Последние месяцы свободы

Archbishop Hilarion, during his short freedom in 1923, also had to deal with the administrative affairs of the Moscow diocese, which was not easy due to the decline of church and, in particular, monastic life. This is evidenced, for example, by one of the cases entrusted to Bishop Hilarion for investigation by the Patriarch. The essence of this case came down to the fact that the elderly monks of the Simonov Monastery, accustomed to a calm, relaxed life, were hostile to the legal demands of the young Archimandrite Peter (Rudnev) and staged an entire campaign to get the abbot out of the monastery 355. In addition to the bishop’s sermons and reports, debates with his participation, which were conducted with renovationists and atheists, had a great impact on the people. Of particular interest were the disputes between Archbishop Hilarion and the Renovationist Archbishop Alexander Vvedensky and the People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky. We know about the following disputes between Bishop Hilarion and the leader of the renovationists, Alexander Vvedensky. The debate scheduled for July 31, 1923 did not take place, due to the absence of Archbishop Hilarion, but the bishop managed to take part in the debates on August 17, September 4 and October 13, 1923 356 . Archbishop Hilarion’s thorough, well-thought-out argumentation and confident, engaging manner of speaking won the overwhelming majority of listeners over to his side, and, consequently, to the side of the Patriarchal Church. Bishop Hilarion himself later said about disputes with Vvedensky: “I pressed him to the wall” 357. This is how one of his fellow countrymen described Bishop Hilarion’s participation in these debates: “The Reverend behaved exceptionally boldly and boldly, so much so that sometimes terrible things were done for him. He was an extraordinary speaker. It seemed that he was about to be arrested on the spot for his bold statements, which, however, caused a storm of applause from the workers present. The dispute continued for a long time and it ended with all the present workers of this plant beginning to approach His Eminence Hilarion for blessing, and there were at least 3-4 thousand of them.”358 The success of Archbishop Hilarion in disputes with Alexander Vvedensky largely accelerated his new arrest. Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon... P. 738–741. Safonov D. Public disputes between the holy martyr Hilarion and the renovationists in 1923 // Alpha and Omega. 2005. No. 2 (43). pp. 168, 169, 172, 179. Quote by: Levitin-Krasnov A., Shavrov V. Essays on the history of Russian church unrest. P. 352 V.K. [Vinogradov Viktor Kapitonovich] Memories of the unknown // Bulletin of PSTGU. Series II: History. History of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2010. Vol. II:1 (34). pp. 122–123.