Saint Isaac's Cathedral, the largest Orthodox church in St. Petersburg, intend to transfer to the Russian Orthodox Church... The question remains whether tourists will be able to visit the complex, and how its life will change. TJ found out what he wants to do with the cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, and for what opponents criticize the church.
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Liturgy in the Catherine's side-altar of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Photo of the St. Petersburg Metropolitanate
In 2012, the St. Isaac's Cathedral memorial museum was transferred from federal to city ownership. Two years later, the St. Petersburg diocese was headed by Metropolitan Barsanuphius, who decided to return to the Russian Orthodox Church the largest Orthodox church in St. Petersburg and one of the most visited museums in Russia.
The application from the diocese was received by the city authorities in July 2015. The Russian Orthodox Church asked to return the building of St. Isaac's Cathedral to free use with reference to the transfer of religious property to religious organizations. The church has not submitted additional applications since then, RIA Novosti in the metropolis.
In September of the same year, the first battle with the ROC was won by Smolny and the refusal to surrender the cathedral. The city officials explained that the return of the building to the Russian Orthodox Church would result in additional budgetary expenses.
If the cathedral is transferred to the use of the St. Petersburg diocese, all costs for its maintenance, restoration and protection will fall on the owner - St. Petersburg. This will entail additional serious expenses in the city budget and a reduction in funding for other socially significant projects and programs, which is unacceptable in the current economic situation.
Andrey Kibitov, press secretary of the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko
In April 2016, Metropolitan Barsanuphius made a second attempt to return St. Isaac's Cathedral to the church. This time, the Primate asked Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to return not only the Cathedral, but also the Savior on Spilled Blood, as well as the building of the Smolny Monastery, where political science students, sociologists and future specialists in international relations SPbSU.
According to Fontanka's sources, by December 2016, the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko radically changed his point of view. The mayor promised to answer the ROC positively only if Patriarch Kirill personally addresses him. According to the newspaper, they met before the New Year and agreed to transfer the building.
As Rosbalt director of the museum complex Nikolai Burov, according to one of the rumors, Medvedev signed an order on the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church. "Fontanka" that the process is planned to be completed in 2019.
Temple instead of a shop
Inside St. Isaac's Cathedral. Photo of the administration of the memorial museum
The museum and the church should not be located in the same building of St. Isaac's Cathedral, for Rosbalt the head of the department for relations between the Church and society of the St. Petersburg diocese, Archpriest Alexander Pelin.
In his opinion, "a store should be a store, a hospital should be a hospital, a museum should be a museum, and a temple should be a temple." The representative of the church emphasized that in St. Isaac's Cathedral "you cannot mix everything in one heap."
Justice must prevail. Carthage must be destroyed. For the museum of the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral should be allocated separate room... It can accommodate paintings, drawings, photographs, portraits of architects. Services should be held in the cathedral itself. Excursions must be agreed with the guide.
Alexander Pelin, representative of the St. Petersburg diocese
Before the transfer of the church to the Russian Orthodox Church, it is impossible to organize a full-fledged parish life there, Natalia Rodomanova, head of the communications sector of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, in an interview with the Orthodoxy and Peace portal.
To those who say that if the cathedral is transferred to the use of the diocese, it will not be filled with parishioners, we answer: as soon as people get used to the fact that the temple is a temple, and not a museum, it will be full. Nowadays, many people still doubt whether it is necessary to pay an entrance fee to get to the service.
According to her, now divine services are regularly and at a strictly allotted time are performed in a small space of the cathedral. Parishioners are admitted free of charge, excursions in the cathedral do not stop at this moment. In the main chapel (dedicated part of the temple - approx. TJ), prayer is allowed, but only on special holidays and by agreement.
The church asks to return to her not the theater or the opera house, but the temple of God. This magnificent building was built and was intended primarily for prayer. Everything - forms, structure, interiors of the temple building contain deep meaning and are subordinated to this main goal.
Natalia Rodomanova, Head of the Communications Sector of the St. Petersburg Metropolitanate
The ROC liquidates the internal museum of St. Isaac's Cathedral, director of the museum complex Nikolai Burov. The head of the institution also questioned the church's ability to maintain the cathedral and keep the buildings in an acceptable state.
The relationship has always been good. We helped all the parishes that are located at our facilities. They did not have to think about protection, or about restoration, or about light, not about heat, not about water - about anything. We did all this for free.
Nikolay Burov, director of the museum complex "St. Isaac's Cathedral"
Tourists and cultural program
Tourists at the performance of the choir in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Photo of the administration of St. Petersburg
It is not known for sure whether St. Isaac's Cathedral will be accessible to tourists if it is handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church. It can be assumed that the scenario will be similar to the fate of some other St. Petersburg objects that have already come under the jurisdiction of the church.
Like Fontanka, referring to anonymous clerics, they want to make the activities of St. Isaac's Cathedral similar to the life of the Kazan Cathedral. In this case, the entrance to the cathedral will remain free, and it will be possible to get on the excursion by appointment. The work of one of the four guides is paid not through the cashier, but with a donation to the circle, which, as the journalists noted, is not taxed. Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Photo by Sergey Ermokhin, RIA News
The news about the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the ROC was criticized by the deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Boris Vishnevsky and Maxim Reznik, earlier for a referendum on this topic.
All museum relics must also be run by the state. What is this transfer for? What is its meaning from the point of view of logic and common sense? Today, access to the cathedral near the church is completely open, services are held there. Why create problems and heat in society? Otherwise, restitution can be deployed in such a way that the Hermitage will have to be returned to the Romanovs, and to ordinary citizens what the Bolsheviks took from their ancestors. In addition, if the cathedral is transferred to the church, access to some parts of the city may be limited for Petersburgers and guests of the city. For example, the bell tower.
Maxim Reznik, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg
V recent times Passions flare up again over the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church, although, it would seem, the recent interview of the Governor of St. Petersburg G.S. Poltavchenko, in which he expressed his intention to transfer the temple, put an end to this dispute. However, no: here and there the militia is preaching against the transfer of the cathedral to the Church, they are going to organize a nationwide referendum on this matter. What are these newspaper headlines: "In 2017, the city will lose St. Isaac's Cathedral!" How does the author imagine this? Would the faithful carry the granite columns on their shoulders, strip the gilding from the domes, and pull away the rest, stone by stone? Let me not believe it, especially if you look at the Kazan or Trinity Izmailovsky cathedrals: they not only stand still, but even beautified after they were handed over to the Church. Petersburg in the recent past lost churches for a completely different reason. Or Orthodox Christians are no longer residents of St. Petersburg and are deprived of their civil rights?
In our opinion, there is nothing to argue about here. And even more so - whipping up passions.
Let's take legal aspect question. There is Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 327-FZ "On the Transfer of State or Municipal Property of Religious Purpose to Religious Organizations", which defines "the procedure for the gratuitous transfer of property of religious purpose that is in federal ownership or the property of subjects to religious organizations. Russian Federation or municipal property ", adopted The State Duma November 19, 2010, approved by the Federation Council on November 24, 2010, signed by the President of the Russian Federation D. A. Medvedev on November 30, 2010. The letter of this law is unambiguous: « real estate... built to carry out and (or) support such activities of religious organizations as the performance of divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies, holding prayer and religious meetings, teaching religion, professional religious education, monastic life, religious veneration (pilgrimage), including buildings for temporary residence of pilgrims and also movable property for religious purposes ”. St. Isaac's Cathedral fully and completely falls under this definition, and the law does not contain a list of objects that cannot be transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church due to their special cultural significance. So, according to the letter of the law, St. Isaac's Cathedral should be transferred to the St. Petersburg Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Opponents of the transfer of Isaac to the Church set an example of legal nihilism, appealing not to the law, but to the prejudices of the crowd
It is strange that this law is fought by truth-loving legalists who are trying to present themselves as guardians of the rule of law and fighters for constitutional state and civil society. Unfortunately, they fight for the rule of law very selectively, and in the case of the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral they serve bad example legal nihilism, appealing not to the law, but to the prejudices and instincts of the crowd, not to a democracy based on the law, but to arbitrariness and ochlocracy. "Dura lex, sed lex" - "The law is harsh, but it is the law"; "Pacta sunt servanda" - "Agreements (or laws) must be followed" - say Roman proverbs. Why should the laws be followed only in relation to unbelievers, and in relation to believers, one can adhere to lawlessness, as in memorable communist times? They propose a referendum on the transfer of the council, although there is an unambiguous text of the law and there are certain rules civil society... Maybe let's go further and hold referendums on whether we should go to work or whether it is possible to cross the street at a red light? In the history of Russia, exactly 100 years ago, there was already one year when the country lived not by laws, but by referendums. For example, soldiers at the front decided whether to go on the offensive or not and generally be on the front line or not. What this led to is understandable: "And Lenin is so young, and young October is ahead." I do not want to think that the opponents of the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral are trying to achieve this, first of all - on their own head.
Neither Emperor Nicholas I nor Auguste Montferrand conceived of St. Isaac's Cathedral as a museum
Unfortunately, there are speculations about the fact that St. Isaac's Cathedral before the revolution was allegedly state property and did not belong to a religious organization called the Russian Orthodox Church. First, for this law it is indifferent: it does not consider the nature of property, but the nature of the original purpose. And for St. Isaac's Cathedral, the original religious purpose is obvious: neither Emperor Nicholas I, nor Auguste Montferrand conceived of it as a museum. They would have turned over in a coffin from such a destination.
Secondly, before the revolution, we have the Greek-Russian Church Orthodox confession everything was state and the emperor was considered the main and supreme defender of the Church, and if we proceed from such a crooked logic, then from the churches seized after the revolution, in a fair number turned into warehouses and vegetable stores, not a single one can be transferred. State property, after all. Fans of such demagogic reasoning do not want to take into account that the state was Orthodox and the builders of St. Isaac's Cathedral were believing Orthodox Christians. As the principle of Roman law states, "the will of the testators must be respected." Isaac's Cathedral bequeathed to us by our believing ancestors. And we must respect their will, recognizing and restoring the original religious purpose of the cathedral.
However, opponents of the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral appeal to the argument of the availability of cultural values, arguing that the cathedral would then be accessible only to Orthodox believers and would not be admitted to other religions and atheists. For 25 years now, the Kazan Cathedral from a museum has become a temple and anyone can enter it from Nevsky Prospekt, without paying, by the way, a penny for the entrance. Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, and curious non-believers come - as far as I remember, not a single visitor was not only examined for knowledge of the Creed, but they were not asked about faith either: please come, see, join. The same is true for other churches in St. Petersburg. I am not aware of a single case when a person was not allowed into any church because of his faith.
Now let's look at the problem of accessibility of cultural values from the other side. As you know, in Orthodox churches admission is free: none of them sell tickets for the right to enter. Let's take a look at the price list of the former Museum of the Four Cathedrals. The price of a full ticket to St. Isaac's Cathedral is 250 rubles. In the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood - the same amount. Before its transfer to the Smolny Cathedral, the ticket price was 150 rubles, and there, in fact, there was almost nothing to look at, since all the interior decoration, including the unique crystal balustrade, was plundered and destroyed after 1922. Now let's estimate the most common salaries in Russia and St. Petersburg. So who provides genuine access to cultural values - the state or the Church?
In connection with this problem, the Tolga icon comes to mind. Mother of God, which was practically not seen by visitors to the Russian Museum, since it was kept in storerooms and was inaccessible to the people, but which was worshiped by more than 30,000 people after it was handed over to the Church in 2011.
Another problem is the preservation of cultural values. Opponents of the transfer of the council frighten us that the Church will not preserve the cultural values given to her due to the lack of specialists, ignorance and neglect of the clergy. However, "what to consider as gossips to work, is it not better for yourself, godfather, to turn around?" A general audit of the country showed the loss of 83,000 museum exhibits... So the defenders of museum treasures are better off starting with themselves. Moreover, despite the extensive restoration work, a number of churches in St. Petersburg and especially Leningrad region until now bears on itself traces of touching care of the state and museum workers about their preservation. As, for example, the temple of the 18th century of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Russko-Vysotsky, which was closed, plundered, and then exposed to the fury of the elements, removing the domes in 1980 before the Olympics, so that the temple does not shine excessively in front of foreign tourists. As a result, now instead of a temple there are picturesque ruins, in which a cemetery has already taken refuge.
And others no longer bear traces of care, such as, for example, the Church of the Savior on Sennaya, blown up in 1962, the Church of the Savior on the Waters, blown up in 1938, the Church of the Sign, destroyed in 1940, the Greek church - the temple of Demetrius of Thessaloniki on Ligovsky avenue (destroyed in 1962), etc. You can enumerate in hundreds. The remaining temples for the most part were plundered and stripped of their decorations, in whole or in part. Like Smolny Cathedral, for example. Or Kazan Cathedral, which has lost its unique silver iconostasis - a monument to the war of 1812, since it was created from silver taken from the French by the Cossacks.
The decoration of the cathedral was plundered: in 1922 - during a campaign to confiscate church valuables, in 1929 - after its closure
And St. Isaac's Cathedral is no exception. Much of its decoration was looted in 1922 - during a campaign to confiscate church valuables - and in 1929, after it was closed. My late grandmother Tamara Vasilievna Bakanova in her youth, passing by St. Isaac's Cathedral in 1928, saw a terrible picture: icons, books, towels, vestments were thrown out of the cathedral and piled up in heaps. She reached out to one of them to take the icon and a towel, and got her hands on her hands with a rifle butt. And then they set it all on fire ...
I can imagine how the freedom-loving press and the public would be outraged if priests and believers broke into, for example, the Academy of Sciences or the Legislative Assembly, threw out books, folders with cases and tables and put analogies and icons. But why can you do the opposite - come to God's temple, throw icons out of there, put up a Foucault pendulum and set up a museum - at first anti-religious, and then architectural? And why are some lovers of freedom and law not at all jarred by such an abnormal, absurd and lawless state of affairs, and moreover - they seek to perpetuate this absurdity?
On one of the pediments of St. Isaac's Cathedral it is written: "My House of Prayer will be called". This quote from the Gospel of Matthew (21:13) means for us, first of all, the following: the temple should be just a temple, not a museum, not a place for entertainment. For us, this is the path to evidence, to healing from the substitutions and delusions of the past.
I recall the lines of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, written in the terrible years of the Yezhovism:
And in spite of that
That death looks in the eyes
Again at your word
I vote for.
For the door to become a door,
The castle is a castle again,
So that a gloomy beast becomes a heart ...
If we want to protect ourselves from the repressions and lawlessness of the past, then it is necessary to restore historical justice - to return to the Church what was once lawlessly stolen and torn away from her, and above all the churches.
And add. The Gospel quote on the pediment of St. Isaac's Cathedral goes back to the prophecy of Isaiah, which says: "My house, the house of prayer will be called for all nations" (Isa. 56: 7). St. Isaac's Cathedral really belongs to all mankind, but it can carry out this universal vocation only in the Christian, only in the Orthodox context in which it was built, for it was created ultimately for the God-Man and the All-Man - Christ. If misused, it becomes, in the mournful expression of the Gospel, a "den of robbers," which it especially was in the 1930s as an anti-religious museum.
St. Isaac's Cathedral is not only an architectural dominant, it is also - and above all - a spiritual dominant
The temple should fulfill its sacred function - to be a place of prayer, reconciliation of God with man and man with man, a gathering place for the people of God and the peoples of Russia, and more broadly - for all mankind. St. Isaac's Cathedral is not only an architectural dominant, it is also a spiritual dominant that once and in part determines the spiritual dimension of the Russian state, and perhaps the fate of the world. In the words of the remarkable Russian writer Seraphim Ilyich Chetverukhin, without prayer, without worship, a temple is a corpse. Embalmed but lifeless. The soul of the temple is prayer. Before our eyes, many churches perished not even from anger, but from indifference, because they did not pray and were not looked after. If we want Isaac to heal full life, then it must be transferred to the Church.
And the last thing. Some of those who stand up for the museum status of St. Isaac's Cathedral do not hide that their goal is not to preserve cultural values, but to fight Christianity and the Russian Orthodox Church. These herostrates can only be pitied, because they have nothing but struggle, the pathos of discrediting and destruction. Would anyone have known Gubelman-Yaroslavsky if he had not been the head of the Union of Militant Atheists? By the way, he died of grief after the dissolution of the Union: life had lost its meaning for him. These people need great shocks. And we need Great Russia... With the majestic TEMPLE - St. Isaac's Cathedral.
The issue of transferring St. Isaac's Cathedral to the use of the Russian Orthodox Church has been resolved, said St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko. "By agreement between the patriarch and me, the cathedral will retain its museum and educational function," TASS quotes Poltavchenko. According to him, access to the building will not change, and representatives of all confessions will be able to get there.
Governor's press secretary Andrei Kibitov added that "there are a lot of subtleties on the future use and transfer of the temple," which will be announced in the near future. In particular,
a number of complex approvals will be required, including with the Ministry of Culture, since the temple is under the protection of UNESCO
and it stores a large number of museum items. “It will take not a day or two to settle these issues, it will long time... Perhaps months, ”Kibitov said,“ Interfax ”.
Further maintenance of the cathedral will be carried out at the expense of the church. On this moment the museum's income is more than 800 million rubles, of which it was possible to fully pay for the restoration of the cathedral. According to the management of the memorial museum, the building requires constant, almost daily restoration. In addition, as Gazeta.Ru wrote, the director of the museum, Nikolai Burov, feared that the church would not pay the state the taxes that the museum now pays. In addition, the state will have to deal with the employment of 200 museum employees.
After the museum is transferred to the ownership of the church, the ROC will not only have to maintain and restore the monument, but also manage the flow of tourists. “This is a huge financial and organizational burden,” said Alexander Kononov, representative of All-Russian organization protection of monuments, when the question of transferring the cathedral arose on a large scale. - The ROC is a less effective manager than a museum. I have no doubts that the church will not be able to maintain the state of the monument at its own expense, that is, initially it comes about state money ”.
Presumably, in the future, the organization of the activities of St. Isaac's Cathedral may become similar work Kazan Cathedral. Now the entrance to the Kazan Cathedral is free, you can get on the excursion by appointment. Four Orthodox guides work daily in Kazanskoe, their work costs 150 rubles,
payment does not go through the cashier, but by donating to a mug (accordingly, it is not taxed),
writes "Fontanka.ru". At the same time, the statistics of visits and excursions is not public, however, in the church itself they assure that all the money raised goes to restoration interior decoration the cathedral, the state is spent on the repair of the colonnade and facades.
For the first time, the issue of transferring St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church arose in 2011, when the head of the Committee on state control, use and protection of monuments of history and culture of St. Petersburg (KGIOP) Alexander Makarov suggested using the temple for its intended purpose. However, his initiative did not receive support.
They returned to this issue in the summer of 2015, when the St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the city government with a corresponding request. Earlier, the Smolny and Sampsonievsky cathedrals had already been transferred from the structure of the state memorial museum of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the fall of 2015, the governor decided to leave the temple in operational management SPb GBUK "State Museum-Monument" St. Isaac's Cathedral ". In April 2016
Metropolitan Barsanuphius turned to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with a request to return to the Russian Orthodox Church not only St. Isaac's Cathedral, but also the Savior on Spilled Blood and even part of the building of the Smolny Monastery,
in the wing where the faculties of St. Petersburg State University are located. In his address, the metropolitan referred to the federal law on church restitution.
At the same time, divine services in the cathedral became more frequent, and, according to the director of the museum, Nikolai Burov, now 600 of them are held annually. 3.6 million visitors, ”added the director.
The next time, information that the cathedral would nevertheless be transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church appeared at the end of 2016, but there was no official confirmation until January 10, 2017. According to Fontanka.ru, the governor initially set the task of transferring the cathedral to the ROC by December 2017, however, due to paperwork, more real time Sources of the publication in Smolny call 2019.
Opponents of such a step launched "We will not allow the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church" and intend to seek a referendum on this issue.
"Transfer of monuments museums, business cards Petersburg under the jurisdiction of the ROC will lead to a restriction of visits to them by ordinary tourists,
- says the petition. - There are reasonable fears that the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church will not be enough to carry out large-scale restoration of unique objects cultural heritage, just keeping them in proper condition". At the time of publication of the note, 92.5 thousand signatures were collected under the petition.
MP Legislative Assembly Northern capital Boris Vishnevsky called this decision "a huge mistake." “The law allows citizens to go to court on this issue if they believe that their rights and interests have been violated. I believe that my rights and interests will be violated by this decision. I'll see you in court ", -
Why Isaac's Cathedral should be handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church and why this should not be done - the head of the pilgrimage department of the St. Petersburg diocese Vladimir Dervenev and the deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Boris Vishnevsky discussed in the Fontanka studio.
Believers complain that they are not allowed to hold full-fledged services in St. Isaac's Cathedral, but they do not mind if the museum remains at the church - and will earn money to maintain the building. The main argument of opponents of the transfer is that the museum's revenues will inevitably fall, and the maintenance of the church will have to be paid for by the city budget (that is, all taxpayers).
"Fontanka" wrote that in Smolny it has been unofficially said for a long time that the governor had already instructed to prepare a positive response for the St. Petersburg metropolitanate, about which the director of the St. Isaac's Cathedral museum Nikolai Burov was notified. The museum worker himself, however, before the New Year actively refused to comment on the rumors. But most of the interlocutors spoke of the transfer as a settled matter, without even remembering Georgy Poltavchenko's refusal to do so.
In the summer of 2015, the St. Petersburg Diocese appealed to the city government with a request to hand over St. Isaac's Cathedral to it, but was refused. The city authorities decided to continue the practice of joint use of the temple by the museum and the church, which has existed for more than 20 years. In the summer of 2016, it became known that Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga sent a letter to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation with a request to transfer the Church and the Savior on Spilled Blood, which is part of the Isaac's Cathedral museum complex.
Vishnevsky:- Historical fact: St. Isaac's Cathedral was never transferred to the church, it was built at the expense of the treasury Russian Empire, was under the jurisdiction of the ministry imperial court... And it has always been state property. There is no reason to be concerned about the current situation. Services are held in the cathedral. The management of the St. Isaac's Cathedral museum does not create any obstacles for them.
Dervenev:- My opponent distorted. The cathedral certainly belonged to the church. It was on the balance sheet of the state - the administration for the sovereign temples was specially created. Because some churches could not be supported by parishes for natural reasons, that is, they were not parish. This administration included St. Isaac's Cathedral and the house churches of the imperial and grand ducal residences. They were supported by the state. Isaac was included in the number of such temples as a symbol of the empire. Moreover, all priests were civil servants and received a salary.
Vishnevsky:- I would ask you to be more careful about juggling. The church was part of the state during the time of the Russian Empire. And today the current ROC does not even have the legal right of succession to demand the return of the cathedral. All talk about restitution is based on the fact that the church has undergone repression from the Bolsheviks. But you probably know better than me who the current leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate comes from. From Metropolitan Sergius of Starogorodsky, who, by the way, at one time supported that very godless government and denounced its enemies. If you raise the question of returning the churches, then you may find competitors who took a slightly different position in relation to the Bolshevik government. And you haven't answered my simple question. Services are underway. The director of the museum, Nikolai Burov, does not interfere with them. What's stopping you? Let's take the path of agreement. I submitted to the office of the Legislative Assembly a bill on amendments to federal law No. 327 on the transfer of property to the church. If we are talking about museums that are state property, then they should not be transferred to anyone, but an encumbrance should be imposed on them: an agreement should be concluded so that services can be held in them. And that's enough.
Dervenev:- You have said so much, and all this has little to do with St. Isaac's Cathedral. When a lady in the uniform of a minister of the St. Isaac's Cathedral passes through the altar during the service, this is unacceptable for a believer. There is too little temple in the cathedral today. There is too little prayer. St. Isaac's Cathedral is closed on Wednesday even if it falls on that day religious holiday... The services that exist are kept in a truncated form. And all of them have been agreed with the management of the museum. And if some museum events are held in the museum, then evening services canceled. The museum should be at the temple, and not as it is now - the temple at the museum. There is a federal law according to which churches must be handed over to believers. And this law must be fulfilled.
Vishnevsky:- I know this law quite well. And it’s not written like that. It says that a religious organization has the right to make such a request. And then the authority decides whether to grant this request or not. Draws up a transfer plan and considers this issue within six years. The law does not automatically return anything you ask for. In September 2015, the transfer of the Church of St. Isaac's Cathedral was already refused, including for economic reasons. And they, in my opinion, are decisive here. Instead of rebuilding destroyed temples, of which there are thousands across the country, the church wants to get a thriving museum. And she cares in this case not about the soul, but about the interests of the corporation.
Reference: St. Isaac's Cathedral is one of the most popular museums in St. Petersburg. In 2016 alone, 3.9 million tourists visited it. The museum earned more than 800 million rubles. These funds were used to fully pay for the restoration of the cathedral.
Dervenev:- Who told you that the diocese is against this cathedral having a museum? If there is a museum, if it receives tourists, no one is against it. Services that would be conducted there regularly, and not furtively in the left aisle, but as befits - in the main cathedral of the empire, would help attract tourists. Restoration, warmth and light - all this should be, as it was a hundred years ago, not only from the state treasury, but also from the cathedral's revenues. I am sure that from attracting tourists there will be funds both for the maintenance of the cathedral and for restoration.
Vishnevsky:- I understood perfectly well that as soon as it comes to the economic component, you will begin to "float". Let's imagine that the cathedral was handed over to the diocese. Then you, apparently, assume that the city will contain the federal monument of architecture. The burden of maintenance will be borne by the taxpayers. As a taxpayer, I am ready to pay money for the maintenance of the museum and the preservation of the monument. But I do not agree to pay for the maintenance of the temple. Let's conduct an experiment: we will offer the believers to pay a certain fee for the maintenance of the temple. And we'll see how many there really are. If the service is being conducted, as you say, in a corner, let's change the agreement with the museum management so that the services are carried out in the required volume.
Dervenev:- The greatest cathedrals combine both a temple and a museum. People who come to the temple to pray do not have to pay money for it. And those who come with guides should. And the tour guides must be certified, and not by some secular organization. I attended excursions in St. Isaac's Cathedral. There is no mention that this is the temple of God. It speaks only of the building.
Who is stopping us from entering the Kazan Cathedral now, looking at this splendor, bowing to the grave of Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov? Any competent excursion, not theomachic, as in St. Isaac's Cathedral, has a great missionary effect.
Vishnevsky:- If the transfer of the cathedral takes place, income will fall sharply. A huge number of people will come to the temple, using the right free access and look at him. They won't even need guided tours. Some time will pass, and Governor Georgy Sergeevich Poltavchenko will come to our Legislative Assembly and say: you will not allow St. Isaac's Cathedral to collapse - allocate money for its restoration. And it is sad that I, an unbelieving person, have to remind you of the "Epistle to the Corinthians": "You are the temple of God, and God is not in the temple, but in the heart of man."
Dervenev:- Save you, Lord, for moralizing. The city will not lose St. Isaac's Cathedral, but will acquire it. The museum will continue to exist as it always has. It is a myth that the church is a rich organization. I saw Popov in "wheelbarrows" only when Bishop Mitrofan of Gatchina and Luga, picking up a cassock, rolls a wheelbarrow on subbotniks. And there are many other temples that have not yet been transferred. For example, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on Lesnoy, which now has a fitness center with a swimming pool. A non-believer cannot understand what prayer is in a place of prayer, such as St. Isaac's Cathedral. Why not make an application to the Ministry of Culture so that part of the costs will be borne by it, because this is a monument not of city, but of federal significance?
Vishnevsky:- By a special decision of the government of the Russian Federation, it was transferred to the ownership of the government of St. Petersburg. And all decisions about his fate are made by the government of St. Petersburg. These are legal norms.
Dervenev:- Yes, there are norms, but apart from norms, there are agreements.
Vishnevsky:- When it comes to such things, the issue is decided not by agreement, but by law.
Dervenev:- All churches should be with believers.
While an emotional discussion was going on on the air of Fontanka between the deputy of the Legislative Assembly and the head of the diocese's pilgrimage department, the studio phone was literally torn apart by calls from believers who wanted to support the idea of transferring St. Isaac's Cathedral to the church. As the resident of St. Petersburg Alexander explained, believers are sure that Isaac attracts tourists primarily as a temple, and not as a museum. Information that the channel [Fontanka.Offis] is discussing the topic of the transfer of the cathedral quickly spread among the faithful. “A knowledgeable person called me and said that there would be such a program,” Alexander admitted. The rest of the callers said that they had received some kind of SMS mailing.
Venus Galeeva wrote down,
"FONTANKA.RU", January 10, 2017
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The issue of transferring St. Isaac's Cathedral to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been resolved. Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko announced this the day before.
“By agreement between the Patriarch (Kirill) and me, the cathedral will retain its museum and educational function,” he said and assured that access to the building would be provided to representatives of all confessions without exception.
At the same time, Bishop of Yegoryevsk, Vicar of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Tikhon stressed that the Russian Orthodox Church appealed to the government of St. Petersburg with a request to transfer the St. Isaac's Cathedral to her not as property, but for use, and "in accordance with the law, this request was granted." He specified that the museum activities in the cathedral "will undoubtedly be preserved."
Governor's press secretary Andrei Kibitov clarified that when transferring the cathedral to the use of the church, a number of complex approvals will be required, including with the Ministry of Culture, since the temple is under the protection of UNESCO and it contains a large number of museum items. This will take a long time.
The director of the State Museum-Monument "St. Isaac's Cathedral" Nikolai Burov believes that the process of transferring the cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church may take up to three years.
“Based on the experience of handing over the Church of St. Sampson's Cathedral, which took 1.5 years, I can assume that, according to the most optimistic estimates, a similar process in St. Isaac's Cathedral could take from 24 to 36 months," Burov said. According to him, "these are incomparable processes, since in the Sampson Cathedral 141 subjects were discussed, and in St. Isaac's there are several thousand of them." The museum items in question are elements of the external and internal decoration of the cathedral. “The exhibits are very complex issue, - says the director of the museum. "The current law on the state museum fund does not define these relations."
Although the Russian Orthodox Church emphasizes that the museum will remain, Burov is convinced that with the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Church, the museum, which has existed for 90 years, will cease to exist.
“Naturally, the museum in its usual form ceases to exist. In 2016, we transferred two of our objects to the church - Smolny and Sampsonievsky cathedrals, now we are talking about St. Isaac's. I am sure that after Isaac, the matter will come to the Savior on Spilled Blood. The museum cannot be preserved in this form, I think it will either be downsized or turned into three branches. "
Meanwhile, people who oppose the transfer of the cathedral have created a corresponding petition. It says that the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church may be "not enough to carry out large-scale restorations of unique cultural heritage sites, just to maintain them in good condition." The petition was signed by almost 99 thousand people.
In turn, the speaker of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Vyacheslav Makarov called the opponents of the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church provocateurs.
“With regard to the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church: firstly, this is the fulfillment of the federal law, and not just the wishes of the believers. Secondly, it will be open to all denominations. And third, I want to say that any calls not to comply with the law are regarded as incitement, and those who call not to comply with the law are provocateurs and arsonists, ”Makarov told reporters.
The St. Petersburg Diocese appealed to the city government with a request to transfer St. Isaac's Cathedral for use in the summer of 2015. Then this request was refused. In April 2016, Metropolitan Varsonofy of St. Petersburg and Ladoga appealed to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with a request to transfer the cathedral to the church in accordance with the Federal law 327 "On the transfer of religious property to religious organizations." A similar appeal in 2016 was sent to the governor of the city.
The building of St. Isaac's Cathedral is owned by St. Petersburg, but protected at the federal level and is included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. Before the revolution, the cathedral was also not the property of the church and was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs due to the high costs of maintaining the building. The cathedral became a museum in 1928, since 1990 it has been restored Orthodox services which are now being held daily. More than 3.5 million tourists visit Isaac annually, of which pilgrims, according to the museum, make up about 1%.
