Глава VIII. Русские иноки на Афоне во время русско-турецкой войны 1877 и 1878 годов

In the monastery of St. Panteleimon, with the transfer of power into the hands of the Russians, everything began to change quickly: the dissatisfied left the monastery, broken peace and love were established among the brethren, 206 the ancient communal regulations were restored in all severity, new buildings and improvements were made in the monastery, etc. “It seemed,” writes the monastery writer, “why it would be better to enjoy peace and tranquility, but in the same winter alarming rumors began to circulate about the furies of the Turks in Serbia and Bulgaria and as if there was no war.” Indeed, back in 1875, courageous Herzegovinians 207 rose up to defend their freedom, followed by Bosniaks. The Turks invaded these borders and carried out terrible furies that affected all of Europe. Out of sympathy for their suffering brethren, the Serbs and Montenegrins took up arms and on June 18, 1876 declared war on Turkey. The Serbian war, as is known, ended with the Düniš pogrom, and the very existence of the Serbian principality is due to the intercession of the magnanimous Russian monarch, the late Alexander II, who with his powerful words stopped the further movement of Turkish troops into Serbia. The events in Turkey itself, which followed one after another, also did not bode well. After the violent death of Abdul Asiz, a Russian supporter, the short reign of his brother Murad V, the current Emperor Abdul Hamid, who was unfriendly towards the Russians, ascended the Turkish throne. All of Europe was tensely awaiting a resolution to this difficult situation; everyone was expecting war any minute. The number of pilgrims to Athos gradually decreased, but Russian steamships continued to make voyages to the Holy Mountain almost until the Intercession itself. In winter, steamships came to the Holy Mountain very rarely, and pilgrims came in very limited numbers. The last Russian steamship that tried, under the auspices of the ambassador, to penetrate Athos by Easter, i.e. On March 27, he had to abandon his attempt, and the Russian pilgrims should return to Russia through Trieste. On April 3, 1877, the Russian imperial consulate in Thessaloniki received the following telegram from St. Petersburg: “Give advice to Archimandrite Macarius that the Russians, who are afraid to remain on Mount Athos, should immediately go to the Caucasus through Poti to Kutais on a hired French steamer, without going ashore in Constantinople” 208. Reporting this ministerial council on appointment, the Solunsky consul T.P. Yuzefovich provided him with a secret explanation on his part. “Obviously,” he wrote about. Macarius, - this is not about Russian fans, but about Russian monks living on Mount Athos in general. This telegram is not clear to me in the sense that if it is carried out literally, then there will be so many hunters and there will be such a commotion on the Holy Mountain that should not be desired at all, both for those leaving and for those remaining. “I convey to you this news, which does not contain an indispensable desire for fulfillment, but only advice, so to speak, a proposal to alleviate the fate of those who are afraid. Consequently, everything is left to yours and about. Jerome's discretion. As can be seen, however, it is desirable that if the frightened decide to take refuge in Russia, they go together and to one place, and not separately. – This must be a special permit for the Athonite monks and, I believe, the authorities in Poti were warned about this. A steamer flying a French flag rather than any other is preferably recommended - this should also be noted. Only I and Fr know about this telegram. Joseph. – Therefore, it is easy for you to carry it out and leave without consequences. My personal opinion is rather to send those who are afraid to the islands or to Greece, little by little, under a plausible pretext. And although such a relocation is easy to do, what will the Greek monasteries say and what will life be like for those left behind? I repeat that you know everything better and we will keep the telegram secret. Notify me of your decision, and if I am no longer in Thessaloniki, then instruct me to transfer the letter to the French consulate for forwarding to me. Warn Mr. Nelidov too if you know that he is still in Constantinople. I haven’t yet received the final order to leave here, but I have everything ready and war is inevitable.” Almost on the same day, several private telegrams with similar advice were received on Athos: from Fr. Arseny, manager of the Athonite courtyard in Moscow, from Fr. Vladimir, head of the farmstead in Constantinople, two from V.I. Sushkin, brother of Fr. Macarius, and finally on April 7 from the city of Nelidov from Constantinople. The latter’s advice was accompanied by a personal opinion, generally similar to the opinion of T.P. Yuzefovich: “For my part, I think,” he wrote, “that Athos is not in danger at all, and to flee prematurely would be incompatible with the monastic vow and the dignity of the Russian name.” O. Macarius and Fr. Jerome, having discussed all the advice of his benefactors and well-wishers, decided not to cause panic on Mount Athos among the Russian monastic brethren, but to leave everything to the will of God and to undergo all the hardships and horrors of wartime. “Now we had the honor to receive your respectfully pleasant letter dated April 3 of this year,” wrote the elders of the Russikov monastery in response to T.P. Yuzefovich’s letter, “in which you deign to convey to us the paper you received on the same date. Having read it, we were very surprised by its significance and were perplexed as to who it concerned: our monastery only, or the entire population of Athos? Both the one and the other do not coincide with our situation, for the actual removal of the majority of the brotherhood from our monastery can bring consequences that are very uninteresting for us. Our former business is still “so fresh” that our cohabitants will take measures to take advantage of it and, due to their love for us, perhaps upon our arrival back the brotherhood will not even find the entrance to our monastery. Therefore, the more brotherhood that remains in the monastery, the more useful it will be for us. At least, this is our human reasoning about our brotherhood, but our cohabitants wish for our departure. If we announce this paper to everyone at all, we may harm ourselves and others. You know the life of our Russian commoner. Such a presentation would alarm not only the Russians, but also other nations, and it would be difficult for those remaining not to be alarmed on the Holy Mountain. Then, the arrival of such a huge brotherhood in Kutais, not to mention the whole of Athos, but ours? Now even part of it, sent by us, does not find a place, but what can we say if they gather from other monasteries without funds and do not find there not only the means of maintenance, but also premises? Does the government care about monks now? But the main thing is that here we can damage the situation in which we are. Therefore, the proposal of this paper is not feasible. Coming to Athos, everyone knew where they were going: not today, then tomorrow, but they should have expected this event, because leaving the monastery is very harmful, both morally and materially for us. Deign to show us your mercy and intercession in this way: entrust us to some power that has strong influence, so that it can always protect us with all possible measures, means and its strong influence on our life, both external and internal, that is, both our monastery, the St. Andrew’s and Elias monasteries and all Russians in general on Athos. Then inconveniences and hostile actions can be eliminated more quickly. We assume that you can arrange this yourself, or you would like to report this to the same place from where you received the paper offering us advice. The paper received from you was not announced to anyone, to avoid possible confusion and various inconveniences. We are of this opinion. It is also unthinkable to go to the islands: after all, funds are needed everywhere, and large ones, and we are not so abundant in them as to be divided into several camps, and the Kelliots will certainly entrust all the worries to our monastery, and there are not a dozen of them, but whole hundreds. We are waiting for the last news and then we will announce the matter to the brotherhood. We will not give blessings for the shipment, but in front of everyone..." 209 1) o. Gerasim, abbot of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, predecessor of Fr. Macaria; 2) o. Jerome, confessor of the monastery; The most important figures of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos 7) o. Paisiy, head of the courtyard in Constantinople; 8) o. Hieromonk Mina, personal secretary of Fr. Macaria; 9) o. Matvey, librarian; 10) o. Paisiy, dike of the Russian Ilyinsky monastery; 11) o. Hierodeacon Hilarion, assistant to abbot Gerasim; 12) o. Archimandrite Theodorit, dike of the Russian St. Andrew's Skete In response to this letter from the Athonite elders, T.P. Yuzefovich dated April 11, No. 91, informed them of the termination of diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey, of his departure from Thessaloniki and of the declaration of war. “By order of the Imperial Government, which interrupted relations with the Porte, I,” wrote T. Yuzefovich, “lowered the flag of our consulate in Thessaloniki today and am leaving the Ottoman borders, entrusting the protection of Russian interests to Mr. Mallet, the French consul in this city. The personality of Mr. Malle serves as a guarantee that in the continuation of our hostile relations with the Turks, everything possible will be done to protect our Orthodox brothers on Mount Athos from all sorts of troubles. The knowledge of the Russian language by the secretary of the French consulate, Mr. Kraevsky, a very honest man, can also facilitate relations between our monasteries and the consulate, which has taken upon itself the work of security. “I humbly ask the monastery to communicate this notice to our monasteries and to everyone who needs it for information.” “Calling on the mercy of God to send down speedy peace and tranquility, I believe that the Most Holy Lady will not leave the Holy Mountain, which has seen much greater troubles passing by.” On April 12, 1877, a manifesto on war with Turkey was read, and our troops crossed the Russian border. The Russian monks on Athos remained, thus, for a long time cut off from their dear and beloved fatherland, which during this time had to endure a difficult time of troubles, sometimes without having any information from it. Our monks on the Holy Mountain experienced a lot of grief and slander from enemies, fears for every day of their existence on Mount Athos, direct physical suffering, sometimes combined with imprisonment. Carried away by interest in the fate of our “brothers”, the misadventures of which were very numerous and with excessive zeal in our press at that time, we completely forgot about those who were “flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones”, about our monks on Athos, who voluntarily found themselves captive of the Ottomans and subjected themselves to all the horrors of wartime. No one, as far as we know, remembered them at that time or said a word of sympathy to them, and therefore our speech about the fate of the Russian monks on Athos during our war of 1877 and 1878 has the character of complete novelty for our readers and should be of, so to speak, double interest for them. As soon as the Russian-Turkish War began, the hidden anger of the Greeks towards the Russians was revealed with all its monstrous force. The Russophobic newspapers of Constantinople, already known to us, became quiet for a while, again started talking about the Russian monks on Mount Athos in their usual language and tried in every possible way to expose them to the government in the most unfavorable light, pointing to them as the culprits of the war that had begun. The slander and insinuations they spread against Russians were readily accepted on the pages of European newspapers, as, for example, in the English newspaper The Times, and even appeared on the pages of the English Blue Book. The immediate reason for the Constantinople newspapers to start talking again about Russian monks on Athos was the appointment of kaymakan to Kassandra, the peninsula adjacent to Athos, and the discussion on this matter in the notorious Turkish parliament. A deputy from Smyrna, a certain Yenitherli-haji-Amet-effendi, touched in passing on the state of affairs on Mount Athos and pointed out the possible dangers from those 10,000 Russian people who live here. A hater of Russians, the newspaper "Θράχη" took advantage of this opportunity to again sound the alarm against the "Russification of Athos" and the "murderous consequences of the future of the inhabitants of Macedonia." Correcting the deputy and reducing the number of Russian monks on Mount Athos from 10,000 to 7,000, the said newspaper asks the following questions: “Where are they from and what are they looking for in this Hellenic abode? Are there not enough steppes in Russia where they could, by monasticism, save their souls from the good-hater? “It would be necessary to say,” the newspaper replies, “a lot if we wanted to consider the goals of this cluster of calogers, and besides, to discover these goals, no small visual acuity is required. This serene refuge, which Hellenic monastic policy 210 preserved sacred under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Great Church and the political power of the Sultan, is gradually being transformed by these alien conquerors into the center of criminal actions, which, unless this nest is destroyed by the roots in time by those interested - the church, the people and the state, will not hesitate to exert their existence in the most disastrous way. But there is still time to prevent a complete catastrophe, in order to uproot the weeds that the hand of villainous politics 211 sowed and grew in this field. It was in vain that “Θράχη”, and with it all patriotic hearts (?) fought passionately for the interests of the people and the Church, calling on the indescribable rights of the historical patrons of the monastery of Panteleimon, on which the siege of the conquerors was primarily directed. Donkey consciences, pygmies, hostile to the people and the Church, decided to create (new rights), transforming legends and history; every effort was dashed by the indestructible political influence, which poisoned the atmosphere and the vile fumes of which penetrated into political and church circles; any sound energy that would appear in the Patriarchate was overthrown by that inflexible policy that did not spare any material or moral means to corrupt consciences. And finally, her goal was achieved. The monastery of Panteleimon passed into the power of the Russians.” Next we talk about canonism for the Holy Mountain and its possible speedy approval by the government and the Great Church. In this the newspaper sees the salvation of the Holy Mountain from Pan-Slavism. “Thus,” concludes “Θράχη,” “the Imperial government provides an opportunity to correct the terrible mistake that the then all-powerful Russian influence in Constantinople placed on the neck of the Church to its own detriment and exclusively in favor of Slavic goals. Truly there would be guilt and unforgivable guilt if the incident had passed without a positive result, which the then dishonored national conscience and the plundered rights of the Church now have the right to demand. The result of the correction should be: the protection of these rights and the deprivation of any right acquired by those who forcibly entered the Holy Mountain, under the guise of friends and brothers, the vipers of the north, the return of the rights of the Hellenic Church over the monasteries, the strengthening of these rights by canonism, erecting a barrier to any envious encroachment on these rights, and, finally, the restriction of orgies, through which the people's property is threatened by the fact that it will fall into the hands of irreconcilable and known enemies of the state and our Church. And really, who are they? Where did they come from and what were their rights that they defended against those laws that both history and traditions preserved until yesterday and were Hellenic until there was an inhuman persecution of the patrons by their iron diplomacy? At the end of the article, the newspaper appeals to the government with a request “to make a courageous, patriotic and fair decision, in accordance with the instructions of duty and the benefits of the Church and the state” 212. What these last words mean, the said newspaper definitely and clearly stated in another of its articles entitled: “A Necessary Measure,” which was written in connection with an article in the French newspaper “Phare du Bosphore” on the same subject. “For some time now, the attention of the Imperial Government,” writes the French newspaper, says the newspaper “Θράχη,” has been absorbed by many concerns and does not allow it to deal with an issue that can be resolved now better than at other times. There are about a thousand Russians in the southern tip of Macedonia, who gradually crawled onto Mount Athos and are carrying out active Slavic propaganda in the very depths of the Ottoman Empire. Although they wear a monastic image and, apparently, are completely alien to politics, nevertheless, these people are Russian and nevertheless conduct constant correspondence with all pan-Slavic committees. They came to Athos in small groups, humble and obedient at first, but then, however, they raised their heads and from guests became masters on a small part of the peninsula. We said at one time that it followed about this dangerous invasion, carried out under the auspices of the Russian embassy and which took away from the Greek people one of the most important monasteries on Mount Athos and many immovable estates. We spoke at that time 213, speaking about the services of the Pan-Slavic mechanism and the method of this settlement, also about the branches established in Odessa, Galata and other places to serve the resettlement of Russian monks, and therefore we do not consider it necessary to repeat the same. Fortunately, the time has already passed when it was necessary to use all means and arguments to prove that Slavism threatens the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. The program of these committees, which we once exposed ourselves to danger by announcing, is now written in bloody letters from the Adriatic to the Euphrates, and the Imperial Government now knows what trust these apostles of the Slavs with a quiet and submissive appearance are worth. It is not unknown to him that if the blood of her subjects now flows generously, if her economic forces have perished, if her people are subject to the horrors of a war of extermination, then the reason for all this is the carelessness with which it looked at the underground work that the monks and folk teachers were doing in Rumelia. The national teachers and monks educated in Kyiv and Moscow inspired the Bulgarians, caused an internecine war, aroused public opinion in England, inspired the opposition, paralyzed the efforts of the English government and finally gave Russia freedom of action. There can be no doubt that Russia sent its monks for a similar success in Macedonia. We must not forget that in the eyes of Russian politics, the occupation of this country (i.e. Macedonia) is a thousand times more important than the real Bulgaria, simply for the sake of the fact that the owner of Thessaloniki is also the owner of the capital of the East. It is enough to glance at the map to be convinced that the southern side of Thrace, not captured within the boundaries outlined by Ignatiev at the conference for Bulgaria, by its separation from the rest of Rumelia, is an easy prey. So, it is necessary that the Imperial Government, taking advantage of the right granted to it by martial law, would certainly rid the Holy Mountain of the crowd of Russian monks who appeared on it, and would give to the former owners those monasteries and their real estate, which they seized at the time when it was believed that with concessions they could soften the self-interest of the northern colossus. The Greek people truly became worthy of this satisfaction, for they showed, in the most difficult times, unwavering loyalty and great patience in view of the sacrifices imposed on them by the war.”214 In view of the complete solidarity of the views of both newspapers, “Θράχη” had only to subscribe to this article of the French newspaper, which it did with full readiness, reproducing it in its entirety on its pages. A child worthy of its mother, the Athenian newspaper “Neologoj”, founded by one of the former editors of the Constantinople newspaper of the same name, Mr. Yalemos, and which existed in this world for a very short time, in its insinuations and attacks on Russian monks on Athos and on Russia in general, was far ahead of the Constantinople newspaper of the same name and all other Russophobic press organs 215 . Obviously, the freedom of the press granted to the Hellenes by the constitution, which attracted Mr. Yalemos to the soil of Attica, gave him the opportunity, with all his malice and bile, to pour out the anger of terrible indignation and contempt on the Russians. The insinuations, fierce attacks and monstrous slander of this press against the Russian monks on Athos and their accusations of insidious machinations and evil intentions towards Macedonia, Thessaly and other regions of the Ottoman Empire made a strong impression not only on the minds of society, fed exclusively by the information of these newspapers, but even on the Turkish government and some diplomats of the great Western powers, who always had information from purer and more reliable sources. sources. There can hardly be any doubt that Mr. Layard, the English envoy to the Ottoman Porte, having reported “reliable information” regarding Russian monks on Mount Athos to his government in a special dispatch, which later ended up on the pages of the English official “Blue Book,” drew it from this dirty source. Otherwise, he would not have said in a short dispatch so many absurdities and contradictions to the actual state of affairs on Athos as were discovered in it immediately after its publication. “I found out,” says Mr. Layard, - from a reliable source (?) that at the moment Russian agents are trying to carry out an uprising of the Greeks and Bulgarians in Macedonia and Thessaly, and the money for this and malice comes directly from the Greek monasteries of Athos (?!). The Russian government appointed as leader (?) a certain monk Macarius from a princely family (!!!), who, at great financial expense, succeeded in being elected abbot of the monastery of St. Panteleimon" 216. Everything here from beginning to end is lies and contradictions, the best proof of which, in our opinion, besides historically reliable facts known to our readers, can be, by the way, the fact that the Greek Athos monasteries, extremely indignant at the frivolous phrase of this dispatch: “Money and malice come directly from the Greek monasteries of Athos,” wrote a strong protest and sent it for publication in the Constantinople newspaper "Neologoj". The protest called “the one who reported such complete information a slanderer” and the fathers expressed their loyal feelings to the Sultan. The late Fr. Macarius composed a special word in these types, which in the manuscript passed from hand to hand among the brethren. “We,” this word said, “need to forget everything that has been done by our brothers with God’s permission. With a shout to the brethren, with heart and lips, a word of love, we will forgive all those who hate us in the name of the Lord, who wants to save everyone, and from now on we will accept the path of love, brotherly condescension and in Christ alone. Let us not look at each other with envy, malice and hatred, let us not speak inquisitively... If we compare, we have not suffered anything against the former trials with our predecessors of all centuries of monastic existence. Let us not blame anyone other than our shortcomings, but let us rather thank the Lord that we are children of God’s love, and not anger, that He, merciful in His goodness, has deigned us to see His ineffable mercy, the great intercession of the Queen of Heaven and the help of St. passion-bearer Panteleimon, as it is not for our sins to repay us. The Great Church, in the person of its highly sacred shepherds and pious Christians chosen with the assistance of them, looked at our cause impartially and, after a long struggle with human passions, favored the cause of our bitter strife with all the justice of not only church, but also human laws. It will not die in history! Moscow Gazette. 1875 No. 210. This ministerial telegram, sent from St. Petersburg at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, was received in Thessaloniki at 8 o'clock in the evening. This draft letter to Fr. We had Macarius in an unfinished form. Obviously, what is meant here is the recognition of the Greek Athonite monks as subjects of the Turkish Sultan in 1430 on May 1 and their obligation to pay harach or tax. Of course, the policy of Count N.P. Ignatiev. An excellent and detailed analysis of this article was made by N. Konstantinov in the “Russian Bulletin” for 1873 (book I V. pp. 684–701). Θράχη from August 8, 1877, No. 1083. To get acquainted with the language of this newspaper, we present the beginning of the article entitled “Akathist to Russia”. Here it is: “And finally, the disgusting mask fell off! Finally, the veil of deception has been torn! Finally, the pitiful scarecrow disappeared and the naked and disgusting form of Scythian appeared in its gloomy ugliness! He took off the military armor of a reverent crusader, under which he hid his insidious villainous intent. He threw off the romantic mantle of the knight of freedom, and finally the gloomy and insidious, bloodthirsty Sarmatian, barbaric and wild son of the Urals and Volga appeared,” etc. (Neologoj of March 4, 1878, No. 164). We stop further excerpts from this cynically blasphemous article, bearing in mind the conditions of our censorship. The text of this dispatch was published in Greek translation in the Constantinople newspaper “Neologo j” dated August 16, 1877, No. 2554. You might be interested in: