Novo-Tikhvin Convent: Schema-nun Nicholas. “And you will stay in the war, and you will come to the monastery…” The imperceptible victories of schema-nun Nikolay

If any Soviet director had met the military nurse Galina Zasypkina, he would have decided that he was the ideal type of a Soviet activist girl. Laughing, quick, she won't go into her pocket for a word. And most importantly, you can feel some kind of determination, will, an unbending inner core in her ... Probably, he would not have believed it if he had been told that the lively, lush-haired “activist” was a cassock novice of the Ural monastery. And its solid inner core is not “revolutionary hardening” at all, but faith in God.

“Don’t touch her, she has a heavy cross…”

Galya Zasypkina was born in 1912 in the village of Troitskoye, Yekaterinburg district. Her father, Andrei Dmitrievich, wanted to become a monk since childhood. Parents did not let go: he was the eldest son, a strong support for the family. However, the strict piety of Andrei Dmitrievich nevertheless gave rich fruits. His family became truly a "small church." In it, as in many Russian families of that time, there were even some monastic customs. For example, during a meal, one of the family members always read aloud the lives of the saints or the Holy Scriptures.

Parents of Galina Zasypkina

Galina Zasypkina (left) in childhood

Almost all the Zasypkins had sonorous voices and sang in the kliros. Children, according to the old Russian tradition, were brought up in love and severity. They taught faith in God, respect for elders, humility and obedience. They tried to raise the child, first of all, as a good Christian, and not as a "comprehensively developed personality." But this is precisely what made him a real person - whole, free, moral - and did not at all suppress individual characteristics.

In 1915 Andrei Dmitrievich died at the front. Galya's mother, Anna Kuzminichna, decided to go to the Kaslinsky Kazan-Bogoroditsky Monastery, taking with her a three-year-old baby. But first she went to be blessed by her spiritual mother, the clairvoyant schema-nun Euphrosyne. We went to her hut, mother pushes Galina to the schema woman: "Bow at her feet." And the schema nun answered: “Don’t touch her, she has a heavy cross,” and put a cross on the baby. Indeed, in a few years there will come a time when simply wearing a cross around your neck will be a great feat. Mother Euphrosyne blessed Anna Kuzminichna to the monastery, but Galya did not: “The monasteries will soon be dispersed. Where are you with the girl? You leave it with your parents, then you yourself will return there. So we decided.

Galina Zasypkina

Three years later, life in the country changed dramatically. Galina had grown up by that time, and her relatives were going to send her to school. But the grandfather, having learned that the teaching of the Law of God was abolished in schools, resolutely opposed: “What is there to teach? Godlessness, right? The girl, like her cousins ​​and sisters, decided to teach at home. In 1930, Galya turned eighteen years old, and she moved to Yekaterinburg, where her mother already lived. There an acquaintance took place, which turned the whole life of Gali Zasypkina upside down.

"It's a spindle!"

Among Galina's relatives was a novice of the Yekaterinburg Novo-Tikhvin Monastery, Elizabeth. Officially, the monastery was, of course, closed in those years, but the community continued to exist illegally. The sisters lived in separate houses or in rented apartments, went to work in state institutions - but at the same time they did nothing without the blessing of their mentor, Abbess Magdalena (Dosmanova).

Mother Gali, knowing her ardent disposition, warned her more than once with concern: “You are so lively, don’t even think about becoming a monk.” A young man had been courting Galya for several years, and her mother expected that her daughter was about to get married. The decisive day came - in the evening the matchmaking was to take place. Anna Kuzminichna asked her daughter not to stay anywhere after work, but to come home right away. But the providence of God predetermined Galina on this day a different matchmaking. Elizabeth invited her to visit Mother Magdalene. She, seeing Galya, immediately predicted to her that she would be a nun. And Galya herself, in a conversation with the abbess, understood: if she wants to be a bride, then only Christ's. Anna Kuzminichna, learning about this turn of events, was very upset: “What kind of monasticism are you? Monks are being persecuted, and spiritual mentors are not to be found now.” “And one mother abbess is enough for us,” Galina was not afraid. However, she did not yet join the sisterhood, she was afraid: what if her mother is right, and it is better for her, with her lively character, to get married? She decided that time itself would tell her what to do.

And so it happened. Somehow Abbess Magdalena became very ill, everyone thought that she would die soon. Galya, shedding tears, sat next to her mother. "Why are you crying?" she asked her. "I'm crying that I'm not yours! That I’m not a monk…” Galina answered with a sob. Mother was delighted: “How not ours? Yes, we will dress you today! On the same night, Galina was dressed in a cassock. It came as a complete surprise to everyone. One of the older sisters was amazed aloud: “Mother, whom did you dress?! It's a spindle!" The seething restlessness of the girl was indeed the talk of the town. Father Ignatius (Kevroletin)1, to whom Galina went for Sunday talks, sometimes asked her in front of everyone:

Galya, were you at work today?

It was, dad.

Did you go to the club?

I went.

And did you have time to dance?

Did you have time to talk too?

Also managed...

Putting on a cassock made an unusual effect on Galina. “I was not myself for several days,” she said later. - As if I was not on earth, but I don’t know where. Prayer was also spiritual joy. She did not understand anything, did not eat, did not drink. Although I went to work, and did everything right there, but in my appearance it seemed to everyone that I was not myself. I forgot what it is to eat, what it is to sleep. Mother says: “Today, Galya, you will eat.” And I think: what is it? She went out onto the porch and began to pray: “Mother of God, teach me how to eat!”. And so she prayed until she sat down at the table. Then the mother says: "You will sleep." And I think: how is it to sleep? I remembered that when they sleep, they close their eyes. She sat down at the closet, closed her eyes with her hands and began to pray: “Mother of God, teach me to sleep.” And my mother, so that I wouldn’t become proud of all this, then for two weeks she didn’t seem to notice me and didn’t take me by the hand. I didn’t understand this and I wanted to leave if it was like that. Then our friend’s father came, I told him everything, and he said: “Look what you are! You don't want to endure, you don't want to put up with it! She will not humble herself in front of you! Go, bow down! "-" Yes, I already walked and fell at my feet more than once, but she only says one thing: "Close the door!" - "Nothing, let's go!". We go to her cell. She, as if nothing had happened, says: “Who is there? Ah, Galya! Well, put the samovar on."

This extraordinary grace, which visited Galina after she took on the monastic image, undoubtedly testifies to the height of the spiritual life of Mother Magdalene herself. And the wonderful lesson of humility given to the young novice testifies to the true spiritual reasoning of the abbess.

“You will not send there where there is no God…”

After some time, Galya, with the blessing of the abbess, entered the medical school. Her relative, Thekla, sent her a letter in which she reproached her for her imprudent choice of profession: they say you will be taken into the army, and there you will have to examine and treat men, what kind of nun are you after that? Galina was embarrassed by such arguments and decided not to study further. She didn't go to class the next day. But the shrewd abbess unexpectedly asked her: “What did Fekolka write to you? Go, study, someone needs to be there.” And she added: “There will be a war, you will go to war. You will be in the army, you will serve, you will come home, you will live in a monastery and you will be clean. Stay alive. You will live long, and they will come after you. I must say that the predictions of Abbess Magdalena about the fate of Galya Zasypkina came true with completeness and accuracy.

G. Zasypkina - in the first row on the left

The blessing of the mentor for life gave the already brave Galina some kind of unshakable fearlessness. She made no secret of her faith. I could, for example, calmly cross documents in front of all employees before starting work. She had magnificent hair, but she carefully hid it under a scarf. Somehow, the employees saw Galina without a headscarf and gasped: “Why are you hiding such beauty ?!” “And my head hurts without a scarf,” the girl dismissed. She carried parcels to the arrested sisters without fear, sought dates. In the 1930s, only a man of firm faith and desperate courage could decide on such actions. The sisters trembled with fear for the fate of Galina and were sure that she would not do well. But it turned out exactly the opposite: those who were hiding were found and arrested, and the courageous novice continued to openly carry packages, pray, talk about God ... She was interrogated many times, but not arrested.

In 1938, Galina lived in Sverdlovsk in the apartment of the novice Vassa Vorobyeva. Elder Ignatius (Kevroletin), who was forced to hide from persecution, often stayed with the girls. Late one evening there was a knock on the door. They asked the Vorobyovs, but Galya immediately understood what was the matter, and hid Father Ignatius in the underground, and placed a tub of water on top.

Five Chekists entered. They really didn’t need the Vorobyovs, they came for Galina. That, however, was not frightened, and her mocking answers constantly confused the Chekists, who were accustomed to conducting interrogations in a completely different tone.

Do you know bloodsuckers? they asked her right away.

We don't have bedbugs here, - Galina shrugged.

Well, how? Do you know the priests?

I know. Are they bloodsuckers? The same people as we are.

Yes, it smells like long hair here!

So after all, girls live alone, if not long-haired?

Did you have a monk?

What did you do?

They ate and he left.

Well, I'm not stupid enough to ask the elder, who is in his seventies: "Where are you going?" Yes, he would answer me: “What is your business ?!”

And if you are sent to a place where birds do not fly?

I don't need birds at all. All the same, you won't send it there where there is no God!

The interrogation went on for five hours. Galina was not afraid of either provocative questions or the threat of arrest, she was afraid of only one thing - lest Father Ignatius cough. She spoke deliberately loudly so that he could hear everything in the underground. At the end of the interrogation, the Cheka officers asked Galina again:

And will you accept believers?

They will come - I will accept.

And in prison transfers to their transfer?

I will transmit. And if you are imprisoned, then I will come to you.

With this promise, the interrogation ended. When the Chekists were leaving, one of them lingered a little and tore up the protocol before leaving ...

"I'd rather give my head than the cross"

The Great Patriotic War began - and the prophetic words of Mother Magdalene came true: Galya Zasypkina was sent to the front. I had to work first in a medical train, then in hospitals.

G.A. Zasypkina (left) and other nurses of the ambulance train

The signature on the back of the photograph is the autograph of G.A. Zasypkina

The novice Galina remained true to herself here too: she never took off her cross and did not hide her faith. Even before the war, colleagues in hospitals told her that it was dangerous to wear a cross at such a time, they called her crazy. She answered: “How can you live without a cross if you are baptized?! It is still unknown who has gone mad: me or those who remove the cross. At first, she wore a cross pinned to the inside of her clothes, but nevertheless it was noticed and reported to the commissioner. He summoned Galina to him and demanded to remove the cross. “I would rather give up my head than this cross,” Galina said. After this conversation, she hung a cross around her neck: once you know, know.

The commissioner, however, did not give up. I decided to re-educate Galina, and one Sunday he took everyone on an excursion to the anti-religious museum, which was located in an Orthodox church. They examined everything, went into the altar, and Galina did not move. It stands by the pulpit. They tell her:

Come on, come on!

What right do I have to enter the altar?

You must obey.

And I obey everything military, but today we have a day off, so I'm free, so I won't go to the altar.

Commissioner came out

Need to go.

Will not go.

And there are relics - you'll see.

I'd love to see it, but I can't.

But the altar has already been defiled. We passed through the Royal Doors.

Corrupted, but not by me, and I don't care about others.

The commissar had to come to terms with the fact that the military nurse was a believer. Soon he was sent with another unit to the front. And Galina gradually began to notice that there were many believers around her. One day, on the first Easter day, she heard the orderly of the hospital train quietly humming something without words. She recognized: the fourth voice - and loudly continued: “Death tramples down death! ..” The orderly shuddered and looked into her eyes in bewilderment.

- Well, why are you surprised? Galina laughed. - Easter is today! Christ is Risen!

Then she noticed that the head of their medical unit, Alexei Mikhailovich Troshkin, observed all Orthodox fasts, and found out that he was a monk. The doctor with whom Galina worked turned out to be a former regent from Yaroslavl, another doctor was also a believer. Nurse Anna Tagiltseva, with whom Galina struck up a close friendship, then together with her entered the monastery and took the tonsure.

In 1943, Galya, along with her friend Anna, was captured by the Nazis. When they were brought to the commandant's office, the interrogation began:

Did you take off your Komsomol badge?

- I didn't have it when I was born.

- Take off the cross!

- I won't take it off! - Galina resolutely refused, - you didn’t put it on for me, it’s not for you to take it off!

Oddly enough, they abandoned her. During the torture, Galina and three other prisoners were torn off the nails from both hands, then thrown into a pit. This pit was going to be filled with lime, but it was not found. The Germans went for lime and, by some strange accident, did not post a sentry at the pit. Galya realized that God gives them these minutes to escape from captivity. She asked her friend to bend down, stood on her shoulders and, not sparing her wounded hands, climbed out of the hole, then pulled her friend out. The remaining women could not overcome the despair and did not follow the example of the courageous girls, although they persistently offered them help. Galya and her friend ran to the forest. Behind him, shooting began. The girls fell to the ground and crawled. A wound in the back of Galina made itself felt for a long time ...

Schema-nun Nicholas

After the victory and demobilization, Galya, who had dreamed of a monastery for so long, went with three companions to Ukraine right in soldier's breeches. In Russia at that time all women's monasteries were closed. They wanted to enter some Kyiv monastery, but one of her companions was repressed in the 30s, and now she was not allowed to live in large cities. Therefore, the future nuns went to Zolotonosha, Cherkasy region, where the St. John the Theologian Krasnogorsk monastery operated.

Mon. Nicholas in the Krasnogorsk Monastery

The Abbess of the Krasnogorsk Monastery gave them skirts and accepted them as sisters. Here in 1950 Galya Zasypkina took monastic vows with the name of Nicholas.

Nuns of the Krasnogorsk Monastery: mon. Nicholas, ambassador Claudius and Mon. Aseneth. 1950s

Energetic and determined, she was the right hand of the abbess. The abbess went to the officials only with the nun Nikolai - she knew that she would talk to any person as she should, she would not be at a loss.

Krasnogorsk Holy Intercession Convent

In 1963, when a new wave of persecution of believers began, the Krasnogorsk Monastery was also closed. Mother Nikolai had to return to Sverdlovsk, about which she was very sad. However, in the world she continued to lead a monastic lifestyle. In the 1970s, a small community of monastics and laity gradually gathered around her, benefiting greatly from her advice.

In recent years, Matushka Nikolay, then already a schema nun, lived in a small apartment with her cell-attendant, nun Sergius. God judged her to see the beginning of the revival of her native Novo-Tikhvin Monastery. In the summer of 1995, the abbess and sisters of the renewed convent came to visit her. She was already over eighty, illnesses did not allow her to leave the house and go to the temple, for which she grieved very much. But every day she read the service at home. They confessed and communed her at home. Despite her age, her lively character was felt in everything: everything that Mother Nikolai could do about the housework, she did it quickly and easily. Due to insomnia, she often devoted all hours of the night to prayer. She had a rosary with five hundred knots, which had once belonged to schema-nun Euphrosyne, and she prayed with them. Her children remembered this instruction: “Do not leave the Jesus Prayer. Always keep it in your mouth. When it's cold, it will keep you warm. When you're hungry, she'll feed you."

At the head of Mother Nicholas hung photographs of two prayer books, whose example she was guided by and on whose help she always hoped - Schemamen Magdalena and Schema-Nun Euphrosyne. Every evening she asked for their prayers, and, as a faithful novice, she took the blessing of the abbess.

At Christmas 1997, as always, many spiritual children came to congratulate Mother Nikolai. She herself prepared a festive treat, invited everyone to a meal, but the guests began to notice that mother herself did not eat anything and looked very sick. As it turned out, she had a temperature of over forty, but she, overcoming herself, wanted to bring joy to her children. Mother Nikolai never recovered from this illness. On January 18, 1997, on Epiphany Christmas Eve, her soul departed to the Lord at the time when the festive Divine Liturgy was served in churches.

… Church historians are aware of the major Ural trial of 1932, in which about three hundred monastics, representatives of the clergy and lay believers were accused as defendants. The process had a characteristic name - "Historical Rot". But history cannot be deceived. Over time, she exposes any human lie and calls everything by its proper name. Time has shown that it was those who were called rotten that actually saved Russia from decay. Because they were, according to the testament of Christ, "the salt of the earth."

The material was prepared by the sisters of the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery, Yekaterinburg

We met schema nun Nikolai on July 19 (August 1), 1995. Here is how our monastic chronicle tells about it. “Today is the day of remembrance of St. Seraphim of Sarov, mentor and intercessor of all monastics. Is it not through the prayers of Father Seraphim that a wonderful meeting was sent to us today? Recently, Father Alexander told us that he confessed at home to an old nun who remembers the Abbess of our monastery, Magdalena (Dosmanova). This news made us very happy. After the service of Rev. Mother Lyubov unexpectedly found free time for Seraphim, and we went to the indicated address - to Kraulya Street. Of course, the upcoming meeting worried us. Is there really a living thread that connects times, and we will see the novice of the shegumeness Magdalene, who died about 60 years ago?

And so we call the apartment. A skinny woman opens. She introduced herself to us as Elena. (Only later, after a while, do we find out that she is a nun Sergius). Elena invited us into the room where Mother Nikolai was already waiting for us. We saw a short plump woman with a kind face and attentive lively eyes. She met us standing and, greeting us, bowed to the ground to our mother, like a novice novice. Mother Nicholas was wearing a black apostle and a dark dress. There are many icons and photographs in the room, among the icons there are old ones. We crossed ourselves on them, then we were invited to sit down. “Did you know Abbess Magdalene?” Mother Love asked. Matushka Nikolai answered in the voice of a schoolgirl: “I knew.” And she began to tell how, around 1930, when she was quite young, she came to the community of Mother Magdalene, how she learned obedience and humility, how she received a prediction from the far-sighted abbess that she was the only one of all who would live to see the revival of the Novo-Tikhvin Convent. Under Mother Magdalene, Galina Zasypkina (such is the worldly name of Mother Nicholas) stayed for several years. This community was essentially a small monastery. Mother abbess not only performed the rite of putting on a cassock over young Galina, but also formed in her novice the correct spiritual dispensation, patristic concepts of spiritual life.

Now, in front of us sat an 83-year-old nun (later we learn that she was already in the schema) with a rich life and spiritual experience. Lately, illness has prevented Matushka Nikolai from leaving the house and going to church, which, of course, she grieves for. But every day she proofreads the service at home. Her voice is thin, directly childish, the intonation is expressive, her speech abounds in folk, sometimes popular phrases. During the 2-3 hours that we spent with her, Mother Nicholas told us a lot of interesting things. We heard stories about three ascetics at once, about three women who dedicated their lives to God. First, Matushka Nikolay told us about the fasting woman Annushka (schema nun Euphrosyne). At the same time, it was felt that our narrator was in a hurry to fulfill her duty - to convey everything that she knows about the holy life of the ascetic, connected, albeit indirectly, with our monastery. Secondly, we began to discover the life of Matushka Nikolai herself, also extraordinarily interesting, confessional. And, of course, we learned a lot about the former abbess of our monastery, Schema Magdalena (Dosmanova). We wanted to listen again and again, but it was time to return to the monastery. Saying goodbye, Mother Nicholas invited us to visit her, which we were, of course, very happy about. She taught us to say goodbye in a monastic way, with the words: “Christ is in our midst!” and the answer: “Was, is and will be!”

This is how the acquaintance with Mother Nicholas is recorded in our chronicle, this is how this beneficial communication with the nun began. old times. We cherished him very much, but now we understand that we could get even more benefit from Matushka Nikolai, visit her even more often, ask questions and write down even more. No one thought that very soon, in a year and a half, Mother Nikolai would leave us for eternal life. We all gladly went to her, but it did not work out very often. Visiting Mother Nicholas was considered a great consolation. What did she comfort? Stories - about yourself, about meeting people "from books". It was extraordinary: here is a man sitting in front of you who communicated with so many people who are already glorified as saints!

Mother always told about herself with some self-abasement, which caused a sympathetic smile and helped to project her stories onto herself and take an example. For example, her story about the white suit was very vividly depicted in her imagination. “My aunt made me a white suit, I wanted to wear it ( without blessing - ed.) go out into the city, but did not have time to leave, mother Magdalene saw me. One look from the abbess was enough for a pure-hearted girl to repent of her predilection for worldly beauty. “I fell at her feet,” recalled Mother Nikolai, “and I didn’t wear this suit again.” The old nun told about her long-standing temptation with genuine contrition, as if this incident happened yesterday, and not sixty years ago. She unobtrusively revealed the art of monastic humility to us in entertaining stories. This is what wise teachers do.

By the way, Galina never studied at school. Parents, having learned that the new government canceled the lesson of the Law of God for children, decided to teach their daughter to read and write themselves. And as an adult, Galina entered paramedic courses and successfully completed them: her excellent memory helped her memorize lectures by ear. She knew by heart several akathists, the Psalter. She knew how to do a lot with her own hands: she wove a rosary, sewed, embroidered. Her explanations of how monastic vestments are cut and sewn were very timely for us. No less relevant for our monastery, which had just begun the revival, were the revelations of the old woman about the lessons of humility that she took from Abbess Magdalene. It was very difficult for young Galina to reconcile herself because of her too lively character, she was even nicknamed "Vereteshko". But later, this character and the developed internal law - always trust in God - saved her in the most difficult situations. There were many trials in her life - the front, captivity, work in hospitals.

And after the victory and demobilization, Galina entered another army - Christ's. Energetic, decisive, skillful, she was the right hand of the abbess of the Krasnogorsk convent in Zolotonosha, Cherkasy region.

In the 60s, after a new wave of persecution of believers, I had to return to Sverdlovsk, about which my mother was very sad. However, she continued her monastic lifestyle in the world. I traveled a lot to holy places. Having received from shiig. Magdalena's concept of the right spiritual path, Met. Nikolay tried all her life to consult with those who were also rooted in the patristic tradition. In her life there were conversations and meetings with many ascetics: St. Ignatius (Kevroletin), St. Sevastian Karaganda, St. Kuksha Odessa, archim. John (Krestyankin). She also knew the elders of the Glinsk Hermitage: Metropolitan Zinovy ​​(Mazhuga) of Tetritskaro, schiarch. Seraphim (Romantsova), Schema. Andronicus (Lukash). I corresponded with some of them. Her confessor for a long time was the schiarch. Ambrose (Ivanov) - one of the last inhabitants of the Optina Hermitage.

Having been brought up by such mentors, Ms. Nikolay held firmly to the Jesus Prayer. Sometimes, when we came to visit mother, we found her worldly children who listened to her with reverence. Matushka taught me to pray constantly, always with attention. She said that it was necessary to prepare for prayer, to concentrate so that there were no extraneous thoughts. She advised not to start a single business without prayer - even to prepare food with prayer. She considered it very important not to be late for the temple, not to miss the beginning of the service; taught to stand up to the end of the service, to stand without moving.

Mother Nicholas was also a hospitable, hospitable hostess. By the way, a lively character was visible even at her venerable age. So she began to bake pancakes to treat us on parental day and, indeed, immediately baked them. And in her declining years, she was characterized by childish simplicity, folk turns of speech, directness of judgments, which, however, did not exclude delicacy. Her advice was both motherly and monastically strict. To one novice, who was tormented by thoughts of leaving the monastery, Mother Nikolay gave advice that completely coincides with the patristic: “Tell yourself: tomorrow I will leave, but today I will still stay here.” Having asked one of us about the Day of the Angel and after listening to the answer, mother didactically remarked: “We must remember the calendar not according to the new, but according to the old style.” At the same time, some pain was felt in her voice from neglect of the canons of the Church. Our sister will remember this lesson forever. On another occasion, when one sister came to Mother Nicholas on Saturday evening, she received the guest with her usual warmth, but nevertheless made it clear her attitude to the service: “I didn’t think that someone would come now. After all, today is the all-night vigil!”

Mother Nicholas had genuine humility, contrition for sins. Every time during conversations, she sincerely asked: "I'll die, so pray for me, I'm a sinner." The fact that she is a schemer, we learned by accident. They examined the situation in the room and somewhere on the sidelines they saw an unfinished note about the health of "... schema nun Nikolai." Mother humbly hid her schema. It was a pity for her, like an embarrassed first-grader, when, to the question of our abbess about her rank (asked after our unintentional “reconnaissance”), mother Nikolai answered: “Nun”, and then, lowering her head low, quietly added: “Actually, in the schema ".

In early childhood, around 1918, a heavy life cross was predicted for Mother Nicholas. Schema-nun Euphrosyne, who knew the Zasypkin family closely, foresaw it. But the ascetic knew that “the cross of the Lord is a good yoke and a light burden, but with Jesus and on Calvary - paradise” (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov). Mother Nikolai also learned this holy truth from her own experience. She never complained about the sorrows she had suffered, she did not take credit for their patience, she lamented only about sins, which again and again gave us lessons on the main monastic work - repentance.

5/ January 18, 1997, on Epiphany Christmas Eve in the skete, the sisters gathered for a meal after the service. Suddenly, a sister came in, who was on duty at the telephone. She went up to Mother Lyubov and, kneeling down, whispered something to her. Matushka got up, interrupted the reading of the book, which always accompanies sisterly meals, and told everyone: “The schema nun Nikolai has died.” Her soul departed to the Lord at the time when the festive Divine Liturgy was celebrated in churches.

The Tsarebortsy write that schema-nun Nikolai (Groyan) mocked the Elder, beat him, tortured him, kept him locked up, “under arrest”, did not allow him to communicate with people, infringed on him in every possible way, and that she “is not a schema-nun at all, but an impostor”, etc. .d.

Below is an excerpt from the interview of Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) with Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) in January 2001, which was voiced on the Radonezh radio, and the transcript was even published on the Pravoslavie.ru website, as well as a documentary video refuting all these false statements tsarebortsev:

Archim. Tikhon: - Articles appeared in newspapers: they write that they infringe on you, do not allow you to communicate with people. This is true?

Elder Nikolai: - [And who let you in here? Isn't it mother?! Why don't they give?

Archim. Tikhon: - But they write this in the newspapers ...

Elder Nicholas: - No!] This is not true.

Archim. Tikhon: - They write that your cell-attendants: nun Mikhail and nun NIKOLA treat you very badly, that you don’t love them and would like to expel them ...

Elder Nikolai: - No, no, everything is fine.

Archim. Tikhon: - But they have been writing for more than a year ...

Elder Nikolai: - THIS IS DEMONS WRITTEN. Satan writes. Ai-yay-yay! .. BECAUSE THEY ARE NUNS! IS IT POSSIBLE TO SPEAK THAT TO NUNS?

Archim. Tikhon: - They write that they arranged a prison for you ...

Elder Nikolai: - WHAT A LIE. THE POOR, THEY SUFFER... ENEMY LIES. I worship Your Cross, Master, and I sing and glorify Your Holy Resurrection. “Guide my steps according to Thy Word, and let no iniquity possess me. Deliver me from human slander and I will keep Your commandments ... "

(Based on the materials of the broadcast on radio "Radonezh" dated January 30, 2001, the transcript of which is given on the Pravoslavie.ru website and in the newspaper "Russian Vestnik" No. 11 of 2003)

Hierodeacon Abel (Semyonov) - a penitent for regicide / a spiritual regicide (i.e., he is convinced that the sin of regicide supposedly lies on the Russian people, and that the Russian people should bring nationwide repentance for regicide - a sin that did not commit. This heresy of repentance in regicide / spiritual regicide carries the most terrible spiritual danger); anti-passportist-anti-TIN. Forbidden to serve as the Spiritual Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. In his brochure “Apology of the Church”, he made Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) an anti-passportist-anti-TIN, and since the documentary video recording of the conversation of Elder John (Krestyankin) cannot be refuted, Hierodeacon Abel (Semyonov) in his brochure “Apology of the Church” composed a delusional myth that Elder John (Krestyankin) did not go through the ordeal, and in hell he is scourged by demons because he cited a number of arguments in that video that speak against the fear of accepting a TIN. Anti-passportists-anti-TIN people also say that Patriarch Alexy II also did not go through the ordeal for the same reason - I, r.B. Nikolai heard this nonsense with his own ears at the end of 2010. The spiritual daughter of the Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) and his cell-attendant schema-nun Nikolai (Groyan) in their documentary memoirs about the Elder notes that her Spiritual Father was decisive opponent of the accusation of the Russian people in regicide:

“Penitently served “Prayer singing for the salvation of the Orthodox Fatherland of our Russian from the God-fighting yoke of the Jews and seduction near the coming Antichrist.” (Ed. RV. M. 2002). It was this rite that the Elder blessed. It is fundamentally different from subsequent, modified ones. Thoughts uncharacteristic of repentance were introduced there, but most importantly - words are included about the direct “guilt” of the Russian people in regicide, which is FALSE AND DOES NOT CORRESPOND TO SPIRITUAL TRUTH, and which Father Nikolai strongly denied: “THE RUSSIANS DID NOT KILL THE Tsar!”

(Groyan N., schema. Elder Nikolai (Guryanov). The king is coming ... M .: Russian Bulletin, 2011, p. 57–58).

Nun Nikolai (Safronova) shares the following “revelations” about Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) in a fervent voice in this film: “The first question he asked me was: “What passport? And how will you continue to live? And you don’t need to take passports” […] You can’t take this passport, you can’t take medical insurance ... a card - he said, you can’t take a pension green. He told me three times (!) that many believers in Russia would be caught by the "pension green" - that's what he told me - with a card. Further, the nun Nikolai (Safronova) narrates that the Elder Nikolai allegedly said that Russia lacks “repentance for the Tsar” - is it not for regicide??? All this, as we will see in this article, is fiction from start to finish. After all, there is no documentary video recording in which Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) himself would say this. This section of Galina Tsareva's film is boldly titled "Meeting with Father Nikolai Guryanov." But about reverence Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Grigory Rasputin, nun Nikolai (Safronov) said the truth– The elder really revered them.

Groyan, N., schema. The royal bird calls to God. M.: Russian Bulletin, 2009, p. 45–46.

The participants in this film, including Hieroschemamonk Raphael (Berestov), ​​are anti-INN activists, and claim that the cut-out fragment of the video recording of the conversation between Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) and Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) allegedly confirms their views and the myth that Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) allegedly negatively related to TIN. For the rest (except for the ideas of anti-passportism-anti-INNstva) the film “Heavenly Angel. The Word of Truth is very useful, it refutes all the myths about Elder Nicholas (but creates one myth - about the anti-INN of the Elder) - in particular, there is a documentary video in which Elder Nicholas (Guryanov) says that he is praying to the Friend of the Royal Family, the Holy New Martyr and Wonderworker Elder Grigory Rasputin (not canonized by the Church, but nevertheless Holy- locally. Plus, Rasputin is Holy with God - the Lord Himself revealed this fact to the clairvoyant Elder Nikolai, and thanks to this Divine Revelation, the Elder revered the Royal Family and Their Friend-Prayer Book Gregory as Saints all his life), at home the Elder prays to the icon painted by Sergey Arseniev in the style of realism , which depicts the Holy New Martyrs Elder Grigory Rasputin in a schema with Tsarevich Alexy in his arms, whom he frantically begged, saving his life from blood incoagulability. At the end of the video, Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) blesses this icon of a man who asked him questions. And the tsareborists create a false myth, suggesting that Elder Nikolai (Guryanov) supposedly never revered Grigory Rasputin - they say, these are “tsarebozhniks” (mainly his Spiritual daughter and cell-attendant schema-nun Nikolai (Groyan), whom the tsareborists attacked with particular malice) attributed to the veneration of the Elder Grigory Rasputin. And the myth about the negative attitude of Elder Nikolai to the passports of the Russian Federation was refuted in the quote given at the beginning just by schema-nun Nikolai (Groyan), whom the royal fighters do not like so much, attributing conceivable and unimaginable sins to her.

Not all anti-passportists-anti-TINs are regicide penitents (that is, spiritual regicides), but all regicide penitents are anti-passportists-anti-TINs. In general, the heresy of repentance in regicide (that is, spiritual regicide) is very closely connected with anti-passportism-anti-INNism. When I, R.B. Nikolai, who was an anti-passportist-anti-TIN until 2012, then almost fell into the heresy of repentance for regicide (that is, spiritual regicide) - I tried to go to the lawless rites of "nationwide" repentance for regicide, held in the village of Taininskoye near the monument to St. Blg. To Tsar-Redeemer Nicholas, mostly schismatics - mainly the false metropolitan Kornily (Radchenko), who leads a sect with the beautiful name "[Royal] Orthodox Church of Holy Russia" (the word "Royal" appeared in the name of the sect since 2013, so I took it into square brackets). But the Lord enlightened me through the prayers of my Heavenly Patrons - the Holy Blessed Tsar-Redeemer Nicholas and the Holy Righteous Pskovoe Lake Elder Nicholas (Guryanov). Since 2012, I have ceased to be an anti-TIN officer (I ceased to be an anti-passport officer at the turn of 2010-2011). It seems that he has never been a penitent for regicide, that is, a spiritual regicide, and since 2012 this terrible heresy, as well as Jewish heresies kingship with papism, I declared a mortal war (as well as anti-passportism with anti-INNism, and Krasheninnikov belief - the anti-Orthodox cult of Slava Krasheninnikov).

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/jurnal/society/arhimtihon_radonezh.htm

The fragment given in square brackets is taken from the Russian Vestnik newspaper (No. 11 of 2003). This fragment is not available on the Pravoslavie.ru website.

Those. Elder Nikolai Guryanov confirms that Tatiana Groyan is tonsured a monk with the name Nikolai. The monastic vows of the cell-attendants of Father Nikolai (Valentina Polishchuk and Tatiana Groyan) were performed by Hegumen Roman (Zagrebnev), who is the Dean of the Plyussky District of the Pskov Diocese. Father Roman traveled to Father Nikolai for many years, loved him with deep filial love, appreciated every word the Elder said. When about. Nikolai blessed his cell-attendants for secret (!) monasticism, Father Roman, considering this an obedience for himself, took the tonsure. This fact refutes false claims tsarebortsev like the "leading" sectologist "of the ROC MP" Alexandra Dvorkina: "Schema nun Nikolai (Tatiana Groyan), according to the testimony of the Archbishop of Pskov and Velikoluksky Eusebius, is not a schema nun at all, because she did not receive any blessing for tonsure from her ruling bishop, which is completely unthinkable."

CORRESPONDENCE

"IN PROTECTION OF BRIGHT MEMORY
OLD NICHOLAS GURYANOV"

The editorial office received a letter from a group of 13 Orthodox activists from Moscow "in response to another slanderous publication about Father Nikolai Guryanov in the Vera newspaper, 2003." The message is confused, immense, more than two newspaper pages. We handed it over to the author of that publication, Vera's own correspondent in St. Petersburg, Igor Vyazovsky, so that he would double-check the information contained in it and talk with people who knew Father Nikolai well.

Below we publish a letter (abbreviated, of course) with I. Vyazovsky's comments.

With deep pain, we read in your Orthodox newspaper an article by I. Vyazovsky “He returned love to us” ... We are the spiritual children of the priest, who traveled to him for many years and until the last day saw the priest and were in his cell. For the first time we came to the priest when he was still in power and he had no cell attendants, although there were many who wanted to take cells. But among many, the priest himself chose schema nun Joanna (Valentina Vasilievna Poleshchuk) and schema nun Nikolai (Tatiana Ivanovna Groyan), blessed them for monastic vows in the mantle and schema, and was their godparent. And he did not let them go in recent years, when, slandered and slandered, they asked him to let them go in order to appease the anger of the evil ones, who did not want to see them near the elder. On the contrary, the father with tears asked the mothers not to leave him to the end and to bear the heavy cross of misunderstanding and envy.

When we came to the priest, we fell into an atmosphere of amazing mutual love and warmth (which is also evidenced by the surviving videos). Batiushka was always cleanly dressed and well-groomed, especially when he was very seriously ill. They fed the priest deliciously, but he himself ate little, he treated visitors more, and this gave him great joy. Mothers, on the other hand, fulfilled all the father’s wishes with joy (...)

The younger cell attendant, schema nun Nikolai (Tatiana Groyan), is a philologist by education, a graduate of Moscow State University, a translator. Many of us knew her long before she became a cell attendant at Batiushka's. Under the spiritual guidance of the priest, with his blessing and prayers, she wrote several books that preceded the canonization of the Royal Family, Elder Lavrenty of Chernigov, Metropolitan Macarius (Nevsky), as well as about the locally revered holy Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Elder Grigory Rasputin. This is evidenced by the documentary videos "Word of Truth" and "Man of God", released recently by "Russian Messenger" and the studio "Trinity" (...)

Everyone who knew the priest closely knew the reverent veneration of them as saints, the blessed Tsar John the Terrible and the great elder Gregory the New, to whose glorification the priest attached special importance. In the video film “The Word of Truth”, the father, with regret and bitterness, told the director Viktor Ryzhko, who was showing the icon of St. Gregory the New to the father, that he needed to distribute the icon and pray, but Russia was late (...)

Therefore, the accusations against the cell-attendants of self-will are completely incomprehensible, because. everything they did, they did with the blessing of the elder Father Nikolai (Guryanov), their spiritual father, and by obedience. These were not some strange "visions" of cell attendants, which the author Vyazovsky writes about. It was the work of the whole life of the father.

There was a flood of false letters and accusations in all possible instances against the cell attendants: they do not feed, they beat, they mock, they keep them in custody. Rumors spread with incredible speed everywhere. The Orthodox, with trembling hands, shoved packets of food into the cell-attendants who refused to take them (there was nowhere to put them), looked with horror at the “monstrous cell-attendants”. Groups were created "for the release of the father", because. Father Paisius (Gidrash) at that time in the church on the island prayed intensely “for the release of the imprisoned Archpriest Nikolai” and openly set people against the cell-attendants. And, finally, they began to force their way into the father's house. The most active "liberators" of the priest were "a group of people from Tyumen" (...).

With the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch, in order to investigate all this, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) came to the island to the father, who spoke privately with the father to find out the true state of affairs. Father Nikolai denied all the accusations against the cell attendants (...), and also “simply begged us,” Father Tikhon said, “not to touch or change anything in his life,” i.e. not to change, as suggested, cell attendants, and leave him on the island, and not take him to the monastery. “These are people dear and close to me, they will stay with me,” the priest said to Archimandrite Tikhon. The elder said the same words to Bishop Eusebius.

After the dormition of the father, the same people “from Tyumen” began to spread another slander: they killed, poisoned, pumped out blood, dug up the grave, stole the body, mocked, crucified in the forest. (...) And for the "proof" of all these insanities, the slanderers demand only one thing: exhumation, i.e. desecration of the relics of the great elder.

But back to I. Vyazovsky's article. The author is greatly jarred by the "revelations" of some of the spiritual children of Father Nikolai, i.e. those who constantly communicated with the priest. But he does not have any doubts about the truth of "a dream seen by one woman on the ninth day after the death of the father" (neither name nor surname is indicated). This strange "dream", each time told differently, denigrates the bright memory of the priest (...), dreams are an indefinite thing, and even more so the author of the article should not have misled his readers with such "strange", at least , "facts" that the priest did not go through the ordeal because of spiritual children ... this is a blasphemy against Orthodoxy (...).

(...) On the island, purposefully or out of ignorance (God knows!) the author of the article picks up and blows a fire from “small flashes of flame” of lies found near the great slandered spirit-bearing elder Nikolai. The article is full of hidden allusions, omissions and secret threats against the same poor cell-attendants whom the author did not even see in his eyes.

Poor author! The article says: “father accepted death”, “father could have lived longer”. Yes, fellow author! If it weren’t for a powerful stream of slander, not for numerous commissions that made the priest suffer both for his slandered Fatherland and for the slandered people close to him, the cell attendants, the priest would have lived many more years without getting sick, making us happy.

(...) It is unfortunate that your Orthodox newspaper unknowingly spreads this slander, although the Prosecutor General’s Office repeatedly answers about the “absence of a crime event”, because “it was established that Elder Nikolai died on 24.08.2002 due to advanced age and age-related diseases ". And your publications give grounds to sue the authors of slanderous fabrications even before the Last Judgment of God, but mothers-cell-attendants endure everything and forgive everyone in a Christian way (...). After all, God is betrayed not only by silence, but also by lies.

Sacrilege over the relics of the priest, to which such publications call, Russia and the Orthodox Church will not allow!

Signatures

Elder Nicholas is betrayed by a lie

Having recently entered the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, I heard the following words addressed to me: “Why are you writing something else? In your film Quiet Light, you showed the people's true reverence for Batiushka Nikolai (Guryanov) and the environment that surrounded the elder in the last years of his life. Those Orthodox who are now speaking on behalf of Father Nicholas for the canonization of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Grigory Rasputin, only live due to the fact that attention is paid to them, due to the fact that they are opposed. They are like a soap bubble that bursts when it is not held back by external pressure. No need to write...

If I had my way, I would not write anymore. But the Lord gives new facts, acquaintances, video recordings, and now they have reached our newspaper: these people did not like how the events that took place on Zalit Island on the anniversary of the elder's assumption were described. Again, a persistent habit works: they and only they decide who will go to the priest (there were few of them), and who, shedding tears, will pray at the gate, listen to the "prophetic instructions" of Valentina's cell attendant and depart in sorrow and sadness. "Whoever is not with us is against us!"

"Ours are not ours"

Let's try to understand first the merits of the accusations brought against the newspaper publication. Reading the publication with an open mind, we find that:

1. In the dream retold at the beginning of the publication, it does not say that the priest "did not go through the ordeals." The dream testifies that we do not help the priest with our insubordination and squabbling, but upset him. He said more than once: “I am responsible for all of you before God.”

3. There are absolutely no "hidden hints, innuendos and secret threats against poor cell-attendants" in the essay. Moreover, all talk about them is in the past tense, because. now, after the death of the father, these women are of no interest to the heroes of the publication.

One can continue the list of ridiculous attacks, but those who wish can simply re-read the publication in the newspaper and decide for themselves how appropriate the peremptory tone of the accusations is.

However, let us pay attention to one serious substitution, a red thread running through the entire letter to the editor. In almost every paragraph of the petition, the authors slyly “substitute” the name of the priest to protect the “poor cell-attendants”. Any criticism of the aunts immediately becomes a "slander" on Father Nicholas and further - a blasphemy against Orthodoxy.

That is why we are forced to return to the question of who these cell-attendants from Zalit Island are.

The path to the cells

How did Father Nikolai “choose schema nun Joanna and schema nun Nikolai”? Mid 1980s. Father Nikolai was not yet widely known, but in church circles they had already heard about him. Valentina Poleshchuk also heard about him. She then lived in Vyritsa, before that she was a cell-attendant for a priest. But by that time, it so happened that the house burned down, the priest departed for another world - Valentina remained out of work. Taking her beloved poodle, she came to the island. She settled with mother Nilla, then still healthy and not bedridden. One could get to Father Nicholas only by taking a blessing from Mother Anastasia, the altar girl in the church. Batiushka was still strong and took care of himself. The women brought him food. Asked to fulfill the order once or twice, Valentina took this matter into her own hands and gradually became a regular in Fr Nikolai's house. Soon such situations became not uncommon when people turn to the priest, and she is right there, intercepting the question, interrupting, teaching. The old man is nearby, and she speaks her own!

A quite reasonable question may arise here: why didn’t the elder himself see who he allowed to reach him?

Here is what the nun Markela answered me (Vera wrote about how Fr. Nikolai blessed mother Markela for monasticism and the construction of a convent in Kamchatka): temptation. And they said to the priest: “Father, well, take her away!” And he answered: “It can bring a lot of trouble. I'd rather be patient!" And endured until his death.

Identification of "superfluous"

Valentina's behavioral style can be described as follows - open impudence. Once in the house to Fr. Nikolai, she gradually began to "cut off" access to Fr. Nikolai for people close to him. One of the first to be cut back was Valentina Alekseevna Pisareva. It was to her house that the suffering and burdened from all over Russia called. And this woman for many, many years was that reliable link that connected people with the elder. Once Valentina Alekseevna said to Father Nikolai: “Father, I won’t go to you anymore! Well, why am I just loading and loading you!?” - “Go, Valyushka! Go, Valyushka! This became his blessing to Valentina Alekseevna. The father himself said to Valentina Alekseevna more than once: “Valyusha, you come, come to me! After the death of my mother, you are the only relative left for me.

The future cell-attendant, of course, could not bear this. Access for Valentina Alekseevna to the elder was closed. Thus, the statement from the letter that Father Nikolai let in “whom he will bless, the elder, and not the cell-attendants” is, to put it mildly, not entirely true. For the last two or three years before the death of the father, Valentina Alekseevna cried a lot of tears ... She would come with a fish, with baked bread, stand at the gate, crying ... But the elder simply could not know about this, although, most likely, he foresaw this with his own spiritual gaze, but so humbly and carried the cross from "his family."

Lots of noise

In my essay from Zalit Island, I cited some of the stories I heard from the spiritual children of Father Nicholas, conveyed their doubts and anxieties. Only a small part. And who will answer people to such indignations: “The priest went to the Lord - why was there no priest nearby!? Why wasn't Father Paisia ​​invited!? At the departure of the soul, the cell-attendants read, but where was the priest!? Those who needed to be invited first to the elder - the doctor and the priest - were not around!”

And there were other statements, but I have not heard from anyone that someone is for the exhumation of the remains of Father Nicholas. The hierarch and the prosecutor's office have now definitely spoken out on this subject. Therefore, the cry raised by this group of “admirers” of Fr Nikolai cannot be perceived otherwise than as a desire to once again declare oneself, to “light up”, to deceive one’s own affairs against the backdrop of the bright name of Fr Nikolai (otherwise who will notice!) And these are attempts to commercially assimilate the “right to the name” of Father Nicholas, and to consolidate among the Orthodox public the image of an old man - a fighter for the veneration of Rasputin ... By the way, the authors of the letter call Rasputin a “locally venerated saint” - and this is again a distortion. Where, in what holy calendars - whether general church or diocesan - will we meet this name, where, finally, is the decision on canonization when it took place?

All this talk about the holiness of Rasputin as a decided fact of the life of the Russian Orthodox Church is the fruit of the arbitrariness of the irrepressible zealots of Orthodoxy. If it weren’t for the self-made attempts of the cell-attendants to decide for the elder who he should communicate with and with whom not, there would, perhaps, not be accusations of the murder of Father Nicholas, coming from the same, in essence, “zealots” of the priest from Tyumen, as and signatories from Moscow.

Again about Rasputin, and not only...

Let us continue, however, about the cell attendants. The "youngest" of them - Tatyana Grayan - is a person of a different warehouse. She always acts more subtly. It appeared on the island after the mid-90s. I quickly found a common language with Valentina and gradually became a leader. “She wrote several books that preceded the canonization of the Royal Family, Elder Lavrenty of Chernigov, Metropolitan Macarius (Nevsky), as well as about the locally revered holy Tsar John the Terrible and Elder Grigory Rasputin ...” Let's keep silent about the personal contribution of Tatyana Grayan to the canonization of the Royal Family. The main thing is that the source of unprecedented activity around the name of Rasputin on Zalit Island is named in the letter.

We are offered, based on the documentary footage of the video films "Word of Truth" and "Man of God", to make sure that Father Nikolai blesses Tatyana Grayan to write a book about Rasputin, and even more so "spiritually directs" this process! There is no such place on the film! There are shots where Tatyana Grayan says: "Father, here is a book about Grigory Rasputin ... Let me read it to you." She did not read her philological reflections (with which most of the book is full) about eldership, holiness, etc., through which it is very difficult to trace the thought, since the cell-attendant, taking some fact from his life to confirm Rasputin's holiness, cites as there would be many sayings of the holy fathers in support of it. And one gets the impression that all of them, including Father John of Kronstadt, are only talking about the holiness of Rasputin. Tatyana Grayan reads to Father Nicholas the place where it is said about the murder of Rasputin. The priest, who felt sorry for even a small insect, and even more so for a person, crosses himself, worries and repeats: “Save him, Lord!” This scene is probably considered by the authors of the letter as a fact of blessing and veneration of Father Nikolai Grigory Rasputin.

Here, as a specialist who has worked on TV for ten years and made more than one film, I will allow myself to make a few remarks. Yes, the effectiveness of the frame is extremely high - it seems, well, the person says, people are standing nearby, unwitting witnesses, what questions can there be? But someone who imagines the process of editing and scoring a tape cannot fail to have them. So let me be careful about using films as evidence in serious matters. Evidence can only be accepted objective, from independent, unbiased sources. It is hardly possible to classify the film by Viktor Ryzhko, whose signature is also under this apologetic letter to the editor in relation to Rasputin, to those on the Rasputin problem.

false mirror

The writers of the letter tend to distrust dreams. So they say. However, it is strange, because it is precisely on the basis of the dream of a certain r.B. Mary from St. Petersburg was painted an "icon" of the priest, on which the same Grigory Rasputin again fell. It turns out that the "admirers" of the elder have already arrogated to themselves (and not to the spirit-bearing elders) the right to choose dreams "bad" and "good"?

And what other powers have the “cell attendants” appropriated to themselves? After the father died, both the gate and the doors were opened - everything. And Valentina began to anoint everyone! She anointed and prophesied - she entered the role of an old woman. And Tatyana Grayan with Zhanna Bichevskaya began to speak to the audience. The theme is still the same: first, memories of Father Nicholas, and then a soft transition to Rasputin and Tsar Ivan the Terrible. It was precisely this activity of theirs that Leonid Dvorkin, the chief specialist on sects in the Russian Orthodox Church, spoke of, calling it sectarian.

Forgive me, a sinner, brothers and sisters, if I offended anyone with a careless word. Let us keep in our souls what the Elder Father Nikolay gave us, without adding our own fabrications to it.

I. VYAZOVSKY