The study and understanding of the feat of the new martyrs and confessors of Russia in the activities of the synodal commission for the canonization of saints. On the Moral Significance of the Feat of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia for the Education of Youth

ICON OF ST. TIKHON PATRIARCH OF ALL-RUSSIAN

ICON OF THE HOLY NEW MARTYRS AND Confessors of Russia

ICON WITH THE CATHEDRAL OF THE KEMEROVSK SAINTS

THE FEAT OF THE NEW RUSSIAN MARTYRS AND CONFESSIONERS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE CHURCH. At the end of the second Christian millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church brings to Christ the fruit of her Calvary suffering - a great host of holy martyrs and confessors of Russia of the 20th century. A thousand years ago Ancient Russia accepted the teachings of Christ. Since then, the Russian Orthodox Church has shone with the deeds of saints, saints and righteous. The Church in many periods of her history endures completely open sorrows and persecutions, and martyrdom her best servants. The Lord strengthened His disciples, assuring them that if people persecuted them and even killed them, they would never be able to harm their souls (Matthew 10:28). And the faith of the ancient Church in these words of the Lord was very strong. This helped Christians to face torment courageously. These invincible warriors of faith claimed that they did not feel despair before death. On the contrary, they greeted her calmly, with inexpressible inner joy and hope. Living in the name of Christ, with an unshakable faith in incorruptibility and eternity, they wished with all their hearts to accept death for Christ. The entire history of the Church was built on exploits. Martyrdom was of great importance for the establishment of the Church of Christ in the world. The 20th century for Russia was the era of martyrs and confessors. The Russian Church has endured unprecedented persecution raised by the theomachists against the faith of Christ. Many thousands of hierarchs, clergymen, monastics, and laity glorified the Lord with their martyrdom, enduring suffering and deprivation without complaint in camps, prisons, and exile. They died with faith, with prayer, with repentance on their lips and in their hearts. They were killed as a symbol of Orthodox Russia. The head of the host of Russian martyrs and confessors for the faith of Christ was the holy Patriarch Tikhon, who, characterizing this era, wrote that now the Holy Orthodox Church of Christ in the Russian land is going through a difficult time: the open and secret enemies of this truth have raised persecution against the truth of Christ and are striving to to destroy the cause of Christ... And if it becomes necessary to suffer for the cause of Christ, we call you, beloved children of the Church, we call you to these sufferings together with us with the words of the holy apostle: “Who will separate us from the love of God: sorrow, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). Many of those who suffered for their faith in the 20th century, zealous for piety, wished to live at a time when fidelity to Christ was sealed with martyrdom. The Holy Patriarch - Confessor Tikhon wrote: “... If the Lord sends a test of persecution, bonds, torment and even death, we will patiently endure everything, believing that it will be done with us not without the will of God, and our feat will not remain fruitless, like how the sufferings of the Christian martyrs subdued the world to the teachings of Christ.” The aspirations of the Confessor of the Faith, St. Tikhon, have come true - the Russian Orthodox Church is now being revived on the blood of the martyrs. The Holy Church, from the beginning placing its hope in the prayerful intercession of His saints before the Throne of the Lord of Glory, with conciliar reason bears witness to the appearance in its depths of a great host of new martyrs and confessors of Russia, who suffered in the 20th century. God-loving fullness of Russian Orthodox Church reverently preserves the holy memory of life, the exploits of confession of the holy faith and the martyrdom of hierarchs, clergy, monastics and laity, who, together with the Royal Family, testified during the persecution of their faith, hope and love for Christ and His Holy Church even unto death and left about themselves for the future to generations of Christians a testimony that if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord (Rom. 14:8). Enduring great sorrows, they kept the peace of Christ in their hearts, and became lamps of faith for the people who came into contact with them. They glorified the Lord with their deeds. Having loved Him and His saving commandments with all their hearts, with all their thoughts, with all their strength, they were pillars of the faith of the holy Church. The feat of the martyrs and confessors strengthened the Church, becoming its firm foundation. The fire of repression not only failed to destroy Orthodoxy, but, on the contrary, became the crucible in which the Russian Church was cleansed of sinful laxity, the hearts of her faithful children were hardened, their hope in the One God who conquered death and gave everyone the hope of Resurrection became unshakable and firm. The feat of the New Martyrs and Confessors makes it possible for everyone today to see that the spiritual world exists and that the spiritual world is more important than the material one. That the soul is dearer than the whole world. The very fact of martyrdom, as it were, lifts the veil from all events and reveals the essence: it reminds that trials come when a person cannot live in conscience and truth, cannot be just an honest citizen, a warrior faithful to his oath, cannot but be a traitor to all - if he is not a Christian. The life of the new Russian martyrs testifies that we must trust God and know that He will not leave His own. That we should no longer prepare for torture, not for hunger, or anything like that, but we must prepare spiritually and morally - how to save our soul and our face ( God's image in man) unclouded. Glorifying the feat of the New Martyrs, the Russian Orthodox Church hopes for their intercession before God. And now, in the revealed history of the Russian Church of the 20th century, the feat of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers, New Martyrs and Confessors is forever captured, which teaches us strict faith and serves as a saving lesson for us.

75 years ago, our Fatherland was swept by a wave of mass repressions carried out by the authorities against their own citizens. Only at the Butovo NKVD training ground - the largest burial place in Moscow and the region for the victims of Soviet terror - more than 20 thousand people were buried, sentenced to death, most often on trumped-up charges. Thousands of victims of this tragic period Orthodox people- men and women, laity, monastics, clergy, who suffered for their faithfulness to Christ. In 1937, the largest number of executions took place precisely in December: in this last month For years, the conveyor of death, day after day, carried away hundreds of victims. December 11 was the day of the martyrdom of one of the most authoritative hierarchs of the Russian Church, who turned out to be the oldest among those sentenced to death by the NKVD in - 82-year-old.

Many of the victims of the repressions of that time are now glorified by the Church in the host of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Their feat was of particular importance for the preservation Orthodox faith in Russia and for its spiritual revival.

What moral lesson should we who live today learn from this chapter of Church history? In what way are we called to imitate the new martyrs?

No matter how hard they tried for decades to tear the people away from the Church, it did not succeed. Yes, this is impossible. After all, believers are part of the people, and they shared the same fate that was destined for the majority of the population. But the believers drank the pure cup of sorrow. All those who had even a little relation to the Church and religion were among the politically unreliable "elements" and therefore were the first in a series of candidates for repression.

The Church immediately felt the onset of a new tragic era in Russian history. Already at the beginning of 1918, when alone, according to A.I. Solzhenitsyn, perceived “changes” with puppyish joy, while others were almost sure that everything was about to return “to normal”, at the All-Russian Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, a definition “On measures caused by the ongoing persecution of the Orthodox Church” was adopted. The title of the document speaks for itself.

More than half a century has passed since the repressions. Echoes of those tragic events are still preserved in the memory of the older generation. Massacres against dissidents, and above all believers, took place not only in prison dungeons, but also in broad daylight, without trial or investigation.

The life and deeds of the new martyrs for our contemporaries are a reality that can be studied or investigated for certain from epistolary and archival documents, eyewitness accounts. We know exactly how they were oppressed, how they were arrested, tortured, tried, and dealt with. And, passing through such a crucible of trials, they did not break.

It seems that for any person, contact with humiliation, suffering, torment, waiting for the hour of death does not proceed painlessly or impassively. At such moments, even people of a holy life are worried, saying modern language, stress. The lives of many saints testify to this. But, being deeply believing people devoted to God, as in ancient times, in the moment of trials they found strength and consolation in prayer. It is unlikely that our situation today can be close to that tragic time, but there are plenty of difficulties for believers today, and stress today for various reasons is an inevitable companion of even a modern believer. However, the means of spiritual healing remains the same as before - this is grace, which is given to a person through firm faith and continuous hope in God's mercy, as well as a simple and unsophisticated appeal to the Creator of everyone and everything.

At the end of 2010, the Lestvitsa Center for Orthodox Culture, together with the State Archives of the Dnepropetrovsk Region, organized the exhibition “Love is greater than life”, dedicated to the memory of the repressed clergy. With the help of archival documents, the townspeople were given the opportunity to expand their understanding of that difficult time, to study and comprehend the events of the past century in more depth and thus draw public attention to the martyr's and confessional feat.

Why did we do it? In order not to repeat bitter mistakes, the price of which is human life, human memory must store not only the joyful moments of life, but also the sad pages of past years. It should also be noted that this exposition caused a wide positive response in society: many residents of the region visited it, some of them found their relatives among hundreds of names...

The feat of the New Martyrs and Confessors is a great force that is able to revive and strengthen not only our church life, the life of the Orthodox Church of the 21st century, but also the life of our entire people. This feat again and again helps to understand everyone who is ready to understand and hear that true freedom is found in truth, and rejecting the truth, it is impossible to gain freedom.

This year, on December 3, the Dnepropetrovsk diocese prayerfully honored the memory of the Yekaterinoslav Bishop-Martyr Macarius (Karmazin). 75 years ago, the heart of the righteous man stopped beating: he was shot. But today we glorify him as the winner in that terrible battle. Although the tormentors believed that he was defeated; They tried to erase the memory of him, as well as of all the confessors of Christ, from the pages of the souls of people who knew and loved him, and they tried to tarnish his good name with false protocols of interrogations, fabrications of investigators who accused him, along with his associates, of political crimes. But we know that Orthodox confessors gave their lives not for political convictions, but for Christ, for truth and for true freedom.

The example of confessors for the faith of Christ is extremely important for modern man, surrounded by often false ideas about life, as it helps to understand the obvious truth: no matter how valuable earthly life is, in all cases it is no more valuable than eternity. Remembering the whole host of holy new martyrs, each person thereby honors the memory of those who remained faithful to the truth and through this remained free from the most terrible and difficult external circumstances of life.

The tragic events of the 20th century once again remind us that the Church of Christ has been in a state of persecution throughout its history. We must remember this and not be complacent, but be ready at any moment to testify to our faith by giving up comfort, stability, and even at the cost of our lives.

When we turn our gaze to this historical period, it seems to many that in the conditions of persecution it is easier to decide, but in fact this is not so. After all, the persecutors often offered some kind of compromise, and under external pressure, a person was constantly forced to make a choice. And now we often show cowardice and do not always consistently and loudly defend the Church from attacks, how much more difficult it is to do this when the well-being and life of your loved ones are placed on one of the scales!

Another important lesson is the prioritization of our lives. After all, the main thing that people lived in conditions of persecution was the opportunity to be with Christ. Temples were closed, and some people even ordered the funeral of themselves, realizing that the end of their earthly life would not be accompanied by church prayer. Each of us should ask ourselves: how much do we value the opportunity to go to church to confess, to take communion? After all, this is a real miracle that takes place in our lives - confession, communion.

The main example that the new martyrs left for our and future generations is to follow Christ even when all external conditions do not contribute to this.

The experience of the Orthodox Church over the course of two millennia bears witness: drops of Christian martyrdom for the confession of faith, like wheat seeds thrown into rich soil, yield a bountiful harvest. Where there were persecutions, the Church grew and strengthened in spirit. Why does the physical destruction of Christians lead to an increase in their number later? What is the reason for such a paradox?

Human life has always been the highest value in the life of society. And for what can a person sacrifice his life? Not at all for the sake of comfort, pleasure, money, power, pleasures of the flesh. On the contrary: life is valued most often by those who love the aforementioned in life. But when they die, their descendants usually do not remember them ... Only those who lived not for themselves, but for the sake of other people remain in memory.

The Gospel of John conveys the words of Christ: “There is no greater love than a man who lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). We have heard these words of Christ many times. They touch the soul, but do we live like this? Do we have the determination to sacrifice the sweetness of life for the sake of confession of faith? But the New Martyrs of Russia followed the Lord in His death on the cross for human sins. They shared the cross with the Savior and were taken up by Him to heaven. And this is the great preaching of Orthodoxy. Life can be sacrificed only for the sake of the most valuable thing in the world - for the sake of love. Out of love for fallen man, Christ voluntarily accepted martyrdom, out of love for his people, the new martyrs did not betray the faith and went to Golgotha. Seeing such a feat, many of our compatriots returned to the saving faith of their fathers.

I believe, in order to become worthy of the sacrifice that our new martyrs made for us, we should think about whether we live according to Christ's commandments or just pretend that we are Orthodox. Each of us knows the answer in the depths of our conscience ... So, Lord, give us to repent and become true Christians, what our brothers who followed Christ were, God give us the strength to die daily, giving love and joy to others, God grant us to die for the sake of sin to be resurrected for eternal life.

Orthodoxy has for centuries been the moral foundation of the people, the living law by which they were guided. The denial of this moral basis of being by a part of society led to its decomposition. People, captured by the imaginary external renewal brought by the revolution, forgot and renounced the call of Christ to genuine, internal renewal, without which it is impossible to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, striving to live according to the lusts of the flesh, to one’s own pleasure, “like everyone else.” Those who lived differently, who kept the truth of God, trusting their lives with it, were a living reproach to the majority, who preferred a different path. That is why they were doomed to physical destruction. I immediately recall the question of the Grand Inquisitor addressed to the Prisoner from the novel The Brothers Karamazov: “Why did You come to disturb us?”

Tens, hundreds of thousands of people, including Orthodox bishops, priests, monastics and ordinary believers, received the crown of martyrdom. It is important and dear to us that the new martyrs are prayer books for us before the Lord. But, being our older contemporaries - many of them suffered already in the 50-60s of the last century - with their Christian courage they teach us, people of the 21st century, a great lesson of true faith and piety, they set a certain standard of moral height, which is achievable and in our time.

In the Gospel, the Savior, addressing His disciples, reminds them: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its potency, how will you make it salty? She is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out to be trampled by people ”(Matt. 5: 13). Enduring suffering, going to death, the martyrs and confessors remembered these words. Their example encourages us today to be that same evangelical "salt", not to be ashamed of our faith in conditions when completely different values ​​dominate in society; no matter what, preach Christ with your whole life.

Report of the Deputy Head of the Department recent history of the Russian Orthodox Church, Priest Alexander Mazyrin, made by him at the "Unity of the Church and the People: Lessons of the Past and Problems of the Present", dedicated to the Year of Russian History (May 18-19, 2012).

The year 2012 is significant for many anniversaries in national history. 400th anniversary of the expulsion of the Poles and traitors from Moscow and overcoming the Troubles of the 17th century, the 200th anniversary of the repulse of the invasion of the "Gauls and the Twelver Language". These events are among the most glorious pages in the history of the Russian State, when the unity of the Orthodox people ensured great victories for them. At the same time, less round dates of events that cause grief also occur in the same year. 775 years ago, a heavy Mongol-Tatar yoke began in Russia, when the Russian people, disunited in their destinies, could not give a proper rebuff to the eastern conquerors. And, perhaps, the most gloomy events took place in Russia 75 years ago, which in 1937 became the apotheosis of a new yoke, when the ruling power unleashed the most cruel terror on its people, the like of which was not in Russian history. According to the statistics of the NKVD, there were about 700,000 people who were shot alone according to sentences during the Great Terror of 1937-1938. One may, of course, ask, why remember this in the Year of Russian History, the year of celebration of our great victories? The answer is simple, although, perhaps, unexpected for some: in the bloody 1937, we also had a great Victory in Russia.

The explanation for this can be seen in the words of one of those shot that year, Metropolitan Joseph (Petrov) of Petrograd: “The death of martyrs for the Church is a victory over violence, not a defeat.” Even earlier in the history of the Church this idea was expressed by the Christian apologist Tertullian. “We win when we are killed,” he addressed pagan Roman rulers in the 3rd century. “The more you destroy us, the more we multiply; the blood of Christians is seed” (“Apology”, ch. 50). Obviously, no one would think of calling the “Lenin guards” Bukharin, Kamenev, Zinoviev or the “Stalinist people’s commissars” Yagoda and Yezhov, the inspirers and conductors of the Bolshevik terror, who became its victims in the late 1930s, the winners. Broken and crushed by the system they themselves built, humiliatingly repenting before "comrade" Stalin for evading the "general line of the party", they disgusted both "their own" and "strangers". The Christian martyrs, whose names constituted the eternal glory of the Church, are another matter. Over the past 20 plus years, the Russian Church has glorified more than 1,700 New Martyrs and Confessors by name. And this is only a small part of those who immaculately suffered for Christ during the period of Bolshevik persecution, the total number of which many times exceeded the number of ascetics of the era of Holy Russia. We can say that spiritually, in terms of the number of revealed saints, the years of the "Great Terror" became the time of the highest prosperity for the Russian Church, and therefore for Russia. This gives grounds to talk about our Victory in 1937.

Outwardly, however, as a result of Stalinist persecution, the Russian Church has become smaller than ever. By the beginning of World War II, only four bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church remained in the cathedras throughout the entire territory of the USSR: metropolitans and one vicar each. A decade earlier, there were about two hundred, that is, 50 times more. Of the approximately 50 thousand churches that the Russian Orthodox Church had before the revolution, by the end of the 1930s, several hundred remained unclosed (officially - several thousand, but in most of them there were no services, because there was no one to serve because of terror). “As a result of our operational measures,” Yezhov boasted to Stalin at the end of 1937, “the episcopate of the Orthodox Church was almost completely liquidated, which to a large extent weakened and disorganized the church.”

The “achievement” of the theomachists could also include the fact that as a result of their purposeful policy, which was carried out from the beginning of the 1920s, the Russian Church underwent a number of divisions. Ukrainian "self-consecrated", Renovationists, Gregorians and a number of other less significant schisms fell away from church unity. Since the late 1920s, a strong “right opposition” to the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), has appeared in the Patriarchal Church itself since the late 1920s, at the same time it interrupted administrative unity with the Moscow Patriarchate. “You divided the whole people into warring camps and plunged them into fratricide unprecedented in cruelty,” he denounced the so-called “people’s commissars” in 1918. Divisions in the people were followed by divisions in the Church. The God-fighting authorities understood that it was easier to destroy the Church in parts, therefore, in every possible way provoked internal disorganizations in it. Before the church consciousness, such a malicious policy of power raised questions: how to preserve the unity of the Church and what should underlie this unity.

One of the few Russian foreign apologists of the Moscow Patriarchate at that time, Professor I.A. Stratonov put forward the following theory on this score: “The unity of the Church is represented by a single church authority. Unity with the Church is protected only by obedience to this authority. In this respect, in order to avoid ecclesiastical anarchy, the conscience of a person, a member of the Church, is bound. No position in the Church of an individual releases him from the obligation to submit to ecclesiastical authority and only aggravates it. The idea, in general, is understandable and captivating in its simplicity. As a matter of fact, the Roman Catholic Church has been building its ecclesiology for many centuries on this principle - a single ecclesiastical authority.

In 1931, Metropolitan Sergius published in a small theological treatise “The Relationship of the Church to Separated Societies,” in which, in particular, he wrote: “The Renovationist and Grigorievsk and similar modern hierarchies undoubtedly originate from Orthodox bishops; the very production of ordination does not in most cases raise any particular objections. However, after the prohibition imposed on the leaders of the new schism, we recognize these hierarchies as graceless and their sacraments invalid (except for baptism). […] The foreign schisms are in the same position, for example. Karlovatsky". Whom Metropolitan Sergius included in the graceless “modern hierarchies” like the Renovationists and Grigorievites can be understood from the definition of his Synod adopted in July 1929. In this definition, among the “schismatics” were mentioned “followers of the former Metropolitan of Leningrad Joseph [Petrovs], the former Bishop of Gdov Dimitry [Lubimov], the former Bishop of Urazov Alexy [Buy]”, that is, those who were then generally called “Josephites”. The imposition of a ban on them from the priestly service, according to Metropolitan Sergius, automatically made their sacred rites invalid (except for baptism), that is, it rejected them not only from administrative, but also from grace-filled church unity.

The problem, however, was that in the realities of that time, the highest church authority in the person of Metropolitan Sergius was far from free in imposing canonical bans. So, in December 1927, the head of the 6th department of the Secret Department of the OGPU (responsible for the fight against the "church counter-revolution") E.A. Tuchkov asked to inform his Leningrad "comrades" (in a top secret order, of course): "We will influence Sergius so that he forbids some opposition [ion] bishops from serving." And indeed, shortly after this statement by Tuchkov, Metropolitan Sergius and his Synod imposed a ban on priesthood on two opposition Leningrad bishops - Dimitri (Lyubimov) and Sergius (Druzhinin), followers of Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovs), after which, according to the teachings of Metropolitan Sergius, they should have been considered worthless. It turned out, therefore, that the effect of grace was directly dependent on the administrative acts of the Moscow Patriarchate, which itself was under the strongest influence of the OGPU. That is, to put it simply, Chekist Tuchkov turned out to be a kind of "distributor of grace" as a result. If we remember that the task of the OGPU was the all-round decomposition of the Church from within, crushing it into the maximum number of parts, it is not difficult to understand what the “disciplinary ecclesiology” of Metropolitan Sergius and his apologists turned out to be for church unity.

The theory and practice of Metropolitan Sergius, however, did not meet with support from the best representatives of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy. Thus, the most authoritative hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church of that time — the first, according to the will of the holy Patriarch Tikhon, a candidate for the position of Patriarchal Locum Tenens, which he was not given by the theomachy power — Hieromartyr Metropolitan Kirill (Smirnov) wrote in 1929: “Church discipline is able to preserve its effectiveness only as long as it is a real reflection of the hierarchical conscience of the Catholic Church; Discipline can never replace this conscience. As soon as it presents its demands not by virtue of the indication of this conscience, but by motives alien to the Church, insincere, how the individual hierarchical conscience will certainly take the side of the conciliar-hierarchical principle of the existence of the Church, which is by no means the same thing as external unity in whatever no matter what." That is, in the "disciplinary ecclesiology" of Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Kirill introduced a significant amendment to the "hierarchical conscience." Without taking into account the dictates of this conscience, church discipline could turn from a means of strengthening the unity of the Church into a means of destroying it.

Returning now to the theme of the feat of the new martyrs stated in the title of the report, it should be said that in those years they were people who tried to the last to adhere to the dictates of Christian conscience, even when it might seem that in order to preserve the church organization it would be more correct to go for a certain craftiness. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church of that time, Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky), whose deputy, in fact, was Metropolitan Sergius, year after year, starting from the end of 1925, spent time in solitary confinement and distant exile. He was offered freedom in exchange for secret cooperation with the OGPU. E.A. himself approached him with such a proposal. Tuchkov. Metropolitan Peter refused, explaining this to the chairman of the OGPU as follows: “Needless to say, such activities are incompatible with my rank and, moreover, dissimilar to my nature.” Metropolitan Peter preferred new prison torments, which ended in execution in 1937, to do what was contrary to his conscience. Metropolitan Sergius, as far as one can judge, preferred to act differently. According to the testimony of Archbishop Pitirim (Krylov), the former administrator of the Synod, “Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky himself instructed the bishops not only not to refuse secret cooperation with the NKVD, but even to seek this cooperation. This was done in the interests of the church, because. Metropolitan Stragorodsky understood that the bishop, who had secured the trust of the local NKVD body, would be put in more favorable conditions on the management of the diocese under his jurisdiction, he will not have any particular trouble with registration and, in general, some kind of guarantee will be created against the possibility of arrest. […] It goes without saying that the hierarchs understood Stragorodsky's instructions as a maneuver aimed at preserving the church in difficult conditions for it.

However, as already mentioned, Metropolitan Sergius's "maneuvers" could not save the Church from physical destruction during the years of the "Great Terror". Moreover, with their help it was impossible to maintain church unity. On the contrary, with his collaborationism, the Deputy Locum Tenens pushed Orthodox zealots away from the Moscow Patriarchate. “The whole Church felt that Metropolitan Sergius had committed a crime, that he had surrendered the administration of the Church to the power of atheists, and he was acting and would continue to act under the dictation of the GPU,” wrote priest Mikhail Polsky, who had fled Russia in 1931. The policy of Metropolitan Sergius in relation to the authorities went far beyond the concept of "loyalty". One of the representatives of the internal Russian “right” church opposition explained this in 1930 to his foreign acquaintance, who tried to justify the Deputy: “The Church has been and will be loyal to the government, will not fight it, will obey, recognize, etc. But you they did not want to understand and see ... the difference between the messages, letters and other things of Patriarch and Metropolitan Peter and the acts of Metropolitan Sergius. There was complete loyalty, recognition, submission, not formal, but in essence, religious (power from God), but there was no service, there was no renunciation of church inner freedom and independence, there was no forgetfulness of the truth of God; there was a separation of Caesar's and God's. The patriarch, as you know, himself commemorated the authorities, but he never committed acts that dishonored the dignity of the Church, restricting Her freedom. When appointing bishops, he did not ask anyone for the sanction of the GPU, he did not subject the Government to ecclesiastical repressions, on the contrary, contrary to the will of the Government, he insisted on the commemoration of the exiled bishops and retained their chairs. Peter did the same. And how much the GPU sent to the people because of this. After all, there is a line, you will not argue with these, where loyalty ends and service begins (to the detriment of the church business), servility and servility begin. Metropolitan Sergius crossed this line - it is so clear that it is obvious that you are surprised that you do not understand this.

If we talk about which of the hierarchs did the most to preserve the internal unity of the Patriarchal Church in the 1920s-1930s, then this, without any doubt, was the Hieromartyr Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky). For 12 years he headed the Russian Orthodox Church - the most difficult 12 years - from 1925 to 1937. Of these 12 years, he spent more than 11 years in prison away from people. However, despite his isolation, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens continued to play a colossal role in the life of the Russian Church. He was a symbol of confessional standing, a symbol of spiritual unenslavement by the godless power. And this standing in the truth united the entire Russian Church around his personality. Both the “Sergians”, and the “Josephites”, and the “Karlovites”, all of them continued to see Metropolitan Peter as the head of the Russian Church. And thus, despite the outward division, the absurd accusations of “gracelessness,” the Russian Church internally remained united. To a large extent, this was the result of the feat of Metropolitan Peter. He was repeatedly offered freedom in exchange for the renunciation of his title, of locum tenens. But in the event of such a renunciation, the Russian Church would lose her Primate, recognized by all, and the disorder within her would become even more painful. At the cost of his incredible suffering, Metropolitan Peter preserved the unity of the Russian Church.

"Ecclesiology of Discipline" of Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Peter, Metropolitan Kirill, Metropolitan Joseph and those who followed them preferred the "ecclesiology of confession". They did not consider that under conditions of the most severe persecution it was necessary to “save” the Church by various dubious “manoeuvres” (and Metropolitan Sergius declared exactly this: “I am saving the Church!”). Their faith consisted in the fact that the Lord Himself is powerful to save His Church, but they are required to remain faithful to Him, to stand in the Truth to the end. Indeed, as in the first centuries, the blood of the martyrs became the new seed of Christianity. Thanks to the feat of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, the Russian Church did not disappear, but survived and was reborn. Thanks to them, the unity of the Russian Church, broken in the late 1920s, was restored. Wasting his "canonical" bans, Metropolitan Sergius was able to keep few of those who disagreed with his policy in submission. The division between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Synod of Bishops Abroad lasted for decades, and it was hard to imagine that it would be possible to heal it. But the memory of the New Martyrs lived on in the minds of church people both in Russia and abroad. In 1981, the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors was canonized by the Russian Church Abroad. In 1989, when the agonizing communist regime was no longer able to restrain the religious revival in Russia, the head of the host of new martyrs and confessors, St. Patriarch Tikhon, was glorified in Moscow. In 1997, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter was canonized, who, as was said, was equally recognized as the head of the Russian Church both in the Fatherland and abroad. Finally, in 2000, the entire Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia was glorified by the Council of Bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate. Shortly thereafter, a rapid rapprochement between the two parts of the Russian Church began, culminating in the restoration of their canonical communion, the 5th anniversary of which we are solemnly celebrating these days. The reunion of the two parts of the Russian Church symbolically marked the end civil war in Russia. Thus, the unity of the people, destroyed by the revolution, was restored by the feat of the new martyrs.

Summing up, we can say that the strength and unity of any nation, its ability to respond to challenges thrown to it, are determined, first of all, by its spiritual strength. The pinnacle of spiritual growth is holiness. The holy ascetics have united, unite and will unite the people of Russia. It is possible, of course, to gather people under the banner of false ideas imbued with hatred, such as, for example, communism or fascism. But such a human association will not last long, which we see vivid historical examples. The feat of the New Martyrs is of everlasting significance. The power of holiness, manifested by them, defeated the malice of the Bolsheviks-theomachists. The veneration of the New Martyrs and Confessors before our very eyes united the Russian Church, outwardly, through the efforts of the same theomachists, which divided it at the end of the 1920s. The 70-year atheist captivity of Russia shook the spiritual foundations to the limit public life. Without a return to true values, the ideal of which is holiness, our society will remain doomed. If the people of our country have a future, then only in following the Truth, the faithfulness of which was shown by our saints, the closest of whom to us are the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

According to official data, in 1937, 353,074 people were sentenced to capital punishment, in 1938 - 328,618 (see: Mozokhin O.B. The right to repression. Extrajudicial powers of state security organs. Statistical information about the activities of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD- MGB (1918-1953): Monograph, 2nd edition, expanded and supplemented, Moscow, 2011, pp. 458, 462.

“I only follow Christ…”: Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh), 1930 / Publ., introductory. and note. A.V. Mazyrina // Theological collection. 2002. Issue. 9. S. 405.

According to the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate for 1989-2011, 1866 ascetics of piety, including 1776 New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, were canonized as saints of the Russian Orthodox Church (see:

Cit. Quoted from: Khaustov V., Samuelson L. Stalin, NKVD and repressions 1936-1938. M., 2010. S. 408.

Acts of His Holiness Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, later documents and correspondence on the canonical succession of the highest church authority, 1917-1943 / Comp. M.E. Gubonin. M., 1994. S. 149.

Stratonov I. Documents of the All-Russian Patriarchal Church of the last time // Church Bulletin of the Western European Diocese. 1928. No. 14. S. 30.

Sergius (Stragorodsky), Met. The attitude of the Church to the separated societies // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. 1931. No. 3. S. 5.

Acts ... S. 644.

"Owls. secret. Urgently. Personally. Tov. Tuchkov": Reports from Leningrad to Moscow, 1927-1928 / Publ., introductory. and note. A. Mazyrina // Theological collection. 2002. Issue. 10. S. 369.

Acts ... S. 636.

There. S. 883.

CA FSB RF. D. R-49429. L. 151-152.

[Polish] Michael, Fr. The position of the Church in Soviet Russia: Essay on a priest who fled from Russia. Jerusalem, 1931. S. 52.

Acts ... S. 538. .

At the end of the second Christian millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church brings to Christ the fruit of her Calvary suffering - a great host of holy martyrs and confessors of Russia of the 20th century.

A thousand years ago, Ancient Russia accepted the teachings of Christ. Since then, the Russian Orthodox Church has shone with the deeds of saints, saints and righteous. The Church in many periods of its history endures completely open sorrows and persecutions, and the martyrdom of its best ministers. The Lord strengthened His disciples, assuring them that if people persecuted them and even killed them, they would never be able to harm their souls (Matthew 10:28). And the faith of the ancient Church in these words of the Lord was very strong. This helped Christians to face torment courageously. These invincible warriors of faith claimed that they did not feel despair before death. On the contrary, they greeted her calmly, with inexpressible inner joy and hope. Living in the name of Christ, with an unshakable faith in incorruptibility and eternity, they wished with all their hearts to accept death for Christ.

The entire history of the Church was built on exploits. Martyrdom was of great importance for the establishment of the Church of Christ in the world.

The 20th century for Russia was the era of martyrs and confessors. The Russian Church has endured unprecedented persecution raised by the theomachists against the faith of Christ. Many thousands of hierarchs, clergymen, monastics, and laity glorified the Lord with their martyrdom, enduring suffering and deprivation without complaint in camps, prisons, and exile. They died with faith, with prayer, with repentance on their lips and in their hearts. They were killed as a symbol of Orthodox Russia.

The head of the host of Russian martyrs and confessors for the faith of Christ was the holy Patriarch Tikhon, who, characterizing this era, wrote that now the Holy Orthodox Church of Christ in the Russian land is going through a difficult time: the open and secret enemies of this truth have raised persecution against the truth of Christ and are striving to to destroy the cause of Christ… And if it becomes necessary to suffer for the cause of Christ, we call you, beloved children of the Church, we call you to these sufferings together with us with the words of the holy apostle: “Who will separate us from the love of God: sorrow, or oppression, or persecution or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35).

Many of those who suffered for their faith in the 20th century, zealous for piety, wished to live at a time when fidelity to Christ was sealed with martyrdom. The Holy Patriarch - Confessor Tikhon wrote: “... If the Lord sends a test of persecution, bonds, torment and even death, we will patiently endure everything, believing that it will be done with us not without the will of God, and our feat will not remain fruitless, just as the sufferings of the Christian martyrs subdued the world to the teachings of Christ.”

The aspirations of the Confessor of the Faith, St. Tikhon, have come true - the Russian Orthodox Church is now being revived on the blood of the martyrs. The Holy Church, from the beginning placing its hope in the prayerful intercession of His saints before the Throne of the Lord of Glory, with conciliar reason bears witness to the appearance in its depths of a great host of new martyrs and confessors of Russia, who suffered in the 20th century.

The God-loving fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church reverently preserves the holy memory of life, the exploits of confession of the holy faith and the martyrdom of the hierarchs, clergy, monastics and laity, who, together with the Royal Family, testified during the persecution of their faith, hope and love for Christ and His Holy Church even to death and those who have left a testimony to future generations of Christians that if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord (Rom. 14:8).

Enduring great sorrows, they kept the peace of Christ in their hearts, and became lamps of faith for the people who came into contact with them. They glorified the Lord with their deeds.

Having loved Him and His saving commandments with all their hearts, with all their thoughts, with all their strength, they were pillars of the faith of the holy Church. The feat of the martyrs and confessors strengthened the Church, becoming its firm foundation.

The fire of repression not only failed to destroy Orthodoxy, but, on the contrary, became the crucible in which the Russian Church was cleansed of sinful laxity, the hearts of her faithful children were hardened, their hope in the One God who conquered death and gave everyone the hope of Resurrection became unshakable and firm.

The feat of the New Martyrs and Confessors makes it possible for everyone today to see that the spiritual world exists and that the spiritual world is more important than the material one. That the soul is dearer than the whole world. The very fact of martyrdom, as it were, lifts the veil from all events and reveals the essence: it reminds that trials come when a person cannot live in conscience and truth, cannot be just an honest citizen, a warrior faithful to his oath, cannot but be a traitor to all if he is not a Christian.

The life of the new Russian martyrs testifies that we must trust God and know that He will not leave His own. That we should no longer prepare for torture, not for hunger, or anything like that, but we should prepare spiritually and morally - how to keep our soul and our face (God's image in man) unclouded.

Glorifying the feat of the New Martyrs, the Russian Orthodox Church hopes for their intercession before God.

And now, in the revealed history of the Russian Church of the 20th century, the feat of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers, New Martyrs and Confessors is forever captured, which teaches us strict faith and serves as a saving lesson for us.

In the history of Russia, the past twentieth century was marked by the brutal persecution of the Soviet authorities against the Orthodox Church. Many clerics and ordinary believers were persecuted to death by the atheistic state for their religious beliefs. The feat of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia is clearest example loyalty to Christ and His Church. Despite this, their example still requires full reflection. A contribution to this process is an article by Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk.

Once our Lord Jesus Christ, turning to His disciples, said: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19). The Church, listening to the call of the Savior, has been performing its apostolic ministry for two thousand years, but not always and everywhere people accepted the doctrine of the true God. For a society afflicted with passions and vices, the Beatitudes, the doctrine of love for God and neighbor became a serious irritant and caused indignation and rage, as they denounced the unrighteous way of life in which this society was. When we are asked: “Who are the martyrs?”, we give a clear answer: “These are those who, for the sake of faith in Christ, accepted suffering and even death.” As an example, we cite the First Martyr Archdeacon Stephen, the Bethlehem Infants, those who in the first centuries of our Era, at the dawn of Christianity, suffered for Christ and, of course, the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the 20th century. Almost a thousand years after the Baptism of Russia with "water" under Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, our Fatherland was re-baptized with "blood". What is the significance of their feat for us today? Yes, there are almost two thousand more saints in our Church, but is that the only thing? To answer this question, it is necessary to better understand what martyrdom is.

Undoubtedly, martyrdom has always been recognized by the Church as a special kind of holiness. Both in ancient times and in modern times, not everyone was able “even to death” to testify to their faith in God. The history of the Church has preserved a lot of evidence that even among the clergy there were such individuals who, out of fear of a mortal, and sometimes simply imprisonment, renounced Christ. Authentic evidence has also been preserved that from the very first centuries of Christianity, believers treated the martyr's remains and their burial places with special reverence. Often in such places chapels and temples were erected, where a bloodless Sacrifice was offered, and the feat of the soldier of Christ buried here was glorified. Gradually, this became a tradition, and in 787, at the Seventh Ecumenical Council (II of Nicaea), it was adopted as a universally binding rule that the temple must be consecrated on the relics of the martyr without fail. One of the first teachers of the Church Tertullian wrote: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christianity." It's wonderful and amazing precise definition leads us to the conclusion that the true Church of Christ is based on the blood of the martyrs, which is figuratively and reflected in Canon 7 of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Therefore, when we recall the feat of the New Martyrs of Russia, we must remember that it was they who were the fruitful seed thanks to which the Russian Orthodox Church lives and flourishes today.

Speaking about the confession of the Name of Christ, one cannot ignore one interesting question: were the new martyrs forced to renounce Christ, in contrast to the martyrs of the first centuries? Indeed, if we turn to the history of those years, we can find that no one demanded a direct renunciation of Christ under pain of death. Single exceptional cases can only confirm this. Why then did they suffer and were canonized as saints? Looking ahead a little, we note that the feat of the New Martyrs of Russia differed from the feat of the first martyrs.

In January 1918, the Soviet authorities proclaimed "freedom of conscience", which formally testified to a loyal attitude towards religion. The same position was officially voiced in international community: the Soviet government is fighting not only against the counter-revolution, but not against religion. It was under this pretext that a struggle was waged against the Russian Orthodox Church, and in the 1930s millions of people were arrested, imprisoned or shot under article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, which read: “Any action aimed at overthrowing, undermining or weakening the power of the Workers 'and Peasants' Soviets ... also such an action, which, while not directly aimed at achieving the above goals, nevertheless, knowingly for those who committed it, contains an attempt on the main political or economic gains of the proletarian revolution. The best result of bringing under this article for the convict and all members of his family was “one hundred and first kilometer”, and the worst was death, since the highest penalty was execution. In those years, the latter option was many times superior to the first. In this regard, some researchers believe that all those believers who were subjected to criminal prosecution in the USSR suffered not for their religious beliefs, but for anti-Soviet Political Views. Let's see if this is actually the case.

It's no secret that believers in those years did not feel sympathy for the Soviet government, since it took an atheistic, god-fighting position. But it is one thing to be unfavorable and quite another to be counter-revolutionary.

Here are just some of the facts. At this time, the expression of Karl Marx becomes popular - "Religion is the opium of the people", borrowed by him from the Anglican priest Charles Kingsley. It takes on a second life thanks to a newspaper article by V.I. Lenin, from which we quote here:

"Religion is the opiate of the people" - this is the saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire world outlook of Marxism on the question of religion. All modern religions and churches, everything and everyone religious organizations Marxism always regards it as organs of bourgeois reaction, serving to protect exploitation and stupefy the working class... One must be able to fight religion... This struggle must be connected with the concrete practice of the class movement aimed at eliminating the social roots of religion... We must fight religion. This is the ABC of all materialism and, consequently, of Marxism.

It is noteworthy that this article was first published back in 1909, when there was no Soviet power at all, but the struggle against the Church had already been proclaimed. Such expressions as: "Religion is the opium of the people", "Through godlessness - to communism", "Religion is poison", "The fight against religion is the fight for socialism", etc., become the official slogans of the Soviet power. They are hung on banners in public places, educational and public institutions to stir up dislike of the Church among the population. On February 9, 1918, the first Soviet satirical magazine, the Red Devil, was published, on the pages of which it was depicted in a caricature form how the devil kicks, impales on a pitchfork, kills, etc. clergy and religious people.

One of the distinguishing features of the suffering path of the New Martyrs was the complete information emptiness that often accompanied their feat. When a person was taken away in the middle of the night by a "black funnel", no one knew where he was taken, what would happen to him, and whether he was alive at all. In those years, “both old and small” understood this, so no one even hoped that about him tragic fate anyone will ever know. Apparently for this reason, in those years, it was customary among believers to ask each other for forgiveness before going to bed: “Forgive me, for Christ's sake!”, After all, every night could be the last.

In the early centuries, things were different. The society was by nature religious and those persecutions that were arranged for Christians were persecuted, in contrast to Soviet authorities, another goal is not to destroy faith in God in people, but to change it to the “correct” one. The trial of the martyr was, as a rule, public. He was tortured, tempted, exhorted, thereby trying to achieve one single goal - for the martyr to renounce Christ and convert to another faith: paganism, Islam, etc. If the goal was achieved, then all persecution by the authorities ceased. “Apostatized” or “fallen away”, namely, a person who renounced his faith was considered to be such, was accepted by society, but rejected by the Church. Often, especially when the persecution ceased, many of those who fell away, who repented of their cowardice and renunciation of Christ, were received into the bosom of the Mother Church. But even on this score, there was no unanimous opinion in the Church for a long time - whether it is possible to accept the fallen back and how, which is well evidenced by the Novatian schism in the middle of the 3rd century. From the first 9 canons of the Council of Ancyra, one can clearly see how severely those who fell away from the right faith were punished.

Returning to the feat of the new martyrs, it is worth noting that, as a rule, they were not required to renounce Christ, since the goal of the Soviet authorities was completely different - not to change the religious worldview of the individual, but to destroy religion along with the individual. Of course she was on initial stage and the ideological struggle, especially among young people who were taught from a very young age that there is no God and everything connected with Him is the tales of “grandmothers” that hinder Soviet people on the path to a brighter future. If a person remained true to his religious beliefs, then he was isolated from society under a political article. Moreover, the Soviet government did not look at either age, or gender, or social status believer. For example, in SLON, two very young cabin boys, 12 and 14 years old, were shot for confessing their faith in God. There are many similar examples, and the trial and execution of minors were carried out strictly within the framework of the law, which allowed children to be shot from the age of 12! In confirmation of our thoughts, we will quote the appeal of V.I. Lenin in a letter marked "strictly secret" to the members of the Politburo during the artificially created famine in the Volga region dated March 19, 1922:

“Please, in no case do not make copies, butto each member of the Politbureau (comrade Kalinin too) to take notes on the document itself ...

It is now and only now, when people are being eaten in hungry areas and hundreds, if not thousands of corpses are lying on the roads, that we can (and therefore must!) carry out the confiscation of church valuables with the most frenzied and merciless energy and without stopping at suppressing any kind of resistance ... The more representatives of the reactionary clergy and the reactionary bourgeoisie can be shot on this occasion, the better.

To supervise the most rapid and successful implementation of these measures, to appoint immediately at the congress, i.e. at its secret meeting, a special commission with the obligatory participation of comrades Trotsky and comrade Kalinin, without any publication about this commission and so that the subordination of all operations to it was ensured and carried out not on behalf of the commission, but in the all-Soviet and all-party order.

But we know that “there is nothing hidden that would not be made manifest, nor hidden that would not be made known and would not be revealed” (Luke 8:17), so today, having reliable data at our disposal, we can judge that the persecution by the Soviet authorities was directed not at the counter-revolutionary clergy, but at the Church in general. Numerous facts can serve as eloquent evidence of this - starting with the campaign to open the relics, the creation of an anti-church commission and public organization"Union of militant atheists" and ending with the execution of the clergy, who are already in old age, and sometimes disabled, who were unable to walk. They were carried to the execution on a stretcher. For example, Hieromartyr Seraphim Chichagov was 82 years old. On November 30, 1937, he was seriously ill, arrested in the village of Udelnaya, carried out of the house on a stretcher, taken to the Taganka prison in an ambulance, and on December 11 he was shot.

Why is it today that it is important to remember the feat of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia? Because in our time we are all witnessing the beginning of another persecution of the Church. As at the beginning of the 20th century, so now all this is again covered with lies, behind which stands the enemy of the human race, “for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Desecration and desecration of shrines is presented as an act political struggle, or even for art; the massive discrediting of prominent figures of the Russian Orthodox Church that has unfolded in the media and the Internet, aimed at forming in the minds of our compatriots a negative image of the entire Church as a whole, is called civil criticism and even a struggle for the purity of the Orthodox dogma; and those terrible caricatures in the direction of the Church, which today literally flooded the Internet, are painfully reminiscent of Soviet ones. We must not remain indifferent witnesses to this struggle, which has been waged by the devil against humanity for thousands of years. The struggle for the soul of man, for the soul of each of us. Using the example of the feat of the New Martyrs, we must convey to each of our compatriots the light of Christ's truth, which forms spiritual and moral principles and foundations in the individual, without which it is impossible to revive the mighty and glorious Russian state.

In this regard, a separate working group has been created in the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church to deal with the issue of spreading the veneration of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

At the next meeting of the working group, the following action plan was adopted aimed at spreading the veneration of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia:

1. Publication of thematic series of books about the New Martyrs, Confessors and Passion-Bearers:

– royal martyrs and members royal family;

- Primates, Hieromartyrs and Hieroconfessors of the Russian Orthodox Church;

– lay people (women, military men, theologians, doctors, etc.);

– New Martyrs and Confessors who suffered in various dioceses, monasteries and parishes.

2. Publication of works, diaries and letters of the New Martyrs and Confessors (with comments and photographs).

3. Compilation of services for the New Martyrs and Confessors.

4. Publication of biographies of ascetics of faith and piety who suffered for Christ, the issue of canonization of which is under study.

5. Publication of works of art about the New Martyrs and Confessors, aimed at the mass reader.

6. Publication of a series for children and youth about the New Martyrs and Confessors who suffered in young age(working title "Heroes of the Spirit").

7. Publication of a magazine or an almanac (working title "The Feat of Faith"), as well as a specialized Internet portal.

8. Creation of TV and radio programs, as well as a cycle of TV and radio programs about the New Martyrs and Confessors.

9. Creation of a unified database of New Martyrs and Confessors on the basis of the already existing database of St. Tikhon Orthodox University for the Humanities.

10. Creation of a church-wide museum of the New Martyrs.

11. Creation of a study on the recent history of the Church in Russia, in which this or that period of persecution would be considered through the prism of the feat of the lives of the new martyrs and confessors.

12. Conducting a church-wide competition for children and youth to compose a story about the New Martyrs and Confessors. Publish the best work in a journal.

13. Publication of an annual specialized calendar.

As you can clearly see from the plan, a huge and varied work needs to be done. Some of the projects are already being successfully implemented today, but many of them are waiting in the wings.

The veneration of the New Martyrs should become the force that will help revive the Fatherland.

Application No. 1

JOINT DECISION OF THE CEC AND SNK OF THE USSR

On measures to combat juvenile delinquency

In order to quickly eliminate juvenile delinquency, the Central Election Commission and the Council of People's Commissars USSR decide:

1) Minors, starting from the age of 12, convicted of committing theft, causing violence, bodily harm, mutilation, murder or attempted murder, be brought to a criminal court with the application of all measures of criminal punishment.

2) Persons convicted of inciting or attracting minors to participate in various crimes, as well as forcing minors to engage in speculation, prostitution, begging, etc. - shall be punished with imprisonment for at least 5 years.

3) Cancel Art. 8 "Basic principles of the criminal legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics".

4) Propose to the Governments of the Union republics to bring the criminal legislation of the republics in line with this resolution.

Previous Central Executive Committee of the USSR M. KALININ

Previous Council of People's Commissars of the USSR V. MOLOTOV

Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR I. Akulov

Moscow Kremlin

Application №2

Circular of the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR and the Supreme Court of the USSR to prosecutors and chairmen of courts on the procedure for applying capital punishment to minors

Store on a par with the cipher

№ 1/001537 - 30/002517

All prosecutors of the union republics, regional, military, transport, railway prosecutors, prosecutors of water basins; prosecutors of special boards, the prosecutor of the city of Moscow. All chairmen of the supreme courts, regional, regional courts, military tribunals, linear courts; courts of water basins, chairmen of special boards of regional, regional and supreme courts, chairman of the Moscow City Court.

In view of the incoming requests, in connection with the decision of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of April 7 of this year. "On measures to combat juvenile delinquency", we explain:

1. Among the measures of criminal punishment provided for in Art. 1 of the said resolution also applies to capital punishment (execution).

2. In accordance with this, the indication in the footnote to Art. 13 “The Basic Principles of the Criminal Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics and the relevant Articles of the Criminal Codes of the Union Republics (Article 22 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and the corresponding Articles of the Criminal Code of other Union Republics), according to which execution is not applied to persons under 18 years of age.

3. In view of the fact that the use of capital punishment (execution) can take place only in exceptional cases and that the application of this measure in relation to minors should be placed under particularly careful control, we suggest that all prosecutorial and judicial bodies notify the Prosecutor of the Union and the Chairman of the Supreme Court in advance USSR on all cases of bringing juvenile offenders to criminal court, in respect of which the application of capital punishment is possible.

4. When juveniles are brought to trial under the articles of the law that provide for the application of capital punishment (execution), their cases are considered in regional (regional) courts in the general manner.

Prosecutor of the USSR Vyshinsky

Chairman Supreme Court USSR Vinokurov

“For this reason, if some honest churches are consecrated without the holy relics of martyrs, we determine: let the position of the relics be completed in them with the usual prayer. If from now on a certain bishop turns up, consecrating the temple without holy relics: let him be deposed, as if he had transgressed church traditions ”(7 pr. of the VII Ecumenical Council).

"101st kilometer" is an unofficial term that denoted a restriction on the rights of certain categories of citizens. The restriction consisted in the prohibition to settle and live within the 100-kilometer zone around Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Minsk and a number of other large or "closed" cities.

"Sie ist das Opium des Volks" (Karl Marx: Einleitung zur Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie; in: Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher 1844, S. 71f, zitiert nach MEW, Bd. 1, S. 378-379).

On the Attitude of the Workers' Party to Religion (May 13 (26), 1909) // Lenin V.I. Full composition of writings. - 5th ed. - M.: Publishing house of political literature, 1964-1981. - T. 17. - S. 416-418.

"Black Funnel" - a car for transporting prisoners of those years. This favorite car of the NKVD from the time of mass repressions was painted only in black, which is why it received such a nickname among the people.

Novatianism is a schismatic movement of the III-VII centuries. Novatian, the founder of this schism, who came out with a denunciation of the practice of the Bishop of Rome Cornelius to accept into the Church those who had previously fallen away from it, demanded that they be forever rejected. He justified it as follows. If the Church is a society of saints, then all those who have committed mortal sins or renounced the faith must be cast out of it forever, otherwise the Church will become impure and cease to be holy. Often they were called Kafars (from καθαροί - pure). It is noteworthy that I Ecumenical Council recognized the legitimacy and orthodoxy of the Navatian hierarchy, albeit a schismatic one.

GARF. F. 9401. Op. 12. D. 103. L. 35. Typographic copy. First officially published in Izvestia of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, No. 81 of April 8, 1935.