XII Appendix

Appeal of the Holy Synod to all children of the Orthodox Russian Church regarding the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and the refusal of Grand Duke Michael to assume power until the decision of the Constituent Assembly. 1917

The will of God has been accomplished. Russia has embarked on the path of a new state life. May the Lord bless our great Motherland with happiness and glory on its new path.

Beloved children of the Holy Orthodox Church!

The Provisional Government took control of the country at a difficult historical moment. The enemy still stands on our land, and our glorious army faces great efforts in the near future. At such a time, all the faithful sons of the Motherland should be imbued with common inspiration.

For the sake of the millions of best lives lost on the battlefield, for the sake of the countless funds spent by the Motherland to defend itself from the enemy, for the sake of the many sacrifices made to win civil freedom, for the sake of saving your own families, for the sake of the happiness of the Motherland, leave all feuds and disagreement, unite in brotherly love for the good of Russia, trust the Provisional Government; all together and each individually make efforts to facilitate the great task of establishing new principles of state life through labor and deeds, prayer and obedience, and with a common mind to lead Russia onto the path of true freedom, happiness and glory.

The Holy Synod earnestly prays to the Almighty Lord, may He bless the works and undertakings of the Provisional Russian Government, may He give it strength, strength and wisdom, and may He guide the subordinate sons of the Great Russian Power to the path of brotherly love, glorious defense of the Motherland from the enemy and its serene, peaceful dispensation ".

Members of the Synod:

Vladimir, Metropolitan of Kyiv; Machariy, Metropolitan of Moscow; Sergius, Archbishop of Finland; Tikhon, Archbishop of Lithuania; Arseny, Archbishop of Novgorod; Michael, Archbishop of Grodno; Joachim, Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod; Vasily, Archbishop of Chernigov; Protopresbyter Alexander Dernov

Church Gazette. 1917. No. 9–15. P. 57.

Message from Patriarch Tikhon to the Council of People's Commissars. 1918

"All who take the sword will die by the sword"

((Matt. 26:52))

We address this prophecy of the Savior to you, the current arbiters of the destinies of our fatherland, who call themselves “people’s” commissars. You have held state power in your hands for a whole year and are already going to celebrate the anniversary of the October Revolution. But the rivers of blood shed by our brothers, mercilessly killed at your call, cry out to heaven and force us to tell you a bitter word of truth.

When seizing power and calling on the people to trust you, what promises did you make to them and how did you fulfill these promises?

Truly, you gave him a stone instead of bread and a snake instead of a fish (Matthew 7:9-10). To the people exhausted by a bloody war, you promised to give peace “without annexations and indemnities.”

What conquests could you give up, having led Russia to a shameful peace, the humiliating conditions of which even you yourself did not dare to fully disclose? Instead of annexations and indemnities, our great Motherland was conquered, diminished, dismembered, and in payment of the tribute imposed on it, you secretly export to Germany the accumulated gold that was not yours.

You have taken away from the warriors everything for which they previously fought valiantly. You taught them, recently brave and invincible, to leave the defense of their homeland and flee from the battlefields. You have extinguished in their hearts the consciousness that inspired them, that “no one has greater love than sowing love, but whoever lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). You have replaced the Fatherland with a soulless international, although you yourself know very well that when it comes to defending the Fatherland, the proletarians of all countries are its faithful sons, and not traitors.

Having refused to defend your homeland from external enemies, you, however, are constantly recruiting troops.

Who are you leading them against?

You divided the entire people into countries at war with each other and plunged them into fratricide of unprecedented cruelty. You openly replaced the love of Christ with hatred and, instead of peace, artificially incited class enmity. And there is no end in sight to the war you have engendered, since you are striving, with the help of Russian workers and peasants, to bring triumph to the specter of the world revolution.

It was not Russia that needed the shameful peace you concluded with the external enemy, but you, who planned to completely destroy the internal peace. No one feels safe; everyone lives under constant fear of search, robbery, eviction, arrest, and execution. They seize hundreds of defenseless people, rot for months in prison, and often execute them without any investigation or trial, even without the simplified trial you introduced. They execute not only those who have been guilty of something before you, but also those who, even before you, are obviously not guilty of anything, but are taken only as “hostages”; these unfortunates are killed in retaliation for crimes committed by persons not only they are not like-minded, but often your own supporters or those close to you in conviction. They execute bishops, priests, monks and nuns, innocent of anything, but simply on sweeping accusations of some vague and indefinite “counter-revolutionism”. The inhumane execution is aggravated for the Orthodox by the deprivation of the last dying consolation - parting words with the Holy Mysteries, and the bodies of the murdered are not given to relatives for Christian burial.

Isn’t all this the height of aimless cruelty on the part of those who present themselves as benefactors of humanity and as if they themselves once suffered a lot from cruel authorities?

But it’s not enough for you that you stained the hands of the Russian people with their brotherly blood: hiding behind various names - indemnities, requisitions and nationalization, you pushed them into the most open and shameless robbery. At your instigation, lands, estates, plants, factories, houses, livestock were plundered or taken away; money, things, furniture, clothes were robbed. At first, under the name of “bourgeois,” they robbed wealthy people, then, under the name of “kulaks,” they began to rob more prosperous and hardworking peasants, thus multiplying the beggars, although you cannot help but realize that with the ruin of a great many individual citizens, the people’s wealth is destroyed and The country itself is going bankrupt.

Having seduced the dark and ignorant people with the possibility of easy and unpunished profit, you have clouded their conscience, drowned out the consciousness of sin in them; but no matter what names the atrocities are covered up, murder, violence, robbery will always remain grave and sins and crimes crying out to Heaven for vengeance.

You promised freedom...

A great good is freedom, if it is correctly understood as freedom from evil, which does not constrain others, and does not turn into arbitrariness and self-will. But you did not give such freedom: the freedom you granted lies in all kinds of indulgence to the base passions of the crowd, impunity for murders and robberies. All manifestations of both true civil and highest spiritual freedom of humanity are suppressed by you mercilessly. Is this freedom when no one without special permission can bring in food or rent an apartment, when families, and sometimes the population of entire houses, are evicted, and property is thrown into the street, and when citizens are artificially divided into categories, some of which are given over to starvation and plunder? ?

Is this freedom when no one can openly express their opinion without fear of being accused of counter-revolution? Where is the freedom of speech and press, where is the freedom of church preaching? Many brave church preachers have already paid for martyrdom with their blood; the voice of public and state condemnation and denunciation is muffled; The press, except for the narrowly Bolshevik press, has been completely strangled.

The violation of freedom in matters of faith is especially painful and cruel. Not a day goes by without the most monstrous slander against the Church of Christ and its servants, vicious blasphemies and blasphemies being published in your press. You mock the altar servers, force bishops to dig trenches (Bishop Hermogenes of Tobolsk) and send priests to do dirty work. You laid your hand on the church property collected by generations of believers and did not think about violating their posthumous will. You closed a number of monasteries and house churches, without any reason or reason. You have blocked access to the Moscow Kremlin - this is the sacred property of all believing people. You are destroying the original form of church community - the parish, destroying the brotherhood and other church-charitable educational institutions, dispersing church-diocesan meetings, and interfering in the internal governance of the Orthodox Church. By throwing out sacred images from schools and prohibiting children from being taught the faith in schools, you are depriving them of the spiritual food necessary for Orthodox education.

“And what else will I say? I don’t have enough time” (Heb. 11:32) to depict all the troubles that befell our Motherland. I will not talk about the collapse of the once great and mighty Russia, about the complete breakdown of communications, about the unprecedented food devastation, about the hunger and cold that threaten death in the cities, about the lack of things needed for farming in the villages. All this is in front of everyone. Yes, we are experiencing a terrible time of your rule, and for a long time it will not be erased from the soul of the people, darkening the image of God in it and imprinting on it the image of the beast. The words of the prophet come true - “Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are wicked thoughts; devastation and destruction are in their paths” (Is. 59:7).

We know that Our denunciations will only cause anger and indignation in you and that you will only look for reasons in them to accuse us of opposing the authorities, but the higher your “pillar of malice” rises, the surest evidence it will be of the justice of our denunciations.

It is not Our business to judge earthly power; every power permitted by God would attract Our blessing if it truly appeared to be “God’s servant” for the benefit of those subordinates and was terrible “not for good deeds, but for evil” (Rom. 13, 34). Now, to you, who use your power to persecute your neighbors and exterminate the innocent, we extend Our word of admonition: celebrate the anniversary of your stay in power by freeing prisoners, ending the bloodshed, violence, ruin, oppression of faith; turn not to destruction, but to the establishment of order and legality, give the people the desired, well-deserved rest from internecine warfare. Otherwise, all righteous blood that you shed will be required from you (Luke 11:51) and you yourself, who took the sword, will perish by the sword (Matthew 26:52).

Tomsk diocesan bulletins. - 1919. No. 13–14; Bulletin of RSHA - 1968. N 89–90.

Message from Patriarch Tikhon to the children of the Orthodox Russian Church. 1919

By the grace of God, We, humble Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, to all the faithful children of the Holy Orthodox Russian Church.

The Lord does not cease to show His mercies to the Orthodox Russian Church. He allowed Her to test Herself and test Her devotion to Christ and His covenants, not only in the days of Her external well-being, but also in the days of persecution. Day by day new trials are added to Her. Day by day Her crown shines brighter. Many times a scourge from a hand hostile to Christ mercilessly falls on Her face, illuminated by humility, and slanderous lips blaspheme Her with insane blasphemies, and She, in the apostolic manner, attributes the bitterness of Her suffering to vanity, introduces new martyrs into the host of the inhabitants of heaven and finds joy for Herself in Her blessing heavenly Bridegroom: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unrighteously for My sake; Rejoice and be glad (Matthew 5: 11 - 12).

My children! Let this Holy kindness of the Church, these calls for us to patiently endure anti-Christian enmity and malice, this opposition to trials and ordinary human attachment to the blessings of the earth and the comforts of worldly life with Christian ideals, seem to others to be weakness; let the joy that draws its source from suffering for Christ seem “inconceivable” and “cruel” to the worldly understanding, but We beg you, we beg all Our Orthodox children not to deviate from this only saving disposition of a Christian, not to stray from the path of the cross sent to Us by God , on the path of admiration of worldly power or revenge. Do not overshadow your Christian achievement by returning to an understanding of protecting well-being that would humiliate Her and bring you down to the level of the actions of Her detractors. Save, Lord, our Orthodox Rus' from such horror.

It is a difficult, but also what a lofty task for a Christian to preserve in himself the great happiness of kindness and love even when your enemy is overthrown, and when the oppressed sufferer calls to pronounce his judgment on his recent oppressor and persecutor. And God’s Providence is already placing this test before some of the children of the Russian Orthodox Church. Passions are ignited, riots break out. More and more camps are being created. The fire is growing, scores are being settled. Hostile actions turn into misanthropy. Organized mutual extermination - into partisanship with all its horrors. All Russia is a battlefield! But that is not all. What follows is more horror. News is heard of Jewish pogroms, massacres of the tribe, without regard to age, guilt, gender, or beliefs. A person embittered by the circumstances of life looks for the culprits of his failures and, in order to take out his grievances, grief and suffering on them, he swings in such a way that a mass of innocent victims fall under the blow of his hand, blinded by the thirst for revenge. In his mind, he merged his misfortunes with the activities of some party that were evil for him, and from some he transferred his bitterness to everyone. And in the massacre, lives are drowned for completely uninvolved reasons that shed such bitterness.

Orthodox Rus', may this shame pass you by. May this curse not befall you. May your hand not be stained with blood crying to Heaven. Do not let the enemy of Christ, the devil, carry you away with the passion of vengeance and disgrace the feat of your confession, disgrace the cost of your suffering at the hands of the rapists and persecutors of Christ. Remember: pogroms are the triumph of your enemies. Remember: pogroms are a dishonor for you, a dishonor for the Holy Church! For a Christian, the ideal is Christ, who did not draw the sword in His defense, who calmed the sons of thunder, and who prayed on the cross for His enemies. For a Christian, the guiding light is the covenant of the holy Apostle, who suffered a lot for his Savior and sealed his devotion to Him with death: “Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God. For it is written: “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord.” So, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink: for in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head (Rom. 12:19).

We are not even talking about the fact that shed blood always calls for new blood. And revenge leads to new retribution. Building on hostility is building on a volcano. An explosion - and again the reign of death and destruction. Our pain is pain for the grace and happiness of Our Holy Church, Our children. Our fears are that some of them may be seduced by this new beast, already showing its gaping mouth, emanating from the abyss of the heart of humanity seething with passions. With one impulse of vengeance you will forever stain yourself, Christian, and all the bright joy of your present feat - suffering for Christ - will fade, for where then will you give place to Christ?

We shudder when we read how Herod, seeking to destroy the Child, destroyed thousands of infants. We shudder that such phenomena are possible when, during military operations, one camp protects its front ranks with hostages from the wives and children of the opposing camp. We shudder at the barbarity of our time, when hostages are taken to ensure the life and integrity of others. We shudder with horror and pain when, after attempts on the lives of representatives of our modern government in Petrograd and Moscow, as if as a gift of love to them and as a testimony of devotion, and to atone for the guilt of the attackers, entire mounds were erected from the bodies of persons completely uninvolved in these attempts and these insane the sacrifices were greeted with delight by those who were supposed to stop such atrocities. We shuddered, but these actions took place where they do not know or do not recognize Christ, where they consider religion to be the opium of the people, where Christian ideals are a harmful relic, where the extermination of one class by another and internecine strife are openly and cynically elevated to an urgent task.

Should we, Christians, follow this path? Oh, it won't! Even if our hearts were torn from grief and oppression inflicted on our religious feelings, our love for our native land, our temporary well-being, even if our feeling unmistakably told us who and where our offender was. No, it is better for us to inflict bleeding wounds than for us to resort to vengeance, especially pogrom, against our enemies or those who seem to us to be the source of our troubles. Follow Christ! Don't change Him. Don't give in to temptation. Do not destroy your soul in the blood of vengeance. Don't be overcome by evil. Conquer evil with good (Rom. 12:21).

My children! All Orthodox Russian people! All Christians! When many sufferings, insults and sorrows would begin to inspire you with a thirst for revenge, they would push a sword into your hands, Orthodox Rus', for bloody reprisal against those whom you would consider your enemy - throw it far away so that not in the most difficult moments for you were tested and tortured, not in the moments of your triumph, never - never would your hand reach out to this sword, would not be able and would not want to carry it.

Oh, then truly your feat for Christ in these evil days will pass on to the inheritance and teaching of future generations, as the best testament and blessing: that only on this stone - healing evil with good - will the indestructible glory and greatness of our Holy Orthodox Church in the Russian land be built, and Her Holy Name and the purity of the deeds of Her children and servants will be elusive even to enemies.

To those who act according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen" (Gal. 6:18).

Message from His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon to the archpastors of the Russian Orthodox Church. 1919

Repeatedly from the church pulpit We addressed the believers with a word of pastoral edification about the cessation of the strife and strife that gave rise to the bloody international war, but even to this day this war does not stop and blood flows in a copious stream throughout the vast expanse of the Russian land, mutual hostility between the warring parties is increasing and flares up more and more often and manifests itself in brutal, bloody reprisals not only against those who took a direct and active part in this struggle, but also against those who are only suspected of such participation, sometimes without sufficient grounds.

If the horrors of the bloody massacre of camps warring among themselves cannot but make a depressing impression on the heart of every Christian, then these horrors make an immeasurably more painful impression when their victims are often innocent people who are not involved in this passionate political struggle.

These horrors do not pass us by, the ministers of the Church of Christ, and many archpastors, pastors, and simple clergy have already become victims of the bloody political struggle... And all this, with perhaps very few exceptions, only because we, the ministers and heralds Christ's Truth, came under suspicion among the bearers of modern power of a hidden counter-revolution, allegedly aimed at the overthrow of the Soviet system. But We decisively declare that such suspicions are unfair: the establishment of one form of government or another is not the business of the Church, but of the people themselves. The Church does not associate itself with any particular form of government, for such has only a relative historical significance.

They say that the Church is ready to bless foreign intervention in our ruin, that she intends to call the “Varangians” to come and help us improve our affairs... The accusation is unfounded, unfounded: We are convinced that no foreign intervention, and indeed no one and nothing will save Russia from disorder and destruction, until the Just Lord applies His wrath to mercy, until the people themselves are cleansed in the font of repentance from their many years of plagues, and through that they are reborn spiritually “into a new man, created according to God, in the righteousness and holiness of the truth” ( Eph. 4:24).

It is pointed out that when there is a change of power, ministers of the Church sometimes greet this change by ringing bells, arranging solemn services and various church celebrations. But if this happens anywhere, it is done either at the request of the new government itself, or at the desire of the masses, and not at all at the initiative of the ministers of the Church, who, by their rank, must stand above and beyond any political interests, must remember the canonical rules The Holy Church, by which She forbids Her servants to interfere in the political life of the country, to belong to any parties, and even more so to make liturgical rites and sacred ceremonies an instrument of political demonstrations.

Remember, fathers and brothers, both the canonical rules and the covenant of the Holy Apostle, “keep yourselves away from those who create strife and strife,” avoid participating in political parties and speeches, obey “all human authorities” in worldly affairs (1 Pet. 2:13 ), do not give any reasons to justify suspicion of the Soviet government, obey its commands, for God, according to the apostolic instruction, must be obeyed more than people (Acts 4:19; Gal. 1:10).

Dedicate all your strength to preaching the Word of God, the Truth of Christ, especially in our days, when unbelief and atheism have boldly taken up arms against the Church of Christ, and “may the God of love and peace be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11). Amen.

September 25 (October 8), 1919 Order of the Supreme Church Authority. 1919. N 21–22.

Message from Patriarch Tikhon about helping the hungry and confiscating church valuables. 1922

Among the grave disasters and trials that have befallen our land because of our iniquities, the greatest and most terrible is the famine that has captured a vast area with a population of many millions.

Back in August 1921, when rumors about this terrible disaster began to reach Us, We, considering it Our duty to come to the aid of Our suffering spiritual children, addressed a message to the heads of individual Christian Churches (Orthodox Patriarchs, the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of York ) with a call, in the name of Christian love, to collect money and food and send it abroad to the population of the Volga region dying of hunger.

At the same time, We founded the All-Russian Church Committee for Famine Relief, and in all churches and among individual groups of believers, collections of money intended to help the starving began. But such a church organization was considered unnecessary, and all sums of money collected by the Church were demanded for surrender and handed over to the government Committee.

However, in December, the government invited us to make, through the bodies of the Church Administration: the Holy Synod, the Supreme Church Council, the Diocesan, Deanery and Church Parish Council, donations of money and food to help the hungry. Wanting to strengthen possible assistance to the Volga region population dying of hunger, We found it possible to allow parish councils and communities to donate precious church decorations and objects that have no liturgical use to the needs of the hungry, which we notified the Orthodox population on February 6 (19) of this year with a special appeal, which was authorized by the government for printing and distribution to the public.

But after this, after sharp attacks in government newspapers against the spiritual leaders of the Church, on February 10 (23), the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, in order to provide assistance to the hungry, decided to remove all precious spiritual things from churches, including sacred vessels and other liturgical church objects. From the point of view of the Church, such an act is an act of sacrilege, and We considered it our sacred duty to find out the Church’s view of this act, and also to notify Our faithful spiritual children about this. We allowed, due to extremely difficult circumstances, the possibility of donating church items that were not consecrated and had no liturgical use. We urge the believing children of the Church even now to make such donations, with only one desire: that these donations be the response of a loving heart to the needs of one’s neighbor, if only they really provide real help to our suffering brothers. But We cannot approve the removal from churches, even through voluntary donation, of sacred objects, the use of which is not for liturgical purposes is prohibited by the canons of the Universal Church and is punishable by Her as sacrilege - the laity by excommunication from Her, the clergy by defrocking (Apostolic Canon 73, Rule 10 of the Double Ecumenical Council).

Testament of Patriarch Tikhon. 1925

To the editor of the newspaper "Izvestia"

Gr. Editor!

We ask you not to refuse to publish in the Izvestia newspaper the attached Appeal of Patriarch Tikhon, signed by him on March 25 (April 7), 1925.

Peter (Polyansky), Metropolitan of Krutitsky

Tikhon (Obolensky), Metropolitan of the Urals

"By the grace of God, the Humble Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and the entire Russian Church.

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

During the years of great civil devastation, by the will of God, without which nothing happens in the world, the Soviet government became the head of the Russian state, taking upon itself the difficult responsibility of eliminating the terrible consequences of a bloody war and terrible famine.

Entering the administration of the Russian state, representatives of the Soviet government, back in January 1918, issued a decree on the complete freedom of citizens to believe in anything and live according to this faith. Thus, the principle of freedom of conscience, proclaimed by the Constitution of the USSR, provides every religious society, including our Orthodox Church, with the rights and opportunity to live and conduct their religious affairs in accordance with the requirements of their faith, since this does not violate public order and the rights of other citizens. And therefore, in our time, in messages to archpastors, to shepherds and flocks, We publicly recognized the new order of things and the workers’ and peasants’ power of the peoples, whose government we sincerely welcomed. It is time for believers to understand the Christian point of view that “the destinies of nations are determined by the Lord,” and to accept everything that happened as an expression of the Will of God. Without sinning against Our faith and the Church, without altering anything in them, in a word, without allowing any compromises or concessions in the area of ​​faith, in civil terms, We must be sincere in relation to Soviet power and the work of the USSR for the common good, conforming to the external order church life and activities with the new state system, condemning any association with the enemies of Soviet power and overt or secret agitation against it.

Offering Our prayers for the sending of God's blessing on the work of peoples who have united their strength in the name of the common good, We call on all beloved children of the God-protected Russian Church at this important time of building the common well-being of the people to merge with Us in fervent prayer to the Almighty for sending help to the workers' and peasants' government in her labors for the public good. We urge both parish communities, and especially their executive bodies, not to allow any attempts by ill-intentioned people towards anti-government activities, not to harbor hopes for the return of the monarchical system and to make sure that Soviet power is truly the People's Workers' and Peasants' Power, and therefore strong and unshakable . We call for the election of worthy, honest and devoted people to the parish councils of the Orthodox Church, who do not politicize and are sincerely disposed towards Soviet power. The activities of Orthodox communities should be directed not towards politicking, which is completely alien to the Church of God, but towards strengthening the Orthodox faith, for the enemies of Holy Orthodoxy - sectarians, Catholics, Protestants, Renovationists, atheists and the like - strive to use every moment in the life of the Orthodox Church to the detriment of Her. The enemies of the Church resort to all kinds of deceptive actions, coercion and even bribery in an effort to achieve their goals. It is enough to look at what is happening in Poland, where out of the 350 churches and monasteries that were there, only 50 remain. The rest are either closed or turned into churches, not to mention the persecution to which our Orthodox clergy is subjected there.

Now We, having recovered from illness with the grace of God, entering again into the service of the Church of God, call on you, beloved brothers-archpastors and shepherds, having once again condemned all resistance to the authorities, malicious intentions against it, rebellion and all enmity against it, to divide Our work according to the peace of Our flock and the improvement of the Church of God.

In consciousness of the duty that lies upon Us to maintain the purity of the life of the Church, which first of all seeks the salvation of people and the realization in life of the eternal Divine principles, We cannot but condemn those who, in oblivion of God, abusing their ecclesiastical position, give themselves over without measure to human, often crude politicking, sometimes of a criminal nature, and therefore, out of the duty of Our First Hierarchal service, we bless to open the actions of a special commission under the Hac, entrusting it with an examination and, if necessary, the canonical removal from the administration of those archpastors and shepherds who persist in their errors and refuse to bring they repent before the Soviet regime, bringing them before the court of the Orthodox Council.

At the same time, with deep sorrow, We must note that some of the sons of Russia, and even archpastors and pastors, for various reasons, left their homeland and took up activities abroad to which they were not called, and in any case harmful to Our Church. Using Our name, Our church authority, they create harmful and counter-revolutionary activities there. We resolutely declare: We have no connection with them, as Our enemies claim, they are alien to Us, We condemn their harmful activities. They are free in their convictions, but they act arbitrarily and contrary to the canons of Our Church on Our behalf and on behalf of the Holy Church, hiding behind concerns for Her good. The so-called Karlovac Council did not bring good to the Church and the people, the condemnation of which We again confirm, and we consider it necessary to firmly and definitely declare that any attempts of this kind will henceforth call on Our side extreme measures, up to the banning of the priesthood and bringing the Council to trial. In order to avoid grave punishments, We call on the archpastors and pastors who are abroad to stop their political activities with the enemies of our people and have the courage to return to their homeland and tell the truth about themselves and the Church of God.

Their actions must be examined. They must give an answer to the Orthodox Church consciousness. We instruct a special commission to examine the actions of the archpastors and pastors who fled abroad, and especially the metropolitans: Anthony (Khrapovitsky) - the former of Kyiv, Platon (Rozhdestvensky) - the former of Odessa, as well as others, and to give an immediate assessment of their activities. Their refusal to obey Our call will force Us to judge them in absentia.

Our enemies, trying to separate Us from our beloved children, entrusted by God to Us - the shepherds, spread false rumors that We, in the patriarchal post, are not free to dispose of Our word and even our conscience, that We are dominated by imaginary enemies of the people and are deprived of the opportunity to communicate with our flock We know. We declare all fabrications about Our unfreedom to be lies and temptation, since there is no power on earth that could bind Our Hierarchal conscience and Our patriarchal word. Not necessarily, and looking with great hope at the future paths of Holy Orthodoxy, We humbly ask you, Our beloved children, to guard the work of God, so that the sons of iniquity will succeed in nothing.

Calling upon the archpastors, shepherds and our faithful children the blessing of God, we beg you with a calm conscience, without fear of sinning against the Holy Faith, to submit to Soviet power not out of fear, but for conscience, remembering the words of the Apostle: “Let every soul be submissive to the higher authorities; for There is no authority except from God; but the authorities that exist are established by God" (Rom. 13:1).

At the same time, We express our firm confidence that the establishment of pure, sincere relationships will encourage Our authorities to treat us with complete trust, will give Us the opportunity to teach the children of Our flock the law of God, have theological schools for training pastors, and publish books and magazines in defense of the Orthodox faith.

May the Lord strengthen all of you in devotion to the Holy Orthodox Faith, the Church and Her hierarchy.

Appeal of Orthodox bishops from the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp to the government of the USSR (“Solovetsky Message”). 1926

Despite the fundamental law of the Soviet government, which provides believers with complete freedom of conscience, religious associations and preaching, the Russian Orthodox Church still experiences very significant restrictions in its activities and religious life. She does not receive permission to open properly functioning bodies of the Central and Diocesan administration; cannot transfer its activities to its historical center - Moscow; its bishops are either not allowed into their dioceses at all, or those admitted there are forced to refuse to perform the most essential duties of their ministry - preaching in the church, visiting communities that recognize their spiritual authority, sometimes even ordination. The locum tenens of the Patriarchal Throne and about half of the Orthodox bishops are languishing in prison, in exile or in forced labor. Without denying the reality of the facts, government agencies explain them for political reasons, accusing the Orthodox episcopate and clergy of counter-revolutionary activities and secret plans aimed at overthrowing Soviet power and restoring the old order. Many times already, the Orthodox Church, first in the person of the late Patriarch Tikhon, and then in the person of his deputies, tried in official appeals to the government to dispel the atmosphere of mistrust that enveloped Her.

Their failure and sincere desire to put an end to the deplorable misunderstandings between the Church and the Soviet government, which are difficult for the Church and needlessly complicate the state’s performance of its tasks, prompts the governing body of the Orthodox Church to once again, with perfect justice, set out before the government the principles that determine its attitude towards the state.

Those who signed this statement are fully aware of how difficult it is to establish mutually benevolent relations between the Church and the state in the current reality and do not consider it possible to remain silent about this. It would be a lie, not consistent with the dignity of the Church and, moreover, aimless and unconvincing for anyone, if they began to assert that there are no discrepancies between the Orthodox Church and the state power of the Soviet republics. But this discrepancy does not consist in what political suspicion wants to see it as and in what the slander of the enemies of the Church indicates it. The Church does not concern the redistribution of wealth or its socialization, since it has always recognized this as the right of the state, for whose actions it is not responsible. The Church does not concern the political organization of power, because it is loyal to the governments of all countries within whose borders it has its members. It gets along with all forms of government from the eastern despotism of old Turkey to the republic of the North American States. This discrepancy lies in the irreconcilability of the religious teachings of the Church with materialism, the official philosophy of the Communist Party and the government of the Soviet Republics led by it.

The Church recognizes the existence of the spiritual principle, communism denies it. The Church believes in the Living God, the Creator of the world, the Director of its life and destinies, communism does not allow His existence, recognizes the spontaneous existence of the world and the absence of reasonable final causes in its history. The Church posits the goal of human life in the heavenly vocations of the spirit and does not cease to remind believers of their heavenly Fatherland, even if they lived in conditions of the highest development of material culture and general welfare; communism does not want to know any other goals for man other than earthly prosperity. From the heights of the philosophical worldview, the ideological divergence between the Church and the state descends into the realm of immediate practical significance, into the sphere of morality, justice and law; communism considers them a conditional result of the class struggle and evaluates moral phenomena exclusively from the point of view of expediency. The Church preaches love and mercy, communism preaches comradeship and merciless struggle. The Church instills in believers humility that elevates man, communism degrades him with pride. The Church protects carnal purity and the holiness of fruitfulness; communism does not see anything in marriage except the satisfaction of instincts. The Church sees in religion a life-giving force, not only providing man with the comprehension of his eternal destiny, but also serving as the source of everything great in human creativity, the basis of earthly well-being, happiness and health of peoples. Communism views religion as an opium that intoxicates peoples and weakens their energy, as the source of their misfortunes and poverty. The Church wants the prosperity of religion, communism wants its destruction. With such a deep divergence in the very foundations of the worldview between the Church and the state, there can be no rapprochement or reconciliation, just as reconciliation between position and denial, between yes and no is impossible, because the soul of the Church, the condition of Her being and the meaning of Her existence is the very thing that categorically denies communism.

No compromises and concessions, no partial changes in its teachings or reinterpretations of it in the spirit of communism could the Church achieve such a rapprochement. Pathetic attempts of this kind were made by the renovationists: some of them set as their task to introduce into the consciousness of believers the idea that Christianity is essentially no different from communism, and that the communist state strives to achieve the same goals as the Gospel, but in its own way , that is, not by the force of religious convictions, but by coercion. Others recommended revising Christian dogma in the sense that its teaching about God’s relationship to the world would not resemble the relationship of a monarch to his subjects and would be more consistent with republican concepts; others demanded the exclusion of saints of “bourgeois origin” from the calendar and deprivation of their church veneration. These experiments, clearly insincere, caused deep indignation among believers.

The Orthodox Church will never take this unworthy path and will never renounce, either in whole or in parts, Her creed, steeped in the shrines of past centuries, to please one of the ever-changing social moods. With such an irreconcilable ideological difference between the Church and the state, which inevitably affects the life of these organizations, their clash in the work of the day can only be prevented by a consistently implemented law on the separation of the Church and the state, according to which neither the Church should interfere with the civil government in the success of the material well-being of the people, nor the state to constrain the Church in Her religious and moral activities.

Such a law, published among the first by the revolutionary government, became part of the Constitution of the USSR and could, under a changed political system, satisfy both sides to a certain extent. The Church has no religious reasons not to accept it. The Lord Jesus Christ commanded to provide “Caesar’s”, that is, care for the material well-being of the people, to “Caesar,” that is, state power, and did not leave us, His followers, a covenant to influence changes in state forms or direct their activities. According to this doctrine and traditions, the Orthodox Church has always shunned politics and remained obedient to the state in everything that did not relate to faith. That is why, internally alien to the government in the ancient Roman Empire or in recent Turkey, She could and did remain loyal in civil terms. But the modern state, for its part, cannot demand anything more from Her. In contrast to old political theories, which considered the religious unanimity of citizens necessary for the internal consolidation of political associations, it does not recognize the latter as important in this regard, resolutely declares that it does not need the assistance of the Church in achieving its goals and provides citizens with complete religious freedom.

In the current situation, the Church would only like the complete and consistent implementation of the law on the separation of the Church and the state. Unfortunately, reality falls far short of this desire. The government, both in its legislation and in its administration, does not remain neutral in relation to faith and unbelief, but most definitely takes the side of atheism, using all means of state influence to plant, develop and spread it, in opposition to all religions. The Church, upon which Her doctrine entrusts the religious duty of preaching the Gospel to everyone, including the children of believers, is deprived by law of the right to fulfill this duty to those under 18 years of age, meanwhile, in schools and youth organizations, the principles of very young children and adolescents are intensively instilled atheism with all the logical conclusions from them. The Basic Law gives citizens the right to believe in whatever they want, but it collides with a law that deprives a religious society of the right of a legal entity and the associated right to own any property, even objects that do not represent any material value, but are expensive and valuable, sacred for believers solely due to its religious significance. For the purpose of anti-religious propaganda, by the force of this law, the remains of saints revered by the Church were taken away from the Church and placed in a museum.

In order to govern, the government takes all measures to suppress religion - it uses every excuse to close churches and turn them into places of public spectacles and abolish monasteries, despite the introduction of labor into them, subjects the ministers of the Church to all sorts of restrictions in everyday life, does not allow believers to teaching in schools, prohibits the issuance of books of religious content and even only idealistic ones from public libraries, and through the mouths of the most prominent statesmen it has repeatedly stated that the limited freedom that the Church still enjoys is a temporary measure and a concession to the age-old religious skills of the people.

Of all the religions experiencing the full brunt of the above-mentioned restrictions, the most constrained situation is the Orthodox Church, to which belongs the vast majority of the Russian population, which constitutes the overwhelming majority in the state. Her position is aggravated by the fact that the part of the clergy that broke away from Her, forming a renovationist schism, became, as it were, a state Church, to which the Soviet government, contrary to the laws it issued, provides protection to the detriment of the Orthodox Church. In an official act, the government stated that it recognized the Renovationist Synod as the only legitimate representative of the Orthodox Church within the USSR. The Renovationist schism has unhindered bodies of higher and diocesan administration, its bishops are admitted to dioceses, they are allowed to visit communities, and cathedral churches taken away from the Orthodox, which are usually empty as a result, are almost everywhere transferred to their disposal. The renovationist clergy, to a certain extent, even enjoy material support from the government, for example, its delegates received free railway tickets to travel to Moscow for their so-called “Holy Council” in 1923 and free premises in Moscow in the 3rd building of the Moscow Council. Most of the Orthodox bishops and clergy who are in prison or in exile suffered this fate for their successful fight against the Renovationist schism, which by law constitutes their indisputable right in the order of government, but is considered as opposition to the types of government.

The Orthodox Church cannot, following the example of the Renovationists, testify that religion within the USSR is not subject to any restrictions and that there is no other country in which it enjoys complete freedom. She will not tell out loud to the whole world this shameful lie, which can only be inspired by hypocrisy, or servility, or complete indifference to the fate of religion, which deserves boundless condemnation in its servants. On the contrary, with all justice, She must declare that she cannot recognize as fair and welcome neither laws that limit Her in the performance of Her religious duties, nor administrative measures that many times increase the constraining burden of these laws, nor the patronage provided to the detriment of Her by the renovationist schism. The Church bases its own attitude towards state power on the full and consistent implementation of the principle of separation of Church and state. She does not seek to overthrow the existing order and does not take part in actions aimed at this goal, She never calls for arms and political struggle, She obeys all laws and orders of a civil nature, but She desires to fully preserve Her spiritual freedom and independence granted to Her by the Constitution and cannot become a servant of the state. The Soviet state does not believe in loyalty to the Orthodox Church. It accuses Her of activities aimed at overthrowing the new order and restoring the old. We believe it is necessary to assure the government that these allegations are untrue. In the past, it is true, there were political speeches by the Patriarch that gave rise to these accusations, but all acts of this kind issued by the Patriarch were not directed against the authorities in the proper sense. They date back to a time when the revolution manifested itself exclusively from the destructive side, when all social forces were in a state of struggle, when power in the sense of an organized government possessing the necessary instruments of control did not exist. At that time, the emerging bodies of central government could not restrain abuses and anarchy either in the capitals or in the localities. Groups of suspicious individuals were operating everywhere, posing as government agents, but in reality turning out to be impostors with a criminal past and an even more criminal present. They beat up bishops and clergy who were innocent of anything, broke into houses and hospitals, killed people there, plundered property there, robbed churches and then dispersed without a trace. It would be strange if, with such tension of political and selfish passions, with such embitterment of some against others, in the midst of this general struggle, one Church remained an indifferent spectator of the ongoing disorders.

Imbued with Her state and national traditions, inherited by Her from Her centuries-old past, the Church at this critical moment in people's life came out in defense of order, believing in this Her duty to the people. And in this case, She did not diverge from Her creed, which requires Her to obey the civil authority, for the Gospel obliges the Christian to obey the authority that uses its sword for the good of the people, and not anarchy, which is a social disaster. But over time, when a certain form of civil power emerged, Patriarch Tikhon declared in his appeal to his flock his loyalty to the Soviet government and resolutely renounced any influence on the political life of the country. Until the end of his life, the Patriarch remained faithful to this act. The Orthodox bishops did not violate it either. Since its publication, it is impossible to point to a single trial in which the participation of the Orthodox clergy in acts aimed at the overthrow of Soviet power could be proven.

Bishops and clergy, who suffered in such large numbers in exile, prison or forced labor, were subjected to these repressions not by judicial sentences, but by administrative procedure, without a clearly formulated charge, without a properly investigated case, without a public trial, without giving them the opportunity defense, often without even explaining the reasons, which is indisputable evidence of the absence of serious incriminating material against them. The Orthodox hierarchy is accused of communicating with emigrants regarding their political activities directed against Soviet power. This second accusation is as far from the truth as the first. Patriarch Tikhon condemned the political speeches of foreign bishops made on behalf of the Church. The chairs of the bishops who left with the emigrants were replaced by others. When the Karlovac Council, convened with his permission, exceeded its ecclesiastical powers and made a decision of a political nature, the Patriarch condemned its activities and dissolved the Synod, which allowed the Council to deviate from its program. Although canonically Orthodox dioceses that have arisen abroad are subordinate to the Russian Patriarch, in reality, governing them from Moscow and in ecclesiastical terms is impossible due to the lack of legal forms of relations with them, which relieves the Patriarch and his deputies of responsibility for what is happening in them. We can assure the government that we do not take part in their political activities and do not have open or secret relations with them on political matters. The absence of facts incriminating the Orthodox hierarchy in criminal relations with emigrants forces the enemies of the Church, for whom it is beneficial to arouse the government’s distrust against Her, to resort to vile forgeries.

This is the “document” presented in October 1925 by Vvedensky, who calls himself Metropolitan, at the so-called “Holy Council” of the Renovationists, who was not ashamed to pretend that he believed in the authenticity of this crudely fabricated forgery. The Church thinks of its relationship to civil authority on the basis of the laws on the separation of Church and state in this form. The Basic Law of our country excludes the Church from interference in political life. For this purpose, clergy are deprived of both active and passive suffrage, and they are prohibited from influencing the political self-determination of the masses through the power of religious authority. It follows from this that the Church, both in Her open activity and in Her intimate pastoral influence on believers, should not criticize or censure the civil measures of the government, but it also follows that She should not approve of them, since not only censure, but also approval of the government, is an intervention in politics, and the right of approval presupposes the right of censure, or at least the right to abstain from approval, which can always be understood as a sign of dissatisfaction and disapproval. Accordingly, the Church acts.

With complete sincerity, we can assure the government that no political propaganda is carried out on behalf of the Church either in churches, in church institutions, or in church meetings. Bishops and clergy will continue to refrain from discussing political issues in sermons and pastoral letters in the future. Church institutions, from parish councils to the Patriarchal Synod, will treat them as subjects beyond their competence. They will also not be included in the program of parish meetings, deanery and diocesan congresses, All-Russian Councils and will not be affected by them. In electing members of church institutions and representative assemblies, the Church will not take into account at all the political views, social status, property status and party affiliation of those elected, whatever they may be, and will limit itself to presenting to them exclusively religious demands and purity of faith, zeal for the needs of the Church , impeccability of personal life and moral character.

In the Republic, every citizen who is not impaired in political rights is called upon to participate in the legislation and government of the country, in the organization of the government and to influence, in the form established by law, its composition. And this is not only his right, but also an obligation, a civic duty, in the fulfillment of which no one has the right to constrain him. The Church would invade civil government if, having refused open discussion of political issues, it began to influence the direction of affairs through pastoral influence on individuals, instilling in them either a complete avoidance of political activity, or a certain program for it, calling for joining some political parties and to fight with others. Each believer has his own mind and his own conscience, which should show him the best path to establishing a state. Far from denying those questioning a religious assessment of events that come into contact with Christian doctrine, morality and discipline, in purely political and civil matters the Church does not bind their freedoms, instilling in them only general principles of morality, calling on them to conscientiously fulfill their duties, to act in the interests of the common good, not with the cowardly goal of pleasing force, but out of a consciousness of justice and public benefit.

The complete exclusion of the Church from interference in the political life of the Republic necessarily entails Her evasion of any supervision over the political trustworthiness of Her members. This is the deepest line of difference between the Orthodox Church and the Renovationist schism, the governing bodies of which and its clergy, as can be seen from their own repeated statements in the press, took upon themselves the obligation before the government to monitor the loyalty of their co-religionists, to vouch in this regard for some and refuse bail to others.

The Orthodox Church considers investigation and political denunciation completely incompatible with the dignity of a pastor. The state has special surveillance bodies, and members of the Church, Her clergy and laity are no different in the eyes of the modern government from other citizens, and therefore are subject to political supervision in the general manner. From these principles follows the inadmissibility of a church trial on charges of political crimes. The Renovationist schism, returning itself to the position of the state Church, allows such a court.

At the so-called Renovation Council of 1923, on charges of political crimes, Patriarch Tikhon and the bishops who retired with emigrants abroad were subjected to church punishment (justly imputed to nothing by the Orthodox Church). The Orthodox Church cancels such a court.

Those ecclesiastical and civil laws that guided the Church in a Christian state, after its fall, lost force, and purely ecclesiastical legislation, which alone can currently guide the Church, does not provide for the trial of clergy and laity on charges of political crimes and does not contain in its the composition of canons that would impose punishments on believers for crimes of this kind.

As a condition for the legalization of church institutions, representatives of the OGPU repeatedly presented Patriarch Tikhon and his deputies with the demand to prove their loyalty to the government by ecclesiastical condemnation of Russian bishops acting abroad against Soviet power.

Based on the principles set out above, We cannot approve of the conversion of the Church pulpit and institutions into a unilateral weapon of political struggle, especially since the political interest of the foreign episcopate casts a shadow on the representatives of the Orthodox Church within the USSR, fosters distrust in their law-abidingness and prevents the establishment of normal relations between Church and state. However, We would be put into great difficulty if We were required to express Our disapproval in any ecclesiastical act of a judicial nature, since the collection of canonical rules, as has been said, does not provide for trial for political crimes.

But even if the Orthodox hierarchy, regardless of this circumstance, following the example of the Renovationists, decided to proceed to such a trial, it would encounter a whole series of special difficulties that create ineradicable obstacles to the natural setting of the process, in which the only rulings of the court can receive indisputable canonical authority and be accepted by the Church.

Foreign bishops could only be judged by a Council of Orthodox Bishops, but a completely authoritative Council cannot take place already because about half of the Orthodox bishops are in prison or exile and, therefore, their sees cannot have legal representation at the Council.

According to church rules of universal significance, the personal presence of the accused at trial is necessary, and only in the case of malicious evasion of the trial is a hearing in absentia allowed. Foreign bishops, serious political criminals in the eyes of the Soviet Government, if they arrived within the USSR would be deprived of a guarantee of personal safety, and therefore their evasion could not be considered malicious.

Every trial presupposes a judicial investigation. The Orthodox Church does not have bodies through which it could investigate the case of political crimes of Orthodox bishops abroad.

But She could have pronounced Her judgment on the basis of the incriminating material collected by government agencies, and even if it had been presented to the Council, since in the event of an objection to it from the accused or their presentation of new data or justifying documents, the Council was would be forced to reconsider the government investigation, which on the part of the Church would be a completely unacceptable violation of civil laws.

The Renovation Council of 1923, which made the trial that is required of us and neglected the church laws that do not allow it, thereby made its decisions insignificant and not recognized by anyone. The law on the separation of Church and state is two-sided; it prohibits the Church from taking part in politics and civil government, but it also contains the state’s refusal to interfere in the internal affairs of the Church and Its teachings, worship and administration.

Fully submitting to this law, the Church hopes that the state will conscientiously fulfill in relation to Her those obligations to preserve Her freedom and independence, which it assumed in this law.

The Church hopes that it will not be left in this powerless and constrained position in which it currently finds itself, that the laws on teaching children the law of God and on depriving religious associations of the rights of a legal entity will be reviewed and changed in a direction favorable to the Church, that the remains of saints , revered by the Church, will cease to be the subject of blasphemous actions and will be returned from museums to the Temple.

The Church hopes that She will be allowed to organize diocesan administration, elect the Patriarch and members of the Holy Synod acting under him, and convene for this purpose, when She deems it necessary, diocesan congresses and the All-Russian Orthodox Council.

The Church hopes that the government will refrain from any public or secret influence on the election of members of these congresses (the Council), will not restrict the freedom of discussion of religious issues at these meetings and will not require any preliminary obligations that predetermine the essence of their future decisions.

The Church also hopes that the activities of the ecclesiastical institutions created in this way will not be placed in a situation in which the appointment of bishops to cathedras, determinations on the composition of the Holy Synod, and decisions taken by it would be under the influence of a government official, who may be entrusted with political supervision after them.

In presenting this memorandum to the discretion of the government, the Russian Church once again considers it possible to note that She, with complete sincerity, outlined to the Soviet authorities both the difficulties preventing the establishment of mutually benevolent relations between the Church and the state, and the means by which they could be eliminated. Deeply confident that a strong and trusting relationship can only be based on perfect justice, She set out openly, without any reticence or reciprocity, what She could promise to the Soviet government, in what she could deviate from Her principles and what she expected from the government of the USSR.

If the Church's proposals are considered acceptable, She will rejoice in the truth of those on whom it will depend. If Her petition is rejected, She is ready for the material deprivations to which She is subjected, She will meet this calmly, remembering that Her strength lies not in the integrity of the external organization, but in the unity of faith and love of Her children devoted to Her, and most of all places Her hope in irresistible power Its Divine Founder and His promise of the invincibility of His Creation."

May 1926

Message from the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Nizhny Novgorod and the temporary Patriarchal Holy Synod under him (“Declaration” of Metropolitan Sergius). 1927

By the grace of God, humble Sergius (Stragorodsky) Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod, Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens and Temporary Patriarchal Holy Synod.

To your Eminence archpastors, God-loving shepherds, honest monks and all the faithful children of the Holy All-Russian Orthodox Church.

Rejoice in the Lord.

One of the concerns of our late Holy Father Patriarch Tikhon before his death was to put our Orthodox Russian Church in the right relationship with the Soviet government and thereby give the Church the opportunity for a completely legal and peaceful existence. Dying, His Holiness said: “I should live another three years.” And, of course, if his unexpected death had not stopped his saintly labors, he would have completed the job. Unfortunately, various circumstances, and mainly the speeches of foreign enemies of the Soviet state, among whom were not only ordinary believers of our Church, but also their leaders, arousing the government’s natural and just distrust of church leaders in general, interfered with the efforts of His Holiness, and he was not destined to It was during my lifetime to see my efforts crowned with success.

Now the lot to be the temporary Deputy High Hierarch of our Church has again fallen on me, the unworthy Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), and along with the lot has fallen on me the duty to continue the work of the Deceased One and strive in every possible way for the peaceful arrangement of our church affairs. My efforts in this direction, shared with me and the Orthodox archpastors, do not seem to remain fruitless: with the establishment under me of the Temporary Patriarchal Holy Synod, the hope for bringing our entire church administration into proper order and order is strengthened, and confidence in the possibility of peaceful life and activity increases ours within the limits of the law.

Now that we are almost at the very goal of our aspirations, the actions of foreign enemies do not stop: murders, arson, raids, explosions and similar phenomena of underground struggle before our eyes. All this disrupts the peaceful flow of life, creating an atmosphere of mutual distrust and all sorts of suspicions. The more necessary for our Church and the more obligatory for all of us who care about Her interests, who want to lead Her onto the path of legal and peaceful existence, the more obligatory for us now to show that we, church leaders, are not with the enemies of our Soviet state and not with mad instruments of their intrigues, but with our people and with our government.

To testify to this is the first purpose of our present (mine and the Synodal) message. Then we inform you that in May of this year, at my invitation and with the permission of the authorities, a Temporary Patriarchal Holy Synod was organized under the Deputy Patriarchal Holy Synod consisting of the undersigned (the absence of His Grace Metropolitan Arseny (Stadnitsky) of Novgorod, who has not yet arrived, and Archbishop Sebastian of Kostroma, due to illness). Our petition for permission for the Synod to begin activities to govern the Orthodox All-Russian Church was crowned with success. Now our Orthodox Church in the Union has not only canonical, but also, according to civil laws, completely legal central government; and we hope that legalization will gradually spread to our lower church administration: diocesan, district, and so on. It is hardly necessary to explain the significance and all the consequences of the change that is taking place in this way in the position of our Orthodox Church, Her clergy, all church leaders and institutions... Let us offer our prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord, who has been so well-disposed for our holy Church. Let us publicly express our gratitude to the Soviet government for such attention to the spiritual needs of the Orthodox population, and at the same time, we assure the government that we will not use the trust placed in us for evil.

Having begun, with God’s blessing, our synodal work, we are clearly aware of the magnitude of the task ahead both for us and for all representatives of the Church in general. We need to show, not in words, but in deeds, that faithful citizens of the Soviet Union, loyal to Soviet power, can be not only people indifferent to Orthodoxy, not only traitors to it, but also its most zealous adherents, for whom it is dear as the truth and life, with all its dogmas and traditions, with all its canonical and liturgical structure. We want to be Orthodox and at the same time recognize the Soviet Union as our civil Motherland, whose joys and successes are our joys and successes, and whose failures are our failures. Any blow directed at the Union, be it a war, a boycott, some kind of social disaster, or simply a murder from around the corner, like the one in Warsaw, is recognized by us as a blow aimed at us. While remaining Orthodox, we remember our duty to be citizens of the Union “not only out of fear of punishment, but also according to conscience,” as the Apostle taught us (Rom. 13:5). And we hope that with God’s help, with your general assistance and support, this task will be resolved by us.

The only thing that can hinder us is what also hindered the organization of church life on the basis of loyalty in the first years of Soviet power. This is insufficient awareness of the seriousness of what has happened in our country. The establishment of Soviet power was considered by many to be some kind of misunderstanding, accidental and therefore short-lived. People forgot that there are no accidents for a Christian and that in what has happened in our country, as always and everywhere, the same right hand of God is at work, steadily leading every people to its intended goal. To such people, who do not want to understand the “signs of the times,” it may seem that it is impossible to break with the previous regime and even the monarchy without breaking with Orthodoxy. This mood of well-known church circles, expressed, of course, both in words and in deeds and arousing the suspicions of the Soviet government, also hampered the efforts of His Holiness the Patriarch to establish peaceful relations between the Church and the Soviet government. It is not for nothing that the Apostle inspires us that “we can live quietly and serenely according to our piety only by obeying the legal authority (1 Tim. 2:2); or we must leave society. Only armchair dreamers can think that such a huge society as our Orthodox The Church with its entire organization can exist calmly in the state, closed off from power.Now, when our Patriarchate, fulfilling the will of the late Patriarch, decisively and irrevocably takes the path of loyalty, people of this mood will have to either break themselves and, leaving their political sympathies at home, bring only faith to the Church and work with us only in the name of faith; or, if they cannot immediately overcome themselves, at least not interfere with us by temporarily withdrawing from work. We are confident that they will return to work with us again and very soon , making sure that only the attitude towards power has changed, but faith and Orthodox Christian life remain unshakable.

In this situation, the question of the clergy who went abroad with the emigrants becomes especially acute. The blatantly anti-Soviet speeches of some of our archpastors and pastors abroad, which greatly harmed relations between the government and the Church, as is known, forced the late Patriarch to abolish the Synod abroad (May 5 - April 22, 1922). But the Synod still continues to exist, without changing politically, and recently, with its claims to power, it has even split the foreign church society into two camps. To put an end to this, we demanded that the clergy abroad give a written pledge of complete loyalty to the Soviet Government in all their public activities. Those who have not given such an obligation or who have violated it will be expelled from the clergy under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. We think that by demarcating ourselves in this way, we will be protected from any surprises from abroad. On the other hand, our resolution may make many people think whether it is time for them to reconsider the issue of their relationship to Soviet power, so as not to break with their native Church and Motherland.

We consider our no less important task to be the preparation for the convening and the very convening of our Second Local Council, which will elect for us not a temporary, but a permanent central church government, and will also make a decision about all the “thieves of church power” who are tearing apart the robe of Christ. The order and time of convening, the subjects of the Council's activities and other details will be worked out later. Now we will only express our firm conviction that our future Council, having resolved many pressing issues of our internal church life, at the same time, with its conciliar mind and voice, will give final approval to the work we have undertaken to establish the correct relations of our Church with the Soviet government.

In conclusion, we earnestly ask you all, Your Eminence archpastors, pastors, brothers and sisters, help us each in your rank with your sympathy and assistance in our work, your zeal for the cause of God, your devotion and obedience to the Holy Church, especially with your prayers for us Lord, may He enable us to successfully and God-pleasingly complete the work entrusted to us for the glory of His Holy Name, for the benefit of our Holy Orthodox Church and for our common salvation.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Message from the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsky to the archpastors, shepherds and all the faithful children of the Orthodox Russian Church. 1925

By the grace of God, Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan of Krutitsa, humble Peter, To the beloved archpastors, shepherds and all the faithful children of the Orthodox Russian Church in Christ - Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

More than three months have already passed since the Lord was pleased to call to Himself the Helmsman of the Russian Church, our most gracious Father, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. This loss is difficult for us, especially at the present time, when the church ship has to be led to a quiet pier among the raging waves of the sea of ​​life.

The Orthodox Church of Christ has many enemies. Now they have intensified their activities against Orthodoxy. Catholics, by introducing our liturgical rites, are seducing, especially in Western, anciently Orthodox monasteries, the believing people into the union and thereby distracting the forces of the Orthodox Church from the more urgent struggle against unbelief.

The so-called evangelists or Baptists, as well as other sectarians, preach their creeds wherever possible and entice gullible souls with the imaginary holiness of their lives and the promise of material help. And the poor, weak Orthodox soul, not being able to recognize all the falsity of sectarian teachings, admiring the inspiration of their preachers, and often tempted by material calculations, drinks the poison of spiritual poison and perishes, falling away from the Holy Orthodox Church... All this happens at a time when disbelief spreads in a wide wave, penetrating all layers of our society.

To our deep regret, with God’s permission, division occurred within the Orthodox Church itself. According to the word of God, “they went out from us, but they were not ours; for if they had been ours, they would have remained with us” (1 John 2:19). We mean the so-called Living Churchmen, renovationists, revivalists, self-saints and the like - all of them, with their arbitrary hierarchy and arbitrary structure of church life, both in primordial Russia, and in Ukraine and in other places, are separated from the one Body of Christ, that is, from the Holy His Orthodox Church, and thus they confuse the Orthodox people. But the words of the Lord are immutable: what was hidden from the wise and prudent, the Lord actually revealed to infants (Luke 10:21). Our Orthodox Russian people felt with their simple hearts the internal wrongness of the renovationist movement and all its danger. Wherever possible, he rejects this movement with just indignation and does not visit renovationist churches.

At present, the so-called renovationists are talking more and more about uniting with us. They hold meetings in cities and districts, inviting Orthodox clergy and laity to them to jointly discuss the issue of uniting with us and to prepare for their new false council, which they convene in the fall of this year. But we must firmly remember that, according to the canonical rules of the Universal Church, all unauthorized meetings, like the Living Church meeting that took place in 1923, are illegal. Therefore, canonical rules prohibit Orthodox Christians from attending them, much less choosing their own representatives for the upcoming meeting. According to the 20th canon of the Council of Antioch, “let no one be allowed to form councils on their own, without those bishops to whom the metropolis is entrusted.” In the Holy Church of God, only that which is blessed by the Divinely established Church Authority, which has been successively preserved since the times of the Apostles, is legal and canonical. However, everything unauthorized, everything that was accomplished by the renovationists without the blessing of the deceased Patriarch in God, everything that is now being accomplished without the blessing of our measure - the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, acting in unity with the entire Orthodox legal hierarchy, all this has no force according to the canons of the Holy Church of Christ (Apostolic rule 34, 39), for the true Church is one, and the grace of the All-Holy Spirit abiding in it is one: there cannot be two churches and two graces. “There is one body and one spirit, as you also have one calling, in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:4–6).

The so-called renovationists should not talk about unification with the Orthodox Church, but they should bring sincere repentance for their errors. Their main delusions are that, having arbitrarily departed from the legal hierarchy and its head, His Holiness the Patriarch, they tried to renew the Church of Christ with unauthorized teachings ("The Living Church", No. 1 - 11), they perverted the church rules established by the Ecumenical Councils (Resolution of the false council May 4, 1923), they rejected the power of the Patriarch, conciliarly established and recognized by all Eastern Orthodox Patriarchates, that is, they rejected what all Orthodoxy recognized and, moreover, condemned it at their false council. Contrary to the rules of the holy apostles, Ecumenical Councils and Holy Fathers (Apostolic canon 17, 18; VI Ecumenical Council canon 3, 12, 48; St. Basil the Great 12), they allow bishops to be married and clergy to be bigamists, that is, they violate what the entire Ecumenical Church recognizes as a law for itself and that can only be changed by an Ecumenical Council. Thus, they break the connection with the Church’s sacred Tradition and fall under conciliar condemnation for violating Tradition (dogmatic definitions of the 7th Ecumenical Council). Even the original leaders of the renovation movement (Bishop Antonin and others) themselves were aware of the uncanonical nature of their errors, which they openly and persistently declare in their sermons and appeals...

The joining of the so-called Renovationists to the Holy Orthodox Church is possible only on the condition that each of them individually renounces their errors and repents of their falling away from the Church. And we constantly pray to the Lord God that He will return the lost to the bosom of the Holy Orthodox Church.

God-wise and God-loving Archpastors, honest Shepherds and all beloved Orthodox Christians! In such a difficult time of church life that we are experiencing now, trusting in the divine Providence that cares for us, we will remain in a union of peace and love among ourselves, we will be one (John 17: 21 - 23), helping each other to protect our Orthodox faith, demonstrating everywhere and everywhere examples of good life, love, meekness, humility and obedience to the existing Civil Authority, in accordance with the commandments of God (Mark 12, 17; Rom. 13, 1; Acts 4, 18 - 19), remembering that the Church of Christ leads believers only to spiritual and moral perfection and there is no place in it for political struggle, so that the Authority sees this and the Spirit of God through it speaks good things about the Holy Church (1 Pet. 11, 12 - 14).

Let us earnestly pray to the Merciful God, that He may preserve our Russian Church unshakably in Orthodoxy.

“Confirm, O Lord, the Church which You have acquired with Your venerable Blood” (St. Cosmas of Maium, irmos of the 3rd hymn for the Presentation of the Lord).”

Literature

1. Wreath on the grave of His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir (+ January 25, 1918). - Kyiv, 1992. - (Reprint, ed., 1918).

2. Vinogradov V., protopresbyter. About some of the most important moments of the last period of the life and work of Patriarch Tikhon. - Munich, 1959.

3. Gidulyanov P.V. Separation of the Church from the State in the USSR. // Complete collection of documents, departmental orders and rulings of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR and other Soviet Socialist Republics. - M., 1926.

4. Grabbe G., protopresbyter. The truth about the Russian Church at home and abroad. - New York, 1961.

5. Hieromonk Damascene (Orlovsky). Martyrs, confessors and devotees of piety of the Russian Orthodox Church of the 20th century: Lives and materials for them. Book 1. - Tver, 1992.

6. Hieromonk Damascene (Orlovsky). Now I won’t die... // "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate", 1993, No. 1. - P. 20–32.

7. Acts of the Russian All-Foreign Council. - Sremski Karlovci, 1922.

8. Acts of the Second All-Foreign Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. - Belgrade, 1939.

9. Evlogy, Metropolitan. The path of my life. - Paris, 1947.

10. Eleutherius, metropolitan. Week in the Patriarchate. - Paris, 1933.

11. Zelenogorsky M. L. The life and work of Archbishop Andrei (Prince Ukhtomsky). - M., 1991.

12. John, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. Metropolitan Manuel (Lemeshevsky). Biographical sketch. - St. Petersburg, 1993.

13. John, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. Church schisms in the Russian Church of the 20s and 30s of the XX century - Gregorian, Yaroslavl, Josephite, Victorian and others, their characteristics and history. - Ed. 2., add. Sortavala, 1993.

14. Kozarzhevsky A. Ch. Church parish life in Moscow in the 1920s–1930s. Memoirs of a parishioner. - "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate", 1992, No. 11–12, p. 21–28.

15. Konstantinov Dmitry, archpriest. Persecuted Church (Russian Orthodox Church in the USSR). - New York, 1967.

Message from His Holiness Patriarch TIKHON on his attitude towards the existing state power (“Dying Testament”). April 14, 1925

Source: Danilushkin M. and others. History of the Russian Orthodox Church. New patriarchal period. Volume 1. 1917-1970. St. Petersburg: Resurrection, 1997. Page number after text on it.

By the grace of God, the Humble TIKHON, Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russian Churches.

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. During the years of great civil devastation, by the will of God, without which nothing happens in the world, the Soviet government became the head of the Russian state, taking upon itself the difficult responsibility of eliminating the terrible consequences of a bloody war and terrible famine.

Entering into the administration of the Russian state, representatives of the Soviet government, back in January 1918, issued a decree on the complete freedom of citizens to believe in anything and live according to this faith. Thus, the principle of freedom of conscience, proclaimed by the Constitution of the USSR, provides every religious society, including our Orthodox Church, with the rights and opportunity to live and conduct their religious affairs in accordance with the requirements of their faith, since this does not violate the rights of public order and the rights of other citizens. And therefore, at one time, in letters to archpastors, to shepherds and flocks, we publicly recognized the new order of things and the Workers' and Peasants' Power of the Peoples, whose government we sincerely welcomed.

It is time for believers to understand the Christian point of view that “the destinies of nations are determined by the Lord,” and to accept everything that happened as an expression of the will of God. Without sinning against Our faith and the Church, without altering anything in them, in a word, without allowing any compromises or concessions in the field of faith, in civil terms we must be sincere in relation to Soviet power and the work of the USSR for the common good, conforming to the order of external church life and activities with the new state system, condemning any association with the enemies of Soviet power and overt or secret agitation against it.

Offering our prayers for the sending of God's blessing on the work of peoples who have united their strength in the name of the common good, We call on all beloved children of the God-protected Russian Church at this important time of building the common well-being of the people to unite with us in fervent prayer to the Almighty for the sending of help to the Workers' and Peasants' power in her works for the public good. We urge both parish communities and especially their executive bodies not to allow any attempts by ill-intentioned people towards anti-government activities, not to harbor hopes for the return of the monarchical system and to make sure that the Soviet government is truly the People's Workers' and Peasants' Power, and therefore...

nay and unshakable. We call for the election of worthy, honest and devoted people to the parish councils of the Orthodox Church, who do not politicize and who are sincerely disposed towards Soviet power. The activities of Orthodox communities should be directed not towards politicking, which is completely alien to the Church of God, but towards strengthening the Orthodox faith, for the enemies of Holy Orthodoxy - Catholic sectarians, Protestants, Renovationists, atheists and the like - strive to use every moment in the life of the Orthodox Church to harm Her . The enemies of the Church resort to all kinds of deceptive actions, coercion and even bribery in an effort to achieve their goals. It is enough to look at what is happening in Poland, where out of the 350 churches and monasteries that were there, only 50 remain. The rest are either closed or turned into churches, not to mention the persecution to which our Orthodox clergy is subjected there.

Now We, having recovered from illness with the mercy of Bozkia, entering again into the service of the Church of Bozkia, call on you, beloved brother archpastors and shepherds, having once again condemned all resistance to the authorities, malicious intentions against it, rebellion and all enmity against it, to share Our work according to the pacification of Our flock and the improvement of the Bozkian Church.

In consciousness of the duty that lies upon Us to maintain the purity of the life of the Church, which first of all seeks the salvation of people and the realization in life of the eternal Divine principles, We cannot but condemn those who, in oblivion of God, abusing their ecclesiastical position, give themselves over without measure to human, often crude politicking, sometimes of a criminal nature, and therefore, out of the duty of Our First Hierarchal service, we bless the opening of the actions of a special commission under Us, entrusting it with an examination and, if necessary, the canonical removal from the administration of those archpastors and shepherds who persist in their errors and refuse to bring they repent before the Soviet regime, bringing them before the court of the Orthodox Council.

At the same time, with deep sorrow, We must note that some of the sons of Russia, and even archpastors and pastors, for various reasons, left their homeland and took up activities abroad to which they were not called, and in any case harmful to our Church. Using Our name, Our church authority, they create harmful and counter-revolutionary activities there. We resolutely declare: We have no connection with them, as Our enemies claim, they are alien to Us, We condemn their harmful activities. They are free in their convictions, but they act arbitrarily and contrary to the canons of Our Church on Our behalf and on behalf of the Holy Church, hiding behind concerns for Her good. He brought no good to the Church and the people so

the so-called Karlowitz Council, the condemnation of which We again confirm, and we consider it necessary to firmly and definitely declare that any attempts of this kind will henceforth call on Our side extreme measures, up to the banning of sacred service and bringing the Council to trial. In order to avoid grave punishments, We call on the archpastors and pastors who are abroad to stop their political activities with the enemies of our people and have the courage to return to their homeland and tell the truth about themselves and the Church of God.

Their actions must be examined. They must give an answer to the Orthodox Church consciousness. We instruct a special commission to examine the actions of the archpastors and pastors who fled abroad, and especially the metropolitans: Anthony (Khrapovitsky) - formerly of Kyiv, Platon (Rozhdestvensky) - formerly of Odessa, as well as others, and to give an immediate assessment of their activities. Their refusal to obey Our call will force Us to judge them in absentia.

Our enemies, trying to separate us from our beloved children, entrusted by God to us - the shepherds, spread false rumors that We, in the patriarchal post, are not free to dispose of Our word and even our conscience, that We are dominated by imaginary enemies of the people and are deprived of the opportunity to communicate with the flock, We know. We declare all fabrications about Our unfreedom to be lies and temptation, since there is no power on earth that could bind Our Hierarchal conscience and our patriarchal word. Fearlessly and with great hope, looking at the future paths of Holy Orthodoxy, We humbly ask you, Our beloved children, to guard the work of God, so that the forces of lawlessness may succeed in nothing.

Calling upon the archpastors, shepherds and children faithful to Us the blessing of God, we ask you with a calm conscience, without fear of sinning against the Holy Faith, to submit to Soviet power not out of fear, but for conscience, remembering the words of the Apostle: “Let every soul be submissive to the higher authorities, for There is no authority except from God, but the existing authorities were established by God” (Rom. 13: 1).

At the same time, We express our firm confidence that the establishment of pure, sincere relationships will encourage Our authorities to treat us with complete confidence, will give Us the opportunity to teach the children of Our flock the law of God, have theological schools for training pastors, and publish books in defense of the Orthodox faith and magazines.

May the Lord strengthen all of you in devotion to the Holy Orthodox Faith, the Church and Her hierarchy.

Patriarch TIKHON.

Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. M. 1994. pp. 361-363.

The question of the authenticity of the so-called “testamentary message” still causes controversy among researchers. The question of the authenticity of the message is extremely important because... it was intended to determine the policy of the Church in relation to the state for the near future. Among the supporters of the version that the Patriarch did not sign the message, the name of Archpriest should be highlighted. V. Vinogradov, who in his memoirs about Patriarch Tikhon convincingly proves the inauthenticity of the message. However, most modern Church historians support the version that the Patriarch nevertheless signed the message.

There are a number of different editions of this document:

Let us consider these editions and try to identify their relationship and the degree of their affiliation with Patriarch Tikhon. As Rev. says in his memoirs. V. Vinogradov, E. Tuchkov, in the last months of the Patriarch’s life, again with decisive persistence launched attacks on the Holy Synod in order to force it to achieve an act in which he would declare himself a positive friend and supporter of Soviet power and would agree to trial in absentia and condemnation of foreign Russian hierarchy. As a result of this, the famous “Will” appeared.

A comparison of the three main editions of the “Testamentary Message” is given in the table below:

A	B	AND
Appeal By God's Grace Humble Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the entire Russian Church.	Message By God's Grace Humble Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the entire Russian Church.	"By the grace of God, the Humble Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and the entire Russian Church."
	Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.	Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
	During the years of great civil devastation, by the will of God, without which nothing happens in the world, the Soviet government took upon itself the difficult responsibility of ridding the homeland from the incalculable consequences of a bloody war, internal revolts and great famine. Back in January 1918, the Soviet Government decreed complete freedom of faith and conscience, then ensuring our God-protected Church, according to the Constitution of the USSR, complete freedom of Orthodox confession.	During the years of great civil devastation, by the will of God, without which nothing happens in the world, the Soviet government became the head of the Russian state, taking upon itself the difficult responsibility of eliminating the terrible consequences of a bloody war and terrible famine. Entering the administration of the Russian state, representatives of the Soviet government, back in January 1918, issued a decree on the complete freedom of citizens to believe in anything and live according to this faith. Thus, the principle of freedom of conscience, proclaimed by the Constitution of the USSR, provides every religious society, including our Orthodox Church, with the rights and opportunity to live and conduct their religious affairs in accordance with the requirements of their faith, since this does not violate public order and the rights of other citizens.
Against the false and vain opinions spread by our enemies, We, fully conscious of past errors, sincerely repenting of them, solemnly and publicly recognized the new order of things and the Workers' and Peasants' Power of the Peoples, whose government we sincerely welcomed. The revival of the prosperity and power of our homeland, which perished in the conditions of an external war of internal rebellions and famine, already fills us with complete confidence that the Workers' and Peasants' Power is leading the peoples united by it to complete prosperity.	Therefore, in our time, in acts addressed to the authorities, also in messages to archpastors, pastors and flocks, We publicly recognized the new order of things and the Workers' and Peasants' Power of the Peoples, whose Government we sincerely welcomed.	And therefore, in our time, in letters to archpastors, to shepherds and flocks, we publicly recognized the new order of things and the Workers' and Peasants' Power of the Peoples, whose government we sincerely welcomed.
	In prayerful trust in the mercy of God and the inscrutable ways of the Providence of the Almighty, in concern for the purity and strength of the confession of our God-protected church and for the protection of its peace and well-being, We must sincerely cooperate with the Authorities, for the sake of the common good, to conform the order of external church life and activities with the new state formally condemning any communication with the enemies of the Soviet Power, open and secret agitation against it.	It is time for believers to understand the Christian point of view that “the destinies of nations are determined by the Lord,” and to accept everything that happened as an expression of the will of God. Without sinning against Our faith and the Church, without altering anything in them, in a word, without allowing any compromises or concessions in the field of faith, in civil terms we must be sincere in relation to Soviet power and the work of the USSR for the common good, conforming to the order of external church life and activities with the new state system, condemning any association with the enemies of Soviet power and overt or secret agitation against it.
Offering Our humble prayers for the sending of God's blessing on the work of peoples who have united their strength in the name of the common good, We call on the beloved children of our God-protected Church, in this important time of building the common well-being of peoples, to unite with Us, in the consciousness of the errors previously committed and, bringing their sincere repentance to stand up for the Workers' and Peasants' power of the Soviets, assisting it with all their might, in every possible way relieving it of the burden of such a great feat.	Offering our prayers for the sending of God's blessing on the work of peoples who have united their strength in the name of the common good, We call on all the beloved children of our God-protected Church at this important time of building the common well-being of peoples to merge with us in fervent prayer to the Almighty for sending help to the Workers' and Peasants' Power in her labors for the public good. Warning all the faithful children of our God-protected Church against any secret hostility against the Government,	Offering our prayers for the sending of God's blessing on the work of peoples who have united their strength in the name of the common good, we call on all beloved children of the God-protected Russian Church at this crucial time of building the common well-being of the people to unite with us in fervent prayer to the Almighty for the sending of help to the Workers' and Peasants' Power in her labors for the public good.
We especially appeal and call on parish communities, especially their executive bodies, parish councils, to stop anti-government plans, not to harbor hopes for the return of the monarchical system and to make sure that Soviet power is truly the people's Workers' and Peasants' Power, and therefore strong and unshakable.	We call on brotherhoods, Orthodox religious communities, parish communities and especially their executive bodies not to allow any attempts by ill-intentioned people towards anti-government activities, to abandon useless and insane hopes for the return of the Tsar and the monarchical system, which has become obsolete forever, in the sincere and firm conviction that the Soviet The power of peoples and, as such, is strong and unshakable.	We call on parish communities and especially their executive bodies not to allow any attempts by ill-intentioned people towards anti-government activities, not to harbor hopes for the return of the monarchical system and to make sure that Soviet power is truly the People's Workers' and Peasants' power, and therefore strong and unshakable .
We call for the election of the most worthy and devoted people to the parish councils of the Orthodox Church, not compromised in any way, not politicking and sincerely disposed towards Soviet power.	We call for the election of worthy, honest and devoted people to the parish councils of the Orthodox Church, alien to politicking and sincerely disposed in favor of the Soviet Power.	We call for the election of worthy, honest and devoted people to the parish councils of the Orthodox Church, who do not politicize and are sincerely disposed towards Soviet power.
The Orthodox Church now needs to engage not in politicking, but in strengthening the Orthodox faith, for the enemies of Orthodoxy are sectarians, Catholics, etc. They strive to use every moment to destroy the Orthodox faith.	The activities of Orthodox communities should be directed not towards politicking, but towards strengthening the Orthodox faith, for the enemies of holy Orthodoxy - sectarians, Catholics, Protestants, Renovationists, atheists and the like - strive to use every moment in the life of the Orthodox Church to harm it.	The activities of Orthodox communities should be directed not towards politicking, which is completely alien to the Church of God, but towards strengthening the Orthodox faith, for the enemies of Holy Orthodoxy - sectarians, Catholics, Protestants, Renovationists, atheists and the like - strive to use every moment in the life of the Orthodox Church to the detriment of To her.
They resort to all kinds of deception, coercion, and even bribery in an attempt to achieve their goals. Just look at the example of Poland, where out of the 350 churches and monasteries located there, only 50 remain, the rest are either closed or turned into churches, not to mention the persecution to which our Orthodox clergy is subjected there.	The enemies of the church resort to all kinds of deception, coercion, and even bribery in an effort to achieve their goals. It is enough to look at what is happening in Poland, where out of the 350 churches and monasteries located there, only 50 remain... The rest are either closed or turned into churches, not to mention the persecution to which our Orthodox clergy is subjected there.	The enemies of the Church resort to all kinds of deceptive actions, coercion and even bribery in an effort to achieve their goals. It is enough to look at what is happening in Poland, where out of the 350 churches and monasteries that were there, only 50 remain. The rest are either closed or turned into churches, not to mention the persecution to which our Orthodox clergy is subjected there.
Along with the anti-Orthodox actions of Catholics, sectarians, living church members, atheists, etc. Also active in the Anglican Church is the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, being a representative of the church of a rich country - England, strives to plunge the Orthodox Church into heresy, revise dogmas and introduce into it a number of innovations unnecessary to Orthodoxy, for which purpose he conducts his work in the East.
Now, when, by the ineffable grace of God, having recovered from illness, We have again taken up the post of Our ministry, turning to you, our beloved children, this word of love and peace, calling you to peaceful work for all good, We have decided once again to decisively condemn all resistance to power, malicious intentions against it, rebellion, and all hostility against it. Calling upon you, beloved brethren, archpastors and shepherds, to share Our work in pacifying Our flock, let every spirit of rebellion be set aside for the work of love and peace,	Now We, by the grace of God, having recovered from illness, entering again into the service of the Church of God, call on you, beloved brothers-archpastors and shepherds, having once again condemned all resistance to the Authority, malicious intentions against it, rebellion and all enmity against it, to divide our work according to the pacification of our flock and the improvement of the Church of God.	Now We, having recovered from illness with the grace of God, entering again into the service of the Church of God, call on you, beloved brother archpastors and shepherds, having once again condemned all resistance to the authorities, malicious intentions against it, rebellion and all enmity against it, to divide Our work according to the peace of Our flock and the improvement of the Church of God.
We, in the consciousness of the responsibility that lies upon Us, out of the duty of Our high priestly service, to the Chief Shepherd, Our Lord JESUS ​​CHRIST,	In consciousness of the duty that lies upon Us to maintain the purity of church life, which first of all seeks salvation in the implementation of eternal Divine principles in life, We decisively condemn those who, abusing their ecclesiastical position, in oblivion of God, indulge in politicking, which is often criminal not only from the point of view of the church , and therefore, according to the duty of Our high priestly service	In consciousness of the duty that lies upon Us to maintain the purity of the life of the Church, which first of all seeks the salvation of people and the realization in life of the eternal Divine principles, We cannot but condemn those who, in oblivion of God, abusing their ecclesiastical position, give themselves over without measure to human, often crude politicking, sometimes of a criminal nature, and therefore, in accordance with the duty of Our High Hierarchal service
We bless the opening of the actions of a special commission under Us, entrusting it with the immediate removal from communication with the flock of those archpastors and shepherds who are still in their errors and have not brought sincere repentance for them before the Soviet Power, handing them over in cases of special importance to the legal court of the Holy Church. We pledge and continue to protect our Holy Church from rebellion, We will strictly punish for the slightest resistance to the authorities, eradicating every spirit of evil treason. We appeal to the children of our church, those in dispersion and refugee existence, to unite with the homeland they left under the Workers' and Peasants' By the power of nations, without retreating from allegiance to it, neither fear nor temptation, as befits you, the sons of the greatest of the nations of the world.	We bless to open the actions of a special Commission under Us, entrusting it with the investigation and removal from administration and sacred rites of those archpastors and pastors who, persistent in their errors, did not repent of their opposition to the Authority, bringing them over to the legal court of the Church.	We give our blessing to open the actions of a special commission under Us, entrusting it with the examination and, if necessary, the canonical removal from the administration of those archpastors and pastors who persist in their errors and refuse to repent of them before the Soviet authorities, bringing them before the court of the Orthodox Council.
Fueled by enemy money, the treacherous agitation of those who are plotting against our homeland, strives to seduce especially you, temporarily deprived of your homeland, either with false promises of some kind of useless, moreover, unrealizable and unthinkable help, or with the flattering ghost of the king, thereby believing to take advantage of the backwardness and darkness of the people irresponsible or the unconsciousness of the weak at heart, in order to again plunge our God-protected homeland into all the horrors of a new civil war, destroy all the achievements of the working people, and plunge them into the state of former slavery.	At the same time, with deep sorrow, We must note that some of the sons of Russia, even archpastors and shepherds, having left their homeland, indulged in criminal activities abroad, directed against our state and in any case harmful to our church, moreover, sometimes taking advantage of Our name and Our church authority, developing counter-revolutionary work.	At the same time, with deep sorrow We must note that some of the sons of Russia, and even archpastors and pastors, for various reasons left their homeland and took up activities abroad to which they were not called, and in any case harmful to our Church. Using Our name, Our church authority, they create harmful and counter-revolutionary activities there.
Now standing firmly and unshakably against these enemy malice and intrigues; In trusting in the Lord, may he enlighten the minds of the ignorant, may he enlighten the hearts of the deceived, and may he strengthen the spirit of the weak, we condemn and excommunicate from communion with the Holy Church those who, consciously leaning towards the side of the enemies of our homeland, thereby treacherously betray it.	We resolutely declare that, contrary to their assertions, we have no connection with them. We condemn them as aliens, declaring their activities, hidden behind feigned concerns for Our Holy Church, to be directly hostile to it, and treasonable regarding their homeland.	We resolutely declare: We have no connection with them, as our enemies claim, they are alien to us, we condemn their harmful activities. They are free in their convictions, but they act arbitrarily and contrary to the canons of Our Church on Our behalf and on behalf of the Holy Church, hiding behind concerns for Her good.
We were filled with sorrowful amazement when we learned of the actions of the so-called council in Sermskie KARLOVTSI, where a group of our refugee hierarchs, having organized a community around themselves, sought to lay the foundation for a monarchical rebellion against the Workers' and Peasants' Power. We promptly and decisively condemned these insane attempts, but now, when, in an erroneous calculation of the imaginary darkness of the people, there were people seeking to deceive the masses and become the head of new villainous plans, We renounce, excommunicate and anathematize them, declaring them enemies not only homeland and its peoples, but also our Holy Orthodox Church. To Our greatest chagrin, Our hierarchs and refugees living abroad, despite Our strict rebuke, having transgressed Our orders, despising the voice and the universal Church, without retreating from lies, continue to carry out the treacherous work of traitors against their homeland and against our Holy Church,	In the memory of everyone, the deliberate harm that the insane, criminal and anti-church idea of ​​the so-called Council in Karlovtsi brought to the Church and the People, now We declare that in the future we will not stop at any extreme of our and the Church’s strict rebuke against such anti-church, traitorous and counter- -revolutionary attempts. With this warning of the gravest punishments, We call on all archpastors and pastors who are abroad, having stopped their anti-church, treasonous and counter-revolutionary work with the courage of honest people, immediately come to their homeland, bring their current confession to the Orthodox Church and give an account about themselves and their activities. Their refusal to obey this call of ours, as failure to fulfill this, will entail their condemnation in absentia.	The so-called Karlovitsky Council did not bring good to the Church and its people, the condemnation of which we again confirm, and we consider it necessary to firmly and definitely declare that any attempts of this kind will henceforth call on Our side extreme measures, up to the banning of the priesthood and bringing the Council to trial. In order to avoid grave punishments, We call on the archpastors and pastors who are abroad to stop their political activities with the enemies of our people and have the courage to return to their homeland and tell the truth about themselves and the Church of God. Their actions must be examined. They must give an answer to the Orthodox Church consciousness.
why We bless the deeds of Metropolitan ANTONY, formerly of Kyiv and Galicia, PLATO, formerly of Odessa and Kherson, Eulogius, formerly. Volyn and Zhitomir, archbishops - ANASTASY, formerly of Chisinau and Khotyn, ALEXANDER, formerly of America and Aleut, FEOFAN, formerly of Poltava and Lubensk, bishops: NESTOR of Kamchatka, DAMIAN of Tsaritsyn, BENIAMIN, reputed to be of Sevastopol, ANTHONY, reputed to be Berdyansky and others, the strictest investigation for legends their judgment, and until the end of the case we now forbid them from serving in the priesthood and all pastoral communication with believers, warning the children of the Holy Church from any communication with them.	Their actions must be urgently and strictly investigated by a special commission, which should equally apply to all of them, and especially to the metropolitans: Anthony the former. Kievsky, Patriarchlaton former. Odessa, Evgeniy former. Volynsky, Archbishops: Anastasia former. Chisinau, former Alexandru American, former Feofan. Poltava, bishops: Benjamin, reputed for Sevastopol, former Damian. Tsaritsynsky and others.	We instruct a special commission to examine the actions of the archpastors and pastors who fled abroad, and especially the metropolitans: Anthony (Khrapovitsky) - the former of Kyiv, Platon (Rozhdestvensky) - the former of Odessa, as well as others, and to give an immediate assessment of their activities. Their refusal to obey Our call will force Us to judge them in absentia.
These rebellious hierarchs, together with the enemies of our people and homeland, trying to separate Us from the beloved children of our flock entrusted to Us, are spreading a false rumor that We are not free at Our Patriarchal post, at the disposal of our word and conscience, that we are dominated by imaginary enemies of the people and deprived of the opportunity to freely communicate with the flock led by Us. We denounce as lies and temptation all the fabrications about our unfreedom, since there is no power on earth that could separate our holy conscience from Us and bind Our patriarchal word. In commemoration of this appeal to you, our beloved children, We, in agreement with the sisters of our God-protected Church, the Eastern Churches, give our blessing to begin to accept the sacred church life of the chronology according to the new style, having published a special order about this.	Our enemies, seeking to separate Us from the beloved children of the flock entrusted to us by God, spread false rumors that We, in the patriarchal post, are not free to dispose of Our word and even our conscience, that We are dominated by imaginary enemies of the people and are deprived of the opportunity to communicate with the flock, We know. We declare that everything we have invented about Our unfreedom is a lie and temptation, since there is no power on earth that could bind Our Holy Conscience.	Our enemies, seeking to separate us from our beloved children, entrusted by God to us, the shepherds, are spreading false rumors that we, in the patriarchal post, are not free to use our word and even our conscience, that we are dominated by imaginary enemies of the people and are deprived of the opportunity to communicate with our flock, We know. We declare that everything we have invented about Our unfreedom is a lie and a temptation, since there is no power on earth that could bind Our Hierarchal conscience and Our patriarchal word.
Fearlessly and with great hope, We look at the future paths of holy Orthodoxy, we humbly ask you, our beloved children, to guard the work of God, so that the sons of iniquity will succeed in nothing, but the gates of hell will not prevail against it.	Fearlessly and with great hope, looking at the future paths of Holy Orthodoxy, We humbly ask you, Our beloved children, to guard the work of God, so that the forces of lawlessness may succeed in nothing.	Fearlessly and with great hope, looking at the future paths of Holy Orthodoxy, We humbly ask you, Our beloved children, to guard the work of God, so that the forces of lawlessness may succeed in nothing.
Invoking upon you the mercies of the Lord, Our JESUS ​​CHRIST, and the blessing of God, we pray that you, our children, remain in unshakable fidelity to our Workers' and Peasants' power, so that the Almighty LORD bless the work of the peoples, granting to our fatherland in all its ways prosperity, peace and goodwill. A m i n.	Calling upon the archpastors, shepherds and children faithful to Us the blessing of God, we beg you with a calm conscience, without fear of sinning against the Holy Faith, to submit to Soviet power not out of fear, but for conscience, remembering the words of the Apostle: “Let every soul be submissive to the higher authorities: for There is no authority except from God, but the existing authorities were established by God" (Rom. 13:1).	Calling upon the archpastors, shepherds and children faithful to Us the blessing of God, we ask you with a calm conscience, without fear of sinning against the Holy Faith, to submit to Soviet power not out of fear, but for conscience, remembering the words of the Apostle: “Let every soul be submissive to the higher authorities, for There is no authority except from God, but the existing authorities were established by God" (Rom. 13:1). At the same time, We express our firm confidence that the establishment of pure, sincere relationships will encourage Our authorities to treat us with complete trust, will give Us the opportunity to teach the children of Our flock the law of God, have theological schools for training pastors, and publish books and magazines in defense of the Orthodox faith.
	May the Lord strengthen all of you in devotion to the Holy Orthodox Faith, the Church and Its legal hierarchy.	May the Lord strengthen all of you in devotion to the Holy Orthodox Faith, the Church and Her hierarchy.
Genuine signed: TIKHON, Patriarch of Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and All Russian Church.		Patriarch Tikhon. April 7, 1925, Moscow, Donskoy Monastery.

The table does not present various versions of the edition of "ROSTA" due to the fact that they contain small discrepancies with the published version, which mainly concern the spelling of the words "God", "Church", etc. with a lowercase letter.

Let us consider the various editions of the “Testamentary Letter”, their relationship and authenticity. There were four editions of the Testament, which differ significantly from each other. This is the “Message of Patriarch Tikhon”, signed by him, which has not survived (H), “Address of Patriarch Tikhon” (A), “Message of Patriarch Tikhon” (B), and the published version (G).

Let us consider the relationship between the three main surviving editions (A, B, G) and the extent to which they reflected the patriarchal edition. Editions differ primarily in their headings. "Appeal" - A; "Message" - B; and “Appeal of Patriarch Tikhon” - F; as amended by ROSTA (E), the document is called “The dying “testament” of Patriarch Tikhon.”

Noteworthy is how the name of the Patriarch is indicated. In editions A and B it is as follows: “By the Grace of God, Humble Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the entire Church (Church - B) of Russia. In edition B, the words “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” are crossed out. Such a name for the Patriarch was one of the requirements to him, previously presented by the GPU, along with the demand for commemoration of the "Soviet" authorities. However, the Patriarch invariably rejected such demands. In all his messages, the Patriarch designated his title as follows: "Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia". The remark of Archpriest V. Vinogradov is fair. , that the Holy Synod could not allow the title that appeared in the published version. In the original version (A), the title with the words “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" was rejected by the Patriarch. These words were then crossed out in version B, apparently , an employee of the GPU, thus the title was shortened, but did not become the same as the Patriarch used it.It was in this form that it was published (F). The name “all Russian Church” instead of “all Russia” was one of the fundamental demands of the GPU. Forcing the Patriarch to change his title was one of the important demands of the authorities. After the Patriarch rejected option (A) initially proposed to him for signing, Tuchkov was forced to make partial concessions to the Patriarch’s demands and option A was significantly changed, but the title of the Patriarch was only partially changed. The words “Russian Church” instead of “all Russia” were left, which was not an accident, since the GPU had all the messages of the Patriarch and knew his official title. The demand to change the title was presented to the Patriarch of the ARC back on July 2, 1924, when at a meeting of the ARC it was decided: “It is considered possible to allow the commemoration of Tikhon during worship only if Tikhon agrees to the formula instead of the words “All Russia” - “Total Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." Even a supporter of the authenticity of the message, Archpriest V. Tsypin, admits that the Patriarch could not sign the document with the title that is in the published edition and believes that it was changed by E. Tuchkov or in the editorial office of Izvestia after the Patriarch signed the document. In this regard, it should be noted that, firstly, the editors could not make any changes to the text without the consent of E. Tuchkov. Secondly, as can be seen from a comparison of the texts of all editions, such the title of Patriarch could not have been a later insertion; it was undoubtedly present in the text that was offered to the Patriarch for signature. Therefore, supporters of the version of the authenticity of the will must necessarily admit that the Patriarch recognized the change in his title to the one that is in the published message. It should be noted that E. Tuchkov never changed the text of the patriarchal proclamations after they were signed; all the necessary changes were made by him before signing the document. For the GPU there was no point in seeking the Patriarch’s signature on a document in order to then make necessary changes to it and thereby give rise to opinions about the forgery of the document. E. Tuchkov’s task was to get the Patriarch to sign a document favorable to the authorities.

It should be noted that the words “Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” are a distortion of the traditional formula used in patriarchal messages: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” taken from the letters of the Apostle Paul. (Rom. 1, 7.), in none of the messages of the Patriarch does such a formula appear as in this document. In addition, in edition B, the original words from the formula “Grace to all” are hand-corrected to read “grace to you,” which suggests that in F these words did not come from the original patriarchal edition of the message, but were inserted into the message when drafting B in the GPU, in edition A, this formula is missing.

What follows is part of the message devoted to the attitude towards Soviet power. In this part of the message, E. Tuchkov outlined those provisions that, according to the decision of the ARC, he should have achieved recognition from the Patriarch back in 1923. Thus, at the meetings of the ARC in June 1923, it was decided that the conditions for the release of the Patriarch there must be a statement about his loyal attitude to the Soviet government, as well as “recognition of his crime against the Soviet government and the Working People of Russia.” In his statement to the Supreme Court of June 16, 1923 and in his Message of June 28, the Patriarch admitted that he was not an enemy of the Soviet regime. But the authorities wanted to get the Patriarch to recognize himself as a friend and supporter of the authorities, and also called on the clergy to submit to it “not out of fear, but out of conscience.”

The general meaning of the first part of the patriarchal message (3) was expressed by an employee of the GPU, who characterized it as follows: “Soviet Power is tolerated only as God’s permission.” This provision is absent in the published version. Perhaps the phrase “by the will of God, without which nothing in the world is accomplished, Soviet power stood at the head of the Russian state” was taken from the edition of Z.

The Patriarchal Message (3) spoke about freedom of religion in the USSR in such a way that the GPU noted that it “compromises the freedom of faith, allegedly placed within (imaginary) boundaries by Soviet law.” In his statement to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee dated September 30, 1924, the Patriarch said that, despite the proclamation “in numerous acts about the non-religious structure of society,” the authorities are putting pressure on the Church; he also pointed to the persecution that befell the Church from outside authorities. These words of the Patriarch sharply contrast with the words that the Church has the right and opportunity to live and conduct its religious affairs in accordance with the requirements of its faith, which are placed in the published message (G). It is important to note that revision B spoke of “complete freedom of Orthodox confession,” then this wording was corrected to be more cautious. It is significant that if in his version of the message the Patriarch spoke about the absence of freedom of faith, then in the version of the GPU he spoke about “complete freedom of faith,” i.e. the words were replaced with the exact opposite.

In the patriarchal version of the document (3) there were words in which it was “artistically, in artistically subtle hints, the degraded state of the church was mentioned, which dominated under the tsar, and is now compared with any society, the members of which “can believe in anything”.” Moreover, a GPU employee noted: “Intentionally vulgar relations here set off a contemptuously intolerant attitude towards the very spirit of Soviet power and modernity.” These words were not included in other editions of the message. Moreover, in edition A there were words that the Patriarch “repented sincerely” of past errors; in subsequent editions these words were removed. Noteworthy is the spelling of the words: “archpastors”, “pastors”, which indicates that the text was clearly compiled by a non-church person. Also, the expression “Workers' and Peasants' Power of Nations” could not come from the pen of the Patriarch.

The meaning of the next part of the patriarchal message, concerning the recognition of Soviet power by believers, was characterized by an employee of the GPU as follows: “being forced to respect its recognition in the internal church life, believers must remain irreconcilable, not allowing compromises. Moreover, the “children” must be SINCERE in precisely this attitude towards Sov. Authorities and such “sincere” to the Sov. Authorities are recommended to be elected to the parish councils.” It should be noted that in this part of the text, edition G is much closer to the patriarchal (3) than edition B. If B simply speaks of the need to “sincerely cooperate with the authorities, for the sake of the common good, to conform the order of external church life and activity with the new state system” , then F speaks of the inadmissibility of any compromises or concessions in the area of ​​faith; here the text was apparently changed in comparison with the patriarchal one, but still closer to it than in B.

In the next part of the document, it is also impossible not to notice a certain transformation of its meaning in various editions. If edition A contained calls to “stand up for the Workers’ and Peasants’ power of the Soviets, assisting it with all our might,” as well as repentance for previously committed “misconceptions” and a call for such repentance to believers, then in editions B and F there are no more words about repentance, and instead of calls to “stand up for the power of the Soviets,” there is a call to prayer for the sending of help to the Soviet government. In the edition of J, the words of warning “against any kind of even secret enmity against the Authority”, which were present in earlier editions, are omitted.

The next part of the document concerns parish councils. This issue invariably worried E. Tuchkov and the ARC Commission. This is how E. Tuchkov characterized these councils in his report in February 1925: “These councils play a big role in the fight against the renovationists... they have definitely taken on an anti-Soviet character. The mood... of the church and parish councils is very reactionary, which is noticeable in their anti-Soviet activities, expressed in quite a variety of ways." Therefore, one of the most important tasks of the 6th department was to get the Patriarch to condemn the “anti-Soviet” activities of the councils and call for an end to them. This task was taken into account when compiling the text of the “patriarchal” message. As in the previous passages, the text of edition A is more favorable to the authorities. Thus, according to this edition, the Patriarch actually recognized the anti-Soviet activities of the councils, calling on them to “stop anti-government plans and not harbor hopes for the return of the monarchical system.” In editions B and J, this wording was replaced with a more restrained one - with a call to “prevent any attempts by ill-intentioned people towards anti-government activities.” However, if edition B contains a call to “give up useless and insane hopes for the return of the king of the monarchical system that has become obsolete forever,” then G simply contains a call to “not harbor hopes for the return of the monarchical system.” As early as June 12, 1923, the ARC formulated a demand for the Patriarch to dissociate himself “openly and in a sharp form from all counter-revolutionary organizations, especially ... monarchical organizations, both secular and spiritual.” The Patriarch did this partially in his message of July 1, 1923, but the GPU was well aware that many believers hoped for a quick fall of Soviet power, many were supporters of the return of the monarchy, so it was necessary for the GPU to dispel these hopes through the lips of the Patriarch. In this regard, when drawing up the document, words about the “strength and steadfastness” of Soviet power were added to it, which are unchanged in all editions (except 3). According to the message, it is necessary to select people “who are sincerely disposed towards Soviet power” into the composition of the parish councils, although, judging by the note on the content of the message of the Patriarch (Z), the patriarchal text meant people who are sincerely disposed not to allow any compromises in the field of internal church life. Thus, the patriarchal text was replaced with a text beneficial to the authorities.

Further in the text, in edition A, only sectarians and Catholics are named as enemies of Orthodoxy; in editions B and G, renovationists and atheists are added to them. The task of the GPU was, through the mouth of the Patriarch, to convince believers that the enemies of the Church were not the Soviet government, but other forces. Including in the text a condemnation of the persecution of Orthodox Christians in Poland was an attempt on Tuchkov’s part to fulfill the instructions given to him by the ARC on December 12, 1923, when it was decided: “Instruct Comrade Tuchkov to carry out, through the Synod and Tikhon, the condemnation of the Polish government for the persecution of the Orthodox Church.” . Tuchkov was unable to fulfill this order by April 1925, so he included these words in the text of the “patriarchal message.” The inclusion in the text (A) of the judgment of the Archbishop of Canterbury was also a fulfillment of the decision of the ARC of June 12, 1923, in which among the requirements for the Patriarch the following was stated: “Declare your negative attitude towards the machinations of both the Catholic clergy and the Bishop of Canterbury.” In subsequent editions, this text was omitted due to the sharply negative attitude of the Patriarch towards it.

The words that the Patriarch had recovered from his illness were apparently also contained in the patriarchal text (3) and emphasize that the message was not intended as a testamentary message, that the death of the Patriarch came suddenly, despite the improvement in his health that had occurred before. The words about condemnation of all rebellions against the authorities were, according to the GPU’s plan, to once again emphasize the fact that the Patriarch is supposedly a supporter and adherent of the authorities. These words were absent from the patriarchal message (Z), in which, according to the GPU employee who characterized him, there was “a contemptuously intolerant attitude towards the very spirit of Soviet power and modernity.” Although this characteristic exaggerates the Patriarch’s intolerance to power, it can still serve as a basis for the assertion that in the patriarchal version there could be no words about adherence to Soviet power.

The issue of condemning foreign hierarchs led by Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) was repeatedly raised during interrogations of the Patriarch in 1922-1923. Chapter I of this work has already discussed the issue related to the demands of the authorities to the Patriarch in relation to the clergy abroad. Thus, on May 3, 1922, the Presidium of the GPU demanded from the Patriarch “excommunication from the church, defrocking and abdication of the above-mentioned clergy.” However, the Patriarch refused to fulfill this demand from the authorities. During the interrogation on May 5, 1922, the Patriarch indicated that foreign hierarchs could be condemned by the Holy Synod of 12 hierarchs. To Menzhinsky’s proposal to call these hierarchs to Moscow, the Patriarch replied: “Will they come here?” In June 1923, the ARC once again demanded that the Patriarch carry out “condemnation of the actions of Anthony Khrapoviysky and others.” However, in his message of July 1, the Patriarch limited himself to a call to repentance to the Karlovac hierarchs.

Once again they tried to force the foreign hierarchy to condemn the authorities by composing the text of the message. There are noticeable differences in the texts of all four editions (A, B, G, H). Revision A had the blessing of creating a commission that was supposed to “remove from communication with the flock” those clergy who did not repent before the Soviet regime. It should be noted that in the church canons there is no such form of punishment for a clergyman as “exclusion from communication with the flock,” which once again emphasizes the non-church origin of the document. According to version B, the commission was supposed to carry out “investigation and removal from administration and sacred rites” of those clergy who did not repent “of their opposition to the Authority, bringing them to the legal court of the Church.” The formulation “removal from administration and sacred rites” is also non-canonical, both in essence and in form, firstly, because it is not used in this form, and secondly, such actions could only be carried out by a Synod of 12 bishops headed by with the Patriarch. In the G edition, the wording was replaced with a more cautious one, the words were added that the removal will be carried out “if necessary” and “in canonical order,” and the trial of those unrepentant before the authorities should be carried out by the Orthodox Council. In the patriarchal edition of the message the words “by a legal council” were added. The GPU employee, who characterized the text of the message, called these words one of the “casuistic reservations” and added that “since we are talking about a legal court, it is superfluous to talk about the form.” Consequently, the Patriarch spoke of a legal trial by a legal Council. By this he wanted to emphasize that the trial should be based on church canons, which do not provide for punishment for “unrepentance” before the authorities, and therefore none of the clergy could be legally convicted. Speaking about the “legitimate Council”, the Patriarch pointed out that according to canonical norms, church condemnation of a bishop can only be carried out at a council, which must comply with the canons, i.e., at least recognize Patriarch Tikhon as the head of the Church, this excluded condemnation at which -or from renovationist cathedrals. In editions A and B, they talk about the legal court of the Church, in the published version simply about the court of the Orthodox Council without indicating its legality. This was done in order to gain the opportunity, on behalf of the Patriarch, to condemn objectionable hierarchs at the upcoming renovationist local council, preparations for which had been underway since 1924. It is enough to point out the activities of the pre-conciliar meeting in June 1924. The Patriarch's signature under the message (F) would mean that he blesses such lawlessness.

In the further part of the text, edition A significantly diverges from the others. The words that the Patriarch would punish “for the slightest resistance to power, eradicating the spirit of evil treason” were rejected by the Patriarch and omitted in further editions. Words of condemnation of the criminal activities of foreign hierarchs also could not be contained in the patriarchal message (G), according to which only those “who used the name of Tikhon” were subject to trial.

The condemnation of the Karlovac Council was also a fulfillment of the directive of the ARC. As early as June 12, 1923, the Patriarch was demanded to “express a sharply negative attitude towards the Karlowitz Council and its participants.” The Patriarch, in his message of July 1, 1923, limited himself to confirming the condemnation that was pronounced by the Synod on May 5, 1922. Tuchkov then failed to achieve compliance with the directive of the ARC. In a message of April 1925, he tried to achieve this goal. However, the harshness of the tone in relation to Karlovac Cathedral changes from extremely harsh (A) to moderate (G). So in A it is said that this council caused “sorrowful amazement”, in B it is said about the “deliberate harm” that the council brought, and in G it simply says that it brought “no good to the Church”. The characterization of the council (B) as a “crazy, criminal, anti-church undertaking” has been eliminated in G. Edition A contained a formula that was completely uncanonical and unecclesiastical in both form and content: “We renounce, excommunicate and anathematize, declaring them enemies,” which, of course, the Patriarch could not use. In edition B, these words are absent, but the activities of foreign hierarchs are called treasonous, anti-church and counter-revolutionary; these characteristics are absent in edition J. Let us recall that the GPU tried to force the Patriarch to appeal to foreign hierarchs to return to their homeland back in May 1922. However, the Patriarch understood perfectly well that if these hierarchs returned, they would face, if not death, then long-term imprisonment. Therefore, the appeal contained in the published message, which undoubtedly was not in the patriarchal edition (3), could not be signed by the Patriarch, this would put him on a par with those who would bring down repression on these hierarchs if they returned.

Another important task of the GPU was to get the Patriarch to refute the fact that he was in a state of unfreedom and many of his messages were forced. The words of Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky) were already quoted above to the effect that the people understood that the Patriarch was, as it were, between a rock and a hard place and was forced to release documents at the request of the authorities. Foreign hierarchs also understood this: in 1924, the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad decided not to consider such forced decrees as an expression of the true will of the Patriarch. It was already mentioned above that all attempts to discredit the Patriarch by publishing “forced” messages led to nothing, since the believers understood that the Patriarch was forced to sign these messages. In connection with this, the text of the message included the words that the Patriarch refutes the opinion of his lack of freedom. These words are present in all three editions of the message and were absent in edition Z. They contradict what the Patriarch said in his letter to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee dated September 30, 1924, pointing to the fact of state intervention in the internal life of the Church, to the terrible persecution of believers.

In edition A there are words about the introduction of a new style in the Church, the inclusion of which in the text of the message by GPU employees was also the execution of the directive of the ARC of November 1, 1924, which said: “Entrust Comrade Tuchkov during 1925 through church departments, mainly through Tikhon, to achieve the implementation of a new style, so that by January 1, 1926 it would be finally introduced." Meanwhile, the Patriarch expressed his disagreement with the introduction of a new style in a letter to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on September 30, 1924. The Patriarch, of course, rejected a new attempt to impose a new style on the Church and flatly refused to sign the message. In subsequent editions, the words about the introduction of a new style were removed.

The final part of the message, containing the Patriarch’s requests to the authorities, was missing in the original editions (A, B). This part of the message, which was also available in the patriarchal edition (Z), was characterized as follows in the GPU note: “The final words that the Authority will provide schools and textbooks, etc., introduces into the message the moment of a trade agreement with the Authority, i.e. it means to oblige the Authority to provide this kind of provision, to justify the revolutionary nature of the message, which is, as it were, a new Golgotha ​​for Tikhon for the sake of schools and textbooks, but mainly to point out the firm intractability of the strengthened Tikhonovshchina and the soft compliance of the weakened Soviet Government." These words were included in the edition G from the patriarchal message (3) after the previous editions were rejected by the Patriarch.

Based on the analysis of the texts of various editions of the “Testament” and the memoirs of Archpriest. V. Vinogradov, it is possible to reconstruct the history of the appearance of these editions. As noted by Rev. V. Vinogradov, having exhausted all other methods, Tuchkov, in the last months of the Patriarch’s life, again with decisive persistence began attacks on him in order to obtain from him an act desired by the GPU in the form of an appropriate message.

As was shown above, the words that the Patriarch had recovered from his illness were also in the patriarchal message (3), therefore, it was written during the period of improvement in the Patriarch’s condition. This improvement occurred at the end of February 1925 after treatment at the Bakunin hospital. Bakunin himself wrote the following about this: “Before the first week of fasting (i.e., until March 2 - D.S.), a noticeable improvement was noted in the patient’s health - no seizures, a healthy pulse and normal health. At the beginning of the first week of fasting, Tikhon was discharged from the hospital for 4-5 days to perform services in Moscow churches, after which he returned to the hospital very tired, both from the heart and kidneys.” Throughout the first week of Great Lent, the Patriarch performed daily services in Moscow churches and lived in the Donskoy Monastery.

On the eve of leaving the hospital on February 28, the Patriarch again appealed to the GPU with a request to provide him with accommodation in the Epiphany Monastery, since his stay in the Donskoy Monastery had an adverse effect on his health. At the same time, the Patriarch turned to the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR with a request to register the Holy Synod. However, this document was immediately forwarded to the 6th department of the GPU. The Patriarch also sent a letter to E. Tuchkov himself with a request for assistance in organizing and registering the Holy Synod. In this letter, the Patriarch, in particular, wrote: “Upon the organization and registration of the Holy Synod, the latter, led by me, will issue a declaration on the attitude of the Church and its ministers to the Soviet Power, as local instructions for bishops.” The Patriarch pointed out exactly the demands that Tuchkov made. The latter reflected on these requests of the Patriarch until March 4, when all the letters of the Patriarch, on his instructions, were filed into the file, therefore, they could no longer have any consequences. During this period, E. Tuchkov compiled a rough draft of a response to the Patriarch, which was preserved in the investigative file. The document has numerous corrections. Tuchkov wrote in response to a request for assistance in registering the Synod: “...I inform you that there are no obstacles to its activities...in the premises occupied by you...on my part there are no obstacles.” It is characteristic that Tuchkov initially wrote that the organization of the Synod was possible in the premises of the Donskoy Monastery, and then corrected these words by writing: “in the premises occupied by you.” This suggests that he has not yet finally decided the question of whether to satisfy the Patriarch’s request for premises in the Epiphany Monastery. The investigation file does not contain a white version of this letter, which should have been preserved if the letter was sent to the Patriarch. The fact that there is only a draft in the file suggests that a white version was not written. If there had been a white version of the letter, then there would have been a copy of it in the file, and the draft would have been destroyed.

In response to the Patriarch’s requests on February 28, Tuchkov put forward a demand that the Patriarch write a message even before the organization of the Holy Synod, in which he would show himself to be a supporter of Soviet power. In response to this demand, the Patriarch wrote a message (Z), which was not preserved in the investigative file, but its description, made by one of the GPU employees, possibly E. Tuchkov himself, is in the file. This document indisputably indicates that there was a patriarchal message, which, as shown above, had very little in common with the document that was published on behalf of the Patriarch on April 15, 1925. This message was written in the period from March 2 to March 4, 1925 g., i.e. after the Patriarch left the hospital and before Tuchkov actually put an end to all the Patriarch’s requests by sending his letters to the file on March 4. This step by Tuchkov was a consequence of the fact that he was extremely dissatisfied with the message of the Patriarch, as evidenced by the description of this document given by the GPU. The message was written by the Patriarch in the Donskoy Monastery, where he lived during these days and where he performed daily services; accordingly, this particular monastery was indicated in the signature. A facsimile copy was made of this signature at the GPU, as was already practiced with the Patriarch’s signatures on Krasnitsky’s letter dated May 19, 1924, and on the draft acts of the Synod dated May 21, 1924, where the Patriarch’s signatures were outlined and a note was made: “make a cliché ". This facsimile signature was used to prove the authenticity of the April 7 message and was published in the newspapers. This explains why the signature says “Donskoy Monastery” while the Patriarch was in the hospital on Ostozhenka on April 7. The original message of the Patriarch was deliberately not included in the file, as it was proof that the message of April 7 was not signed by the Patriarch.

It was E. Tuchkov’s refusal to fulfill the requests of the Patriarch set out in his letters dated February 28, as well as the fact that soon after the refusal to publish the patriarchal message (Z) Tuchkov proposed his own version of the message (A) for signing, were, apparently, the main the reason for the deterioration of the Patriarch’s health, as a result of which he was forced to move again to the hospital. Negotiations between E. Tuchkov and the Patriarch took place during Tuchkov’s visits to the hospital, as well as through the mediation of Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky). E. Bakunin’s doctor reports that before E. Tuchkov’s visits, of which there were several, the Patriarch was worried, but tried to joke, saying: “Tomorrow “someone in gray” will come to see me.” After the Patriarch’s refusal to sign the message (A), it was changed and edited, as can be seen from the above texts. A number of provisions, for example, on the introduction of a new style, were removed. The Patriarch was offered a new version of the message (B), which he also rejected. Probably, the interrogation of the Patriarch, conducted on March 21 in the hospital, was a consequence of the Patriarch’s intransigence on this issue. Doctor E. Bakunina recalled that the “GPU investigator” interrogated the Patriarch for a long time. Revision B was rejected by the Patriarch until March 21, when a resolution was drawn up to select a preventive measure for the Patriarch, which was used as a means of putting pressure on him. This decree was not signed, apparently due to the deterioration of the Patriarch’s condition and the fact that, apparently, the GPU still had hopes of forcing the Patriarch to sign the document.

On April 2, the Patriarch underwent surgery to remove several teeth from his lower jaw, after which his general condition worsened. As can be seen from the reports of E. Tuchkov, he expected the death of the Patriarch and a new deterioration in his condition forced the head of the 6th department to rush the Patriarch to sign a new edition of the message (G). According to Archpriest V. Vinogradov, the Patriarch, on the day of his death, was therefore forced to urgently go to an emergency meeting of the Holy Synod, convened to develop a new draft message. At this meeting, a new draft message acceptable to the Church may have been developed. Metropolitan Peter had to agree on this version of the message with E. Tuchkov, but the latter made changes to it, as a result of which the edition of Zh appeared. It was this document that Metropolitan Peter brought to the hospital that the Patriarch had to sign in the last hours of his life. During Metropolitan Peter’s last visit to the Patriarch, their conversation was heard by a man whose testimony is cited by Archpriest. V. Vinogradov: “Being in the next room, I heard Metropolitan Peter enter the Patriarch’s room and then read something in his usual voice and report to the Patriarch... I heard the Patriarch several times and in a somewhat irritated, raised voice tone interrupted Metropolitan Peter’s report with the remark “I can’t do this,” and from this I only concluded that what Metropolitan Peter read or reported to the Patriarch was met with decisive disapproval by the latter. When Metropolitan Peter left the patriarch’s room, with the patriarch Soon he became ill and began to feel near death." The doctor E. Bakunin also recalled the last visit of Metropolitan Peter: “The cell attendant let him in, but since the Metropolitan did not leave for a long time and was talking passionately about something with the patriarch, the cell attendant called me and said that the patriarch was excited, terribly tired of the conversation and was feeling "I felt very bad. To stop this, I went to the patient and at his door I met Pyotr Krutitsky, hastily leaving with some papers."

The file contains a copy of the message (D), which has very minor differences in the printed text with the published version. A pencil edit was made to the text, and the text was crossed out crosswise with the same hand; the document also contains an edit in red ink by E. Tuchkov, which was not included in the published version. It was with this document that Metropolitan Peter went to the Patriarch. The pencil edit, apparently, belongs to the Patriarch or Metropolitan Peter; crossing out the text means its non-acceptance. It should be noted that, judging by the documents of the 6th department, neither Tuchkov nor any of the GPU employees used a pencil to correct documents, so the pencil correction could not have belonged to these persons. The document thus rejected, Metropolitan Peter handed over to E. Tuchkov, who began to make corrections in red ink, usually used by him, drawing up a new edition of the message for its further transmission to the Patriarch for signing. However, the news received about the death of the Patriarch made these corrections unnecessary. The opportunity arose to publish on behalf of the Patriarch the edition rejected by him (G). This is precisely what can explain the fact that Tuchkov’s correction was not included in the published text.

E. Tuchkov has repeatedly resorted to publishing forged or signed documents, but later rejected by the Patriarch. He resorted to such methods in cases where it was no longer possible to obtain the Patriarch’s signature on the required document.

The fact that the message was not signed is indirectly confirmed by the fact that the GPU had previously resorted to publishing documents rejected by the Patriarch. An example is the publication in December 1923 of the message canceled by the Patriarch on the introduction of a new style, the publication of a falsified “interview” of the Patriarch in connection with the death of Lenin, as well as an “interview” regarding the union with Krasnitsky, published on July 10, 1924, except Moreover, one can point to the publication of the draft minutes of the meeting of the Synod of May 21, 1924, the signature of which the Patriarch annulled. None of these documents were completely falsified by the GPU; in the cases of the “interview,” they took place, but the meaning of the Patriarch’s words was significantly distorted when published.

Before publication in newspapers, based on edition G, an edition of ROSTA was compiled, where “Soviet” spelling was used. In this form, the document was sent for approval to the Politburo (D) and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (E). It is important to note that the version sent to the ARC contains the “Reduce” resolution, apparently put forward by E. Yaroslavsky, since the document was preserved in the latter’s collection. Obviously, if we were talking about a genuine message signed by the Patriarch, then such a resolution could not have existed. This would give the hierarchs who saw the message a reason to claim that the message was published with changes. Such freedom in handling the text of the document is understandable if we assume that E. Yaroslavsky knew that the message was not signed by the Patriarch.

The edition of ROSTA is presented in two copies, one of which has been preserved in the Politburo collection (D), the other (B) was sent to Tuchkov by T. Samsonov with the following resolution: “To Comrade Tuchkov. For information, just in case. T. Samsonov.” T.P. Samsonov, who was the head of the GPU SO until July 1923, during this period worked as the manager of the affairs of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Both the printed text and the handwritten corrections in these documents are the same. E. Tuchkov imposed a resolution on this document: “On the matter of Tikhon’s appeals 14/ IV E. Tuchkov.”

The edition, preserved in the fund of E. Yaroslavsky (E), has the following heading: “Appendix No. 4. The dying “testament” of Patriarch Tikhon.” This document has significant differences with the edition of ROSTA and with the published text. A number of words have been changed, many words are missing, and the spelling of many words is different.

If we adhere to the version of the authenticity of the message, then, in our opinion, it is impossible to explain how, within one day on April 14, the message was sent by Metropolitans Peter and Tikhon to the editorial office of Izvestia, then the editorship of ROSTA was made and sent to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (b), was examined there, sent to the GPU and filed by order of E. Tuchkov in the file, and another edition of the “Testament” was sent to the ARC. This fact can only be explained by the fact that even after April 7, work on the text of the “Testament” continued, which was only possible if the document was not signed by the Patriarch.

Thus, many of the above facts indicate that shortly before his death on April 7, 1925, the Patriarch rejected the next version of the message proposed to him by E. Tuchkov, which on April 15, with minor changes, was published as the original message of the Patriarch.

To be continued...

CA FSB D. N-1780. T.13. L. 58-62; Published: Investigative case of Patriarch Tikhon. Collection of documents based on materials from the Central Election Commission of the FSB. M., 2000. (Hereinafter - Investigative Case) pp. 402-406.
CA FSB D. N-1780. T.13. L. 64-66; Published: Investigative case. pp. 406-409.
CA FSB D. N-1780. T.13. L. 55-57; Published: Investigative case. pp. 409-413.
APRF. F. 3. Op.60. D.25.L.61-63; Published: Kremlin Archives. In 2 books. / Book 1. Politburo and the Church 1922-1925. M.-Novosibirsk, ROSSPEN, Siberian Chronograph, 1997, (Hereinafter - Kremlin Archives) T.1. P.291-296.
Kremlin archives. T.1. P.526.
Acts. P.287.
Kremlin archives. T.1. P.533.
Right there. P. 526.

The first messages of Patriarch Tikhon.

On January 19, 1918, on the eve of the start of the second session of the Council, just before the appearance of the decree on freedom of conscience, a message from Patriarch Tikhon appeared. This was not his first message. The fact is that no matter what decrees the Council of People’s Commissars came up with, the real policy of the Bolshevik authorities had already manifested itself in November-December 1917. It was obvious that the Bolsheviks were not yet in control of the situation in the country, and the masses, finding themselves without guidance from the state authorities, were spontaneously committing many atrocities. It was also obvious that without involving the broad masses of the population in their policies, the Bolsheviks would not be able to implement their policies. Patriarch Tikhon, realizing that it is during this period of beginning persecution of the Church that much will depend on the position of the people, writes several of his messages, in which he first of all addresses the people.

The Patriarch, with amazing insight, was able even then, in the first months of the existence of Bolshevik tyranny, to identify all the most important problems in both church and state life, to indicate the reasons for the destructive tendencies of Russian history at that time. Let us remember his message on accession to the patriarchal throne dated December 18 (31), 1917. It would seem that it should be filled with joy that the patriarchate has finally been revived in our country. What does the Patriarch write?

In the time of God’s wrath, in days of much sorrow and difficulty, We entered the ancient patriarchal place. The trials of a grueling war and disastrous turmoil are tormenting our Motherland, sorrow from the invasion of foreigners and internecine warfare. But most destructive of all is the spiritual turmoil that consumes the heart. The Christian principles of state and social construction have become darkened in the people's conscience, faith itself has weakened, and the godless spirit of this world is raging. Our Holy Church suffers from the neglect of her children, from the coldness of hearts, and our Russian state suffers with it.

This is a very important point. The Patriarch addresses the people already in this first message. In this case, he hopes that the people will come to their senses, stop, and then the chaos in the country will stop.

A little time passes, two weeks, and in his word spoken in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior before the New Year's prayer service, January 1 (14), 1918, Saint Tikhon returns to the same topic.

Unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it work in vain, they rise early and sit late in vain (Ps. 126: 1-2). This was fulfilled in ancient times by the Babylonian builders. It is coming true today and with our own eyes. And our builders want to make a name for themselves, with their reforms and decrees to benefit not only the unfortunate Russian people, but the whole world, and even peoples much more cultural than us. And this arrogant undertaking suffers the same fate as the plans of the Babylonians: instead of good, bitter disappointment is brought. Wanting to make us rich and needing nothing, they actually turn us into miserable, miserable, poor and naked (Rev. 3:17). Instead of the recently great and powerful Russia, terrible to its enemies and strong, they made of it one miserable name, an empty place, breaking it into parts, devouring one another in an internecine war. When you read the Lamentation of Jeremiah, you involuntarily mourn with the words of the prophet and our dear Motherland. We have forgotten the Lord! They rushed after new happiness, began to run after deceptive shadows, clung to the earth, to bread, money, drunk with the wine of freedom - and so in order to get all this, as much as possible, they took it for themselves, so that there was nothing left for others. The Church condemns this kind of construction of ours and We resolutely warn that we will not have any success until we remember God, without Whom nothing good can be done until we turn to Him with all our hearts and all our thoughts. Now voices are heard more and more often that it is not our plans and construction efforts, which we were so rich in last summer, that will save Russia, but only a miracle - if we are worthy of it.

These words opened a qualitatively new stage in both our church and state life. Dramatically, almost in the spirit of the holy martyr Hermogenes, the Patriarch appeals to all those who have not yet lost the sense of their connection with the Orthodox Church, and who quantitatively constitute the majority of the Russian people, to the Russian Orthodox people. It is difficult to say how futile these appeals were then, but the Patriarch understood that one appeal had disappeared, another had passed, and everything was increasing.

On the eve of the opening of the second session of the Council, January 19 (February 1), 1918, the Patriarch writes another message, the harshest message he wrote at this time, a message that is known as the “message with anathema.”

The Patriarch faces the need to anathematize because he is not heard, and takes full responsibility for this message upon himself, he composes this message on his own behalf.

The Holy Orthodox Church of Christ in the Russian land is now going through a difficult time: persecution has been raised against the truth of Christ by the open and secret enemies of this truth and are striving to destroy the work of Christ, and instead of Christian love, they are sowing seeds of malice, hatred and fratricidal warfare everywhere. The commandments of Christ about love for neighbors have been forgotten and trampled upon: daily news reaches Us about terrible brutal beatings of innocent people and even people lying on their sick beds, guilty only of the fact that they honestly fulfilled their duty to the Motherland, that all their strength They relied on serving the good of the people.

The following episode can be cited as an illustration of these words of the message. It is known that General Dukhonin was appointed the last Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army. When he learned about what happened in Petrograd, learned that a government had come to power preparing a separate peace with Germany and had already destroyed the army, he realized that the fate of the Russian army was decided. Naturally, even at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, real riots began, they were waiting for a new commissar who would come and authorize the beating of officers by soldiers. Dukhonin courageously remained at Headquarters, giving orders for the release from Bykhov of General Kornilov, Denikin and other prisoners, who were first to be torn to pieces. It was thanks to this that they were able to go to the Don and organize the White movement just at the very time we are talking about. And Dukhonin himself was waiting for his end. The new Commander-in-Chief, Ensign Krylenko, arrives, and Dukhovin was simply torn to pieces by revolutionary soldiers with “advanced consciousness” in front of this Krylenko’s eyes. And there were a huge number of such cases. They killed generals, killed officers, killed officials, killed priests. This is what is meant in the message.

...And all this is happening not only under the cover of night darkness, but also in the open, in daylight, with hitherto unheard of insolence and merciless cruelty, without any trial and with the violation of all rights and legality - it is happening these days in almost all our cities and towns Fatherland: both in capitals and on remote outskirts. Come to your senses, madmen, stop your bloody reprisals. After all, what you are doing is not only a cruel deed, it is truly a satanic deed, for which you are subject to the fire of Gehenna in the future life - the afterlife, and the terrible curse of posterity in the present - earthly life. By the authority given to Us by God, we forbid you to approach the Mysteries of Christ, we anathematize you, if only you still bear Christian names, and although by birth you belong to the Orthodox Church. I also conjure all of you, the faithful children of the Orthodox Church of Christ, not to enter into any communication with such monsters of the human race: “Remove the evil from you, samekh.”

Whom is he anathematizing? Bolsheviks? What kind of naive Patriarch is this? Did he really assume that, having learned about this anathema, Vladimir Ilyich would remember his “A” according to the “Law of God” and repent? Will Joseph Vissarionovich remember his seminary years? He had a fairly good idea of ​​these people and understood that the Bolsheviks, who even if they were Orthodox by birth, would neglect his words, because they had long ago excommunicated themselves from church communion. Moreover, this could be said about the former Catholic Dzerzhinsky, about the former Judaist Trotsky. They cared neither about their own faith nor about anyone else’s. Of course, the Patriarch has in mind the people, with whose hands these people want to unleash a bloody nightmare in the country. He speaks about them, about those who have recently received communion, about those who have not yet forgotten how to pray, about those who have pious families who, having learned about this anathema, will stop their fathers, sons, and brothers. This is who the Patriarch has in mind, this is why he resorts to anathema. Pay attention to the wording too. We are talking specifically about those who participate in the persecution of the Church and kill innocent people. The Patriarch knows very well: if the people stop, the Bolsheviks will not be able to do anything. And further, at the end of the message, the Patriarch offers specific measures for Christians on how to resist these destructive trends in life, and they are, of course, concentrated more and more in the Bolshevik dictatorship. Then the Patriarch will be accused of blessing the armed resistance to the Bolsheviks, for stimulating the development of the counter-revolution with this message. Nothing like this. Let's look at the text:

...The enemies of the Church are seizing power over Her and Her property by the force of deadly weapons, and you resist them with the power of your faith, your imperious nationwide cry, which will stop the madmen and show them that they have no right to call themselves champions of the people's good, builders of a new life at the behest the people's mind, because they even act directly against the people's conscience. And if it becomes necessary to suffer for the cause of Christ, we call you, beloved children of the Church, we call you to this suffering along with us in the words of St. Apostle: “Who will separate us from the love of God? Is it tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or trouble, or a sword?” (Rom. 8:35)

And you, brothers, archpastors and shepherds, without delaying a single hour in your spiritual work, with fiery zeal call your children to defend the trampled rights of the Orthodox Church, immediately arrange spiritual alliances, call not by necessity, but by good will to join the ranks of spiritual fighters who They will oppose the external force with the power of their holy inspiration, and we firmly hope that the enemies of the Church will be put to shame and scattered by the power of the Cross of Christ. For the promise of the Divine Crusader Himself is immutable: “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against It.”

There are no calls for armed struggle here. Of course, after this the Patriarch had the right to expect some serious changes in the situation of the country, especially since the Council that opened on January 20, 1918 immediately turned to the message of Patriarch Tikhon and on January 22 adopted a resolution in which it approved the content of the message and gave it the the very force of a conciliar document.

Now let's think about it. We collectively anathematized those who created all this internecine turmoil, created all these horrors, from which this world’s first workers’ and peasants’ statehood later grew, trampling on everyone and everything, including the workers and peasants themselves. Let each of us rummage through our ancestral, family memories and remember what our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers did at this time; Maybe this anathematization falls on them too, and therefore we will draw some conclusions for ourselves about what needs to be done, how we need to atone for these sins, which we have already so conveniently forgotten, as if it had nothing to do with us. Then it will become clear why it is so difficult for us now - because we still have to atone for all this for decades. Moreover, the Patriarch was not heard. And the Council was not heard. At this very time, January 19–21, an armed invasion of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra takes place, and a representative of the revolutionary people kills Archpriest Pyotr Skipetrov. He wants to stop him, rushing into the temple with a weapon, but he simply shoots at the mouth that denounces him and mortally wounds Archpriest Peter.

Meanwhile, the council will have to discuss a very important internal church issue. The Supreme Church Administration has been created, but issues of diocesan administration have not yet been resolved. In such a situation, given that its honorary chairman, Metropolitan Vladimir (Epiphany) of Kiev, did not appear at the meeting of the Council (for still unknown reasons), work begins. On January 25, 1918, after discussing the decree of the Soviet government on freedom of conscience, which even then was more often called more correctly the decree on the separation of Church and state, the Council adopted a resolution that contained two extremely important points.

The decree on the separation of Church and state issued by the Council of People's Commissars represents, under the guise of a law on freedom of conscience, a malicious attack on the entire system of life of the Orthodox Church and an act of open persecution against it.

Absolutely correct wording. And the point was not only that, in its specific content, the decree seemed to be legal nonsense, even in comparison with the laws on the separation of Church and state in other countries in which they existed. The fact was that the decree actually sanctioned the persecution of the Church, for its implementation could completely paralyze the entire church life.

Any participation both in the publication of this legalization hostile to the Church and in attempts to implement it is incompatible with belonging to the Orthodox Church and brings punishment on the guilty, up to and including excommunication from the Church.

It must be said that such a sharp position of the Council was not only the result of a natural reaction to the outrages being committed in the country, to the fact that the Bolshevik regime from the very beginning became an atheistic regime. It would have been possible to speak out more restrainedly at this moment. But, firstly, it seemed that this nightmare would not last long and that the gang of German mercenaries (this is how many perceived the Bolshevik dictatorship, even at the Council) would soon leave the political arena. Secondly, it seemed that a little more, and the people would come to their senses, and, as was the case in 1612, a militia similar to the militia of Minin and Pozharsky would come to Petrograd and put an end to state madness, especially since at that very time on the Don a volunteer army began to fight, still insignificant in number (we were talking about several thousand people), and these several thousand people seemed to become the key to a broad anti-Bolshevik movement in Russia, which would unite all people with a sense of civic responsibility, with a feeling, even the smallest , patriotic duty to the country. This is where, perhaps, such a harsh statement comes from.

A day or two later, the Council receives a message about the murder of Metropolitan Vladimir in Kyiv on January 25, 1918. This, of course, shocked everyone. The point is not that Metropolitan Vladimir was the honorary chairman of the Council, and not even that he was one of the authoritative hierarchs in our Church and the first murdered bishop in the 20th century, but that the circumstances of his murder were terrible. They are scary not because they somehow brutally killed him, they killed him the way they killed many, as they had already killed, for example, Fr. Ioanna Kochurova. They shot him repeatedly, stabbed him with bayonets, and left him torn to pieces on the street for many hours. What was scary was that a small group of armed people did not break in, but entered (the gates were opened for them) into the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, settled down in the Refectory, the monks helpfully served them a meal, they started talking, found out that the main “oppressor” here was Metropolitan Vladimir, they came to his chambers, spent several hours there, plundering everything they could, mocking and mocking the Metropolitan, and then calmly took him out and shot him not far from the Lavra. Is it possible to imagine such a situation: some Poles with Cossacks come to Archimandrite Dionysius in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in 1610 and in front of the brethren they mock him for several hours, then take him away and kill him? No comments needed. And only when he was already taken away did one of the monks realize to call the local Bolshevik authorities and tell them what had happened. He was told that the authorities were not aware of what was happening. And only many hours later, the already numb metropolitan was found murdered not far from the Lavra. Of course, he was solemnly transferred to the Lavra, solemnly buried, without thinking about the fact that he was simply betrayed. This was the worst thing. I will not talk about the motives for this now; even then, autocephalist sentiments appeared in the Ukrainian Church, and the brethren of the Lavra were propagandized by the autocephalists, and Metropolitan Vladimir, who did not even want autonomy for the Ukrainian Church, was an ardent enemy of the autocephalists. Here you can find different explanations, but the fact itself is important.

By the providence of God, the Council adopted an amazing resolution on January 25, 1918, precisely on the day of the death of Metropolitan Vladimir. The resolution was adopted on the basis of the proposal of 3 members of the Council, and then finalized. He was, of course, greatly influenced by the news of the murder of Metropolitan Vladimir. This was a decree establishing the institution of patriarchal locum tenens in our country. It was about the following. In the event that our Church is deprived of the opportunity to convene a Council, if the Patriarch is removed from church life, the Church should not be left without a head. The Council authorized the Patriarch, precisely taking into account the exceptional circumstances, to appoint a successor for himself, and not just a successor, but a successor with full patriarchal rights, to appoint him secretly, to appoint not one, but several, giving each the appropriate letters, without informing anyone about this even at the Council. At the Council, after some time, the Patriarch announced that the Council’s instructions had been fulfilled and locums had been appointed. To this day we do not know exactly who these secretly appointed first locums were. The Council understood that the Patriarch could be arrested, could be killed, and the Council itself could be dispersed. And, indeed, the Patriarch was first arrested in 1918.

The resolution on the patriarchal locum tenens, who had full patriarchal rights, was a decision that saved our Higher Church Administration in the 20s and 30s from the destruction of the canonical succession of the highest church authority, which the Bolsheviks really strived for. And the Patriarch accepted this, the Patriarch implemented this by appointing his locums.

Before continuing the story, let us turn to the personality of Patriarch Tikhon, what kind of person he was, what his life path was before his election to the Patriarchate, because, although the Council was still working, the entire burden of power now rested on the Patriarch.

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November 18 - memory of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' St. Tikhon (in the world Vasily Ivanovich Belavin) was born on January 19, 1865. From an early age, the father took the boy with him to services, and his love for the temple became an integral part of his life. Education he

From the book Voices from Russia. Essays on the history of collecting and transmitting information abroad about the situation of the Church in the USSR. 1920s – early 1930s author Kosik Olga Vladimirovna

Message from Patriarch Tikhon to the Council of People's Commissars. 1918 “All who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52) We address this prophecy of the Savior to you, the current arbiters of the destinies of our fatherland, who call themselves “people’s” commissars. Hold it in your hands for a whole year

From the book What is anathema author Team of authors

Message from Patriarch Tikhon to the children of the Orthodox Russian Church. 1919 By the grace of God, We, humble Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, to all the faithful children of the Holy Orthodox Russian Church. The Lord does not cease to show His mercies to the Orthodox Russian Church.

From the author's book

Testament of Patriarch Tikhon. 1925 To the editor of the newspaper "Izvestia" Gr. Editor! We ask you not to refuse to publish in the Izvestia newspaper the attached Appeal of Patriarch Tikhon, signed by him on March 25 (April 7), 1925. Peter (Polyansky), Metropolitan of Krutitsky Tikhon (Obolensky),

From the author's book

From the author's book

Collection of information about persecution in the commission of the Holy Council and in the office of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. Dissemination of the Patriarch's messages The beginning of the displacement of objective data about events in the Russian Orthodox Church from the information environment was already laid by a decree

From the author's book

Contacts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon with Patriarchs and church leaders abroad The first messages of Patriarch Tikhon abroad are connected with his election to the Patriarchal throne and enthronement. These were messages to the Heads of the Orthodox Churches. In the first months after

From the author's book

Correspondence of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon with the Russian foreign clergy. For decades, Russian emigration was for the Soviets the focus and source of danger, the custodian and breeding ground of monarchical and bourgeois ideas, anti-Soviet programs and specific

From the author's book

Two anathemas of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon Message of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon on the anathematization of those who commit lawlessness and persecute the faith and the Orthodox Church 01/19/01/02. 1918 Humble Tikhon, by the grace of God, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, beloved in the Lord

1919
By the grace of God, We, humble Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, to all the faithful children of the Holy Orthodox Russian Church.
The Lord does not cease to show His mercies to the Orthodox Russian Church. He allowed Her to test Herself and test Her devotion to Christ and His covenants, not only in the days of Her external well-being, but also in the days of persecution. Day by day new trials are added to Her. Day by day Her crown shines brighter. Many times a scourge from a hand hostile to Christ mercilessly falls on Her face, illuminated by humility, and slanderous lips blaspheme Her with insane blasphemies, and She, in the apostolic way, imputes the bitterness of Her suffering to futility, introduces new martyrs into the host of the inhabitants of heaven and finds joy for Herself in Her blessing heavenly Bridegroom: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unjustly for My sake; Rejoice and be glad (Matt. 5:11-12).
My children! Let this Holy kindness of the Church, these calls for us to patiently endure anti-Christian enmity and malice, this opposition to trials and ordinary human attachment to the blessings of the earth and the comforts of worldly life with Christian ideals, seem to others to be weakness; let the joy that draws its source from suffering for Christ seem “inconceivable” and “cruel” to the worldly understanding, but We beg you, we beg all Our Orthodox children not to deviate from this only saving disposition of a Christian, not to stray from the path of the cross sent to Us by God , on the path of admiration of worldly power or revenge. Do not overshadow your Christian achievement by returning to an understanding of protecting well-being that would humiliate Her and bring you down to the level of the actions of Her detractors. Save, Lord, our Orthodox Rus' from such horror.
It is a difficult, but also what a lofty task for a Christian to preserve in himself the great happiness of kindness and love even when your enemy is overthrown, and when the oppressed sufferer calls to pronounce his judgment on his recent oppressor and persecutor. And God’s Providence is already placing this test before some of the children of the Russian Orthodox Church. Passions are ignited, riots break out. More and more camps are being created. The fire is growing, scores are being settled. Hostile actions turn into misanthropy. Organized mutual extermination - into partisanship with all its horrors. All Russia is a battlefield! But that is not all. What follows is more horror. News is heard of Jewish pogroms, massacres of the tribe, without regard to age, guilt, gender, or beliefs. A person embittered by the circumstances of life looks for the culprits of his failures and, in order to take out his grievances, grief and suffering on them, he swings in such a way that a mass of innocent victims fall under the blow of his hand, blinded by the thirst for revenge. In his mind, he merged his misfortunes with the activities of some party that were evil for him, and from some he transferred his bitterness to everyone. And in the massacre, lives are drowned for completely uninvolved reasons that shed such bitterness.
Orthodox Rus', may this shame pass you by. May this curse not befall you. May your hand not be stained with blood crying to Heaven. Do not let the enemy of Christ, the devil, carry you away with the passion of vengeance and disgrace the feat of your confession, disgrace the cost of your suffering at the hands of the rapists and persecutors of Christ. Remember: pogroms are the triumph of your enemies. Remember: pogroms are a dishonor for you, a dishonor for the Holy Church! For a Christian, the ideal is Christ, who did not draw the sword in His defense, who calmed the sons of thunder, and who prayed on the cross for His enemies. For a Christian, the guiding light is the covenant of the holy Apostle, who suffered a lot for his Savior and sealed his devotion to Him with death: “Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give room to the wrath of God. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay, says the Lord.” So, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink: for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head. (Rom. 12:19).
We are not even talking about the fact that shed blood always calls for new blood. And revenge leads to new retribution. Building on hostility is building on a volcano. An explosion - and again the reign of death and destruction. Our pain is pain for the grace and happiness of Our Holy Church, Our children. Our fears are that some of them may be seduced by this new beast, already showing its gaping mouth, emanating from the abyss of the heart of humanity seething with passions. With one impulse of vengeance you will forever stain yourself, Christian, and all the bright joy of your present feat - suffering for Christ - will fade, for where then will you give place to Christ?
We shudder when we read how Herod, seeking to destroy the Child, destroyed thousands of infants. We shudder that such phenomena are possible when, during military operations, one camp protects its front ranks with hostages from the wives and children of the opposing camp. We shudder at the barbarity of our time, when hostages are taken to ensure the life and integrity of others. We shudder with horror and pain when, after attempts on the lives of representatives of our modern government in Petrograd and Moscow, as if as a gift of love to them and as a testimony of devotion, and to atone for the guilt of the attackers, entire mounds were erected from the bodies of persons completely uninvolved in these attempts and these insane the sacrifices were greeted with delight by those who were supposed to stop such atrocities. We shuddered, but these actions took place where they do not know or do not recognize Christ, where they consider religion to be the opium of the people, where Christian ideals are a harmful relic, where the extermination of one class by another and internecine strife are openly and cynically elevated to an urgent task.
Should we, Christians, follow this path? Oh, it won't! Even if our hearts were torn from grief and oppression inflicted on our religious feelings, our love for our native land, our temporary well-being, even if our feeling unmistakably told us who and where our offender was. No, it is better for us to inflict bleeding wounds than for us to resort to vengeance, especially pogrom, against our enemies or those who seem to us to be the source of our troubles. Follow Christ! Don't change Him. Don't give in to temptation. Do not destroy your soul in the blood of vengeance. Don't be overcome by evil. Overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21).
My children! All Orthodox Russian people! All Christians! When many sufferings, insults and sorrows would begin to inspire you with a thirst for revenge, they would push a sword into your hands, Orthodox Rus', for bloody reprisal against those whom you would consider your enemy - throw it far away so that not in the most difficult moments for you were tested and tortured, not in the moments of your triumph, never - never would your hand reach out to this sword, would not be able and would not want to carry it.
Oh, then truly your feat for Christ in these evil days will pass on to the inheritance and teaching of future generations, as the best testament and blessing: that only on this stone - healing evil with good - will the indestructible glory and greatness of our Holy Orthodox Church in the Russian land be built, and Her Holy Name and the purity of the deeds of Her children and servants will be elusive even to enemies.
To those who act according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen” (Gal. 6:18).
July 8 (21), 1919

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