Nikolai Neplyuev. Grand Dukes Nikolai Nikolaevich and Mikhail Nikolaevich

In 1875 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. Served in Munich at the Imperial Embassy. In 1877 he left Munich and entered the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy as a volunteer.

In one of his first works, “The Historical Vocation of the Russian Landowner,” published in 1880, before the birth of the brotherhood, N. N. Neplyuev wrote about difficult situation a peasant who, as a result of the reforms of 1861, received freedom, but himself, in fact, did not change at all. According to Neplyuev, the historical vocation of the Russian landowner was to take on the task of education. “We alone can successfully complete this task because we alone combine material strength with intellectual strength,” Neplyuev wrote. He proposed to start by taking in one or two children from needy families, placing him not in a manor house, but in a simple hut, and educating them through daily communication and teaching, giving them knowledge about agriculture and get used to work.

After the publication of this work, Neplyuev was attacked by numerous critics. The authors arguing with him believed that for the wealthy and educated person there is no reason to follow his example; one of the dissenters wrote that Neplyuev was not taking up his own business and that the only historical vocation of a Russian landowner could only be to train dogs, and not to educate people.

In the fall of 1880, N. N. Neplyuev moved to his family estate in the Chernigov province. His father held the position of provincial leader of the nobility and rarely visited the estate. All affairs were under the jurisdiction of the chief manager, who not only did not sympathize with the business started by the young Neplyuev, but also considered his residence on the estate extremely inconvenient. “The all-powerful manager erected new obstacles at every step, and everyone around was afraid to help me, for fear of incurring his displeasure,” recalled N. N. Neplyuev.

Despite all the difficulties, he did not give up and “to cut off the path of retreat for himself,” he adopted ten orphans. Thus, on August 4, 1881, the future was born Vozdvizhenskaya school. Neplyuev’s father gave his son a small house for use in the town of Yanpol. Several years later, the attitude of the general manager became even more hostile, and he began to pit the father against the son. After this, Nikolai’s mother and sisters joined the conflict and persuaded the elder Neplyuev to give his son the Vozdvizhensk estate as full ownership. This meant that Neplyuev received complete financial independence and the opportunity to freely engage in his business. He finally moved to Vozdvizhensk with his students, the number of whom had already reached about 30 people, in the fall of 1884.

Founding of the Vozdvizhensk Agricultural School

In 1883, Neplyuev submitted a petition to the Ministry of State Property to open a school. In the summer of 1884, a representative from the ministry, D. S. Moskalsky, came to Vozdvizhensk. After his visit, he gave a favorable review in a report to the minister. The request to open a school was supported by Minister M. N. Ostrovsky. At the end of the winter of 1885, Neplyuev signed an agreement with the Ministry of State Property, and the charter of the school was approved. On August 4, 1885, the school was opened; a state subsidy was allocated for its activities for the maintenance of teachers and teaching aids in the amount of 3500 rubles per year. The remaining expenses were paid by Neplyuev. The training was free. Students studied the theory of agriculture, acquired practical skills in field work in the brotherhood, gained knowledge of the New Testament, studied the catechism, Orthodox worship, the Russian language, geography, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and Russian history. Subsequently, ministry officials came to the brotherhood several times, checking the activities of the school, taking part in taking exams, checking how schoolchildren were doing field work, etc.

In 1888, N. N. Neplyuev turned to the Minister of State Property M. N. Ostrovsky with a memorandum in which he asked him to give the Vozdvizhenskaya school the right to invite former pupils of the school who had successfully completed it to teacher positions. This permission was received. It was important milestone in school development. The influence of fraternal teachers had a beneficial effect on educational process: “Despite the fact that the official educational qualifications of their predecessors were higher, I consider myself to have the right to say and I say this with conviction - never before has our school had teachers better prepared to perform their duties and performing them so conscientiously.”

In 1891, a similar four-year boys' school for girls, Preobrazhenskaya, opened. Neplyuev’s closest assistant and sister, Maria Nikolaevna Umanets, became her guardian.

Memories of school visitors

This is how one of the fraternity’s visitors, A. Tyumenev, describes the Vozdvizhensky schools:

Foundation of the Holy Cross Orthodox Labor Brotherhood

In 1889, the first class graduated from school. Three of the six graduates remained with Neplyuev and laid the foundation for the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood. All of them remained at the school and spent a year preparing under Neplyuev’s leadership to become teachers. Andrei Ivanovich Fursey took the position of school manager, high school agriculture teacher and manager of the Vozdvizhensky estate. Fedor Efimovich Chvertka became a teacher of cattle breeding and veterinary medicine. Ilya Pavlovich Kobets was a teacher of the first preparatory class, became the elder of the fraternal family of teachers, was preparing to take holy orders, but fell ill with consumption and died in 1893. As Neplyuev noted, he deserved “the sincere love and deep respect of all those who knew him.”

Since the founding of the Labor Brotherhood, the life of N. N. Neplyuev and the work of the brotherhood have been inseparable from each other and form a single whole. For the sake of serving the brotherhood, he chose the path of celibacy. In 1890, after the death of his father, N. N. Neplyuev became the owner of a significant fortune. His mother Alexandra Nikolaevna and sisters Maria and Olga also actively participated in fraternal life.

Fraternal priests

In 1893, a temple in the name of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was built and consecrated in Vozdvizhensk. During the entire period of the brotherhood’s activity, it has had five abbots. The names of two of them are well known from their subsequent church activities: priest Sergius Chetverikov and priest Roman Medved. In 1903, priest Alexander Sekundov became the rector of the fraternal church. He remained the brotherly confessor until the end of the brotherhood.

Divine services in the brotherhood were treated as “a celebration of living love.” A fraternal choir sang in the choir. In addition to the usual temple services, in which the entire brotherhood participated, there was common prayer morning and evening in fraternal families. The brotherhood’s desire for a meaningful life of faith found its expression in the daily prayer life of communities, in general fraternal conversations, and special prayer meetings.

The main theological ideas of N. N. Neplyuev, which formed the basis of the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood

The main idea of ​​N. Neplyuev, to which he devoted his entire life, was the need for repentance and unity between Christians, which is carried out in the Christian community. Such communities can unite into a labor brotherhood, in which believers could arrange their lives according to faith, live together with brothers in Christ and earn a living through joint activities. Neplyuev pointed out three reasons for the structure of life and activities of the Christian labor brotherhood:

• Faith in the Living God and that community life is the will of God.
• Love: loyalty and the desire to stay together despite conflicts and everything that separates.
• Work: high-quality performance of one’s duties for the common good and voluntary discipline.

Neplyuev considered fraternal life to be the work of God. In his opinion, membership in the brotherhood is a calling from the Lord, therefore what matters is not how weak this or that person is, since there is no weakness in front of which the Lord would be powerless. It is important how stable each person who has chosen the path of fraternal Christian life is in the desire to give his life under the guidance of God.

Another side of love for God is brotherly love. Life in brotherhood is spiritual work, a every-minute test of the reality of one’s brotherly love. Brotherhood should become a person’s home, family and life’s work. This work cannot be done by anyone who does not want to deny himself, take up the cross and follow Christ: he can live in brotherhood and work honestly, but he will never become its firm support. If brotherhood does not constitute a necessity of life for a person, it risks losing him at any moment, since he will be faithful to brotherhood only as long as life in it is convenient for him: “It is necessary that brotherly love be the highest need, which is consciously and joyfully submitted to all other needs. Without this, betrayal of the cause of love is fatal, even with a clear awareness of its full significance.” However, it is impossible to find such an attitude anywhere outside the brotherhood, so it is enough just to recognize its absence as one’s own weakness, and to trust with confidence the authority and leadership of the spiritual elders in the brotherhood.

According to Neplyuev, the sacred duty of brotherly love is work. However, in the Christian labor brotherhood, neither the work itself nor the economic results economic activity cannot have a self-sufficient meaning and be the ultimate goal. It is necessary for the brotherhood to be self-sustaining, and for each person to work honestly.

In addition to labor professional activity, Neplyuev spoke about the need and importance of spiritual labor - a voluntary discipline of love, which consisted in recognizing a hierarchy of values ​​common to all brothers: service to God is embodied in the establishment of a labor brotherhood, to which it is necessary to subordinate one’s personal and family interests.

“The voice of a lay believer regarding the upcoming Council”

Neplyuev believed that society needed a new Christianization, since people do not live by faith, and the clergy is doing nothing to correct this situation. In 1906, in Nos. 6 and 7 of the “Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy”, Neplyuev’s article “The Voice of a Lay Believing Concerning the Upcoming Council” was published, in which he proposed a number of reforms of church life for consideration by the Local Council. He sharply criticized church life: “the parishes are scattered and turned into fiction,” many representatives of the clergy are guided “not by the truth of God, but by the decrees and instructions of the authorities,” passing off “anti-church routine as “true Orthodoxy.” Neplyuev saw the possibility of improving church governance in the restoration the principle of conciliarity, since its violation taught the laity “not to consider themselves responsible members of the church.” Neplyuev considered the restoration of the “institute of catechets” in the church to be an urgent need: “This matter is so pressing and urgent that all bishops, their vicars and monasteries should for the benefit of the Church not to spare any expense or labor." By this Neplyuev understood the revival of the institution of catechesis in the church. "All believers should go through the "School of Catechists" in order to have a baptized mind and heart and not disgrace the Church with their lives." teaching “theological sciences”, but limiting ourselves to “knowledge of the new catechism” and teaching to live according to “the commandment of love, which can be achieved in one, many, two years.” At the same time, it is necessary to publish a completely new catechism, more “intelligible and vitally useful.” He also noted that it is necessary to “correct the edition of liturgical books until their content is intelligible and make the liturgical language accessible to the public.”

Public lectures

From January 25 to January 31, 1907, Neplyuev gave a series of lectures in the auditorium of the Moscow Theological Academy. In the summer of 1906, a group of professors and students of the academy visited the brotherhood, and six months later the leadership of the MDA invited Neplyuev to give lectures. In them he outlined his understanding of life by faith and the responsibilities of the clergy and laity in the matter of the spiritual revival of Russia. He spoke in detail about the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood, also paying considerable attention to the issues of the upcoming Local Council. On ep. Evdokim (Meshchersky) Neplyuev’s speech produced strong impression: “I bless the day when I decided to give Mr. Neplyuev the opportunity to read the aforementioned seven lectures at the Academy,” he wrote in a report to the Educational Committee at the Synod. - “Since I was born, I have never seen or heard such deep faith, living faith in Christ the Savior from the lips of a secular, highly enlightened person with enormous connections and colossal wealth.” Journalist A. Pankratov wrote that the lectures were accompanied by applause.

Also in 1907, on October 28, Neplyuev gave a lecture on the Brotherhood of the Exaltation of the Cross, on the revival of parish life and on the formation of the All-Russian Brotherhood at the Oryol Women's Diocesan School. The section chronicling diocesan life in the Oryol Diocesan Gazette reports that the ruling Bishop of Oryol, Seraphim (Chichagov), was present at this lecture. Bishop Seraphim spent about two years at the Oryol See, but during this time he managed to do a lot for the revival of Christian life among the people. In addition to him, the lecture was attended by Bishop Mitrofan (Athos) of Yelets, “the clergy of the city, teachers of religious educational institutions, members of parish councils and many outsiders.” Two months later, a review of the lecture was published in the Oryol Diocesan Gazette, retelling some of its provisions and emphasizing the churchliness of the brotherhood: “ Religious life labor fraternity is in complete harmony with the religious structure and system dominant in Russia Orthodox Church" The article concludes with the author’s wish that “future workers of the parish, future shepherds and teachers of the people do not turn a deaf ear to the cause of the Labor Brotherhood” and a call to get acquainted with the brotherhood in Vozdvizhensk.

last years of life

IN last years In his life, Neplyuev began to develop a project for an All-Russian Brotherhood with a single charter and governing body, under the auspices of the Synod and the Emperor. The All-Russian Brotherhood is a collection of parishes that should become living cells of the church-state organism. To implement this idea, it is necessary to awaken the self-awareness of parishioners, therefore priests must take care of spiritual transformation their parishes: preach, organize catechetical interviews, so that faith does not remain in the realm of abstract thinking. In 1906, Neplyuev came to Kyiv, where he tried to form a society to create an All-Russian Brotherhood. Neplyuev himself wrote the draft Charter, but did not have time to implement his plan. With the draft Charter in December 1907, Neplyuev went to St. Petersburg, but there he became seriously ill with the flu. Despite his illness, he continued to work and even gave public lectures at the invitation of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. On December 21 he returned to Vozdvizhensk. During his illness, Neplyuev often received communion, and on the day of his death he was given unction.

Bibliography

• Neplyuev N. N. Collected works: In 5 volumes. St. Petersburg, 1901-1908.
• Neplyuev N.N. Vozdvizhenskaya school is the cradle of the Labor Brotherhood. St. Petersburg, 1895.
• Neplyuev N. N. All-Russian Brotherhood. St. Petersburg, 1907
• Neplyuev N. N. Fraternal unions in educational institutions- higher, middle and lower: Can the church and the Christian state survive longer without them and how to implement them? Leipzig, 1893.
• Neplyuev N.N. The voice of a lay believer regarding the upcoming Council. Kyiv, 1906.
• Neplyuev N. N. Sounds of the soul. Berlin, 1896.
• Neplyuev N.N. To all believers. St. Petersburg, 1907.
• Neplyuev N. N. Open letter to students. St. Petersburg, 1906.
• Neplyuev N.N. Draft charter of the Vozdvizhensky Agricultural Labor Brotherhood of Christ. St. Petersburg, 1885.
• Neplyuev N.N. Regarding false rumors. St. Petersburg, 1907.
• Neplyuev N. N. Mysterious phenomena earthly life of my spirit. Berlin, 1896.
• Neplyuev N. N. Labor brotherhood and its schools. St. Petersburg, 1900.

NIKOLAI NEPLYUEV

COMPLETE WORKS, 1900

We present to your attention a collection of materials about difficult life and the unique experience of community building of the Russian nobleman Nikolai Nikolaevich Neplyuev. The collected materials include eBook, which is a scanned copy Full meeting works (5 volumes) of Nikolai Nikolaevich. The proposed electronic copy is made from the original edition of 1900 (St. Petersburg), stored in the archives of the Russian state library. Since 1900, the works of Nikolai Neplyuev have not been published in their entirety in any form. paper books, not in the form of an electronic document, and were not available for free sale. The INSIGHT team hopes that thanks to this scanned copy, the unique experience of Nikolai Neplyuev will finally receive a worthy assessment from our contemporaries, will spread around the world with unfailing success and will serve (as intended by the author) the cause of: 1) genuine unity of people, 2) achievements world peace and 3) restoration of balance true values in society.

Nikolai Nikolaevich was born in 1851 in the town of Yanpol in Ukraine. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University in 1875, he was sent to Munich for diplomatic service. However, in 1877 he abandoned brilliant career and enters the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy as a volunteer, causing bewilderment in the eyes of his colleagues and relatives with his actions.

This extraordinary and great personality in terms of the scale of his deeds managed to bring to life what for many of his predecessors, contemporaries and even successors turned out to be impossible. He was a prophet and seer, sensitive to the needs of the human soul and the desires of God, possessed a living faith, capable of seemingly impossible accomplishments from a material point of view, and also with a huge heart filled with love and compassion.

Since childhood, he directly communicated with angels, experienced prophetic dreams, dedicated free time solitary prayer. Having matured and received a worldly upbringing and education, he moved away from deep and reverent spiritual practice and “became worldly.” However, the craving for the highest did not leave him. And one day he decided to finally put an end to the “routine of life”: he resigned from a diplomatic post that promised great career prospects, enrolled in agricultural courses that were not prestigious among landowners, moved to the family estate, begged his father for an estate and built two agricultural buildings in it. schools - male and female, recruited children from disadvantaged families and gave them education in the spirit of religious upbringing. The core of graduates of his schools subsequently formed the main brainchild of his life - the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood.

For the sake of serving the labor brotherhood, he chose the path of celibacy (so that his children could not claim as heirs the property bequeathed to the brotherhood). In 1890, after the death of his father, Nikolai Nikolaevich became the owner of a significant fortune (when translated into modern money - about 2 billion rubles). After he was convinced that the brothers he had raised had acquired the necessary qualifications and possessed the appropriate qualities in order to continue his holy work, he transferred his entire fortune to the labor brotherhood.

Steadily, throughout his life, Nikolai Nikolaevich was driven by the belief that the ideal of Christian life is a working community in which believers could arrange their lives according to faith, live together with brothers in Christ and earn a living through joint activities. He indicated three pillars of labor fraternity:
— Faith in the Living God and that community life is the will of God.
— Love: loyalty and the desire to stay together despite conflicts and everything that separates.
— Labor: high-quality performance of one’s duties for the common good and voluntary discipline.

Celebrations dedicated to the 150th anniversary of N.N. took place in Vozdvizhenskoye. Neplyuev, which was attended by historians from Chernigov, Moscow, Sumy, local historians, clergy of the Orthodox Church led by Bishop of Konotop and Glukhov Innocent (Shestopal), vice-president of the International League for the Defense of Culture G.N. Fursey, descendants of members of the Brotherhood.

sect of priest Georgy Kochetkov

The memory and legacy of N.N. Neplyuev is revered in the sect of priest Georgy Kochetkov. Various anniversaries are celebrated, and Neplyuev’s birthday is on the calendar memorable dates sects The Preobrazhensky Brotherhood website publishes both articles by Neplyuev himself and various kinds of materials in his honor.

Exhibition “Man of Faith. N.N. Neplyuev and his Holy Cross Brotherhood"

• St. Petersburg, With the blessing of Metropolitan. St. Petersburg Vladimir.

• village Krasny, Istra district, Moscow region, 2011
• Moscow, Library of Foreign Literature named after. M. I. Rudomino, 2012
• Voronezh, 2013 Transfiguration", museum "Labor Brotherhood of N. N. Neplyuev" (Vozdvizhensk village, Sumy region, Ukraine), Department of Culture and Archival Affairs Voronezh region, Voronezh regional local history museum, Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Voronezh and Borisoglebsk Diocese, Voronezh Small Orthodox Brotherhood in the Name of Tikhon of Zadonsk. With the blessing of Metropolitan Sergius of Voronezh and Borisoglebsk.
• Arkhangelsk, city Organizers: , Cultural and educational foundation “Preobrazhenie”, museum “Labor Brotherhood of N. N. Neplyuev” (Vozdvizhensk village, Sumy region, Ukraine), as well as Arkhangelsk GMO “ Art culture Russian North" and the cultural and educational foundation "Sretenie".
• Gomel, December 30 - January 31 Organizers: , Cultural and educational foundation “Preobrazhenie”, museum “Labor Brotherhood of N. N. Neplyuev” (Vozdvizhensk village, Sumy region, Ukraine), Art Gallery G.H. Vashchenko (Gomel), with the assistance of the Gomel diocese of the Belarusian Orthodox Church.

Report by sect member Natalia Ignatovich ““Let us be peacemakers and be worthy of being recognized by You as Your children...” Labor brotherhood of Nikolai Neplyuev in Russia in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century" was read at the XXII International Conference on Orthodox Spirituality in the Bose Monastery (Italy), held from September 3 to 6.

Musical and poetic evening “Sounds of the Soul” films

Documentary films: “Dew Point”, Kiev Studio, “Daily Bread”, “Brotherhood of Love” - Lennauchfilm, 1995.

“Brotherhood in our hearts” 25:18 (Video service of the Preobrazhensky Brotherhood, 2011).

education

Holy Cross Brotherhood

Neplyuev pointed out three reasons for the structure of life and activities of the Christian labor brotherhood:

• Faith in the Living God and that community life is the will of God.
• Love: loyalty and the desire to stay together despite conflicts and everything that separates.
• Work: high-quality performance of one’s duties for the common good and voluntary discipline.

renovationism

N. N. Neplyuev was not only the ideological forerunner of renovationism, but also a participant in the pre-revolutionary renovation movement. In 1905, members of a group of clergy, which later became known as the group of 32, contacted Neplyuev, who expressed his intention to provide funds for the publication of a reformist journal. O. Konstantin Aggeev writes on January 30 this year: “Second joy. Neplyuev visited me. He didn’t find me, but I saw him at the Christian Fellowship. It fulfills our magazine dreams. Gives funds."

essays

• Neplyuev N. N. Collected works: In 5 volumes - St. Petersburg, 1901-1908.
  • Neplyuev N. N. The historical vocation of the Russian landowner // Collected Works. In 5 volumes - St. Petersburg, 1901-1908. - T. 3.
  • Neplyuev N. N. Towards a better future // Collected works: In 5 volumes - St. Petersburg, 1901-1908. - T. 3. - P. 19-20.
• Neplyuev N. N. The historical vocation of the Russian landowner. - M.: type. I. Barnet, 1880. - 19 p.
• Neplyuev N. N. Draft charter of the Vozdvizhensky Agricultural Labor Brotherhood of Christ. St. Petersburg, 1885.
• Neplyuev N. N. Fraternal unions in educational institutions - higher, secondary and lower: Can the church and the Christian state survive without them longer and how to implement them? Leipzig, 1893.
• Neplyuev N. N. What is truth? (1893)
• Neplyuev N. N. Christian Worldview (1894)
• Neplyuev N. N. Vozdvizhenskaya school is the cradle of the Labor Brotherhood. St. Petersburg, 1895.
• Neplyuev N. N. Sounds of the soul. Berlin, 1896.
• Neplyuev N. N. Mysterious phenomena of the earthly life of my spirit. Berlin, 1896.
• Neplyuev N. N. Labor brotherhood and its schools. St. Petersburg, 1900.
• Neplyuev N. N. Congress one humanity (1900)
• Neplyuev N. N. The Path to a Better Future (1901)
• Neplyuev N. N. Arise, my dear country! (1906)
• Neplyuev N. N. An Appeal to the Friends of Liberty and Order (1907)
• Neplyuev N. N. The voice of a lay believer regarding the upcoming Council. Kyiv, 1906.
• Neplyuev N. N. All-Russian Brotherhood. St. Petersburg, 1907
• Neplyuev N. N. An open letter to students. St. Petersburg, 1906.
• Neplyuev N. N. To all believers. St. Petersburg, 1907.
• Neplyuev N. N. Regarding false rumors. St. Petersburg, 1907.
• Neplyuev N. N. Sounds of the soul (2012) (Collection of prayers composed by N. N. Neplyuev.)
• Neplyuev N. N. The voice of a lay believer regarding the upcoming Council. The path of faith. - M.: Interregional public organization“Cultural and educational center “Transfiguration””, 2009. - (Conversations about brotherhood). - 1,000 copies.
• Neplyuev N. N. Conversations about the Labor Brotherhood. Private response letter to priest Ivanov. - M.: Interregional public organization “Cultural and Educational Center “Preobrazhenie””, 2010. - (Conversations about brotherhood). - 1,000 copies.

sources

• Avdasev V. N. Labor brotherhood of N. N. Neplyuev. Its history and legacy. - Sumy: AS-Media, 2003.
• Ermakov D. S. Education in the Vozdvizhensky Labor Brotherhood (1889-1929). Pedagogy No. 5. issn=0869-561Х
• N. N. Neplyuev Conversation IV. Life experience of our labor brotherhood. // Cephas. - No. 7(97). - May, 2009
• Light of memory: N. N. Neplyuev in the memoirs of his contemporaries. - Kyiv, 2008. - P. 81.
• Neplyuev, Nikolai Nikolaevich // encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
• Somin N.V. Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood of Nikolai Nikolaevich Neplyuev // Bulletin of PSTGU. IV: Pedagogy. Psychology. - 2008. - No. 1 (8). - P. 57–72.

Start of activity

In one of his first works, “The Historical Vocation of the Russian Landowner,” published in 1880, before the birth of the brotherhood, N. N. Neplyuev wrote about the difficult situation of the peasant, who, as a result of the reforms of 1861, received freedom, but himself, in fact, did not change at all . According to Neplyuev, the historical vocation of the Russian landowner was to take on the task of education. “We alone can successfully complete this task because in us alone material strength is combined with intellectual strength,” wrote Neplyuev. He proposed to start by taking in one or two children from needy families, placing them not in a manor house, but in a simple hut, and raising them with daily communication and teaching, giving them knowledge about agriculture and teaching them to work.

After the publication of this work, Neplyuev was attacked by numerous critics. The authors arguing with him believed that there was no reason for a wealthy and educated person to follow his example; one of the dissenters wrote that Neplyuev was not taking up his own business and that the only historical vocation of a Russian landowner could only be to train dogs, and not to educate people.

Despite all the difficulties, he did not give up and “in order to cut off the path of retreat for himself,” he took in ten orphans. Thus, on August 4, 1881, the future Vozdvyzhensk school was born. Neplyuev’s father gave his son a small house for use in the town of Yanpol. Several years later, the attitude of the general manager became even more hostile, and he began to pit the father against the son. After this, Nikolai’s mother and sisters joined the conflict and persuaded the elder Neplyuev to give his son the Vozdvizhensk estate as full ownership. This meant that Neplyuev received complete financial independence and the opportunity to freely engage in his business. He finally moved to Vozdvizhensk with his students, the number of whom had already reached about 30 people, in the fall of 1884.

Founding of the Vozdvizhensk Agricultural School

Men's school. An oblong stone building, sunken in greenery, with a long corridor and bedrooms on both sides. In the corridor we were met by pupils barefoot and with mops - they were washing the floors. There are no servants. From childhood, work is instilled in them as one of the contents of life. The school assembly hall is a large room, the walls are hung with portraits of friends of the Brotherhood. Here are portraits of the emperor Alexandra III, who gave the Labor Brotherhood the rights legal entity, former minister M. N. Ostrovsky, who supported the school in its formation, Bishop Sergius of Chernigov and Nezhin, an educated archpastor who was very sympathetic to the cause of the brotherhood. ...

The boys' faces are open, good-natured, they look straight, they answer questions intelligently and don't press themselves against the walls. They walk around in simple blouses from Cherkasy, some barefoot, some in boots. But there was no noticeable noise, fuss, or fighting anywhere, although we entered some rooms, apparently by accident. ...
Having passed the big Orchard 7-8 acres in size, we entered a wide and long corridor of a large one-story house. The girls' school is run by N.N.'s two sisters and his old mother. I saw with my own eyes how much love they have for their work, which they do not separate from their lives. Here, the cleanliness and order, so to speak, are more elegant than in the boys' school. The situation too. ... The meeting hall of the men's school was full of students when I entered it. They talked quietly among themselves, so that the intervention of the teacher on duty was not required.
N.N. Neplyuev entered and sat down at the table opposite the students. I sat next to him.
-Who should read the diary today? - asked N.N.
A boy of about fifteen came out of the ranks, stood at the music stand and began reading the diary, which outlined one of N.N.’s Sunday conversations. It was about “trust.” Nikolai Nikolaevich corrected what was written down inaccurately and asked some how they understood this or that question. Watching the children carefully, I noticed that they were all working mentally and participating in an exchange of opinions. ...
Nikolai Nikolaevich turned to me.
- Maybe you can suggest some question for discussion?
I was overcome by temptation.
“With you,” I turned to N.N., everything is based on the principle of love, and this word is constantly repeated by the students. I would like to know how consciously they use it.
- Our guest wants to know how you understand the word love, what do you mean by it? Could someone please explain?

Tense silence was the answer at first. ... And it is not surprising that the students initially responded with silence. But then they started answering. I will not give their answers, I will only note that they expressed a lot of conscious, inquisitive work of the mind. All I wanted to know was whether they were repeating someone else’s voice.

Foundation of the Holy Cross Orthodox Labor Brotherhood

Main article: Holy Cross Orthodox Labor Brotherhood

In 1889, the first class graduated from school. Three of the six graduates remained with Neplyuev and laid the foundation for the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood. All of them remained at the school and spent a year preparing under Neplyuev’s leadership to become teachers. Andrei Ivanovich Fursey took the position of school manager, high school agriculture teacher and manager of the Vozdvizhensky estate. Fedor Efimovich Chvertka became a teacher of cattle breeding and veterinary medicine. Ilya Pavlovich Kobets was a teacher of the first preparatory class, became the elder of the fraternal family of teachers, was preparing to take holy orders, but fell ill with consumption and died in 1893. As Neplyuev noted, he deserved “the sincere love and deep respect of all those who knew him.”

Since the founding of the Labor Brotherhood, the life of N. N. Neplyuev and the work of the brotherhood have been inseparable from each other and form a single whole. For the sake of serving the brotherhood, he chose the path of celibacy. In 1890, after the death of his father, N. N. Neplyuev became the owner of a significant fortune. His mother Alexandra Nikolaevna and sisters Maria and Olga also actively participated in fraternal life.

Fraternal priests

Priest Alexander Sekundov

In 1893, a temple in the name of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was built and consecrated in Vozdvizhensk. During the entire period of the brotherhood’s activity, it has had five abbots. The names of two of them are well known from their subsequent church activities: priest Sergius Chetverikov and priest Roman Medved. In 1903, priest Alexander Sekundov became the rector of the fraternal church. He remained the brotherly confessor until the end of the brotherhood.

Divine services in the fraternity were treated as “a celebration of living love.” A fraternal choir sang in the choir. In addition to the usual temple services, in which the entire fraternity participated, there was common prayer in the morning and evening in fraternal families. The brotherhood’s desire for a meaningful life of faith found its expression in the daily prayer life of communities, in general fraternal conversations, and special prayer meetings.

The main theological ideas of N. N. Neplyuev, which formed the basis of the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood

The main idea of ​​N. Neplyuev, to which he devoted his entire life, was the need for repentance and unity between Christians, which is carried out in the Christian community. Such communities can unite into a labor brotherhood, in which believers could arrange their lives according to faith, live together with brothers in Christ and earn a living through joint activities. Neplyuev pointed out three reasons for the structure of life and activities of the Christian labor brotherhood:

• Faith in the Living God and that community life is the will of God.
• Love: loyalty and the desire to stay together despite conflicts and everything that separates.
• Work: high-quality performance of one’s duties for the common good and voluntary discipline.

Neplyuev considered fraternal life to be the work of God. In his opinion, membership in the brotherhood is a calling from the Lord, therefore what matters is not how weak this or that person is, since there is no weakness in front of which the Lord would be powerless. It is important how stable each person who has chosen the path of fraternal Christian life is in the desire to give his life under the guidance of God.

Another side of love for God is brotherly love. Life in brotherhood is spiritual work, a every-minute test of the reality of one’s brotherly love. Brotherhood should become a person’s home, family and life’s work. This work cannot be done by anyone who does not want to deny himself, take up the cross and follow Christ: he can live in brotherhood and work honestly, but he will never become its firm support. If brotherhood does not constitute a necessity of life for a person, it risks losing him at any moment, since he will be faithful to brotherhood only as long as life in it is convenient for him: “It is necessary that brotherly love be the highest need, which is consciously and joyfully submitted to all other needs. Without this, betrayal of the cause of love is fatal, even with a clear awareness of its full significance.” However, it is impossible to find such an attitude anywhere outside the brotherhood, so it is enough just to recognize its absence as one’s own weakness, and to trust with confidence the authority and leadership of the spiritual elders in the brotherhood.

According to Neplyuev, the sacred duty of brotherly love is work. However, in the Christian labor brotherhood, neither labor itself nor the economic results of economic activity can have self-sufficient significance and be the ultimate goal. It is necessary for the brotherhood to be self-sustaining, and for each person to work honestly.

In addition to professional work, Neplyuev spoke about the need and importance of spiritual labor - a voluntary discipline of love, which consisted in recognizing a hierarchy of values ​​common to all brothers: serving God is embodied in the establishment of a labor brotherhood, to which it is necessary to subordinate one’s personal and family interests.

“The voice of a lay believer regarding the upcoming Council”

Neplyuev believed that society needed a new Christianization, since people do not live by faith, and the clergy is doing nothing to correct this situation. In 1906, in Nos. 6 and 7 of the “Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy”, Neplyuev’s article “The Voice of a Lay Believing Concerning the Upcoming Council” was published, in which he proposed a number of reforms of church life for consideration by the Local Council. He sharply criticized church life: “the parishes are scattered and turned into fiction,” many representatives of the clergy are guided “not by the truth of God, but by the decrees and instructions of the authorities,” passing off “anti-church routine as “true Orthodoxy.” Neplyuev saw the possibility of improving church governance in the restoration the principle of conciliarity, since its violation taught the laity “not to consider themselves responsible members of the church.” Neplyuev considered the restoration of the “institute of catechets” in the church to be an urgent need: “This matter is so pressing and urgent that all bishops, their vicars and monasteries should for the benefit of the Church not to spare any expense or labor." By this Neplyuev understood the revival of the institution of catechesis in the church. "The school of catechists" must be attended by "all believers in order to have a baptized mind and heart and not disgrace the Church with their life." teaching “theological sciences”, but limiting ourselves to “knowledge of the new catechism” and teaching to live according to “the commandment of love, which can be achieved in one, many, two years.” At the same time, it is necessary to publish a completely new catechism, more “intelligible and vitally useful.” He also noted that it is necessary to “correct the edition of liturgical books until their content is intelligible and make the liturgical language accessible to the public.”

Public lectures

From January 25 to January 31, 1907, Neplyuev gave a series of lectures in the auditorium of the Moscow Theological Academy. In the summer of 1906, a group of professors and students of the academy visited the brotherhood, and six months later the leadership of the MDA invited Neplyuev to give lectures. In them he outlined his understanding of life by faith and the responsibilities of the clergy and laity in the matter of the spiritual revival of Russia. He spoke in detail about the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood, also paying considerable attention to the issues of the upcoming Local Council. On ep. Evdokim (Meshchersky), Neplyuev’s speech made a strong impression: “I bless the day when I decided to give Mr. Neplyuev the opportunity to give the aforementioned seven lectures at the Academy,” he wrote in a report to the Educational Committee at the Synod. - “Since I was born, I have never seen or heard such deep faith, living faith in Christ the Savior from the lips of a secular, highly enlightened person with enormous connections and colossal wealth.” Journalist A. Pankratov wrote that the lectures were accompanied by applause.

Also in 1907, on October 28, Neplyuev gave a lecture on the Brotherhood of the Exaltation of the Cross, on the revival of parish life and on the formation of the All-Russian Brotherhood at the Oryol Women's Diocesan School. The section chronicling diocesan life in the Oryol Diocesan Gazette reports that the ruling Bishop of Oryol, Seraphim (Chichagov), was present at this lecture. Bishop Seraphim spent about two years at the Oryol See, but during this time he managed to do a lot for the revival of Christian life among the people. In addition to him, the lecture was attended by Bishop Mitrofan (Athos) of Yelets, “the clergy of the city, teachers of religious educational institutions, members of parish councils and many outsiders.” Two months later, a review of the lecture was published in the Oryol Diocesan Gazette, retelling some of its provisions and emphasizing the churchliness of the brotherhood: “The religious life of the labor brotherhood is in complete harmony with the religious structure and structure of the dominant Orthodox Church in Russia.” The article concludes with the author’s wish that “future workers of the parish, future shepherds and teachers of the people do not turn a deaf ear to the cause of the Labor Brotherhood” and a call to get acquainted with the brotherhood in Vozdvizhensk.

last years of life

In the last years of his life, Neplyuev began to develop a project for an All-Russian Brotherhood with a single charter and governing body, under the auspices of the Synod and the Emperor. The All-Russian Brotherhood is a collection of parishes that should become living cells of the church-state organism. To implement this idea, it is necessary to awaken the self-awareness of parishioners, therefore priests must take care of the spiritual transformation of their parishes: preach, organize catechetical interviews, so that faith does not remain in the realm of abstract thinking. In 1906, Neplyuev came to Kyiv, where he tried to form a society to create an All-Russian Brotherhood. Neplyuev himself wrote the draft Charter, but did not have time to implement his plan. With the draft Charter in December 1907, Neplyuev went to St. Petersburg, but there he became seriously ill with the flu. Despite his illness, he continued to work and even gave public lectures at the invitation of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. On December 21 he returned to Vozdvizhensk. During his illness, Neplyuev often received communion, and on the day of his death he was given unction.

Bibliography

• Neplyuev N. N. Collected works: In 5 volumes. St. Petersburg, 1901-1908.
• Neplyuev N. N. Vozdvizhenskaya school is the cradle of the Labor Brotherhood. St. Petersburg, 1895.
• Neplyuev N. N. All-Russian Brotherhood. St. Petersburg, 1907
• Neplyuev N. N. Fraternal unions in educational institutions - higher, secondary and lower: Can the church and the Christian state survive without them longer and how to implement them? Leipzig, 1893.
• Neplyuev N. N. The voice of a lay believer regarding the upcoming Council. Kyiv, 1906.
• Neplyuev N. N. Sounds of the soul. Berlin, 1896.
• Neplyuev N. N. To all believers. St. Petersburg, 1907.
• Neplyuev N. N. An open letter to students. St. Petersburg, 1906.
• Neplyuev N. N. Draft charter of the Vozdvizhensky Agricultural Labor Brotherhood of Christ. St. Petersburg, 1885.
• Neplyuev N. N. Regarding false rumors. St. Petersburg, 1907.
• Neplyuev N. N. Mysterious phenomena of the earthly life of my spirit. Berlin, 1896.
• Neplyuev N. N. Labor brotherhood and its schools. St. Petersburg, 1900.

Notes

Links

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood on the LiveJournal website.
• Conversation IV. Life experience of our labor brotherhood. A fragment of a lecture given by N. N. Neplyuev within the walls of the Moscow Theological Academy in January 1907.
• Fragments of the chronicle of the life of the Holy Cross Brotherhood. From the Reports of the guardian of the Orthodox Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood from September 14, 1899 to September 11, 1901.
• Fursey A.I. Do they have any reason to talk about “Neplyuyevshchina” and “Neplyuyevites”. St. Petersburg, 1902.
• Works of N. N. Neplyuev and works about him on the website predanie.org

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• Theologians in alphabetical order
• Born on September 11
• Born in 1851
• Died on January 21
• Died in 1908

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public figure and writer; born 1851; upon completion of the course in St. Petersburg. University, he served at the Russian embassy in Munich, and then, after spending 2 years as a volunteer at the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy, he settled on his family estate in the Glukhov district of the Chernigov province and began teaching peasant children. He subsequently founded a children's hostel with his content primary school, men's (1st category) and women's (2nd category) agricultural schools (with a subsidy from the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property), orphanage and the Holy Cross Labor Brotherhood (the brotherhood’s charter was approved in 1894; there were 65 members by January 1, 1897). In agricultural schools, which serve as the “cradle” of the brotherhood, “pupil-workers” and “student-workers” are accepted from the age of 13; the first comprise two fraternal circles (senior and junior). The purpose of the brotherhood is to take care of the Christian upbringing of children, to harmonize, if possible, the entire structure of life with the spirit of the Christian faith and to contribute to the orderliness of life outside the brotherhood. The main management of the brotherhood is in the hands of full members living within the boundaries of its activities. All those who graduate from school join the brotherhood and become primarily either teachers or tenants of N.'s lands. N. also pursues the principle of fraternal unity and strictly Christian life in his writings. The main ones: “Conscience” (M., 1881), “Thoughts and advice from a sincere friend” (St. Petersburg, 1882), “Daily Bread” (St. Petersburg, 1883), “What is truth” (Leipzig, 1893), "Biblical Blagovest", "Labor Brotherhoods" and "Brotherly Unions" (Leipzig, 1893), "Christian Worldview" (Berlin, 1895), "Vozdvizhenskaya School - the Cradle of Labor Brotherhood" (St. Petersburg, 1894). N. also wrote several musical pieces(prayers, songs without words, pieces for singing and piano).

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