On the humanistic soil of the worldview, cultivated by “scientific science,” as Tolstoy called the church, Nikolai Ge’s perception of Christ as a Man-God finally took shape. This is how he is present in the film “What is Truth?” And although the artist places his hero outside the worldly world, nevertheless, he does not have that supra-mundaneity that determined not only the physical, but, above all, the spiritual connection of the Savior with the earth. His hero appears persecuted not for his eternal word, which illuminated the world with the light of divine grace and truth, but for his convinced dissent. The same rational principle underlies the image of the pagan Pilate, behind whom is not only the state and military power of Rome, but also the high ancient culture with the indisputable authority of the great thinkers of the era. In their philosophical revelations, they recreated a logically harmonious and clear picture of the world. In the speculative images born of analytical thought, the same truth was revealed that was carved like a spark on a philosopher's stone, illuminating everything around with its unfading light of rational knowledge. For the enlightened Pilate, everything else is superstition and sectarianism. Thus, both the dissent of Christ and the enlightened mind of Pilate turned out to be equalized by their very rational basis. Thus, the artist, without suspecting it, exposed the nerve of a moral illness, made an accurate diagnosis of his agonizing time: in the light of reason, God is not visible! It is difficult to find on the paths of the enlightened mind, which recognizes only and exclusively rational, worldly knowledge.

The consequence of this nature of the religious worldview was the images of demons that appeared for the first time in Russian art in the works of M.A. Vrubel, also starting in 1890, which testifies not only to the internal fracture, but also to the spiritual disorder of the then Russian society.

And as if in contrast to this, another line is developing, represented, in particular, by the work of I. Levitan. He was a student of Savrasov, a great master, founder of the landscape class at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. For the first time, it was Savrasov who filled landscape images with his emotional experiences, which was perceived not only as a novelty in this genre, but also as his ultimate goal. It was Savrasov who recreated the image-mood in his paintings of Russian nature, and later, as evidence of increased skill, the image-state. And more than once he admonished his students with the words: “An artist is the same as a poet.”

Levitan, who, judging by recent research, even converted to Orthodoxy, turned out to be a worthy student of his teacher. He knew how to see poetry in the most ordinary, everyday things. “This is such a huge, original, original talent,” his friend Anton Chekhov said about Levitan. It was Levitan, who followed the path paved by his teacher, who took precedence in creating a lyrical landscape. By absorbing the artistic experience of his predecessors, Levitan became a master of landscape paintings, able to transform a simple motif into a typical image of Russia. His widely known paintings: “Above Eternal Peace”, “Golden Autumn”, “Vladimirka”, “Evening Bells” are filled with the artist’s thoughts about the transience of time, about human destinies, about the transient and at the same time eternal beauty of nature at any time of the year, about the blissful state of the soul, pacified by the ringing of bells floating after the clouds across the early evening sky. “I have never loved nature so much, I have not been so sensitive to it,” Levitan wrote, “I have never felt so strongly this divine something, diffused in everything, ... it does not lend itself to reason, analysis, but is comprehended by love. Without this feeling there cannot be a true artist...”

All those masters that we managed to talk about made their own significant contribution to the treasury of Russian art, of which the work of each of them is an integral part. Despite their national and religious affiliation, they all considered themselves Russian and brought their creativity to the altar of Russian art, which they served sincerely, devotedly and with love.

Marina Petrova, scientific employee of the State Tretyakov Gallery

February 22, 2015, on Forgiveness Sunday and on the eve of Defender of the Fatherland Day, Moscow teachers and students, members of the public association “Altar of the Fatherland” and the Association of Teachers of Orthodox Culture, visited the grave warrior Evgeniy Rodionov(05/23/1977 - 05/23/1996) at the cemetery in the village of Satino-Russkoye, Podolsk district, Moscow region.

Zhenya accepted martyrdom for Christ, for the Orthodox faith during the First Chechen War.

At the cross on the hero’s grave and in the Church of the Ascension of Christ, the “altars” sang “Eternal Memory,” remembering Zhenya and all the fallen soldiers who laid down their lives for their faith and Fatherland, and prayed for peace in Ukraine.

There was a meeting with the rector of the temple priest Nikita Fedorov.

Two feelings are wonderfully close to us,

The heart finds food in them:

Love for the native ashes,

Love for fathers' coffins.

A.S. Pushkin

On February 13, 1996, together with privates Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov, Evgeniy Rodionov took up his post. While on duty, they stopped an ambulance driven by Brigadier General of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Ruslan Khaikhoroev, which was carrying weapons. During an attempt to search, the soldiers were captured. After discovering their disappearance from the post, the soldiers were initially declared deserters. Police officers came to Rodionov’s mother’s house to look for her son after his disappearance. The version that the soldiers were captured was accepted after a detailed examination of the scene and the discovery of traces of blood and struggle.

Yevgeny Rodionov was killed in captivity on May 23, 1996. Ruslan Khaikhoroev confessed to the murder. In the presence of a foreign OSCE representative, he said: “...He had a choice to stay alive. He could have changed his faith, but he did not want to take off the cross. I tried to run...". On May 23, after 100 days of captivity and cruel torture, Yevgeny Rodionov and his fellow soldiers were asked to remove their pectoral cross and convert to Islam. Yevgeny Rodionov refused to remove the cross, for which he was beheaded.

Soon after the capture, Evgeniy’s mother, Lyubov Vasilievna, came to Chechnya in search of her son, who was believed to be a deserter. His commander informed her that he was a prisoner of war, but showed no concern for his fate. She contacted Basayev, who promised her to find her son in front of everyone, but when she left the village, Basayev’s brother caught up with her and severely beat her. She was forced to pay the militants money to find out the burial place of her son. Evgeniy’s mother identified Evgeniy’s body by his cross. Later, the identification results were confirmed by an examination.

Eugene's cross was found in the grave on his headless body, and later Eugene's mother gave it to the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi.

Evgeny Rodionov was buried near the village of Satino-Russkoye, Podolsk district, Moscow region, near the Church of the Ascension of Christ. On the cross it is written:

“Here lies the Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce Christ, executed near Bamut on May 23, 1996.”

PRAYER TO THE MARTYR EVGENE RODIONOV, COMPLETED BY HIEROMONK VALAAM (YAKUNIN):

You appeared to the astonishment of strength, imitating Christ’s patience even to death, you were not afraid of the Agarian torment, and you did not deny the Cross of the Lord, taking death from the tormentors like the cup of Christ; For this reason, we cry out to you: Holy Martyr Eugene, pray ever for us, O sufferer.

Faith and Time

Photo by Reuters

President Vladimir Putin’s statements about the ideological and political heritage of the USSR could not fail to resonate among the speakers of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is what happened. It would seem that the memory of the “godless” Soviet times should be traumatic for the Church. Nevertheless, Putin’s words that the “Moral Code of the Builder of Communism” is “an excerpt from the Bible” generally appeal to clergy. In the speeches of Patriarch Kirill one can often hear an apology for a society of social justice, only without state atheism and with respect for the role of the Church. The desired image can be briefly described as a construction of an ersatz USSR with a clerical “face”.

Today it is difficult to work in the patriotic field, subjecting the Soviet Union to total criticism. That is why attempts are being made to dissect the Soviet legacy, carefully separating the “statist” principle from the “dogmatic” one. Putin criticizes Lenin for his concept of national republics (“an atomic bomb under the USSR”), and Khrushchev for his excessive adherence to ideological dogma. Not a word about Stalin. But the Church also stated that the cult of his personality must be approached “balancedly” so as not to offend the feelings of millions of citizens.

But criticism of Lenin and Khrushchev with his memorable “gift to Ukraine” cannot but be close to the Russian Orthodox Church. Not only because these figures were distinguished by their anti-religious position. The collapse of the USSR into national republics hurt the interests of the Moscow Patriarchate. Following the political demarcation, the Church faced the problem of the disintegration of its structure into national-church, “local” formations. The Moscow Patriarchate has been engaged in the struggle to preserve unity, including with the “sister churches,” since 1991 to this day. Just the other day, the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church managed to “repel” attempts to raise the issue of autocephaly. At the Pan-Orthodox Council in June, the topic of church independence will most likely not be considered.

Following the propagandists of “scientific atheism,” the Russian Orthodox Church accepted the rejection of religious movements that constitute unwanted and dangerous competition for the “titular” Church. The experience of the Russian Empire, which placed selected “foreigners” in the position of seeking the protection of the ruling Church, looks too mossy and xenophobic in the 21st century. The Soviet style of combating religious and ideological “sabotage” from abroad looks more modern.

It should be noted that the “red Church” quite consistently defends the patriotic values ​​of the Soviet period associated with the victory over Nazism. In this she encounters opposition from the “whites” from the ROCOR, who are rehabilitating the Vlasovism. The different genesis of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad does not allow us to sacrifice the value system of Russians for the sake of full unity of the Churches.

The Russian Orthodox Church is happy to exploit the concept of social justice, because it expects to be a leading player in the social sphere. At the same time, utopian ideas about interest-free “Orthodox banking” have remained ephemeral for many years, like the “City of the Sun”, which Putin spoke about with caustic humor (by the way, note that the “City of the Sun” was promised to be built not by the atheist Marx, but by the priest Campanella , as well as “Utopia” - the saint of the Catholic Church Thomas More). On the contrary, in reality, the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church prefer to keep money in high-risk financial institutions, which burst in the hands of the Central Bank like soap bubbles.

We have to admit that the Church, like the leaders of the Soviet Union, often builds its social activity more on inspired myth-making than on real achievements in the humanitarian sphere. This is perhaps a generic feature of the religious organization, created, as evil tongues say, in 1943 with the blessing of the communist leader Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.