«Священник, не снявший с себя сана»

Years have passed, two generations of our compatriots have grown up. The executioners carefully erased traces of their crimes. They destroyed barracks, leveled graves, burned documents, and washed away innocent blood with the blood of their accomplices. So it was as if nothing had happened. There was no BAMLAG, White Sea Canal, SLON and STON. But it was. And just as permafrost pulls out from the ground during the thaw the decayed roots of trees, the stones of forts and scraps of barbed wire, so the river of time inevitably carries into the stream of eternity evidence of life that has become living. Now we know the events of the last months of the life of Father Pavel Florensky and the circumstances of his martyrdom. The last letter from s/c Florensky P.A. arrived in Zagorsk on July 19, 1937. In response to inquiries, it was reported that Florensky P.A. again sentenced to “a term of 10 years without the right to correspondence.” That's all. Two decades of uncertainty and... hope. They always remembered “About Health”. New message about the fate of the convicted prisoner P.A. Florensky. was received in connection with the initiation of a case for his rehabilitation. In the death certificate of P.A. Florensky, issued by the Nevsky Civil Registry Office of Leningrad on November 3, 1958, it was reported that the rehabilitated P.A. Florensky died on February 15, 1943. This date corresponds to the 10-year sentence in 1933, but it is also close to the dates of death that were indicated during rehabilitation in the 50s. Although this date was in doubt, now remember Fr. Paul became “For the Repose” and, at the request of Anna Mikhailovna Florenskaya, the rite of burial was performed by the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archimandrite Pimen (Khmelevsky), later the Archbishop of Volgograd and Saratov. “You are asking about the details of the burial of Fr. Paul in the Lavra (in absentia), - His Eminence Pimen answers on April 29, 1987 in response to a question from V.A. Nikitin, a relative of the Florenskys, a church publicist. – It’s already difficult for me to remember the details. Anna Mikhailovna Florenskaya came to me (I was the governor of the Lavra) and said that she had received a certificate from somewhere stating that P.A. Florensky died in 1943. She asked to serve the funeral. I served the funeral in the Spiritual Church of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra on December 15, 1959 (P.V. Florensky recalls that this took place in the Refectory Church. - Ed.) Present at the service: Anna Mikhailovna, Kirill Pavlovich, Pavlik, Vanya (the second son of Vasily Florensky. - Ed.), Natalya Ivanovna, Olga Pavlovna, Sasha, Masha and Anna Vasilievna. Then they were all in my chambers, telling me something (I don’t remember what, but a lot of everyday things, from their lives).” Thus, priest Pavel Florensky was buried in a church only 22 years after his martyrdom, which became known another thirty years later. Death is always more than just a fact, especially the death of a priest, a violent death, a martyr's death. It acquires symbolic meaning, and every detail of it is infinitely important, for it becomes the subject not of a biography, but of a life. Only in June 1989, at the request of the family, the USSR KGB department for Moscow and the Moscow region conducted an investigation into the circumstances of the conviction and death of priest Pavel Florensky. Based on the new information received, on November 24, 1989, the Civil Registry Office of the Kalininsky District of Moscow issued the family a new certificate. Citizen FLORENSKY Pavel Aleksandrovich died on December 08, 1937 at the age of 55, about which in the death registration book of 1989, November 02, an entry was made for No. 6c. The cause of death was execution. Place of death: Leningrad region. Place of registration is the civil registry office of the executive committee of the Kalininsky District Council of Moscow. Date of issue: November 24, 1989 Head of the department (bureau) of the Civil Registry Office (signature) VIII-MU No. 423815. (Stamp of the institution that issued the document). As a result of the hassle, the family first received a photocopy of individual sheets of the case and a torture photograph of the defendant P.A. Florensky, but only frontal, as well as the manuscript of his work “The Proposed State Structure in the Future,” which he wrote after the completion of the investigation in Butyrka prison. Later, in February-April 1991, during Lent, in the archives of the KGB of the USSR, P.V. worked with the case of the convicted and rehabilitated P.A. Florensky, which has archive number 212727. Florensky. He managed to rewrite more than a thousand pages of interrogation protocols, official correspondence and other documents. Later, a photocopy of the entire file was provided to the family. The information gleaned from the case is supplemented by materials obtained by the devotees of the Leningrad branch of Memorial: the tragically deceased V.V. Ioffe and I.A. Reznikova, as well as execution lists of Solovki residents found in the archives of the FSB of the Arkhangelsk region by T.V. Soshina. The collected materials are summarized in the essay by A. Razumov and V. Gruzdev “The Mournful Path of the Solovetsky Stages” (Leningrad Martyrology. 1937–1938. Volume 4. 1937. St. Petersburg, 1999. pp. 658–664). Based on these materials, some details of the last months of the life and martyrdom of priest Pavel Florensky are outlined. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution and the bodies of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided to once and for all get rid of all unreliable and “socially dangerous citizens.” Get rid of Stalin's Constitution Day on December 5th. In the summer of 1937, the party and government decided to reduce the number of prisoners in the camps. Preparations began for the implementation of the decision in the Solovetsky camp. Communication with the outside world of the prisoners destined for liquidation was interrupted already in June, and systematic letters from R.N. stopped coming. Litvinov, and from N.Ya. Bryantsev, and from other s/k. Their further fate became a mystery for half a century. In June 1937, the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camps, which formed part of the White Sea-Baltic Combine of the NKVD of the USSR (SLON BBK NKVD of the USSR), were transferred to the 10th (prison) department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR for reorganization into the Solovetsky Prison of Special Purpose (STON). On June 4, the head of the Solovetsky prison instead of P.S. Raevsky was appointed Art. Major GB I.A. Apeter, who served since 1934 as the head of the sanitary and resort department of the Administration of the NKVD of the USSR. In August 1937, printed forms were produced for the order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, General Commissar of State Security, Comrade Yezhov. Empty spaces were left on the standard form, where the name of the camp and the number of prisoners scheduled for execution were entered. On August 16, the Solovetsky camp received orders to shoot 1,200 soldiers. On August 19, this directive arrived in Leningrad, and the head of the NKVD JSC A.M. Zakovsky handed it over to his deputy V.N. for execution. Garin, who led the entire repressive campaign in the Leningrad region and Solovetsky prison. This is how Yu.I describes it. Chirkov the atmosphere that reigned on Solovki: “The design and estimate bureau also ceased its activities, finally drawing up a project for the reconstruction of the monastery premises into prisons. P.A. Florensky and other prominent PSB employees were apparently also under lock and key. The Kremlin courtyards were relatively sparsely populated. The flower beds in the second yard were destroyed. The windows of the first column, covered with shields, looked as if they were blinded... There was a change in the weather. The days were cloudy and the leaves had fallen from the trees. Bad weather, the onset of darkness and cold always made Solovki residents nervous, and then there was uncertainty. What will happen to us? Who will be left in this special purpose prison? Who will be taken and where? Questions, questions... One thing was clear: all the changes were for the worse. A storm of hatred and suspicion raged in the newspapers. The term "enemies of the people" was mentioned in almost all articles. The impression was created of a multitude of “enemies” at all levels of the state apparatus, in production, in literature, in the army, etc. Everything was depressing. It seemed that the entire leadership, along with the Great One, had gone mad. The newspapers were read in silence, without the usual comments, which has already become dangerous in Solovki: there were cases of arrest of those who loudly expressed outrage at what was happening.” (Yu.I. Chirkov. And it was all like this... M., 1991. P. 170–172). Among the told, written and published testimonies, the last letters of R.N. have been preserved. Litvinov and N.Ya. Bryantsev, who somehow miraculously made it home in September 1937. In a letter to R.N. Litvinova’s hand written by Varvara Sergeevna Litvinova over the serial number is written “last letter. 1937.IX.19": “...So, my very beloved Varka, according to the old style, September 5, i.e. I have passed another anniversary... I will have to be on duty at night (one word has been crossed out by censorship - Ed.), that is, sit at the door at night from 12 to 6 at night, since today is my turn. I still don't have a job. This is not good in terms of food, because the unemployed receive (two-thirds of the line is soiled by censorship - Ed.), and with a long absence this begins to take its toll... I must add that, given the possibility of long-distance movements, I sold a gray coat for 30 rubles, since it is more profitable than throwing it away... I did not receive anything during the last issue of letters. And since delivery now comes twice a month, 1 and 15, now you wait two weeks, which is very sad, because the main burden of my life is worrying about you and my family. I somehow don’t worry about myself – I’ve developed a kind of fatalistic, mocking attitude towards my misadventures. I use my unemployed state to study mathematics and aerodynamics and spend my time quite interestingly... it’s better if you receive a letter or, in extreme cases, a parcel post. But this is not the case. Neither from you nor from Lyuba. How's Kolka? Are you going to take a photo of him? I won’t write to him, because he doesn’t write to me. Yes, and I don’t know him. I remember him as a kid, but now he’s a big guy with his own interests that I don’t know. Changes are coming, and logically we need to expect even larger ones, but nothing definite can be foreseen, and logical reasoning has a flaw in the sense that it does not turn out as expected. In order not to make a mistake, it is better not to guess anything, the environment is mixed, there is pleasant, but there is also disgusting, professionals (thieves - Ed.). But the possibility of moving is not excluded, and the dog knows where, because my points are considered very dangerous. And most importantly, be healthy, don’t lose heart, remember that I love you dearly and don’t forget about your R...” In accordance with the Order, by the beginning of September 1937, lists of 1,116 Solovki residents were prepared for execution. On October 21 they were taken to Kem. “...At the end of October,” Yu.I. continues the story. Chirkov (p. 173) unexpectedly kicked out all the inhabitants of the open cells of the Kremlin for a general inspection. During the inspection, they read out a huge list - several hundred names - sent to the prison camp. Preparation time is two hours. Gathering in the same square. A terrible fuss began. Some ran to pack their things, others to say goodbye to friends. Two hours later, most of those being transported were already standing with their things. At this time, columns of prisoners with suitcases and backpacks emerged from the isolation wards, heading not to the Nikolsky Gate, where there was a checkpoint, but to the Holy Gate, which led to the shore of Blagopoluchiya Bay. I ran to the edge of the “royal” road even before the columns approached and saw everyone passing by, row after row, four people in a row. Familiar and unfamiliar faces flashed intermixed. They all had one common expression - composure and alertness. Everyone became somewhat stern and aloof... The Kremlin is completely empty. On November 9 there were intense northern lights. In the black sky, not the usual multi-color stripes, but crimson-red arcs, converged and diverged, which was interpreted by some as a formidable sign... A terrible rumor spread that the second stage was drowned in the sea. All this did not contribute to a good mood.” The stage was shot on October 27 and November 1, 2, 3, and 4 near Medvezhyegorsk in the Sandormakh forest at 16 km of the road to Povenets. It is no coincidence that the execution took place on the eve of the October holidays; according to tradition, bloodshed occurs before the “red” days of the calendar. As for the rumors that the stage was sunk, this is a reflection of the drama that happened with the transport “Dzhurma”, which was transporting prisoners to Magadan and froze into the ice not far from the steamship “Chelyuskin”, the passengers of which were heroically rescued by the pilots who became the first Heroes of the Soviet Union. Even before the execution of the first stage in the Solovetsky prison, an additional 509 certificates and prison files were prepared for prisoners, also subject to execution in order to exceed the plan. These certificates were combined into three agendas for the meetings of the Special Troika of the UNKVD LO. The conclusion to the summons No. 199 on the group cases of 12 “Trotskyists”, 63 “spies”, 61 “terrorists”, 32 “saboteurs” and 25 “counter-revolutionaries”, to which the prisoner P.A. Florensky was included, was signed by Shilin in Leningrad on November 22. These conclusions formed the basis of execution protocols No. 134 (dated November 10, 1937), No. 198 and No. 199 (dated November 25, 1937), which were approved by the Troika consisting of Vakovsky L.M., Garin V.N., Pozern and secretary Egorov M.A. On November 26, employees of the 8th department of the State Security Directorate of the NKVD Nudel and Anstram verified 4 copies of protocol No. 199, and members of the Troika signed it. November 28, 1937 L.M. Zakovsky sent I.A. to Solovki. Apeter is instructed to immediately prepare all 509 convicts for surrender to the head of the convoy in accordance with the protocols of the Special Troika. On the left margin of the copy of this document is the signature of N.I. Antonov-Gritsyuk. Following the dispatch, a railway train was sent to Kem to deliver the doomed to Leningrad. In Solovki they prepared a new “list of convicts held in the Solovetsky prison of the GUGB, subject to being sent to camps” - 509 names. On the last sheet of the list is the signature of P.S. Raevsky with the date: “December 3/HP 1937 rest. Solovki". Apparently, from Solovki the convoy, which included P.A. Florensky, was transported by sea to Kem on December 2–3. To the right of the last name of each prisoner in this stage list, numbers from 1 to 15 are written in purple pencil. Near the name P.A. Florensky is numbered 8. It is assumed that this is the number of the carriage. There were 42 people traveling in carriage No. 8; it was one of the most overloaded carriages. Upon the arrival of the train in Leningrad and the placement of the prisoners in prison, on December 7, Zakovsky signed an order to Polikarpov to shoot them. Judging by the available documents, 509 people were executed, perhaps on the night of December 8-9, or perhaps over 3 nights - from December 8 to 10. All acts of execution of the sentence were signed by the commandant of the NKVD JSC Polikarpov and dated December 8. Working night – 8 hours, 480 minutes. It turns out to be less than a minute per person, and if they were shot for three nights, then three minutes per person... Let us add that the head of the Solovetsky prison I.A. Apeter was arrested on December 11, 1937, fired from the NKVD on December 26, and shot on August 22, 1938. So, s/k P.A. Florensky passed away on December 8. The day is not accidental - on December 9, 1937, the entire Soviet people enthusiastically went to vote in accordance with the Stalinist Constitution for a bloc of communists and non-party people - again shot before the “red day” of the calendar. “When I received the File, I could not listen to the archivist’s instructions,” says P.V. Florensky. “I was looking for two pieces of paper - the last connection with my grandfather, who had a few hours to live. The first, thin, 3-line strip is cut from a sheet of protocol. The second is the act of enforcement of the VMN in relation to Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky - I knew that it was on page 694 of the Case and immediately found it.” Back in the early seventies, a decade and a half after the mass rehabilitation of the repressed, their descendants, coming to Solovki, hid their blood connection with them, especially since no one could know the names of the prisoners of their loved ones. Probably, stories can be written about meetings with each of the Solovki residents through their descendants. Gradually, the fear began to weaken, and the search for the descendants of Solovki, systematically carried out by devotees from Memorial, and then the collective trips they organized to Solovki led to the formation of a kind of Solovetsky brotherhood. Solovki residents are united by a common grave, where the ashes of their ancestors are mixed. The intersection of destinies of the descendants of Solovki is amazing. Let us name only three of those who were shot on the terrible night before the national elections from December 8 to 9, 1937, whose ashes remained forever along with the ashes of the priest Pavel Florensky. Biographical information about them is based on information from execution lists. Abdulkadyrov Khasan, born in 1892, native and resident of the Chechen Autonomous Okrug, Chechen, non-party member, employee, b. ensign of the Tsarist Army and translator in the Volunteer Army. On October 16, 1933, the OGPU board sentenced him to death, commuted to 10 years in labor camp. Shot on December 8, 1937. He was a representative of an educated family, a public figure, materials in the republican museum are dedicated to him. His relatives living in the Chechen village of Nadterechnoye learned the circumstances of the death of Khasan Abdulkadyrov in 2000 from P.V. Florensky. And only then were they able to celebrate tezet - a funeral feast for the deceased. After all, among the Chechens, a missing person is not considered dead. So his soul wanders, unmourned and unprayed. The daughter of Khasan Abdulkadyrov lives in the village of Nadterechnoye, his son and grandson live in Samara, and his niece Raisa lives in Moscow. The Abdulkadyrov family remembers Hasan, who was the pride of the family, a hero of the First World War, and keeps his letters and photographs. Litvinov Roman Nikolaevich - P.A.’s last friend. Florensky. (For information about him, see the note to the letter dated October 24, 1934, on p. 75). In their letters they constantly talk about each other. His son Nikolai Romanovich, and later his grandson Roman Nikolaevich Litvinov, kindly provided materials for this book. Stolyarov Korniliy Timofeevich, born in 1892, native of the village. Alekseevka, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. His grandfather Matthew was a priest, and his parents Timofey Matfeevich and Matrona Nikitichna were very religious people. They had six sons and four daughters. Cornelius, having graduated from a teacher's seminary, became a rural teacher. During the First World War he was drafted into the army and ended the war as a lieutenant. After the October Revolution, he returned to his native village, in the summer of 1918 he was mobilized into the army of the Directory, and served as a company commander in the 15th Belebeevsky and 16th Ufa regiments. After Kolchak's defeat he was captured, after which he settled in Irkutsk. In 1920 K.T. Stolyarov entered Irkutsk University, in 1921 he married Sofia Dominikovna Mukus, and in 1922 they had a daughter, Irina. In 1922 K.T. Stolyarov and his family moved to Moscow, where he graduated from the Faculty of Geography of the 2nd Moscow University. He worked as a geography teacher at school, then taught at the Moscow Geodesy and other institutes. As family legend goes, in January 1933, K.T. Stolyarov was offered to become a secret employee (s.s. - sexot) and report on the reliability of the students, to which he replied: “The officer’s honor is more valuable to himself.” In March 1933, Korniliy, his brother Pavel, sister Glikeria and niece Anastasia Stolyarov were arrested in the case of a “counter-revolutionary inter-university group of students and teachers in Moscow.” They were accused of conducting bourgeois and fascist propaganda, preparing terrorist acts and the overthrow of Soviet power. On June 8, 1933, by resolution of the Special Meeting of the OGPU Collegium “for participation in a counter-revolutionary organization under Art. 58/10–11 Criminal Code of the RSFSR" K.T. Stolyarov was sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 5 years. He was transported first to Dmitlag OGPU, and then to the Solovetsky special purpose camp. His last letter from prison was written on April 12, 1937. Kornily Timofeevich Stolyarov, whose five-year sentence was expiring in the summer, cheerfully and cheerfully informed his daughter: “There are no special significant changes in my life. The gratifying thing is that I feel exceptionally good health-wise, it’s not at all like last spring... It will be very good if I maintain my health in this form until my release. We don't have much news. I go to work at different sites. The work is not difficult. By all indications, spring is beginning. The sun is warming, streams flow from all the roofs. The seagulls flew in and with their screams brought variety to our lives... I still have to stay in the far north for several months, exactly how long I’m afraid to say, but in any case I will be free by the beginning of the new school year, i.e. no later than August." On November 25, 1937, by decree of the NKVD troika for the Leningrad region, z/k Stolyarov K.T. was sentenced to death and executed on December 8, 1937. (This certificate was compiled by his nephew Vyacheslav Pavlovich Stolyarov, one of the compilers of comments and illustrations for this book.) Prisoner of the Solovetsky concentration camp Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky was arrested, transported to the east, BAM-LAG, transferred to Kem, and then to Solovki. There was a meeting of the Troika and a sentence to VMN, the hold of a barge heading for the mainland, Leningrad dungeons, a night formation, a basement, a shot in the back of the head, loading a body into a truck, a deserted place, a mass grave, the silence of the people. The name of the executioner, or, as it was written in official documents, “the executor of punishment,” surfaced on the surface of the river of time. Not only the circumstances of his life, but also his death are known. They say that there is no blood on the executioner, he has no name, no face. In the Middle Ages, the executioner wore a mask. In the bloodiest century in Russian history, executions were anonymous. So is it worth mentioning the name of the executioner and peering into his facial features? Costs. Not in order to prove that there is retribution, that the crime returns like a boomerang to the one who sent it, for in our case there was no remorse or repentance, but there was lynching, and the executioners themselves inflicted punishment on each other. This is what happened when revolutions devoured their children. We would not like to judge and condemn. We only want to look at the portrait of time, at the faces of the participants, witnesses, executioners, in order to see more clearly the faces of the martyrs who did not bow down, did not break, did not destroy themselves, their souls, so that their feat on the Golgotha ​​of time would become clearer. “Motichka, goodbye forever. If I offended you in any way, forgive me. I was mentally very tired, I didn’t commit any crimes, Comrade Goglidze wrote the cause of death, you don’t need to know. A note in the office on the table. Call 30–14 about what happened. I kiss you for the last time. Sorry. Sashka." Such a note was discovered on the evening of March 14, 1939 in Leningrad, in house No. 34 on Voinova Street. A dead man in an NKVD uniform lay on the floor. His head was wrapped in a bloody towel. A .45 caliber Colt lay next to the body. The suicide was Alexander Romanovich Polikarpov, commandant of the NKVD department for the Leningrad region, the perpetrator of the mass executions of 1937. In 1938, after the execution of Yezhov, a massive purge and fight against the Yezhovshchina began, a time about which it is said: “They don’t have enough nights, executioners execute executioners...” On January 8, 1939, a party meeting was held in the Red Hall of the NKVD on Liteiny Prospekt, after which the new head of the department, Sergei Goglidze, Beria’s right hand, put forward a resolution on the case of the senior lieutenant of state security A.R. Polikarpova: “Fire me immediately!” That was the end. Polikarpov was a punctual man. In his office, he put the documents in order, laid them out in piles, and attached tags to the keys, on which he wrote which one belonged to which lock. Then he put a white piece of paper on the table, took an ink pencil and wrote (the document is presented with the author’s spelling and punctuation preserved): Head of the NKVD LO Commissar of State. without. II rank Comrade Goglidze. During the entire period of my work in the NKVD, I honestly and faithfully fulfilled my duties. The last two years have been especially intense in terms of operational assignments. Comrade Commissioner, I’m not guilty of the fact that they gave me instructions; I carried them out, because my job in this regard is executive. And I did, and of course it would be wrong to be held accountable for this... And now, when there is a whole series of conversations about the condemnation of the innocent, when I began to notice that they were looking at me askance, like pointing fingers, being wary, as if they didn’t trust me, being already in a very nervous state, and I had a painful stomach ulcer, I completely fell morally and came to the conclusion that I couldn’t continue to work anywhere... I decided to leave, they would count me as cowardice, well, I couldn’t bear it... Comrade Commissioner, forgive me for my cowardice, having worked so much, of course I’m not a person, I lived only by work, I didn’t know at home. My last request is not to offend my wife, she is sick after losing both boys, she has cancer, I did not involve her in official matters and she does not know the causes of death. Returning home, he wrote a note to his wife, pinned it to the wall, wrapped a towel around his head so as not to stain the room with blood, and shot himself in the church. ...In the Roman province of Judea, two millennia ago, a public execution took place on Mount Golgotha. Her weapons were a wooden cross, a crown of thorns, nails, a spear, pain and thirst. The One who came to save the world had a Mother and faithful disciples. But there were also executioners who divided His clothes, executioner-guards who used a spear to check the boundary between earthly and eternal life. Before that there was betrayal, arrest, trial and the madness of the crowd, demanding: “Crucify...” There was the path to Golgotha, the myrrh-bearing wife. Then the whole world fell into the abyss of oblivion. Earth and sky united, and Life triumphed... Witnesses and participants in those events either remained in eternity, becoming martyrs, or went down in history as their contemporaries. The thief on the cross, the guard who pierced the body of the Sufferer with a spear, a handful of women who did not leave the Teacher, the devoted disciple became a pious thief, Saint Longinus, the myrrh-bearing women, the Apostle John the Theologian. Reading the “Creed”, we designate that time with the words “Under Pontius Pilate...” The events of seventy years ago will remain in eternity. Under Joseph Stalin, on December 8, 1937, in a Leningrad dungeon, the martyr and priest of the Orthodox Church Pavel Florensky was shot and then buried in a mass grave in Toksovo, 30 kilometers from the city, who, despite the torment, remained “not defrocked.” You might be interested in: