Chief Priest of the Airborne Forces Priest Mikhail Vasiliev. Archpriest Mikhail Vasilyev: some of us have already become “experienced” in parachute jumps

In Ryazan, paratrooper priests for the first time parachuted airmobile inflatable temple . Representatives of the Ministry of Defense explained that every year more and more recruits who consider themselves Orthodox get into the army. Under these conditions, the presence of a priest and the opportunity to pray and receive communion acquire great importance. The chief priest of the Airborne Forces notes that the need for a temple in the troops meets the specifics of religion.

In the 76th Air Assault Division, at the initiative of the command, there are missionaries of the Moscow Patriarchate, headed by the deputy chairman of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for cooperation with the armed forces, priest Mikhail Vasiliev.

Father Mikhail's direct supervisor in the care of our Army is the respected Father Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov. There are quite a few interviews with Father Michael on the Internet, and in one of them, in particular, he says: "The Church has always been a state-forming structure. Today, while preserving the cultural and spiritual identity of the nation, it cannot remain outside the process of forming interaction between society and the Armed Forces."

Today, the clergy are working in 789 garrisons of the Ministry of Defense, while churches have been built in 420 garrisons. Information Service The Pskov diocese took the opportunity to ask a few questions to priest Mikhail Vasiliev, who is in the 76th division in Pskov.

For what purpose, Father Mikhail, did you come to our division?

The goal is very simple, with the blessing of Vladyka Eusebius and Father Dimitry Smirnov, together with nine students - missionaries of the Orthodox St. Tikhon University of the missionary faculty, we are carrying out planned work on the spiritual and moral education of military personnel. Every year we work in formations of various airborne troops, last year we worked in Novorossiysk in the 7th airborne division, this year in the Pskov 76th division. This is not my first time in Pskov, I often attend various events, but this is the first time on such a two-week business trip, when we work in each company.

What is this job?

We draw up a consolidated schedule, and according to the schedule in different departments and in different time, I and my assistants, including Father Oleg Teor, participate in the life of the division. For example, jumps are held, we bless them for jumps, distribute crosses, icons, and pray. Shooting is carried out in the division, we also bless them so that people understand that weapons are a means of protecting good from evil, and not just a mechanism that shoots.

Will you, father Michael, jump? No, while I have a short break. We are still in the division educational work, public-state, we show interesting films: "Warriors of the Spirit", "Peacemaker", "Live and Believe". We have good films on the prevention of hazing.

What kind of prevention can be with the help of films, father?

Quite effective, because in the films we show what happens in the zone with those who get there because of hazing, which very clearly convinces them not to mock the soldiers. With simple practices, we help the guys feel that the service is a sacred thing, and it must be done with a clear conscience.

There are already the developments of Oleg Teor's father, and we are just trying to bring them directly to the servicemen in communication with everyone. We are not engaged in baptism on this trip, there are enough churches and clergy in Pskov, and I am sure that each of them will baptize a soldier or officer of the Airborne Forces for free. I think it's a sin to take money from them for this.

Tomorrow he may go to war for his homeland and die, and the reason why he was not baptized may be the presence of a price tag that closed the soldier’s way to the Kingdom of Heaven. We, when we are in Chechnya, certainly baptize our guys, we have already baptized about three thousand.

What do you think, father Mikhail, the military, the army, how did you get here?

For me, working with the military is a constant process of learning new things. My father, an officer, offered, but I did not graduate from a military school, because you have to obey, there is discipline ... I lived in military garrisons, moreover, romantic ones - on the islands, in the Barents Sea, my father also served in Naryan-Mar.

I can say that there were such announcements: children are not allowed to walk on the street today, because wolverines run around. Or, to open the door to the school, you first need to dig it out of the snow. So for me, "officer triathlon", the difficulties of officer life: water, firewood, slop are known from birth, and I perfectly understood how hard it was to be an officer, so I went to the Faculty of Philosophy at Moscow State University. And when, after graduate school, I began teaching at the university, my confessor, Father Dimitry Smirnov, said to me: "Are you from a military family? Will you be a father in a military garrison." He refused, but he was besieged from all sides, my wife, his old spiritual child, supported the priest, and that's how I am in the army.

It's a rare case, father Mikhail, that wives are so supportive.

There are still women, not aunts, there are few of them, but they exist, my Masha is one of them. It is obvious that serving in Russia is hard work, not to earn, but to serve. Receive not wages, and the salary, how much they wish.

And how much will we have?

It is not enough, the salary is paid according to the residual principle. In the beginning, they take what they think belongs to them.

To whom - them?

Those people who distribute financial flows. It is obvious, for example, that the Church, which was ruined by the state, did not receive any state restitutions, and we are now reviving church life at our own expense, including church money, we are trying to revive it in schools, in the army, and in penitentiary institutions. The problem is that we have people who serve Russia, the same Russia trampled. This is wrong, it should not be so, but in our history it was often, almost at all times.

Why was the post-war army under the communists respected and rich?

Under those regimes that were interested in military support, the army was well maintained by the state. Why do we now have employees of the special services receive three times more than combat officers? I consider this an outrage and lack of statesmanship. It is quite clear that a regimental commander should receive more than a lieutenant in the prosecutor's office or the FSB.

Yes, it seems to be clear to everyone.

Everyone understands, but for some reason everything in life is different. A contractor of the airborne troops in a few hours, if there is such a need, must be ready to give his life at any second, does not have an apartment in which his family should live, and counts the last penny to pay. Although, of course, you cannot die for money, you can only kill for it. It is clear that no one will defend the Motherland for money, but at the same time, we live in material world, therefore, funds are needed to live, and not exist, especially in the army.

The gospel parable tells us about a good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, and about a mercenary who sees a wolf, leaves the sheep and runs, so is it possible to defeat the wolf for money, father Michael?

Let's be realistic: the eight thousand that a contractor receives is not money. This is a benefit so that a person does not die of hunger. When I was in Kosovo, we talked with a colonel in the army of the United Arab Emirates, and he told us that he was paid 25,000 dollars a month in Kosovo. No one will give their life for eight thousand rubles, except for those who have some kind of religious feeling, at least manifested in love for the Airborne Forces, for some kind of military brotherhood, for sacrificial service. Now, when they pay forty thousand, then moral struggles will already appear. The problem of mercenarism, when a person receives a penny, does not exist.

The average salary in Pskov is ten and a half thousand rubles - this is a five-day work week, an eight-hour working day, and in the Pskov division they picked you up at three in the morning, put you on a plane, put a parachute behind your back - and you have to jump in an unknown place, and when you land alive, you must not rest, but you must join the battle, risking your life. In a contact battle, an officer lives for 10-15 minutes, and a soldier even less. And what, a lot of people? It is clear that the paratroopers are people who painstakingly and daily prepare to accomplish a feat, these boys are preparing, if it catches fire somewhere on the territory of Russia, they will be the first to give their lives.

Is it possible that the time will soon come when all healthy young people of military age will be drafted into the army, and not just romantics and those who were caught by the draft board or who could not pay off?

My opinion: everyone should not serve in the army - the best should serve in the army. We don't need all. With physical developmental defects, with a criminal record, people who frankly do not want to join the army are not needed there. A slave is not a pilgrim. If a person does not want to serve his homeland for two years or even a year, he needs to make some kind of mark so that he future wife knew that he was incapable of sacrificial service and took this into account in the future family life. If a person does not know how to step on the throat of his own song, then it is quite clear that sooner or later he will live as he wants, as easier, and not as necessary. In Chechnya, in a tent, one of our lieutenants of the Airborne Forces, I saw a poster printed on a typewriter: "Do not betray your wife and Motherland." These are things of the same order, that's all.

What prospects do you see for the military clergy in our army?

"The one who endures to the end will be saved."

Priests will save the army?

It is fundamentally not their task: to defeat bullying or solve the problem of recruiting an army, etc. Our task is something else: to preach about Christ at all times and in all places. If we try to solve the problems of the army, then the priests will turn into political officers. We directly say that we came to the army to help, but to help save souls, and only then to help solve problems, if we reverse this, then neither one nor the other will work.

Can you assess the human quality of our officers and soldiers?

As Vladimir Ilyich Lenin said, it is impossible to live in society and be free from society, what can I say. I know dozens of heroes-officers who honestly serve Russia now, and only by their grace our external borders are kept, because all the countries that surround us have territorial claims. Even Estonia, which you won't find on the map without a magnifying glass, wants a piece of Pskov land. Well, what can be done in this situation?

Only revive a strong army. Sovereign Alexander III was absolutely right: Russia has only two allies - the Army and Navy. If we do not understand this, if we practically do not apply it, then there will be no future. Do you know the difference between an optimist and a pessimist in Russia? The optimist learns English, and the pessimist learns Chinese. But there is also a realist who studies the Kalashnikov assault rifle. So I think that the military personnel of the Airborne Forces belong to the category of realists, and we are with them.

Who, father, loves our army?

Everyone loves her, especially at a time when it's bad. A soldier will not offend a child.

Information service of the Pskov diocese.

In our conversation, Father Mikhail did not say that a short break from jumping happened after an unsuccessful jump, as reported on www.rg.ru: The head priest of the Airborne Forces, Priest Mikhail Vasilyev, did not crash while falling from a height of 600 meters during a recent exercise near Vyazma. I am convinced that I was saved with God's help. At the exercises in honor of the anniversary of the Vyazemsky airborne operation - the largest airborne assault in the history of wars - head priest Airborne Forces Priest Mikhail Vasiliev was parachuting with regimental reconnaissance. Before the flight, according to tradition, he consecrated 9 airborne combat vehicles and read to the fighters special prayer. The "father", as the paratroopers call him, jumped first with the IL-76. From the ground it was clearly visible how his lines were intertwined ... Batiushka managed to land on a half-open parachute.

Of course, there were no injuries. We met with Father Mikhail at the Central Hospital Missile troops strategic purpose.

I myself am to blame for what happened, - the father shields the parachute handler. - I opened the canopy early, got into a stream of turbulence, the lines immediately overlapped, and began to tear. But there was no fear. According to him, father Mikhail was scared before: under fire, and when somehow he had to walk through a minefield. And here, near Vyazma, he desperately fought for his life. As taught, "spun" the almost extinguished dome.

He even managed to roughly calculate the speed of the fall: 20 meters per second. And he realized that he would survive the landing. - Grouped, landed on his feet, - cheerfully says the priest wrapped in a bandage and chained to a hospital bed. - I had excellent boots, "Pindos", brought from Bosnia. But all the same, when landing, I heard a crunch - a vertebra broke. But then it wasn't even that that bothered me, but the fact that in fifteen minutes they were dropping bemdashes behind us. I also thought: there is no time to lie down on the ground, otherwise the BMD will impress so much that it won’t seem enough ... Diagnosis: a compression fracture of a vertebra. Father Mikhail has to risk his life regularly.

Somehow, during other exercises, a soldier's parachute did not open. The incident undermined the spirit, the young soldiers refused to jump. "Batek" with a prayer climbed into the An-2 and was the first to step out of the plane. They say it was superfluous: only the sight of the "dad" in camouflage with a parachute made a strong impression on the personnel. The jumps went well, everyone's parachutes opened.

Priest Mikhail Vasiliev is 36 years old. The son of an officer, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University in the Department of Scientific Atheism. Then graduate school, taught at the university for a year. In 1998 he became a priest. Married, three children. In the ten years that the priest has been in the army, more than 30 business trips to "hot spots", between which he completed "general" retraining and advanced training courses at the Academy of the General Staff with a degree in "command-staff operational-strategic training." Father Michael is the rector of the church of the Monk Elijah and the Great Martyr Barbara in Vlasikha near Moscow.

FROM Vladimir Icon Mother of God Batiushka met ships with landing forces in Thessaloniki, and then on the lead BTEer he made the well-known forced march into Kosovo. There are also combat awards for Chechnya. According to the officers, he himself in a burnt-out camouflage cannot always be distinguished from a paratrooper. If it weren’t for the beard and the Orthodox crosses in buttonholes instead of the emblems of the Airborne Forces. - You see, the point is not at all that some priest did not crash, falling on a failed parachute, - Father Mikhail gets excited. - Much more important if people ask themselves the question: what does this priest do in the army ?!

Poverty and lost generations will have to pay for the “victory”

As a priest and as a citizen, I always perceive with pain the news of the death of any person. IN this case Muammar Gadaffi is no exception. A terrible villainy has been committed, and even if it was a dictator, it is still the lawless murder of a person. If the people of Libya had any claims against their leader, then in any case a public trial and a public decision on his fate were necessary. But Gaddafi's killers have become like himself, who is said to have killed his political opponents.
The war in Libya and Iraq are links in the same chain. This is the war of the West for energy resources, an attempt by Western monopolies to establish control over the resources they need to develop the economy. And it doesn't matter what the name of the country is - Iraq or Libya: the principles of action are the same. This is the tragedy for ordinary people.

Ta social system, which was built under Gadaffi, would give a hundred points modern system social security, say, in Russia and in other states, including NATO countries. A simple search on the Internet will reveal that the average salary of medical and junior staff in Libya with our money was about 30 thousand rubles a month. Every citizen there received a part of the funds for the energy resources that Libya sold abroad. The state helped ordinary Libyans to buy apartments, cars, paying 50% of their cost (75% for military personnel).

Social security and health care in Libya, education was an order of magnitude higher than in Egypt, Tunisia or Algeria. That's why huge stream migrants went to Libya from Africa and the Middle East, not reaching Europe. Libya became a buffer in which not Sharia law, but relatively rigid laws of secular morality operated.

Happiness and well-being are not born from war, from blood. And, receiving armed support from Western countries, Libya will pay for this with the poverty of its own people and lost generations, which will serve the raw materials of Western monopolies.

Archpriest Mikhail Vasiliev

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