Россия в начале XX века

By the time Vladimir Troitsky was studying at the seminary and academy, revolutionary ideas had captured a significant part of Russian society. Moreover, very often religious educational institutions were the breeding grounds for these ideas. Revolutionary sentiments did not pass by the MDA either. This is how Vladimir Troitsky’s first impressions of the academy and the results of the thoughts inspired by them were described by his classmate, priest G. Dobronravov: “Vladimir Alekseevich entered the academy in 1906, when the fumes and frenzy of the revolution, which had penetrated beyond the walls of the academy, were just beginning to dissipate, but had not yet completely disappeared. And Vladimir Alekseevich had to go through a lot, seeing, as he said, “the shame of the academy, which exchanged the bright vestments of pure and sober science for the bright, but dirty multi-colored rags of street politics,” the shame of that academy, which he loved as “his beloved bride”... But the storm did not pass without a trace for Vladimir Alekseevich: his all-analyzing mind could not calm down until he found the reasons why the rushing squall captured such wide circles: one of the main conditions that determined such a scale of the movement was the churchlessness of our society, which in its mass had lost contact with the Church, broken with its primordial traditions... As soon as this was determined with sufficient clarity, ... he dedicated his obligatory writings and his leisure time working on the issue of the Church and churchliness" 67. To resist the generally accepted public opinion about the Church at the beginning of the 20th century, considerable courage and firmness were needed, and it can be said with confidence that already while studying at the academy, the young theologian, having taken a position in the teaching about the Church that was unacceptable to many of his contemporaries, took the path of confession, which ultimately led him to the crown of martyrdom. “There are two kinds of martyrdom,” wrote St. Gregory the Dvoeslov, “one is internal, the other is external, and if there is no external persecution, there can be hidden martyrdom, when the soul burns with readiness for torment” 68. And that the upholding of the Orthodox teaching about the Church in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century could not be accomplished without the feat of confession, we can be assured by several illustrations of the thoughts and morals of Russian people of that time, belonging to various strata of society. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov, cousin and childhood friend of Emperor Nicholas II, married to Tsar Nicholas’s sister, Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, described his first (at the age of 12) visit to the Iveron Chapel in Moscow: “It seemed impossible to me that the Lord God could choose such a setting for revealing holy miracles to his children. There was nothing Christian in the whole service. It rather resembled dark paganism. Fearing that I would be punished, I pretended to pray, but I was sure that my God, the God of golden fields, dense forests and murmuring waterfalls, would never visit the Iveron Chapel... From the day of my first visit to the Mother See and over the next forty years, I kissed the relics of the Kremlin saints at least several hundred times. And each time I not only did not experience religious ecstasy, but experienced the deepest moral suffering. Now that I am sixty-five years old, I am deeply convinced that it is impossible to honor God in the way that our pagan ancestors bequeathed to us.”69 The popularity of Tolstoy’s ideas among the Russian intelligentsia, who, following Leo Tolstoy’s wife Sofia Andreevna, could say: “For me, the Church is an abstract concept” 70 also tells us about the loss of faith in the Church. And here is a visual image of the moral abyss into which the Russian peasantry, who left the Church, fell at the beginning of the 20th century. In September 1917, in one of the Oryol villages, “a respected priest, Fr. Grigory Rozhdestvensky with his young nephew in front of his wife; Having robbed the money, the robbers fled when they heard the alarm bell; the gathered parishioners, seeing the murdered shepherd floating in his blood, began to take away all the property of the orphaned mother left after the robbers: rye, oats, apples - everything that came to hand” 71 . In the same Oryol region, “On November 28, 1917, in the village of Dobruni, Sevsky district... soldiers and peasants destroyed the house church and the Podlinev manor estate. With a cry of “Get the carpets, the “yesters” will trample here!” The peasants cut down the throne with axes, stole vessels and vestments, and then set fire to the house and church. But this seemed to them not enough. They pulled out the buried corpses of the Podlinev owners from their graves right there, near the church. The decayed remains of the owner: head, arms, legs were scattered, and the owner’s corpse, preserved intact, was laid on straw and set on fire. “They burned him like a pig,” the Orthodox said. At the same time, they beat him in the stomach with sticks and tore out his mustache. Then he was immediately buried shallowly, and the zinc coffin was dragged away... Later, a similar fate befell the burial of the world-famous poet Afanasy Fet (Shenshin) in the church of the village of Kleymenovo" 72 . Such facts are significantly explained by the fact that in Russia at the beginning of the last century “in some places almost 70 percent. of those entering the army “not only did not know prayers, but also did not have the slightest idea about religious principles” 73 . Of course, this popular savagery was largely the fault of the clergy itself: “But for the most part we became “demand executors,” and not burning lamps,” Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov) recalled about the priesthood of the pre-revolutionary time. Quote by: Damascene (Orlovsky), Hierom. Biography of Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky) // Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop. The Church as a union of love. – M.: PSTBI, 1998. P. 5–6. Gregory Dvoeslov, St. Interviews. – M.: Blagovest, 1996. P. 184. Romanov A.M., Grand Duke. Book of Memories. – M., St. Petersburg: ACT, Polygon, 2009. P. 53, 54. Quote from: Anathema: History and the 20th century: Sat. articles / comp. P. Palamarchuk. – M.: Sretensky Monastery Publishing House, 1998. P. 293. Nikon (Rklitsky), archbishop. Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) and his time: 1863–1936. In 2 books. – Nizhny Novgorod: Brotherhood in the name of St. book Alexander Nevsky, 2004. Book. 2. P. 536. Perelygin A.I. Russian Orthodox Church in the Oryol region (1917–1953). – Orel: Printing house Trud, 2008. P. 28. Shavelsky Georgy, Protopreve. Russian Church before the revolution. – M.: Artos-Media, 2005. P. 419. Veniamin (Fedchenkov), Metropolitan. At the turn of two eras. – M.: Father's House, 1994. P. 112.