Власть соловецкая

By November 1923, all the tricks of the authorities and renovationists aimed at creating the illusion of reconciliation between the latter and the Church had been exhausted. In the first half of November 1923, Tuchkov spoke personally with His Holiness, demanding that he be reconciled with the Synod of Evdokim (Meshchersky) on unacceptable terms, to which he received a decisive refusal. Probably, the arrest of the patriarch was not beneficial to the authorities due to the possible unwanted international and domestic resonance, and they decided to limit their anger to the arrest of Archbishop Hilarion, which was done shortly after the patriarch’s conversation with Tuchkov, on November 15, 1923. The request of His Holiness Tikhon for the release of his closest assistant was rejected, and the confessor of the Church of Christ on December 7 of the same year was sentenced to imprisonment on Solovki, where he soon (December 20) went “for counter-revolutionary activities, expressed in anti-Soviet agitation at debates, lectures organized by him and the dissemination of counter-revolutionary rumors” 359 (from the resolution of E.A. Tuchkova). Vladyka Hilarion did not harbor any special illusions regarding the future prospects of life under Soviet rule. Having become acquainted with camp life for the first time, he predicted: “We will not leave here alive” 360. The most striking image of Archbishop Hilarion during this period of his life was left to us by one of the Bishop’s convicts in Solovetsky captivity: “Archbishop Hilarion is a young, cheerful, comprehensively educated man, an excellent church preacher-speaker and singer, a brilliant polemicist with atheists, always natural, sincere, open; Wherever he appeared, he attracted everyone to him and enjoyed universal love. Large stature, wide chest, lush brown hair, clear, light face. He remains in the memory of everyone who met him. Over the years of joint imprisonment, we have witnessed his complete monastic non-covetousness, deep simplicity, genuine humility, and childlike meekness. He simply gave everything he had to whatever was asked of him. He was not interested in his things. Therefore, out of mercy, someone had to keep an eye on his suitcase. And he had such a novice in Solovki... This man can be insulted, but he will never respond to this and may not even notice the attempt made. He is always cheerful and even if he is preoccupied and worried, he will quickly try to cover it up with the same cheerfulness. He looks at everything with spiritual eyes and everything serves him for the benefit of the spirit. At the Filimonova fishing ground, seven miles from the Solovetsky Kremlin and the main camp, on the shore of a bay of the White Sea, Archbishop Hilarion, two more bishops and several priests, all prisoners, were net-knitters and fishermen. Archbishop Hilarion liked to talk about this work of ours by transcribing the words of the stichera for Trinity Day: “Everything is given by the Holy Spirit: formerly fishermen were theologians of display, but now, on the contrary, theologians are fishermen of display.” Thus his spirit reconciled himself to the new position. His complacency extended to the Soviet government itself, and he could look at it with kindly eyes. The Soviet government gave all of us, churchmen, equal terms of imprisonment. Archbishop Hilarion, who worked near the Patriarch in Moscow and dealt heavy blows to atheism and the Renovationist schism, which undoubtedly became a magnitude on an all-Russian scale, and, almost a young man, a little hieromonk from Kazan, whose whole crime was that he removed the orarion from a deacon, a Renovationist, and did not allow him to serve with him, were given three years. - “The godly Lord is devout,” Archbishop Hilarion said on this occasion in the Paschal words of John Chrysostom, “he accepts the last as he did the first; he reposes at the eleventh hour the one who came, as he did from the first hour. And he accepts the deeds, and kisses the intention, and honors the deed, and praises the proposal.” These words sounded ironic, but they gave a feeling of peace and forced one to accept the test, as from the hand of God. But this complacency was not at all a loss of courage before the God-fighting authorities. Even in the Kem camp, on the eve of Solovki, Lenin’s death captured us. When they lowered him into his grave in Moscow, we had to stand here in the camp for five minutes in silence. Vladyka Hilarion and I were lying next to each other on the bunks, when a line of our fathers and brothers of various ranks stood opposite us in the middle of the barracks, awaiting the solemn moment. “Stand up, after all, he’s a great man, and he’ll hit you if he notices him,” they convinced us. Looking at Vladyka, I didn’t get up either. I had enough strength not to bow my head before such a beast. So they lay down safely. And Vladyka said: “Think, fathers, what is happening in hell now: Lenin himself appeared there, what a triumph for the demons.” Vladyka Hilarion was very pleased with the idea that Solovki was a school of virtues - non-covetousness, meekness, humility, abstinence, patience, hard work. The arriving party of clergy was robbed, and the fathers were greatly upset. I jokingly told them that this is how they are taught non-covetousness. The Bishop was delighted. My boots were stolen twice in a row, and I walked around the camp in torn galoshes, which brought him into genuine joy, which instilled complacency in us. But it should be noted that not all ascetic-minded monks understood such a spirit. To some, it seemed that they could only be saved in the monastery, and they were sometimes very upset by the deprivations. His love for every person, his attention and interest in everyone, his sociability were simply amazing. He was the most popular person in the camp, among all its layers. We do not say that the general, the officer, the student and the professor knew him, talked to him, found him or he them, despite the fact that there were many bishops and there were older and no less educated. He was known to the "punks", criminals, the underworld of thieves and bandits, precisely as a good, respected person, whom one could not help but love. Whether at work, in fits and starts, or in his free hour, he could be seen walking arm in arm with some such "specimen" from this environment. This was not condescension towards his younger brother and the deceased. No. Vladyka talked to everyone as an equal, interested, for example, in "profession", everyone's favorite activity. "Shpana" is very proud and sensitively proud. It is impossible to show disdain to her with impunity. And therefore the ruler's manner was all-conquering. He, like a friend, ennobled them with his presence and attention. His observations in this environment, when he shared them, were of exceptional interest. He is accessible to everyone, he is the same as everyone else, it is easy for everyone to be, meet and talk with him. The most ordinary, simple, unholy appearance - that’s what the ruler himself was. But behind this ordinary form of gaiety and worldliness one could gradually discern childlike purity, great spiritual experience, kindness and mercy, this sweet indifference to material goods, true faith, genuine piety, high moral perfection, not to mention mental, coupled with the strength and clarity of conviction. This type of ordinary sinfulness, foolishness, and the guise of secularism hid his inner work from people and saved him from hypocrisy and vanity. He was a sworn enemy of hypocrisy and every “type of piety,” completely conscious and direct. In the “Trinity Artel” (that was the name of the working group of Archbishop Hilarion), the clergy received a good education in Solovki. Everyone understood that calling oneself a sinner or just having long pious conversations, showing the severity of one’s life, was not worth it. And even more so, think about yourself more than you really are. Each visiting priest, of course, is questioned in detail by Vladyka about everything that preceded his imprisonment. “Why were you arrested?” - “Yes, I served prayer services at my home when the monastery was closed,” Father Abbot answers, “well, people gathered and there were even healings...” - “Oh, that’s how, there were even healings... how many Solovki did they give you?” - “Three years.” - “Well, that’s not enough, they should have given more for healings, the Soviet government didn’t look after it.”... It goes without saying that talking about healings through one’s prayers was more than immodest.”361 Quote by: Damascene (Orlovsky), Hierom. Biography of Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky). P. 52. Polsky M., protopres. New Russian martyrs: First collection of materials. – Jordanville: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1949. P. 133.