Persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century. Persecution of the Church in the first half of the 20th century in the USSR Persecution of Orthodoxy
The history of the Church during the Soviet period is full of dramatic and tragic moments; it is a history of struggle and coexistence.
From the first days of the victory of the Bolshevik revolution, Orthodox hierarchs faced a difficult choice: to begin open spiritual resistance to the atheistic state or to try to get along with the new government, despite all its hostility. The choice was made in favor of the second, but this did not mean complete submission. During the Civil War, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church repeatedly made angry protests against certain actions of the Soviet government. For example, the shameful Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the execution of the Royal Family were publicly condemned.
On January 19, 1918, with the approval of the Local Council, Patriarch Tikhon issued his famous Message anathema to the “madmen” who commit “bloody massacres,” although the perpetrators were not directly named.
However, the same Tikhon said “The Church recognizes and supports Soviet power, for there is no power not from God” (“Acts of Patriarch Tikhon”, M. 1994, p. 296).
During the Civil War, thousands of clergy became victims of the Red Terror.
In 1921, a campaign began to confiscate the property of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Confiscation of church valuables, 1921: 
Confiscated miters, 1921: 
On January 2, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution “On the liquidation of church property.” On February 23, 1922, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee published a decree in which it ordered local Soviets “... to withdraw from church property transferred for the use of groups of believers of all religions, according to inventories and contracts, all precious objects made of gold, silver and stones, the withdrawal of which cannot significantly affect the interests of the cult itself, and transfer it to the People’s Commissariat of Finance to help the starving.”
In June 1922, a public trial began in the Philharmonic building in Petrograd in the case of the clergy’s resistance to the seizure of church valuables: 
The tribunal sentenced 10 people to death, including Metropolitan Veniamin of Petrograd and Gdov, Archimandrite Sergius (Shein), lawyer I. M. Kovsharov and professor Yu. P. Novitsky. They were charged with “dissemination of ideas directed against the Soviet government’s decree on the confiscation of church values, with the aim of causing popular unrest to implement a united front with the international bourgeoisie against the Soviet regime.” The All-Russian Central Executive Committee upheld the death sentence against them, replacing six executions with imprisonment. Other convicts received various terms of imprisonment (from one month to 5 years), 26 people were acquitted. On the night of August 12-13, 1922, the sentence against four convicts was carried out (see "Petrograd Trial of 1922" on Wiki).
Closing of the Simonov Monastery. Red Army soldiers carry out church valuables from a ruined monastery. 1923: 
Analysis of looted church valuables in Gokhran. Photo 1921 or 1922
:
Sorting of seized valuable items, 1926: 
Although the mass closure of churches began only in the late 1920s, by the middle of this decade many of them were “repurposed” for Soviet needs.
Workers' Club, 1924: 
Of particular note is the anti-bell campaign. Since 1930, bell ringing was officially prohibited. Throughout the USSR, bells were thrown from bell towers and sent to be melted down “for the needs of industrialization”: 
Around 1929, the most tragic period of the anti-church campaign began - the mass closure of churches, and then their mass destruction.
Demolition of St. Nicholas in Kharkov: 
A symbolic milestone was the destruction of the memorial Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow in December 1931: 
Irkutsk Cathedral during demolition, 1932: 
Demolition of the Church of the Vladimir Mother of God at the Vladimir Gate in Moscow, 1934: 
Demolition of the Church of Dmitry Solunsky in Moscow, 1934: 
According to an unspoken order, at least half of the churches in each city were subject to complete demolition, most of the rest were beheaded and rebuilt for secular needs.
The peak of the demolition bacchanalia occurred in 1935-1938, i.e. practically coincided in time with the Great Terror, during which tens of thousands of clergy were exterminated and sent to camps.
Catherine's Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo, 1938: 
On the eve of the war, the Church in the USSR was on the verge of complete destruction. In many large cities there was only one functioning temple.
Heavy defeats in the first months of the Great Patriotic War forced the Soviet leadership to dramatically change its policy towards the Church, as this was necessary to maintain the morale of the population and soldiers. In a short time, thousands of churches reopened, clergy began to participate in public life, and raised funds for the construction of military equipment. And some of the priests defended their homeland with weapons in their hands.
The commander of the 5th Leningrad Partisan Brigade, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Konstantin Dionisievich Karitsky presents Fedor Puzanov with a medal: 
Father Fyodor Puzanov in battle formation: 
Archpriest Alexander Romanushko with fellow partisans: 
On September 8, 1943, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church was elected for the first time in Soviet times.
Procession of the Cross on May 9, 1945 in Stavropol: 
At the Victory Parade, 1945: 
In the post-war years, during Stalin's life, these strengthened positions of the Church were preserved. The latter, in turn, responded with complete loyalty to the Soviet government and actively participated in all its propaganda activities, incl. foreign policy.
Conference of religious associations of the USSR for the defense of peace in Zagorsk, May 1952: 
Believers were urged to tirelessly pray for the leader’s health, especially during his illness.
At Stalin's tomb, March 1953: 
The latest wave of persecution of the church began under Khrushchev, a fanatical atheist who declared that “we will not take the church with us into communism.” In the early 1960s, thousands of churches were closed again and many hundreds were destroyed, including outstanding architectural monuments.
Horses in an abandoned temple, 1960s: 
Under Brezhnev, the situation in the USSR finally stabilized. It was an existence within a kind of social reservation under the close control of the KGB.
At a banquet in honor of the 60th anniversary of October, 1977: 
Over the past two decades, about 2,000 martyrs and confessors have been canonized.
The Church is always persecuted. Persecution is the law of Her life in history. Christ said: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36); “If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20).
After relative peace in the Russian Empire, the best people of the Church sensed the coming suffering. “General immorality prepares for apostasy on a huge scale... Today’s ascetics are given the path of sorrows, external and internal...” wrote St. Ignatius Brianchaninov several decades before the revolution.
S.I. Fudel noted that 60% of students at the imperial school graduated with knowledge of only the Old Testament. That was the program. The New Testament was taught only in high school, where many children no longer attended because they had to work. Most people before the revolution did not know Christ at all. Holy Rus' was dying from within; before the First World War, mass suicides among young people and sexual corruption of the masses were recorded. There was a sense of spiritual distress in everything. The spiritual desiccation was noticed and warned of impending trouble by the bearers of holiness in the 19th – early 20th centuries. Seraphim of Sarov, Ambrose of Optina, John of Kronstadt and others, thinkers F. Dostoevsky, V. Solovyov predicted fierce times. Barsanuphius of Optina said: “...Yes, mind you, the Colosseum was destroyed, but not destroyed. The Colosseum, you remember, is a theater where... the blood of Christian martyrs flowed like a river. Hell is also destroyed, but not destroyed, and the time will come when it will make itself known. So the Colosseum, perhaps, will soon begin to roar again, it will be reopened. You will live to see these times..."; “Mark my words, you will see the day of cruelty.” And again I repeat that you have nothing to fear, the grace of God will cover you.”
The “day of cruelty” came four years after the death of St. Barsanuphius.
The martyrdom of the Church began with the murder of the priest’s own son in front of his eyes. John Kochurov, then followed the terrible murder in Kyiv of Metropolitan. Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky). At the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917–1918, where the patriarchate was restored for the first time in 200 years, Metropolitan. The 85th act was dedicated to Vladimir. Many were perplexed as to why they could kill a ruler who led a righteous life; at that time they did not yet understand that one could be killed precisely because of a righteous life.
“The pure and honest, church-minded, truthful, humble Metropolitan Vladimir immediately grew in the eyes of believers through his martyrdom, and his death, like all life, without pose and phrase, cannot pass without a trace. It will be a redeeming suffering, and a call, and an incitement to repentance,” the future smch wrote at that time. John Vostorgov.
During the first half of 1918, a series of murders of the clergy swept across the entire territory under the control of the Bolsheviks: His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon on March 31 served an amazing funeral Liturgy for 15 martyrs, by that time known. The first to be remembered was Met. Vladimir. Concelebrating with His Holiness were those many of whom were also destined to become martyrs.
The Bolsheviks called Patriarch Tikhon enemy of Soviet power No. 1, he deprived the repressive bodies of political “grounds” for arrests, since he was the first to declare: “Priests, by their rank, must stand above and beyond all political interests, must remember the canonical rules of the Holy Church, which it prohibits their servants to interfere in the political life of the country.” At the highest church level, it was shown that believers are exterminated in camps and prisons or without trial not for political, but for godless reasons.
Already at this time, from the lips of the Patriarch and priests there is a call to be faithful to God until death. “You, the flock, must form the squad next to the shepherds that is obliged to fight in pan-church unity for the faith and the Church. There is an area - the area of faith and the Church, where we, shepherds, must be prepared for torment and suffering, must burn with the desire for confession and martyrdom. John Vostorgov. Apparently, a feeling of imminent torment hovered in the atmosphere. Sschmch. Nikolai (Probatov) wrote about the situation in the army in 1917: “Priests are no longer needed here, they are now rather inhabitants of Heaven than of earth.”
On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the Royal Family was executed in the basement of Ipatiev’s house in Yekaterinburg. The Bolsheviks only reported in the press about the execution of Tsar Nicholas II. Only later A.V. Kolchak conducted an investigation and discovered that the entire Royal Family had been killed. The cathedral adopted a resolution to serve a memorial service for the murdered everywhere, realizing that this could be followed by reprisals.
Terror was officially declared in the summer of 1918 - the murders of bishops, priesthood, monasticism and the most active laity began.
The victims of the Red Terror prompted His Holiness the Patriarch to issue a menacing message on the anniversary of the October Revolution. In terms of the depth of its insight into the future, it covered all subsequent years of persecution, showing the atheistic face of the Soviet government.
The Patriarch-Confessor wrote: “They execute bishops, priests, monks and nuns who are not guilty of anything, but simply on sweeping accusations of some vague and indefinite counter-revolution.<…>Hiding behind various names of indemnities, requisitions and nationalization, you pushed him into the most open and shameless robbery.<…>Having seduced the dark and ignorant people with the possibility of easy and unpunished profit, you have clouded their conscience and drowned out the consciousness of sin in them... You promised freedom... Freedom is a great good, if it is correctly understood as freedom from evil, not constraining others, not turning into arbitrariness and self-will. But you didn’t give such and such freedom<…>Not a day goes by without the most monstrous slander against the Church of Christ and its servants, vicious blasphemies and blasphemies being published in your press.<…>You closed a number of monasteries and house churches, without any reason or reason.<…>We are going through a terrible time of your rule, and for a long time it will not be erased from the people’s soul, darkening the image of God in it and imprinting on it the image of the beast.”
They fought against God through all the mechanisms of state bodies; power by nature was anti-God. Let us outline the system of persecution:
1. Anti-church laws.
2. Artificial creation of a renovationist schism.
3. Propaganda of godlessness.
4. Underground work.
5. Open repression.
Anti-Church laws in the first years after the revolution
Let us present some anti-Church laws for a general understanding of the direction of legislative creativity of the “popular” authorities in relation to the Church.
In 1917, the decree “On Land” was issued, according to which all property was taken away from the Church.
At the beginning of 1918, a decree “On the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church” was issued. His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon addresses the authorities and the people on January 19, 1918 through the private press: “The most severe persecution has been brought against the Holy Church of Christ: The gracious sacraments that sanctify the birth of a person or bless the marital union of a Christian family are openly declared unnecessary, holy temples are either destroyed by gunfire, or robbed and blasphemously insulted, holy monasteries revered by the believing people are seized by the godless rulers of the darkness of this age and declared some kind of supposedly national property; schools that were supported by the funds of the Orthodox Church and trained pastors of the church and teachers of the faith are recognized as unnecessary. The property of Orthodox monasteries and churches is taken away under the pretext that it is the people’s property, but without any right and even without the desire to take into account the legitimate will of the people themselves...” This statement spread throughout the state.
"1. The decree on the separation of Church and state issued by the Council of People's Commissars represents, under the guise of a law on freedom of conscience, a malicious attack on the entire system of life of the Orthodox Church and an act of open persecution against it.
2. Any participation both in the publication of this legislation hostile to the Church, and in attempts to implement it, is incompatible with belonging to the Orthodox Church and brings upon the guilty persons punishment up to and including excommunication from the Church (in accordance with the 73rd canon of the saints and the 13th canon of the VII Ecumenical Council )".
At the end of April 1918, newspapers reported on the local implementation of the Decree on the separation of Church and state, which would become a touching page in the history of pastors and flocks: “Greetings are being received from various places in the name of the All-Russian Patriarch with an expression of readiness to provide support in that feat of the cross, to to whom the Bishop-Patriarch calls upon the faithful sons of the Church. Parishioners sharply criticized the decree and interpreted it as open persecution of the Orthodox Church. Meetings in cities and villages of clergy and laity pronounced a verdict that all the people following them were ready for the feat of the cross, proclaimed by the patriarch.”
During the implementation of the decree, the relics were opened and desecrated in order to undermine the authority of the Church in broad public circles. At the same time, new decrees were issued: on compulsory labor service for priests and “on the postponement of services in connection with work” (any Easter Sunday can be abolished by declaring a labor Sunday).
The life of confessor Afanasy (Sakharov) tells us a stunning story: “In 1919, for propaganda purposes, the so-called demonstration of the revealed relics to the people took place: they were put on public display in the nude. To stop the abuse, the Vladimir clergy established a watch. The first person on duty is Hierom. Afanasy. People crowded around the temple. When the doors opened, Fr. Athanasius proclaimed: “Blessed is our God...”, in response he heard: “Amen” - and a prayer service to the saints of Vladimir began. People entering reverently crossed themselves, bowed and placed candles at the relics. Thus, the supposed desecration of shrines turned into solemn glorification.”
In 1920, two decrees were issued: the first prohibited bishops from moving priests without the permission of a group of believers - the so-called. twenty, and the second, openly anti-God, “On the liquidation of relics.”
The Church also gave many martyrs in 1922 with the decree “On the confiscation of church valuables for the benefit of the hungry”: at that time 8 thousand clergy were shot.
Among other things, already during this period, churches began to be subject to exorbitant taxes: incredibly expensive insurance, tax on choristers, income tax (up to 80%), which led to their inevitable closure. In case of non-payment of taxes, the property of clergy was confiscated, and they themselves were evicted to other regions of the USSR.
Artificial creation of a renovationist schism
As part of the plan to destroy faith in church circles, the authorities initiated a split in the “Living Church,” or “renovationists.” All the dissatisfied clergy and laity gathered. Some near- and non-church intellectuals sought, in the words of one author of those years, “to save the Church, instead of being saved in the Church themselves.” The schismatics became the executioners of the Orthodox Church. It was they who often pointed to the zealous clergy, which the authorities destroyed, wrote denunciations and were accusers, and seized churches.
L. Trotsky, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) on March 20, 1922, proposed “to create a split in the clergy, showing a decisive initiative in this regard and taking under the protection of state power those priests who openly advocate the confiscation of church values.” The schism was created and supported by the authorities; people called them “red priests”, “living churchmen”. By 1922, they occupied up to 70% of the churches of the entire Russian Church. In Odessa there is only one church where St. served. righteous Jonah did not belong to them. After the return of many renovationists to the Church (after 1923 and beyond), they became a stronghold of the agents of the GPU (KGB). The traitors were often feignedly “repentant” schismatics who introduced their own leaven into the church dough.
In the memoirs of that time we find examples of the closure of churches through renovationists: “Representatives of renovationism came to the Orthodox church with an order from the authorities to transfer the temple to twenty of them. This is how Vvedensky settled down. Soon the temple, which fell into the hands of the renovationists, was closed.”
The schismatics advocated for the “renewal” of the Church. Their plan included:
– revision of dogmas, where, in their opinion, capitalism and neoplatonism reign;
– a change in the understanding of the Last Judgment, heaven and hell as moral rather than real concepts;
– supplementing the doctrine of the creation of the world with information that everything was created with the participation of the forces of nature (materialistic concept);
– expulsion of the spirit of slavery from the Church;
– declaring capitalism a mortal sin.
The church canons planned:
– introduction of new rules and cancellation of the Book of Rules;
– dissemination of the opinion that each parish is, first of all, a labor commune.
Propaganda of godlessness
Mockery of religion was actively introduced into the education of Soviet people. In the lives of many new martyrs we read about ridicule and mockery associated with wearing priestly clothing and a cross (for example, see the life of the martyr Jacob (Maskaev)). In addition, anti-religious newspapers were published in millions of copies: “The Atheist”, “The Atheist at the Machine”, “The Godless Crocodile”, “Anti-Religious”. Anti-religious museums were created that shocked the whole world with their blasphemy (naked holy relics, the body of an undecomposed counterfeiter found in the basement, and a mummified rat were placed in the same row). Everything together created a picture, thanks to which, according to the authorities, they were supposed to forget about God.
“Behind the enlightened mockery of Orthodox priests, the meowing of Komsomol members on Easter night and the whistling of thieves during transit, we overlooked the fact that the sinful Orthodox Church nevertheless raised daughters worthy of the first centuries of Christianity - sisters of those who were thrown into the arenas to the lions.” , wrote A.I. Solzhenitsyn in the famous “GULAG Archipelago”.
Underground work
Nowadays, instructions are known about creating an agent network among the clergy. The texts demonstrate the seriousness of intentions regarding the destruction of the Church. Here are a few excerpts:
“The task at hand is difficult to accomplish... to successfully conduct business and attract the clergy to cooperation, it is necessary to get acquainted with the spiritual world, find out the character of bishops and priests... understand ambition and their weaknesses. It is possible that the priests will quarrel with the bishop, like a soldier with a general.”
Since 1922, the Sixth Department of the Secret Department of the GPU was created, which set the goal of disintegrating the Church. This department, in various modifications, but with one task - to destroy or discredit the Church, was headed by the odious personalities E. A. Tuchkov, G. G. Karpov, V. A. Kuroyedov.
In the early 20s, sixty commissioners with assignments from Tuchkov went to dioceses to persuade priests and bishops to convert to renovationism. A network of agents is being created to attract clergy to the Living Church.
In the 70s in the USSR, the idea of underground struggle remained tenacious, as in the first years of the revolution: “There are criminals who pose a serious threat to security... But they undermine our system. At first glance (they) look completely safe. But make no mistake! They spray their poison among the people. They are poisoning our children with false teachings. Killers and criminals work openly. But these are sneaky and smart. The people will be poisoned spiritually. These people I’m talking about are “religious” - believers” (Sergei Kurdakov. Forgive me, Natasha).
Open repression
As already mentioned, terror was officially declared in the summer of 1918 - the “official” murders of bishops, priests, and believers had already begun.
“We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class. During the investigation, do not look for materials and evidence that the accused acted against the Soviet regime. The first question is what class does he belong to, what is his origin, what is his profession. These questions should determine the fate of the accused” (Chekist Latsis M. Ya. Newspaper “Red Terror” (Kazan)).
The methods of torture used in the Cheka could compete with the torture of pagans during the first centuries of Christianity. The head of the Kharkov security officers, S. Sayenko, smashed the heads of his victims with weights of one pound; in the basements of the Cheka, many remains of human bodies were found with the skin removed from the hands, severed limbs, crucified on the floor. In Sevastopol they drowned them, in the Urals and Siberia they crucified them on crosses, in Omsk they ripped open the bellies of pregnant women, in Poltava they impaled them...
In Odessa, “hostages” were thrown alive into steam boilers and fried in a ship’s oven. According to the recollections of Odessa residents, priests were drowned in the area of the Polytechnic University, and seminarians were shot and drowned on the seashore opposite the 1st station of B. Fontana and the seminary, where is now the Agrarian University, at which the Odessa seminary consecrated the temple of the new martyrs and confessors.
Every day those who were the affirmation of the Church were taken away. In the resolutions of the All-Russian Local Council we find rules according to which a community that has lost a church gathers around its shepherd and performs services in their homes and apartments. In populated areas where the flock did not rise up to defend their shepherd, the Council decided not to send a priest anymore.
Repressed clergy of the Odessa region from 1931–1945.
Newspaper statements of those years directly called for hatred: “It is already clear to everyone that the music of the bells is the music of the counter-revolution... Now that the investigation is underway, when work teams are leaving for the area, all measures must be taken to burn out the hornet’s nest of the kulaks with a hot iron, priests and kulaks. The iron hand of the proletarian dictatorship will severely punish those who harm our socialist construction.”
With the beginning of collectivization in 1929, a new round of persecution appeared. This time they affected the villages more; church life in the village had to disappear. In 1929, changes were made to Art. 4 of the Constitution of the USSR, which declares freedom of religious practice and anti-religious propaganda. Unbelief can be preached, but faith can only be professed, which in practice meant a ban on talking about God, visiting houses with services, and ringing bells.
40 thousand people from the clergy were arrested, 5 thousand of them were shot. By 1928, there were 28,500 churches left (this is half the number compared to 1917).
Prot. Gleb Kaleda recalls: “In 1929, I asked my mother a question: “Mom, why is everyone arrested, but we are not arrested?” - this is the child’s impression. The mother replied: “And we are not worthy to suffer for Christ.” All my first five confessors died there, in prisons and camps: some were shot, some died from torture and disease. In 1931, there was a conversation between the mother and one of the girls from the community, Fr. Vasily Nadezhdin. She said: “How I envy those who are there, in prison. They suffer for Christ.” The mother said: “Do you know that those who dream of being arrested for their faith and end up there, they [and from the experience of the first centuries] more often renounce Christ and experience arrest more difficult than those who tried by hook or by crook to avoid arrest . This was the case in the first centuries.”
In 1931, the OGPU stated: “Religious organizations are the only legally operating counter-revolutionary organization that has influence on the masses...”. Arrests, torture and executions of believers continued.
“The radical destruction of religion in this country, which throughout the 20s and 30s was one of the important goals of the GPU-NKVD, could only be achieved by mass arrests of Orthodox believers themselves. Monks and nuns, who had so denigrated former Russian life, were intensively confiscated, imprisoned and exiled. Church assets were arrested and tried. The circles kept expanding - and now they were simply rowing lay believers, old people, especially women who believed more stubbornly and who were now also called nuns during transfers and in camps for many years” (A.I. Solzhenitsyn. The Gulag Archipelago).
In the early 30s, the Union of Militant Atheists, founded in 1925, consisted of about 6 million people, and there were 50 anti-religious museums. This organization bore the imprint of party work. In 1932, a congress of the organization of atheists took place, at which it was decided to declare the second five-year plan the “five-year period of atheism.” It was planned: in the first year to close all theological schools (at that time only the Renovationists remained); in the second - to close churches and stop the production of religious products; in the third, send the clergy abroad (that is, beyond the border of freedom to camps); in the fourth - to close all churches, in the fifth - to consolidate the achieved successes; in 1937 - to shoot 85 thousand, most of whom by that time were in camps and exile.
In 1937, not a single bishop was ordained, but 50 were executed. Since 1934, there has not been a single monastery in the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the census on January 7, 1937 (on Christmas Day) showed that the faith was not wrested from the people, 56.7-57% considered themselves believers, 2/3 of the rural population (most of the scientists who conducted the census were shot). On July 3, 1937, Stalin signed a decree on mass executions and on carrying out cases of those sentenced to execution by administrative order, through “troikas”. The time had come for mass merciless persecution, when local NKVD authorities were required to draw up certificates for all clergy and believers for their subsequent arrest.
Statistics of repressions from 1937 to 1941.
The arrests and executions of 1937 had just ended when, on January 31, 1938, the Politburo of the Central Committee made a new decision - “to approve an additional number of those subject to repression... in order to complete the entire operation... no later than March 15, 1938.”
The clergy, their relatives, as well as laity who carried out church obedience or regularly attended church were repressed. This was the genocide of the Russian Orthodox Church, the destruction of the clergy and believers as a class. Patriarchate under Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) was the legal body of the illegal Church - the churches were managed by the “twenties”, which were subordinate not to the Patriarchate, but to the People’s Commissar for Religious Affairs.
The martyrdom of the Russian Church: by 1941, 125 thousand were killed for their faith, this is 89% of the clergy of 1917.
By 1941, there were only 100 to 200 active churches left in the USSR, if you do not include the liberated territories of Western Ukraine and Bessarabia. The next five-year plan ended in 1942, it was planned to destroy all religious organizations.
Temples were closed, but catacomb (underground) Churches and monasteries appeared, operating from home. The place where believers lived became a temple. In the biography of St. Sevastian of Karaganda we find information that every day before the start of the working day he served in different parts of the city in different dugouts and huts. This was all done secretly, trying not to leave any traces for state investigation agencies.
The persecution was terrifying, but for believers it was a ladder with which they walked to the Lord into the Kingdom of Heaven. The path was upward, which is why difficulties arose to the point of exhaustion. A warrior of Christ risks and strains every minute, especially if the Lord has destined him to live in times of persecution. The new martyrs invariably called for love and patience: “Be patient, don’t get irritated, and most importantly, don’t get angry. You can never destroy evil with evil, you can never drive it out. It is afraid only of love, afraid of goodness.”
In preparing to take the priesthood at that time, a person was also preparing for trials. Many took the priesthood and became martyrs. To be ordained at this time was the beginning of Calvary. The priesthood shared the same bunks with the believing people and died in the same camp hospitals. All ministers are our relatives and our saints. Holy new martyrs and confessors, pray to God for us!
Priest Andrey Gavrilenko
Note:
1. It is necessary to take into account that out of 132 repressed, 23 were convicted twice, and 6 three times. At the same time, Bessarabia, i.e. almost half of the Odessa region, until the summer of 1940.
This year we will celebrate our centenary anniversary. Exactly one hundred years ago, terrible and fatal events took place in the history of our Motherland that changed the entire course of world history. We are talking about a coup d'etat - the February and October revolutions of 1917. During these revolutions, first the bourgeois Provisional Government and then the Bolshevik Communist Party came to power in the Russian Empire.
Consequences of the revolution
Until now, historians are “breaking their spears” in the debate about the role of the revolution in the development of civil society in Russia, but they are all unanimous in one thing - people who hated their people, their land and their culture came to power. By the will of God, Russia turned out to be a platform for an unprecedented political experiment called communism. And along with communist ideology, atheism was implanted in the minds of ordinary people - a complete denial of any religion.
And naturally, the first law of the new government was a decree on the separation of Church from state and, accordingly, church from school. This decree marked the beginning of almost seventy years of persecution of the Orthodox Church. The persecution of the church itself can be divided into several historical stages.
Immediately after the revolution, churches began to close and priests were subjected to repression. An internecine civil war began. Under these conditions, a Local Council is being held in Moscow, which elected St. Tikhon (Belavin) Patriarch. This Council was of great importance for the Russian Orthodox Church. We will return to the issues raised at this Council later.
The newly arrived government tried to destroy the church physically, filling it with blood. But the Bolsheviks did not understand that the Church is, first of all, a mystical body, founded and standing on the blood of martyrs. Faced with fierce local resistance from the people, the government temporarily weakened the onslaught and directed all its efforts to solving military problems in the fight against the White Guards.
Hunger
After the end of the civil war in 1922, the country suffered a terrible famine. Under this pretext, the Bolshevik government organizes the confiscation of church valuables for the starving. The communists' calculation was quite simple. Russian Orthodox people donated all their best to the temple; the splendor of temples was considered one of the highest virtues. Using this love for the temple, as well as the discontent of the hungry masses, the Bolsheviks decided to pit them against each other.
Using hunger as a cover, they set out to destroy and devastate the temples, and destroy the priests and active laity. IN AND. Lenin directly wrote in a secret note to members of the Politburo that “the more we destroy the clergy, the better”.
GULAG
The next wave of persecution occurred in 1929-1931. It was at this time that the Union of Militant Atheists was created, as well as the Gulag, in which most of the imprisoned bishops and priests died. On the bookshelves there is a wonderful book about the priest’s time in the dungeons of the camp. It is called "Father Arseny". Of course, it is advisable for every Christian to read it. And Alexander Solzhenitsyn even has a book with the same name "GULAG Archipelago".
Repression
In 1937-1938 the clergy were subjected to repression as part of trumped-up cases of espionage, anti-government conspiracy, and anti-Soviet agitation. This was the worst persecution of the church during the entire period of the existence of the Soviet Union. It was this period of history that gave our church a whole host of new martyrs.
By 1938, two-thirds of the total number of churches that existed in 1934 were closed. According to the research of the prominent modern church historian Abbot Damaskin (Orlovsky), of the more than 75,000 churches and chapels that existed in 1914, by the end of 1939 only 100 remained.
The Great Patriotic War
During the Great Patriotic War, the pressure on the church eased, seeing its influence on the spirit of the soldiers. With the donations of believers, an entire tank column was created under the name “Dmitry Donskoy.” In 1943, the Soviet government opened churches, returned priests from exile, and even allowed the opening of theological courses in Moscow at the Novodevichy Convent.
An interesting dialogue took place between Joseph Stalin and the Patriarch. When asked by Stalin why there is a shortage of clergy in the church, the Patriarch replied that we train clergy in seminaries, and they become General Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee. By the way, Stalin graduated from the Tiflis Theological Seminary.
New persecution
After the death of I.V. Stalin, during the reign of N.S. Khrushchev's persecution of the Orthodox Church resumed. The Soviet Union became the winner in the Great Patriotic War, liberated Europe from fascism, launched the first man into space, and restored the economy in a short time. It has become one of the most advanced countries on the planet. Therefore, all foreign tourists were assured that the persecution in the USSR that existed before the war had stopped. But the persecution did not stop; it simply took on a different, more sophisticated form.
Now the efforts of the Soviet government began to be aimed at discrediting the priesthood and the highest hierarchs of the church. It tried in every possible way to place “loyal” people in significant church positions, who would not be able to zealously defend the interests of the church. The institutions of commissioners for religious affairs were introduced. Their responsibility was to approve all movements and appointments within the church.
One day my confessor told me an episode from that time. He was a dean and a policeman he knew called him. He asked to pick up a certain priest from a restaurant. He said that a certain drunken priest in a cassock and with a cross, surrounded by girls of dubious behavior, was rowdy in the restaurant. Having arrived at the place, we saw that this “priest” was clearly an impostor, the priest’s clothes and the cross looked so awkward on him. When they tried to talk to him, “people in civilian clothes” came up and politely asked him to leave the premises. “With such actions the KGB caused more harm to the church than all the institutions of atheism combined,” he concluded bitterly.
The authorities obtained from the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church the “voluntary” closure of entire dioceses “due to the lack of believers.” Clubs were organized at existing monasteries and Lavras. During services, dances were held with loud music, and a boarding school for the insane was located in the Pochaev Lavra, in the cells of the fraternal corps and in the monastery hospital.
You can give a lot of different examples, but one thing is obvious - an attempt to destroy the church as a social phenomenon. Decades passed, the tactics of destruction changed, but the goal remained the same - if not completely destroy, then force the church to be a servant of momentary political moments.
Indeed, it is difficult for a non-believer to understand with a rational mind how, after such repressions, executions, exiles, the church is still alive. It seems that Anthony of Sourozh wrote that “the church should be powerless like Christ.” Christ was also powerless. Powerlessness lay in that sacrificial love when He, hanging on the cross, prayed for those crucifying. And this is His strength.
This is how the church should be powerless, and only appeal to people like a mother. And wait, wait patiently and hope, not paying attention to the imaginary power and material benefits of the momentary political moment. The head of our Church is Christ. He invisibly controls the church, so we have nothing to fear. The church was founded on the blood of martyrs. And the new martyrs and confessors of Russia are a clear example of this.
We will talk about them and their feat in the next article.
If you want to understand more deeply the topic of persecution of the Orthodox Church, pay attention to the following books -
(on the anniversary of the publication of the “Church and Public Bulletin” - a special supplement to the newspaper “Russian Thought”)
“IF THERE IS NO GOD, THEN EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED”
The title on the cover of this book may seem like a clear exaggeration and even a deliberate escalation of passions. But this is only at first glance. The authors of the analytical note accurately captured the processes developing with incredible speed in our country. If just two or three years ago, attacks in the press on the Church were a clear manifestation of the ignorant ideas of journalists writing on this topic (“The Patriarch addressed the believers with a welcoming akathist”), now they are acquiring their ideological basis and clear focus.
The atheistically minded part of Russians, as well as those who, perhaps, recognize themselves as believers, but see in the Church nothing more than a social structure uniting people with a common worldview, suddenly became afraid of the revival and strengthening of Orthodoxy in Russia, its significant role in public life. In the Russian Orthodox Church, many saw their “freedoms” limited. And in this reproach they were partly right. Christianity sets value guidelines for society that do not correspond to what millions of people strive for and do day and night, at work and at home, during study and on vacation.
It turned out that Christianity sharply limits the activity of all lawlessness and disorder, narrows the opportunities for those who exist according to the laws of their proud consciousness and “worldly” lies, who live “without a king in their head,” who worship idols, no matter what sonorous names they bear: “democracy” or “monarchism”, “new thinking” or “human rights”, “glasnost” or “freedom of creativity”. Any idea that is not illuminated by the light of Christ is ultimately doomed. The further we are from the light source, the less visible the dirt on our body is. It is always more profitable for someone to live in the shadows, it is more comfortable not to notice stains on their clothes, it is easier to exist rather than live without ever thinking about God or their neighbor. There is nothing more hateful than sunlight for those who spend most of their time underground...
The history of persecution of Christians in all centuries has had the same basis, and the methods of combating them have always been similar. Any persecution began with slander. In the first centuries in the Roman Empire, the lie was intensively spread among the people that Christians feed on blood and for this they slaughter babies, whom they first coat with flour, and at their secret meetings they indulge in disgusting debauchery. Roman rulers were always looking for an opportunity to accuse Christians of antisocial and antistate acts.
Historians of the Christian Church have noted an interesting detail - Christianity has always been opposed by the intelligentsia. In the Roman era, many of them, although they were against the bloody persecution of Christians, were not against the destruction of Christianity itself. The famous historian of the Church at the end of the last century V.V. Bolotov devoted an entire chapter to the question of the attitude of the Roman intelligentsia to Christianity. Some of the professor’s arguments are very relevant today: that Christianity as a “kingdom not of this world” was incompatible with the Roman culture, which was deified to the point of idolatry; and that the overly politicized Romans saw Christians who were apolitical and indifferent to “public activities” as a challenge to Roman democracy; and that the opposition of Christians to paganism was perceived as a rebellion against state interests.
The “freedom-loving” Roman intelligentsia from time to time watched the persecution of Christians with indifference and apathy. Sometimes she weakly protested against particularly cruel measures, and sometimes, with theoretical justifications for the harm of Christianity for morality, the development of culture and science, she herself provoked these persecutions.
How similar this is to the behavior of the Russian intelligentsia in the twentieth century! The physical extermination of half a million priests and millions of believers in the 20-30s was accompanied by anti-religious poems by V. Mayakovsky and D. Bedny, films by D. Vertov and S. Eisenstein, novels and plays by the “best” Soviet writers. The creative intelligentsia even managed not to notice the surge of Khrushchev’s persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church at the turn of the 50s and 60s. At a time when thousands of churches and dozens of monasteries were closed, hundreds of clergy were arrested and sent to camps on false charges, the liberal intelligentsia reveled in the ideas of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party and praised socialism with a “human face.” Until now, it is those who demand repentance from the Church who remember the times of the “thaw” as the era of the heyday of democratization.
No persecutors of Christians of the past could achieve the results that the Bolsheviks achieved. In addition to the usual methods - vilification, discredit, slander, denunciations, arrests, torture, closed and vice versa “show” trials, imprisonment, hard labor, executions, etc. - the communists used the most sophisticated and effective way of fighting believers: decomposing the Church from within, encouraging a variety of schismatic tendencies within church society, provoking any unrest.
However, in the early 90s, it seemed that our society would never return to those dark times. However, the roots of Bolshevism turned out to be very strong and, in spite of everything, constantly make themselves felt in the minds of our compatriots. Again, as in the 20s, neo-renovationists are trying to split the Church under the guise of “church reforms.” There is no need to even say that the liberal intelligentsia, far from the Church and church problems, enthusiastically accepted the new renovationists, instinctively feeling in them like-minded people in their “disagreements” with Christianity, and in all discussions they stand up in their defense. Again, as in the times of five-year plans and the “triumphant procession,” streams of lies and slander against the Church are pouring from the stands and from the pages of the press. The intelligentsia, at best, silently observes this undignified persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church and its clergy, unfolding on the pages of the democratic press.
At the forefront of this slander campaign (in addition to outright satanic publications, such as the “Organ of the Russian Satanic Church of the Luciferian Faith”, which publish blasphemous “gospels” from “Vitkov” or from “Lilith”) are two newspapers - “Moskovsky Komsomolets” and “Russian Thought” " In relation to the Church and coverage of church problems, they are mostly like-minded. Sometimes, based on the topic, content and style, it is impossible to tell which newspaper you are reading (“Prophetic Oleg Stenyaev” - this is, for example, the Komsomol sneering name for an article in “Russian Thought” about a famous Moscow priest). It is no coincidence that “MK” is mentioned in one of the sociological studies next to “RM” as the most read newspaper among radio listeners of the renovationist and pro-Catholic “Christian Church and Public Channel” (“Dia-Logos”, 1997, p. 141).
The apotheosis of the slanderous and blasphemous publications of “MK” was the material entitled “Thomaida the Warrior” (01.10.97), which talks about the decision of the “gathering of men” regarding the transfer to one of the Moscow convents of several ponds, once taken from the Church: “She will seize our ponds - will get a pitchfork in the side!” What follows is a promising comment from a Komsomol journalist, who with his article defends the interests of the “persecuted” men from the “dictat, narrow-mindedness, aggression” of the clergy: “Short and clear, in a rustic way, like in the good old days...”
“The head of the analytical service SYMBOL” Evgeniy Ikhlov, who published the article “The Last Temptation of the Patriarchy” (09.10.97) in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, also dreams of the same “good old days.” In it, he complains that 9 years ago they “rehabilitated Orthodoxy too hastily.” In the same newspaper, the president of the Moscow Psychotherapeutic Academy, Mikhail Buyanov, writes that in Russia “not a single writer or poet has ever said a kind word about Orthodoxy”; that in their works they constantly “made fun of these dirty, unkempt, half-drunk priests who seem smart only when they are silent”; that “a normal person will not go to church”; that the New Testament never speaks of “the self-worth of the individual”; that “the Orthodox Church, frozen in its complacency, is aloof from the main problems of Russia” (08.23.97).
In the context of this kind of aggression against the Church, one should not be surprised at the remark of Novaya Gazeta journalist Leonid Nikitinsky, who was offended by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, who “darkened” the bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ with his congratulations to “all Russians, most of whom are Orthodox.” “Who cares whether I’m Orthodox or not,” exclaims indignantly the journalist “accused” of Orthodoxy and offended by this. “Please give me the time God has given me before my death to resolve this issue on my own.” Jesus Christ was not so categorical in this regard” (N 2, 1997).
What is surprising is not that these ignorant ideas and flawed thoughts arise in certain people, what is surprising is that they are circulated by our newspapers. Sometimes opposition to Christian values and the Russian Orthodox Church on the part of atheistically minded intelligentsia and church renovationists striving for power goes beyond all boundaries of not only generally accepted morality, but even civil law. Trampling on the rights and freedoms of others, they do not notice and, by the way, will not notice in the future, as has happened more than once in history, that in the end not only ideological opponents, but all citizens of the country, including them, become victims of lawlessness and lawlessness yourself.
One of the blatant examples of not only blasphemy regarding sacred concepts for Christians and “traditional values”, but also the violation of civil rights is the article by Lev Levinson “There is no sex in Holy Rus'”, published in the human rights (?) weekly “Express-Chronicle” ( 10/18/97). The fact that Orthodox clergy and ordinary believers, horrified by widespread sexual promiscuity, are here called “obscurantists”, “gendarmes in Christ”, “professional witch hunters”, “grand inquisitors” is not so bad, but what is being propagated here for Russians’ “conscious sexual emancipation,” which turns out (as Levinson commanded) “inseparable from political, economic and ideological freedom,” is already a serious attempt to theoretically substantiate the moral lawlessness with which the disintegration of the nation begins. At the end of the article, Levinson grossly insults the feelings of Christians with a sacrilegious statement about the Virgin Mary, which I do not even dare quote. I will only say that it is based on the deeply immoral reasoning of Vasily Rozanov that “there is nothing more beautiful than young motherhood - a pregnant schoolgirl at the school board.” “Human rights activist” Levinson is lucky that, while preaching these piquant truths, he does not look directly into the eyes of millions of parents of today’s high school students...
There is one commandment that goes back to the Old Testament (“Whatever you hate, do not do to anyone” - Comrade 4:15), to ancient philosophers (Aristotle: “We should behave towards our friends in the way we would like to they behaved towards us”) and Confucius (“What you do not do to yourself, do not do to others”), but most specifically and fully expressed by Jesus Christ: “So in everything, as you want people to do to you, so do you also do to them, for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). The current legislation of many countries is based on this simple commandment: do not steal, do not commit debauchery, do not injure, do not make noise at night, do not interfere with the freedom of another, etc. The screening of the American film “The Last Temptation of Christ” on NTV on November 9, 1997 violated precisely this elementary universal rule.
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, on behalf of the multimillion-dollar Russian flock, three times asked the management of the TV channel to refrain from showing it, since the film offends the feelings of believers, destabilizes and splits society. They did not listen to the Patriarch and broadcast this, as the NTV presenter called it, “the gospel of Scorsese” (just like the outright Satanists who dare to enter into “competition” with the Holy Spirit). The management of NTV demonstrated strength: for them, society is themselves and their like-minded people, everyone else is cattle. We know from our memories how German officers were not embarrassed by prisoners and performed their “natural needs” in front of everyone - be they Russians or Jews, Poles or French: after all, prisoners are cattle...
We must clearly realize today that we live in a society in which there are sections that consider the Orthodox Church deeply hostile to them. It is they who slander it, saying that Russia is threatened by some terrible “Orthodox ideology” like the communist one, that there is a fusion of Orthodoxy and fascism in our country, that the Church is aggressive towards culture and science, that Christians are entirely anti-Semitic, and much more. All this, as the authors of the analytical study have comprehensively shown, prepares the ground for large-scale persecution of Christians. The once Russian writer F.M. Dostoevsky uttered a terrible formula: “If there is no God, then everything is permitted.” It was this moral (or rather, immoral) imperative that led human communities to a black abyss. Are we not standing on the edge of it?
Priest Vladimir VIGILYANSKY
The existing stereotypes regarding communists sometimes prevent the restoration of truth and justice on many issues. For example, it is generally accepted that Soviet power and religion are two mutually exclusive phenomena. However, there is evidence to prove the opposite.
The first years after the revolution
Since 1917, a course was taken to deprive the Russian Orthodox Church of its leading role. In particular, all churches were deprived of their lands according to the Decree on Land. However, this did not end there... In 1918, a new Decree came into force, designed to separate the church from the state and school. It would seem that this is undoubtedly a step forward on the path to building a secular state, however...
At the same time, religious organizations were deprived of the status of legal entities, as well as all buildings and structures that belonged to them. It is clear that there could no longer be any talk of any freedom in the legal and economic aspects. Further, mass arrests of clergy and persecution of believers begin, despite the fact that Lenin himself wrote that one should not offend the feelings of believers in the fight against religious prejudices.
I wonder how he imagined it?... It’s difficult to figure it out, but already in 1919, under the leadership of the same Lenin, they began to open the holy relics. Each autopsy was carried out in the presence of priests, representatives of the People's Commissariat of Justice and local authorities, and medical experts. There was even photo and video filming, but there were cases of abuse.
For example, a member of the commission spat on the skull of Savva Zvenigorodsky several times. And already in 1921-22. open robbery of churches began, which was explained by urgent social need. There was famine throughout the country, so all church utensils were confiscated in order to feed the starving people through their sale.
Church in the USSR after 1929
With the beginning of collectivization and industrialization, the issue of eradicating religion became especially acute. At this point, churches were still operating in some rural areas. However, collectivization in the countryside was to deal another devastating blow to the activities of the remaining churches and priests.
During this period, the number of arrested clergy increased threefold when compared with the years of the establishment of Soviet power. Some of them were shot, others were forever “closed” in camps. The new communist village (collective farm) was supposed to be without priests and churches.
Great Terror of 1937
As you know, in the 30s, terror affected everyone, but one cannot fail to note the particular bitterness towards the church. There are suggestions that it was caused by the fact that the 1937 census showed that more than half of the citizens in the USSR believed in God (the item on religion was deliberately included in the questionnaires). The result was new arrests - this time 31,359 “church members and sectarians” were deprived of their freedom, of which 166 bishops!
By 1939, only 4 bishops survived out of the two hundred who occupied the see in the 1920s. If previously lands and temples were taken away from religious organizations, this time the latter were simply destroyed physically. So, on the eve of 1940, there was only one church in Belarus, which was located in a remote village.
In total, there were several hundred churches in the USSR. However, this immediately begs the question: if absolute power was concentrated in the hands of the Soviet government, why did it not destroy religion completely? After all, it was quite possible to destroy all the churches and the entire episcopate. The answer is obvious: the Soviet government needed religion.
Did the war save Christianity in the USSR?
It is difficult to give a definite answer. Since the enemy invasion, certain shifts have been observed in the “power-religion” relationship, even moreover, a dialogue is being established between Stalin and the surviving bishops, but it is impossible to call it “equal”. Most likely, Stahl temporarily loosened his grip and even began to “flirt” with the clergy, since he needed to raise the authority of his own power against the backdrop of defeats, as well as achieve maximum unity of the Soviet nation.
“Dear brothers and sisters!”
This can be seen in the change in Stalin's behavior. He begins his radio address on July 3, 1941: “Dear brothers and sisters!” But this is exactly how believers in the Orthodox community, in particular priests, address parishioners. And this is very jarring against the backdrop of the usual: “Comrades!” The Patriarchate and religious organizations, at the behest of “from above,” must evacuate from Moscow. Why such “concern”?
Stalin needed the church for his own selfish purposes. The Nazis skillfully used the anti-religious practices of the USSR. They almost imagined their invasion as a Crusade that promised to free Rus' from the atheists. An incredible spiritual upsurge was observed in the occupied territories - old churches were restored and new ones were opened. Against this background, continued repression within the country could lead to disastrous consequences.
In addition, potential allies in the West were not impressed by the oppression of religion in the USSR. And Stalin wanted to enlist their support, so the game he started with the clergy is quite understandable. Religious figures of various faiths sent telegrams to Stalin about donations aimed at strengthening defense capabilities, which were subsequently widely circulated in newspapers. In 1942, “The Truth about Religion in Russia” was published in a circulation of 50 thousand copies.
At the same time, believers are allowed to publicly celebrate Easter and conduct services on the day of the Resurrection of the Lord. And in 1943, something completely out of the ordinary happens. Stalin invites the surviving bishops, some of whom he releases the day before from the camps, to choose a new Patriarch, who became Metropolitan Sergius (a “loyal” citizen who in 1927 issued an odious Declaration in which he actually agreed to “serve” the church to the Soviet regime) .
At the same meeting, he donates from the “lord’s shoulder” permission to open religious educational institutions, the creation of a Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, and transfers the former building of the residence of German ambassadors to the newly elected Patriarch. The Secretary General also hinted that some representatives of the repressed clergy could be rehabilitated, the number of parishes increased and confiscated utensils returned to churches.
However, things did not go further than hints. Also, some sources say that in the winter of 1941, Stalin gathered the clergy to hold a prayer service for the granting of victory. At the same time, the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God was flown around Moscow by plane. Zhukov himself allegedly confirmed in conversations more than once that the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was flown over Stalingrad. However, there are no documentary sources indicating this.
Some documentary filmmakers claim that prayer services were also held in besieged Leningrad, which can be completely assumed, given that there was nowhere else to wait for help. Thus, we can say with confidence that the Soviet government did not set itself the goal of completely destroying religion. She tried to make her a puppet in her hands, which could sometimes be used for gain.
BONUS
Either remove the cross or take away your party card; either a Saint or a Leader.
Of great interest not only among believers, but also among atheists are the ideas in which people strive to understand the essence of being.
