Sretensky Monastery of Tikhon Shevkunov. Who is he - "Putin's confessor", what really connects him with the president, and how the Serebrennikov case could start with his filing

- I've been pretty tired of this kind of journalistic questions and guesses for fifteen years.

Bishop Tikhon (in the world Georgy Alexandrovich Shevkunov; July 2, 1958, Moscow) - Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop of Yegoryevsky, vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', head of the Western Vicariate of the city of Moscow.

Viceroy of the Moscow Sretensky stauropegial monastery. Executive Secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture. Co-Chairman of the Church-Public Council for Protection from the Alcohol Threat. Member of the Board of Trustees of the St. Basil the Great Foundation (founded by businessman Konstantin Malofeev). Upon graduation, he entered the Pskov-Caves Monastery as a novice. In September 2003, he accompanied the head of state to the United States, where Putin conveyed an invitation from Patriarch Alexy II to Metropolitan Laurus, First Hierarch of ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia), to visit Russia. In the media, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) was called the confessor of Konstantin Malofeev (but Malofeev himself claims that his confessor is a monk from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra) and Vladimir Putin.

– Let’s move on to another difficult topic – as a rector, do you understand the structure of the ROC’s economy?

— As the abbot, I understand how the economy of our monastery works. As for the budget of the patriarchate, as far as I know, it consists of deductions from the dioceses and donations from Christians.

— How much does your monastery contribute to the patriarchate?

- The Sretensky Monastery transfers an annual fee to the patriarchate - it changes from year to year, but the order is from 3 to 5 million rubles. in year. If the situation is difficult, and all funds are spent on maintaining the life of the monastery, then the patriarch exempts from contributions to general church needs. This happens everywhere with temples being revived and built; the first especially difficult years, and we did not transfer funds to the patriarchy.

- Do you transfer the annual contribution to the account of the patriarchate?

- Which bank?

- If I'm not mistaken, to Sberbank.

“We can earn and earn ourselves”​

— How is the Sretensky Monastery financed?

— The main source is our monastery publishing house. We publish up to four hundred titles of books: spiritual, historical, scientific and fiction. Secondly, we have an agricultural production - the Voskresenie cooperative in the Ryazan region, we took it in 2001 in a completely ruined form.

- It seems you still have a cafe called Unholy Saints.

- This position is rather costly. A small cafe where people go to chat after the Sunday service, that's why we created it. Yes, we still receive money from the church, but no one comes with a plate during services, the parishioners themselves leave as much as they see fit for the upkeep of the church.

- There are more candles.

- Candles can be taken from us for free or put some small amount. Expensive pure wax and large candles have some value.

— How much does it cost you to maintain the monastery?

- These are large funds, I do not see the need to disclose them. We maintain the highest spiritual institution created in the monastery - the seminary. Last year it had 250 students. Seminarians - six years on full board.

- The former accountant of the patriarchate, Natalya Deryuzhkina, estimated the annual maintenance of two seminaries - Moscow and St. Petersburg - at 60 million rubles. How much of that amount do you spend on running the seminary? half?

- Approximately. The brethren of the monastery themselves earn money for the seminary, for the maintenance and Maintenance of the whole monastery, to help the orphanage, where 100 children are brought up, to the website, to many of our educational projects, to charity. On all this we can earn and earn ourselves.

There are donors...

- Yes, sure. The help of philanthropists is very important, and we are sincerely grateful to all of them. Once upon a time, during several of the most difficult years of the revival of the destroyed monastery, Sergei Pugachev (former senator and ex-owner of Mezhprombank, to two years in prison) helped us a lot; this moment located in France. — RBC). To make it clear the ratio of money earned by the monks themselves and received from donations to the monastery, then in best years charitable funds amounted to no more than 15% of the budget for the maintenance of the monastery. But in the case of new construction, help is needed. This happened when we realized that the size of our parish church was already hopelessly small, and we took the blessings of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill for the construction of a new church.

— I know that Rosneft helps you.

Yes, without her and without the help of other benefactors, we would not have built a new church. But the brethren of the monastery do not stand aside either: 370 million rubles, all the funds received from the sale of almost two million copies of my book “Unholy Saints”, we directed to the construction.

Does businessman Konstantin Malofeev really help you a lot?

- The St. Basil the Great Foundation (founder of the foundation - Malofeev. — RBC) twice participated in the partial financing of our historical exhibitions in the Manezh, and once transferred 50% of the necessary budget to the maintenance of the seminary. At all, charitable help- it's not something permanent. During the seventeen years of the seminary's existence, we received such help from philanthropists only three times, in the rest of the years we managed on our own.

Questions about money annoy you?

- Rather, they surprise. To be honest, it always seemed to me that such questions were, to put it mildly, unethical. Just in case, I’ll warn you: if somewhere in Germany, or in England, or in France you will conduct a conversation on such topics, the conversation will be instantly terminated. But, I repeat, if you and your readers are so interested, I am ready to answer. Speaking of help, once we, for example, held an action to distribute free Gospels. They were published at the expense of Oleg Deripaska. This does not apply to the Sretensky Monastery itself, but our joint project of the Historical Park at VDNKh was prepared by the joint efforts of the Moscow government, the Patriarchal Council and Norilsk Nickel.

“I have to interact with a wide range of people”

“You have, if I am not mistaken, a large number of influential acquaintances.

- I am the chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, and I really have to interact with a wide range of people, including well-known people in society.

Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov of Yegoryevsk, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo: Alexei Nikolsky/TASS)

- I'm talking about something else, rather. Is it easy for you to communicate with representatives of the state? Forgive me, please, but I constantly catch myself thinking that the FSB officers - you have it right next to you - figuratively speaking, apples from the apple tree that shot priests in Soviet times.

- I understand that you, as a journalist, exacerbate the issue. But to put an equal sign between the atrocities of the Chekists, who repressed and destroyed their own people, and the current military, serving in the law enforcement sphere, is possible only in the incurable mind of an ultra-liberal. With this approach, I must refuse to talk to you, saying: “Since your predecessors, journalists of the former news agencies and publications, have blatantly lied to the whole world and their own people for many years, I do not intend to communicate with you!”

- When did you lie? Then? Now?

- As for what is happening now, you know better. But in this case, I'm talking about Soviet times, when journalists sometimes lied so that everyone around them blushed, except for them. There are numerous current departments that worked not only in the USSR, but also in former very distant times. We must understand whether today even in the punitive organs the vector of attitude towards the people, towards the individual, towards the church has changed, or not? Is there now a command from the state to repress the church? No.

Is there any contradiction in this position? Now there is no persecution of the ROC, but will the church stand up for those who are subjected to repression?

- If there are unjust persecutions, he will definitely stand up.

- Agree, nevertheless, paradoxical things are happening - in schools they propose to introduce a single history textbook, in which Joseph Stalin looks like an almost effective manager. And there are clerics who adhere to the same position (in particular, the priest Evstafiy Zhakov, rector of the Church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga in Strelna, openly expressed his respect for Stalin and even hung an icon depicting the Generalissimo in the temple. — RBC).

- In the version of the future textbook that I saw, the assessment of the Stalinist period is presented in a very balanced way. If you have a version of the textbook with a different interpretation, please send it to me. Among today's clergy there are very different views on the personality of Stalin, but at the same time I have never seen a priest who would say: "Stalin is my ideal!" and even more so would justify the repressions, or at least remove Stalin's personal responsibility for them.

- Don't you think that the church in relations with the state goes through pendulum periods? Love is hate. Now, for example, love. So the hatred must return.

- More than nine hundred years - since the Baptism of Rus' - love. Then a few decades - hatred. So what do you think? Rather, everything is more complicated here. As for the essence of your question - about the interaction of church and state - today we are dominated by the position of undoubted rationality and mutual benefit from the separation of church and state. There can be no question of any unification of the two institutions - the state and the church. It will only bring harm.

- Why does it feel like the ROC and the government go hand in hand?

- Well, let them go hand in hand where it is impossible not to welcome. Together church and state institutions are engaged in charity, helping those in need, preserving ancient cultural monuments related to the church and its history. And also projects in the field of culture, historical science, some general diplomatic programs. But of course you are talking about politics?

- Yes.

- I can reassure you: the Russian Church has long adopted a law that priests and bishops should not participate in the political life of the country.

- Nevertheless, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church are quite active in speaking out on political topics.

- Representatives of many public organizations express their opinion on a wide range of social, cultural and political phenomena, but this does not mean their real participation in state policy.

- Father Vsevolod Chaplin actively spoke out in support of the residents of Donbass.

- Father Vsevolod Chaplin is a separate conversation.

Yes, but Chaplin is not alone. For example, the rector of a church near St. Petersburg openly consecrates body armor for the DPR militias.

- Well, what is the crime? Bulletproof vest allows you to save lives.

- If we talk about Father Chaplin, he has recently demanded to disclose the items of income and expenses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

- So here's the thing: your interview about church finances is such a kind of hello to us from Father Vsevolod ?! Well, there are special financial monitoring bodies, let them check everything competently and responsibly.

“I hear and know that there are also abuses on the part of church authorities in some dioceses”

— How do you feel about the law on the return of religious property? By the way, do you own a monastery?

- No. Perpetual and free use. Everything in the monastery is the property of the state.

- Why? Are you more comfortable?

— It happened that way.

- And you were given money under the federal program "Culture of Russia"?

- Once ten years ago - to restore the frescoes in the temple. But they did not give it to us, but to the restoration organization, which restored these frescoes in a wonderful way. What else to report? The city authorities allocated funds for paving stones for the ancient part of the monastery courtyard.

- As far as I know, you are the head of the public council under Rosalkogolregulirovanie. Why do you need it?

- Very necessary. Seven years ago, with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill, the Church-Public Council for Protection from the Alcohol Threat was created. The writer Valentin Rasputin and I became co-chairs. A few years later, I was called to head the public council at Rosalkogolregulirovanie. For me, the main task of the work is to reduce the consumption of alcoholic products in the country, primarily among adolescents and young people. We did something: according to the latest data, alcohol consumption in Russia has fallen by 18% in six years.

- Your prayers?

- Prayers and common labors of many people.

- As far as I understand, priests in Moscow live easier than in the provinces - on the periphery, the percentage of diocesan deductions is higher, parishioners are many times smaller, and people are poorer. The priests are complaining.

- As for the fact that the percentage of deductions is higher, I don’t know here. I mostly know the parish life only of the Pskov diocese, which I myself described in the book Unholy Saints. I have friends from very poor priests who also helped their grandmothers with their salary. Here, the late Father Nikita and Father Victor did not pay anything at all to the Pskov diocese, because there was nothing - absolutely impoverished parishes. But this is my knowledge of the diocese ten years ago. Of course, I hear and know that there are also abuses on the part of church authorities in some dioceses. Well, if so, then that's a problem.

“I’m not the first to tell you about such problems.

- No no.

— Nevertheless, there was no talk of this at the last Bishops' Council.

— Financial topics were not the subject of discussion at the Bishops' Council.

The appointment of a bishop to the Pskov cathedra, whom the media call "Putin's confessor", has caused a wave of conspiracy theories on the topic: the future Patriarch or an honorary exile?
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which, as it met in St. Petersburg, appointed the Bishop as the ruling bishop of the Pskov Metropolis Tikhon (Shevkunova). At the same time, he will retain the post of head of the Patriarchal Council for Culture.
Bishop Tikhon is a very media figure. Bishop Yegoryevsky, vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' (Western Vicariate of the capital), a well-known church writer, screenwriter and journalist, he often attracts media attention. Tikhon is called the "confessor of President Putin", which the bishop himself never confirmed, but did not refute either.

The appointment generated an explosion of comments.

The candidacy of the future patriarch is almost determined, - writes a well-known church dissident deacon Andrey Kuraev. – The charter of the Russian Orthodox Church does not allow a vicar bishop to be a candidate for the patriarchal throne. Bishop Tikhon will now have the experience of managing a metropolitan. Hopefully many years old. I believe that over the coming years he will not lose his current status of "leader of popular sympathies."

A friend of Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), Andrey Kuraev, happily announces that a new patriarch has been chosen today. Following him, the blogger Venediktov writes about this. But it is not at all clear why they are so happy. Surrounded by Patriarch Kirill, there are other joys. On the contrary, they believe that the intrigue, in which the people of the patriarch, the abbot of the Valaam monastery Pankraty, Metropolitan Varsonofy, as well as Medvedev and Sechin, were involved, successfully ended with the removal of Shevkunov to the Pskov cathedra, writes the telegram channel "Nezygar" claiming to have insider information.

According to a source, Tikhon Shevkunov had plans to take a chair in St. Petersburg, the channel writes further. - As a result, he turned against him all the main groups in the Russian Orthodox Church. The last straw was Shevkunov's intervention in the Ukrainian question and participation in the organization of negotiations with Filaret of Kyiv through ROCOR.

The appointment of Tikhon (Shevkunov) as Metropolitan of Pskov can be considered as a real promotion only in one case - if there is a real plan for his promotion to the patriarchate, - says the deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies Alexey Makarkin. - For this, Kirill needs to resign, but he is clearly not going to do this. And the precedent for the departure of the patriarch was in the 17th century, and even then with a big scandal - in the conditions of the beginning of the church schism, at the council with the participation of the Eastern patriarchs, which deposed Nikon. If there is no close prospect of the patriarchate, then the transfer of Tikhon can be regarded as very honorable, but removal from Moscow to a provincial see.

In any case, the Pskov department is not only prestigious (due to its antiquity), but also a rich department due to the presence in it of the famous Pskov-Caves Monastery - one of two monasteries in Russia that did not close in Soviet time. In it, Tikhon began his church activities as a novice in the 1980s, recalls Makarkin.

All this conspiracy is based on secular journalists' misunderstanding that the Church lives in its own time. And accordingly it is controlled, - he argues in a conversation with IA FederalCity writer Pavel Ganiprovsky. “Everything is done in a measured and unhurried manner. Therefore, to say that the appointment of Vladyka Tikhon as a bishop of one of the key Russian dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church is an honorary reference, just on the basis that Patriarch Kirill is clearly not going to retire now, means not understanding the algorithm of church personnel policy. The Council of Bishops will never elect a bishop as Patriarch who has not ruled the diocese himself for at least a few years. And Vladyka Tikhon was only a vicar and did not manage anything on his own. That is, he was simply promoted to obtain the necessary “qualification”. And from this point of view, yes, Vladyka Tikhon is the successor His Holiness Cyril, who, of course, is not going to retire in any way now. Another thing is that in a few years the situation can change very much.

A few words about the meeting of the Synodal Theological Commission (SBC) on February 19-20, 2001 and the events that unfolded around it, for we are not the only living witnesses of all this. We think that it will be important and useful for everyone to remember some details of this action.

Paradoxical as it may seem, the preparations for this meeting were very similar to the preparations for the defeat of the anti-globalization movement in Russia, in any case, an attempt to knock out the spiritual foundation from under it once and for all, to “squeeze” it out of the boundaries of the Church. Hysterical company - "Split!", "Split!" covered many ecclesiastical and secular media by order... In the publications, all the classic techniques of modern PR technologies were visible to the naked eye: "Both then and now people went into the catacombs ... because of the TIN.

"Newsmakers" have long fueled the heat of passion around the topic of "split" - the last weapon in the hands of church supporters of globalization and digital coding of the population. The fact is that they no longer have any reasonable and not yet refuted arguments “in defense of the TIN”. It was clear to all sane people that the Church has no reason to “bless” the universal “INN-ezation”, and even more so to oppress her faithful children who do not accept digital nicknames-antonyms. Nevertheless, whole army“theologians” tried diligently to prove the “harmlessness” of accepting the TIN, as well as branding “schismatics”, “outcasts” and “sectarians” those who dared to look at this problem not from the point of view of their nomenclature “theology”, but were guided by the Holy Scriptures, creations Holy Fathers, by the dictates of their Christian conscience and by their - still alive - Orthodox feeling of what is happening.

Much can be said about how the frightening danger of a “split” was inflated, how labels were hung on opponents who could not be defeated in an honest dispute. It was in such, to put it mildly, non-constructive atmosphere that preparations for the SBK plenum took place ...

And shortly before the start of the meetings, an unprecedented action took place to influence the opinion of both the members of the Commission and the general public, which was carried out with the help of a professional director. Metropolitan Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), stocking up on letters signed by the Patriarch, drawn up accordingly (it is very likely that the archimandrite himself prepared them), made a lightning-fast "voyage to the elders." Moreover, he persistently, at any cost, tried to achieve confirmation of pre-prepared assessments and conclusions that “TIN is not terrible”, “there are no sixes there”, “split is terrible” and the like. At the same time, Father Tikhon relied on the authority and indisputable opinion of the highest hierarchy. That's just small example"questioning the revelation of the truth and the will of God" at Father Nikolai Guryanov. Radio listeners of "Radonezh" could hear it on the air on January 29, 2001, then in a somewhat "edited" form this dialogue was posted on the Internet:

Archimandrite Tikhon (about TIN): "This is the tax number that is given to every person now"(precisely in such a crafty wording: they don’t “force them to write an application for assigning a number, they don’t force them to accept it”, but this number is “given” as if by itself; however, the person is also “given a name”)

Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov: "Ah, is that how? .."

Archimandrite Tikhon: “About which His Holiness writes... Some say that this is the seal of the Antichrist... So the Holy One wrote to you... The Holy One says that this is not the seal of the Antichrist... If there were 666, then His Holiness wrote to you about this. He won't deceive you!?"

After such, as they say now, "collision", what kind of "revelation" can be expected from the elder?

The archimandrite arrived on the island of Talabsk to shoot a story about how Father Nikolai blesses the acceptance of the numbers. After several unsuccessful takes, during which the archimandrite read the “secret package” brought from Moscow to the elder, Father Nikolai, who was not devoid of a sense of humor, began to play the fool in front of the camera, and eventually covered it with his hand. At the same time, his cell-attendant, mother John, exclaimed loudly: “Father! You don’t bless taking numbers!”

After that, an audio recording of the “speech” of Archpriest Nikolai was played on the radio “Radonezh”, to which the inventive archimandrite commented: "Father Nikolai has no opinion on the TIN." But excuse me, thousands of people came to the island with this question, both before the visit of the archimandrite and after it. By the inexpressible mercy of God, many of our associates managed to communicate with this chosen one of God. Everyone knew that Father Nikolai does not bless the acceptance of numbers. Here's the story...

The next elder, whose opinion Archimandrite Tikhon wanted to convey to the people, was Father John (Krestyankin). The video clip in which Father John reads an appeal prepared in advance (naturally, “with the help” of the mentioned archimandrite) was repeatedly replicated, played on television and radio throughout Russia for maximum impact on the thoughts and feelings of believers, not to mention the fact that it was shown (as the main argument) on a wide screen at a meeting of the SBC.

It was evident throughout that Father John is absolutely clueless relating to spiritual, technical and social aspects people digital coding; not informed about the violence that secular authorities are doing against people; about those ecclesiastical bans that believers were subjected to for refusing to accept the number; about the incredible lies spread by the media disinformation; that digital identity is global.

On the other hand, Father John possessed clearly excessive information about non-existent problems: about the alleged split in the Church over the TIN; non-recognition by someone of the grace of the Church; about the departure of entire communities "into forests, swamps and ravines."

Sadly, we also heard from him that it is possible to save oneself in a concentration camp, but we just did not understand: why should we build this concentration camp with our own hands? ..

Finally, Archimandrite Tikhon wanted to film Father Kirill (Pavlov), but the revered confessor of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra and the Patriarch himself from filming shrewdly refused. After that, he was suspended from participation in the work of the SBC. However, after the end of the plenum, he was long and persistently persuaded to sign the Final Document, which stated that "the acceptance of numbers is not a matter of confession of faith or a sinful act" and "has no religious significance."

Father Kirill, despite enormous administrative pressure, refused to do so. Moreover, he courageously expressed his dissenting opinion in an interview with the editor of the Orthodox Internet portal “Russian Resurrection”: “Assigning numbers to people is a godless, sinful thing. Because when God created man, He gave him a name. Giving a name to a person is God's Will. All the millennia that have passed since that time, people used names. And now, instead of a name, a person is assigned a number. How and why this is done leaves no doubt about the sinfulness and the theomachic nature of this work. Therefore, it is not necessary to participate in this matter, but to the extent possible, resist it. From these words of the elder it clearly followed: if the assignment of a number to a person is a godless, sinful matter, then the acceptance and use of a number by a person is no less a godless and sinful matter!

There is no doubt that the people of God believe in Father Kirill, and not the ideologists of globalism “from theology”, who serve not God, but time and justify the “mystery of lawlessness”.

Now is the time to bring the text of the letter brought by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) on behalf of the Patriarch to the Pskov-Caves Monastery to Archimandrite John (Krestyankin). This letter, probably due to some oversight, was published in Pskov-Pechersky list and became the property of a wide audience. This was the reason for the video speech of Father John, presented to the members of the SBC and widely broadcast on radio and television.

PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW
AND ALL Rus' ALEXY

His Reverend Archimandrite John,
Pskov-Pechersk Dormition Convent

Your Reverence, dear Father Archimandrite John!
I heartily congratulate you on the great Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord
and prayerfully wishing many mercies of God, bodily and spiritual strength.

I was forced to turn to you by a question that, as you know, is worrying many now - this is the attitude to the TIN - the tax number entered by the state in order to streamline the collection of taxes, and subsequently to determine the amount of pension accrual.

Today, this issue is taking on extremely painful forms. Anti-church forces are attempting to split the Church, using rumors that the TIN allegedly contains the number 666. This is not true: the TIN is an ordinary number, is not an apocalyptic omen, and even more so is not the seal of the Antichrist. Meanwhile, at the instigation of the enemy, anti-church forces are whipping up a real panic associated with the acceptance or non-acceptance of the TIN. Your letter, published in many newspapers and read from the ambos of churches, largely pacified the situation, but people immediately appeared who claimed that this letter was forged. There are already cases of people leaving work and their homes, calls for disobedience to the hierarchy of the Church, calls for a schism and departure almost to the forests. All this is reminiscent of the situation with the splits in the 27th century and the post-revolutionary events.

Dear Father Archimandrite! I ask you, for the comfort of the people of God, to express your opinion on all these issues. I ask you to record your words on a video camera in order to deprive the slanderers of a reason to say that your opinion is forged. This is very important, because because of irresponsible screamers and schismatics, the disease can go too far. I look forward to your support at this critical moment. In turn, We will do everything to pacify the division that has arisen, so that members of the Church who do not want to accept a tax number for one reason or another, are in no case forced to do so, and no negative consequences are caused to them as a result. In this We received assurances from the Minister for Taxes and Dues of the Russian Federation G.I. Bukaev, an Orthodox man who supports Us.

I ask for your holy prayers, which I always rely on.

With love in the Lord, Alexy, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.

I must say that the video speech of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) made an impression on many, including members of the SBC. We recall how the abbot of the Valaam Monastery, Archimandrite Pankraty (now Bishop of Trinity), who had previously firmly opposed the theomachic global projects, said: “Brothers! But Father John is a confessor. He went through prisons and camps. How can we not trust him?

We heard similar words from other members of the Commission, including the bishops. At the same time, during the preparation of the Final Document, the report prepared at a high theological and scientific and technical level by the rector of the St. Vladyka Konstantin was simply not given the floor. "There wasn't enough time."

A very convenient technique: if it is impossible to refute an opponent in an honest way, then you can pretend that his arguments did not exist at all. On this occasion, we had a serious conversation with Bishop Konstantin. Vladyka was sincerely worried, for his report would not have left a stone unturned from the arguments of Archimandrite John. The Commission also ignored the well-founded scientific and technical conclusions of reputable scientists with the degrees of candidates and doctors of sciences and the titles of academicians, who completely refuted the conclusions of the Commission.

The opinion of the Commission was formed by such "theologians" and "well-known experts" in the field of computer technology as the aforementioned Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) and Deacon Andrei Kuraev, which led to very deplorable results. Their only judge is God!

It can only be unequivocally stated that if the Church had then said a firm “NO” to digital identification of a person, then today there would be no problems associated with the introduction of electronic “passports” and other means of electronic control and management, including those inseparable from the human body ; there would be no problems associated with the discrimination of hundreds of thousands of Orthodox citizens who do not want to enter the “new identification system” due to religious beliefs. It is very sad that to this day many clergymen and officials use the words of Father John (Krestyankin), which have long been refuted by life itself.

“One must know, beloved, that in every deed one must seek truth and falsehood, and the goal of the one who acts, whether it is good or bad,”- our reverend father John of Damascus teaches us.

P.S. The now newly-appointed bishop (Shevkunov) is trying to make his “modest” contribution to organizing an early meeting between the Patriarch and the Pope of Rome and the “unification of the Churches.”

"Axios!" (from the headlines in the patriotic media about his consecration).

Anaxios!!! (thrice)

the entire editorial board of the "Orthodox Apologist" fully subscribes to the opinion of the editorial board "For the right to live without TIN and microchips" and also expresses its word regarding the consecration of Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, who led so many persons from the hierarchy and ordinary believers into error, prompted Archimandrite. John (Krestyankina), Anaxios! Anaxios! Anaxios!

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov): biography

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). Biography. Path to monasticism. Works and works of Archimandrite Tikhon. History of monasticism. Monasticism in Rus'.

The political press of the Russian state repeatedly returns to the name of the famous Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov. Some people claim that he is a kind of gray cardinal who prompts various thoughts, and in some way even dictates his own will to the immediate rulers of the Russian state. Other people suggest that Vladimir Putin needs unhindered communication with the Moscow Patriarch Kirill, who helps him curb his own thoughts and arrange them in the most optimal way so that Orthodox spiritual thinkers can understand him.

It is important to note that the preacher of Orthodoxy, Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, is an extremely intelligent and far-sighted person. He is a contemporary, while maintaining his own perspicacity, and of course he feels a high responsibility for the fate of every Orthodox believing people of the Russian state, as well as for the clergy and monks who are under his command. Consequently, Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov is aware of the seriousness of the obligations assumed, both to the Russian state and its rulers, and to the Almighty.

The history of the emergence of monasticism

Orthodox Christian monasticism is a kind of peculiar community that is formed in a person from the very moment when he, of his own free will, decides to give up all possible blessings and begins new life according to the church charter and canon. Therefore, such a person must throughout his life observe the vow of chastity, modesty and show his own complete obedience.

From historical information It is known that the very first monarch in the Orthodox Christian faith was Saint Anthony. He lived in 356 in Ancient Egypt. Historical information claims that Anthony was far from being a poor person, however, for the sake of monasticism, he sold his existing property, and distributed the money thus accumulated to needy people. Over time, he settled near his own home, which he had previously sold, and began to live a hermit's life, thus, he spent almost his entire life in solitude. He devoted all his time to prayers and prayers directed to the Almighty, and also read scripture. He became a prime example for other hermits, who, seeing his tireless prayers, also settled near him, rebuilt their own cells and, just like Anthony the Great, began to offer various prayers to the Almighty. It was from the hermit life of Anthony that a community of monks was created. After some time, similar communities began to emerge in various parts of the world, including northern and middle Egypt.

The emergence of monasticism in Rus'

A variety of historical data, evidence, say that monasteries appeared on the territory of Rus' around 988, when the baptism of Rus' appeared. It is known that the famous Spassky Monastery was founded in the city of Vyshgorod. It was during this same period of time that Saint Anthony the Great brought to ancient Rus', a kind of Athos monasticism, and since then he has been one of the main founders of the world-famous Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Many years later, it is the Lavra that will act as the most grandiose center for all religious life on the territory. Kievan Rus. Currently, St. Anthony of the Caves is a very revered shrine, since many Orthodox Christian believers and church ministers revere him as the head and creator of almost all Russian churches.

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). Biography. Path to monasticism

Known to almost every modern inhabitant, Tikhon, before becoming a monk, was Grigory Shevkunov. He was born in 1958. At a young age, he went to study at VGIK at the faculty of screenwriting and film studies and graduated around 1982. It was at this moment in the life of Archimandrite Tikhon that the most striking changes took place, because after graduating from the screenwriting and film studies department at the institute, he became a novice at the Holy Dormition Pskov-Caves Monastery. And his further fate was influenced by the monks and associates with whom he connected his fate. At that time, an extremely kind and spiritually believing man, Archimandrite John Krestyankin, ruled in the Holy Dormition Pskov - Caves Monastery. Therefore, it is believed that it was he who influenced the holy, spiritual changes that Grigory Aleksandrovich Shevkunov experienced after graduating from the institute, which is why he later became the famous Archimandrite Tikhon.
Around 1986, Archimandrite Tikhon begins his new life and creative path. Thus, Gregory begins new round life, working in the department associated with the publishing house of the Moscow Patriarchate. At that time, the leader was Metropolitan Pitirim Nechaev. In 1986, the Holy Archimandrite begins to study the most important historical information, facts, various documents that are associated with the Orthodox Christian faith, and at this moment in his life he studies biographical information about the Saints. It is known that for the solemn date, that is, for the millennium of the Baptism of Rus', Archimandrite Tikhon prepared extremely diligently, since he sought out a large number of various religious and educational films. In such tapes, he was not only the author, but also a consultant. Consequently, Tikhon influenced many Soviet citizens, giving them a clear understanding and knowledge of the various canons associated with the Orthodox Christian faith. Around the same time, Grigory Alexandrovich Shevkunov was engaged in publishing the most ancient Patrick and other sacred domestic publications.

Acceptance of monasticism

In 1991, Grigory Alexandrovich makes the most significant decision for himself and goes to the Donskoy Monastery, which is located in Moscow. There, in the summer, he becomes a monk, and the servants of the temple give him a new name, under which he is now known as Archimandrite Tikhon. At that moment, when Grigory Shevkunov appeared at the service in the Donskoy Monastery, he took part in the most important act for this temple. The man was present at the moment of finding the relics of the Saint, which, as you know, were previously buried in the Donskoy Cathedral, which is located in Moscow, around 1925. After some time, Archimandrite Tikhon became the rector of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, which was located in buildings near the ancient Sretensky Monastery. It is important to note that various monks and priests, speaking of the archimandrite, argue that regardless of the place, in whatever temple or monastery he serves, everywhere Tikhon feels his own true purpose, and is often firm in his own convictions. Therefore, for many priests and monks, he was not only a good adviser, but also instructed them on the true path in the event of various life adversities.

The life of an archimandrite

Around 1995, Grigory Alexandrovich was ordained in the monastery to the new rank of abbot. After 3 years in the same monastery, he is consecrated to the new rank of archimandrite, in which he remains to this day. In 1999, Archimandrite Tikhon became rector of Sretensky high school at an Orthodox Christian monastery, later this school was transformed into a new theological seminary. It is important to note that in his speeches, Archimandrite Tikhon, often loyally and with great love, as well as gratitude, speaks of the Sretensky Monastery. Many Orthodox believers believe that such affection for the monastery suggests that Tikhon was a minister of this church for a long time, and also received various new ranks there.

After Grigory Alexandrovich was consecrated to the rank of archimandrite, he and his brothers from the Sretensky Monastery went to the Chechen Republic in order to transport humanitarian aid from the Russian state there. Archimandrite Tikhon continued this activity from 1998 to 2001. In addition to such acts, it is important to remember his active participation in the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church, with the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. It is also important to note that it was in this process of reunification that he played an important role. Starting from 2003 and ending in 2006, Tikhon was a certain member of the commission that prepared dialogues and acts related to canonical communication.

Around 2011, becomes a member of the supreme church council of the Russian Orthodox christian church and at the same time he is the chief trustee of the board of the charitable foundation of St. Basil the Great. At the same time, he is an academician and a permanent member of the committee of the Izborsk Club.

It is worth noting that Archimandrite Tikhon was awarded a large number of church Orthodox awards, one of the most revered awards is the Order of Friendship, awarded to him in 2007 for the preservation of cultural and spiritual values. Many Orthodox believers and clergy admire his creative path and the work he does. It is also worth noting the fact that while communicating with Archimandrite Tikhon, you not only learn a lot of interesting information, but his speeches are accessible and understandable to almost every person, and at the same time they are not boring, therefore, the conversation with him is interesting and informative.

He is an influential bishop, a possible future patriarch and confessor of Putin, a member of the Athos and Izborsk clubs. He makes friends with Sechin and Mikhalkov, lobbies for the candidacy of Vasilyeva. Minister of Culture Medinsky is waiting for him in the corridor for several hours. He is an ideologue of extreme church fundamentalism and a master of hardware games. He is Tikhon Shevkunov, main character documentary film by Sergei Yerzhenkov and Vladislav Pushkarev "Confessor".

Listen to the parable: There was a certain owner of the house who planted a vineyard, surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower and, having given it to the vinedressers, went away. When the time of fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers to take their fruits; the vinedressers seized his servants, nailed one, killed another, and stoned another.

CHAPTER FIRST. Parable of the Evil Tenants

Back in the nineties, he would receive the nickname Lubyanka Father - for the spiritual guidance of the Chekists. And more than twenty years later, on Bolshaya Lubyanka, at the place of executions, the second largest church in Moscow, the Cathedral of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, will appear, which the Lubyanka priest will solemnly open together with Vladimir Putin, also a former Chekist.

After all, God does not care in what language they address him - Church Slavonic, Russian or Chuvash. And for the parishioners it is important - through the letter and the word to comprehend the meaning of the sacrament. Father Georgy Kochetkov, one of the few in the Orthodox Church who bears the good news in Russian.

“Until 1937, divine services were performed in Russian, then everyone was shot. The authorities were very careful that people in the church did not understand anything. He came, lit a candle and left

The Preobrazhensky Brotherhood grew out of an environment of religious dissidence. The end of the 80s, the intelligentsia discovers the temples, devastated and desecrated by the Chekists.

“Everyone wanted to find a spiritual way out of the Soviet impasse, and many least of all expected to find it in Christianity and Orthodoxy. And found!— art critic Alexander Kopirovsky shares.

But this freedom did not last long - some 2-3 years. And then there was October 1993 and the shooting of the White House. Driven to the periphery of political life, the reactionaries began to play a prominent role in the spiritual. It was a revenge. The priest who supported Perestroika, who gathered around him academicians with “liberal”, as the president would say one day, beards, was a serious irritant for them.

“It will be the courtyard of the Pskov-Caves Monastery”- said Tikhon, and behind him immediately rose the mighty figures of the Cossacks and the Black Hundreds with banners at the ready - go and object to them.

“Father Krestyankin advised him to find some kind of monastery in Moscow in order to open the courtyard of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, because the economic situation, if you remember in the early 90s, had changed a lot,” says journalist Sergei Bychkov. “And what do you want - Soviet people, even if they are in cassocks, they are used to the methods that were adopted then,” adds Alexander Kopirovsky.

The pogromists threw icons and books out of the temple, and Georgy Kochetkov was accused of heresy by the Judaizers - they say, he leads divine services in Russian and the royal gates are wide open.

Alexy II takes the side of the conservatives and declares Kochetkov's parishioners "neo-renovationists" - it's like now imprinting the word liberal and ruining a person's biography. The personnel decision was to transfer Kochetkov to the Church of the Assumption in Pechatniki, and to appoint Shevkunov as the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery.

“True, when we were forced to leave, Tikhon Shevkunov said that it would not be for long, that we would ask you from there too”, - says Father Georgy Kochetkov.

Alexander Shtilmark retired, became a young father and softened his temper. In this gray-haired, fluffy family man, girded with Tolstoy's sash, it is difficult to recognize the founder of the Black Hundred at first sight.

The fighters, battered by life, meet with an old asset in Shtilmark's apartment. After the prayer, tea with syrniki and already familiar conversations about who to jail and who to shoot. A look at point-blank range, a click of the shutter and a machine-gun burst of words filled with lead weight: “I’m already silent about Serebrennikov, who was caught there with millions. I would seriously shoot."

At the second hour of the conversation, when the cannonade stopped, we turn to the main thing - did Shevkunov hire them to resolve property disputes: “Maybe it’s in business where spheres of influence are divided, tents are divided, yes, maybe. If Tikhon Shevkunov would do this, here they are my competitors, I will kick them out. Well, it's just not serious even. It's a level of some kind, well, I don't know. I'm sorry. Such an idea, that's what they hired, this is the level of discussion of some idiots on the Internet.

I ask about the last meeting with Shevkunov. Suddenly, as if casually, it turns out that the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery helped with the examination of the exhibition "Beware of Religion!". Answer: “He gave a very competent expert opinion, on the basis of which, as it were, a sentence was pronounced on Samodurov and Erofeev.” “If Father Tikhon somehow influences Putin, then it’s worth falling on your knees and begging that nothing new would happen otherwise”- added Shtilmark.

The denouement of the conflict between Shevkunov and Kochetkov came in 1997. Mikhail Dubovitsky, a supporter of Shevkunov, was appointed as the second priest in the Church of the Assumption in Pechatniki, as an assistant to Father George. During one of the services, Dubovitsky stepped out of the shadow of Father George and did not recognize the Eucharist he had performed. The service was interrupted, Dubovitsky was asked to take off his vestments. Then he locked himself in the altar and began to call for help from there, allegedly the Renovationists were beating him. Dubovitsky was taken to the hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. And from the Sretensky Monastery, and this is only two minutes on foot, organized Shevkunov Cossacks and exalted grandmothers came running. A fight broke out between the parishioners of the two churches.

Father Georgy Kochetkov: “As the policeman who came told us, that when they were just going to the temple, they got a call from the police station and said: just don’t touch the young priest. That is, it was an action, also agreed with the police. Then we learned that people from the Sretensky Monastery came, most likely Father Tikhon himself, to the chief of police.”

After an intra-church trial, despite the doctor's conclusions and many other testimonies, Kochetkov was found guilty.

“Either Shevkunov himself, or someone on his behalf came and said: we need to help liberate the temple from the Kochetkovites,”- says Vyacheslav Demin, Cossack chieftain, one of the participants in the provocation, after which Kochetkov was banned from serving. The church intelligentsia did not call him otherwise, as a scumbag and a criminal, some even connected him with the murder of Alexander Men.

“No one understood that Lubyanka was in charge of us, they just lead us and direct us either there or here. And just then, my acquaintance with Tikhon Shevkunov begins. Apparently, then he began to actively cooperate with this civilization, and she cherished him very much, ” Demin adds.

There are two flags in Demin's room - American and Ukrainian. This is his political position. Demin has already moved to the USA for six months. Disappointed both in Russian nationalism and in the church of the Moscow Patriarchate, whose interests, as it seemed to him then, he was defending.

Shevkunov said: “I will vote for Putin for such and such reasons. As a priest, I can testify that this person goes to confession, takes communion at least several times a year.” "Great, great," Demin comments on the video with Shevkunov, - excellent material for the Chekist church. How everything is clearly built with them, how everything works well for them, how they take communion with them. I look at Shevkunov - he has grown old. Previously, there was such a lively guy, he was running young. And now, of course, such a venerable, burnt-out bishop.”

Father George did not go into schism, he remained faithful to the Moscow Patriarchate, although it was not easy. The ban was lifted three years later. Now he serves on Sundays at the Novodevichy Convent.

- You and Father Tikhon spoke personally, and I may have a non-standard question, but does he believe in God?

Father George: In some, of course, he believes in what - I do not know. It is very difficult for me to say for sure that this is Christ, that we have one God, that we have one faith. It would be very difficult for me to, say, partake of communion together and celebrate the Eucharist together. Once I did this at the request of the patriarch in 1994, and when he told me at the altar, as it should be according to the order “Christ is among us”, I thought what to answer. And I answered, not "There is and will be", as it should be according to the service book, but "I hope that it will be." Father Tikhon didn’t like this, but what to do, you can’t lie before God.

CHAPTER TWO. unholy saints

A boy from Chertanov, and this, for a moment, the other end of Moscow, his mother, head of the laboratory for the treatment of toxoplasmosis, wanted Gosha to enter the medical school. But a friend asked to support him in the entrance exams, to go with him. And here is such an irony of fate: a friend did not enter, but Gosha succeeded. Screenwriting department, workshop of Evgeny Grigoriev.

Zurab Chavchavadze is 15 years older than Shevkunov. A descendant of emigrants who returned to Russia and a graduate of VGIK, it was friendship at first sight.

Zurab Chavchavadze: " We met him in Diveevo. He has not yet defended his diploma at VGIK "

Having defended his diploma, Gosha goes to the Pskov-Caves Monastery, from where Tikhon returns.

“And then Elena Anatolyevna had a panic mood, since her dream was about his career, about future grandchildren, whom she could nurse. I know that Gosha was left without a father very early, so she put all her strength and hopes into Gosha. I understood everything, but I was powerless to help her with this, poor thing.- says Zurab Chavchavadze.

The quiet reclusive life and the active nature of Shevkunov do not get along well. After looking around a little, he finds application for the knowledge gained at VGIK - he shoots film and photo chronicles of the monastery in order to preserve for history the image and voice of John Krestyankin, a seer who was considered great even during his lifetime.

It was at the suggestion of Tikhon Shevkunov and the oligarch Sergei Pugachev that Vladimir Putin, at the beginning of his first presidential term, decided to meet with the elder. In the Orthodox environment, this meeting will be overgrown with legends - patriotic sites will write that the last prophet of Russia blessed the president with nothing less than the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, with the words "Come with God!"

“Father John did not make the slightest impression on Putin, he said: “Funny old man.” When he came out of the cell, he said: "Funny old man." And he personally asked me to attend. I thought he would lock himself there with him, if there is such an opportunity, and he would not leave the cell for at least an hour. But in a minute the date is over, Sergey Pugachev says.

Sketches from the life of the monastery and its inhabitants will form the basis of the collection of stories "Unholy Saints". Tales about fathers, matushkas and miraculous healings, such lubok stories were once published in the Trinity Sheets and encouraged by the Chief Prosecutor Pobedonostsev that he "stretched owl wings over Russia."

All the heroes of Shevkunov's stories are positive. Even when they are subservient and cooperate with the authorities, like the abbot of the monastery Gavriil Steblyuchenko. Creature of the KGB, a man of such a tough and unbridled disposition that he earned the nickname from the brethren - the archbandit.

“He created such a detachment, like such Red Guards or something, Orthodox. That is, they were those who informed him. He started expelling the most active monks."- says Alexander Ogorodnikov. Tikhon Shevkunov and Ogorodnikov walked parallel courses - both studied at VGIK, sinned a lot, and then ardently believed. “People who tried to understand why they live on earth at all, they somehow began to ask more spiritual questions,” Ogorodnikov says.

Then their paths diverged. Shevkunov began to rise higher and higher in the church hierarchy, and Ogorodnikov went to the camp, where he spent a total of 9 years: three years for parasitism and six for anti-Soviet agitation. And in 1987 they met - the released confessor and the monk Tikhon. They were introduced by their brother Alexander Raphael. In the book "Unholy Saints" several chapters are devoted to him.

Alexander Ogorodnikov : “It so happened that I had very little contact with him, because he was mainly associated with Hieromonk Raphael. But I know that he listened with great interest to my stories. They asked me about the zone and other things, how it was, I told him, it was very interesting to him, he listened to it attentively. I talked about some wonderful cases that happened to me: about how they “broke” me, about all these repressions.

Hieromonk Raphael, Alexander's brother and one of those whom Shevkunov calls his spiritual guide, introduced them. Expelled from the monastery because of his dissident brother, Raphael soon died in a car accident. There are several chapters in the book: “Father Raphael began to burn Soviet power. I became alarmed and hinted to the priest that the phone could indeed be tapped. So Georgy Alexandrovich has already been cowardly half to death.

Soviet power collapsed - and Shevkunov invited Ogorodnikov to the presentation of his book. He asked on the sidelines if he lied a lot? Ogorodnikov answered honestly. Since then, they have not seen each other again.

“This Sergian piety, which, as it were, pervades this book, despite the lively scenes, it seemed to show those on whom the career depended that he was his own person - he understands everything. Have you noticed that there is not a single condemnation of GB in this book? It’s like this, you know, it’s like it’s not there, ” Ogorodnikov shares.

Alexander organized and maintains a shelter for the homeless. With the construction - both money and hands - foreign volunteers helped. “I can’t see homeless children, I’m trying to do something in my very modest power in order to somehow help. This is our duty, we must, our generation, these are our children. If not us, then who?— he explains.

For the past few years, refugees from the south-east of Ukraine have been living in the shelter. Here, in Russia, they were not needed by their yesterday's like-minded people, a dissident extended a helping hand.

Alexander rarely appears in Moscow, spending most of the year in his house on the Volga. There he receives journalists, writers, documentarians, mostly foreign ones. Several books have been written about his confessional feat abroad, but not a single one in Russia so far.

Alexander Ogorodnikov: “The fact that I was sitting, and not alone, in the zone, as it were, raises the question: why, for example, did you somehow get around this? If they were asked the following questions: what would you do in defense of persecuted Christians? They called, for example, my name or the name of Yakunin, or other participants of the seminar, what did they say? They said that they were in prison for their own affairs, that is, as if, that they had nothing to do with us. They basically abandoned us."

November 1991, Donskoy Monastery. The viceroy is away, there are three people in the monastery: the watchman, monk Tikhon and his friend Zurab Chavchavadze, who says: “We chatted for an hour, I see that he wants to sleep, in my opinion. I said goodbye and left. When I left the monastery, opened the gate, suddenly I see a car to the gate, a huge fire truck almost drove in. And some one there, a fireman, says to me: “Do you have a fire here?”

In May 1991, as soon as monastic life was resumed in the Donskoy Monastery, the monks asked the blessing of the patriarch to begin searching for the relics of St. Tikhon, but were refused. And on November 18, a fire suddenly breaks out in the Small Donskoy Cathedral. The attackers threw a Molotov cocktail right into the window of the temple - this is according to Tikhon Shevkunov. In fact, there are a lot of oddities in this story. Judge for yourself. November 18 is the day of Tikhon's accession to the patriarchal throne. When Gosh was tonsured, Shevkunov, as you probably already guessed, received a name in honor of the patriarch. In one of his interviews, he recalled that shortly before the fire in the Donskoy Monastery, he received a telegram from Vasily Rodzianko, where he wrote to him: "You will soon meet Tikhon."

Shevkunov called the arson of the temple a diversion and blamed the parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad for everything, calling them agents of foreign intelligence. But it is not clear why foreigners set fire to the tomb of Patriarch Tikhon, whom they themselves canonized in 1981, long before the Moscow Patriarchate did it. Be that as it may, we will never know the truth about that fire. All archives have been destroyed - the police responded to our request.

“In the morning we stood on the ashes, inside the temple there was a smoky wooden hiccup, burned icon cases. In less than a few days, repairs had to be done again. Well, we took it as a direct indication - look,— told Shevkunov . The prophecy of Vasily Rodzianko, if it really was, was fulfilled: Tikhon met Tikhon: “When they lifted the lid of the coffin, I boldly, Lord, forgive me, put my hand in there, with a blessing, and simply grabbed the person by the hand, by the shoulder, by the living shoulder. I screamed, “Here! Here!". Everything - close, close.

The resurrection of Lazarus, the multiplication of loaves - what is this if not a miracle? "God, wherever he wants, is defeated by the order of nature." But consciousness modern man it is so arranged that he no longer has enough faith in ancient legends, he wants a miracle here and now.

Tikhon Shevkunov: "All those who stormily applauded Pussy, they stormily applaud Leviathan."

And a screenwriting graduate understands this like no one else. Shevkunov is a member of the patriarchal council for culture and often speaks about the work of Russian directors: “Here is your Orthodoxy, here is your culture, here is your history, here is your statehood, this is what you have come to. Eat."

Several interlocutors told Dozhd that the bishop repeatedly spoke unflattering things about Kirill Serebrennikov during his meetings with Putin. The surveillance of the director was established at the beginning of the year, sources close to the FSB said, and the bishop's displeasure could have influenced the decision to start operational operations.

“I learned that I was being followed much earlier than from the case file. The waiters said: "You have a tape recorder under the table." I mean, I knew about it."- these words were said by Kirill Serebrennikov in the Basmanny Court. And the fact that he was being followed, and more than one year, was known not only by his friends, but even by those with whom Kirill periodically communicated, as well as the fact that the mighty Bishop Tikhon was a possible customer for his persecution.

Tikhon Shevkunov himself declined to comment, but this is what his friend Zurab Chavchavadze said: “Kirill Serebrennikov and Tikhon - but in general, where are the points of contact? What about Kirill Serebrennikov... What about vulgarities in his so-called art? Of course, Father Tikhon will never accept this. I don’t see a normal person at all who would come to the Bolshoi Theater to look at the genitals.”

Officers from the Lubyanka, both active and retired, can often be found in the nearby Sretensky Monastery. For intelligence general Nikolai Leonov, Shevkunov became both godfather and confessor. “I was an atheist, of course, unbaptized, with almost 50 years of experience in the CPSU. And the question is, who will baptize me? Father Tikhon then says: “I will baptize you.” Because Father Tikhon explained that when you are baptized, then all the sins that you have accumulated during this time are removed from you, ” he says.

When Igor Smykov retired from the authorities, he immediately signed himself with the sign of the cross. It is not the first year that he has been touring the country with the icon of Tsar Nicholas and making flights with it along the sacred state borders. By the very name, he, as it were, symbolizes the bond between the church and the security forces. Smykov presented Shevkunov with the Order of the Holy Martyr Nicholas, and was at a meeting of the monarchist circle. Wherever you look, familiar faces are everywhere: Chavchavadze, Malofeev, Borodai, General Reshetnikov. Unless the Major General of the Religious Service Father Zvezdoniy is missing.

The icon is the one with which Natalia Poklonskaya went to the rally Immortal Regiment- for the first time she streamed myrrh precisely in the Sretensky Monastery. November 7, exactly on the day of the October Revolution, during the service of Father Tikhon. Again miracles, and only!

On September 3, during a visit to Yekaterinburg, Shevkunov spoke out against the film "Matilda", calling it slander. And already on the night of September 3-4, Denis Murashov rammed the cinema where the premiere was to take place. The day before, as the king himself admitted, he participated in the liturgy in the Church on the Blood, which was conducted by Shevkunov.

“It’s not entirely coincidental that with the film “Matilda” there was such a gigantic completely public explosion, because perhaps this will also be somehow built in (maybe it is already uncontrollable), at least initially, perhaps this was also built into attraction public interest in history royal family, perhaps it should have ended up in a few moves for the recognition of the royal remains, ”- says Sergei Chapnin, former editor of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchy.

It will turn out to be a beautiful production: the centenary of the execution of the Romanovs, the fourth term and the All-Russian religious procession. Take a comfortable seat.

Sergey Pugachev: “In the story with Matilda, he does not hide his position. Father Tikhon is still a Soviet normal person who was a pioneer, an October member, a Komsomol member, that is, he sincerely believes in this. But unfortunately, it comes out rather strange. in the Soviet way.

CHAPTER THREE. Tombs of the prophets

We meet with Sergei Pugachev in Nice. The perimeter of the park was cordoned off by bodyguards with walkie-talkies, they were asked not to take them into the frame - and they would not fit.

Sergey Pugachev: “He calls me, congratulates me on the holidays. I hope he remembers. By the way, he tells me that he remembers and prays.”

Pugachev was a parishioner of Shevkunov and the first sponsor of the Sretensky Monastery. Already after his departure abroad, Father Tikhon was ordained a bishop, and this is a direct path to the patriarchal throne.

Sergey Pugachev: “Without false modesty, he is certainly glad that he is already a bishop, he has patriarchal ambitions, obviously.”

1996, the future president has just moved to Moscow. Pugachev and Putin are driving in the same car past the Sretensky Monastery.

Sergey Pugachev: “Well, I introduced Father Tikhon to Putin. We arrived at the Sretensky Monastery. There was a service, in my opinion, in the evening, I don’t remember now. And we met at the all-night service. After that, we talked quite a lot, Tikhon brought to Putin's dacha, to church holidays and so on. That is, Putin was very fond of listening to the choir of the Sretensky Monastery.”.

Lyudmila Putina became a parishioner of the Sretensky Monastery. And here is a photo from the birthday of Pugachev's wife, at the same table - Sechin, Patrushev and Shevkunov. Introduced by the banker into Putin's inner circle, Vladyka Tikhon quickly got used to it.

Sergey Pugachev: “Putin naturally has no confessor. At least in my opinion, Putin is an unbeliever.”

True, Shevkunov himself is in no hurry to dispel these rumors about spiritual guidance. No matter how much the journalists asked, the bishop, simpering, avoided a direct answer.

Sergey Pugachev: “Many ministers dream of getting an appointment with him – it already looks like this.”

- When was the last time you talked to him?

Sergey Pugachev: Well, I don't know, he's paranoid, he thinks he's being eavesdropped, and it's generally dangerous to talk to me. I have spoken. He said nothing, said okay, I'll call you back, come on, it's inconvenient now, back and forth. Medinsky has been sitting in the waiting room, waiting for two hours.

Shevkunov became an important political figure after the unification of churches. Negotiations were held in America. For the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, this was a kind of bride-to-be - foreigners wanted to make sure that the Moscow Patriarchate had changed and repented of the sin of Sergianism. The delegation, in addition to Shevkunov, included the priest Georgy Mitrofanov, a supporter of white Russia - this was a very prudent political move.

Georgy Mitrofanov : “When you ask me if someone used me for political purposes during this dialogue, I can only say one thing: I was and remained, and remain, a cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is no coincidence that Archimandrite Tikhon accompanied President Putin to a meeting with the leaders of the foreign church even before the reunification. Well, any state strives for expansion.”

As soon as the act of canonical communion was signed, everything returned to normal. And now the publishing house of the Sretensky Monastery is publishing panegyrics to Patriarch Sergius, and the speakers of the Russian Orthodox Church, while cautiously, are talking about his canonization.

Sergei Chapnin : “It became obvious that a new empire was being built. And this new empire naturally needs a single church. He realized that he was not just the ruler of Russia, but he was restoring the torn fabric of the past, and it was Tikhon who played the key role in this.”

“The Russian people don’t know how to do anything but build empires”- Shevkunov once said. The empire, in its new version, is omnivorous, it makes no difference to her what to take communion - white or red. This is how a complex syncretic cult of Orthodoxy and Bolshevism appeared. “Most of us lived in the Soviet Union. Yes, it was Russia distorted in some way, but it was real Russia. Our president correctly said that he who does not mourn the destruction of the Soviet Union has no heart," he said.

In 2005, the Russian national idea turns to dust. In the Donskoy Monastery, to the sounds of the restored Soviet anthem, the white general Denikin and the philosopher Ilyin are buried. This act, as conceived by the authors, including Shevkunov, symbolizes historical reconciliation.

Scattered in public speaking quotes from Ilyin, beloved ruler - Alexander III(his portrait, by the way, hangs in Vladyka's office), sacred Korsun. You might think, short course Shevkunov personally reads stories to Putin.

Opening of the monument to Vladimir. Symbolic response to Ukraine. The screenwriter is the same. Now there are three Vladimirs in Russia - one is lying in the Mausoleum, the second is sitting in the Kremlin, and the third is standing - right opposite.

Sergei Pugachev : “He is, in fact, a failed director, therefore ... or rather, held, even to a greater extent than Nikita Mikhalkov. Mikhalkov never dreamed of such glory, he never became such a support of power. And Father Tikhon is such a pillar of power.”

Red village, Ryazan region. This could become an episode of Sorokin's book. Chairman of the collective farm "Resurrection" and the bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church in one person. The head of the village administration, Kamalutdin Pashayev, shows us the possessions of the Sretensky Monastery: “They just wanted to completely fence themselves off with a solid concrete fence, and then, when the indignation of the population went, naturally, they fenced it off with a net.”

Several collective farm fields, a cascade of ponds, a theological seminary and a skete on the site of the restored estate of General Yermolov - the total area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe economy is more than 30 hectares. And "Niva" rests against the fence. Next - barbed wire and an angry dog. It is possible to get into Shevkunov's residence only with a blessing, which we are denied.

With the camera turned off, the village head is much more talkative. There are so many guests that you just have time to patch up the roads before their arrival and drive the whole village out for a subbotnik! Putin was also planning to come, but plans changed at the last moment.

Orthodoxy with fists. This is the personnel reserve of the Sretensky Monastery, first-year seminarians. They don’t jump off the cliff, like future governors, but they have already learned how to take a stand.

Around the skete, its own "golden mile" immediately formed - the cottages of retired security officials. By the way, the managers of the collective farm "Resurrection" come from the Stavropol FSB.

2013, transcript of a speech to readers, discussions about censorship: “I am fine with censorship. I believe that reasonable censorship, correct censorship, of course, should be.” And this is a quote from P program article for fighters against TIN and other fundamentalists - the article is called "Schengen Zone", it was published in Barkashov's newspaper "Russian Order": “I was struck in New York by some incommensurable number of 666 numbers.”

Uberization also affected the church. The patterns on the facade of the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors were not carved by master carvers - they were printed on a 3D printer. For the sake of a new dominant, several historical buildings were demolished. The center of Moscow has seen nothing like that - it itself has turned into one big monument to suffering. architectural suffering.

Sergei Chapnin: The idea of ​​reconciliation of Soviet history and history, respectively, of the Russian Empire arises.

The architect of the new temple was 32-year-old Dmitry Smirnov, who had not built a single church before. In his portfolio - the scenery for the "Star Factory" and country houses Russian officials. He says that winning the competition came as a complete surprise to him.

Dmitry Smirnov: By the way, a day later I began to read about the monastery in general and found out that it was my birthday on the day the monastery was founded. It was so cool.

In parallel with the construction of the temple, Smirnov developed the design of historical exhibitions. Thanks to Shevkunov, he became a church.

Dmitry Smirnov: Before that, the last time in the church was for his baptism.

— What surprised you the most? Maybe Vladyka recommended some book to you?

Dmitry Smirnov: In fact, if you have read, heard, I listened to the audiobook, it is presented in such an interesting way, in very human language, that is, so interesting. Plus, I listened to a couple of sermons from the bishops. That is, what he said there, I don’t remember now, really, but at the moment when I listened to it, something inside me was like that, there was some kind of feeling.

—Have you read the lives of these new martyrs?

Dmitry Smirnov: Well, a little bit. In fact, nothing much has been written about them.

— Who are the confessors, do you know?

Dmitry Smirnov: Can not say. To be honest, I am not strong in theology, to put it mildly.

Many of these people, they are still alive.

Alexander Ogorodnikov: Delivered to the headquarters of the KGB here, on the Lubyanka, Colonel Shilkin thoughtfully, looking at me, said: "Sasha, we do not want to make new martyrs."

Alexander Ogorodnikov decided to go to Moscow to look at the new Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors. It was built in his honor.

Alexander Ogorodnikov: I do not maintain relations with Tikhon. All those hieromonks whom he gathered around him, who were near hieromonk Raphael, my deceased brother, then all of them quietly left. The church must be free. This is her main condition. Outside of this, she loses her charisma and the right to a free voice. I don't want to say that this is a fake, but it looks like a big beautiful toy. I can feel like a stranger at the celebration of others, you know? It was opened, of course, no one invited, although these people still exist. It would seem that they are still alive. An Orthodox Chekist is a worthy figure. And who are we? They were thinking about the country, about the motherland, defending the country from the invaders, from the "fifth column". And we are this "fifth column".

Georgy Kochetkov: This could be a symbol of overcoming what was done in the Lubyanka or on behalf of the Lubyanka for a long time, when our people and our church were destroyed, and this is exactly what people who glorify churches hide. These tombs are built for the prophets, but the prophets are killed.

In an interview with Rain, Tikhon Shevkunov refused: “I know that at present a film is being shot on your TV channel, in which its customers and authors pay Special attention my humble person. But even this fact cannot in the least change my decision regarding the impossibility of our cooperation under the present circumstances.