A few words about the meeting of the Synodal Theological Commission (SBC) on February 19-20, 2001 and the events that unfolded around it, for we are not the only living witnesses of all this. We think that it will be important and useful for everyone to remember some details of this action.
Paradoxical as it may seem, preparations for this meeting were very similar to preparations for the defeat of the anti-globalization movement in Russia, in any case, an attempt to knock out the spiritual foundation from under it once and for all, to “squeeze” it out of the boundaries of the Church. Hysterical company - "Split!", "Split!" covered many ecclesiastical and secular media by order... In the publications, all the classic techniques of modern PR technologies were visible to the naked eye: "And then and now people went into the catacombs ... because of the TIN.
"Newsmakers" have long fueled the heat of passion around the topic of "split" - the last weapon in the hands of church supporters of globalization and digital coding of the population. The fact is that they no longer have any reasonable and not yet refuted arguments “in defense of the TIN”. It was clear to all sane people that the Church has no reason to “bless” the universal “INN-ezation”, and even more so to oppress her faithful children who do not accept digital nicknames-antonyms. Nevertheless, a whole army of "theologians" tried diligently to prove the "harmlessness" of the adoption of the TIN, as well as branding "schismatics", "outcasts" and "sectarians" those who dared to look at this problem not from the point of view of their nomenclature "theology", but he was guided by the Holy Scriptures, the works of the Holy Fathers, the dictates of his Christian conscience and his - still alive - Orthodox feeling of what was happening.
Much can be said about how the frightening danger of a “split” was inflated, how labels were hung on opponents who could not be defeated in an honest dispute. It was in such, to put it mildly, non-constructive atmosphere that preparations for the SBK plenum took place ...
And shortly before the start of the meetings, an unprecedented action took place to influence the opinion of both the members of the Commission and the general public, which was carried out with the help of a professional director. Metropolitan Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), stocking up on letters signed by the Patriarch, drawn up accordingly (it is very likely that the archimandrite himself prepared them), made a lightning-fast "voyage to the elders." Moreover, he persistently, at any cost, tried to achieve confirmation of pre-prepared assessments and conclusions that “TIN is not terrible”, “there are no sixes there”, “split is terrible” and the like. At the same time, Father Tikhon relied on the authority and indisputable opinion of the highest hierarchy. Here is just a small example of "questioning the revelation of the truth and the will of God" at Father Nikolai Guryanov. Radio listeners of "Radonezh" could hear it on the air on January 29, 2001, then in a somewhat "edited" form this dialogue was posted on the Internet:
Archimandrite Tikhon (about TIN): "This is the tax number that is given to every person now"(precisely in such a crafty wording: they don’t “force them to write an application for assigning a number, they don’t force them to accept it”, but this number is “given” as if by itself; however, the person is also “given a name”)
Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov: "Ah, is that how? .."
Archimandrite Tikhon: “About which His Holiness writes... Some say that this is the seal of the Antichrist... So the Holy One wrote to you... The Most Holy One says that this is not the seal of the Antichrist... If there were 666, then His Holiness wrote to you about this. He won't deceive you!?"
After such, as they say now, "collision", what kind of "revelation" can be expected from the elder?
The archimandrite arrived on the island of Talabsk to shoot a story about how Father Nikolai blesses the acceptance of the numbers. After several unsuccessful takes, during which the archimandrite read the “secret package” brought from Moscow to the elder, Father Nikolai, who was not devoid of a sense of humor, began to play the fool in front of the camera, and eventually covered it with his hand. At the same time, his cell-attendant, mother John, exclaimed loudly: “Father! You don’t bless taking numbers!”
After that, an audio recording of the “speech” of Archpriest Nikolai was played on the radio “Radonezh”, to which the inventive archimandrite commented: "Father Nikolai has no opinion on the TIN." But excuse me, thousands of people came to the island with this question, both before the visit of the archimandrite and after it. By the inexpressible mercy of God, many of our associates managed to communicate with this chosen one of God. Everyone knew that Father Nikolai does not bless the acceptance of numbers. Here's the story...
The next elder, whose opinion Archimandrite Tikhon wanted to convey to the people, was Father John (Krestyankin). The video in which Father John reads an appeal prepared in advance (naturally, “with the help” of the mentioned archimandrite) was repeatedly replicated, played on television and radio throughout Russia for maximum impact on the thoughts and feelings of believers, not to mention the fact that it was shown (as the main argument) on a wide screen at a meeting of the SBC.
It was evident throughout that Father John is absolutely clueless relating to spiritual, technical and social aspects people digital coding; not informed about the violence that secular authorities are doing against people; about those ecclesiastical bans that believers were subjected to for refusing to accept the number; about the incredible lies spread by the media disinformation; that digital identity is global.
On the other hand, Father John possessed clearly excessive information about non-existent problems: about the alleged split in the Church over the TIN; non-recognition by someone of the grace of the Church; about the departure of entire communities "into forests, swamps and ravines."
Sadly, we also heard from him that it is possible to save oneself in a concentration camp, but we just did not understand: why should we build this concentration camp with our own hands? ..
Finally, Archimandrite Tikhon wanted to film Father Kirill (Pavlov), but the revered confessor of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra and the Patriarch himself from filming shrewdly refused. After that, he was suspended from participation in the work of the SBC. However, after the end of the plenum, he was long and persistently persuaded to sign the Final Document, which stated that "the acceptance of numbers is not a matter of confession of faith or a sinful act" and "has no religious significance."
Father Kirill, despite enormous administrative pressure, refused to do so. Moreover, he courageously expressed his dissenting opinion in an interview with the editor of the Orthodox Internet portal “Russian Resurrection”: “Assigning numbers to people is a godless, sinful thing. Because when God created man, He gave him a name. Giving a name to a person is God's Will. All the millennia that have passed since that time, people used names. And now, instead of a name, a person is assigned a number. How and why this is done leaves no doubt about the sinfulness and the theomachic nature of this work. Therefore, it is not necessary to participate in this matter, but to the extent possible, resist it. From these words of the elder it absolutely unequivocally followed: if assigning a number to a person is a god-fighting, sinful matter, then accepting and using a number by a person is a no less god-fighting and sinful matter!
There is no doubt that the people of God believe in Father Kirill, and not the ideologists of globalism “from theology”, who serve not God, but time and justify the “mystery of lawlessness”.
Now is the time to bring the text of the letter brought by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) on behalf of the Patriarch to the Pskov-Caves Monastery to Archimandrite John (Krestyankin). This letter, probably due to some kind of oversight, was published in Pskov-Pechersky list and became the property of a wide audience. This was the reason for the video speech of Father John, presented to the members of the SBC and widely broadcast on radio and television.
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW
AND ALL RUSSIA ALEXY
His Reverend Archimandrite John,
Pskov-Pechersk Dormition Convent
Your Reverence, dear Father Archimandrite John!
I heartily congratulate you on the great Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord
and prayerfully wishing many mercies of God, bodily and spiritual strength.
I was forced to turn to you by a question that, as you know, is now worrying many, is the attitude to the TIN - the tax number entered by the state in order to streamline the collection of taxes, and subsequently to determine the amount of pension accrual.
Today, this issue is taking on extremely painful forms. Anti-church forces are attempting to split the Church, using rumors that the TIN allegedly contains the number 666. This is not true: the TIN is an ordinary number, is not an apocalyptic omen, and even more so is not the seal of the Antichrist. Meanwhile, at the instigation of the enemy, anti-church forces are whipping up a real panic associated with the acceptance or non-acceptance of the TIN. Your letter, published in many newspapers and read from the ambos of churches, largely pacified the situation, but people immediately appeared who claimed that this letter was forged. There are already cases of people leaving work and their homes, calls for disobedience to the hierarchy of the Church, calls for a schism and departure almost to the forests. All this is reminiscent of the situation with the splits in the 27th century and the post-revolutionary events.
Dear Father Archimandrite! I ask you, for the comfort of the people of God, to express your opinion on all these issues. I ask you to record your words on a video camera in order to deprive the slanderers of a reason to say that your opinion is forged. This is very important, because because of irresponsible screamers and schismatics, the disease can go too far. I look forward to your support at this critical moment. In turn, We will do everything to pacify the division that has arisen, so that members of the Church who do not want to accept a tax number for one reason or another, are in no case forced to do so, and no negative consequences are caused to them as a result. In this We received assurances from the Minister for Taxes and Dues of the Russian Federation G.I. Bukaev, an Orthodox man who supports Us.
I ask for your holy prayers, which I always rely on.
With love in the Lord, Alexy, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
I must say that the video speech of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) made an impression on many, including members of the SBC. We recall how the abbot of the Valaam Monastery, Archimandrite Pankraty (now Bishop of Trinity), who had previously strongly opposed the theomachic global projects, said: “Brothers! But Father John is a confessor. He went through prisons and camps. How can we not trust him?
We heard similar words from other members of the Commission, including the bishops. At the same time, during the preparation of the Final Document, the report prepared at a high theological and scientific and technical level by the rector of the St. Vladyka Konstantin was simply not given the floor. "There wasn't enough time."
A very convenient technique: if it is impossible to refute an opponent in an honest way, then you can pretend that his arguments did not exist at all. On this occasion, we had a serious conversation with Bishop Konstantin. Vladyka was sincerely worried, for his report would not have left a stone unturned from the arguments of Archimandrite John. The Commission also ignored the well-founded scientific and technical conclusions of reputable scientists with degrees of candidates and doctors of sciences and the titles of academicians, who completely refuted the conclusions of the Commission.
The opinion of the Commission was formed by such "theologians" and "famous experts" in the field of computer technology as the aforementioned Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) and Deacon Andrei Kuraev, which led to very deplorable results. Their only judge is God!
It can only be unequivocally stated that if the Church had said then a firm “NO” to digital identification of a person, then today there would be no problems associated with the introduction of electronic “passports” and other means of electronic control and management, including those inseparable from the human body ; there would be no problems associated with the discrimination of hundreds of thousands of Orthodox citizens who, due to religious beliefs, do not want to enter the “new identification system”. It is very sad that to this day many clergymen and officials use the words of Father John (Krestyankin), which have long been refuted by life itself.
“One must know, beloved, that in every deed one must seek truth and falsehood, and the goal of the one who acts, whether it is good or bad,”- our reverend father John of Damascus teaches us.
P.S. Now the newly appointed bishop (Shevkunov) is trying to make his "modest" contribution to the organization of an early meeting of the Patriarch with the Pope of Rome and the "unification of the Churches."
"Axios!" (from the headlines in the patriotic media about his consecration).
Anaxios!!! (thrice)
the entire editorial board of the "Orthodox Apologist" fully subscribes to the opinion of the editorial board "For the right to live without TIN and microchips" and also expresses its word regarding the consecration of Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, who led so many persons from the hierarchy and ordinary believers into error, pushed Archimandrite to a terrible performance. John (Krestyankina), Anaxios! Anaxios! Anaxios!
- I've been pretty tired of this kind of journalistic questions and guesses for fifteen years.
Bishop Tikhon (in the world Georgy Alexandrovich Shevkunov; July 2, 1958, Moscow) - Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop of Yegoryevsky, vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, head of the Western vicariate of the city of Moscow.
Viceroy of the Moscow Sretensky Stauropegial Monastery. Executive Secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture. Co-Chairman of the Church-Public Council for Protection from the Alcohol Threat. Member of the Board of Trustees of the St. Basil the Great Foundation (founded by businessman Konstantin Malofeev). Upon graduation, he entered the Pskov-Caves Monastery as a novice. In September 2003, he accompanied the head of state to the United States, where Putin conveyed an invitation from Patriarch Alexy II to Metropolitan Laurus, First Hierarch of ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), to visit Russia. In the media, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) was called the confessor of Konstantin Malofeev (but Malofeev himself claims that his confessor is a monk from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra) and Vladimir Putin.
– Let’s move on to another difficult topic – as a rector, do you understand the structure of the ROC’s economy?
— As the abbot, I understand how the economy of our monastery works. As for the budget of the patriarchate, as far as I know, it consists of deductions from the dioceses and donations from Christians.
— How much does your monastery contribute to the patriarchate?
- The Sretensky Monastery transfers an annual fee to the patriarchate - it changes from year to year, but the order is from 3 to 5 million rubles. in year. If the situation is difficult, and all funds are spent on maintaining the life of the monastery, then the patriarch exempts from contributions to general church needs. This happens everywhere with temples being revived and built; the first especially difficult years, and we did not transfer funds to the patriarchy.
- Do you transfer the annual contribution to the account of the patriarchate?
- Which bank?
- If I'm not mistaken, to Sberbank.
“We can earn and earn ourselves”
— How is the Sretensky Monastery financed?
— The main source is our monastery publishing house. We publish up to four hundred titles of books: spiritual, historical, scientific and fiction. Secondly, we have an agricultural production - the Voskresenie cooperative in the Ryazan region, we took it in 2001 in a completely ruined form.
- It seems you still have a cafe called Unholy Saints.
- This position is rather costly. A small cafe where people go to chat after the Sunday service, that's why we created it. Yes, we still receive money from the church, but no one comes with a plate during services, the parishioners themselves leave as much as they see fit for the upkeep of the church.
- There are more candles.
- Candles can be taken from us for free or put some small amount. Expensive pure wax and large candles have some value.
— How much does it cost you to maintain the monastery?
- These are large funds, I do not see the need to disclose them. We maintain the highest spiritual institution created in the monastery - the seminary. Last year it had 250 students. Seminarians - six years on full board.
- The former accountant of the patriarchate, Natalya Deryuzhkina, estimated the annual maintenance of two seminaries - Moscow and St. Petersburg - at 60 million rubles. How much of that amount do you spend on running the seminary? half?
- About. The brethren of the monastery themselves earn money for the seminary, for the maintenance and current repairs of the entire monastery, for helping the orphanage in which 100 children are brought up, for the website, for many of our educational projects, for charity. On all this we can earn and earn ourselves.
There are donors...
- Oh sure. The help of philanthropists is very important, and we are sincerely grateful to all of them. Once upon a time, during several of the most difficult years of the revival of the destroyed monastery, Sergey Pugachev (former senator and ex-owner of Mezhprombank, to two years in prison; currently in France) helped us a lot. — RBC). To make it clear the ratio of money earned by the monks themselves and received from donations to the monastery, even in the best years, charitable funds amounted to no more than 15% of the budget for the maintenance of the monastery. But in the case of new construction, help is needed. This happened when we realized that the size of our parish church was already hopelessly small, and we took the blessings of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill for the construction of a new church.
— I know that Rosneft helps you.
Yes, without her and without the help of other benefactors, we would not have built a new church. But the brethren of the monastery do not stand aside either: 370 million rubles, all the funds received from the sale of almost two million copies of my book “Unholy Saints”, we directed to the construction.
Does businessman Konstantin Malofeev really help you a lot?
- The St. Basil the Great Foundation (founder of the foundation - Malofeev. — RBC) twice participated in the partial financing of our historical exhibitions in the Manezh, and once transferred 50% of the necessary budget to the maintenance of the seminary. In general, charitable assistance is not something permanent. During the seventeen years of the seminary's existence, we received such help from philanthropists only three times, in the rest of the years we managed on our own.
Questions about money annoy you?
- Rather, they surprise. To be honest, it always seemed to me that such questions were, to put it mildly, unethical. Just in case, I’ll warn you: if somewhere in Germany, or in England, or in France you will conduct a conversation on such topics, the conversation will be instantly terminated. But, I repeat, if you and your readers are so interested, I am ready to answer. Speaking of help, once we, for example, held an action to distribute free Gospels. They were published at the expense of Oleg Deripaska. This does not apply to the Sretensky Monastery itself, but our joint project of the "Historical Park" at VDNKh was prepared by the joint efforts of the Moscow government, the Patriarchal Council and Norilsk Nickel.
“I have to interact with a wide range of people”
“You have, if I am not mistaken, a large number of influential acquaintances.
- I am the chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, and I really have to interact with a wide range of people, including well-known people in society.
Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov of Yegoryevsk, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo: Alexei Nikolsky/TASS)
- I'm talking about something else, rather. Is it easy for you to communicate with representatives of the state? Forgive me, please, but I constantly catch myself thinking that the FSB officers - you have it right next to you - figuratively speaking, apples from the apple tree that shot priests in Soviet times.
- I understand that you, as a journalist, exacerbate the issue. But to put an equal sign between the atrocities of the Chekists, who repressed and destroyed their own people, and the current military, serving in the law enforcement sphere, is possible only in the incurable mind of an ultra-liberal. With this approach, I must refuse to talk to you, saying: “Since your predecessors, journalists of the former news agencies and publications, have blatantly lied to the whole world and their own people for many years, I do not intend to communicate with you!”
- When did you lie? Then? Now?
- As for what is happening now, you know better. But in this case, I'm talking about Soviet times, when journalists sometimes lied so that everyone around them blushed, except for them. There are numerous current departments that worked not only in the USSR, but also in former very distant times. We must understand whether today even in the punitive organs the vector of attitude towards the people, towards the individual, towards the church has changed, or not? Is there now a command from the state to repress the church? No.
Is there any contradiction in this position? Now there is no persecution of the ROC, but will the church stand up for those who are subjected to repression?
- If there are unjust persecutions, he will definitely stand up.
- Agree, nevertheless, paradoxical things are happening - in schools they propose to introduce a single history textbook, in which Joseph Stalin looks like an almost effective manager. And there are clerics who adhere to the same position (in particular, the priest Evstafiy Zhakov, rector of the Church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga in Strelna, openly expressed his respect for Stalin and even hung an icon depicting the Generalissimo in the church. — RBC).
- In the version of the future textbook that I saw, the assessment of the Stalinist period is presented in a very balanced way. If you have a version of the textbook with a different interpretation, please send it to me. Among today's clergy there are very different views on the personality of Stalin, but at the same time I have never seen a priest who would say: "Stalin is my ideal!" and even more so would justify the repressions, or at least remove Stalin's personal responsibility for them.
- Don't you think that the church in relations with the state goes through pendulum periods? Love is hate. Now, for example, love. So the hatred must return.
- More than nine hundred years - since the Baptism of Russia - love. Then a few decades - hatred. So what do you think? Rather, everything is more complicated here. As for the essence of your question - about the interaction of church and state - today we are dominated by the position of undoubted rationality and mutual benefit from the separation of church and state. There can be no question of any unification of the two institutions - the state and the church. It will only bring harm.
- Why does it feel like the ROC and the government go hand in hand?
- Well, let them go hand in hand where it is impossible not to welcome. Together, the church and state institutions are engaged in charity, helping the needy, preserving ancient cultural monuments related to the church and its history. And also projects in the field of culture, historical science, some general diplomatic programs. But of course you are talking about politics?
- Yes.
- I can reassure you: the Russian Church has long adopted a law that priests and bishops should not participate in the political life of the country.
- Nevertheless, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church are quite active in speaking out on political topics.
- Representatives of many public organizations express their opinion on a wide range of social, cultural and political phenomena, but this does not mean their real participation in state policy.
- Father Vsevolod Chaplin actively spoke out in support of the residents of Donbass.
- Father Vsevolod Chaplin is a separate conversation.
Yes, but Chaplin is not alone. For example, the rector of a church near St. Petersburg openly consecrates body armor for the DPR militias.
- Well, what is the crime? Bulletproof vest allows you to save lives.
- If we talk about Father Chaplin, he has recently demanded to disclose the items of income and expenses of the Russian Orthodox Church.
- So here's the thing: your interview about church finances is such a kind of hello to us from Father Vsevolod ?! Well, there are special financial monitoring bodies, let them check everything competently and responsibly.
“I hear and know that there are also abuses on the part of church authorities in some dioceses”
— How do you feel about the law on the return of religious property? By the way, do you own a monastery?
- Not. Perpetual and free use. Everything in the monastery is the property of the state.
- Why? Are you more comfortable?
— It happened that way.
- And you were given money under the federal program "Culture of Russia"?
- Once ten years ago - to restore the frescoes in the temple. But they did not give it to us, but to the restoration organization, which restored these frescoes in a wonderful way. What else to report? The city authorities allocated funds for paving stones for the ancient part of the monastery courtyard.
- As far as I know, you are the head of the public council under Rosalkogolregulirovanie. Why do you need it?
- Very necessary. Seven years ago, with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill, the Church-Public Council for Protection from the Alcohol Threat was created. The writer Valentin Rasputin and I became co-chairs. A few years later, I was called to head the public council at Rosalkogolregulirovanie. For me, the main task of the work is to reduce the consumption of alcoholic products in the country, primarily among adolescents and young people. We did something: according to the latest data, alcohol consumption in Russia has fallen by 18% in six years.
- Your prayers?
- Prayers and common labors of many people.
- As far as I understand, priests in Moscow live easier than in the provinces - on the periphery, the percentage of diocesan deductions is higher, parishioners are many times smaller, and people are poorer. The priests are complaining.
- As for the fact that the percentage of deductions is higher, I don’t know here. I mostly know the parish life only of the Pskov diocese, which I myself described in the book Unholy Saints. I have friends from very poor priests who also helped their grandmothers with their salary. Here, the late Father Nikita and Father Victor did not pay anything at all to the Pskov diocese, because there was nothing - absolutely impoverished parishes. But this is my knowledge of the diocese ten years ago. Of course, I hear and know that there are also abuses on the part of church authorities in some dioceses. Well, if so, then that's a problem.
“I’m not the first to tell you about such problems.
- No no.
— Nevertheless, there was no talk of this at the last Bishops' Council.
— Financial topics were not the subject of discussion at the Bishops' Council.
Archimandrite Tikhon, aka Georgy Alexandrovich Shevkunov, was born in 1958. Graduated from the screenwriting department of the All-Union Institute of Cinematography. Soon after graduating from VGIK, he went to the Pskov-Caves Monastery, where he was a novice for nine years, and then took monastic vows. He returned to Moscow, worked in the publishing department of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Ten years ago, Shevkunov first appeared in print as the only ideologue of the fundamentalist direction of the Russian Orthodox Church, publishing an article Church and State, in which he openly laid out his concern for democracy. A democratic country, quotes Father Tikhon Frei Lapse Vireau, will inevitably strive to weaken the most influential Church in the country, putting into action the old principle of divide and rule. This statement seems important in connection with the fact that the Russian media call Father Tikhon the confessor of President Putin, that is, a person who influences the worldview of the leader of the state.
In church circles, Tikhon is spoken of as a well-known intriguer and careerist. The first step in his brilliant ecclesiastical career, the certified screenwriter took shortly after his return to Moscow from the Pskov-Caves Monastery in 1991. Then he initiated a brawl near the fire in the Donskoy Monastery, where he lived. According to investigators, the culprit of the fire was a drunken monastery watchman who fell asleep with a lit cigarette. Shevkunov also accused agents of Western intelligence agencies sent to us under the guise of believers of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad of malicious arson. (By the way, at the moment, foreigners, despite the long-standing brawl, support Father Tikhon. According to rumors, they see him as the main candidate for the post of the next Patriarch of All Russia.) They say that the certified screenwriter himself is not out of place to take the highest church post in Russia.
There is information about the connection of Father Tikhon with the KGB. Perhaps later these connections helped him get to know Vladimir Putin better. One of the parishioners of the Sretensky Monastery is a close friend of Father Tikhon, Lieutenant General Nikolai Leonov. He served in the KGB from 1958 to 1991. In the 60-70s he worked in the First Main Directorate (PGU) of the KGB of the USSR, was the deputy head of the department. (Putin also served in PSU in the 1970s.) Tikhon (Shevkunov) and Nikolai Leonov are members of the editorial board of the Russian House magazine, the one that is printed on the basis of the publishing house of the Sretensky Monastery. Leonov is a political commentator for the program of the same name, which airs on the Muscovy channel, and Shevkunov is also the confessor of both projects of the magazine and the TV show. Among the frequent guests of the Russian House are representatives of the Russian National Unity (RNE) and the Black Hundreds.
Papa Tikhon is also known for more global projects. He was one of the activists of the movement for the canonization of the royal family. He led a crusade against the tour of the magician David Copperfield in Russia, informing the flock that the magic tricks of this vulgar American Woland put the audience in bondage from the darkest and most destructive forces. And whatever is his popular battle plan with satanic barcodes and individual taxpayer numbers (TIN). In the barcodes and TIN, according to Father Tikhon, the number of the beast 666 is disguised. In addition, the universal organization of accounting subordinates the Orthodox to total control from the secular, anti-Orthodox, from the point of view of Tikhon, state. His article The Schengen Zone, dedicated to this global problem, was published in the RNE Russian order. Despite the fact that Pope Tikhon denies his connection with the Russian Nazis, their views are very, very close.
Here are the reflections of the holy father on censorship. Censorship is a typical tool in a normal society, one that should cut off everything extreme. Personally, of course, I am for her both in the religious field and in the secular field. As far as state censorship is concerned, society will come to a sober understanding of the need for this institution before the deadline or later. Let us recall how Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in his youth scolded censorship and did not rhyme with it otherwise than with the word fool. Later, he advocated censorship. The last thought of Tikhon, nevertheless, baffled the researchers of A.S. Pushkin. Well, Pushkin did not write this!
Tikhon was one of the first to congratulate Putin on his accession to the throne and then publicly rejoiced at the timely departure of Yeltsin, condemning the era of Yeltsinism.
Papa Tikhon hides the history of his acquaintance with Putin. But he advertises his closeness to the first person in every possible way. In circles around the church, they say that the rumor, just as Tikhon is the confessor of the president, was started by Tikhon himself. The certified screenwriter himself does not confirm the rumor, but does not refute it, flirting: What are you trying to make of me some kind of Richelieu? Nevertheless, journalists from Moscow publications firmly wrote, according to Tikhon, that Vladimir Putin confessed to him all the way. It is he who instructs the president in the spiritual life.
In any case, the certified screenwriter Tikhon actively uses his real (or imaginary) proximity to the president. As they say, now the Patriarch himself is more afraid of him.
Also read the biographies of famous people:
Tikhon Zhuchkov Tihon Juchkov
He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (thrice), the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Red Star, and medals.
On November 15, the Dozhd TV channel released the documentary film "Confessor" about Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov. It is he who is considered the confessor of President Vladimir Putin and a contender for the role of patriarch. Ministers line up for confession to Shevkunov, and he is also called the customer of the persecution of director Kirill Serebrennikov.
unholy saints
The boy from Chertanovo Gosha was supposed to become a doctor - his mother wanted him to enter the medical school. But a friend asked to support him in the entrance examinations at VGIK. Ironically, a friend failed the exams, and Gosha was taken to the screenwriting department.
After defending his diploma, Gosha goes to the Pskov-Caves Monastery, from where Tikhon returns. In the monastery, he finds application for the knowledge gained at VGIK - he shoots a newsreel of the monastery.
Sketches from the life of the monastery formed the basis of Shevkunov's stories "Unholy Saints" - tales about priests and miraculous healings. “All the heroes of Shevkunov's stories are positive. Even when they are mean and cooperate with the authorities,” the authors of the film “Confessor” give an example.
He took the name Tikhon in honor of Patriarch Tikhon, and took the vows as a monk at the Donskoy Monastery, where the famous saint is buried. On the anniversary of Tikhon's accession to the patriarchal throne, the monastery was set on fire. Shevkunov recalled in an interview that shortly before the fire he received a telegram: "You will soon meet Tikhon."
He called the fire a sabotage and blamed the parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad for everything, calling them "agents of foreign intelligence." After the fire, Shevkunov found the relics of St. Tikhon in the monastery: “When they raised the lid of the coffin, I boldly, Lord, forgive me, put my hand there, with a blessing, and simply grabbed the man’s hand, shoulder, living shoulder.”
In the 1990s, a purge of "neo-renovators" in the church began - if we translate into the language of modern realities - "liberals". The neo-renovationists wanted to serve in Russian, which was forbidden in Soviet times. Among them was Father Georgy Kochetkov. It was Shevkunov who was responsible for his expulsion from the church with the help of the army of "Cossacks and Black Hundreds".
One of the participants in these provocations, Cossack ataman Vyacheslav Demin, in the film calls Shevkunov a member of the “Chekist church.” And the exiled Kochetkov himself answers the filmmakers on the question of whether Shevkunov believes in God, as follows: “Of course, he believes in some one, I don’t know which one. It is very difficult for me to say for sure that this is Christ, that we have one God, that we have one faith. It would be very difficult for me to, say, partake of communion together with him.”
Lubyanka father
Back in the nineties, Tikhon Shevkunov received the nickname "Lubyansk father" - for the spiritual support of the Chekists. Officers from the Lubyanka, both active and retired, can often be found in the Sretensky Monastery, where Shevkunov now serves as vicegerent.
Shevkunov was introduced to Vladimir Putin in 1996 by businessman Sergei Pugachev. He brought Putin to serve in the Sretensky Monastery, and then began to take Shevkunov to the president's dacha. Lyudmila Putina, then wife of the President, became a parishioner of the Sretensky Monastery. Pugachev introduced Shevkunov into Putin's inner circle: in one of the photographs from the birthday of the banker's wife, Sechin, Patrushev and Shevkunov are sitting at the same table.
According to Pugachev, Putin does not have a confessor: "In my opinion, Putin is an unbeliever." However, Shevkunov himself does not directly answer journalists' questions about Putin's spiritual guidance.
The businessman says that many ministers dream of getting an appointment with Shevkunov. In one of the telephone conversations, Tikhon confessed to a friend: “Medinsky has been sitting in the waiting room, waiting for two hours.” Local residents of the village of Krasnoye in the Ryazan region also talk about high-ranking guests - the residence of Shevkunov is located there.
According to them, Putin, Poltavchenko, Rogozin were guests there. Around the skete, its own golden mile immediately formed - the cottages of retired security officials, the film says.
Against Serebrennikov and Matilda
“All those who stormily applauded Pussy, they stormily applaud Leviathan,” Shevkunov once said. Now he is a member of the patriarchal council for culture and often speaks about the work of Russian directors. Anonymous interlocutors of Dozhd said that the bishop, during meetings with Putin, spoke unflatteringly about Kirill Serebrennikov.
Sources close to the FSB say that surveillance of the director was established at the beginning of the year - the lord's displeasure could influence the decision to open a criminal case. The director's acquaintances also consider Bishop Tikhon to be a possible sponsor of the persecution.
In September, during a visit to Yekaterinburg, Shevkunov spoke out against the film. On the same night, Orthodox activist Denis Murashov rammed a minibus into a cinema where the premiere was to take place. The day before, he participated in the liturgy, which was conducted by Shevkunov.
Back in 2005, the rector of the Sretensky Monastery helped with the examination of the exhibition "Beware of Religion!". It was he who gave the expert opinion, on the basis of which the verdict was passed on the curators of the exhibition, Yuri Samodurov and Andrey Erofeev.
The icon - the same one with which Natalya Poklonskaya went to the action "Immortal Regiment" - for the first time "frost myrrh" in the Sretensky Monastery during the service of Father Tikhon.
He is also called the screenwriter of the opening of the monument to Vladimir in Moscow - a symbolic response to Ukraine. “Now there are three Vladimirs in Russia - one lies in the Mausoleum, the second one sits in the Kremlin, and the third one stands right opposite,” the authors of the film note.
The Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church on Bolshaya Lubyanka - the territory of the Sretensky Monastery - was opened by the "Chekist father" in May of this year together with Vladimir Putin. The patterns on the facade of the temple were printed on a 3D printer, and the architect was 32-year-old Dmitry Smirnov, who had not built a single church before. In his portfolio - the scenery for the "Star Factory" and the country houses of Russian officials.
Sergey Pugachev, who introduced Tikhon to Putin, recalls Vladyka's VGIK past: “He is, in fact, a failed director, therefore ... or rather, he has taken place, even to a greater extent than Nikita Mikhalkov. Mikhalkov never dreamed of such glory, he never became such a support of power. And Father Tikhon is such a pillar of power.”
The abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, Vladyka Tikhon Shevkunov, in 2017, in terms of mention in the media, almost bypassed Patriarch Kirill.
He is still called the confessor of Vladimir Putin, despite the fact that he denies his closeness to the president. He is stubbornly called a competitor of Patriarch Kirill and is credited with the role of one of the "customers" in the case of director Kirill Serebrennikov. Zoya Svetova figured out how a student of the screenwriting department at VGIK turned into a major church figure in 35 years, whose influence on the Kremlin is legendary.
A black cassock, dark ash-gray hair smoothly parted in the middle, a neat beard - Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov of Yegoryevsky meets me in his spacious office at the Sretensky Seminary. Upon learning of my arrival, he quickly ends the conversation, and his visitors hurriedly leave the office.
Not a confessor of Putin
“What should I call you: father Tikhon? Vladyka Tikhon? I ask.
“I’m not used to being called Vladyka, call me Father Tikhon, (ordained a bishop in 2015 - Z.S.) democratically he offers and invites to sit on a leather sofa. He sits opposite me in an armchair, puts two iPhones one on top of the other on the coffee table. He does not turn them off, he only reduces the sound, and during our conversation both iPhones literally explode with text messages. Father Tikhon asks to bring us herbal tea. I look around. Photographs of the Pskov-Pechersk Elder John Krestyankin with Father Tikhon himself, collected works of Dostoevsky. Above the desk is a huge, full-wall, bright picture - a rural landscape, reminiscent of the cover of Shevkunov's book - "Unholy Saints". We agreed on an interview for two months - at first Shevkunov refused me quite sharply. I texted that I would like to talk to him because I am writing an article about him: “I know that several articles about me are ordered now. Even a movie. I won't be able to give an interview now regardless of the topic. Go ahead," he wrote back.
I replied that he was mistaken, no one orders articles for me. He wrote: “God will forgive you. Do your thing." But when I asked him to talk about my mother, the religious writer Zoya Krakhmalnikova, who was sentenced in 1983 to a year in prison and five years in exile for publishing Hope collections of Christian reading in the West, Shevkunov nevertheless agreed to talk.
We talked about my mother and Soviet religious dissidents for about ten minutes, and then about an hour more about everything. As a result, an interview was published on Radio Liberty. Shevkunov urged me to send the text, because he carefully edits all his interviews.
When I received the endorsed text of the interview, it turned out that Vladyka threw out some very interesting moments that say a lot about his attitude to important issues in Russian life.
I asked him if he really showed President Putin Kirill Serebrennikov's film The Apprentice, which led to the emergence of a "theatrical case" and the arrest of the artistic director of the Gogol Center, Kirill Serebrennikov.
- Gossip, gossip. I did not watch this film by Kirill Serebrennikov, I did not watch anything that he did.
- Well, do you know that there is such a director?
- Yes of course I know.
How do you know if you haven't watched anything?
- When they told me that I banned his performance, I, of course, more seriously asked who he was. But before that, I heard about it. I watch movies very little now. It's good if I manage to watch one film a year.
“The Apprentice is a very tough anti-clerical film.
- I know, I know the plot of it, they told me about it, I read it somewhere in an article.
"But you never saw him?" And they didn't show Putin?
- Well, are you kidding me?
- I'm telling you what they say.
- They don't say much.
"Then explain why?"
Because they are liars and gossips.
- To hurt you?
- No, just to chat and create the appearance of being informed. I showed Putin? I have nothing to do! Bullshit! You say that I vaguely assessed Venediktov's statement (wediscussed with him statement Venediktova about volume, what supposedly Shevkunovsent on the spectacle "Nureyev" their monks, which spectacle notliked, and Shevkunov complained Medina — W. With. ) I respect Venediktov as a professional. Our positions differ radically from him, but he is, of course, a great professional, what can I say. And he created such an amazing, so to speak, hostile to me personally radio station.
Vladimir Medinsky (left) and Tikhon Shevkunov. Photo: Yury Martyanov / Kommersant
"Hostile because she's an atheist?"
— No, atheists, Lord! Today he is an atheist, tomorrow he is a believer.
Who are your enemies then?
— Enemies of my beliefs. They have one belief, I have another. I'm not saying that they should be eliminated, shot, banned. There are opponents, tough opponents. Here I call tough opponents enemies. Tough opponents can come to enmity. What is enmity? This is an irreconcilable attitude towards a particular position. Correctly? And every person is a creation of God for us. And we should in no way transfer to a person hostility to one or another of his ideas, a worldview that contradicts ours. We can criticize and denounce his ideas and disagree with them. I quite definitely said: "Alexey Alekseevich Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy is lying." Dot. As the people say: "He lies like he bakes pancakes."
And did he answer you?
- The guys showed me, I asked to trace. He said: "I don't know how to bake pancakes."
After Shevkunov's editing, the entire fragment about Alexei Venediktov disappeared from the interview, but remained on my dictaphone recording.
Disappeared from the interview and another very interesting fragment:
- You do not think that today's FSB officers are the successors of the NKVD, the KGB?
- I don't think so. I am familiar with several FSB officers. I know a man who worked in intelligence. He is much older than me, I have infinite respect for him. This is Nikolai Sergeevich Leonov, lieutenant general, our intelligence officer. Of course, they did not participate in all these repressions. And even more so modern law enforcement agencies.
Were they being rude?
- Not. They came for no clear reason and were looking for traces of Khodorkovsky's money. They came to me as a journalist. And one of the employees, reading the protocol of the search at my mother's, said that he knew those investigators who had conducted a search at our house almost forty years ago.
Probably their teachers. Now to tell the current employee, as I know them and represent them, that you are the direct heirs and continuers of the work of Yagoda and Yezhov, my tongue will not turn.
Why not followers of Andropov, for example?
- As far as I know, many people respect Andropov. Many are strongly opposed. Young guys who came to military service to protect the peace and security of the state. I don't like, for example, that some people have a portrait or a bust of Dzerzhinsky.
- And Stalin?
I have never seen Stalin. But I don’t like Dzerzhinsky, I can say it, but this is their own business. You know, you will learn from business.
- So you are not embarrassed that repressions against dissidents are taking place in Russia?
- I see, of course, that some cases are being initiated. Cases, including those under the article “violation of public order”. According to the articles of the Criminal Code, but people say that in fact it is political persecution. These things need to be sorted out, I don't know. If there really was some kind of unsanctioned demonstration under political slogans, yes. Well, the guys were detained and released. As far as I understand, this is a normal practice all over the world. If someone hit a policeman or threw a stone at him, this is an article of the Criminal Code. You can spare this person if he falls under the amnesty and so on. This is where the law comes into play. I can sympathize with him, but at the same time say: “Listen, you are leaving,“ you must go to the square, ”remember? Come out, it's a duty of your conscience, but don't throw stones!"
Communication with Father Tikhon raised many questions in me: is it true that he did not see Serebrennikov's film "The Apprentice" and is it true that he knows Vladimir Putin quite a bit? Does he really believe that the enemies of the Church are ordering films and articles against him, wanting to weaken the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church on society?
Student "Whispers"
The future bishop and abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, in the world of Gosha Shevkunov, after graduating from school in 1977, entered the VGIK at the screenwriting department to Evgeny Grigoriev (authorscript films "Romance about lovers", "Three days Victor Chernyshev" — W. With.) and to Vera Tulyakova, the widow of the writer Nazim Hikmet. According to his fellow students, Gosha acted without any cronyism. His mother Elena Shevkunova, a well-known doctor, founder of the laboratory for the diagnosis and treatment of toxoplasmosis, dreamed that her son would go to medical school, but Gosha chose cinema.
Gosha Shevkunov (right) and Andrey Dmitriev, 1977. Photo: Dmitriev's personal archive
“He grew up without a father, read Dostoevsky, wrote well, I remember him as a frail boy with burning eyes,” recalls Shevkunov’s classmate, screenwriter Elena Lobachevskaya. - For Gosha, Evgeny Grigoriev was like a father. Paola Volkov lectured at VGIK (coursesuniversal stories arts andmaterial culture — W. With.) , philosopher Merab Mamardashvili. Gosha borrowed Solzhenitsyn's books from me. And master Yevgeny Grigoriev told us in class that Solzhenitsyn was a great Russian writer, and Gosha listened to him attentively.”
Another fellow student of Shevkunov, the writer Andrey Dmitriev, was one of his close friends during his student years. Over time, their paths diverged: Dmitriev now lives in Kyiv and is not going to come to Moscow. Shevkunov called him during the events on the Maidan, asked what was happening there. Hasn't called since.
“He is my godfather. I was baptized even before he became a monk. This person is very dear to me, despite our cardinal difference in views. Gosha is one of the most talented people I know. Either the great-grandson, or the grandson of the Socialist-Revolutionary, who was preparing an attempt on the sovereign emperor. His mother was an outstanding Soviet epidemiologist, but they lived in a small apartment in Chertanovo and, as Gosha said, he worked in some construction team, and one of the guys who worked with him persuaded him to enter VGIK. The guy failed, but Gosha passed. He was so naive, pure, like Candide. He told me quite sincerely in my first year in 1977: "Let's publish a magazine." I explained to him: "It's impossible." He did not understand:
- Why?
"They'll put me down," I said.
He didn't believe me.
Gosha came up with different stories. For example, I remember he wrote a script about Ilya Muromets, there was also some story about a man who sits in his apartment and manipulates other people, there was something about the Nightingale the Robber.
Dmitriev could not remember the plot of Shevkunov's thesis. One of the employees of VGIK said that it was called "Driver". This is a story about a man at a crossroads who does not know how to live. There is a scene with a dove in the script, when the hero twists his neck, catching him on the windowsill. It was not possible to confirm that this was exactly the plot of Shevkunov's graduation script: they were not allowed to read the manuscript at VGIK.
Screenwriter Elena Rayskaya, who studied a year older than Shevkunov, remembers him well, although she did not communicate much with him: “He was smiling, soft, quiet. When I learned that he later devoted himself to the Church, I was not surprised. He was always like that - detached, enlightened, as they say, not of this world.
Olga Yavorskaya, another VGIK graduate, has somewhat different memories of Father Tikhon: “He came to our hostel, and we called him Gosha Sheptunov. I think it's a no-brainer."
However, Andrei Dmitriev does not believe that he could have been recruited at the institute: “I don’t know this, he was the Komsomol organizer of the course, we collected contributions together, and then drank them together. I have never heard anyone call him "Whisperer", maybe this myth developed later.
Gosha Shevkunov was fond of the Baptists and went to services with Dmitriev. And then Dmitriev, who lived in Pskov as a child, told a friend about the Pskov-Caves Monastery, and in his fourth year Shevkunov went there in search of God.
Pskov-Pechersk Lavra. Newsreel TASS
Novice Gosh Shevkunov
“Then there was the only Moscow-Tartu train, it stopped in Pechory, one night Gosha got off the train and knocked on the gates of the monastery. They let him in, and so he became a novice,” recalls Dmitriev.
In the book Unholy Saints, Shevkunov writes a lot about the Pskov-Caves Monastery, about the monks, about his life in the monastery. Dmitriev says there is a story that is not written in the book: “He lived in a monastery and wrote his graduation script. The governor was Gabriel, a tough man and, apparently, Gosha resisted this totalitarian monastic system. He had chronic pneumonia since childhood, he then weighed 49 kilograms. And Gabriel sent him to a punishment cell, where he had to sleep on a stone bench, and one day his mother came to the monastery. She was generally against his monastic vows, and when she saw how badly he was in, she got scared. She turned to his teacher Vera Tulyakova, begging her to get her son out of the monastery. Tulyakova called Vladyka Pitirim, who then headed the publishing department of the Moscow Patriarchate, and asked to take Gosha Shevkunov to Moscow: he is a professional filmmaker and can come in handy. The date of the millennium of the baptism of Russia was approaching, and Gosha could make films. Once in the publishing department of Vladyka Pitirim, he quickly entered a very serious circle, and in Pechory he had already been only on short visits.
Archimandrite Zinon, one of the most respected masters of Russian icon painting (in 1995 year behind contribution in ecclesiastical art got State Prize RF— W. With.) in the mid-80s he lived in the same Pskov-Caves monastery. He tells a completely different version of Shevkunov’s position in the publishing department of the Moscow Patriarchate: “He worked for a long time in the monastery at the cowshed, he didn’t like it, and, obviously, his patience was already running out. He told me that once the governor asked him to give a tour of the monastery to some KGB officer and his wife (according to another monk, to whom Shevkunov told the same story, he did not tour the KGB officer, but some prominent party member and his wife). So, the wife of this officer asked what education he had. When I heard that he graduated from VGIK, I was horrified that a person with such an education was sitting in this hole. She asked her husband to arrange a nice novice to Vladyka Pitirim. So Gosha ended up in Moscow. He said that his mother was an unbeliever and did not agree that he went to the monastery. She allowed her son to take the tonsure, but only in Moscow.” Many years later, Shevkunov's friend Zurab Chavchavadze said in an interview that Elena Anatolyevna Shevkunova was baptized at the end of her life and took monastic vows.
Another monk who lived in the Pskov-Caves Monastery in those same years recalls that Gosha already boasted of his KGB connections.
Father Zinon does not rule out that Shevkunov could have been “recruited” at VGIK: “I think this is possible. Once he came running to my studio very excited: "A KGB major came with me, and he wants to see how you paint icons, can you accept him?" I told him: “You know how I feel about this audience. How could you, without warning me in advance, promise a person that I will accept him? I won't talk to him." He snorted: "You pushed a man away from the Church." And since then he stopped all communication with me.
Sergei Pugachev (second from left), Sergei Fursenko, Yuri Kovalchuk, Vladimir Yakovlev, Vladimir Putin and Tikhon Shevkunov (left to right), 2000s Photo: personal archive of Sergei Pugachev
"An eavesdropper of Gosh Whisperers"
Georgy Shevkunov remained a novice for almost ten years and did not take monastic vows. Already being the rector of the Sretensky Monastery, he told his parishioners that he decided to become a monk, almost running away from the crown, leaving his bride, who was considered one of the most beautiful girls in Moscow. One of his friends says that the future archimandrite had an affair with a famous actress, but he preferred a monastic career: as if one of the elders predicted a patriarchal chair for him in the future.
Be that as it may, but, once in Moscow, a graduate of VGIK and a novice began to make a successful church career.
“He always liked secular intrigues,” recalls Yevgeny Komarov, a journalist who worked in the publishing department of the Moscow Patriarchate in the late 1980s. - Gosha did not really work in any particular division of the publishing house, he directly communicated with Pitirim, was his "oprichnik", as he himself said. Accompanied him at bohemian parties, communicated with visiting Western bishops. It was already impossible for him to drink then: he got drunk quickly. It felt admiration for those in power. We jokingly called him not “the novice of Gosh Shevkunov”, but “the eavesdropper of Gosh Whisperers”.
Another former employee of the publishing department of the MP, on condition of anonymity, says that in the 90s KGB officers began to visit them, Shevkunov willingly communicated with them. He said that we need to cooperate, because only the special services can protect the country from Satanism and Islamism, that the KGB is the force that can keep the state from disintegrating.
In 1990, he published a policy article in the newspaper "Soviet Russia" "Church and State", in which he argued: "A democratic state will inevitably try to weaken the most influential Church in the country, setting in motion the ancient principle of divide and rule."
In August 1991 he was ordained a hieromonk.
“Shevkunov had a difficult transition from partying to a church-bureaucratic position. He was in charge of cinema under Vladyka Pitirim, then he served as a hierodeacon at the Donskoy Monastery, everything went smoothly, and then he realized that he needed to change his status,” says Sergey Chapnin, a journalist and former executive editor of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The beginning of the 1990s was the time when the Russian Orthodox Church returned churches taken away in Soviet times. In 1990, Father Georgy Kochetkov was appointed rector of the Vladimir Church of the Sretensky Monastery. The headman of the parish, Alexander Kopirovsky, says that at that time the community of Father George numbered about a thousand parishioners, there was constant catechesis, they tried to equip the temple. But in November 1993, Patriarch Alexy decided to transfer the monastery to Hieromonk Tikhon Shevkunov, who was going to create a courtyard there for the Pskov-Caves Monastery.
“Apparently, there was also a political motive here,” says Kopirovsky. “The Sretensky Monastery is located on the Lubyanka, and, probably, those who worked nearby did not like the neighborhood with our community at all: we were engaged in catechesis, and foreigners came to us.”
The Kochetkovites served in Russian, and in the Russian Orthodox Church they were called Novoobnovlentsy. The parishioners of Father George themselves considered the eviction from the Sretensky Monastery a “raider seizure”, the patriarch’s decree appeared only after the Cossacks came to the temple to expel the Kochetkovites, who actively supported Father Tikhon Shevkunov.
“When Shevkunov drove Kochetkov out of the Sretensky Monastery, he realized that he needed a systematic media resource. So Alexander Krutov appeared in his orbit with the Russia House, - says Sergey Chapnin. - He realized that he needed professional analytics, Nikolai Leonov appeared. And through Leonov (Nikolai Leonov - head of the analytical unit of the KGB of the USSR - Z. S.) he entered the KGB circle.
Former senator and banker Sergei Pugachev says he was the one who introduced Father Tikhon to future President Vladimir Putin in 1996. Then Putin held the position of deputy manager of the presidential administration. Once Pugachev brought Putin to serve in the Sretensky Monastery. After that, they began to communicate.
Sergei Pugachev and Lyudmila Putina during a pilgrimage to the Pskov-Caves Monastery, mid-2000s. Photo: personal archive of Sergei Pugachev
Spiritual Advisor to the President
“I have known Tikhon since the 90s. We were very friendly,” recalls the ex-senator. He is a real adventurer. In the 90s, he was a terrible monarchist, was friends with the now deceased sculptor Slava Klykov, monarchist Zurab Chavchavadze, Krutov, editor-in-chief of Russia House. At the same time, he is very Soviet: he loves Soviet songs, sobs to the marches of Slavyanka. Forces the choir of the Sretensky Monastery to perform Soviet songs. He has a vinaigrette in his head: everything is mixed up there. He has, in my opinion, a terrible trait for a priest: veneration of rank. For example, Nikita Mikhalkov is his idol. When he sees him, he is speechless."
At the end of 1999, in the “Kanon” program, Shevkunov told the story of how Putin’s dacha near St. Petersburg burned to the ground, and the only thing that survived was a pectoral cross. They began to talk and write about the fact that Father Tikhon is Putin's confessor. Today he says that this is not so, and he "has the good fortune to know the President quite a bit." And in the early 2000s, the status of Shevkunov's "confessor of the president" was quite satisfactory. In August 2000, Sergei Pugachev, together with Shevkunov, took Putin to the elder John Krestyankin in the Pskov-Caves Monastery. And in 2003, it was he, and not Patriarch Alexei, who accompanied the president on a trip to the United States. And there Putin conveyed to the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia an invitation from the patriarch to visit Russia. This was the beginning of the unification of the two Orthodox Churches separated after 1917, which for many years were considered hostile to each other.
“He gave Putin a very powerful, literally imperial experience — thanks to Shevkunov, Putin played a major role in uniting the Church Abroad with the Moscow Patriarchate,” says Sergei Chapnin. “I have no doubt that Putin is grateful to Shevkunov for having a chance to go down in history as the unifier of the churches. Putin won over the anti-Sovietists (the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia-Z.S.), revived the Church, became president not only of Russia, but also of the Russians in the Diaspora - this is a very serious intangible capital that Putin could not get without Shevkunov. I think that the president appreciates this and is grateful to Shevkunov. And Shevkunov carefully uses this.”
Now Shevkunov heads the commission investigating the murder of the royal family and is responsible for ensuring that the Investigative Committee recognizes the Yekaterinburg remains as authentic, which should be solemnly buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2018.
Sergei Pugachev says that Boris Yeltsin opened a house church in the Kremlin next to Stalin's former office. According to the ex-senator, once in this 15-meter room, Father Tikhon Shevkunov gave communion to Vladimir Putin. “I was against it,” Pugachev recalls. “Putin was late for the service, and the confession lasted half a second.”
It was Shevkunov who oversaw the construction of the temple at Putin's residence Novo-Ogaryovo in the village of Usovo. This was confirmed by deacon Andrei Kuraev, who once came there with Shevkunov.
Among the spiritual children of Shevkunov are former Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko, head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin, KGB General Nikolai Leonov, TV presenter Andrei Malakhov, State Duma deputy and editor-in-chief of the Kultura newspaper Elena Yampolskaya, who She was also the editor of Shevkunov's book "Unholy Saints". Yampolskaya became famous for her recklessly said maxim: “Russia can be held over the abyss by two forces. The first is called God. The second is Stalin.
Tikhon Shevkunov and Vladimir Putin. Photo: Valery Sharifulin / TASS
“His target is the Orthodox Taliban”
Lina Starostina first came to Father Tikhon with her son more than 20 years ago, back in the Donskoy Monastery. Then she followed him to Sretensky. “He had an incredible power of prayer,” Lina recalls. - A queue lined up for him in the Donskoy Monastery for confession. He is very humane, always enters into your circumstances, always communicates in a friendly way, without rudeness. He is not a hoarder, he is calm about comfort, but he has bad taste. Attributes for worship can cost a lot of money. He willingly helps those in need.
I remember how Father Tikhon said at one of his sermons that the Lord had finally given Russia a believing president, and now it was possible to build an Orthodox state. I understand now that his goal is the Orthodox Taliban, the Orthodox empire. He is a man of ideas. His main idea: if you do not cooperate with the authorities, then the Antichrist will come, who will destroy the Church. If Father Tikhon was asked who to vote for, he always answered: you know who. His sermons were sermons of love for one's neighbor and for enemies - just as it should be according to the Gospel. At the same time, he called the enemies of Catholics and those who support gays.”
Lina Starostina left the parish of the Sretensky Monastery in 2014, when one of the parishioners said that Father Tikhon supported the annexation of Crimea and the entry of troops into Ukraine, while another priest did not bless her to go to a rally against the war. A month ago, when Shevkunov announced that the Investigative Committee should check the version of the ritual murder of the royal family, Lina wrote him an open letter, which was published on the website « Achilles":
"I that the most jewish, which more 20 years was near, in monasticparish. Now— then You big and influential face, not only in MP, takehigher, a then, quarter century back… to me entrusted first Veil (sew — W. With.) and altarpiece vestment, not It was more workshops, and I crawled Houses on theknees, afraid step on on the sacred the cloth, when sewed her. And you servedliturgy on the this throne, not It was seizures disgust?
And Veil Easter, first Easter. When you opened us Royal gate, as entrance in Paradise, You already then disdained topics, to what touched my arms? Icould be from these, No? Not felt? instructed to me restorestole old man John Krestyankina, you everyone year put on her beforeGreat fasting, went out on the Chin forgiveness, she is not strangled you? You Sosincerely asked forgiveness from myself and all brethren monastery, a all— stillsuspected?
What for you lied to me, when I asked you 20 years back:
— Father, write and they say, what Jews kill Christian babies. ButI, my close and familiar, This unthinkable!
You said then — take it easy, No, certainly.
You taught us: » Our fight not against flesh and blood, a against spirits maliceheavenly».
Is not you repeated us, what » is our fatherland — Kingdom God's» ?
» check his a heart, main criterion — love to enemies. Till you readyto pay evil behind evil, you not you know Christ» .
how you could quit grave accusation mine blood brothers and sisters, after Togo, as thousands, dozens thousand buried in Babi Yaru, there and mygreat-grandfathers? After Togo, as many from Jews baptized, become priestscontrary to everyone and everything. After killings father Alexandra Me? How much once youprayed behind me and mine family, a you overcame doubts? You knew about myancestors and were silent?
If a all these years suspicions poisoned your monastic feat, sorry.
When— then you spoke: Church should be persecuted, to be cleansed andbe faithful, a with ami built tombs prophets, together with them notrepentant killers.
Time are changing, and from favorites « elite" you you can become persecuted anddespised.
If a what, Come under my shelter, at us you you will in security, welet's divide a piece, even if is he will last".
At the birthday party of Sergei Pugachev's ex-wife Galina. Tikhon Shevkunov (far left) and Nikolai Patrushev (second from right). Photo: personal archive of Sergei Pugachev
Church businessman
Sergei Pugachev financed Shevkunov's projects for many years: he gave money for a publishing house, for the Resurrection collective farm in the Ryazan region, and for the skete in which the monks of the Sretensky Monastery live. After the film “Confessor” by the Dozhd TV channel was shown at Artdocfest, deacon Andrey Kuraev shared his knowledge about this skete, to which ordinary people are barred: “This skete is a closed organization where no one is allowed in except for VIP guests.” Father Andrei confirmed that a helipad was specially built in the skete so that VIPs “could come and communicate with the monks.”
Receipt from the store "Sretenie"
At the Sretensky Monastery there is a large bookstore and a cafe "Unholy Saints". According to the register of individual entrepreneurs, income from trade in the store goes to the account of an individual entrepreneur, monk Nikodim (in the world, Bekenev Nikolai Georgievich), who has the right to trade in retail jewelry, wholesale ceramics and glassware, engage in restaurants and dozens of other types of economic activity). The big question is: why was it necessary to open an IP to a monk who, by definition, takes a vow of poverty? Why not entrust the management of economic activity to a layman?
However, the monk Nicodemus has long been a confidant of Father Tikhon. He is a member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, where Shevkunov is the chairman. It was on his instructions and blessing that Nikodim acted as a witness for the prosecution at the trial of the curators of the Forbidden Art 2006 exhibition, Yuri Samodurov and Viktor Erofeev, in 2010.
According to the SPARK database, Georgy Shevkunov himself owns 14.29% of the shares of the Voskresenie collective farm. In 2015, the company's profit amounted to about 7 million rubles.
Shevkunov also owns a stake in the Russian Culture Fund, which in turn owns the Russian House publishing house. According to SPARK, the Fund's net loss is 104 thousand rubles. Father Tikhon also owns a share in the Return Fund, where the Minister of Culture Medinsky and his deputy Aristarkhov previously had their shares.
No other information about Shevkunov's shares or property was found in open sources.
Receipt from the store "Sretenie", issued by IE Bekenev N.G. (Hieromonk Nikodim Bekenev, resident of the Sretensky Monastery)
Effective manager
In recent years, Father Tikhon Shevkunov has occupied two large projects - the construction of the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the Sretensky Monastery and the exhibition "My History" in different regions of Russia.
The temple was solemnly consecrated on May 25, 2017. It was built for three years, and all this time fierce disputes did not subside around the construction. Many architects were surprised that the temple turned out to be so huge, and for its construction several historical buildings had to be demolished, in addition, the design competition was won by an unknown designer Dmitry Smirnov, who does not have an architectural education.
“When the project for a gigantic temple on the territory of the Sretensky Monastery came to our methodological department, I strongly opposed it,” says Andrei Batalov, deputy general director of the Moscow Kremlin museums, architectural historian. “I believed that a temple in the name of the new martyrs should be extremely modest and contain allusions to the catacombs in which priests and hierarchs served in the name of persecution.”
Batalov's opinion changed after Shevkunov invited him to Sretensky Monastery. Batalov saw that the parishioners did not fit into the old small church and were standing on the street. He agreed with Fr. Tikhon that the temple should "mark the feat of the new martyrs and become a sign that it is impossible to destroy Christianity in our country." The architect Ilya Utkin, who is known for his temple buildings, also participated in this competition, but his project was rejected. He says that when Shevkunov presented the competition projects to Patriarch Kirill, he “pointedly” brought him to the layout of Dmitry Smirnov, who was later declared the winner.
“From an architectural point of view, this project presented an absolutely impossible picture. There was a feeling that such a fabulous tower was standing in an open field, where there was a blue sky and golden domes. Unprofessional work done by absolute amateurs,” architect Utkin evaluates the winner.
With Yuri Cooper, who since the 70s lived between Paris and Moscow, Father Tikhon met in Voronezh, where he arrived together with the Minister of Culture Alexander Avdeev. Cooper designed the new building of the Voronezh Drama Theatre. “Avdeev recommended me to Shevkunov, and he invited me to the temple construction project,” says Cooper. — I made only the outer part of the temple. Dmitry Smirnov was my assistant. He is not an architect, but a computer scientist. I refused to do the interior of the temple. What Tikhon proposed to do inside the temple turned out to be very tasteless, a kind of space for the nouveau riche, there is nothing religious there. All the walls are painted with terrible frescoes.
Yuri Kuper says that his friendly relations with Shevkunov cracked, and Dmitry Smirnov, after the construction of the temple, never mentioned his last name in any of the interviews and did not say that he participated in this project: “Dmitry has no education, he is a computer scientist who has worked with me for many years. Tikhon lured him to him, and now he is doing all the projects with him.
I asked Yuri Kuper if Shevkunov was an anti-Semite, because he is sometimes referred to as a nationalist and a Black Hundred. “No, there was nothing like that. He offered to become my godfather,” said the artist.
Shevkunov came up with the exhibition "Russia - My History" and traveled with them all over Russia for the whole of 2017. These projects will continue next year. The initiative group for the nomination of Vladimir Putin for the presidency, as you know, gathered at this particular exhibition at VDNKh in Moscow.
The Ministry of Education and Science suggested that university rectors use these expositions to organize extracurricular activities for students and to retrain history teachers. This initiative outraged the members of the Free Historical Society. They addressed the Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva with an open letter, demanding a public professional examination of these exhibitions.
And the Center for Anti-Corruption Research and Initiatives “Transparency International – R” became interested in financing exhibitions: “Since 2013, almost 150 million rubles have been allocated for the creation of exhibition content through the system of presidential grants alone, 50 million rubles through subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, technical support for exhibitions has cost 160 million, and 1.5 billion was spent on the construction of the pavilion at VDNKh, where the exhibition is now permanently located (This without accounting regional costs, but, For example, construction one exhibition complex in Saint— Petersburg cost in 1.3 billion rubles — W. With. ). In addition, the exhibitions are actively financed by Russian business,” says Anastasia Ivolga, expert of the Center. - The received budget funding is absolutely not competitive, that is, in fact, in 2013, for a specific idea of a specific person, a specific network of organizations was created, which was guaranteed financial support for several years to come. It is rather difficult to imagine another similar structure that could so easily secure active support for itself both in Moscow and in the regions, and in four years freely grow into a federal-scale project.”
Tikhon Shevkunov at the presentation of the book "Unholy Saints" at the 24th Moscow International Book Fair at the All-Russian Exhibition Center. Photo: Maxim Shemetov / TASS
Man in a shell
Since 2000, when, at the suggestion of Shevkunov himself, one of the journalists stated that Father Tikhon was Putin’s confessor, as soon as he was not called “the Lubyanka archimandrite”, “the confessor of His Majesty”, “the confessor from Lubyanka”. True, he himself was in no hurry to refute his closeness to the head of state, receiving certain dividends from the status of "confessor". His book "Unholy Saints" has already gone through 14 editions and is published in millions of copies, translated into several languages. In an interview with RBC, Shevkunov said that he earned about 370 million rubles from the sale of books and invested them in the construction of the temple. The film “The Byzantine Lesson” shot by him in 2008 cemented his image of an anti-Western and obscurantist. Sergei Pugachev claims that now Shevkunov is afraid of his own shadow:
“A few years ago, he came to me in London and begged me: “Let's go to the forest, otherwise Western services are listening to me everywhere.” He was used to listening to the FSB. But his anti-Western idea has reached a new stage. He repeated: "Westerners want to destroy our country." Some kind of stream of consciousness. In general, he looks like Igor Sechin. Only in a cassock. Ministers sit in his waiting room for hours. He bathes in it and is very afraid of losing it. If he doesn’t like something or someone, he can become very tough.”
Journalist and publisher Sergei Chapnin calls Tikhon Shevkunov the main interpreter of Russian history for the authorities. “He tells the president what a great country he rules. Starting with a film about Byzantium, he creates a new "author's" mythology, using modern political language, which is quite understandable to those who sit in the Kremlin, Chapnin argues. - In the film "The Byzantine Lesson" he explained to dummies the history of the fall of Byzantium and the insidious role of the West. And soon he decided that by doing so he had found the key to the history of Russia. Unlike many bishops, he is interested in all this. Sometimes he says reasonable things, but when you listen to how the accents are placed, it becomes scary - the desire to search for enemies of Bishop Tikhon does not leave.
Nikolai Mitrokhin, a historian and researcher of the Russian Orthodox Church, explains why Shevkunov was not ordained a bishop for so long: “He is a bishop for relations with the FSB, I think he was, as it were, the representative of the FSB in the Church. And it was precisely for this reason that he was not made a bishop, although he deserved it according to formal indicators already 15 years ago. And it's hard to do now. The church people do not like the FSB people very much, they especially do not promote such ambitious characters.
His entire biography in the latest period points to his clear connections with the FSB. He has some pretty serious money, good connections with the FSB. The street where the Sretensky Monastery is located, this street, by agreement with the FSB, is his street. He destroyed the French school, which stood on the territory of the monastery, erected his giant temple. It is clear that he did not do this with the income from the publishing house. He got some money."
“The FSB people like to have their own priest, who, moreover, sticks out in the same place for 25 years,” says Mitrokhin. - They feed him as best they can, provide him with assistance and services. It ideologically strongly coincides with them, with their ideological vision of the world and with everything else. I reviewed the film "The Byzantine Lesson". This is an ideal presentation of textbooks, according to which they study at the Academy of the FSB, only in historical analogy: a conspiracy, an implacable enemy, pressure on the authorities and the state through internal groups. The logic of the textbook of the KGB Institute. I read what they wrote about Soviet history.”
The editor-in-chief of the Credo.ru portal, Alexander Soldatov, believes that Patriarch Kirill did not want to ordain Shevkunov as a bishop because of jealousy: the presidential administration pushed through his consecration, ”he is sure.
“According to the charter of the Moscow Patriarchy, a candidate for patriarch must have experience in managing dioceses. Shevkunov has no such experience, and he has not yet been given an episcopal chair. But, if necessary, the charter will be rewritten, ”continues Soldatov.
A friend of Shevkunov's youth, the writer Andrei Dmitriev divides his friends and acquaintances into "people of the shell" and "people of the ridge."
“It doesn’t mean that the man of the spine is strong, the spine can be weak,” Dmitriev explains his theory. - It does not mean that the shell protects, the shell can be frail. Mayakovsky was a man of shell, because he could not live on his own. This is either the party, or the Brik family, or someone else.
Shevkunov is one of the brightest people of the era, he cannot live without a shell, he was always looking for this shell. But the shell is influential and spiritual.”
“Shevkunov symbolizes the conservative wing in the Russian Orthodox Church,” says one of the priests on condition of anonymity. He is pragmatic and romantic at the same time. His main idea is that Russia is an Orthodox country, and the churched Chekists are the right Chekists. He really loves the Church more than Christ, and it is dangerous if ideology and faith at some point come together, and faith is reduced to ideology.”
And yet, how does friendship with the Chekists and the glorification of the New Martyrs fit in one head?
Father Iosif Kiperman, who met with the novice Gosha Shevkunov at the Pskov-Caves Monastery in the late 1980s, offers his explanation: “From the very beginning, the Chekists planned to build a Soviet church so that the parishioners would be just Soviet people. They wanted to leave the exterior of the church, but change everything inside. Tikhon is one of those Soviet people. The latest idea of the devil: to mix everything so that both Ivan the Terrible and the holy Metropolitan Philip are together. There were both new martyrs and their tormentors, who suddenly turned out to be good, because political Orthodoxy sees both Ivan the Terrible and Rasputin as saints, and Stalin as a faithful child of the Church. This mixing is the devil's last know-how."
