“St. Catherine and Yekaterinburg: why does a city need to remember its history”: interview with Priest Ilya Sokolov in “Business Quarter”translated

A teacher at the Department of Church History and Philology at the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary, a clergyman of the parish in the name of Saint Righteous Joseph the Betrothed in the village of Istok, Priest Ilya Sokolov, in an interview with DK.RU, restored a historical retrospective and shared his opinion on how Saint Catherine can participate in the life of modern Yekaterinburg.

Saint Catherine and Yekaterinburg: why does a city need to remember its history

Soviet power lasted 74 years. In the present, we have lived without it for almost half of this period, but we are still overcoming the consequences of the “ideological steamroller” and “general leveling”. Some of the most painful issues are issues of memory and faith. Entire historical and cultural layers were consigned to oblivion, but without knowing the truth about the past, it is difficult to build the future. It is important not only to restore history, but also to rethink it and fit it into the current context.

Yekaterinburg is one of the cities most “suffered” from ideological oppression. They not only changed his name, but also changed his story. People forgot for many decades that the city was named after St. Catherine.

How did the image of St. Catherine get to the Urals?

— The veneration of St. Catherine in the Urals is associated with...