On May 3, 2018, Ivan Mikhailovich Steblin-Kamensky died. When such a personality, absolutely legendary for the Petersburg culture, leaves, everyone remembers his own. Someone will remember his participation in the Leningrad underground poetry of the 70s, someone will talk about his participation in archaeological expeditions, someone will list his scientific achievements. I have three episodes connected with Steblin, each of which played a significant role in my life.
In 1995, barely becoming the dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Ivan Mikhailovich came up with new departments, courses and special courses that update the faculty program. In particular, he came up with a department of Egyptian history, in which students were simultaneously supposed to become both Egyptologists and experts in the Egyptian dialect. arabic... A kind of diachronic Egypt. From the point of view of a scientist, such an idea could only have occurred to a poet, because in practice you are either an Egyptologist or an Arabist, and there is no third way. But Steblin actively promoted this idea, and there were several graduates with the diploma "Historian of Egypt". Another idea of \u200b\u200bthe new dean was to train historians of the ancient East in the history and culture of synchronous civilizations. Assyriologists were supposed to study history in their senior years ancient egypt, and Egyptologists - on the contrary, the history of Mesopotamia. So, for this last one he married me, who was then working at the Faculty of Philosophy. Would you like to read the history of Mesopotamian culture for 4 year Egyptologists? I replied: why not read. And for a whole year I educated three Egyptologists, gaining experience in lecturing in the East. By the way, this last initiative took root, and at the Department of the Ancient East they continue to read to specialists the history of parallel civilizations, as Steblin intended.
In 1998 Steblin invited me to read the philosophy of culture to Africanists. And the next year I read it to a group of Arabists and Iranians. The choice of the dean was determined by the fact that I am not a philosopher by training, but an orientalist, and therefore I will illustrate the theory with examples from well-known disciplines. And so it happened. The Orientalists who studied with me during these two years subsequently began to combine the historical and philological methods of studying sources with their cultural understanding. And this initiative of Steblin still lives on at the faculty. I am still reading the philosophy of culture to a large stream of 2nd year students.
In 2005, the fate of my publication of the anthology of translations by V.K. Shileiko was decided. The editorial board of the Litpamyatniks gathered, but there was not a single classical ancient Orientalist (Egyptologist or Assyriologist) in it. However, the ancient Iranist Steblin-Kamensky was in it. Ivan Mikhailovich took the floor and suggested, firstly, to support the publication, and secondly, to appoint him as the executive editor of the book. After I found out about the decision, Steblin told me that all responsibility for the book, of course, was on me, but he would provide me with a "roof". He did not interfere in the process of work itself, did not look at the final version, but at all stages reminded the publishing house and editors of Nauka that he was observing the process and would like to see the result. Two years later, when the book came out, I brought a fresh copy to the Institute of Linguistic Research, where Ivan Mikhailovich was already working. He looked, appreciated the beauty of the dust jacket and the content of the book. Congratulated me on the publication. And then he gave me a book of his translations from the Avesta.
In his attitude to life, to people, to science, Ivan Steblin-Kamensky was a poet. Even at the dean's place, he remained a lover of performances. On the Day of the Philologist and Orientalist, he always came in a robe and skullcap and read poetry in Farsi. From Steblin, besides him scientific papers and poems, works of a unique genre will remain - collections of anecdotes about orientalists. In full accordance with the Muslim tradition of Isnad, he always indicated the transmitters of the anecdotal tradition. Best of all, the poet Steblin did not succeed in lyric poems about life, not plays, but comic poems for the anniversaries of colleagues in the shop. Each time it was a firework of wit, an exquisite play on words. Often these initiations were performed in the form of an acrostic with the surname (or even with the name and surname) of the hero of the day. Most of all, Steblin looked like a dervish who, unknown to him, had wandered into a meeting of bureaucrats. He also read his scientific reports like a Sufi witty - always with a grin, with strong gestures, with examples from poetry and with indispensable witticisms between each two ideas of the report. As a dean, he was absent-minded, did not always notice the person he was passing by, constantly hovered somewhere, often did not even walk, but fluttered a little over the corridors of the faculty (he had a strange manner of half-jumping). There was also something mystical about this - a sharp thrust upward. Steblin's Orthodox faith had a certain shade of performance. The faculty workers still remember how he invited a priest to sprinkle the dean's office with holy water and fan the censer. Of course, it should have looked like a serious ritual, but a real show came out.
The achievements of Steblin-Kamensky in science are very serious and lasting. He was the largest expert on the Avesta and the Wakhan language in Russia, one of the most talented ethnographic linguists. But here it is not without curiosities. Stemlin was constantly drawn to talk and write about plants. VN Toporov appreciated it very much in him, because he was a great lover of trees and various shrubs. Whatever Ivan Mikhailovich made a report about, he could turn into the etymology of some spikelet, bush or flower in Iranian or, more broadly, in all Indo-European languages. It is no coincidence that his only monograph is devoted specifically to cultivated plants in the Pamir languages. Often during his speeches, I caught myself thinking that I was waiting for him to notice some flower in the text and start talking about it. Apparently, the talent of a botanist was also strong in this versatile gifted person. Although he has never been a "nerd" in life.
The scientist was 72 years old. He is known as a specialist in the field of Iranian studies, the history of Iranian languages, etymology, folklore and ethnography of the Iranian peoples, a translator of the Avesta. His death was reported on Facebook by his colleagues at the Eastern Faculty of St. state university... Ivan Mikhailovich Steblin-Kamensky was born on November 5, 1945 in Leningrad, in the family of the philologist Mikhail Ivanovich Steblin-Kamensky.
Academician Ivan Steblin-Kamensky. Photo: https://s0tnik.livejournal.com/44138.html
In 1967 he worked as a Russian language teacher in a rural school in the Pamirs. Since 1964, he took part in archaeological and ethnolinguistic expeditions in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the Pamirs, Tuva, the South Urals, Xinjiang, Kyrgyzstan, Iran. He conducted ethnolinguistic and ethnobotanical research there. In 1968 he graduated from the Department of Iranian Philology, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Leningrad State University with a degree in Iranian Philology. Studied Persian, Ossetian, Khorezmian, Avestan, Afghani, Middle Persian, Old Persian, Sogdian, Tajik, Arabic, Ancient Greek and latin languages... Also studied Persian literature and material culture Iran.
In 1968 he entered graduate school at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences and in 1971 defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic “Historical Phonetics of the Wakhan Language”. From 1971 he worked as a junior researcher at the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From September 1981 he worked as a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Oriental Studies. In 1984 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic "Agricultural vocabulary of the Pamir languages \u200b\u200bin comparative historical coverage" at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
Since 1984 - Associate Professor of the Department of Iranian Philology of the Eastern Faculty, since 1987 - Professor, from November 1991 to November 2006 - Head of the Department of Iranian Philology. Since September 1994, he served as dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of St. Petersburg State University, in June 1995 he was elected dean, and in 2000 he was re-elected for a second term, left the post of dean in August 2005. In 1997 he was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Department of Language and Literature, in 2003 - a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since December 2005 - worked as a chief researcher at the Institute of Linguistic Research, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Author of over 150 published works, including books: "Cultural plants in the Pamir languages. Essays on the history of the vocabulary of the Pamir languages. Names of cultivated plants" (1982), " Etymological Dictionary the Wakhan language "(1999)," Steblin-Kamensky (Steblin, Steblin-Kaminsky). Experience of historical and genealogical research (2005; jointly with V.V. Korotenko, A.A.Shumkov). Prepared for publication many collections, including: "Tales of the peoples of the Pamirs" (1976), "Languages \u200b\u200bof the Eastern Hindu Kush. Wakhan language. Texts, dictionary, grammatical sketch "(1976)," Tales and legends of Sistan "(1981)," Avesta. Selected Hymns "(1990)," Ghats of Zarathushtra "(2009) and others.
Legends and myths usually compose about the heroes of the past. But there are personalities who become legendary in life. One of them - Ivan Mikhailovich Steblin-Kamensky.
At the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Leningrad State University, it was repeated year after year that he and only he knew the recipe for haoma, the magic drink of the Kazoroastrians. A legend circulated in Oxford that he was not a Christian at all, as he claims, but a real Zoroastrian.
You may not believe me, but this is the true truth. The venerable doctor of Oxford, an Iranian named Shahin Behranie, according to a British passport Charlotte Backfordisoroastrian by faith, adored Ivan Mikhailovich (and there are places where he was not adored?) Did not get tired of repeating to everyone who wanted to hear and hear her: “Ivan only says he is an Orthodox Christian. In fact, he is exactly Zoroastrian! "
What? The Zoroastrian ethical triad "good thought, good word, good deed" is about him. As well as a person's personal choice between good and evil.
By the way, about the same is quite reliable. Wouldn't someone who knows the recipe for a drink write in such a detailed and ordinary way:
“The cult drink was not at all intoxicating, but rather arousing or inspiring for military exploits and poetic divination. It is possible that once he was preparing, according to the witty hypothesis of R.G. Wasson (R.G. Wasson), and from fly agaric. The northern neighbors of the Aries were forest hunters and fishermen; among their descendants, the Ugric, Amanias are still used in shamanic practice. At the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia and later, ephedra (ephedra, Ephedrasp.) Served as the raw material for the preparation of the cult drink, many varieties of which are rich in the alkaloid ephedrine, and is now used by athletes as doping. From ephedra, but purely symbolically, having lost the original recipes, they prepare an imitation of the cult drinks of the aomai, and modern followers of the ancient Aryan religion, called the Zoroastrians, the Gebrus of Iran and the Parsis in India (the latter import sprigs of ephedra from Iran) "
After reading these lines, will anyone guarantee that their author does not really know the ancient secret?
With the light hand of Friedrich Engels, the epithet "titans of the Renaissance" came to literature and journalism. In "Dialectics of Nature" Engels described in a revolutionary way "... the greatest progressive revolution of all humanity experienced up to that time, an era that needed titans and which gave birth to titans in power of thought, passion and character, in versatility and learning."
Later it became fashionable to complain that the world has changed, overflowed with scientific and other information, and no longer find titans equal to the titans of the Renaissance in power of thought, passion and character, in versatility and scholarship. Now in vogue narrow specialists who, as you know, are like a flux.
Skeptics are wrong. The Titans of the Renaissance are generated by any era, there would be a personality.
They live creatively in a particular era, not in spite of the era, but above the era.
Steblin-Kamensky was a man above the era. A true titan of the Renaissance, soaring over time, space and circumstances.
He was over the era when, together with his friend and colleague Alexander Grunberg, in the Serakh district of the Ashgabat region, he was recording on tape the Kazakh family storyteller Ismail Yarmamedov, whose illiterate ancestors moved from Sistan and kept the oral memory of ancient Iranian legends. Why is there the XXIII Congress of the CPSU, if you can hear and write down legends about Rustam that are thousands of years old, which the great Ferdowsi did not hear?
He was over the era when, in a formal review of his Ph.D. thesis, he easily threw a bridge from Elder Abu Said to Tyutchev: “... a Sufi mystic cannot be a pragmatist, unless, of course, he is an outright charlatan and has not at all received his own religious experience, has no faith ... Faith, as the elder Abu Said taught, either exists, then it is a gift from God, or it must be begged from God. Recall from Tyutchev: “... My God! Come to the aid of my disbelief ... ”” A graceful bridge from Sufism to Tyutchev, and outside the windows that was dubbed the bandit Petersburg.
Ivan Mikhailovich hovered over the era when, in a completely academic Scripta Gregoriana, he published anecdotes collected by himself about orientalists. Then the bearded elders came to life, frowning at the students from portraits and explaining something in thick volumes about mazars, madhhabs and Persian aorists. You read “Orbeli complained to his colleagues about his wife…”, “Bertels translated Nizami and could not understand some line…” - and you immediately understand that such people could not be engaged in a nonsense. You have to read.
He was above the era when he translated "From Avesta", "From Shelley", "From Rimbaud", when, on expeditions to the Pamirs, he asked local residents about the names of all kinds of blades of grass and rural household items, so that later he would publish "Essays on the history of lexicopamir languages. Names of cultivated plants ".
He was over the era when, in the position of the dean of the oriental faculty, he invented new oriental specialties, for example, the historian of Egypt, with knowledge of ancient Egyptian and Arabic, and when, in the same position, on the Day of the orientalist, he went to the students on a donkey in a servant robe and a full-bodied beard.
Of course, not everyone liked this ease of creativity and being. Someone wanted to knock him off the wing, force him to land and be silent. But the titan of the Renaissance can only be injured, sometimes very painful, but one cannot be made not to fly, be silenced.
He was over the era when he composed his own poems and plays. Let's be honest, sometimes obscene or very satirical. The same "Ravens", this is just an anti-feminist pasquil. Again, let's be frank, Ivan Mikhailovich Steblin-Kamensky was absolutely convinced that the main vocation of a woman is to bear children. Well, sometimes you also devote yourself to the arts, of course, in your free time from motherhood. I was convinced of this when, in 1996, I accidentally ran into Ivan Mikhailovich on Zagorodny Prospekt. I had a baby hanging in a kangarushka, which made me very happy former teacher... He congratulated me in the following way: "Well, finally, we got down to business!" Aya by that time was already an accomplished journalist. In modern times, such sexism is a mortal sin of political correctness. But the titans of the Renaissance are entitled to any judgment ...
It is difficult to answer the question of where the titanium of the Renaissance suddenly appeared in Soviet Leningrad in the second half of the 20th century. This is a strange chemistry from post-war Leningrad (I.M. Steblin-Kamensky was born on November 5, 1945), the philological hobbies of his father, the famous Scandinavians, and much more. Do not list everything.
The Petrograd side, gaping with lacunae of destroyed houses, where heaps of bricks, little boys are being cut into a toss, and in pubs, yesterday's front-line soldiers are so lucky for the present and an apartment on Podkovyrova Street, where skaldic poems and fragments from Younger Edda are heard, where the term "structuralism" is ridiculed ... There are brilliant teachers, the same Sergei Nikolaevich Sokolov. Here is the father, who even on the beach walked with the children in a suit and tie, and noble blood. And later - Saigon, where hippie poets and underground musicians, friends of the future titan, met ...
By the way, about Steblin's nobility. Both he and his father, who also worked at Leningrad State University, wrote the standard in all the questionnaires: "from employees." But everyone knew that he was "from the nobility" and of a rather old family. Ivan Mikhailovich honored his family, once proudly showed me an icon that his daughter painted after one of his relatives was numbered among the holy martyrs; this is already in 2000. At the same time, there is no pathos, vanity, snobbery and other "pseudo-aristocratic creeps." Steblin belonged to his origin according to the precepts of Saadi:
... with musk in his pocket
does not shout about it in the streets.
The scent of musk speaks for him.
Noble roots did not prevent him from going on expeditions almost every year - from Pamir to Tuva, from Xinjiang to Iran - and admonishingly repeating to beginners: "In order not to suffer from stomach diseases in Central Asia, you should drink vodka and green tea."
He knew how to be absolutely earthly when he conjured over pilaf or picked mushrooms. By the way, his pilaf was recognized as the best in St. Petersburg by the most fastidious connoisseurs. It's true, I had the honor to try.
And then soar over the era and see the Arkaimmodel of that Vara refuge, which was built by the great Yiyima. He could hear Zarathushtra speaking. Translation of "GatZarathushtra" into Russian is an indisputable, but not the only scientific and cultural contribution of Steblin to the progress of world civilization.
It would be worth listing the awards and regalia of the Titan of the Renaissance, world recognition, etc. A special article of the Viran "Wikipedia" is no joke. But I remembered Steblin's trademark grin and someone's story that he argued that the obituary should be written by himself so that they would not write all sorts of stupid things, and decided to end the way I think he would like:
Ivan Mikhailovich Steblin-Kamensky knew exactly the recipe for haoma, the cult drink of the aries. Otherwise, how could he himself, everyone who studied with him, and everyone who knew him, were inspired to heroic deeds, no matter whether military or scientific, and to poetic and other divinations and insights? ..
Mikhail Ivanovich Steblin-Kamensky (August 29, 1903, St. Petersburg - September 17, 1981, Leningrad) - Soviet philologist, Doctor of Sciences (1948), Professor (1950), Honorary Doctor of Stockholm (1969) and Reykjavik (1971) universities. Works on Scandinavian languages \u200b\u200band Scandinavian literature, on theoretical linguistics; translations from Scandinavian languages. I. Steblin-Kamensky was born into the family of an employee. He entered the specialty "English" at the Petrograd University, but in 1924 he was expelled from among his students for "non-proletarian origin". In 1927 he completed the courses of English language and began teaching it at the Polytechnic Institute, and also was engaged in dictionary work at the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences, in particular, he took part in the compilation of the famous english-Russian dictionary V.K.Müller and S.K.Boyanus, first published in 1931. In 1939 Steblin-Kamensky passed the external examinations at the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad University, specializing in English.
Then M.I.Steblin-Kamensky went to graduate school at the Institute of Russian Literature of the Academy of Sciences. He spent the entire period of the blockade in Leningrad. His Ph.D. thesis was devoted to Old English poetic style and was entitled "On the development of Old English poetic style (a substantive epithet in Old English poetry)." The Philological Faculty of Leningrad University was then evacuated partly to Saratov, partly to Tashkent, where the defense took place (1943). Steblin-Kamensky himself was not present at the defense, which was allowed for persons who were on the war fronts ( besieged Leningrad equated to the front).
Studying Old English poetry, MI Steblin-Kamensky became interested in Old Scandinavian literature, and later in Scandinavian languages. In 1945 he became a doctoral student at the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad University. Him doctoral dissertation was called "Poetry of the Skalds". Her defense took place in 1948, after which M.I.Steblin-Kamensky became first an assistant professor, and then a professor at the Scandinavian branch of Leningrad State University.
In 1950 Steblin-Kamensky was appointed head of the Department of Germanic Philology, which at that time included the German and Scandinavian departments. In 1955, the Department of English Philology was added to this department. In 1958, another reorganization took place, as a result of which the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad State University included the former 1st Institute foreign languages, and at the faculty on the initiative of M.I.Steblin-Kamensky for the first time in the domestic high school a department of Scandinavian philology arose, of which he became the head. Over time, this department has become one of the largest European centers not only in terms of teaching level, but also in terms of the depth of study of the Scandinavian languages, as well as the culture of the Scandinavian countries. In 1972, on the initiative and under the leadership of M.I.Steblin-Kamensky, the department also opened a Dutch branch ( dutch does not belong to the Scandinavian), whose activities were directed by V.P. Berkov.
For two long periods Steblin-Kamensky, simultaneously with his work at the university, was also a researcher at the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences. Steblin-Kamensky took an active part in many scientific conferences, symposia and congresses. In particular, he was one of the initiators and one of the main and most authoritative participants in conferences on the comprehensive study of the history, economics, language and culture of the Scandinavian countries and Finland, the first of which took place in 1963. As people who knew Steblin-Kamensky noted, his performances were always not only deep in content, but also fascinating and brilliant in form.
MI Steblin-Kamensky is the author of a total of about one and a half hundred works. Among them are works on Scandinavian and general linguistics... Linguistic works by Steblin-Kamensky mainly include historical grammars of Scandinavian languages \u200b\u200bin the spirit of the Leningrad school of philology, but with a more pronounced interest in structuralism and problems of general theory of language (collection of articles "Controversial in Linguistics", 1974). His grammar of the Old Icelandic language (1955) is considered one of the best in terms of accuracy and detail in describing the facts of inflectional morphology and morphonology.
One of the first among domestic philologists Steblin-Kamensky turned to the study of phonology problems based on the history of the Scandinavian languages, published numerous articles, which were subsequently collected in the book "Essays on the diachronic phonology of the Scandinavian languages" (1966).
Thanks to the activities of MI Steblin-Kamensky, the Russian-speaking reader got acquainted with the largest monuments of Old Icelandic literature: the largest ancestral sagas, the poetry of the skalds, the "Elder" and "Younger Edda", the royal sagas. All these publications were published on his initiative, under his editorship, with his articles and comments, and in many cases with his translations.
His father, Georgy Georgievich Steblin-Kamensky, was the director of the Chancellery of the Naval Ministry, and in last years before the revolution - Senator for the Departments of Heraldry and Judiciary of the Governing Senate. In addition, he was chairman of the Russian Society of Maritime Law. Ivan's grandfather, Georgy Pavlovich Steblin-Kamensky, in the last years of his life was the governor of Vilna with the rank of privy councilor. At this time, he acquired the Biyutsishki estate in the Vilensky district, where Ivan spent his childhood.
Ivan received his primary education at home. Olga Alexandrovna, daughter of Vice-Admiral Alexander Pavlovich Zhandre, had a tremendous influence on him and on his two sisters, Olga and Elizabeth, - they were pious girls of a strict and righteous life; they died in the year in the city of Kashin, Tver region.
After the death of his mother on August 17, he graduated from the four classes of the gymnasium and, in accordance with family tradition, chose to serve in the navy, enrolling in the Naval Cadet Corps, which he graduated in the year with the rank of ship midshipman. At the end of the Marine cadet corps was awarded the Admiral Nakhimov Prize.
Service in the navy
In the year, the Cheka was first arrested, but released after a short imprisonment.
In the summer of the year, he was ordained a priest at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Stremyannaya Street and was soon appointed rector of this church and elevated to the rank of archpriest. He gave all his time and energy to the flock.
Conviction on the "Cause of Orthodox Brotherhoods". Imprisonment in the Solovetsky camp
To put an end to this, the OGPU began to interfere more and more in church life; about forty clergy and laity were arrested in Petrograd. Father John was accused of rallying the Orthodox around him and they began to gather not only in the church, but also in apartments where akathists were read, the Holy Scriptures and the priest explained one or two chapters from the Apostolic Epistles. Summoned for interrogation, Fr. John said that he served in the apartments of some of his parishioners, after which the guests drank tea, and while waiting until they were served, they had conversations on religious topics.
On September 26, a Special Meeting at the OGPU Collegium sentenced Father John to three years in prison in the Solovetsky camp. In total, thirty-five clergy and laity were sentenced to imprisonment in a concentration camp.
In the Solovetsky concentration camp he behaved independently, always wore priestly clothes and attended church services as long as it was allowed; they were a great consolation in the harsh conditions of camp life. I wrote letters from the camp to my father, sisters and spiritual children.
Ministry in Voronezh
After his release, he was sent into administrative exile in the city of Voronezh, where he arrived in November. Here he received the position of a priest in the Alekseevskaya Church of the former Maiden Monastery, and after a while was appointed its rector and one of the deans of the Voronezh diocese. Thanks to his efforts and active support, the Voronezh parishioners constantly collected and sent funds to the Solovetsky concentration camp to the Voronezh Archbishop Peter (Zverev) and other Orthodox imprisoned.
On September 2, a meeting of the inhabitants of the village was held in the workers' settlement, in which the Maiden Monastery was located, already half occupied by atheists. In total, 275 apartments were arranged on the territory of the monastery, in which 872 people lived in non-believers, as well as the nuns who remained in the cells. The meeting was attended by 217 people and 100 people were invited from outside. One of the speakers immediately pointed out that the worshipers and followers of the arrested Archbishop Peter (Zverev) began religious activities:
"... Zverevshchina raised her head again, her nest was not completely destroyed, they need to be destroyed through the GPU".
"In cell 31 lives priest John, Zverev's protege. I live in cell 89 and see this priest being visited by the wives of the counter-revolutionaries Nechaev and Pushkin (a former churchwarden of the Church of Thorns). Nuns teach the children of workers to approach this priest for a blessing ... "
On September 8, the Voronezh newspaper "Kommuna" published an article "Novodevitsky Monastery - for workers' apartments. Church - for a club". The article, in particular, stated:
"... Everywhere resolutions were passed in which the workers fully join the demands of the population of the village and, for their part, insist on the speedy eviction of all the nuns, as well as the closure of the church within the village and the equipment of a club or school in it. The workers who spoke in the debate expressed surprise at about the fact that until now with the nuns "stood on ceremony." It was also pointed out the need for a decisive struggle against the counter-revolutionary antics of the "blueberries" and their leader - "Father John," Peter Zverev's protege ".
"According to the available unverified information in house 4 on Vvedenskaya Street, the priest Ivan living there, a protege of Bishop Zverev, is conducting fierce agitation against the Soviet regime, and in general some kind of grouping is noticed in this house, which is reported for information.".
At five o'clock in the morning on May 1, when the atheists came to break the cross on the dome of the temple, the abbess of the Maiden Monastery died. This coincidence of the desecration of the church with the death of the abbess impressed the believers so much that they talked about it for a long time in the city. Subsequently, the authorities accused Father John of claiming that her death was the result of persecution of the Church. On May 4, the funeral of the abbess took place, Father John himself served the funeral service for the abbess in her apartment in the monastery, turned by the atheists into a working village, from where, accompanied by many praying people with services along the way, everyone went to the Ternovoye Cemetery. After the burial, Father John blessed everyone, advising the remaining nuns and parishioners of the monastery to stick together.
The second confinement in the Solovetsky camp
On May 19, Fr. John was arrested and interrogated on May 21. The priest answered the questions of the investigator with great dignity, trying not to drop his rank in anything. He obtained permission to write down his answer with his own hand.
"I am loyal to the Soviet regime, - wrote Father John, - but I do not sympathize with the activities directed against religion. I consider it wrong to teach children in schools in an anti-religious direction and the like. Since I do not know any other weapon besides the cross, both in the past and in the present, I find the only right thing to act on the masses in a pacifying manner. He condemned all opposition to civil laws. For me there is no doubt that faith in the crucified Christ is invincible, that the apparent triumph of materialism is a temporary phenomenon. Many notes were given to me asking for prayer, since I did not accept any requests for prayer as a keepsake. Among the notes there are some that ask for prayer for prisoners and for the lost. By "lost" I meant those who departed from the faith, or even believers in words, but living lawlessly. During all the time of my service in the former Maiden Monastery, I inadmissibly every holiday and every Sunday, and sometimes on weekdays, gave teachings of a purely spiritual nature or clarifying divine services, by no means touching on either civil authority or the need to stock up on certain products. After the abbess's death, he did not spread any rumors in the city either personally or through anyone else. That the abbess's death, which followed during the removal of the cross from the church of the former Maiden Monastery, was caused by this removal, could not speak, since, if I am not mistaken, she was struck by the third blow in a row two days before her death, and since then she did not come to consciousness, so that I could not even give her communion before death. I am even less guilty of ever encouraging to call myself or calling myself true shepherd, in an exceptional sense, called to save believers from the dark forces of hellish Bolshevism, but I do not renounce the fact that I consider myself one of the faithful pastors of the Church of Christ, obliged by word, life, spirit, faith and purity to be an example for the faithful and protect them from the darkness of unbelief, and I confess that, according to my faith, not only materialism, but also the "gates of hell" themselves will not prevail against the Church of Christ. I left the grave of the abbess before it was closed, but I really blessed those who came to me, and as best I could console, but the words "do not be sad, we will achieve our best" did not say ".
"I do not recognize myself guilty of the accusation against me in the slightest. During all my stay in Voronezh, both in spirit and from the pulpit, and in private conversations, not so much out of fear of punishment, but because of my outlook, I have always taught meekness, I didn’t group anyone around me and, having accidentally been temporarily acting as a diocesan dean, since March of this year I had only official relations of a reference nature with the clergy of the diocese. I consider it beneath my dignity as a minister of spirit to spread any rumors. I consider the accusation of agitation about the campaign of the powers against the Soviet regime as a clear indicator of a completely incorrect awareness of the GPU about my personality, since such unreasonable activity does not at all correspond to either the direction of my thoughts, or the nature of my purely spiritual and edifying relations with the believers. Words attributed to me on February 16 this year "citizens, there are no grain reserves, starvation threatens, for graze who can ", I also did not say, and they also correspond little to my activity. He did not conduct any agitation in connection with the death of the abbess. The dark forces of hell, according to the understanding of the Church and the teaching of the apostolic, have nothing to do with the political structure of the country and act under any regime (our struggle is not against flesh and blood, that is, not with people, but against the spirits of evil in heaven). To persons who came to me and inquired about joining cooperatives, collective farms, communes and the like, participation in the new device agriculture, always answered in the spirit that if this ... does not require renunciation of faith, then, of course, there can be no sin in such participation ... To persons who came to me from different places for help from various advised to go to doctors, referring to the Holy Scriptures. At the same time, he advised them to take communion and did not refuse their prayer ".
On August 16, by a resolution of a Special Meeting at the OGPU Collegium, Father John was sentenced to imprisonment in the Solovetsky camp for a period of three years. Determined in the 2nd department of the concentration camp.
Arrest in the case of "buevtsy". Demise
On April 23, he was arrested in the Solovetsky camp in the case of the "Buyevites" and sent to the Voronezh OGPU together with priest Nikolai Dulov. In early May, Father John was taken to the Voronezh prison.
The first interrogation took place on 15 May. Since the priest Nikolai Dulov agreed to testify required by the investigation, the investigator had only to prove that there was a close acquaintance between the priests. Father John answered the investigator's questions:
“When I was free in Voronezh, priest Dulov came to Voronezh twice; once on Trinity (at the beginning of June), 1928, and the second time in November of the same year. Both times we saw him in church, the first Once he served in the cathedral with the clergyman of the former Maiden Monastery, and the second time he was only present at the service. After the first service I invited him to dine with me. There were no meetings of priests with the participation of Dulov. Priest Dulov did not bring me any brochures; know an Orthodox Christian "I am not familiar. In general, I was only interested in the opinions of authoritative hierarchs, and not in impersonal brochures.".
On May 20, the priest was accused of "distributing church-monarchist leaflets and brochures, spreading all sorts of anti-Soviet provocative rumors and campaigning against all measures of the Soviet government in the field of collectivization and industrialization of the USSR, with the ultimate goal of preparing the believing masses for a speech against the Soviet regime, overthrowing it and restoring the monarchy. As a result of the above, in many areas of the Central Black Earth Region there were mass demonstrations of the population against the Soviet regime and its activities. "
After reading the indictment, Fr. John began to write that he did not agree with the accusation and explain why, but he was not allowed to finish writing. However, the priest demanded that he be given the opportunity to respond to the charge. Two days later, the investigator allowed him to write an explanatory note. Father John wrote:
"I categorically do not plead guilty to the charge brought against me. I was not a member of the monarchist church organization ... Peasants, community members and clergy came to me on church affairs, and blueberries from neighboring villages ... I did not have any organizational or political conversations. led with no one ".
Documents, literature
- Archive of the FSB RF for the Voronezh region. Arch. No. P-24705. T. 1, fol. 1, 55-57, 80, 82, 88; T. 2, fol. 100-102, 146-148; T. 3, fol. 210-211, 216-217, 219, 224-225, 282, 304-310, 325-327; T. 4, fol. 497-508, 610-614.
- Archive of the FSB RF for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. Arch. No. P-82582. L. 393-395, 398, 400, 410.
- M. Polskiy, Protopriest. New Martyrs of Russia. M., 1994. Repr. rep. ed. 1949-1957. (Jordanville). Part 2. Pp. 188,189,191-193.
- Akinshin A. Hieromartyr Alexy Voronezh // Orthodox life: (Appendix to "Orthodox Russia"). 1995. No. 8 (548).
- Reznikova I. Orthodoxy in Solovki: Materials on the history of the Solovetsky camp. SPb., 1994. (Historical collections. 2). P.46.93.
- Synodicus of persecuted, tortured, in the bonds of innocent victims of Orthodox clergy and laity of the St. Petersburg diocese. XX century. SPb., 1999.S. 106.
- Damaskin (Orlovsky), abbot. Martyrs, confessors and ascetics of piety of the Russian Orthodox Church of the XX century. Biographies and materials to them. Book 4.- Tver. 2000.S. 221-287.
- Solovetsky Martyrology // Orthodox Church Calendar 2001. Edition of the Solovetsky Monastery.
- Synodic of the persecuted, tortured, in the bonds of innocent victims of Orthodox clergy and laity of the St. Petersburg diocese: XX century. 2nd edition revised. SPb., 2002.280s. P.13.
- St. Petersburg Martyrology. SPb .: Publishing house "Mir", "Society of St. Basil the Great", 2002. 416p.
- Shkarovsky M.V. Josephlyism: Current in the Russian Orthodox Church. SPb .: NITs "Memorial", 1999. С.331-332.
Used materials
- Biography on the site "Orthodoxy and Modernity. Electronic Library":
- DB PSTGU "New Martyrs, Confessors Who Suffered for Christ in the Years of Persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in the XX century."
According to the biography. The lists of the rectors of the Trinity Church on the website of A.A. Bovkalo about. John does not appear: http://www.petergen.com/bovkalo/kl/spburgtrstr.html. In the DB PSTGU it is indicated that he was a priest of the Petrograd Trinity Church.