Глава двадцать четвертая. Жатва смерти 1852–1856

"Freedom or death!" - the motto of many centuries. It's as if a person is always choosing which of these two sisters to marry. And sometimes you look closer - they are twin sisters! As soon as they shout somewhere: “Freedom!” - immediately expect that they will shout: “Death!” And there will be suffering. This time Russia was in for the suffering of Sevastopol. It is about to begin, but for several years now the birds of freedom and death have been flickering in the air, looking for who to peck. This disastrous harvest began with Lent in 1852, when Gogol died. Five years from the date of the publication of “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” his slow and at the same time rapid departure from temporary life into eternal life continued. Booed and misunderstood, he went to Jerusalem. There, as a reward for his prayerful diligence, the Patriarch's deputy, Metropolitan Petras Meletios, awarded him a small piece from the stone of the Holy Sepulcher and a piece of wood from the door of the Church of the Resurrection, which burned down during the fire of 1808. Nikolai Vasilyevich returned from holy places even more confident in his calling. “Every person should fulfill his calling on earth conscientiously and honestly,” he said in 1850. “Feeling, as I get older, that for every word said here I will give an answer there, I must subject my writings to incomparably more consideration and caution than a young, untested writer does.” They talk about an illness that supposedly seized Gogol and brought him to the grave, they talk about a mental disorder. We need to talk about his cure for the disease that infects the vast majority of humanity, and this disease is the vanity of the world. Many noted a certain extraordinary calm that settled in Nikolai Vasilyevich. “On the fourth day Gogol came here, returning from Jerusalem, he seems to have managed very, very well over himself, and his internal successes are expressed in his external calm,” wrote businessman and Slavophile Fyodor Vasilyevich Chizhov from Kiev to the painter Alexander Ivanov. “His face bore the imprint of the change that followed in his soul. Before, people were clear to him; but it was closed to them, and only irony showed itself. She pierced them with his sharp nose, burned him with expressive eyes; they were afraid of him. Now it has become clear to others; he is kind, he is gentle, he sympathizes with people brotherly, he is so approachable, he is condescending, he breathes Christianity,” Princess Varvara Nikolaevna Repnina-Volkonskaya wrote in her memoirs. “From his actions, as I noticed, it is clear that he turned most of all to the Gospel, and he advised me to always have the Gospel on the table. “Read more often, you will see that God does not require you to stand for a long time in prayer, but always remember His teaching in all your affairs.” He always kept the Gospel with him, even on the road. When he traveled with us to Sorochintsy, he read the Gospel in the carriage. His love for everyone was visible. I have never heard him condemn anyone. He helped many people with his labor money...” recalled Gogol’s sister Olga Vasilievna Gogol-Golovnya. Gogol himself understood his journey to Jerusalem as a starting point for the fastest possible improvement. This is what he wrote to Zhukovsky at the end of February 1850: “My journey to Palestine was definitely made by me in order to find out personally and, as it were, to see with my own eyes how great the callousness of my heart is. Friend, this callousness is great! I was honored to spend the night at the Tomb of the Savior, I was honored to partake of the Holy Mysteries that stood on the Tomb itself instead of the altar, and for all that I did not become the best, whereas everything earthly should have burned up in me and only the heavenly remained.” And then for two years he burned not only and not so much his manuscripts, but he burned everything earthly within himself in order to expose the heavenly. It was as if he was swimming with his last strength through the raging sea, trying to reach the desired shore, and this shore was Christ. Throughout the last year of his life, Nikolai Vasilyevich read a lot and greedily the published sermons of St. Philaret, since no one else so corresponded to his desire to improve, no one else assured so indestructibly that if we are Christians, we must serve heaven, and not the world, that it is impossible to serve God and mammon at the same time. Once, while visiting, when it was proposed to read Pushkin aloud and it was expected that Nikolai Vasilyevich would warmly support such a proposal, he unexpectedly opposed everyone, reminded that Lent was underway, and began to read Filaret’s “Conversation on the Touch of Faith in Christ.” In it, Moscow Chrysostom recalled the gospel event, how people crowded around the Savior, dreaming of touching him, and not everyone succeeded, since the crowd was huge, but those who fervently believed succeeded. “What is this special way of approaching Christ, accompanied not by a dead attack, but by a living touch that draws saving power from Him? “The Lord also clearly shows this in the face of the bleeding woman, who, out of the multitude of people crowding towards him, was the only one who knew how to approach Him and touch Him, and through the touch she received healing. For what does He say to her? “Be bold, daughters, your faith will save you (Luke 8:48).” And Gogol acutely felt like she was bleeding. Much has been written about Gogol’s last days, and it is not here to recount them in detail. The death of Ekaterina Mikhailovna Khomyakova, wife of the great Slavophile thinker Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov, which occurred on January 26, 1852, is generally believed to have shocked and depressed Gogol and caused his mental illness. I would say differently: this death called him along. He loved Ekaterina Mikhailovna, but not in the usual sense of the word “loved,” that is, he would have wanted, albeit secretly, to become her lover or husband. He loved her as an ideal woman, a mother of seven children, a loving and caring wife. So we love the sun, but we do not want to possess it, we do not strive to include it in the list of our movable property. Since the day of the memorial service, at which Gogol said to Khomyakov: “Everything is over for me,” Nikolai Vasilyevich has been going to church every day, consciously preparing himself for death. It wasn't suicide. He understood that he would soon be taken from this life, and soon he was indeed taken. Gogol did not die from illness. His soul was removed from his corporeal shell, like a fruit ripe for the Garden of Eden. We are used to grieving: it’s a pity that Pushkin died in a duel, he could still live and live; It’s a pity that Gogol refused decisive treatment; he would have lived for a long time... Why? Why live if life has already happened, if further temptations may arise that you will only regret that such and such did not die at the right time. And Leo Tolstoy, perhaps, should have left this world before his turbulence, but the Lord punished him with a long life, at the end of which repentance never came, pride was not extinguished. Gogol entered Lent in 1852 in order to celebrate Easter no longer in the mortal world. On Forgiveness Sunday, February 10, the last pre-Lent day, he voluntarily tried to entrust himself into the hands of spiritual censorship - he handed over his manuscripts to Count Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy, in whose apartment he lived. The request is this: hand over these papers to the Metropolitan of Moscow so that he can determine what needs to be printed and what should be destroyed. Tolstoy was afraid that Gogol was saying goodbye and that if he took the manuscripts, he would hasten the death of his beloved friend. And he did not accept the assignment entrusted to him. I think it’s in vain. Let’s imagine: he comes to Filaret with Gogol’s request. Filaret would probably have been touched and would have rushed to Nikolai Vasilyevich himself to cheer him up. Instead, Gogol took the papers intended for Philaret to read, and on the night of February 11-12, he burned them in the oven. On the first Saturday of Lent, Gogol first allowed Doctor Tarasenkov to examine him: “I know doctors are kind, they always wish well.” Tarasenkov noted: “He looked like a man for whom all tasks were resolved, every feeling was silent, every word was in vain.” Then the servant of God Nikolai received Holy Communion. Count Tolstoy probably already repented of not taking Gogol’s papers to the Metropolitan and thereby becoming an indirect accomplice in their burning. Alexander Petrovich finally went to Filaret, was received by him, and told everything in his heart. The Metropolitan sympathized and shed tears when he heard about the writer’s Christian zeal. “Tell him that the Church itself commands that in case of illness one should surrender to the will of the doctor,” he replied. – Convince him that salvation is not in fasting, but in obedience. And please report to me daily about Nikolai Vasilyevich’s condition. If not you, then Father Alexey, not he, then Father John. Father Alexey Sokolov was the parish priest in the church where Gogol recently went, and Father John Nikolsky was Nikolai Vasilyevich’s confessor. Tolstoy conveyed Filaret’s words to Gogol, and he allowed the doctors to carry out a course of treatment, which, however, as proven, did not so much help in recovery as accelerated death. But, I repeat, it was not a matter of illness, and Gogol’s healing was his very departure from life, which took place at about eight o’clock in the morning on February 21, 1852, on Thursday in the second week of Lent. Here it was important to show how the needle of this death passed through the fate of our main character with a noticeable stitch. We, of course, would like to see him at Gogol’s funeral service in the Tatyana University Church, and in the funeral procession, and during burial in the cemetery of the St. Daniel’s Monastery, we would like to read heartfelt lines dedicated to this amazing, albeit painful, but unshameful and Christian death of the great Russian writer. But, alas, there is none of this, and the strict style of documentary biography does not allow us to invent and speculate for greater beauty. And Gogol was not Philaret’s spiritual child, unlike the clear-eyed abbess, whose death followed that same year, shortly after Easter. The friendship of the shepherd and Margarita did not stop - Filaret with the abbess of the Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery Maria (Tuchkova). She saw in him the main outlet of her life and in her letters she constantly complained about something, or in other words, she cried. Just as Anthony was for Filaret, so that he would have someone to cry about his illnesses and sorrows, so for Maria there was Filaret. There are very touching episodes in the correspondence. So, in 1846, Abbess Maria complained to Philaret about a worm that was aggressively destroying the monastery’s crops, and he answered her: “I sympathize with your sorrow for your fields. May the Lord forbid the worm to consume the grain created for the service of men (Ps. 103:14) and to prepare bread for them. It's been frosty here for several days now. It seems they should kill the worm. Meanwhile, you had to resort to the punishing and merciful Lord through common prayer. One eyewitness told me that when the village manager informed the landowner that a worm was damaging the fields, the landowner immediately invited a priest and gathered all the people; They went to the fields, blessed the water with the prayer laid down for this occasion, sprinkled the fields and their edges, where devastation meant the trace of a worm. The next day, the steward brought the landowner many dead worms from the field as proof that the disaster was over. It was not this year, but our God and Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8). Cry to the Lord, so that He will not be completely angry and will not reward us according to our sins, but may He look upon our humility and satisfy His poor bread (Ps. 131:15). Let us fall down to Him together.” Illnesses increasingly haunted Mother Superior Maria, and Filaret, who was constantly ill himself, consoled her in his letters. In 1851, he blessed the architect Bykovsky to build a Cathedral on the Borodino field in the name of the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, on the day of whose celebration a great battle took place. By that time the monastery had already expanded enough to have a large church. Widows of heroes not only of the War of 1812, but also of other wars came here, became novices, and found solace and shelter. But the founder of the glorious Borodino monastery was rapidly fading away, and if quite recently the shepherd admonished her regarding humility in the face of illness, now in his letters he tried to strengthen her on the eve of death. “Christ is risen! May this word and its power be established in the heart of God’s servant, Abbess Mary! Hear also the word of Saint Chrysostom and strive to fulfill it: “Let no one fear death, for forgiveness will arise from the Tomb” (from the Word for Easter). The universal teacher instructs us wisely and comfortingly. If he had only said: “Do not be afraid of death, because life has shone from the Tomb,” we would still be in doubt whether we could be in communion with this life because of our sins. But when he does not command us to fear death because “forgiveness has risen from the Tomb,” then we sinners only need to open our souls through repentance and faith and see in them the light of forgiveness shining from the tomb of Christ, and at the same time the light of the life of the Risen Lord. So, obey Saint Chrysostom and do not indulge in the fear of death in the hope of Christ’s forgiveness, and if this fear comes, despite your desire to remove it, endure it without embarrassment as a means sent from the Lord to humble your thoughts,” the shepherd wrote to Margarita on March 31, 1852. And here is his last letter to her, dated April 18: “To the Venerable Abbess Mary - blessing, peace, good help and salvation from the Source of life and salvation, Christ our God... Healing is from the Lord, entrust yourself to Him. But thank Him for this, that you have good doctors. He sends them and acts through them. If the pain continues, accept this as a good visit from God, for benefit, although perhaps now invisible, and remain in obedience to His will in peace. In case of suffering, remember the saving sufferings of the Lord Jesus for us, and through the fellowship of faith, may your sufferings also be alleviated and become an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. If we suffer with Him, we will be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:17). Follow the advice of doctors at home, and if they advise, come to us. For salvation is in much counsel (Proverbs 11:14). May the Lord not forsake you and those who are with you with His mercy.” Having received this letter, she reconciled herself to illness and suffering, trying it on the suffering of the Savior. Day after day the disease worsened. On the last day of April, she woke up feeling a pleasant coolness on her face. Young Colonel Alexander Tuchkov sat at the head of the bed and applied a cold compress to her hot forehead. She stood up, he took her hand and led her far, far away, to where there were no battles, no suffering, no illnesses, no sorrows, no sighs. “Sing to me, I haven’t heard your wonderful voice for a long time,” he asked, and she began to sing, but not an Italian aria or a French song, but “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ...”, rushing with him to the shining heights, and then together they touched the heavenly keys and happily began to play them with four hands. And their son Nikolushka sat down next to them and also began to play, and they were already playing six hands... From the day of the death of the abbess, the Borodino monastery passed into a new quality - now it had its own history, and, realizing this, the Metropolitan of Moscow ordered the house of the late abbess Maria to be turned into a monastery museum. In his sermons of that time, he said that man was created in the image and likeness of the Infinite, and therefore, having achieved some desired goal on earth, he soon begins to experience mental oppression from the fact that what was achieved and once seemed great is now seen as small. The human soul, realizing its infinity, is not content with the finite. Therefore, we need to collect treasures not on earth, but in heaven, direct our deeds to God, not desire glory among people, it is transitory, but think about the glorious in the face of the Infinite Creator. Another long-time friend and addressee of Filaret, Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, died in Baden-Baden. He was a year younger than the Moscow Metropolitan, and even when he was an archimandrite in St. Petersburg, Filaret spoke out in defense of Zhukovsky’s possible marriage with Masha Protasova, but the girl’s mother still refused Vasily Andreevich, and this ardent love remained celibate, Masha married someone else. All his life Zhukovsky corresponded, and on occasion communicated with Filaret personally. He, like Tyutchev, was close to the idea that poetry is meaningless if it does not turn its heart to God. Death also flew over the Gethsemane monastery. There, schemamonk Matthew, revered as an elder, departed to the Lord. In the book “Monastic Letters,” Archimandrite Anthony left a memory of how, during his stay in the Gethsemane monastery in June 1851, Philaret decided to take a walk one evening. The monks were all already sitting in their cells, and only Elder Matthew met the Metropolitan, approached him with a blessing and the question: “How are you, Father Matthew?” – answered: - It’s bad, I indulge in laziness a lot, I pray little, due to weak eyesight I can’t read akathists. “Replace it with a heartfelt prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” Filaret advised reading the Jesus Prayer. “For a long time, father,” answered the schemamonk, “prayer in a dream does not leave my sinful heart, but, by the grace of the Lord, it is always in me.” Then Filaret blessed him and said: “You are satisfied.” Which meant: this is enough for you, meaning that if prayer does not leave your heart even in a dream, then what more can you want? “Peace to the soul of Father Matthew,” Filaret wrote to Anthony on May 2. “We remembered him now at the liturgy and requiem service together with the newly departed Abbess Maria and the nun Agnia.” – The remembrance of God, which is frequent and attentive, gradually turns into constant remembrance of Him; with constant remembrance of God naturally comes the feeling of oneself in the presence of God and thinking about the perfections and deeds of God; from thinking about the perfections and deeds of God, with the feeling of His presence, reverence for God, faith, prayer, love, the desire to please Him and the fear of breaking His commandments rise and grow, - Philaret said in a sermon on July 5, remembering the heartfelt prayer of Father Matthew, which did not leave him even during sleep. And in August he came to the Gethsemane skete, honored the grave of the deceased elder, here in Gethsemane he celebrated the Dormition and in his sermon he spoke about death and the joy that should accompany the death of a Christian: – After the dead there is usually a time of crying, then a time of consoling the sad; and beyond both, the time continues during which children and relatives enjoy the righteous inheritance of those who have departed... The Apostles cried when the life of the Mother of Light, like a quiet dawn after the Divine Sun of Christ, shining for the Church, faded away before their eyes. They cried with bitter tears of natural sadness, but at the same time with sweet tears of grace-filled tenderness: because faith in the undying grace of the Mother of the Lord and the feeling of reverent love for Her dominated the feeling of deprivation... If the joy that the resurrected Mother of God gives has its source in the presence of the Mother of God with us all our days: then it is obvious that joy, like a stream from this source, must flow at all times, until in the sea of eternal bliss... And the Church of Christ received this inheritance from the Mother of God and preserves it, and from days to days, from summer to summer, from century to century, does not cease to share it... Rejoice, therefore, souls striving in faith, in the image of Peter, who hastened before others to confess Christ the Son of God, and, by faith in Him, dared to walk on the waters!.. Rejoice, souls striving for the perfection of love, in the likeness of the beloved Disciple, who contemplated God primarily in His quality of love, with the eye of love, and in love contained all the teaching of life! Rejoice, you who preserve virginity and chastity! The Ever-Virgin is with you; and just as virginity brought John closer to Her, so it will bring Her closer to you... Rejoice, blessed are you married people! The betrothed Virgin and unbrided Mother, Who not only deigned to visit the bride and groom in Cana of Galilee, but also asked for the first open miracle for them from Her Divine Son, is not shunned by you; She loves virginity, but does not disparage marriage; and you who pray to Her will not be deprived of beneficial help if you look at marriage as a union not only natural, but also spiritual, having a high mysterious image of it in the union of Christ with the Church. Rejoice, pious parents and children raised in piety!.. Rejoice, although through tears, tested by various sorrows, but strengthened in patience and trust in God!.. What can those expect who do not strive in faith, do not strive for the perfection of spiritual love, are not zealous for truth and righteousness, do not honor virginity, do not sanctify marriage, childbearing and childbearing, do not bless God in happiness, and grumble in misfortune? We must tell the truth: it was not to them that the resurrected Mother of God spoke Her immortal words: Rejoice, it was not to them that she promised Her gracious presence... To those who did not approach the Mother of God through the feat of faith, the zeal of love, did not imitate the example of Her virtues and therefore did not acquire the right to inherit the blessed joy from Her, She left, as the last mercy, repentance - an inheritance that is not sweet at first, but a saving one later if it is directed towards correction life... Death flew around, like an autumn whirlwind tearing off leaves, then it came off nearby, then a leaf was torn from a branch even closer, and only you were still fluttering in the wind and did not fall off. Not long ago, Filaret lost another faithful friend and peer, Grigory Yakovlevich Vysotsky, who was a year older than him, studied at the Theological Academy, and then became a doctor. Professor of the Medical Academy, president of the Physico-Medical Society, chief physician of the Moscow Mariinsky Hospital, he was considered the best doctor in Moscow. “Now I don’t have a doctor in whom my trust would be confirmed by such experiences as in the late Vysotsky,” Filaret sadly lamented. “That’s why when you send me to the doctor, I don’t know where to go, and I don’t want to move.” Upon returning from the Lavra, the Metropolitan fell ill again. In those days, the ailing Bishop was visited on a special mission by the Adjutant General of His Imperial Majesty, Vice Admiral Efim Vasilyevich Putyatin. Preparations were underway for war, which, as prudent Russian politicians understood, was inevitable. Thirty years after the great Napoleonic robbery, Europe again needed to come to us, to plunder our Fatherland, for robbery is an ineradicable habit in the character of Western man. Putyatin intended to make a trip around the world, which had not so much scientific goals as diplomatic and intelligence ones. This journey will be described later in the book “Frigate “Pallada””, the author of which will be the great Russian writer, Putyatin’s secretary Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov, who participated in the voyage on the “Pallada”. Having visited the metropolitan, Putyatin informed him about the upcoming journey and, among other goals of the enterprise, named the enlightenment of the peoples sitting in the darkness of ignorance with the light of Christ. Philaret especially liked the name of the ship, because after the death of Mother Superior Maria, her closest associate, nun Palladia, became abbess at the Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery. Putyatin asked to supply the expedition with various church items necessary for the equal-to-apostolic activities of the Bishop of Kamchatka, Aleutian and Sakhalin, His Grace Innocent. He also asked for a missionary to help Innocent. Filaret blessed Putyatin and his upcoming voyage with great love, collected the necessary items, at the request of Efim Vasilyevich, composed a special litany for use in the ship’s church, and on the advice of Anthony, the Trinity Hieromonk Arefa was appointed as a missionary to the Pallas. Another missionary on the frigate was the remarkable orientalist and sinologist Archimandrite Avvakum (in the world - Dmitry Semenovich Chestnoy). Arefa will spend six years in the mission of St. Innocent, will work a lot, but in 1860 he will ask to go back to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Avvakum will be a clergyman on the Pallas, then he will go to China, to the Amur region, will serve under Count Muravyov-Amursky and will return, like Arefa in 1860, from the eastern borders of Russia to the European part and also to the Lavra, only not to Trinity-Sergius, but to Alexander Nevsky. Nun Palladia turned out to be incapable of leading the large Spaso-Borodinsky monastery; it was necessary to replace her. At one time, Abbess Maria said that it would be good to make novice Sophia abbess. Now they remembered this and began to prepare Sophia for tonsure. Sofya Vasilievna Volkonskaya, nee Princess Urusova, was once married to Prince Alexander Andreevich Volkonsky. Twenty years of marriage brought her both happiness and sorrow - during this time four children were born and died at different times, and in 1847 her husband passed away. Seeing the finger of God in these sad losses, Sofya Vasilievna went to the Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery as a novice and showed her business qualities there. In the fall of 1852, she was tonsured a nun under the name of Sergius, and then Saint Philaret himself performed the rite of consecrating her to the rank of abbess. On December 26, 1852, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow turned seventy years old. And again there is no mention of celebrations on this occasion, of which, apparently, there were none. In a letter to Anthony, the hero of the day reported that on the second day of the holiday, that is, Christmas, “I was very sick with a cold, especially in the head, which is why I could not use my eyesight.” That's all about the second day of the holiday, when it was his anniversary. In the new year, 1853, the tornado carried away another withered leaf - the Metropolitan’s own mother passed away. Evdokia Nikitichna was eighty-seven years old. As was customary, immediately after the early liturgy, at about eight o’clock, at half past nine, her loving son visited her to ask about her well-being. She was already so weak that she almost did not get up from her soft bed. Death did not come as a surprise; it was already expected - just about there. On March 20, Filaret, as usual, came to her from church and found the last hour of her parent’s life. She went to the Lord in his arms. He wrote in his diary: “The servant of God Evdokia, my mother, reposed at 9 o’clock in the morning.” Recently, the playwright, poet and journalist Nikolai Vasilyevich Sushkov became a frequent guest of Filaret; later recalling those days, he wrote that Filaret “without sobbing took the last breath of the deceased, without sobbing he paid the last debt to the one who had passed from time to eternity. Firmly awake during the prayer of remembrance and burial, I found in my soul the strength to meet the coffin in the cemetery, accompany me to the grave, sprinkle dust on the dust, and meekly and forlornly return to my cell to my usual labors and exploits.” There were no sobs or tears. Nobody saw them. But the saint wrote to his confessor Anthony: “Her life and death give assurance that she died in blessed hope. The number of her years and the last painful year prepared me for deprivation. I look at her departure with reverence, but often I want to cry. Thank God that I was honored to pay my last debt to her. Tired of studying with the chief prosecutor, in her last days I had to often come to her, sometimes at night, and sometimes spend several hours with her; and already felt a breakdown in health before her death; however, God arranged it so that before her death, I prayed in front of her, and witnessed her last quiet breaths, and, immediately after their cessation, I offered a prayer for the deceased. But when I came to the funeral service at her house for two days, I got such pain in my head and insides from a cold in my legs that on Sunday I lay down most of the day and had a difficult night that day; however, now he could fulfill his duty. I was consoled by my fellow servants, of their own free will, who gathered in sufficient numbers for her removal and burial, and by the multitude of people not only from home to church, and in church, but also in the country cemetery. Enough love and prayer.” At the request of Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov, the famous Russian chess player Prince Dmitry Semenovich Urusov, who was present at the funeral of Evdokia Nikitichna, left a detailed description of the funeral, from which we know that the funeral service took place not in the parish Trinity Church, but in the Church of Adrian and Natalia. It was much more spacious, distinguished by lush decoration, and was located not far from the Troitskaya Sloboda on 1st Meshchanskaya Street, now Mira Avenue. In 1936, this church, memorable for Muscovites, was destroyed by atheists. Metropolitan Philaret himself performed the liturgy, and the funeral eulogy was given to the confessor of the deceased, the parish archpriest. As he spoke, Filaret's eyes filled with tears. After the funeral service, the coffin was taken to the Pyatnitskoye cemetery. The burial took place there, and the Bishop, as expected, said to the ashes of his own mother: - You are the earth and you will go back to the earth. “At this time I stood near the bishop,” writes Urusov. “His face was covered with matte lightness. Without a doubt, a whole cross of heterogeneous feelings was erected on the Calvary of his heart; he didn't cry; the time of mourning and crying has passed; he prayed and meditated..." After the death of her mother, Filaret ordered to count all her offspring - children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren. Everyone who was alive in that year 1853. There were a lot of people - ninety-three people! This is how close relatives Moscow Chrysostom had at that time! In his letter to Anthony, Filaret mentions that in those days he was very tired from studying with the chief prosecutor. Protasov was sent to Moscow by the sovereign, providing him with a rescript in which he was ordered to unexpectedly appear in the Mother See and conduct a thorough check of all church property, antiquities and jewelry, since rumors had reached the emperor’s attention that antiquities and jewelry in Moscow do not have inventories, and therefore easily disappear from church property in private collections. Protasov arrived on March 11, and from that day on, every day after the liturgy and visiting his mother, Filaret went to Povarskaya to Protasov’s house and spent time there until the evening, performing the prescribed check. Fortunately, by that time a strong change had occurred in Protasov, and he was no longer distinguished by his former rudeness and arrogance, he replaced the military uniform with a civilian frock coat, and the general’s spurs - and in 1848 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general - no longer clung to the bishop’s mantle, that is, he no longer leaned on the metropolitan with his entire weight, he was courteous, friendly, polite, calm. Busily and without hassle, the chief prosecutor and the metropolitan carried out an audit of Moscow values. This was not just a quibble between St. Petersburg and Moscow. All over Russia, audits of values ​​were carried out, because war was about to break out. Now its approach was expected not from year to year, but from month to month. Nicholas I did not publicly recognize Louis Napoleon, who had ascended the throne, as Emperor of France - in his greeting he called him not brother, as was expected in the case of recognition, but friend. In December 1852, a quarrel broke out with France over the keys to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which the Turks, who owned the Holy Land, took from the Russians and handed over to the French, thereby implying that the terms of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire were no longer recognized by them and they did not intend to protect the interests of Orthodox Christians. With the key to the manger of the Lord, the French and Turks opened Pandora's box, from which a new war with Russia emerged. The war, which we used to call Crimean, Europeans - Eastern, but which was originally called differently in Russia - the war for the manger of the Lord. On February 23, 1853, Prince Alexander Sergeevich Mentikov arrived in Constantinople and presented the Sultan with an ultimatum demanding recognition of all Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire as under the special protection of the Russian Emperor. Orthodox Christians made up a third of Turkey's population, numbering about twelve million, mostly living in the Balkans. Having learned about the ultimatum, the French sent their warships to the Aegean Sea, and the English ambassador assured the Sultan that in the event of war, England would act against Russia. In May, the Sultan rejected the Russian ultimatum; in response, Nicholas I terminated diplomatic relations with Turkey and sent troops into Moldova and Wallachia. On June 22, European style, Herzen declared war on Russia in London, launching the press of his “Free Russian Printing House.” And on June 25 according to the Orthodox calendar, on the birthday of Nicholas I, the Metropolitan of Moscow entered the war on the side of Russia: “We hear from our most pious autocrat the word that came out into the public ear, with which he, combining love of peace with firmness in truth, protects the rights and tranquility of Orthodox Christianity in the east, and especially in the Holy Places of the Holy Land. Isn’t it comforting to see him here on the path that prophecy destined for the pious kings - on the path of the guardian king and defender of God’s Zion? On October 4, the Turkish Sultan Abdul-Mecid declared war on Russia, and a couple of weeks later the royal manifesto “On the War with the Ottoman Porte” was released. The first battle with the Turks took place near the village of Oltenica in Romania. But everyone understood that the war would be not only with Turkey, but with all of Europe. And soon the combined Anglo-French fleet entered the Bosporus Strait. “This can truly be a biblical war, a war between the people of God and the pagans,” Philaret wrote to St. Anthony these days, “only if we were less infected with the pagan rituals of the West! “Lord, forgive us and protect the glory of your name before the tongues!” The events of the war for the manger of the Lord initially developed in such a way that they brought only joy to the Russians. On November 12, in the Battle of Akhaltsikhe, the troops of General Andronikov defeated the army of Ali Pasha that invaded Georgia; November 18 – a huge victory! - on the Sinop raid, Admiral Nakhimov destroyed the entire Turkish fleet and captured Vice Admiral Osman Pasha; the next day, Major General Bebutov defeated the Turks near Bash-Kadiklar; and on Christmas Day in Romania, near the village of Cetati, Russian troops defeated the eighteen thousand strong Turkish army. But soon the Anglo-French squadron entered the Black Sea, thereby no longer hiding its intentions to fight on the side of Turkey. Seeing the alarming events unfolding, Moscow Chrysostom composed a prayer, which was henceforth read in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra during a special prayer service for the power and glory of Russian weapons: “Christ the King, great throughout the whole earth! All the ends of the earth are in Your hand. Yours is the sea, and You created it. You rule over the power of the sea, and you subdue the confusion of its waves, Your arm with strength: let Your right hand be exalted. Rise to our aid. You see our hearts and the thoughts of our enemies. We were not at enmity with anyone, our king, with a peaceful word, wanted to give peace to Your holy places and the Orthodox worshipers of Your name, but the enemies of Your name rebelled against us, and, more unexpectedly, those who called themselves Christians became friends of the enemies and tormentors of Christianity and, peaceful with us, not offended by us in any way, incited against us the tricks of slander and, finally, weapons on land and sea. Ruler of the sea power! Lift up Your hand against their pride! May the water of the sea be angry with them! Let the spirit of strength stand against them! Destroy their weapons, destroy the unity of unrighteousness! If we have sinned before You (for who will live and not sin?), cover with Your mercy the sins that we humbly confess before You. Help us, O God, our Savior, for the glory of Your name: lest the pagans say: Where is their God? Look also at the sons of the Orthodox East who are our same believers, who are now more burdened than before under the alien yoke, suffering innocently, unarmed, tortured and killed by insensitive, unfaithful oppressors, before the equally insensitive gaze of the non-Orthodox West. Help, Lord, our most pious king not only to protect his property, but also to snatch our brethren outside the borders of our Fatherland from the snare of mortals and tear their bonds to pieces.” In such troubled times as those that hung over Europe and Russia in the very middle of the 19th century, people are always prone to mysticism, want to know the near future and, out of their wildness, turn to all kinds of soothsayers, fortune-tellers, and sorcerers. And then, in the 1850s, a new heretical doctrine flared up with a bright flame - spiritualism, based on the recognition of the ability of people to communicate with the souls of the dead with the help of geniuses endowed with a special gift and called mediums. What scope has opened up for all kinds of charlatans and swindlers! The belief that one can communicate with the spirits of the dead is the oldest in human history. And now this primitive belief flared up with the same force. Moreover, among educated people, representatives of high society! At the end of 1847, spiritualism arose in America, which by this time began to declare itself as the nest of all modern heresies. Having quickly flown across the ocean, spiritualism instantly spread throughout Europe, gripped by a new revolutionary intoxication, which is always accompanied by darkness of the mind. In France, Pestalozzi’s student Hippolyte Rivaille, who took the pseudonym Allan Cardec, gave spiritualism the shell of a certain new Christian doctrine; in the introduction to his “Book of Spirits,” the new heresiarch stated that he was introducing the term “spiritism” to designate his doctrine, since “new concepts require new names.” Developing Mesmer's ideas, he began to study the paranormal phenomena that occurred during spiritualistic séances, and took on the role of the new savior of humanity, a great medium, etc. Of course, he began to compose his own “holy scripture” in the form of dialogues with the spirits of the dead and soon announced that he had created “a completely new theory of the existence of humanity, its fate and destiny.” According to this theory, after death, people experience new incarnations in other bodies, and the chain of these reincarnations continues until the person reaches the highest perfection. After this, his soul settles on any of the planets of the solar system and there tastes the joys of heaven, from time to time going on a journey to the sinful earth in order, if possible, to help those souls who are still far from perfection. A very effective fraudulent trick on the part of the enemy of the human race! Most people are weak, and even if they believe in God, they continue to break the commandments. If they truly believe, they are frightened by the coming retribution for the Fall. And then someone comes and, with a scientific air, convincingly promotes reincarnation. How good! My soul is not yet perfect, and my sins will only lead to the fact that after death it will end up in another body, and there we will start all over again and begin to strive for perfection and thereby atone for the sins of this life. Phew, you can relax, not worry about what will happen beyond the grave. You can even make a little mistake. No matter what, sins, I’ve still sinned in this life! We'll fix everything next time! In France, spiritualism became so popular that Emperor Napoleon III himself became an adherent of the new heresy. From France, the spiritualist heresy flew to England and Germany, and now - hop! - it is in Russia, and in the best houses of Moscow and St. Petersburg people gather at round tables in the evenings in order to enter into mysterious, scary, but such entertaining communication with the spirits of the dead. And the medium - well paid, of course - leads them, adherents of the new religion, to unknown “higher” worlds... Another twenty years will pass before science responds with a blow to spiritualism. In the seventies of the 19th century, on the initiative of Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, a Commission was created to study mediumistic phenomena, which will include many authoritative scientists and which will pronounce the verdict: “Spiritual phenomena arise from unconscious movements or conscious deception, and spiritualistic teaching is superstition.” In “Materials for Judging Spiritualism,” Mendeleev will finally defeat the spiritualist heresy from a scientific point of view. But this will happen in twenty years, but for now Christian leaders were the first to join the fight against heresy, and Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow is ahead of everyone. In 1853, he wrote an article against table-turning, which, in view of the outbreak of hostilities, acquired a particularly large number of adherents, and most of all among the so-called “high society”, always ready to rush from Christian prudence to the most shameful and stupid ignorance and deception. What can I say if even such a smart person as Vladimir Ivanovich Dal became interested in spiritualism and evoked the spirit of the deceased Zhukovsky! In order to make sure that before him was the spirit of Vasily Andreevich himself, Vladimir Ivanovich asked him a question that only Zhukovsky could answer, and the spirit answered. Dahl’s friend, a deeply Orthodox man Nikolai Mikhailovich Potulov, a researcher of ancient liturgical singing, having learned about this, clearly objected to Vladimir Ivanovich: – The correct answer of your “spirit” only confirms the ability of the enemy of the human race to find out our secrets and take on the images of our loved ones in order to seduce us from the true path. Another intelligent person turned out to be a particularly ardent supporter of spiritualism, and where - in a Slavophile environment! - Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov’s own nephew, Alexander Nikolaevich. Of course, the Church had to be the first to repel heresy. The Bible says: “When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, then do not learn to do the abominations that these nations have done: you shall not have anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, a soothsayer, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, a sorcerer, a charmer, a conjurer of spirits, a magician, or a questioner of the dead; For everyone who does this is an abomination to the Lord, and for these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you; Be blameless before the Lord your God" (Deut. 18:9-13). And, relying on these words, Orthodox preachers denounced the heresy of spiritualism as being instilled in people by evil spirits, and predicted that practicing spiritualism could lead to possession by demons, which in fact often happened. Believing that he communicates with the souls of the dead, the participant in the seance enters into intercourse with demons who appear in human form. In his accusatory article, Metropolitan Philaret wrote: “It’s sad to hear about fortune telling that many, like children looking for a new toy, rushed at it without thinking about what kind of toy it was and how the game might end.” He called on those who succumbed to the new temptation to come to their senses and realize “who they are dealing with and from whom they want to learn the secret.” He asked the question: “Do the spirits of the dead, whose names are announced to them, really answer the fortune tellers, or are these names used falsely, and some unknown ones are hidden under them?” And he himself answered it: “In this last case, these unknown ones are liars, ascribing to themselves other people’s names: but lies do not belong to pure beings; the father of lies is the devil." The subverter of the new heresy, taking advantage of his deep education, subverted its very novelty: “For those who look at divination as a new discovery of a hitherto unknown force in nature and on this, perhaps, think of establishing for themselves the legal right to continue research on it, it is useful to note that their work does not belong to the honor of not only a reasonable, but also an accidental discovery in nature: they only somehow made their way into the area of ​​the old pagan superstitions. Tertullian, in the 23rd chapter of his apology for Christianity, denouncing the dreams of pagan magic (magiae phantasmata) and attributing them to the action of demons, says: per quos et sargae et mensae divinare consueverunt: through them both goats and tables usually perform fortune telling.” Before publishing the article on fortune telling as a separate brochure, Filaret sent it to his personal censor, Governor Anthony, with a note: “You hear, I think, about fortune telling with tables. In St. Petersburg, in Paris and in Moscow, tables say that the dead speak through them. I am sending you an extract from a letter that I happened to write about this to St. Petersburg. Tell me how this seems to you and whether it is not suitable to make this known for the sake of caution to those who can take caution. The other day I came across a French book in which it is written that in America the fortune tellers are counted in many thousands and are united in societies and that the tables preach the transformation of Christianity and states just like the sages of 1848.” In November, a note on the table turning reached St. Petersburg and was not only read at court, but also aroused great support. Thank God, the sovereign and empress, as well as their entire family, did not fall into the fashionable heresy, remaining faithful Christians. And Filaret’s article was soon published as a separate brochure or, as he himself put it, a “printed notebook.” And now letters have already arrived saying that many, having read Philaret’s instructions, came to their senses and renounced heresy. But even after this, the saint tried to find out everything there was about spiritualism and fought against it. He revealed the origin of fortune telling from the American Mormon sect. The Frankfurt rabbi Levison, having moved to St. Petersburg, converted to Orthodoxy under the name Vasily Andreevich, his godfather was Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov, but with the advent of spiritualism, this Vasily Andreevich was ardently imbued with heresy and, as Filaret indignantly put it, “wrote an article about tables, in which he talks about the journey of souls from the body from star to star on the magnetic thread of the nervous spirit.” “The spirit of beauty breathes strongly!” At first, Filaret reacted to the appearance of photography as something akin to spiritualism, and resolutely refused to be photographed. Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov persuaded him to agree to have a daguerreotype portrait made, but the saint called such a portrait hellish. He spoke about photography as follows: “Matter is brought into some kind of extraordinary irritation so that it suffers from the fall of ordinary rays of light from the object and receives an impression.” He closely followed everything that was happening in the world, and especially the events of the war. In November 1853, the Turks captured Fort St. Nicholas. General Alexei Petrovich Ermolov did not regret this fortress, which had long since fallen into disrepair and, in his opinion, was unworthy of mourning. Filaret reacted differently to this: “It’s a pity that such a great name is attached to a thing that is now trampled upon by infidels.” He was worried about the development of events! Even without any false spirits and table-turning, he foresaw that a major war was unfolding, the beginning of which Prince Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov had already compared with the beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812. From the treasury of the Chudov and Perervinsky monasteries, as well as the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Filaret ordered to allocate a large sum - 50 thousand rubles in gold - to strengthen the Russian army. On January 10, 1854, Saint Philaret was declared the highest gratitude and gratitude of the Holy Synod - for this donation and for the labors incurred in converting the Rogozh schismatics. At the same time, he was worried that many commanders, going into battle, did not have the same Christian inspiration in their hearts as the invincible Suvorov and Ushakov possessed. “It’s a pity, of course,” he wrote, “that military leaders think in arrogance to find strength, and not in hope in God.” He was pleased with the news that before the Battle of Sinop, Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov ordered a prayer service on all his ships, and then gave the entire fleet a password: “God and glory!” And he won. “Although I haven’t forgotten the glory,” Filaret grumbled, “but, thank God, I remembered God; and so he was given the opportunity to destroy the Turkish fleet. It is noteworthy that when the burning material from the exploding Turkish ships fell on the city and ignited it, and, consequently, it was no longer art that caused the fire, the entire Turkish city burned, but the Christian part remained intact.” To arouse Christian feelings in the soldiers, Filaret was personally present at the farewell to those sent from Moscow to the theater of military operations, performed prayers for the glory of Russian weapons, sprinkled water on the regiments, going around formation after formation, so that not a single warrior was left unsprinkled. How keenly Filaret understood international politics, for example, the relationship between Queen Victoria and the then Minister of the Interior, Viscount Palmerston, is evidenced by an excerpt from his letter to Anthony dated December 14, 1853: “After the extermination of the Turkish squadron, all English newspapers cried out against Russia. They say that the queen demanded that the ministers inquire why this was happening when Russia was in alliance with England and did not offend England in any way. Upon inquiry it turned out that this was due to excitement from Lord Palmerston. The Queen is said to have thanked him for his service and said that she had no further need for it. Now they write that he is leaving the ministry, allegedly due to disagreement with other ministers regarding parliamentary reform. If this is true, may God save the queen. But it may be feared that Palmerston will form a strong opposition and overthrow the present Ministry; and then the latter may be worse than the former.” Everything was confirmed exactly. Palmerston soon overthrew the Aberdeen government and became prime minister himself. It was thanks to the tireless actions of this man that England moved from a moderately hostile policy towards Russia to a sharply hostile one. The new year of 1854 began with the cessation of Russia's political relations with England and France, which announced an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Wallachia, and entered into a military alliance with Turkey. In response, the troops of Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich crossed the Danube and began military operations at its mouth, trying to free the western coast of the Black Sea from the Turks. The reaction of the Europeans was not long in coming - on March 15, England declared war on Russia, and the next day, France. But if only England and France! “Peace is not given to us, and the war looks angrier and angrier,” wrote Filaret. - Only Holland said that she remains in the same alliance with everyone. Almost all other states are sent by secret embassies, as if they were hatching a conspiracy.” The emperor dreamed of an old man in monastic clothes, but white, who asked: “To protect Christians,” answered Nikolai Pavlovich. Hearing the answer, the elder blessed him with the cross. Soon the sovereign was in for a blow - Prussia and Austria signed a protocol of unanimity with England and France, thereby legitimizing the unity of Europe in the fight against Russia. And this is after the Russian Tsar saved Austria and Prussia from the revolution, earning forever the hatred of the Hungarians, who to this day remember us the death of the beautiful Petőfi! The Tsar was still waiting for the Europeans to come to their senses, was in no hurry to declare a retaliatory war, and only on Easter, March 30, his manifesto “On the War with England and France” was published. Ten days later, the Anglo-French squadron approached Odessa and carried out a powerful bombardment, but was unable to land. Thorough preparations began for the landing in Crimea. English ships bombarded the Solovetsky Monastery and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. But neither here nor there they managed to land on the shore and launch hostilities, and here and there the enemies went home empty-handed. On the emperor’s birthday, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, the Metropolitan of Moscow gave a speech, at the beginning of which it was said: - What is the time for now? And now is the time to thank God for victories on land and at sea: but these victories have not yet won us peace, and even some of them, through shameless false thinking, are turned into an excuse to multiply our enemies. Therefore, now is the time to especially look at our king’s firmness in truth in the face of an increasing number of enemies. Expressing his determination to protect the tranquility of Orthodoxy in the east, if possible without disturbing the peace, he did not declare war on anyone, although this was prompted by the actions of not only emerging enemies, but also imaginary peacemakers. But when the enemies of Christianity declared war on Russia, our tsar accepted it with trust in God. And when two Christian powers, which were not offended by Russia in any way and who, in a dispute foreign to them, recognized Russia as right, declared war on her beyond expectation, our Tsar did not hesitate to accept this war with trust in God. He put the thought of a feat for truth above the thought of an increasing number of enemies. In the summer of 1854, Russian troops continued to win victories over the Turks and took the important fortress of Bayazet in Transcaucasia. Sevastopol, which by that time had become the main base of the Russian fleet on the Black Sea, was not yet in the minds of our compatriots what it has become now. His name did not have time to shine with glory, to groan with pain in the Russian heart. It was after the defense of the city during the Crimean War that it became Sevastopol for us. The enemy sought to capture the city, since the best water area in the entire sea was located here. It is most convenient to keep a large flotilla here. The Allies developed a plan for a mutual assault on the city from both land and sea. To attack from land it was necessary to land somewhere to the north. We chose another port - Evpatoria. The enemy's armada consisted of steamships, huge double- and triple-decker sailing battleships, brigs, corvettes, frigates, large, medium and small transports. They carried seventy thousand field troops with a ratio of one thousand artillerymen to eight thousand infantry. The English ocean-going steamer Himalaya alone could carry two infantry regiments with artillery and a baggage train. With artillerymen on the ships of the flotilla there were a huge number of siege weapons, cannons and mortars, as well as countless shells for them. Along with the British and French, the remnants of the Turkish fleet and Egyptian ships moved. However, both the Turks and the Egyptians, according to the testimony of Europeans, looked very shabby. And in the upcoming war they were assigned the role of servants. At the head of the French troops were Generals Canrobert and Saint-Arnaud, both of whom became famous for their unheard-of cruelty during the suppression of the Parisian uprising of 1852, when they ordered to shoot not only at barricades, but simply at crowds of passers-by, at entrances and balconies, at parks and squares, in order to completely intimidate the Parisians. The former actor Saint-Arnaud suffered from an incurable stomach disease, a hellish stench was coming from his mouth, he knew that his days were numbered, and he fiercely hated all of humanity, wanting to send as many two-legged creatures to the next world as possible before he himself went there. Before the suppression of the Paris uprising, Canrobert and Saint-Arnaud distinguished themselves in Algeria, where they exterminated entire Arab villages even more mercilessly. From them came the hatred of the Algerians towards the French, which has not dried up to this day. Now Louis Bonaparte hoped that both of these thugs would take worthy revenge on Russia for the capture of Paris by Alexander I in 1814. The commanders-in-chief of the British troops also burned with hatred of the Russians for the same reason, although from a different perspective. The fact is that Generals Raglan and Brown were both adjutants and students of Wellington, and the former lost his right arm at Waterloo. They are used to repeating everywhere that it was England that turned Napoleon’s head. But the capture of Paris by the Russians remained like a log in the eye of each of them. Whatever one may say, these savages took Bonaparte’s capital. It was necessary to prove to the eastern barbarians who is the boss of the world! The landing of Allied troops in Yevpatoria on September 15, 1854 was the largest landing operation for ninety years, and only the opening of the “second front” in 1944 broke the “world record” set by the British and French in the Crimea. According to eyewitnesses, not just a navy approached the shores of Yevpatoria, but a real floating city, in which formidable ships were their homes. Seventy thousand soldiers and officers and about thirty thousand of all kinds of servants landed on the shore. The Yevpatoriya operation of 1854 turned out to be completely harmless for the allies. Leading British journalist Russell hastened to send a gallant dispatch to the London newspaper “The Times” that the war can already be considered won, since Russian ships never dared to attack at sea, and Russian troops, when the Anglo-French armada approached the shores of Crimea, rushed in all directions without firing a single shot. In fact, the main Russian force at that time was concentrated much further south, in the valley of the Alma River, halfway from Evpatoria to Sevastopol. The troops were commanded by Adjutant General Alexander Menshikov, the great-grandson of the famous Generalissimo, a chick of Petrov's nest. Back in June, Menshikov identified Yevpatoria as the most possible landing site for enemy troops. He considered the position on Alma excellent for a successful defensive-offensive battle. The fact that he did not meet the enemies at the landing site, but began to wait for them in a more convenient position on Alma, was later almost unanimously recognized as a fatal mistake. It must be added: no one expected that the Allies would be able to land such a huge landing force. The military theorist and historian Genrikh Veniaminovich Zhomini was then very popular in Russia. The chief of staff of Marshal Ney and the French commandant of Smolensk in 1812, he had been in Russian service since 1813, and his opinion was considered the most authoritative. Jomini argued that a large landing was impossible, but his theoretical theories were refuted by the actions of the Allies. Saint-Arnaud and Raglan sent ambassadors to Evpatoria demanding the surrender of the city, but, as it turned out, the Russian garrison had already managed to leave its location and move south to Alma. From now on, everyone repeated the phrase of General Bosquet: “These Russians don’t want to fight us at all!” The landing allies began to hastily plunder the surrounding villages, entirely populated by Crimean Tatars. They completely took out food supplies prepared for the winter, raped Tatar women, and stole livestock. The unfortunate Tatars fled in droves to Evpatoria, where, according to rumors, the power of the Turkish Sultan had already been proclaimed, but even there they were met by the laughing faces of European infidels. O Allah! Is this why they waited so long for the arrival of these liberators? Was it for this reason that blasphemous prayers were performed in the mosques of Constantinople to the Almighty, so that He would send success to some infidels against others?.. After landing in Yevpatoria, the Allies successfully developed an offensive, having a double numerical superiority, defeated the Russian troops in the Battle of the Alma River, took Balaklava, and approached Sevastopol. To block the enemy in the Sevastopol roadstead, on the orders of Admiral Kornilov, seven ships were sunk. The Allied army began to besiege the city from land. The Sevastopol suffering has begun, the great harvest of death!.. At the end of September, the sovereign's sons, Grand Dukes Nikolai and Mikhail, went to Crimea. On the way we stopped in Moscow to receive a blessing from Filaret. Having met them at the Chudov Monastery and blessed them, the saint said: - Blessed Sovereigns! We hear that love for the Fatherland draws you to a place where a strong feat in defense of the Fatherland may lie ahead, and that the august parent has blessed this desire of yours. So all the sons of our Tsar, each in his own field, in his own way, give the sons of Russia an example of active love for the Fatherland and jealousy for exploits. And Russia will bless your jealousy. The Lord of strength is with you. May He command His angels to protect you in all your ways. May the angel of the Lord encamp around those who fear Him for salvation, victory and glory. Ahead were a terrible autumn, a monstrous bombardment of Sevastopol, the death of Admiral Vladimir Alekseevich Kornilov, the Battle of Balaklava, and the bloody Battle of Inkerman. In November, Metropolitan Philaret blessed women going to war as sisters of mercy in the Mariinsky Church of the Imperial Dowager's House: “The word of the Church comes to you, sisters of Christian compassion for the sick, who are now called by the Tsar’s love for mankind to the special feat of Christian care for those who are sick from wounds received in the battle for the faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland. A feat, no matter how unusual and difficult for you, is just as blessed and capable of arousing unflagging zeal. War is a terrible thing for those who undertake it without need, without truth, with a thirst for self-interest or dominance, which has turned into a thirst for blood. They bear a heavy responsibility for the blood and disasters of their own and others. But war is a sacred matter for those who accept it out of necessity, in defense of truth, faith, and the Fatherland. He who struggles in this battle with weapons accomplishes the feat of faith and truth, which the Christian martyrs accomplished by confessing faith and truth, suffering and death for this confession; and, accepting the wounds, and laying down his life in this battle, he follows in the footsteps of the martyrs to the imperishable crown... The wound of the faithful warrior, which you alleviate with duty and healing, shines with valor now and will shine in eternity. If, under your care, he returns from the path of death, you will deserve the gratitude of not only him, but also the Fatherland, to whom you are returning your precious son. If he is destined to finish his earthly path and go to the heavenly fatherland, you will have in heaven the Heavenly Father who is grateful to you and calls upon you the blessing. By thinking this way, you can look with reverence at the object of your feat and thereby moderate the grief and fear naturally produced by the spectacle of suffering... Not much is required of you; participation in the matter of warfare is not required; all that is required is quite a strong spirit so that you are not embarrassed by the thought of war, while doing the work of peace and love for mankind... To Christ, the Physician of souls and bodies, mentally offer the ulcers of the sick entrusted to your care and your own sorrows that may happen... To the Mother of the Lord, for the joy of all those who mourn, you are presented with special protection: have constant faith in the reality, closeness, and always readiness of this protection... With your inner prayer at the very bedside of the sick, and, as needed and convenient, and with a word of gentle reminder, try encourage them to look to the Doctor of souls and bodies... Have uniform, impartial care for all those who are sick; Use especially vigilant work according to the special requirement of the disease, and not according to the preference of the person. For the sick, for those who require help, be like relatives, but in person remain strangers, so that the purity of Christian love is not obscured by partiality, so that the preference of one is not untrue in relation to another. We rejoice that you wished to accept and have now accepted the Divine guidance on your path and deed - you have partaken of the Body and Blood of Christ. Go in peace: the Lord is with you. How much easier it was for them to go to the harvest of death and endure all the horrors of war after such a powerful parting word! In mid-December, a new manifesto of the emperor, “On an appeal to Russia on the occasion of a real war,” was released. Speaking about him, Filaret allowed himself to criticize the military policy of the sovereign and commander-in-chief of the troops in Crimea Menshikov: “Thank God that the new manifesto contains an appeal to God. Or maybe it would be better if we confessed more clearly that more than once we were found ill-prepared to repel enemies, and only the intercession of the Lord saved us. They say that in the battle of Alma our forces were so unequal with the enemy’s that if they had known this, they could have immediately rushed to Sevastopol with greater hope. The Lord hid this from them.” The harvest of death was not only on the battlefields and on the Sevastopol redoubts and forts. In the summer and autumn there was cholera again in Moscow and other cities of Russia, damn it. “Recently, an archpriest, a priest and a deacon died of cholera in Moscow...”, “Our choirboy died of cholera. This is the first time since 1830,” flashes through Filaret’s letters to Anthony. And again he prayed incessantly for the end of the epidemic, and at the end of autumn he read thanksgiving prayers when the cholera went away. The new year of 1855 began in Moscow with the celebration of the centenary anniversary of the university, and on January 12, in the Tatyana University Church, Bishop Filaret delighted students and teachers with his solemn speech, blessing the work of future philosophers and historians, astronomers and philologists: – What is science looking for in the immeasurable space of the universe and in the secret repositories of human nature? - Truths. Assert that it cannot be found: you will strike science with a fatal blow. But is it really possible to find the truth? - One must think that it is possible if the mind cannot live without it, but it seems to live and, of course, does not want to admit that it is deprived of life... But by vocation I am a wise man and a natural scientist; What should be my attitude towards the truth of Revelation? – Do not dream that you can create wisdom; think better that wisdom can come and recreate you... I am a seeker of the truth of human descriptions; What do I owe to the truth of God? – Do not allow yourself to see in the existence of humanity with a dull gaze only the discordant play of chance and the struggle of passions, or blind fate; sharpen your eye and notice the traces of God's providence, wise, good and righteous... I am a researcher of the stars, planets and their laws; What does the truth of God require of me? – You have very skillfully increased the insight of your vision in order to see in the heavens what is invisible to the simple eye: try to also skillfully increase the insight of your hearing, so that you can clearly hear and proclaim to others how the heavens will tell the glory of God... I am a lover and cultivator of the elegant word; Should I, too, enslave the freedom and beauty of speech to the rigor of the highest truth? - Think about it, will the dignity of your work be great if the beautiful flowers of your words turn out to be barren empty flowers? Isn’t it better that the fruitful seed of edifying truth is hidden in them and that they emit the fragrance of moral purity?.. So flow along the royal path, the royal abode of knowledge, from your first century to your second century. On the day of St. Alexis, Moscow Chrysostom called on the Russian people to improve themselves in order to be worthy of the glory of their ancestors: - Sons of Russia! The God of Vladimir, the God of Alexander Nevsky, the God of Peter, Alexy, Jonah, Philip, Sergius, through generations and centuries, betrayed and preserved for us the pure, holy, Orthodox faith of Christ and through faith sowed and grew in the lives of our ancestors good seeds capable of mutually nourishing faith and extending its effect in posterity. Are we using this heritage carefully? Do we guard this treasure vigilantly?.. Our pious ancestors on holidays and fasts, participating in church evening, morning and afternoon services, reverently sacrificed to God; and found their own pleasure in it. We recognize the blessed legacy of these dispositions in those whom we saw with consolation filling this church during all the days of this week of fasting. But aren’t there many among us who devote the hours of the pre-holiday evening to spectacles and amusements, and the hours of the holiday morning to sleep, after a night turned into a day unworthy of the sun? Our ancestors may not have always feasted moderately on holiday; but on a non-holiday day they were usually abstinent and hardworking and strictly observed fasting; Nowadays you can often meet people who glorify luxury as a virtue; working days are spent in play and idleness and insult the sanctity of fasting, some by covering a slightly modified form of luxury with the name of fasting, others, often completely forgetting about fasting... Should we point out servility to someone else’s inconstancy and immodesty in clothing? Should I point out Herodias’s passion for the art, which has become almost a law for many? Should I point out a delicacy unknown to nature with the ashes and smoke of a rare potion? Should I point out the custom of many to use an alien language unnecessarily, as if some difference of higher rank and education? Maybe I'll be accused of paying attention to little things? - Accuse, if you like: it will not benefit you; It’s more useful for you to think about whether you can justify yourself when you collect little things from someone else’s land, of course not indicated by wisdom, and fill your bowels with them, spewing out from it the good things laid down by your good ancestors? Someone actually grinned: “Our old man is grumbling again!” - and someone, perhaps for the first time, thought: “Why am I, when we are at war with England and France, sporting English and French outfits and speaking French more than Russian, and even English? Why don’t I stop smoking this “weird potion”, don’t fast, and yesterday I danced until I dropped again?.. And we still want God to give us victories over our enemies?!” At the beginning of the new year, 1855, death, continuing the harvest, mowed down two ears of grain one after another. The death of the first was shocking in its unexpectedness. The death of the second made the whole country shudder, it was so unexpected and ominous. The head of the Church died in January. The head of state died in February. Two Nicholas. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Protasov, chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, died at the age of fifty-six on January 15, 1855, as Filaret wrote, “due to an illness that, as they say, lasted only a few hours.” He died in St. Petersburg, and was brought to Moscow to bury his body, where it rested in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery. In the synodal period of the history of the Russian Church, an entire era ended when “the general’s spurs clung to the bishop’s robes” and when the head of the Church unquestioningly obeyed the tsar. “I know only one sovereign” - this was Protasov’s motto during all the years of his reign. One could only guess which new warrior the emperor would appoint for this position, given that the country was in a state of difficult war, which so far was not going in our favor. Temporarily, the duties of Chief Prosecutor were performed by Alexander Ivanovich Karasevsky - Privy Councilor, Director of the Spiritual Educational Directorate at the Holy Synod; in 1825–1826 he was an assistant to the director of affairs of the Investigative Commission in the case of the Decembrists, then served as an official of special assignments under the Minister of Finance, director of affairs of the Commission of Theological Schools, a member of the economic committee at the Synod, and director of the newly established Spiritual educational administration. Under him and through him, a reform of Count Protasov’s religious educational institutions was carried out. More than once he had to replace the chief prosecutor, and now he began to fulfill his duties, and everyone knew that it would not be for long, since Alexander Ivanovich suffered from an incurable illness and was also preparing to leave this mortal world. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich Romanov died at the age of fifty-eight on February 18, 1855. His illness lasted longer than Protasov’s, but it was also very fleeting. The king's haters instantly spread vile rumors that, seeing the failures of the war, the emperor committed suicide by taking poison. Otherwise, they say, how can one explain that such a healthy person suddenly faded away so quickly? They found confirmation that the body of the deceased was rapidly decomposing and no embalming helped. And there were few who gave a prudent rebuff to the slanderers. First of all, you need to understand that Nikolai Pavlovich was a believer and understood what a terrible sin - suicide. Second: he had been preparing for this war for a long time and understood perfectly well that it would drag on and at first could turn out to be very unsuccessful, and therefore he was preparing for a long siege from Europe, hoping for a future great counter-offensive, as in 1812. Third: by that time Russia had not had any major defeats in the war. Yes, our losses were higher than those of the allies, since they subjected Crimea to hitherto unheard of bombings, and our weapons turned out to be worse, but Sevastopol still held strong. So from this point of view, it would be reckless to see the death of the emperor as suicide. And finally, fourth: Nikolai Pavlovich only seemed healthy from the outside. Those close to him knew that he had been plagued by illnesses for a long time. He was not yet thirty when he began to notice sudden attacks of severe fatigue, his face became pale, his lips turned blue, and dark circles appeared under his eyes. He suffered from what is now called in medicine vegetative-vascular dystonia, and his health was deteriorating every year. He made every effort to prevent his subjects from seeing this. Only those closest to him knew that he was sick. Dystonia is accompanied by periodic attacks of headache. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna left memories: “When dad suffered from a headache, a camp bed was placed in the office, all the curtains were drawn down, and he lay down, covering himself only with his overcoat. No one dared to enter then until he allowed it. This usually lasted twelve hours straight. When he appeared, only by his paleness one could see how much he was suffering.” During the autopsy, a very significant pathology of the king’s internal structure was revealed - from birth he had one kidney instead of two, and it was increased in size. Colds, spinal aches, feverish attacks, stiffness of the limbs, wild headaches constantly haunted this courageous man, who did not show that he was unwell. “Complaining,” Olga Nikolaevna recalled, “was not in his character...” When things got bad, he only allowed himself to “lie down on the sofa, in an overcoat, which always replaced his robe, and in boots, which, in addition, also had spurs.” He accepted the treatment with a laugh, showing everyone how stupid he was. On the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, January 6, 1855, during the blessing of water, the sovereign caught a cold. I tried not to pay attention, but the illness got worse, and on January 27, doctors diagnosed me with the flu. Recently, Nikolai Pavlovich worked sixteen hours a day every day. The overworked body stopped resisting the disease. But he still worked, still tried to be a functioning monarch, on February 10 he personally saw off the regiments leaving for the Crimea, and made his last speech to the soldiers and officers: - Go, my children! Let Russian eagles be your guides along the road of honor and glory. I am not allowed to go and die with you, but my thoughts and heartfelt wishes will always be with you during those heroic obstacles and difficult trials that you will have to overcome. When the Fatherland and Faith call you, I cannot detain you - go with God! On February 17, doctors diagnosed extensive internal inflammation and paralysis of the left lung. Nikolai Pavlovich calmly asked: - Tell me, am I dying? “Yes,” the doctors answered. “And you have the courage to so decisively announce my death sentence to me?” – the sovereign grinned. - OK! God is your judge! Call my eldest son! Don’t forget to send for my other children, but take care of the Empress. In front of the Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, who was soon to replace him, Nikolai Pavlovich confessed, took communion and prepared for death. “Learn to die,” he told his son. On February 18, Emperor Nicholas I died. “May you be comforted by the memory of how significantly the Lord blessed his life in his last days and hours, in which the bright features of the king and father of the family, a Christian, despite the exhaustion of the outer man, shone so strongly, so edifyingly and beneficially! Your prayer connected with his last prayer. Death has no power over this union. It extends from time to eternity,” Metropolitan Philaret wrote to the widowed Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. “The last hours of the late sovereign were comforting,” the saint wrote to St. Anthony. – What is printed about this is true. I happened to hear from those who were in the palace at that time.” Thirty-six-year-old Tsar Alexander Nikolaevich ascended the throne of Russia. On the very first day of his reign, he removed the witty, merry fellow Menshikov from the post of commander-in-chief of the Russian army in Crimea and in his place appointed artillery general Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov, who had previously served as Paskevich’s chief of staff in Poland for twenty-two years. “The news about the new sovereign is also comforting,” Filaret assessed, “how in the first hours he showed himself to be a king in full strength and wisdom.” In addition, Alexander, having ascended the throne, first of all expressed gratitude to Filaret for the money recently donated from the Moscow diocese for military needs. A lot of money - 110 thousand 600 rubles. Alas, the troubles of the Russians in Crimea did not stop. Following Kornilov, another hero of the defense of Sevastopol, Rear Admiral Vladimir Ivanovich Istomin, fell. Europe lived in anticipation of the imminent fall of Sevastopol and the further development of the victory over Russia. The fact that the monarch, hated by European liberals, had died did not mean anything - to finish off the reptile in his offspring! Napoleon III's favorite Pope Pius IX, the same one who would implement the dogma of papal infallibility in 1870, was now calling for a new crusade against Russia. In the Basilica of St. Agnes in Rome, an incident happened to him: as soon as he mentioned with a cheerful smile about the upcoming missionary mission to Russia, the floor collapsed under him and the pontiff sank into the ground along with those standing nearby, escaping with a slight fright. Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov hastened to publish this anecdote in St. Petersburg newspapers. However, Filaret did not approve of his wit and reined in his friend: “I can’t stand the idea of ​​publishing an article about the fall of the Pope. It seems to me that there is an unpleasant quality to this, as if they were delighted to have the opportunity to mock the ruler of the West. Peace be upon him, when the Psalmist teaches to be peaceful with those who hate the world.” On Easter Week, the Europeans launched a second massive bomb attack on Sevastopol, and at the end of May and beginning of June - the third and fourth, but Sevastopol did not give up. On the Feast of Peter and Paul, Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov died. The new assignment did not bring happiness either: Gorchakov failed in the battle on the Chernaya River. Then, in August, the Europeans carried out their fifth and sixth bomb attacks. The end of the month marked the end of the defense of the heroic city - on August 27, General McMahon's division captured Malakhov Kurgan, and the next day Russian troops left the southern part of Sevastopol “The Lord turns our holidays into mourning,” St. Philaret wrote on these days. “Yesterday I performed the sacred service in peace, not knowing the news that was already spreading. But when I went to see the Governor General for dinner, I was met with the words: what sad news! I ask what this means and learn about the fall of Sevastopol. Although this is not entirely unexpected, and I had previously thought that it would be unreliable to withstand the extremely powerful destructive means of enemies acting on one focus, nevertheless this news greatly struck me, with the thoughts arising from it about the consequences.” The mid-1850s brought much sorrow to Russia. The new emperor again ascended the throne amid much weeping. The harvest of death claimed another remarkable person - in September, Count Sergei Semenovich Uvarov, a statesman who proclaimed the triad "Orthodoxy - autocracy - nationality", a scientist, philologist, archaeologist, president of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, founder of the Moscow Historical Museum, died. In 1786 he was baptized by Empress Catherine II. In 1855, Metropolitan Philaret performed his funeral service. The burial was taken to the village of Kholm, Smolensk province - to the family tomb. The harvest of death plucked another spikelet in Filaret's house itself - on January 4, 1856, his faithful and selflessly devoted servant and friend, house secretary Alexander Petrovich Svyatoslavsky, died. This was a man who quietly and quietly carried out his work, without any complaints. Evil people mocked his “slavish obedience,” but he simply understood what a blessing it was to be a faithful servant of a person like Filaret, and he served without complaint. The name of Svyatoslavsky constantly flashes in Philaret’s letters, he either refers to him: “Svyatoslavsky read to me...”, “Svyatoslavsky reported...”, “Svyatoslavsky advised...”, or accuses him of something: “I received this letter only a year later by the grace of Svyatoslavsky,” or stands up for him: “... nothing is revealed in Svyatoslavsky’s actions except the absurd shame of discovering one’s fault or slowness”, “It is not Svyatoslavsky’s fault that the new control order did not reach you. The guilty ones are in St. Petersburg." And then in May 1853 the alarming: “...Svyatoslavsky did not fall ill easily...”, six months later it was even worse: “Svyatoslavsky has already died for business: he walks little, remembers little and does nothing.” Filaret got used to the secretary as his own shadow, as a part of himself, and just as he did not ask anyone to reward himself, he did not care about rewards for Alexander Petrovich. Count Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy once took offense at his full namesake: - Why don’t you, Vladyka, reward Alexander Petrovich with anything? He took the trouble upon himself, Filaret submitted a petition, and shortly before his death Svyatoslavsky was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. - I managed to break such a thing! – Filaret rejoiced like a child. And so - Alexander Petrovich died, the faithful Sancho Panza, devoted to the grave, died... How long will it take to get used to the new secretary?.. And after all, dear Petrovich was not old yet, he did not live to see sixty. What a problem!.. After the fall of Sevastopol, Sweden also joined the allies, and it became obvious that Austria and Prussia could go to war against Russia if the Russian emperor did not agree to peace negotiations. “It seems that Austria wants to fulfill perfectly the prediction of its deceased first minister that it will surprise the world with its ingratitude,” wrote Filaret, referring to the famous statement of former Austrian Foreign Minister Felix Ludwig von Schwarzenberg. But in order for Russia to sit down at the negotiating table not as a defeated power, it needed some kind of victory. Thank God, in November such a victory took place - the elder brother of Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov, hero of the war of 1812, infantry general Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov, took the important strategic fortress of Kare in Turkey, for which he received George 2nd degree and a prefix to his surname - Muravyov-Karssky. And at the same time, another Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov, who had no relationship with these Muravyovs, was exploring the Amur delta and agreed with the Chinese on the right to raft Russian troops along this river, thereby strengthening the Far Eastern borders of the Fatherland. In a few years, this Nikolai Nikolaevich will become Muravyov-Amursky. Efim Vasilyevich Putyatin concluded the Shimoda Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Japan in 1855, according to which, by the way, for the first time the Japanese received those very islands from the Kuril ridge, which they now say have belonged to them from time immemorial. Having such achievements in war and diplomacy, the new emperor could already sit down at the negotiating table. Saint Philaret constantly and with excitement followed events on the world stage. At the beginning of January 1856, General Prince Gorchakov, recently dismissed from his post as commander-in-chief in the Crimea and replaced by Adjutant General Alexander Nikolaevich Liders, came to see him. Filaret eagerly asked him about everything, he willingly talked about the reasons for the defeats, about the incompetent leadership and carelessness of Menshikov. Then we moved on to discussing world politics. “I asked: will Austria stand in this, albeit incorrect, authority,” Filaret recalled this conversation. “He says: he will stand if we do not suffer a significant loss in the war; one of the first ministers is rude, and the other is a democrat, whose secret thought, of course, is to favor democracy and, consequently, not to favor Russia, which is the main obstacle to democracy.” Austria did not enter the war through the efforts of another Gorchakov - the great Russian diplomat Alexander Mikhailovich, a friend of Pushkin at the Lyceum. They entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum together in the year of its foundation; Pushkin dedicated three poetic messages to Gorchakov. My dear friend, we are entering a new world; But there the destiny assigned to us is not equal, And our different ways will leave a mark in life. To you by the wayward hand of Fortune The path is indicated, both happy and glorious, - My path is sad and dark... If we compare these two destinies, then indeed Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov was, in the everyday sense, much happier than Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. But the main result of the lives of both is very, very glorious. This is highlighted in the way both were dubbed by contemporaries and descendants. Baptized forever. One is the sun of Russian poetry, and the other is the star of Russian diplomacy. Gorchakov was destined to serve for thirty-nine long years under the leadership of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who could not even speak Russian - such was Karl Vasilyevich Nesselrode, who occupied this most important diplomatic post in Russia from 1816 to 1856. At the same time, his diplomatic abilities were assessed by everyone as very mediocre. Gorchakov entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately after graduating from the Lyceum in 1817 and three years later became the minister’s secretary. But soon Gorchakov, too independent in his opinions, becomes one of Nesselrode’s enemies. For a long time he had to work in embassies in London, Rome, Berlin, Tuscany, Vienna, Stuttgart. Of course, it was no coincidence that Austria’s entry into the war worried Filaret, who was so sensitive to foreign policy, so much. Prussia would have followed Austria, and then... It’s scary to imagine what would have happened! Meanwhile, everything hung by a thread. The new Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph received the crown from the hands of the Russian Emperor and instead of gratitude for this he felt hatred for Russia, because everyone could whisper behind his back: “If it weren’t for the Russians...” In 1856, the harvest of death could gain new momentum. But the Lord decreed otherwise.