Russian Orthodox Church/Children in captivity and medieval torture

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The Russian Orthodox Church, year after year, penetrates deeper and deeper into all spheres of public life, paying special attention to issues of morality and the education of young people.

However, in the ROC itself, really terrible things regularly happen: in its shelters, children without documents live in the position of slaves, they are taught according to medieval laws, tortured and starved to death. Former employees of law enforcement agencies are responsible for the security of church institutions, ready to do anything to hide their secrets, and new monasteries and parishes become sources of multi-billion-ruble income.

Lenta.ru found evidence of child abuse in church orphanages, found out how the ROC earns huge money and who guards this business, and also found out why the higher clergy are so afraid of any changes in society.

SERVANTS OF GOD

The Orthodox Church raises children in captivity and tortures them with medieval torture

For the Orthodox, the word "orthodox" is associated exclusively with the Jews. Although all over the world Orthodoxe means exactly Orthodox. This word is used in scientific, theological, military literature, it is printed on the badges of military personnel - and it does not cause any double interpretation, no one will confuse a Jew and a Christian.

And only in philosophy does this word have a different, pejorative meaning. This is the name of people who blindly use dogmas long rejected by the entire scientific world, and rejected by evidence.

And when talking about the Russian Orthodox Church, theologians around the world use an informal, but very precise phrase:

Workers' and Peasants' Red Church These four words completely reveal the background of all the processes that have been taking place in the Russian Orthodox Church for the past 30 years - since its resurrection.

I. Moseytsevo Key milestones in history often carry the name of a geographical feature. These are the Greek town of Marathon, the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and the Arabian Mecca.

In the modern history of the Russian Orthodox Church, the small village of Moseytsevo in the Rostov district of the Yaroslavl region has become such a geographical object. In church circles, they try not to mention him - it seems that they are simply trying to erase the story that happened here from memory and hoping that it will be quickly forgotten.

On Saturday, November 22, 2014, the body of a 13-year-old girl, Tanya, was found in one of the houses in this village.

Judging by the materials of the criminal case, a local paramedic contacted the police. Later, during interrogation as a witness, she will tell about the circumstances of the terrible find:

“In the afternoon Lyubimova L.P. came to my house. and said that her daughter Tanya had fallen and seemed not to be breathing. I immediately grabbed a first aid pack and went to their house on Truda Street, but along the way, Lyubimova told me that she had already changed her daughter into a funeral dress. This alarmed me, because at first Lyubimova said that the girl needed medical help. In the house, I found that the girl was lying on the bed, already washed and changed into everything clean, with a scarf tied around her head. The left eye is ajar, and under it on the face is a clearly distinguishable hematoma measuring two by two centimeters. There were no other children in the house, and I asked Lyubimova where the other girls were. She ignored my question, and when I repeated it, she said something like "I won't answer." And when asked what happened, Lyubimova replied: “Apparently, she was sick.” Although there were bruises on the face. Lyubimova asked me to issue a death certificate, since it was necessary to bury the girl without problems, but I refused and insisted that the police be called, because, firstly, there were clear signs of a violent death; secondly, the deceased was a minor, and the cause of death remained unclear; and thirdly, Lyubimova's words and behavior aroused my suspicions: she said that Tanya was ill, but the injuries looked more like marks of beatings. In addition, traces of alimentary cachexia were visible on the body. Cachexia in translation from the medical - exhaustion. Alimentary - that is, due to malnutrition. The girl was not just skinny - we most often see children in this state in photographs from German death camps. there were obvious signs of a violent death; secondly, the deceased was a minor, and the cause of death remained unclear; and thirdly, Lyubimova's words and behavior aroused my suspicions: she said that Tanya was ill, but the injuries looked more like marks of beatings. In addition, traces of alimentary cachexia were visible on the body. Cachexia in translation from the medical - exhaustion. Alimentary - that is, due to malnutrition. The girl was not just skinny - we most often see children in this state in photographs from German death camps. there were obvious signs of a violent death; secondly, the deceased was a minor, and the cause of death remained unclear; and thirdly, the words and behavior of Lyubimova aroused suspicion in me: she said that Tanya was ill, but the injuries were more like signs of beatings. In addition, traces of alimentary cachexia were visible on the body. Cachexia in translation from the medical - exhaustion. Alimentary - that is, due to malnutrition. The girl was not just skinny - we most often see children in this state in photographs from German death camps. traces of alimentary cachexia were visible on the body. Cachexia in translation from the medical - exhaustion. Alimentary - that is, due to malnutrition. The girl was not just skinny - we most often see children in this state in photographs from German death camps. traces of alimentary cachexia were visible on the body. Cachexia in translation from the medical - exhaustion. Alimentary - that is, due to malnutrition. The girl was not just skinny - we most often see children in this state in photographs from German death camps.

Her body was taken to the morgue and, as required by law, an autopsy was urgently performed. According to its results, the investigators immediately opened a criminal case, and an investigative team went to house 67 on Truda Street in the village of Moseytsevo. They confiscated everything, because the experts gave an unequivocal and categorical conclusion: the cause of Tanya's death was a severe traumatic brain injury caused by at least six blows to different parts of the head. In addition, beatings of varying degrees of prescription were found on the body - from two months to several hours. But the doctors were especially impressed by the burn on the inside of the mouth - it is impossible to get one by accident.

We knew that Tanya had five sisters. Very quickly, we established that they were all adopted: a folder with a court decision and two copies of birth certificates were found in the house - for the last name, first name and patronymic given at birth, and for new ones received after finding a family. All the girls became Lyubimovs, all became Mikhailovnas, - says the investigator for especially important cases of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Yaroslavl Region, Captain of Justice Gennady Bobrov. - But the girls themselves were not in the house, and the mother, citizen Lyubimova Lyudmila Pavlovna, categorically refused to say where they were. And about the deceased Tanya, she said that the girl, through her own negligence, fell into the cellar and, apparently, then received the same injury. True, this did not explain why the child had fractures of the cranial vault in six places.

It was decided to detain Matushka Lyubimova - she obviously lied to the investigation. And the girls began to look. Only a day and a half later, they were found by the local department of juvenile affairs and criminal investigation. They were all hidden in different places: one was in another house in Moseytsevo, the rest - some in the Ivanovo region, some in the village of Goluzino, some in Zakobyakino - there were houses everywhere belonging to the Lyubimova shelter.

- All the girls were asked who their mother was, and everyone said - mother Lyudmila (Lubimova), - says Bobrov. “But a few days later it suddenly became clear that, according to the documents, one girl’s mother was a citizen Semyonova, and two more had a citizen Gusmanova. But all the children continued to say: our mother is Lyudmila. And one more thing - we started the interrogations in general blindly, without knowing anything, we just asked the children what happened to Tanya. They calmly answered - but we all began to tremble. It is at such moments that you realize how good it is that the law limits the time for interrogation of minors - not because of them, children, but because of us adults.

The video of the first interrogations of children is so scary that Stephen King would definitely go out the door to smoke:

“- Verochka, tell me, do you know what happened to Tanya? — I know, she died… (correcting quickly) God took her away. “Did she complain to you about anything before that?” - She complained, she was in bed for several days, because her head hurt. Why did she have a headache? - Because she didn't want to eat mustard... - What kind of mustard? In the sense - I didn’t want to eat ... - In order not to get sick and grow well, you need to eat mustard every day, two tablespoons each. Mother Raisa gave her mustard, but Tanya refused to eat it. And then Mother Raisa and Mother Lyudmila punished her. - How were you punished? - And as always, they beat her with sticks. - How did they beat you with sticks? (the question was clearly asked out of surprise, but the girl quite calmly begins to answer it) - And as usual - they ordered to bring her stick, mother Raisa sat on the stove and began to beat her. And then she poured more boiling water into her mouth. — Verochka, What is "her stick"? - Well, a stick. The usual one ... We each have them. - And how do you distinguish them? And they are signed. Here is “Faith” written on mine with a pink felt-tip pen. And Tanya has “Tatiana” written in red. So we distinguish. - Describe the stick, please. - Well, the white one is so smooth and round, like the handle of a shovel (Vera brings her thumb and forefinger together, like an “OK” sign), but thinner. And the length (she spreads her arms to the sides) is something like this. Who else was fed mustard? Did they give you? - Of course. (pause) We were all given. Mothers gave. Twice. Only we did not like her, she is tasteless. But it is better to eat it, because otherwise it will be mixed with porridge, and it will not taste good at all. - And which of the ... mothers (the interrogator clearly pronounces this word through force) gave? - And they gave everything. Who fed dinner, he gave ... And mother Raisa, and mother Galina, and mother Lyudmila. Oh, I also remembered: before Tanya fell ill, she refused to eat mustard, so mother Raisa forced a spoon into her mouth. Tanechka began to choke, and mother Raisa took the kettle from the stove and poured water into her mouth. Tanya then cried a lot, and in the evening she had to beat additional earthly bows - for disobedience. At the time of the interrogation, Vera was not yet seven years old. Matushka Lyudmila (Lubimova) was 67. Matushka Galina (Guzel Semenova) was 55. Matushka Raisa (Rifa Gusmanova) was 56. At the time of the interrogation, Vera was not yet seven years old. Matushka Lyudmila (Lubimova) was 67. Matushka Galina (Guzel Semyonova) was 55. Matushka Raisa (Rifa Gusmanova) was 56. At the time of the interrogation, Vera was not yet seven years old. Matushka Lyudmila (Lubimova) was 67. Matushka Galina (Guzel Semyonova) was 55. Matushka Raisa (Rifa Gusmanova) was 56.

Every one of the girls gave the same testimony and talked about what was happening as if surprised by questions about such natural things. And a couple of days later they asked the educators of the rehabilitation center why they were given some tasty pills instead of mustard.

The case was in 2014. In the XXI century. In Central Russia - 180 kilometers northeast of Moscow ...

Gusmanova was detained after interrogation of the girls on the evening of November 24. When the TFR officers came to her in Moseytsevo, she was in the boiler room. A hot fire blazed in the firebox—smooth sticks, similar to spade handles, only thinner, burned mixed with firewood. Then, in the ashes, experts will find a lot of burnt rags with traces of blood, burnt papers and traces of dyes. It will not be possible to identify them - the purifying fire will mix everything.

“All these women have an excellent analytical mind,” recalls investigator Bobrov. - And also a higher technical education: Lyudmila Pavlovna graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics and before retirement she worked in a joint Russian-Swiss company. Semenova and Gusmanova worked in the oil industry all their lives.

They argued that the girls were not just unintelligent - that they were underdeveloped. But here they made a big mistake: the law requires that all children undergo a thorough medical examination before adoption and that the same medical examination be carried out upon admission to a rehabilitation center. That is, before the interrogations began. Then, at the request of lawyers, the results were compared by experts. And denied the allegations of the accused. True, I’ll say right away: all doctors, especially gynecologists, noted the insane unsanitary conditions in the condition of girls. And psychologists concluded: this is a consequence of a distorted upbringing.

II. Social shelter In the late 1990s, Lyudmila Pavlovna Lyubimova, a Muscovite who had retired, raised her daughter and even raised her grandchildren, suddenly became very pious. She fell in love with the Nikitsky Monastery in Pereslavl-Zalessky and began to travel there in her free time, leaving the metropolitan apartment to her heirs. Archimandrite Dimitry (in the world - Alexei Mikhailovich Khramtsov), the abbot of the monastery, became her confessor. He had several women like Lyudmila Pavlovna.

In the early 2000s, Lyudmila Pavlovna suddenly created the Lyubimovsky Mercy Shelter (the legal address is the village of Lyubimovo, Rostov District, Yaroslavl Region, hence the name). Formally, to help those who find themselves in a difficult life situation, but in fact the shelter receives several houses and hectares of land for individual housing construction and for personal subsidiary plots. As a result, all “those who find themselves in a difficult life situation” and turn to a monastery are sent to these charitable institutions. And there they work for the good of the Lord: they get up at six in the morning and with a prayer go to graze cows and goats, grow potatoes and other crops, bake bread and prosvirki, sauerkraut, pick mushrooms and berries, take care of gardens. For their work, they, of course, do not receive a penny. But in the daily routine - obligatory prayers,

Absolutely all the products of this shelter were sent to the monastery: vegetables and fruits, sauerkraut, canned mushrooms and berries, compotes and fruit drinks ... Everything that the monks live on and the surplus of which they exchange for money.

Similar shelters are being set up by several other women. All of them are distinguished by higher education, an analytical mind, practicality, advanced age, the absence of sinful menstruation, high piety and unconditional obedience to Father Demetrius. That is, these are women who, according to the canons, are allowed to enter the altar. True, not all shelters receive legal status - some do not have any papers, although they have their own letterheads and their own seal, and the highest ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church write letters asking them to allocate empty houses and plots to them.

In 2002, mother Lyudmila takes custody of eight orphans and takes them away from the orphanage. The procedure is carried out almost in accordance with the law: the woman submitted documents, provided characteristics, visited selected orphans (all girls) for some time - and received a corresponding court decision. There is only one deviation from state requirements: formally, she is single, that is, she does not have a husband. But the court does not notice this contradiction.

Guardianship allows a woman to receive money from the state for the maintenance of children. But already at that moment, the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church begins to say that this is a non-Orthodox method. In February 2017, the Council of Bishops will directly write in the program document “On the attitude of the Orthodox Church towards orphans”: guardianship is not our method. Only adoption Orthodox!

But back in 2005, Lyubimova applied to the court for the adoption of all eight daughters under her care. The court is forced to give consent, but, taking into account the age, refuses to adopt eight girls, and Lyudmila Pavlovna becomes the foster mother of six. And the very next day, the same court received a petition for the adoption of the two remaining - from the Orthodox Bashkir Rifa Gusmanova (mother Raisa) and Yaroslavl Guzeli Semenova (mother Galina). Both, by a strange coincidence, are the founders of the same shelters and the spiritual children of Father Dimitri. The court as soon as possible satisfies both applications, but subsequently all eight adopted girls called Lyubimova their mother.

Thus, at 62, Lyubimova becomes a mother of many children - with all the benefits due.

The shelter continues to operate. There are mothers with many children with their children, the sick, alcoholics, the homeless. According to the villagers, sometimes up to 30 people worked at the polling stations. About a third of them are children.

Mother Lyudmila led and set an example for everyone. Mother Galina and mother Raisa helped her. Moreover, the property territorially owned by the shelter was found not only in Yaroslavl, but also in the neighboring Ivanovo region - where the investigators of the TFR after the death of Tanya found the hidden girls. The shelter did not submit any accounting or other reports to the state authorities, but trucks with products were sent to the monastery every week.

“In the spring, we were punished in the bathhouse, which stood in the courtyard of the house in Moseytsevo, but in the summer and autumn it was filled with potatoes, so they brought the punishment shop to the house. And in July, mother Raisa took us, and we went to the forest to cut rods for the whole year. They were then soaked in a special bucket, and we were punished with these rods, ”all the former daughters of Lyubimova, Semenova and Gusmanova gave such testimony. They did not yet know the word "rod".

“All the daughters of our women were home schooled,” says investigator Bobrov. - They went to school only for tests and exams. And be sure to be accompanied by an adult. They sat with them in the classroom - after all, the law does not prohibit this. But in the course of the investigation, it turned out that the teachers taking the exams at some point left the classroom, and at that time all the tasks and exercises were quickly done by mother Lyudmila and mother Raisa. And it turned out that the girls were almost excellent students. In any case, they were set as an example to those around them. Later, when the children were taken to a rehabilitation center, it turned out that they were lagging behind in all subjects by at least a year, or even two. Although every one, including the deceased Tanya, literally on their knees begged mother Lyudmila to allow them to go to school. First of all, because they do not understand much, because there is no one to explain. But they were forbidden. Do you know why? It was said that fellow villagers caught Orthodox children in the street and cut off their heads.

According to the girls, this phrase was repeated to them repeatedly during 2011-2014. XXI Century. Center of Russia, 180 kilometers from Moscow.

Meanwhile, the same shelters are being created throughout Russia, and always under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. The women who lead them are always alone. Only in the Yaroslavl region, 12 such shelters and two Orthodox communities are known, where blacksmiths and carpenters live and work for the glory of God. And the Nikolaevsky Monastery even has its own patrimony - the village of Gerasimovo.

III. Such a good book The most important book, according to which, with the blessing of Father Dimitri, the orphanage of mother Lyudmila lived, was Domostroy.

It is now in encyclopedias that they write that Domostroy is an outstanding monument of Russian literature of the 16th century, telling about the life of peasant Rus'. In the Soviet years, it was characterized differently: an example of the inertia of the Church, depriving peasants of the right to think independently, making a woman completely powerless and predetermining mass famine, because peasants were obliged to farm according to written rules, and not in accordance with real weather conditions. Until 1991, this book was banned for reprinting, and, according to some sources, an unofficial ban was introduced as early as 1861, simultaneously with the abolition of serfdom. Now it is easy to buy it - the cheapest copy costs only 1,461 rubles.

"Domostroy" determined that a woman is nothing, since she is "not a slave and not a master." For serious offenses, a woman was ordered to be stripped naked and whipped to blood with a “fool” - a special whip made of woven leather belts.

“The wives of their husbands ask about a strict order, about how to save their souls, please God and their husbands, and arrange their house better. And obey your husband in everything. And to go on a visit and to invite and send only with whom the husband allows. And if a husband sees that his wife is in trouble ... he would be able to instruct and teach his wife with useful advice; ... but if the wife does not follow the instruction and does not fulfill all of this, and she herself does not know any of this, and does not teach the servants, the husband should punish his wife, admonish her with fear in private ... if the fault is great. It is in the "Domostroy" that it is written that women for the murder of their husband must be buried alive in the ground "by the whole world."

In Moseytsevo and in other similar shelters, they lived according to Domostroy, but with adjustments. And with the blessing of Father Demetrius, mothers made changes according to their own understanding.

From the materials of the criminal case:

“The daily routine was always the same. He changed a little when the commission or the police came. When the commission was not expected, it was as follows: they woke up at six in the morning, went to manage the cattle: fed, watered, taken out, cleaned manure. Then they went home, read prayers from the Prayer Book, made bows. The bows were performed as follows: the palms were applied to the back of the head, the elbows were spread apart, in this position we knelt down and, bending forward with the body, touched the floor with our foreheads. They made many such bows, it was impossible to refuse, otherwise mother Raisa would begin to scold and pull her hair. Haven't been taking classes lately. After dinner, when mother Raisa went to bed, they washed the dirty dishes, which were very numerous, since mothers made yogurt for the monastery and other milk, including sour cream and cottage cheese, from milk. After washing the dishes, in the late afternoon, they went to handle the cattle. After that, they read the rules-prayers and bowed until three in the morning. At night, Liza and Tanya, and also sometimes other girls, had their hands tied, mother Lyudmila and mother Raisa did this. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. in the late afternoon, they went to handle the cattle. After that, they read the rules-prayers and bowed until three in the morning. At night, Liza and Tanya, and also sometimes other girls, had their hands tied, mother Lyudmila and mother Raisa did this. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. in the late afternoon, they went to handle the cattle. After that, they read the rules-prayers and bowed until three in the morning. At night, Liza and Tanya, and also sometimes other girls, had their hands tied, mother Lyudmila and mother Raisa did this. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. went to handle the cattle. After that, they read the rules-prayers and bowed until three in the morning. At night, Liza and Tanya, and also sometimes other girls, had their hands tied, mother Lyudmila and mother Raisa did this. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. went to handle the cattle. After that, they read the rules-prayers and bowed until three in the morning. At night, Liza and Tanya, and also sometimes other girls, had their hands tied, mother Lyudmila and mother Raisa did this. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. After that, they read the rules-prayers and bowed until three in the morning. At night, Liza and Tanya, and also sometimes other girls, had their hands tied, mother Lyudmila and mother Raisa did this. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. After that, they read the rules-prayers and bowed until three in the morning. At night, Liza and Tanya, and also sometimes other girls, had their hands tied, mother Lyudmila and mother Raisa did this. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. Mother Lyudmila and Mother Raisa did it. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. Mother Lyudmila and Mother Raisa did it. They believed that the girls were engaged in fornication, they denied it, but they were not believed. At lunch and dinner, we were given mustard, in porridge and on bread, and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and we had to drink it. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and it had to be drunk. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found. and before going to bed, mustard was diluted in half a cup of water, and it had to be drunk. When the commissions arrived, the routine changed: these days we did not bow, slept until eight in the morning, did not work, played and ate normally. And they could draw as much as they wanted. It was generally impossible for us to communicate with adult men and boys, and if anyone passed by, we had to go into the house. And don't look at them." During a search in Moseytsevo, an A4 sheet with a daily routine was found.

Awakening children at 7 o'clock. 00 minutes, with baptism and prayers, bowing. Mandatory and systematic performance by children of prayers, obedience and bows. Classes with children on religious topics, the Church Slavonic alphabet. The daily routine assumes the obligatory daily work of children. It also specifies when and how children should perform religious rites. And educators are forbidden to instill in children concepts from worldly life. “To educate children in prayer, classes, work, without prayer, do not start a single business, monitor the behavior of children, correct their behavior.” IV. Monastery children The history of Moseytsevo is not the first scandal with “blessed” mockery of children. Such cases occur every year, but very quickly go out at the local level, without reaching the federal level. There are very few exceptions. For example, the escape of Valentina Perova and Ksenia Golovchenko from the Holy Bogolyubsky Convent, which made a lot of noise. Now it is difficult to find traces of this story on the net, but in 2009 it thundered on all federal channels. True, after a couple of days the fate of the two girls seemed to have sunk into oblivion.

16-year-old Valentina Perova and 17-year-old Ksenia Golovchenko covered one and a half hundred kilometers and turned to the police, from where their statement was forwarded to the prosecutor's office.

The girls complained of unlawful imprisonment and bullying. According to them, children between the ages of two and seventeen years old were starved, put on their knees on millet, forced to bow to the ground until two in the morning, and already at half past five they were raised and sent to work in the field. For the slightest infractions, even quite innocent ones, boys and girls were beaten with belts, forcing them to count the blows aloud. It got to seventy. The disobedient were locked in a lock on the second floor of the cowshed and kept there for weeks on bread and crackers. At night, girls could be tied to beds. Often the wrists were worn from the ropes into the blood, but they did not receive any medical care.

A year later, in October 2010, another group of pupils escaped from the same monastery, and they all described their lives in exactly the same way.

The prosecutor's office conducted an inspection and even opened a criminal case (then the Investigative Committee was still under the prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation), but when the noise died down, the case was stopped. In the absence of corpus delicti.

“There was very serious pressure on the investigator and the leadership of the investigative department,” says a former employee of the prosecutor's office of the Vladimir region. - There were appeals from the churched public, and personal audiences with the princes of the Church, and hints from the secular authorities, and even blackmail: a promise to delay the allocation of housing to investigators. There were many personal approaches to the staff of the Investigative Committee (Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office - that was the name of the current TFR at that time). There were calls from Moscow...

As a result, a compromise was born: no corpus delicti was found, but a lot of violations were revealed that should have been corrected at the federal level. The corresponding paper went to Moscow, where it was lost very quickly. Moreover, at the level of the office of the Commissioner for Children's Rights and in the State Duma.

A copy of the same certificate was found in one of the federal archives. The description of the violations revealed in the Holy Bogolyubsky Monastery takes up four pages in small print. Here are just a few of them.

The charter of the monastery allowed the creation of educational institutions in accordance with the requirements of Russian legislation. And there were special schools, but they were not officially registered. Education in them was conducted by clergymen or older children, and not from textbooks, but from church books. Exams were taken externally at a local rural school, but at that time the teachers left the classroom, leaving the children alone with the accompanying mothers. As a result, all education turned out to be a fiction.

In fact, an orphanage was created in the monastery, where from 2004 there were from 38 to 60 children. Most, according to the papers, were left there by their parents, but no one visited them for years. Fifteen boys and girls turned out to be orphans. The Family Code requires that such children be sent to orphanages, and later transferred for adoption or under the supervision of guardianship and guardianship authorities. But the leadership of the monastery not only did not do this, but also deliberately ignored the requirements of the law, which violated Article 122 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation.

Not a single child in the monastery, upon reaching the age of 14, received a passport, that is, fell out of sight of the internal affairs bodies. None of the orphans received a survivor's pension. None received the statutory alimony. Most of the children's property was unaccounted for. True, according to a former employee of the Vladimir prosecutor's office, the children's apartments could have been sold, and the money disappeared in an unknown direction. However, due to the lack of any papers, it was impossible to establish this.

In violation of the Federal Law “On the Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation”, not a single child had an outpatient card in district clinics, and none had compulsory medical insurance policies.

The authors of the certificate came to the conclusion that the servants of the monastery, by virtue of their own religious convictions, refused the social and legal guarantees established by the state for children.

“You see, they were artificially made into slaves,” says a former employee of the Vladimir prosecutor’s office. - Even having escaped from the monastery, they turned out to be nobody: there is no passport, no compulsory medical insurance policy, no traces at all in the documents of the Russian Federation. There were no birth certificates in the monastery. The novices simply had nowhere to go - they were doomed to serve. Not to God - to the clergy.

The scandal that flared up after the escape of the girls attracted great attention: in the monastery there were commissions of the Commissioner for Children's Rights, the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Public Chamber, the Moscow Patriarchate and many foundations.

True, as a result, Metropolitan Evlogy of Vladimir and Suzdal (in the world - Yuri Vasilievich Smirnov, born in 1937, former subdeacon of Patriarch Alexy the First) in 2014 became a doctor of theology, having defended a dissertation on the topic "Orthodox monasticism in the service of the World and God", and in In 2017 he received the title of honorary citizen of the Vladimir region.

The abbot of the monastery, Father Peter (Kucher), was recognized as an elder, although many say that he is a young elder (or false elder) - that is, a priest who created his own cult, different from the canonical Orthodox one, in fact, a schismatic. In 2010, he was sent to rest with respect and gratitude - immediately after the second, and according to some sources, the fifth mass flight of children from the Holy Bogolyubsky orphanage. At the same time, Father Peter is a passionate admirer of both the “Tsar-Redeemer” Nicholas II and Generalissimo Joseph Stalin, the main fighter against the TIN and passports as containing anti-Christian symbols and the main opponent of secular power. By the way, he was born in the south-east of Ukraine.

People close to Archimandrite Peter retold his favorite drinking story - about how the legendary captain of the third rank Alexander Marinesko stood at attention in his office as a military counterintelligence officer, whom he interrogated about non-party behavior. But, according to the official biography of Pyotr Petrovich Kucher, he was called to the front in 1943 in the artillery troops and rose to the rank of sergeant, and then was transferred to the marines, from where he was demobilized in 1950 with the rank of major. The jump from private to major in just seven years, coupled with the official list of his awards, is embarrassing, but it is not possible to verify this data. Although the impunity of Major Kucher during the churched period of his life makes us believe in the fact of service in the NKVD, and certainly not in the Marine Corps. But it's worth considering:

And the violations revealed in the shelters of the Vladimir region are like two drops of water similar to the materials of the criminal case on Moseytsevo, Yaroslavl region. And the amendments to the legislation, which were discussed in the prosecutor's office back in 2009, still have not been made. And in 2018, church houses of charity work in the same way. Although there are fewer of them - since 2017, the ROC has declared the priority of adoption. But in families, adopted children are treated the same way - according to Domostroy.

V. Sect In the Russian Orthodox Church, they want to forget about Moseytsevo, just as they once forgot about the Holy Bogolyubsky shelter. And if they are forced to speak, then only as a sect.

“In Moseytsevo, the Russian Orthodox Church encountered an organization that has all the signs of sectarianism,” says Alexander Dvorkin, professor at the St. Tikhon Orthodox Humanitarian University, head of the department of sectarian studies. - After all, a totalitarian sect is a special kind of organization, the main reason for the existence of which is power and money for the leadership and its closest associates. But Moseytsevo has little to do with Orthodoxy.

According to Dvorkin, Moseytsevo is a closed community in which there is a leader, there are girls who were exploited, there is an absolutization of the leader of the organization - these women, Dimitri's father. “They didn’t go to the local parish, but went to some young old man around whom an unhealthy relationship developed,” he explains and emphasizes that we are talking about a sect.

— We have a number of parishes and monasteries in which sectarian relations have developed, where the leader opposes himself to the Church. Some of them broke off communication with the ROC, while some of the communities remain because they understand that it is beneficial for them. But even the Synod a few years ago adopted a decree on early old age, recognizing the danger of such parishes. In life, it is sometimes difficult to draw clear boundaries - where a sect has already formed, and where it is just being formed. Nevertheless, in Moseytsevo, undoubtedly, we are dealing with certain pseudo-Orthodox sectarian relations, the professor insists.

But during the investigation, law enforcement agencies did not find any classical forms of sectarianism, and the mothers categorically denied their involvement in sects. The results of the proceedings within the ROC are unknown, but Father Demetrius continues to serve and remains the confessor of many other women - hostesses of formal and informal shelters.

At the same time, Archimandrite Dimitry is known as an ardent follower of another Orthodox elder, Archimandrite Naum, who until his death was the confessor of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. This is one of the most revered and at the same time the most gloomy figures of the Russian Orthodox Church. The essence of the life of these two is in one quote from the Bible, which both love to repeat so much:

“If the Lord loves anyone, he punishes him, beats every son, and accepts him” (From the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Jews, chapter 6, verse 12). Translated into modern Russian: “For the Lord loves whom He punishes; beats every son whom he receives.” Archimandrite Naum was considered one of the most popular elders of the Russian Orthodox Church, although he did not formally hold any positions in the top leadership. Moreover, it was he who developed a special methodology for raising the children of God. As he himself believed - on the basis of Orthodox dogma, although theologians prefer to talk about distorted personal ideas.

Needless to say, this technique is the exact opposite of the Constitution and secular laws of Russia.

According to Elder Naum, the child's self-development should be kept to a minimum, and secular education is contraindicated for him. In return, boys should learn the ranks of a church minister from an early age, and girls should prepare to become nuns.

Children, along with adults, should get up early on the rules of prayer, unfailingly participate in worship and the administration of the rank. Professions are pleasing only to those that are mentioned in the Bible, while in life only archaic crafts according to the precepts of grandfathers and great-grandfathers are in demand. Television and the Internet are from the devil, they relax the mind and faith. Space is a territory closed by God to people.

The baby must initially know that the world is divided only into Orthodox believers and sinners - everyone else. Medicine is contrary to God's rule, contains nothing but placebo and schizophrenia. The life experience of an Orthodox believer heals better than any certified doctor, but the chief physician is the Lord, and only in his hands are the fates of his sons. The cause of any illness is not viruses or bacteria, but bad deeds, and illness is God's punishment. The polyclinic and the hospital are sinful creations; they deny God at their core.

The means of proper upbringing were invented by our pious ancestors and set forth in Domostroy. And this, as you know, is physical punishment with any consecrated and blessed objects.

“The method of Elder Naum is the only true one in our world. This is the future of earthly civilization. According to the concept of Father Naum, mankind is saved only by turning to the deity of pure and immaculate souls in the aspect of renunciation of tribal life, preserving virginity and fully devoting themselves to the service of the church organization, ”modern domestic theologians gently interpret his instructions.

But secular scientists give Elder Naum’s method a completely different explanation: it is forced, because its author to this day remains one of the outstanding leaders of a special structure within the Russian Orthodox Church, striving to overcome the huge personnel shortage, albeit with extreme measures. Any child who enters the temple must remain in the temple and devote his whole life to the service of the Church. It is important to understand: not to God, but to the Church. Hence the practice of accepting a person and entire families without documents, by faith alone.

“Young people have turned their backs on the church, soon there will be no one in the monasteries to look after the aging monks who have laid their whole lives on the altar of service,” Elder Naum explained.

At the same time, he is never mentioned on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church and in the official speeches of the Patriarch. And theologians speak of him as a young old man. But the Lord calls to judge not according to our words, but according to our deeds. And according to them, an interesting picture emerges: a young old man condemned by the official Church served in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in the rank of confessor of her brethren. And he is the only one of all the priests who was allowed to receive the Orthodox not in the church, but in a specially built cell. His word often outweighed the word of the Patriarch, and the hierarchs closest to Kirill, while verbally supporting the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', essentially put into practice the precepts of Elder Naum.

Who considered the Georgian Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin the greatest Russian in history.

MEN IN BLACK

How the Orthodox Church gets into power and earns billions

RKCC — Workers' and Peasants' Red Church 27 years ago, when the Soviet empire collapsed and a religious revival began, the Church had about 6,500 parishes, two-thirds of them in Ukraine. It was then that the fundamental problem of the modern ROC arose: there was essentially no one to revive religion and its institutions. After all, all the clergy were exterminated as a class, and the phrase “religion is the opium of the people” was quoted by all citizens of the USSR with a knowing smile. The favorite question in the church was: “Why didn’t Gagarin see your god?”

Today there are more than 36,000 parishes in the ROC, of ​​which about 25,000 are in Russia. The number of monasteries has exceeded a thousand - there was not such a number before the revolution. And there is no end in sight to this: three new parishes open every day.

“The growth rates are enormous. But I want to say - like a cancerous tumor, - says the former priest Father Nikolai, a former priest who left the Church after a scandal caused by an attempt to tell the truth about its structure. - Because the internal environment is not prepared and not provided with anything. First, the living tradition of that old Church has been destroyed. And we are not dealing with restoration, but with reconstruction. We, those who stand at the leadership and parishes, the episcopate and even the Patriarchate, are not from the families of the clergy. And not even from families of believers.

The current speed of the spread of the ROC is provided neither intellectually, nor by personnel, nor by traditions - nothing. Only with a desire - let's make more monasteries, let's make another parish. And we'll put him at the helm - he sings painfully loudly. Accordingly, what are the personnel - such are the consequences of this.

In the early 1990s, during the reconstruction of the Russian Orthodox Church, a tragic utopianism was superimposed on bookish Orthodoxy: the world is going to hell, it won’t last long, the third world war is ahead, we need to save ourselves — and a lot of destitute people from broken families poured into monasteries in search of if not a better life, then with the thought of where to save their children from debauchery, from alcohol, from drugs, from prostitution.

Then the monasteries were still such utopian communities of Tommaso Campanella (the author of The City of the Sun, according to V. I. Lenin, one of the forerunners of scientific socialism) and represented not so much Orthodoxy as war communism. People all left the Soviet Union, having before their eyes the collective farm as a model. Here it is, and not the apostolic community, and built.

Therefore, not God's houses were obtained, but the same collective farms, only with the Gospel in their hands. - People from Bessarabia and from the south-east of Ukraine were especially valued. And it turned out by itself that out of all possible Orthodoxy we began to build a peasant one. Again, with all the ensuing consequences - with the promotion of subsistence farming and peasant culture, as well as the rejection of urban life. Why do peasants need passports? TIN? Books? Cards? Overseas travel? Peasants have always lived off subsistence farming! Well, that is, such peasant practicality.

It was then that the roots of the current troubles of the Russian Orthodox Church were laid - it so happened that the monastic, black clergy in Russia are traditionally the least educated than the white clergy. This is our specificity, unlike, for example, the Catholics: their monks are more educated than parish priests.

Since then, since the revival of the Church, people who have taken monastic vows have been making a frenzied career. Lightning. Where a white priest needs to plow and plow, serve and serve, blacks could decorate themselves with everything they can in two years and take positions that an ordinary priest could not even dream of.

Accordingly, from rags to riches, without education - without the corresponding length of service - forward. These are again Stalin's falcons, non-commissioned officers who became generals of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, who studied on the principle of "takeoff - landing - ready to fight."

This in itself is sad, but even worse is that these Stalinist falcons themselves began to teach new priests - in the massively opened seminaries there was nowhere to get smart teachers with religious convictions, and parish priests were sent there, who themselves were students of the “reenactors” ”- says Father Nicholas.

The outcome of this is sad.

“Most of today's priests don't feel halftones,” Father Michael says. He served for 17 years in different churches, became disillusioned with the Russian Orthodox Church and left the ministry, returning to the world. “Their educational qualification is extremely low, and there is no higher secular education in it, and the higher church education is of a very low quality. These people do not understand the difference between discouragement and depression. They do not understand that mental illness should be treated with pills, that alcoholism and drug addiction cannot be cured only by prayer.

But what the current priests understand perfectly well is the financial benefit from the opening of the next parish. After all, it becomes a new link in a complex chain of relationships from which the economy of the church is formed.

“At the priest’s surrender, nem ...” In Russian folklore, since the 16th century, a significant part has been assigned specifically to priests. And the part is not the most pleasant. Suffice it to recall "The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda", which, like many works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, is rooted in peasant legends. Not without reason, in the 21st century, the Church has practically achieved a census of this immortal work - the Tale of the Merchant and his worker Balda.

Collections of folk proverbs contain dozens of sayings like “The ass is a marten, the deacon is a fox, the sexton-goryunu is a gray hare, and the prosvir-cracker is hare ears”, “The belly of the priest is bottomless, you can’t fill it”, “Who fights from the living and from the dead ? Pop!"

The economy of the modern church is not far from its ancestors. Today, the ROC stands on three pillars, and the disappearance of any of them is catastrophic. These whales are believers, resale of church paraphernalia and state support.

The ROC, like any religious organization officially registered in Russia, has benefits, but every one of them is key. It is completely exempt from paying value added tax (VAT) and income tax (Part 3 of Article 149 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), property tax (Part 27 of Article 251 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) and land tax (Article 395 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation), as well as state duties (Article 333.35 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). That is, in fact, the ROC pays nothing at all to the budget.

The tax code of the Russian Federation clearly stipulates: the exemption is only from religious activities, and all commercial, even carried out by the ROC, is subject to mandatory taxation. Therefore, according to reports, the church does not conduct commercial activities at all. And it's useless to argue with that. True, according to a high-ranking Russian official, in fact, they simply do not want to get involved with the church.

“Priests are now included in absolutely all elected bodies of all levels of government, from local parliaments to various kinds of public councils and supervisory commissions, up to ministerial and federal ones. This, of course, is correct, but it opens the door for them to leaders of any rank, where they can simply cry, to withdraw the commission or turn a blind eye to the identified shortcomings. And believe me, the clergy take advantage of this. Moreover, on the direct instructions of his leadership, ”he explains.

As paradoxical as it sounds, government support makes the entire economy of the ROC black. Or gray - after all, no parish is accountable to anyone. Nobody checks them, except the Church itself. And here, as many years of experience show, the hand washes the hand. Moreover, both in the world and in the Church, everyone is convinced that the authorities know everything, and everything that happens is done with his (the authorities') blessing.

For example, when in 2017 the educational committee of the Moscow Patriarchate came to the Vladimir Theological Seminary for an inspection, they almost accidentally found out that out of a dozen authoritative professors, only two were formally employed - the rector and the first vice-rector. And the rest worked for many years without registration, work books and deductions to the Pension Fund. They received their salaries in envelopes and thought that this was the way it should be. Having learned the truth, they went to bow to the Patriarchate. And they said: the pension will be paid by those whom you have now trained. In fact, the case was put on the brakes. People quit their jobs, but no one will make up for the years they missed - neither in seniority, nor in mandatory deductions. And these teachers have nowhere to go - the ROC has a monopoly on spiritual education.

“The whole church economy is very specific,” says Father Nikolai. - It is arranged according to the sectarian principle. You know, there is a saying: "the priest has a surrender nem." Our brethren do not like to pay for work. Therefore, this is all a blessing, for Christ's sake, bring a gift. The system of economic relations is obviously criminal - with black and gray salaries. This is a divorce of people for free work, and people quickly get used to it. You can not pay: you are not working for me - you are working for the Lord God. Why do you need a vacation, why do you need registration, why do you need a salary?

Russians will be very surprised when they find out that priests have absolutely no rights. Yes, they were forced to issue work books for them, but not everyone still has them - in every church, in every monastery they were issued for the required minimum of clergy. But no one has employment contracts. Even a standard form was not developed. In addition, the principle of hierarchy operates in the ROC. This is the same as autocracy in the army. That is why there is not a single labor conflict in the Russian Orthodox Church - the boss is always right. And the guilty is always guilty.

The salary of a Russian priest is from 20 to 40 thousand rubles a month. Some say that personal income tax is withheld from them, some say that they are completely exempt from taxes. The abbot receives much more, but the size of his salary is a mystery shrouded in darkness. In addition, the rector can put his hand into the treasury - they say, this is for gasoline, because I go on church business, and this is for a mobile phone, because I talk about the problems of the parish even on the phone. And no one can argue with him.

Moreover, in the conditions of the hierarchy, questions of prestige are manifested especially clearly. Therefore, an ordinary priest will never buy a car more prestigious than the rector; the rector will not appear in public wearing watches more expensive than those of the bishop; and the bishop will not have a rarity that the patriarch does not have. Therefore, the desire to stand out manifests itself in a different way.

A small example: in June 2018, one of the recruitment agencies was looking for a personal chef for the abbess of the holy monastery. The salary was promised at 90 thousand rubles. According to the agency staff, the abbess was going to pay her personal money. It is easy to assume that a high-ranking cult minister will give not the last pennies to her personal chef.

“The state simply does not consider either the conflict or the departure from the law in the Russian Orthodox Church,” Father Nikolai explains. - Therefore, salaries are black. In the Soviet years, this was justified by the fact that there was a godless government. And now everyone is just used to it and turn a blind eye to it. The authorities do not interfere in these matters. They don’t even try to climb, because they understand: if you touch it, so much shit will turn sour!

The second pillar of the ROC economy is the resale of church paraphernalia. This includes a lot: from products that are traded in temples and monasteries, to entire industries that conclude contracts and government contracts. The cost of such products is minimal - it is produced either by workers who work for free, or by completely disenfranchised people who cannot complain anywhere.

And if they complain... In the public councils of all departments, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Guard and the FSB, there are many people in cassocks who not only inform about complaints, but can also influence the decisions made. Often - the lowest requests. And almost no one refuses these requests.

In the criminal case on the death of the girl Tanya in Moseytsevo, seven farms were recorded working for the local Nikitsky Monastery. According to the investigation, the same laborers worked in them - this is the name of those who perform obedience for free. However, according to operational data, the monastery has other farms in the Moscow and Ivanovo regions. Some of them are engaged in the manufacture of industrial goods.

The data obtained by operational means cannot always be verified. For example, in the village of Grigorkovo, a few kilometers from Moseytsevo, there is an Orthodox community. According to local residents, blacksmiths living there sold goods in the markets and made to order. They were engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and all the surplus food and money went to the monastery. But no legal or financial traces of this could be found.

Which is not surprising, because the Orthodox do not record transactions. The economy of the Russian Orthodox Church, in principle, remains black. Or gray. So, it is almost impossible to calculate its real volumes. And the Orthodox clergy are in no hurry to “come out of the dusk”. On the contrary, it is beneficial for them to be in the shadows.

The village of Grigorkovo was given to the Orthodox community many years ago, and blacksmiths live there. They work for the benefit of the parish, and their products are well known in the region and beyond: high-quality, beautiful, reliable ... While preparing the material, I accidentally ended up in this village. None of the children I met was any different from the pupils of the orphanage in Moseytsevo: brilliant knowledge of Orthodox literature and Domostroy, as well as a complete inability to solve a single problem from a third-grade textbook in mathematics. Complete ignorance of classical Russian literature, even to the questions “Who is Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin? Who is Mikhail Lermontov? I didn't wait for an answer. But - long, in the floor of clothes and a good conviction that the world is ruled by the Antichrist. As well as old and fresh festering wounds on the arms and legs. So, the village of Grigorkovo simply does not appear in any tax records. Many have heard about Orthodox production in the village of Sofrino - this is where candles, icons, crosses are made ... And the vast majority of Russians believe that everything sold in churches is made in Russia, in monasteries and in factories ...

Alas, this is a delusion. As in almost all other segments of the world market, the People's Republic of China leads in the production and sale of church utensils. In the province of Zhejiang there is the city of Yiwu, and in it there is a huge wholesale center selling religious goods, and more than half of them are Orthodox. The wholesale shipment starts from a conventional 100 icons or 1000 crosses, but buyers in black cassocks are not embarrassed by this volume, especially since customs officers and border guards quickly and joyfully respond to a request to clear sacred things out of turn. They don’t even have to pull - you won’t collect a duty.

In the same market, Catholic priests from various countries are overstocked. And from Russia too. According to experts, 100 percent of the rosary, 80 percent of Catholic icons and most of the candles - and they are special for Catholics, in special plastic cups - are made in China.

Once, in a private conversation with me, a monk from Sergiyev Posad boasted that there were more than ten thousand Orthodox communities in Russia working for the good of the Church. And he mentioned that some of them even went international: they trade timber with China. And learn from the Chinese accuracy. Even with the money earned from work on their own days off, they bought special equipment in Finland and now they are driving it to their region. Unfortunately, I didn't find any evidence for this. Unofficially, I was told that among the smugglers driving timber to the Celestial Empire, there really are several Orthodox communities. Each of them owns a small mobile sawmill and never causes trouble for law enforcement - unlike hundreds of others. But a lot of things are also produced in Sofrino.

Its turnover is high, but, alas, it is declining. And the point here is not only in competition with the Far Eastern neighbor - the impoverishment of the people leads to a decrease in income. Nevertheless, in 2017 the company's income amounted to 2 billion 325 million 275 thousand rubles. Meanwhile, in 2007, according to official figures, Sofrino's annual income exceeded 60 billion.

On July 28, 2018, Patriarch Kirill, by his decree, dismissed Yevgeny Parkhaev, for 40 years the permanent director of the HPP ROC "Sofrino". Formally, the reason for the dismissal is not called, semi-formally they say that the commission of the patriarchy recognized his work as unsatisfactory. And quite informally, they note that Parkhaev was too carried away by personal affairs, ruining Orthodox production. At the same time, he held several posts at once, in fact being the chief supply manager of the Russian Orthodox Church, and failed to work in all areas, for which he paid the price.

In any case, Sofrino's turnover fell, and disproportionately to the fall in parish incomes. Parkhaev himself told reporters that he agreed with the decision of the patriarch: “I am 77 years old, I have been serving the church for 55 years, I have been a director for 40 years. I'm already tired."

But there is a small detail: immediately after the signing of the Decree, a representative of the Patriarchate asked the Russian Guard near Moscow to take Sofrino under protection - "until the appointment of a new director." He explained this by the desire to preserve material and technical values ​​and fixed assets. That is, the director was not just removed from office - they immediately began to defend themselves against him. It doesn't look like volunteering.

“Parkhaev did not want to leave, he strongly resisted any attempt to limit his powers,” says a source in church circles. - In a good way, it should have been spent on a well-deserved rest in 2014, if not earlier. But he played a significant role in the election of Cyril and enjoyed his support. Although, in fact, he worked the old fashioned way. On the one hand, this is good - because the canons were strictly observed. On the other hand, such work is not suitable for the current economic conditions. And Parkhaev, moreover, was increasingly striving to get into the political activities of the church.

In other words, the second pillar of the Russian Orthodox Church's economy has lost some weight in recent years, but still continues to bring a stable income.

Finally, the third pillar of the ROC's economy is the believers. Almost every visitor to the temple, not necessarily a believer, leaves at least a hundred rubles in the church. The believer is more. These are candles, notes for health and repose, the purchase of icons ... Getting baptized and getting married also costs money, and you also need to buy books with prayers.

“A small church in the city has a monthly revenue of about a million,” says Father Nikolai. - We give 25 percent to the diocese, another 30 percent - our daily expenses. The rest goes to the church… True, now they say that the diocese has begun to demand more, up to half. More precisely, each parish was given a plan, and if you don’t fulfill it, you will fly out. And if you do it, then no one will look at what the father of the car changes every year.

Churches in villages, of course, earn less - well, if 200 thousand a month. There are fewer parishioners here, and they themselves, to put it mildly, are not rich. Prayer rooms also have a small turnover in transport - 300-400 thousand per month. But churches in cottage settlements and near them ... The priests themselves say that the average revenue here is tens of millions.

The statement of Patriarch Kirill at one of the church councils is well known. Criticizing the princes of the Russian Orthodox Church, he said that many peripheral parishes contributed only 200-300 thousand rubles to the general church treasury - that is, the same amount as the poorest churches in the capital. And in fact he accused his subordinates of zhlobstvo. In the same speech, figures were made: up to 22 percent of the temple's income goes to the general treasury. This allows us to draw some conclusions about the general purse of the ROC.

And RBC journalists calculated that direct subsidies from the Russian Orthodox Church alone (for example, for the restoration of ancient churches that had gone to the Church) exceeded 14 billion rubles in 2012-2015. This is despite the fact that almost all churches are said to have been restored with the money of donors, and the state is usually not among the contributors.

In addition, each temple has its own sponsor - a private enterprise that helps with money. As a rule, this is based on the personal contacts of the abbot. The head of this enterprise often becomes the headman of a temple or the chairman of the community council and receives awards at the first opportunity - after all, the Russian Orthodox Church has its own orders and medals. You will see such an award on the chest, for example, Yakunin - do not hesitate. This is for state zeal, for sponsorship.

“It is this kind of money that makes the priests forget the laws of God and cheat with church books,” says Father Nikolai. - Someone spends money on their development, and someone - on personal well-being. Of course, there are few of them, but they do exist... It is especially insulting to those priests who came to church after Afghanistan or Chechnya - they left worldly life precisely because of this scum. And here is the same profile.

Be that as it may, but in January 2017 a grandiose scandal became public knowledge: in the Krasnoyarsk diocese, the priest, who recreated the temple from the ruins and served in it continuously since 1995, was fired. According to Priest Victor (Pasechnyuk) himself, for the fact that he could not collect 150 thousand rubles for the birthday of the metropolitan and transfer them to the diocese. At the same time, there was a lot of talk about the "planned" nature of voluntary donations. But… the priests who are members of the public councils of the TV channels, as well as the confessors of the leadership of the regional and federal media, asked very much not to pedal the topic - and a block was put on it.

At the same time, according to the registers of legal entities, the Russian Orthodox Church is recorded as an enterprise with less than 100 employees, the general director of which is Kirill Gundyaev.

But this does not prevent the growth of the number of parishes. In mid-2017, a thousandth monastery was opened in Russia, and as of January 1, 2018, there were already 1010 of them. For comparison: before the Khrushchev persecutions, there were only 14 monasteries in the USSR (most in the Ukrainian SSR), in the 80s - four (Trinity-Sergius and Pskov-Pechersk Lavra, Riga Hermitage (female) and Assumption Monastery in Pyukhtitsa, Estonia).

But every monastery is also a subsidiary farm. At least one, and in the Nikitsky Monastery near Moseytsevo, we recall that they found seven. Farms, although they are focused on the maintenance of the inhabitants, produce surpluses, and they quickly turn into surplus value: the laws of economics are the same for everyone.

There are over 36,000 parishes in Russia. Another 600 churches have already been formally transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, but either lie in ruins or are under construction. There were less than 6,500 parishes throughout the Soviet Union. Of these, 891 parishes and 56 monasteries are located outside the country. And of the remaining, about half are beyond the Ural Mountains.

Almost 40 thousand presbyters, more than 5 thousand deacons and almost 400 bishops serve in the ROC. Already, there are 356 dioceses and 79 metropolitanates in the structure of the Russian Orthodox Church - more than the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Knowing the number of parishes, imagining the volume of money passing through them, and having up-to-date data on the work of employees and gray exports, in which the ROC is involved, it is not difficult to approximately estimate its budget. Its revenue side is almost equal to its expenditure side and amounts to about 92 billion rubles in 2017 prices. This does not take into account the indirect subventions of the state and the income that the ROC receives from the securities it owns, since this part cannot even presumably be calculated. In addition, the facts of ROC investment in the construction of elite real estate and business centers, as well as in the import of cars are known. But this activity of the Church lies entirely in the black zone.

A year ago, while on a business trip in the Baikal region, I had an informal conversation with the general of one of the law enforcement agencies. It was about withdrawing small industrial enterprises from the illegal zone, primarily sawmills and timber processing firms, consumers of the main wealth of that region. “The team passed, and it was ordered to massively legalize them,” the general told me. “We don’t count them — send patrols along any route, and everyone will find five or six mobile sawmills or two or three sheds that make boards. But they will not be legalized - taxes are such that it is cheaper to close. And this means that five to ten men will be left without work, which will cause an increase in social tension. To put it mildly. Yes, and with the church now to get in touch is more expensive for yourself. But for them, even for rations and a stove bench, those who have been released work. Left without a job they will ruin my statistics in a second. No, I will not take sin upon my soul.

SERVANTS OF THE LORD

Russian Orthodoxy is being built by prisoners, FSB veterans and people from Donbass

Orthodox convicts Few people know that former prisoners who find themselves behind the gates of the zone willingly move to monasteries and parishes. And very quickly they occupy a leading position there, at the same time recreating the only acceptable way of life for themselves - the life of the black zone. The practice traditional for Russia helps them: those who have been at fault for a long time go to Siberia, because here they do not pay attention to past sins. And this is where it is easiest to earn forgiveness.

A pop-stripper living in the Baikal region easily explains the everyday tricks of the lower echelon of Russian Orthodoxy.

- If you want to recover - go for the Ural-stone. They take everyone there - the last bandits and convicts. The more serious the crime, the further east you have to go. It's very hard here, but they count three days. I personally know a dozen completely officially ordained elders, each of whom is a convict and a murderer, on their conscience not one or two, but ten to twenty victims, including those added already in the ministry. There is REAL serfdom here, because you can’t leave here. They do not pay money, but they ask for work.

Beyond the Ural Mountains, even officials and the leadership of law enforcement agencies openly talk about serfdom in the monasteries and sketes of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is a problem that needs to be solved, but no one knows how to solve it. Although there are many advisers. Already in December 2017, one of my good friends, a Siberian journalist, having learned the story about Moseytsevo, looked into my eyes for a long time and did not understand, and then said: “You don’t know life there in Europe at all.” We don't make noise about such nonsense. The law is taiga. Seek-fistula ...

According to him, dozens of people, mostly released prisoners, are missing. They find themselves in distant places where they work for free for the benefit of the church. “The ball is ruled by people hiding behind the Orthodox faith. But the orders there are zone ones. Few people can escape from there. And they don't really want to, to be honest. Because they feed, water, give work. In the wild, many are more afraid, ”says the journalist. He clarifies that these so-called Orthodox sketes are often protected by law enforcement officers. But they cover - the word is not very accurate: they don’t take money for harboring.

Another thing is more curious: since the 1990s, those released from places of deprivation of liberty began to actively settle in the monasteries of Central Russia, and later in the Russian south. For them, there is even a term - “winter monks”, that is, those who take tonsure for the winter in order to sit out the fierce times in warmth and satiety. In fact, according to law enforcement officers, a unique symbiosis has arisen: the bearers of a criminal culture ensure order in the monasteries using Zon methods, which guarantees an influx of material wealth, and the church gives them protection from law enforcement agencies and the flock. But with no less attention in the ROC they approach the protection of their own interests.

Security Service In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where several key divisions of the Russian Orthodox Church are located, including the Synoidal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism, the entrance to the office premises is guarded by people of athletic build in cassocks with professional security guards. They bypass the territory, and move along very professionally laid "patrol routes".

In November 2013, from the patriarchal chambers in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, an ark with a stone from Golgotha, an altar Gospel of the 17th century in a silver frame, a shroud of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, and an icon-folder with the face of the Virgin were stolen. The value of the stolen goods exceeded eight million rubles. Then the employees turned to the police and reported the theft, listing the valuables in detail and even providing photographs. At the same time, according to the police officers, one of the applicants in a cassock spoke in a very professional slang. Even on two - Christian, mechanically repeating "amen" at the mention of the Virgin, and a police one.

Argo (from French argot) is the language of a socially closed group of people, characterized by the specificity of the vocabulary used, the originality of its use, but not having its own phonetic and grammatical system. Jargon and slang should not be confused. - During the inspection of the scene, the same man and his partner politely but adamantly obstructed the attempts of the investigators to study the premises adjacent to the chambers. And through the doors that opened from time to time, we could see bored men in cassocks and without them, obviously waiting for the departure of “worldly” investigators, ”said one of the employees of the Moscow Region Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who traveled to Sergiev Posad on a signal about the theft.

The very next day, the thief was detained, and everything stolen was returned to the Lavra, about which the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported publicly. The main thing remained behind the scenes: the investigation from beginning to end was carried out by the clergy themselves, they also handed over the already confessed suspect to the police and presented the seized stolen goods.

During television broadcasts, it is clearly seen that next to the highest ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church there are always clergy with a very tenacious professional look, while unmistakably performing rites.

At events with the participation of the first persons of the Russian Orthodox Church, I have repeatedly seen that next to law enforcement officers there are churchmen who themselves do not interfere in anything, but are vigilantly watching what is happening. And during the ceremony of laying the first stone in the foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, it was two clergymen who detained me and handed over to the FSB officers. They argued that it was impossible to rent a construction site, although I had all the documents in order. It is curious that among themselves the then security officers called these monks "allied" - the same word from slang, which is usually used to refer to colleagues from another power structure. The believers who left the Russian Orthodox Church repeatedly spoke about the conversations that certain priests had with them, in behavior reminiscent of the Chekists. And in Irkutsk, they told me a story about a disappeared homeless man who put his hand into the church cash desk. "Vanka thought that he successfully managed to steal several thousand rubles. He did not go on a spree, on which almost everyone is scorched, did not give himself away and even continued to come to the temple, where he did small work. But one evening, when the service had already ended, and the believers had not yet dispersed, he was asked to go to the priests' quarters, where two men in cassocks arrived. Nobody saw him again - he didn’t come out from behind the altar, ”said the parishioners.

Many criminals say that stealing in churches is more expensive for themselves - they will break their hands. In Pereslavl-Zalessky, I had a chance to talk with a thief - he stole a sausage and a bottle of vodka from a store near the temple, but was detained by an operative who accidentally went shopping. The thief, well known to the then local policemen, was released on bail, and I treated him to a cigarette. We talked, he told me his story, laughed at his unfortunate fate, and then I asked him the first question that came to mind: “Why didn’t you go to the monastery?” They will also feed you if you are hungry. I didn't want to eat - I wanted to drink. This time. And two - it’s better not to pull anything in the monastery, Father Dimitri has a priest - he breaks his hands without question. Cross yourself - and shake ... Forever wean. At first glance, these are horror stories, but all those who left the Orthodox communities talk about special people who look after order and discipline. A girl who escaped from the orphanage of the Holy Bogolyubsky Monastery in 2007 claimed that special clergymen set out to look for her, whose main task is to maintain order in the communities on the territory of the parish. They caught her and put her in a cell specially equipped for fugitives.

Similar stories are recorded in many appeals to law enforcement agencies throughout Russia. And each time a special chamber-type room is mentioned, equipped as in a zone.

And in the diocese, there is often a special priest who is responsible for security. Most often he is called Father Sergius. Why is unknown, but it was Father Sergius who frightened people in the Yaroslavl, Vladimir and Irkutsk regions, as well as Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Yes, and the usual logic suggests: where there are secrets, there are also archangels guarding them. And there are a lot of secrets in the Russian Orthodox Church - from ordinary everyday ones to difficult economic ones.

It is not for nothing that all attempts to secretly find out how and where the money received from tax breaks or the sale of church goods is spent ran into quite professionally organized opposition. And even when a criminal case was still possible to initiate, it hung like a dead weight: the persons who needed to be interrogated suddenly disappeared.

IN 2012, THE EMPLOYEES OF THE CRIMINAL DETECTIVE INTESTIGATION OFFICE OF THE MIA FOR THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN WAS ANNOUNCED IN THE FEDERAL WANTED FATHER GRIGORY, IN THE WORLD — KONUSHKIN MIKHAIL YURIEVICH, BORN ON 10/28/1968, A NATIVE OF MOSCOW. A MAN, WHO WAS REPEATEDLY REPORTED TO THE POLICE AS A FRAUD, SEEKED IN ONE OF THE MONASTERIES, HIDING FROM THE SEARCH, WHERE HAS RECEIVED THE Dignity. LATER, ACCOMPANYING THE PILGRIMNS, HE COLLECTED ALL THE CASH FROM THEM (ABOUT 4 MILLION RUBLES) ALLEGEDLY FOR SAFETY, GET OUT OF THE BUS AND DISAPPEARED. THE SEARCH WAS TERMINATED IN 2016 DUE TO THE TERMINATION OF THE CRIMINAL CASE, THE MIA OF THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN REPORTED. HOWEVER, DAMAGE TO VICTIMS WILL NOT BE REFUNDED. MEANWHILE, A LAW ENFORCEMENT SOURCE INFORMED THAT THE SEARCH WAS SIMPLY STOPPED.

Sometimes they left their homes overnight and ended up in another region, where they registered at new addresses and received new, absolutely impeccable documents, including birth certificates and passports.

A few years ago, a high-ranking officer of law enforcement agencies, who, just before retirement, became deputy head of one of the operational-search units of the Internal Security Service in northwestern Russia, began to direct the entire intelligence apparatus to identify employees who attend church more often than others. And during Lent, he rushed around the departments and watched what and how the officers were eating.

They made fun of him, someone twisted his finger at his temple, but as a result of these strange events, the officer opened the channel for the leakage of blank passport forms - more than 20 pieces disappeared, and, surprisingly, according to the documents, all of them were with the same employee before they disappeared - very religious, but it could also be an accident. An active search made it possible to find five missing documents already filled out for “unnoticed citizens”, while the fate of the rest remained unknown. A high-ranking employee, after an anonymous complaint, was caught in a sexual relationship and forced to quit.

The Russian Orthodox Church remains the only place where, over the past 30 years, law enforcement agencies (with the possible exception of the FSB) have failed to recruit a single agent. But stories when informants (from among volunteers - not to be confused with agents) abruptly stopped communicating or simply disappeared without a trace, on the contrary, are not uncommon.

It was during an attempt to get into the territory of the monastery, where the criminal could be hiding, that an operative I knew well went missing. His skeletonized body was accidentally found a few months later in the forest. In his hand was a Walther pistol, and the skull had the characteristic signs of destruction from a bullet fired at the temple. The investigators concluded that it was suicide, but his colleagues did not believe in this version. An equally strange story happened to a woman who worked for many years as an agent for an employee of the apartment fraud department and revealed the schemes of several gangs of “black realtors”. She was introduced into a group suspected of legalizing the apartments of old women who allegedly sold their homes and went to the monastery. Suddenly, she cut off all contact with the officer in charge of her and independently curtailed the operation, and then sent her daughter to a church school, changed her style of dress and began to go to church regularly. Experienced criminals know that they will always find shelter in the monastery - the Russian Orthodox Church categorically refuses to give law enforcement agencies any information about those who have taken refuge behind the church wall. In the summer of 2017, a certificate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a complaint against the abbots of temples hindering the investigation was leaked to the press. The answer to it from Archpriest Sergius also got into free access. He reports that the church sees no reason to provide passport data for persons in the dioceses. The answer to it from Archpriest Sergius also got into free access. He reports that the church sees no reason to provide passport data for persons in the dioceses. The answer to it from Archpriest Sergius also got into free access. He reports that the church sees no reason to provide passport data for persons in the dioceses.

Father Sergiy himself, Sergei Privalov, a native of Bryansk, served in the armed forces of the USSR and the Russian Federation until 2001. Having retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel, he changed his green field uniform to a black church uniform, and over the next 11 years he made a dizzying career: he became an archpriest, cleric of the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Petrovsky Park, a candidate of theology, a member of the Supreme Church Council, and also the chairman of the synodal commission for interaction with armed forces and law enforcement agencies.

So it is not surprising that it is Archpriest Sergius who regularly refuses law enforcement officers to take fingerprints from monastic employees and confiscate their genetic material.

Operative-search management As you know, one of the most terrible church sins is an escape from a monastery. According to the charter, it is impossible to leave the monastery just like that - you need to remove your vow, that is, become a deprivation. And this procedure is not quick, so it’s easier to escape - the secular authorities still do not consider this an offense.

Several law enforcement officials note that between 300 and 400 men and women are listed as escaped from monasteries in the Russian Federation today. The police formally do not accept such statements - escaping from the monastery is not considered a criminal offense, but such people need to be sought and punished so that others are discouraged.

This is done by security officers of the ROC. True, officially such an organization does not exist. There was only one private security company Sofrino in the structure of the Church, but in June 2017 it stopped working and handed over all weapons to the licensing and permit system of the Russian Guard.

There is also an Orthodox bank "Peresvet". Rather, he was Orthodox until the Russian Orthodox Church withdrew from among its founders. However, it is there that one of the most serious security services in Russia works. In October 2017, it was headed by Oleg Feoktistov, a former FSB general, the author of an operational combination that ended in a prison term for Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukaev.

Peresvet security officers were seen in at least two crime scenes associated with the Russian Orthodox Church, and at one of them, as a police operative later wrote in an explanatory note, they were engaged in “fixing trace objects using forensic technology.” That explanatory note was never given a go, and the crime itself remained unsolved. We are talking about the murder of a priest on the threshold of the Nikolsky Monastery in Pereslavl-Zalessky. The same monastery, the rector of which is Archimandrite Dimitri, the confessor of Mother Lyudmila from the ill-fated village of Moseytsevo.

The security service of the Russian Orthodox Church is also actively conducting operational-search work - that is, it secretly collects information about people, including using technical means.

For example, according to investigators, he establishes the phone numbers from which the girls from Moseytsevo accessed the Internet. After all, few people can, having seen a profile on VKontakte, quickly find out from which phone number a person was online and calculate his whereabouts. Someone from the environment of the Moseytsev mothers did this in a matter of seconds. And a certain Matrona Yaroslavskaya already a few minutes after discovering the girls' profiles knew not only their mobile numbers, but also the address of the newly created e-mail. At the same time, it was not possible to establish the identity of the Matrona herself.

The same fate befell several journalists writing on near-church topics: they suddenly found out that the content of their personal letters was becoming known to the highest church hierarchs.

In other words, the security service of the Russian Orthodox Church does not formally exist, but in fact it is actively working. In any case, in December 2017, after the verdict was passed on the mothers from Moseytsevo, someone wanted to find out the fate of their adopted children. By that time, absolutely all their documents had been changed, but the registry office of the Yaroslavl region tried to get a list of issued birth certificates, and the directorate of the orphanage received a request allegedly from a legal bureau demanding to provide the girls' personal files. And someone else searched for and opened their electronic mailboxes, and did it very professionally.

One can argue for a long time whether there is a special division of hacker monks inside the ROC, but dozens of priests with whom I spoke said one thing: the metropolitans knew word for word the content of their e-mail and correspondence in closed groups of social networks. And, despite the motto “the Internet is sinful,” church followers actively use the World Wide Web. Especially when someone needs to be found.

There were many rumors that the princes of the Russian Orthodox Church had the titles of the KGB of the USSR and party cards. It is impossible to assert this - many priests in the 1980s were very oppositional and even opportunistic. But it cannot be considered an absolute lie either. In any case, in 2015, special religious departments operated in the structures of the territorial departments of the FSB, which essentially performed the role of arbitrators, especially at a time when conflicts were gaining resonance. In Moseytsevo, for example, it was the FSB officers who assured the criminal investigation operatives that no one would interfere with the investigation of the criminal case, but there was no need to dig aside. In Bogolyubovo, officers from the relevant FSB units also smoothed out sharp corners. At the same time, it is the FSB in Moscow that prevents the adoption of changes to laws, which would make the budget of religious organizations transparent. Western researchers note that money to pay for intelligence information, especially political information, comes to foreign countries through church channels. But in our country, these data, even in translated articles, do not appear. And not because someone formally forbids - internal censorship operates. In rare cases, the authority of the editor. It is no secret that Orthodox parishes often provide assistance to compatriots. In rare cases, the authority of the editor. It is no secret that Orthodox parishes often provide assistance to compatriots. In rare cases, the authority of the editor. It is no secret that Orthodox parishes often provide assistance to compatriots.

Bessarabia and Donetsk It is known from a secondary school course that among the priests there are monks who have taken a vow of celibacy, and there are parish priests. Most immediately give the correct answer to the question of how to distinguish them. Monks wear black and are called black, while priests wear white and can marry and have children.

But if you open the website of the Russian Orthodox Church and look at the members of the Holy Synod, you will notice that it is the monks who are at the helm of the church, because all its permanent members were tonsured monks.

A more careful analysis leads to another discovery: less than a quarter of the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church have higher secular education. On the contrary, about half in their youth advanced from the posts of subdeacons under the then acting bishops.

But the fact that almost half of the members of the synod have roots in Bessarabia and in the south-east of Ukraine, in Donetsk and Luhansk, is almost impossible to calculate. Although this is the holy truth and the root of all the modern troubles of Russian Orthodoxy.

It is in the southeast of Ukraine and the east of Moldova that the Russian Orthodox Church has traditionally held the most dense, the most inert and the most patriarchal views. It was here that hundreds of Orthodox committed suicide even in tsarist times. This is where the hatred for the TIN and any passport comes from. It was here that cheerful fellow villagers most often disappeared. It was here that the "Black Hundred" was born. It is from here that Father Pyotr Kucher and many other high ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church come from.

30 years ago, when the church revival began in the USSR, officially called the "return to the faith", there were 6.5 thousand parishes in the Russian Orthodox Church. Of these, almost 4,000 are in Ukraine, with the majority in its southeastern part. About 500 more in Moldova - more precisely, in that part of it that was traditionally called the Bessarabia province, or Bessarabia. The territory located between the Prut and Dniester rivers is approximately where the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic is now located.

Then in the USSR there were three seminaries - Zagorsk, Leningrad and Odessa, and two Theological Academies - Moscow and Leningrad. The state policy was such that most of their applicants already had an incomplete higher secular education.

Now there are almost 40 thousand parishes in the Russian Federation. Priests are trained by 5 Theological Academies, 3 Orthodox Universities, 2 Theological Institutes, 38 Seminaries, 39 Theological Schools, 2 Pastoral Courses. Every day, three parishes are opened, headed by a priest with spiritual education.

For 30 years the number of parishes has increased tenfold. They are proud of it, they talk a lot about it. But the personnel problem is not highlighted.

“Nine-tenths of those who restored the Orthodox faith are “re-enactors,” says former father Mikhail, who served in various churches for 17 years, became disillusioned with the Russian Orthodox Church and left the ministry, returning to the world. - They themselves are not from believing families, they know about the institution of the Church by hearsay. Yes, among them there are many pure and bright people who came to the faith already in adulthood and have, albeit incomplete, but higher education. But there are also many careerists.

Under such conditions, the questionnaire line "from a family of believers" is akin to the revolutionary "from the proletarians." They occupied leadership positions, bringing to them the peasant principle “one’s own shirt is closer to the body” that survived the persecutions and perestroika. Thus crossed out the hope for a slow but traditional revival.

“The current ROC has nothing to do with the Orthodox Church that existed before 1917: its ministers were persecuted by the Soviet authorities and almost all perished in the Gulag,” Father Mikhail is convinced.

Well, what is the pop - such is the parish. Greed and forgiveness gave rise to a kind of chimera.

- Most parishes are headed by priests who have no education and, due to their illiteracy, are ready to deny everything that has appeared during the years of Soviet power. As a counterbalance to the planned economy, they put the natural, as opposed to culture - the traditional village life, as opposed to medicine - quackery. And in contrast to theology - domostroy. Such is the peasant practicality, but, in fact, it is precisely this that causes the greatest harm to the Church. Look at Catholic priests: they are very smart and very well-read people who can have brilliant discussions, while remaining in the faith and convincing the interlocutor that God exists. And compare them with our priests, who have become a symbol of illiteracy, who deny science as something demonic. Under these conditions, a believer with a higher secular education turns out to be a pariah,

Science, even church science, is something that our grandfathers did not have, which means that it is ungodly. But the principles imbibed with mother's milk remained, alas, unchanged - and the church, having intercepted the basis from the communists, almost officially proclaimed itself not intelligent and popular, but worker-peasant. Since "all troubles are from power, and all power is from education."

At the end of the period of stagnation, the questionnaire of the average head of the district level looked like this: eight classes of education, a technical school, service in the ranks of the armed forces of the USSR, a proletarian (or collective farm) specialty, the University of Marxism-Leninism and election to the post of secretary of the district committee-executive committee.

Today, the official profile of a spiritual shepherd looks similar: eight to nine grades of school, service in the army, work as an electrician, miner or combine operator, ordination and service as a deacon, seminary (or academy - depending on the status of the bishop) and rank in the parish. However, both there and there were exceptions, also very similar: many years of service in the armed forces and immediately - a leadership position a step higher, but not under a cap, but under a hood.

Both those and others have a very low educational qualification, which means a lack of real academic knowledge, including system knowledge. They do not need passports, TIN, work books at all. They don't need overseas travel.

The main difference between an Orthodox priest and a Catholic one is not in the manner of conducting a conversation and not in clothes. And not even in the fact that one is Orthodox and the other is Left-Orthodox. The main difference is in service: a Catholic monk is much more educated, well-educated and knows how the views of Copernicus differ from the worldview of Ignatius Loyola. Their monasticism is study and knowledge. Monasticism with us is the departure of the rank.

And therefore, Russian priests for the most part do not see the difference between despondency and depression and believe that mental illness is the devil in the soul, which must be cast out with prayer, and not treated with medicines.

They are shepherds of human souls. And a shepherd is a shepherd. Who leads the flock...

Alas, in Moseytsevo the ROC showed itself not as an institution for the fight against sin, but as a worker-peasant organization: the issues of protecting honor and, to an even greater extent, the desire not to endure rubbish from the hut.

There were many obstacles to the investigation at all its stages. During the investigation, the accused Gusmanova, Semyonova and Lyubimova changed more than 30 lawyers - and all were paid by the Church. More precisely, the benefactors of the St. Nicholas Monastery in Pereslavl-Zalessky. The diocese even issued a special statement stating that the monastery never had shelters, but the evidence collected by the investigation successfully refuted this.

Investigators worked day and night, and under serious pressure. The evidence collected by them was considered convincing by the court. Rifa Gusmanova, who beat little Vera, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Guzel Semyonova (5 years 6 months in prison) and Lyudmila Lyubimova (5 years in prison) were also found guilty. In addition, Lyubimova and Gusmanova were deprived of parental rights by a court decision. The defense appealed the verdict, but the Supreme Court upheld it.

“The investigation of the criminal case was particularly difficult due to the large volume of investigative and procedural actions, the production of a significant number of forensic examinations, the difficulty of proving guilt in the conditions of non-obviousness of the crime, where the victims were young girls aged 9 to 13 years,” says the head of the investigative department of the TFR in the Yaroslavl region, Major General of Justice Oleg Lipatov. - The guilty verdict, in accordance with which all the defendants were sentenced to real imprisonment, is an unconditional victory of the investigation and the triumph of the principle of the inevitability of punishment.

The affected girls are now growing up in a completely secular society, but still under state protection.

AFTERWORD There is much in the Russian Orthodox Church that is worthy of imitation. We must not forget and discount the fact that in difficult years she sheltered the destitute and suddenly found themselves without life ideals of Soviet citizens. That in difficult moments that occur in any family, in years of trials, it is the Church that replaces secular institutions, giving hope and faith to many.

Unlike Bogolyubov and Moseytsevo, the Russian Orthodox Church has exemplary shelters for orphans and children whose parents lead an inappropriate (including according to the norms of secular morality) lifestyle. Near Yaroslavl, for example, the St. Alekseevskaya Gymnasium has been operating for 25 years, headed by Abbot Peter (Vasilenko). Her pupils receive a brilliant, versatile education, they are not familiar with bullying and mental anguish.

In Suzdal, at the Intercession Convent for Women, there is a social shelter for girls; every year, with the money of philanthropists, they go to rest on the Black Sea and peacefully coexist with secular peers.

Prayer rooms have been created in many hospitals in Russia, which, in close cooperation with doctors, perform quite therapeutic functions, sometimes simply restoring hope and strengthening the spirit.

In general, one cannot live without faith. But the preachers of the faith should be exemplary and versatile people. And nepotism in the church is no less terrible than in secular institutions.

“We must not forget that the Church is essentially a cross section of society,” Father Michael says, “and suffers from all the diseases that plague secular institutions. Studying the problems of the Church, one can boldly speak about the problems of society. We recognize that the country is sick. To heal the Church is to take the first step towards the healing of society. The step is very important.

The problem is that unworthy and poorly educated people become shepherds. That is why they consider prayer to be the best remedy for microbes and viruses, they call any mention of science heresy, and they do not want to pay workers, highly appreciating their own goodwill.

In many parishes and churches, things are not as I have described. There are very bright temples, and during the preparation of the material I have seen quite a few of them. The problem is that the number of deanery parishes does not change, but the number of the Moseitsevs is growing. And we need to stop this growth in time. Otherwise, we will again talk about "opium for the people."

Text - Igor Nadezhdin