The release of Deacon Vladimir Rusak on October 23 came in answer to the prayers of Christians the world over who had been alerted to his case by the publicity given by Keston College, CREED, Orthodox Action and others. He was a priority in a list of prisoners of conscience which President Reagan presented to Gorbachev at the Moscow Summit in May. Under pressure to improve their human rights’ record, the Soviets at first tried to have Fr. Vladimir sign a statement of recantation or at least a plea of clemency, but he steadfastly refused on grounds that he was innocent. The authorities finally released him on the basis of his deteriorating health. However, the KGB official who informed Rusak’s wife Galina of his impending release made it clear that he was still regarded as “a dangerous element” and “would be watched carefully”; if he steps out of line the remainder of his 12- year sentence will be reactivated and he will be sent back to the camps.

       “OA” has printed the basic facts behind Fr. Vladimir’s case several times since his arrest in April 1986. A more personal description of this courageous Orthodox confessor is given by his sister in the following letter which, it is hoped, will help to keep Fr. Vladimir in our prayers.

      Volodya was born in 1949, when I was already nine years old, His birth in our family was a joyous event. Only mother was sorrowful; perhaps she had a presentiment of Volodya’s future. After the birth of our older brother, Mother became seriously ill with arthritis of the joints, and so it was our father who had the primary responsibility for our upbringing. He was a tailor and worked at home. It was he who gave Volodya and all of us lessons in honesty, decency and integrity. Our mother was a deeply believing woman, and as soon as we came into the light of God’s world she “inoculated” us with love for God and His Church. All her life she sang in a church choir; she had a magnificent voice which she retained to the end of her life. And when she went to church, she unfailingly took us along: my older brother Peter, myself and Volodya. My older brother and I learned to sing in the choir, while our parish priest, Fr. Nicholas Vintsukevich, took Volodya into the altar. Thus it was that from the age of 5 he began to participate in the services, Every Sunday and feast day he would be in church. And when Fr. Nicholas came out with the Holy Gospel or with the chalice, in front of him stood little Volodya with the candle.

      About this time something happened which later affected his health. Our mother, being a deeply believing woman, never allowed even our father to do any kind of work on Sundays or feast days. But these were hard times, 1954. Our father was lucky enough to get a horse. We had a problem with fuel, and father decided to haul from the marsh some turf which had earlier been cut and had dried. It was Sunday. Mother was terribly distressed and asked that Father do this work some other day, only not on Sunday. But Father decided to go ahead with it. He brought the turf before dinner, tethered the horse in the courtyard, and came in to eat. Just then Volodya went outside. Soon we heard a scream. Running outside, we saw Volodya lying on the ground, covered with blood. The horse had kicked him near his right eye and had broken his nose. We immediately took Volodya to the .hospital where they stitched him up—not entirely successfully. As a result, in his student years he had to have an operation to remove his tear sack. His chronic trouble with his ears and his weak eyesight, are, apparently, the result of this. To the end of her days our mother exhorted us and asked that on Sundays and feast days we try to go to church, and not to do any work, that the Lord had chastisad our father through this misfortune. Children suffer for the sins of their parents.

        …Volodya grew to be a sweet, kind child. He was everyone’s favorite in the family. When he began going to school and learned to read, he lost interest in children’s games. His passion for books reached the point of being unhealthy. He could read day and night. When he went to bed and the light was turned out, he would take a flashlight and continue reading under the covers. Mama, anxious for his health, constantly scolded him and ordered him to sleep. There were times when books would be confiscated from him and not returned.

      He was a very gifted student. Usually he went to school carrying only his notebooks. Having listened to the teacher’s explanation, he could immediately answer any of the questions. Mother often asked me to go to the school and take an interest in Volodya’s studies; neither mother nor father were able to attend the parents’ meetings. When I came, the teacher spoke about him at length, and what she had to say was interesting. He would read library books even during lessons. The teacher told me: “I’ll call a pupil to the blackboard; he won’t know the answer and is silent. Meanwhile, I notice that Volodya is reading a book under his desk. I call on him and ask him to answer. He asks the pupil beside him what the question is, and immediately gives the correct answer. He’s a uniquely gifted student.” On Sundays and feast days Volodya skipped school and went to church. This precipitated not a few incidents with his teachers.

      When Volodya finished school, he was 17 years old, and there arose the question–where should he go for his higher education? He couldn’t go to seminary; they admitted students only from the age of 18. So he entered the physics mathematics department of the Minsk pedagogical institute. But his intention to go to a theological school never left him. He transferred from the third year of the institute directly into the second year at the Moscow theological seminary. His gifts were noticed even there. Concurrently with his studies in the seminary, he was enrolled as a student in the editorial department of the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate”. To manage the one and the other was not easy; sometimes he would go hungry the whole day, since he could no longer take meals regularly at the seminary. But Volodya endured, and of the twenty students who were selected for the editorial department, Volodya alone completed the course of study. /…/

      Then came his studies at the Theological Academy, from which he graduated in the first category of the top class, and Work in the “JMP”. At first he was an editor, then chief editor. Several times he accompanied Archbishop Pitirim on trips abroad.

      Volodya had a pass to the Lenin Library where, working on assignment from the editorial department, he happened upon materials of great interest to him and which later formed the basis of his book, The History of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was devoted to Church-State relations after 1917.

      On learning that he was writing such a book, we all became very anxious for his future, because we knew how it might end. We warned him of the consequences, but Volodya said that someone had to do it in order that people should know the truth. Mother said to him: “Your bones will rot for the sake of this truth,” but he stood firm and said that it had to be written. And he stubbornly continued his work. In 1982 our mother died; she died in Volodya’s arms. And soon thereafter we had to endure another blow. On learning of Volodya’s work, Archbishop Pitirim dismissed him from his work at the JMP and from serving.

      Being a deacon and barred from serving in the Church, he was forced to find himself a job. The civil authorities also refused to give him any work, although they finally softened and he was accepted as a watchman at a produce warehouse. But he became incensed on seeing higher-ups drive out truckloads of fruit while workers were punished for taking a few apples. So he quit this job and found work as a janitor, which job he held until the day of his arrest

      Then, prison. 7-5 years–this was the term set by the judge. It is impossible to convey how shaken we were by all this, even though we had long anticipated it with fear and trembling, hoping at the same time that this dreadful cup would pass him by– these grievous torments which he was fated to endure. The only thing that gave us some slight consolation was the knowledge that he had prepared himself for such a trial.

      Mother was not right when she said that no one would learn of this truth. Bearing witness to this is–people’s gratitude and the remembrance of many who with true Christian love and help surrounded not only him who “spared not his life for the sake of his brother,” but also did not forsake his close ones in this dreadful hour.

      May the Lord save and preserve all of you who took part and even now take part in his fate! Bowing low before you, Maria Rusak

    In the refectory church of St. Sergius, the Act of the Council concerning the glorifications was read. Each saint’s life was briefly related before his troparion hymn was sung and the saint’s icon–specially commissioned for the occasion–carried in and placed on a stand in the middle of the church.

    Several years’ research by a commission led by Metropolitan Juvenali of Krutitsa and Kolomna resulted in the choice of these particular saints.

    Grand Prince Dimitrt Donskoi (1350-1389):. a pious ruler who, against all odds, defeated the Mongol forces at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.

    Andrei Rublev (1360-early 15th c.): monk and gifted iconographer renowned for his much-reproduced Holy Trinity icon. (He has long been accepted as a saint by the Russian Church, although he was never officially canonized.)

    Maxim Grec( 1470-1556): theologian, translator, philosopher; an upholder of Old Believer traditions. (It is hoped that his glorification will help the Old Believers towards a rapprochement with the Church.)

    Metropolitan Makary ( 1482-1563): saintly advisor of the young Ivan IV; initiated the collection of lives of Russian saints and prepared for the glorification of many of them,

    Paisius Velichkovsky(1722-1794): initiated the renewal of the monastic tradition of eldership; began the translation of the Philokalia whose writings he had collected on Mt. Athos. (Glorified in 1982 by the Church Abroad at St. Elias Skete on Mt. Athos.)

     Elder Ambrose of Optina (1812-1891): a clairvoyant elder who aided countless numbers of monastics and hymen with his spiritual counsels; a prototype for Dostoevsky’s Elder Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov.

     Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg (1732-early 19th c.): a clairvoyant fool-for-Christ, widely venerated ever since her repose. (glorified by the Church Abroad in 1978.)

     Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807-1867): a brilliant theologian and Holy Father of the latter times, who stressed the ascetic nature of Christianity and the need for sobriety; author of The Arena, a classic handbook on spiritual life.

     Bishop Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894): a righteous ascetic and profound Church writer who spent the last 22 years of his life in seclusion; edited and translated another spiritual classic, Unseen Warfare.

     In unofficial Church circles, those unfettered by the need to ‘toe the line,’ jubilation over these canonisations was dampened by the conspicuous absence of St. John of Kronstadt and Russia’s New Martyrs (glorified in 1964 and 1982 respectively, by the Church Abroad) who are widely–even, one may say, enthusiastically–venerated by the faithful. Their exclusion was the subject of considerable comment during a round-table discussion in Moscow on June 11, chaired by Archpriest Victor Potapov who attended the Millennium festivities as a representative of the “Voice of America” broadcast station. This discussion–whose participants included Priests Gleb Yakunin and Georgi Edelstein, writers Zoya Krakhmalnikova and her hushand Felix Svetov, editors of various unofficial Orthodox publications, and other Orthodox activist laymen will be the subject of a longer article in a future Issue of this paper.

     A Draft Statute, drawn up by a committee headed by Archbishop Kirill of Smolensk, was discussed by a council of bishops in March. During the Local Council debate several suggestions were made for strengthening some of the clauses, but on the whole the Draft was favorably received and was unanimously approved with few amendments.

    The new Ustav is much longer (34 pages single spaced typescript) than the previous Statute of 1945, and it is essentially a replacement rather than a revision of its ill-begotten predecessor.

     Perhaps the moat significant and welcome change effected by the new Statute is the reinstatement of the priest ss head of the parish. In 1961, at the height of Kruschev’s anti-religious campaign, the State forced a measure which pre governing authority of parish affairs to a parish council, whose 20 members were approved by the State, reducing the role of the priest to a “performer of the cult.” Under the new ruling priests should be able to attend more freely to pastoral matters. The Statute also reduces the number on the parish council to 3 and limits their term of office to 3 years (previously there had been no limit).

    Church involvement’ in charitable affairs was the subject of another measure adopted as part of the new Statute. Inasmuch as such activity in the past has been illegal, or restricted to such obligations as “donations” to the Soviet Peace Fund, this measure doubtless anticipates changes in the Law on Religious Associations, which is also under revision this year.

    Indeed, this State-revised Law will have much greater bearing on the life of the Church in the Soviet Union than the new Ustav. Drafts of this Law suggest that it brings an easing of restrictions on religious practice and carries the possibility for improved Church State relations. However, as Keston researcher Dr. John Anderson points out, its apparent merits must be weighed against the fact that “at present the USSR is not a law-governed state” (KNS ‘306). And until this situation changes, believers are left, as before, with no more certain assurance than hope against hope, and prayer.

 Church and State in the USSR

    Below are extracts from two interesting texts: the first is a report given in March by the Chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs, K.S. Kharchev, to a closed meeting of teachers responsible for higher level atheist education (the talk was surreptitiously taped); the second is an interview given by the well-known Orthodox writer and former prisoner of conscience, Zoya Krakhmalnikova (another excerpt from this same interview appeared in OA #79 pp. 3,6).

    While these documents come from widely different perspectives, both present the same familiar picture in which the State holds the reins as it directs a basically subservient hierarchy. As Kharchev admits, however, this does not insure control over the mass of believers who, even official sources now concede, number some 70% of the population [this includes all faiths]. Old methods of repression proved futile and are plainly embarrassing, and since the present shows “no tendency to a decrease of religiosity,” Kharchev poses the need for more sophisticated and constructive methods of control-allowing believers certain concessions in order to draw them into a “peaceful co-existence” with the State and encourage their loyalty as Soviet citizens. Krakhmalnikova notes this same trend in government policy, but cautions that new freedoms in “cult performance,” i.e., in the external life of the Church, may give believers a dangerous sense of satisfaction and lure them away from the essence of Christianity. It is a danger which has universally faced the Church ever since it left the catacombs.

    Taken together, these texts offers valuable commentary on the rather “slippery” subject, of State-Church relations in the Soviet Union today.

Needed: A New Image

(Kharchev’s report was translated by an Athonite monk from the May 20, 1988 issue of the Russian newspaper “La Pensee Russe,” published in Paris.) 

The current tendency in party politics:

     ‘… There is an amazing phenomenon before us: in spite of all our efforts, the Church has survived, and not only survived, but it is beginning to undergo a renewal. And so, questions arise: what is more advantageous for the Party: a person who believes in God, a person who doesn’t believe in anything, or a person who believes in God and in communism? I think that of two evils one usually chooses the lesser. According to Lenin, the Party must keep control over all the spheres of a citizen’s life, and since you can’t just get rid of the believers, and our history proves that religion is something serious and here to stay, then it is better for the Party to make a sincere believer believe also in communism. And so, here is our challenge: the education of a new type of priest….

     “…At present the priest is often completely dissociated from his parish. They are from different backgrounds, even often of different nationalities. Such a priest comes to his parish once a week in his car, serves liturgy, and that’s all. He doesn’t want to know anything about anything else. A lot of them like it that way. After all, they have no responsibility: not for the flock, not for money, not for the upkeep of the church. When the plenipotentiary gives him his license, he warns him: take your 350 rubles and don’t stick your nose into anything else. Neither the priest, nor the plenipotentiary, nor the Party know anything about what goes on in the parish, and yet 70% believers–that’s no joke. What are you going to do with them? You have to work with them somehow, and get some influence over them…

    “…there is now an intensive process of the Church penetrating into State politics. And take a sober look at this: whether we want it or not, religion has entered into socialism, and hasn’t just entered, it has rolled in as if on rails. Since we have all the power, I think it is within our means to turn those rails in one direction or another, depending on our interests…”

(Zova Krakhmalnikova’s interview appeared in the May “7. 1988 issue of “La Pensee Russe.” It is translated here by Orthodox Action of Australia) 

Questions and answers:

    Q: What violations of Soviet law have been committed by workers in local government and by priests?

    A: The basic violation by civil servants and local authorities is the stubborn refusal to open churches; and there is also constant interference in the private lives of believers. …As far as I know, not a single representative of the regime has ever been brought to court for violating the laws on religious cults. Priests are prosecuted at every step of the way. True, a recent incident made a lot of noise: the regional secretary was fired, but they left him in the Party. But that was too much, what happened: In a region in Ukraine they decided to take action against the growth of religion, and all they could think of was the old spirit of the thirties: militia men surrounded the church in a large village; they came in with a truck, and like barbarians they pried all the icons loose, loaded them up and drove off. But there’s always God’ s will, you know [laughter in the audience]–the truck got stuck in the mud in the middle of the main street and wouldn’t go forward or backward. And these activists could think of nothing better than, right there, before the eyes of the believers, to put the icons under the tires!’ They got the truck out and took the rest of the icons out into a field and burned them. Well, there was nothing for it but to remove the first secretary and his assistants for propaganda and ideology, and one other guy with them. We restored everything in the church. But for how long now are they going to point out to the young kids who come to church that in this place there used to be an icon of John the Baptist, but the communist-atheists burned it. With politics like that, what is the people’s attitude to the Soviet regime going to be? Don’t forget, comrades, that in many of our cities produce is being rationed…

Would the spiritual power of the Church increase if her members were to get real civil liberties? 

    Spiritual processes do not depend on civil liberties. ‘Political freedoms are needed by all citizens of our country, but they do not assure the true freedom of the Church. According to our Faith, the Church is the pillar and confirmation of Truth. She is spiritually free; she lives in accordance with the “laws” of grace and does not pay tribute to anyone. Her members are only those whose knees have not bowed to Baal, “every mouth which hath not kissed him? (I Kings 19:18). In speaking of the Church, we like to recall Christ’s words that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” These words hold not only a firm promise, “shall not prevail,” but also an indication that “the gates of hell” will be trying to prevail against the Church. And those members of the Church, of whatever rank–be they patriarchs, bishops, priests or laymen–will be prevailed against by the “gates of hell” and vanquished by them if they bow their knees before the servants of hell. Then they will only be called the Church, have the appearance of the Church, but will be deprived of her power. The history of Christianity knows or many such instances when high-ranking patriarchs and bishops became heretics and apostates, and they were anathematized together with the decrees of their councils. God invariably disgraces Satan, but He does this in His own time. The essence of the Church’s freedom is perceived only through persecution. May we think that persecution of Christians has come to an end in our country?

     As long as there are people in concentration camps sentenced for their religious convictions, to speak of the end of persecutions is to distort the truth. Strictly speaking. true Christianity has not known–nor will it know–a time in the history of mankind when it was not subject to persecution. This is God’s intention with regard to His true disciples; this is stated many times in the Gospel and it is not subject to revision. The world has always warred and will always war against Christianity, but the methods and forms of this struggle, though stereotyped in character, vary from one historical period to another.

What, in your opinion, is the essence of this warfare today?

      In the ’20’s and ’30’s our land became stained with the blood of martyrs and confessors of Christ. These were the years of the triumph of faith. After centuries of alleged well-being, the Orthodox Church was spiritually exhausted as a result of the awful fratricidal schism, and had to defend her faith on the Cross. You can’t vanquish the Church by crucifying her flock, inasmuch as she believes in the Resurrection. We are told by the Saints that “the fallen spirit, the spirit of malice and animosity towards God replaces cruel temptations by weak, though refined and very effective ones.” Mankind has entered the age of great spiritual persecutions of Christianity. This is a worldwide process and it is inherent in all the Churches of today This is the fatal warfare between Christianity and a godless consciousness, between God and Satan. Atheism brings eternal death to mankind; Christianity brings faith in the Resurrection. Essentially, this is a war for mankind’s survival. The aim of spiritual persecutions is to enfeeble the Church by way of compromises, to create a ‘new Christianity,” a Christianity without Christ, spiritually weak, comfortable, harmless. The period of bloody persecutions of the ’20’s and ’30’s has given way to the struggle to turn Orthodoxy in our country into renovationism, ritualism, a new paganism on a Christian foundation, idolatry, sectarianism.

What kinds of “neo-Christianity” do you think are particularly widespread in our country? 

    Perhaps the strongest temptation today is ritualism because of the “magic” of ritual. And it is well suited to militant atheism because, first of all, ritualism severely limits man in his service to God and his fellow-man; second, it is readily subject to criticism in atheist propaganda; and third, it lacks spiritual power since it believes not so much in God as it does in the patriarch, in bishops and priests. It believes in a form, trying in vain to acquire sanctity through the latter. Ritualism forms the basis of another branch of “neo-Christianity” or renovationism –political Christianity. Almost all ruling archbishops of the Russian Orthodox Church are active in state politics; they are political personae, constituting a certain institution which is sanctioned by the State and through which the atheistic regime effects its control of the religious life of the believers. It is this type of political figure which has been developed in the course of many years through all sorts of political and moral pressures and intrigues. Naturally, this peculiar nomenclature consists of those who agree to play the role imposed upon them…

     Political Christianity means bargaining. Politics and Christianity are incompatible. Bargaining is always destined to suffer defeat, both spiritually and politically. “A doable-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). No Christian has ever succeeded in sitting on two chairs. You will know them by their fruits, we are told. And the time is coming when it will no longer be possible to hide ~he fruit. Today ‘glasnost’ is making secrets manifest. The Chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs, K.M. Kharchev, in his recent interview, made an unexpected admission when he declared that today the “religious leaders” in the USFR combine the socialist ideal with their theological doctrines! This revelation about the new “Christianity a la socialism” was made on the eve of the Millennial anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’. Kharchev is a responsible man, and he wouldn’t talk about something non-existent. He precisely characterized the Christianity of the “religious leaders.” They do in fact combine the socialist ideal with their own “doctrines” (I cannot bring my self to call them theological). 

     Political emotions destroy faith in Christ. Political Christianity blossomed in our country at the time of Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky) and has become known as “Sergianism”. It has marked the beginning of the dreadful times prophecied by our saints, when, according to St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, “the increased number of apostates who outwardly call themselves ‘Christians’ will begin to use violence and slander.” That time was marked by terrible division; some bishops occupied their cathedra, others–the plank beds in concentration camps. It was precisely in those terrible years that there was developed the anti-Christian, anti-Church myth about saving the Church by political compromise. I think this myth has always been popular with the Council for Religious Affairs and amongst our bishops. From that time forth the pulpits have been silent; the Church lost her voice. Politicking “religious leaders” enfeebled the Church spiritually by becoming the comrades of persecutors; they refused to unite with the confessors and martyrs for the sake of an imaginary “salvation” of the Church, repeating after the militant atheists that the canonization of the martyrs and confessors was a political act. Persecutors of Christ have always called His disciples political criminals, and it is well known that Christ Himself was accused of “seducing people” and being “an enemy of Caesar” (John 17:6, 19:12). Political interpretation of the persecution of Christians is as old as the world. The devil is always the same. As to the myth about the “salvation of the Church ,” we know that it is not given to people to save the Church; Christ alone saves it, by sending fiery temptations and suffering unto death. Ritualism, idolatry, sectarianism-these have become the price of compromise and the result of the spiritual break with Orthodoxy.

    Beginning in this issue with the Lives of the Holy Passion-bearers Boris and Gleb (+1015), we are planning a series of saints’ Lives from each century of the Millennium. The account of the righteous pilgrim Maria might have been taken from any century in the history of pre-Revolutionary Russia. The bulk of the issue is devoted to articles from and about the present. Indeed, because the coming of the Millennium has coincided with the era of ‘glasnost’, there has been a rather extraordinary proliferation of material, originating both within the Soviet Union and without, on the subject of the Russian Church Today.

    From a human perspective the contemporary experience of Orthodox believers in the Soviet Union is rooted in bitter tragedy. Archpriest Victor Potapov, speaking at a seminar on the issue of human rights in the USSR, held at the White House just prior to this winter’s summit meeting, summed it up when he said:

    “In this century Russia has come face to face with militant, godless international communism, a totally new phenomenon which has never been experienced by any other people in the history of mankind. Russia’s body has been scourged, tortured and literally crucified.”

     This fact is witnessed by the myriad of Russia’s New Martyrs, represented in this issue by Archbishop Mitrolan of Astrakhan, brutally executed at the outbreak of the Red Terror which opened the door to Russia’ s Golgotha. Central to the experience of her ascent has been the “tragic attempt,” so well described by Sergei Khodorovich, of the communist experiment to eradicate religion, both externally–through the broad scale destruction and closure of churches, and internally–by t h e physical liquidation of its most fervent advocates and by bringing the Church organization into submission to the State.

     The resulting ‘deficit’ of spiritual life, more pronounced in the face of the present near economic disaster and decades of failed promises, has prompted a search for meaning and an appreciation for the spiritual values of the past. This is reflected in a new breed of writers who are turning tothe past for inspiration and who use fiction to express their spiritual convictions. Prize laureate Victor Astafiev writes in. one of his novels that there was a time when “we lived with a light in our soul, acquired long before us by the doers of heroic deeds (‘podvizhniki’) and lighted for us so that we would not wander in the darkness, scratch out each other’s eyes…” This influence of the past, of a culture permeated by the Christian world view has helped to bring many to the Church who, like activist Vadim Shcheglov were raised in the spiritual vacuum of communist society.

    The occasion of the Millennium has combined with a greater boldness generated by the present policy of ‘glasnost’ to stimulate various open appeals and calls for reform in the area of religious affairs, and particularly Church-State relations–from laity and hierarchs alike. One appeal which has received widespread attention is a letter to Gorbachev by Archbishop Theodosy of Poltava calling for the restoration of the Kiev Caves Lavra as a functioning monastery (to appear in the next issue of OA). Among the more original appeals for change is a proposal inade to Gorbachevlast year by Fr. Gennady Fast, a priest of the Dormition parish in Yeniseysk, who sets forth by means of precise logic the argument that atheism and religion should be on the same legal footing inasmuch as atheism as belief in the non-existence of God is no more “scientific” than religion. Therefore, he concludes, atheist propaganda should be held to the same parameters as religion. Even Metropolitan Alexis of Leningrad, considered loyal to the status quo, has openly voiced his opinion that some Soviet authorities still regard believers as second-class citizens, and that this attitude is contrary to Soviet legislation.

    While there is talk of reforming the legal status of the Church, of allowing it to own property, so far there seem to be few substantive changes. Indeed, despite official efforts to portray a policy of tolerance towards religion, one should keep in mind the recent comments of the Chairman for Religion Affairs, Konstantine Kharchev, in “Izvestia” (Jan. 17, 1988), calling upon communists “to keep up the ideological struggle against the growing influence of the Church” (KNS).

    Clearly, one would have to conclude with Fr. Victor Potapov that “the state of religion in the USSR remains bleak,” and, as another commentator cautioned: “Rejoicing should be restrained as long as the basic apparatus of repression remains in existence” (J. Anderson in “Religion in Communist Lands, winter 1988). Nevertheless, in this Millennium year one cannot help but find tremendous inspiration in the tenacity of the Russian Church’s struggle, and in the miracle of awakening sensed by Fr. Gleb Yakunin and others, a miracle which is a harbinger of that greatest of all miracles, resurrection.

    With great joy I learned that you distribute various books about the Orthodox faith. Some of your books reached us via France.

    I take part in gatherings of Orthodox youth. Each group meets under the auspices of a parish. We conduct discussions–how we Orthodox should act in the modern world so as not to harm our souls. For example, in the parish church of St …. , there are presently five active groups of about 30 participants in each. (In 1984 there were two groups.) Each group meets weekly with the exception of feasts or other important days in the life of the Church. At almost every meeting a priest is present. We read from the Gospels and the Epistles, and then the priest gives a commentary. We try to attract as many young people as possible to the Church because not all of them attend God’s temple as they ought.

Incidentally, we organize trips to various of our churches. In August of this year we hope to make a pilgrimage on foot to our “Holy Mountain” of Grabarka where there is located Poland’s only Orthodox convent.

    Presently, new churches are being built here in Poland, and the youth have much work to do to see that they are filled.

    I am currently in my fourth year as a student at a technological institute. Last year I took some courses at the seminary. I have a big favor to ask of you. If at all possible, could you send me some books about Orthodoxy–primarily concerning the way the Church views the modern world, and about the inner life of a Christian, about Church services, the typicon…, or whatever you have. In Poland we are surrounded by Catholicism, and we must develop a conscious and correct Orthodox faith. But it is hard for us to get good books about Orthodoxy. For this reason, to whatever extent this is possible, do not deny me your assistance. Many thanks.

P. , Poland

Dear Fr:

    From all our hearts we greet you with the joyous and light-bearing Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ…

    We are young people, 25-29 years old, and we should like very much to become acquainted with the history of our Orthodox Church, with the lives of Russian saints and outstanding pastors, with the activities of the free Russian Church Abroad. Even more; we want to love our faith, God, the Church tradition and not to forget our fathers and grandfathers. We believe that the truth will be victorious.

    We were born and grew up in Poland. Many of our grandparents came to this country after 1919.

    We have a sincere request to make of you: Could you send us some religious books? This would make us very happy. Perhaps there are people in your parish who could help us and who would not refuse us their assistance. Please help us, dear Fr …. ‘We have so very few.

    This year, July28/August 10, we shall commemorate the 50th anniversary of the repose of Metropolitan Anthony who laid the foundation of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. We take pride in your Church and always pray for its flourishment and well being. To us it is a shining beacon, illumining the path of Orthodoxy to those who seek it. This thought was similarly expressed by Metropolitan Anastassy.

    With joy we read the first two volumes of the biography of the Most Reverend Anthony written by Archbishop Nikon Rklitsky, This is all new to us and perfectly splendid. Could you send us the next books in this series?

    On Sundays we listen to an American broadcast of the Divine Liturgy from the church of St. John the Baptist in Washington D.C.

    We wish you good health and success in your labors for the good of the Russian Church. Please accept our earnest and most profound respects. E., Poland

The Polish Orthodox Church:

Some Statistics

    The 1985 directory of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church lists four dioceses in addition to the Warsaw-Bielsk archdiocese, with a total of 224 parishes presided over by Archbishop Bazyli (Doroszkiewicz), Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland. The Church also operates a monastery dedicated to St. Onouphrius at Jableczna in the Biala Podalska region, a convent at Grabarka (Bialystok region), and an Orthodox Theological Seminary in Warsaw. Curiously, this latest directory lists, among active clergy Archpriest Piotr Poplawski whose death was reported last year (see OA #52). (KNS ,#255. 7/2l,/86)

    It is by God’s will that I stand before you today. Three months ago I was a prisoner of the communist regime in Romania, persecuted and watched together with my family by agents of the secret police, though I did nothing other than preach Jesus Christ in the church where I served. Two years ago I was in the Romanian prisons and the same agents endeavored to destroy me. There were many of them; I was alone and defenseless. There was no law to prevent them from committing such a crime; there were no moral principles to stop them. I had faith, they had force; then again, they had nothing because they did not have God. I had the love and spiritual help of my fellow man, praying for me throughout the world; they had nothing but their hate. And because this conflict was a spiritual one, they were defeated, in spite of all the material power on their side.

     Three months have passed since I was forced to leave my country. I left behind a life of 60 years with all that encompasses: good deeds and mistakes, times of falling and rising up again, friends and enemies, and an enormous treasury of suffering which I value above all else because it is a suffering for Christ.

     For the Christian youth in Romania, as well as for the non-Christian, I became a symbol of suffering for Jesus Christ and a symbol of nonviolent resistance against the brutal communist ideology which violates a young person’s soul. Had I remained there and perhaps suffered martyrdom, it may have had greater impact, but it was God’s will that I come here to fulfill His plan for me which is being gradually revealed.

     Death holds a certain fascination. It is like a deep precipice that at once attracts and repels you. It frightens you with physical destruction, but when death becomes intimate with you, when for years death has been your companion, it is difficult to resist its call. In the spring of ’81 I had a deep longing for a martyr’s death, but God did not grant it to me. During my confinement I was visited spiritually by Christ, by many of the saints of the Church and some of my deceased relatives–my mother in particular. They talked to me in spirit…comforting me in my sufferings and loneliness.

    When translated into words these sufferings acquire a blend of remoteness, even fabrication, But when experienced with every fiber of my being, when I was encompassed only by walls and by the depressing malice of the guards–the only human faces I could see –had not God’s Grace surrounded me more so than at any time in freedom, I should have come to think that the world was made only of executioners and victims. Everything was intensely “hot” then: pain and faith. I had such a keen sensibility that not only the blows and insults caused me pain, but even the evil thoughts of my torturers.

    When Daniel the Prophet was cast into the den of lions, God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths and they did not hurt him because he was found blameless before them (Dan. 6:22). But God did not shut the mouths of his denouncers. When I was cast into the lions’ den–the communist prisons–God did not shut the mouths of the lions nor the mouths of my denouncers, but He took me out of there and preserved me…

    During a period of over one hundred days, the administration of Aiud prison tried to kill me by hunger, by cold and by terror. This was begun at a time when Nicolae Ceausescu, the chief of the communist party in Romania, was traveling all over Europe attending merry banquets offered him by presidents, kings and queens of Europe. But nothing from these banquets reached poor Lazarus.

    The triumphant reception of their president convinced the guards that Ceausescu was esteemed in the Free World and precious to Romania, and therefore, anyone who didn’t accept his decisions had to be killed. And I was one of those people. Their course of extermination started on July 20 and ended after November l, 1980. For ten days I was isolated in a windowless cell without air, with a jacket and a pair of pants both torn to pieces, without buttons, without a belt, and with food only once every days. In the evening a wooden board was lowered from the wall and I was allowed to rest for six hours. The remaining l8 hours I had to spend on the concrete floor of the cell. After ten days they put me back in my regular cell for two days, then isolated me again for another ten days. This game of death lasted more than one hundred days.

     The guard assigned to me was the party secretary of the prison. Poisoned by communist indoctrination, he insulted me with such dirty and humiliating words that I preferred to be beaten rather than listen to his insults. Nothing was holy for him, no one was spared his insults–neither I nor my parents, nor my wife, nor my son, not my priesthood, not even God.

    Twice a day I was walked to the restroom to empty the “tineta” (a wooden or clay bowl which served as a latrine bucket). Those walks were the worst torture I experienced. I was insulted, hit and sometimes pushed; it happened that the contents of the “tineta” spilled onto the concrete and I was then forced to clean it up with my bare hands.

     During my internment I served the Holy Liturgy every Sunday and Church holiday. At first the guards insulted me and beat me to make me give it up. I held fast and at last they left me alone. To their way of thinking I was crazy, but my craziness was the kind spoken of by Saint Paul: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (l Cor. l:l8-19).

    It was Sunday and I was isolated. It was one of the days without food and I couldn’t serve the Divine Liturgy because I had no bread. The Orthodox Liturgy is celebrated with bread and wine, and the central moment is then when the Holy Spirit descends and transforms bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ in a real though invisible way· From that moment our attitude towards the Holy Chalice is humble, loving and fearful, as inspired by the presence of the Saviour. In prison we had no wine, but we had bread and through necessity admitted by these extreme circumstances, my service was complete.

     On that Sunday I asked the Lord to help me forget my sadness at the impossibility of serving the Holy Liturgy for lack of bread. Nevertheless, a thought came to me: to ask the guard for some bread.

     The evil guard was on duty and I knew that my request would make him angry; he would insult me and he would ruin the peace I had in my soul for that holy day. But the thought persisted and grew so strong that I knocked on the iron door of the cell. A few minutes later the door was violently opened and the furious guard asked me what was the matter. I asked him for a piece of bread, no more than an ounce, for serving the Holy Liturgy.

    My request seemed absurd to him; it was so unexpected that his mouth dropped open in amazement. He left slamming the door as violently a s he had opened it. Many other hungry prisoners asked him for bread, but I was the first to ask for bread in order to serve the Divine Liturgy.

I regretted my impulse.

    Twenty minutes later the door of my cell opened half-way and quietly the guard gave me the ration for a whole day: four ounces of bread. He shut the door as quietly as he had opened it· And if I had not been holding the bread I would have thought that it was all an illusion.

    This was the most profound and most sublime Holy Sacrament I have ever experienced. The service was two hours long and the guard did not disturb or insult me as at other times; the entire duration of the isolation section was peaceful.

    Later, after I had finished the Liturgy and the fragrance of the prayer was still in my cell, the door opened quietly and the guard whispered:

     “Father, don’t tell anyone I gave you bread, or you’ll ruin me.”

    “How could I tell this to anybody, mister first sergeant? You acted as an angel of God · ..because the bread you gave me became the Body of Christ. In so doing you served by my side, and your deed is now recorded in eternity. ‘

     Without answering, he quietly shut the door, looking at me until the last moment. After that he never insulted me and during his eight hours of duty I had the most peaceful time of isolation.

     I have related this double aspect of my confinement–the suffering and the divine consolation-to make you understand that God secretly balances our lives. If we have God we shall never collapse from the pain of this world. During our most atrocious suffering we suddenly discover oases of light and sacred joy.

In his Diary, the Russian writer F.M. Dostoevsky wrote prophetically of what would happen in this century: “My people will descend to such depths that they will desecrate the holy altars with their bloody boots, with their blasphemous hands they will take the Holy Chalice with God’s Blood in it and will spit in it while they will kill the priest before the Holy Table and, dissatisfied with even this, they will crush the Chalice itself on the ground and fire shots into the Holy Blood, But then the triumphant Cross will rise and my people will return to God.”

     If the first part of this prophecy has been accomplished, why should the second part not be fulfilled? People that turned coat under the communist terror are coming back to faith, the youth are turning their eyes to Christ.

      If the world oppresses us, then Jesus comforts us; if the earthly powers kill us, Jesus gives us the martyr’s crown; if the kings cast us into the lions’ den, the Son of God shuts the mouths of the animals; if we are sad, our joy is Jesus. We are not alone and we are not deserted…

      Suffering has many faces and it is very difficult to describe all of them here. I know an Orthodox priest, Fr. Gavrila Stefan, whose life is spent on Golgotha. He was defrocked in 197l. Ever since then he lives in poverty and terror along with his wife and eight children, the oldest of whom is 16. He was arrested and released several times and his only hope is Divine Pity. While I was in prison he visited my family several times, and after each visit the secret police arrested him because he was forbidden to enter Bucharest, On his last visit, shortly before I was released from prison, he told my wife a terrible thing: “Madam, three days ago I killed our last sheep.” This was in the summer of 1984 when his wife was in the eighth month of pregnancy. How are they living now? What is their new-born baby eating?

    Where the pain is great, great also is the mercy of God, because God never gives a man more than he can carry.

     In 1978, before the Feast of Pascha, I preached in the church to the youth. I delivered a series of sermons called “Seven Words to the Youth.” As a consequence my hierarchs, upon the order of the communist supreme authority–Nicolae Ceausescu–excluded me from the church and delivered me into the hands of the secret police. I was despondent and terrified at the very prospect of imprisonment and maybe death in prison. I went to my older sister who was then about 70 years old, a simple woman who has always been in contact with the wisdom of the Romanian soul. After I had finished complaining she said to me:

    “My dear, I’ll tell you a story from here. from the countryside. You are educated and you will understand its meaning.

    “When God created the world He also created sorrow, suffering and trouble; and He laid them on a big stone and the stone broke; He laid them on a big tree and the tree withered; and finally He laid them on man and man carried them. And so will you, my brother, carry your sufferings.”

    And so I did. The proof is that I’m here before you and told you this wise Romanian folktale·

    The Soviet news agency TASS reports that the Moscow Patriarchate has “observed its humane and Christian duty” by sending “a large consignment of foodstuffs, medicines and other necessities” to Ethiopia. (Keston News, #227).

    Such action is, of course, commendable, as Fr. Alexey mentions in his editorial. However, one cannot help but contrast this well-publicized display of “Christian duty” with the gross neglect that the same hierarchy demonstrates with regard to nourishing the spiritually starving flock of its home pastures. Like the crisis in Africa, the spiritual famine in the Soviet Union has been deliberately contrived by a godless regime. Depriving its people of the bread of life, it offers instead the hard, lifeless stone of atheism. Hungry believers behind the Iron Curtain stretch forth to us their empty hands, Can we in good conscience ignore their cry for help? 

“Only your religious books give us the energy to survive.” — a believer’s letter from Russia 

    Some years ago this cry reached the heart of an Orthodox woman who determined to answer. Her first-hand experience in the Soviet Union convinced her of the desperate need for spiritual literature, and in 1979 she founded “Religious Books for Russia,” an organization which freely distributes Orthodox materials behind the Iron Curtain. At the same time it provides an opportunity to anyone desiring to reach out in Christian love to give that “bread of life,” to “feed the hungry” as the Lord commands.

    Our readers are well acquainted with the difficulty of obtaining religious literature in the USSR, and the risk involved in printing and distributing such materials. Fr. Alexander Pivovarov, Fr. Vladimir Fedorenko, Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Felix Svetov, Victor Burdyug, Nicholas Blokhin… many have been arrested for the “crime” of spreading the Gospel through the written word. Recent events have shown that the situation for believers is growing even worse.

    We must help while we still have the opportunity. During the first 10 months of its existence, RBR was able to ship more than 6,000 books to Russia. Letters of gratitude testify to this valuable work in which each of us can take a part:

     “You don’t know what an important task you and your friends have undertaken. No amount of money could replace your books. An intelligent person cannot live without spiritual food, and yet we have been deprived of it for 60 years …. Thank you, my beloved ones, for your remembrance and love of the Russian people.”

     “The books we received from you were an invaluable help. They enabled us to begin a series of study groups …. The spiritual growth of the Russian people depends on the religious materials you send. If you can, please send more.”

     Within the past year RBR has established contacts with several Orthodox people in Poland who had written to “Orthodox America” requesting help in obtaining religious literature and prayer books. A young hierodeacon responded: “Your help in sending books is like a gift from heaven. Clearly the Lord in His Providence has not left us orphaned, and with His right hand He guides us to Himself along the rough path among the heterodox and various obstacles.” He asks for books on the subject of the Jesus Prayer: “Unfortunately, we have very few books on this subject. If you can send some, it will be of benefit for us and for the Church, as many have forgotten about this Prayer. Please, send whatever you can, for the sake of Christ !”

    Another recipient, a seminarian, wrote: “I was overjoyed at receiving your package of books–and not I alone. As I am still a student, I passed the service books–such a treasure–on to my father who is a priest. His own service books are very old and he had no Vigil book. He also sends best wishes and sincere gratitude.”

    The continuation of RBR’s ability to send orthodox literature behind the Iron Curtain depends on our support. Let us think hard for a moment on the realities faced by a believer in the Soviet Union, where religious instruction is outlawed by the State, where religious literature has been forcibly suppressed, where Bibles can be found only on the black market and at the cost of a month’s wages, where believers are constantly harassed, threatened with salary cuts, fines, imprisonment. And in spite of all this, the hunger for spiritual materials has only intensified, especially among young people. Knowing the immeasurable joy, the life that a simple book can bring to the soul of a believer, what is the response of our Christian conscience to the following appeal of RBR?

    “All contact with the outside world is looked upon by the Soviet government as a threat to the communist system. It plays upon all manner of fears to sap the moral resolve of believers both in the Soviet Union and abroad. But the truth cannot be kept out forever, and the darkness into which the Church has fallen cannot last forever. The Church in Russia will surely enter into better times some day, long outlasting the current fashion of the State.

     “In the meantime, we in the West can throw some little points of light into the darkness: the religious books for which believers in the Soviet Union are willing to risk so much. This opportunity has been given to us not only to deepen the faith of Russian believers, but also as a test of our own faith. Our individual efforts may be small, but every time someone we reach through RBR opens a religious book–the Gospel, a prayer book, a book of spiritual instructions–it illumines a human soul. If the darkness is lifted in our time, let us all be able to rejoice then and say that when the darkness was greatest, we were of the light.”

    An article in the “Philadelphia Inquirer” this month reported statements of an official delegation of four Orthodox women visiting the United States from the Soviet Union affirming their country’s freedom of religion. According to one of them, a staff member of the External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, “The American image of the Soviet Union as a nation that suppresses religion is false …. The Russian Orthodox Church ‘absolutely’ is able to function freely in the Soviet Union…” In its constitution “freedom of conscience is guaranteed to all the religious people.” The article ended without editorial comment. ‘ Perhaps the interviewer was not well enough informed to question the women concerning the many prisoners of conscience in their country.

    There is the case of Sergei Markus, for example. Arrested a year ago, he was tried and sentenced in July, and in December began the journey from prison to the labor camp where he is to complete the course of his 3 year sentence. His crime? Officially it is recorded as “slandering the Soviet system and social order.” This was translated by his wife in an appeal to Christians of the world to come to the aid of her husband:

    !’Sergei considered his Christian duty to be to bring people to the Church of Christ, to teach the Scriptures, to demonstrate the’ power of the spiritual to them, showing them the true meaning of life the search for God …His case is a case of religious persecution under the guise of a political charge.”

    Like so many young believers in the Soviet Union, Sergei Markus grew up in a non-religious family and came to Christianity through his search for the meaning of life. A history graduate from the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, Sergei was working at the time of his arrest as a researcher at the 15^th-17th Centuries Museum in the village of Kolomenskoe near M o s c o w (see photo). His spiritual father, Archpriest Alexander Men, has long been popular with students, dissidents and “searching” non-believers, and is himself in danger now of being transferred out of Moscow for having inspired so many people to take up the Cross of Christ.

    Sergei’s trial began with a house search conducted on January 9 of last year. The local investigator arrived in the company of 10 men. Sergei was taken away and for the next nine hours, in the presence of Sergei’s wife and four young children, the house was searched. Among the materials confiscated were 10 copies of the Bible, a New Testament issued by the Moscow Patriarchate, articles entitled “The baptism of children in our time ,” various icons and family crosses. Meanwhile, Sergei was taken to a “cell of preliminary detention” and then to a prison for criminal offender s–without being given the reason for his arrest. During interrogations Sergei was pressured by the investigator Monteva, who went so far as to threaten him with execution by a firing squad in her attempt to obtain evidence against Sergei and also to get Sergei to make false accusations against his spiritual father.

     His trial exhibited similar legal irregularities. It was closed to relatives and friends not called as witnesses; they were allowed in only on the second day at the point when the sentence was announced. A denunciation was brought forth by a certain actor, Sosnovsky, motivated, according to Sergei’s wife, by his ambition to become a member of the Party. He claimed that Sergei had accosted him on a number of occasions and spoken about Christian beliefs. He also said that Sergei had made a number of anti-Soviet statements and that his most “heinous” crime was to express sorrow that the Soviet people were victorious in the Second World War because this had led to the “spiritual impoverishment of the Russian people .” No proof of anti-Soviet activity was provided. Sergei refused to admit his “guilt.” In spite of his good work references and his being the father of four young children, Sergei was given the maximum 3-year sentence.

    In the months of imprisonment, Serge’s wife was twice able to visit him and reported that he was in good spirits. His greatest disappointment was that the prison authorities did not allow him to have the Bible his wife gave him as a parting gift. Whether or not his wife has heard from him since his arrival at camp is not known. Both Alla and Sergei believe that everything that has befallen them in the past year is for “the best and is God’s will, for He is with us in everything.” (Information from “Keston News Service,” Nos. 206,207,210,217)

     The interviewer for the “Philadelphia Inquirer” may still be sadly unenlightened as to the harsh fate of Sergei Markus and so many like him. But you, dear reader, know Sergei’s story. May it burn into your heart the daily remembrance of the persecuted Church. And may your conscience prevent you from going to sleep without having prayed for all those enduring the trial of Golgotha, among them–Sergei, Alla, and children: Daniel, 7; Michael, 4; and twins aged 1½.

            Fr. Alexander was born July 8, 1939, in the Altai region of eastern USSR.  Graduating at the top of his class from the Odessa seminary, he wanted at once to become a monk.  Refused entrance to a monastery – he was too young according to Soviet law, he accepted ordination to the priesthood in 1960.  He finished his studies at the theological academy with distinction but declined offers to work in the office of the Patriarchate, preferring to serve as a parish priest in Siberia.

            He came to the attention of authorities very quickly for his inspired preaching on the immortality of the soul and the Resurrection.  An investigation lasting a year was instituted, and he was accused of “inciting fanaticism in the masses by spreading delusions” and slandered in the Soviet press.  Despite the difficulties in obtaining permission for even minor maintenance work on existing churches, Fr. Alexander managed to secure the building of a new church (dedicated to the Archangel Michael) in Novokuznetsk and baptismal chapels with altars in Tomsk and Prokopyevsk.  At the same time, he was subjected to continual harrassment – house searches, interrogations, threats.  Irrespective of the disfavor with which he was viewed by the state authorities, Fr. Alexander’s deep spirituality, theological authority and honesty were so clear for all to see that in spite of all this persecution, he was appointed in 1975 as secretary to Archbishop Gideon of Novosibirsk.

            Without warning, on April 6, 1982, the KGB searched his home and confiscted his Bible, prayer books, liturgical texts, lives of saints, crosses, vigil lamps, money, and typewriters.  On the same day, the KGB in Moscow conducted more than fifty house searches of people suspected of participating in the underground production of religious literature.  Orthodox layman Victor Burdyug (see “OA” #28), the father of five children, was arrested together with three friends:  Serge and Vladimir Budarov and Nicholas Blokhin – on charges of printing and disseminating religious literature.  An article published about the trial of this group of clandestine printers in the paper, “Sovetskaya Rossiya,” stated that in two years they had produced more than 61,500 books!  Between this group in Moscow and Fr. Alexander in Siberia was a direct link, part of a miraculously existing network of religious samizdat disseminators, whose activity has spread far beyond the boundaries of the larger cities into the remote provinces of Central Russia, Siberia and the Ukraine, where even “official” religious literature has for years been non-existent.  It is not hard to imagine the joy of the faithful upon receiving this spiritual nourishment.  This God-pleasing labor has also served to unite those of like mind and to strengthen the spiritually weary.  Clearly, the work of Victor Burdyug was not a private matter; it involved a growing segment of the Church’s faithful – including some of those in authority.  And this is what particularly disturbed the authorities.

            At the trial of Burdyug and his circle in December 1982, the prosecution made a deliberate attempt to present the case as though the accused had no connection with the Church but were motivated solely by material considerations.  Therefore, Fr. Alexander was not summoned to Moscow as a witness.  However, the active participation of the secretary of the Archbishop of Novosibirsk in disseminating large amounts of religious literature to all parts of the USSR, to remote corners where such literature has been unavailable for decades, was not to go unpunished.  He was immediately dismissed from his position as secretary to the Archbishop and given no employment for six months.  Then he was sent to the northernmost parish of the diocese – to the Siberian town of Yeniseysk.

            A year after the arrest of the Moscow printers, the Church came under attack, and Fr. Alexander was arrested.  One of his interrogators openly told a witness:  “We’ll paint such a pretty picture of your Pivovarov that the believers themselves will renounce him and spit in his face.”  They were unable, however, to achieve their desired aim.  The prosecution attempted to depict Fr. Alexander as being interested only in making money out of the dissemination of religious literature, but none of the witnesses called lent any credibility to such insinuations.  Nevertheless, Fr. Alexander was found guilty of “engaging in production against which there is special prohibition, carried out on a broad scale or with the employment of hired help,” “being a willing accessory to a crime” and “large scale black marketeering.”

            The Orthodox Church in Russia today is experiencing severe trials, but she is not crushed.  In her midst there have always been – and will be – such champions of the faith ready for sacrifice, for martyrdom, as Fr. Alexander, the laymen Victor Burdyev and his friends.  The cross they are now called to bear in the Gulag is very heavy indeed.  Victor Burdyug, for example, has not seen his family in more than a year and was denied his visiting rights.  The camp administration openly admits that this was on direct order of the KGB.  No, there is no point in waiting for any humane behavior from the militant atheists.  We must increase our prayers for those who are suffering for Christ, for the Church.  Remember in your prayers the imprisoned Archpriest Alexander, Victor, Nicholas, Sergius, Vladimir, and their families.  Help them, O Lord!

 (“Religiya i Ateism,” Munich; March, 1984; Keston:  “The Right to Believe,” #1, 1984)

PRAY!

Yelena Sannikova, a 24 year-old Orthodox Christian, has been arrested in Moscow and put into the KGB investigation prison, Lefortovo. Yelena is facing charges for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”.  Another Orthodox young woman, Irina Ratushinskaya, was sentenced on the same charges to seven years’ camp and five years’ internal exile. Irina is a poet whose work strongly reflects her Christian faith.