Russia's Catacomb
Saints
Introduction
N JULY 16/29, 1927, Metropolitan Sergius of Nizhni-Novgorod,
the then acting Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne of Moscow, issued his
infamous "Declaration" of the loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church
to the Soviet government and solidarity with its "joys" and "sorrows."
This document was published in the official Soviet newspaper Izvestia
on August 6/19 of the same year, and was the overt cause of the fundamental
division which occurred then in the Russian Church and has lasted up to the
present day. In the words of a church historian of this period (himself a
"Sergianist"), the year of the Declaration was "a turning point.
Up until now the whole life of the church proceeds under the sign of this
year" (A. Krasnov-Levitin, Memoirs, YMCA Press, 1977, p. 19, in
Russian).
This division is not merely one between two totally independent
church organizations (thought it is that also); more basically it is a division
between two entirely different views of what the Church of Christ is and how
it should act in this sinful world while conducting its children to the banks
of the eternal sinless life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
One view, that of the present-day Moscow Patriarchate,
to which to name of Sergianism" has been most fittingly applied, sees
the Church first of all as an organization whose outward form must
be preserved at any cost; disobedience to or separation from this organization
is regarded as an act of "schism" or even "sectarianism."
The apologists for Sergianism, both within and outside Russia, continually
emphasize that Metropolitan Sergius' policy "preserved" the hierarchy,
the church organization, the church services, the possibility of receiving
the Holy Mysteries, and that this is the chief business of the church or even
its whole reason for existing. Such apologies, products of the general decline
of the Orthodox church consciousness in our times, are themselves symptoms
of the ecclesiastical disease of Sergianism, of the loss of contact with the
spiritual roots of Orthodox Christianity and the replacement of living
and whole Orthodoxy by outward and "canonical" forms. This mentality
is perhaps the chief cause for the spread of Protestant sects in present-day
Russia: the mere semblance of the primacy of spiritual concerns (even if devoid
of true Christian content) is enough to overwhelm the mere attachment to outward
forms among many millions of Russians who are convinced that the Sergianist
church (because it is the only one visible) is Orthodoxy.
The other view, that of the True-Orthodox or Catacomb Church
of Russia, sees the first responsibility of the Orthodox Church to be faithfulness
to Christ and to the true Spirit of Orthodoxy, at whatever external cost.
This mentality does not at all disdain external forms; we know that the Catacomb
Church has preserved the Divine services and the church hierarchy down to our
own day. The external cost of the Catacomb Church's faithfulness to true Orthodoxy
has been the loss of immediate influence over the masses of the Russian people,
many of whom do not even know of its existence and the majority of whom would
not know where or how to enter into contact with its members. But the loss of
outward influence has as its counterpart a moral and spiritual authority which
cannot be appreciated by those who judge these matters outwardly, but which will
become evident when freedom returns to Russia.
The mentality of the Catacomb Church in the USSR is best described
in the words of its own members. Here is how I. M. Andreyev, an active participant
in the church events of 1927 and later, describes the formation of the Catacomb
Church in those years.
"According to the testimony of the close friend of Patriarch
Tikhon, the professor and doctor of medicine M. A. Zhizhilenko (the former chief
physician of the Taganka prison in Moscow), the Patriarch, not long before his
death, becoming convinced with great fear, that the boundary of the 'political'
demands of the Soviet regime would go beyond the boundaries of faithfulness to
the Church and Christ, expressed the idea that probably the only way for the Orthodox
Russian Church to preserve faithfulness to Christ would be, in the near future,
to go into the catacombs. Therefore, Patriarch Tikhon blessed Prof. Zhizhilenko
to accept secret monasticism, and then, in the near future, in case the leading
hierarchs of the Church should betray Christ and give over to the Soviet regime
the spiritual freedom of the Church, to become a secret bishop.
"In 1927, when Metropolitan Sergius issued his Declaration,
after which the church schism occurred, Prof. Zhizhilenko fulfilled the will
of Patriarch Tikhon and became the first secret catacomb bishop, Maxim of
Serpukhov.
"After the schism of 1927, the followers of Metropolitan
Sergius, who accepted his Declaration, began to be called 'Sergianists,' while
those who remained faithful to the Orthodox Church, who did not accept the Declaration
and separated from Metropolitan Sergius, began to be called 'Josephites' (after
Metropolitan Joseph of Petrograd). This latter name, given by the 'Sergianists,'
did not define the position, either in essence or formally, of those who protested.
Apart from Metropolitan Joseph, other hierarchs, the most outstanding ones, together
with their flocks, departed from communion with Metropolitan Sergius. The religious-moral
authority of those who protested and separated was so high, and their qualitative
superiority was so clear, that for the future historian of the Church there can
be no doubt whatever of the correctness of the opponents of Metropolitan Sergius.
These latter could more correctly be called faithful 'Tikhonites.' And the activities
of Metropolitan Sergius and those with him must be characterized as a neo-renovationist
schism.
"All those who protested against the Declaration of
Metropolitan Sergius were arrested by the Soviet regime as 'counter-revolutionaries';
they were shot or sent to concentration camps and exile. At interrogations the
jubilant Chekist-interrogators with sarcasm and evil joy would prove the 'strict
canonicity' of Metropolitan Sergius and his Declaration, which 'has not altered
either canons or dogmas.' The mass executions, persecutions and tortures which
descended upon the faithful of Christ's Church are beyond description.
"For the True Orthodox Church there was left no alternative
but to go into the catacombs.
"The spiritual father who gave birth to the very idea
of the Catacomb Church was Patriarch Tikhon. In the first years of its existence
the Catacomb Church had neither organization nor administration, was dispersed
physically and geographically, and was united only by the name of Metropolitan
Peter. The first Catacomb bishop Maxim was arrested in 1928 and sent to the Solovki
concentration camp; in 1930 he was sent from the camp to Moscow and shot.
"Beginning in 1928 in the Solovki and Svir concentration
camps, in the 'Belbaltlag' camp, and in many camps in Siberia, there began
to be performed many secret ordinations. (In the Solovki camp, where I was,
these were performed by Bishops Maxim, Victor, Hilarion, and Nectary.)
"After the death of Metropolitans Peter and Cyril
(both died in exile in 1936), the spiritual and administrative head of the
Catacomb Church—which by this time had achieved a certain degree of organization—became
Metropolitan Joseph (even though he was in exile).
"At the end of 1938, precisely for his leadership
and guidance of the secret Catacomb Church, Metropolitan Joseph was executed.
"After his death, the Catacomb Church began yet more
strictly to keep its secrets, especially the names and location of its spiritual
leaders.
"I will not speak of the mystery to Thy enemies—it
is with such a motto that brief information has appeared from time to time
on the life of this secret Church." (I. M. Andreyev, Brief Review
of the History of the Russian Church from the Revolution to our Days,
Jordanville, 1951, pp. 70-72.)
There exists a mass of materials documenting this early
period in the history of the Catacomb Church, both in the epistles of bishops
and others who separated from Metropolitan Sergius, and in the memoirs and
other accounts of individual members of the Catacomb Church who escaped from
the Soviet Union during World War II. Many of these documents are contained
in the two volumes of Russia's New Martyrs, compiled by Archpriest
Michael Polsky (Jordanville, 1949 and 1957); the most important of these,
and a number from other sources, are present in Parts II and III of this book,
most of them for the first time in English.
On the eve of World War II, the persecution of religion
in the Soviet Union reached its fiercest peak, when even the "Sergianist"
church organization came near to liquidation, and the Catacomb Church disappeared
entirely from view. Only a few of the most notable collaborators with the
Soviets, such as Metropolitan Sergius himself, escaped imprisonment or banishment,
a fact which led to the charge of Boris Talantov thirty years later that "Metropolitan
Sergius by his adaptation and lies saved no one and nothing, except his own
person."
When Stalin, in order to take advantage of the patriotic and
religious feelings of the Russian people in the war against the Germans, opened
a number of the closed church and allowed the election of a "Patriarch"
in 1943, a new period began in Church-State relations, when the Moscow Patriarchate
became, in effect, the "State Church" of the Soviet government, spreading
Communist propaganda throughout the world in the name of religion, and categorically
denying the existence of any religious persecution whatever in the Soviet Union.
The mere existence of a Catacomb Orthodox Church opposed to this policy, of course,
could have a disastrous effect on the policy, especially if it became widely known
abroad. All groups of Catacomb Orthodox were mercilessly uprooted by the Soviet
authorities when discovered, and their members were given long prison terms. Most
of the little information we have form this period of the history of the Catacomb
Church in Russia comes from the Soviet press; but almost nothing is known to this
day about the organization and leadership of the Catacomb Church during this time.
Under Khrushchev in 1959 a new and intense persecution of religion
was undertaken in the USSR, inaugurating the most recent period of Russian church
history, a period in which the Sergianist puppet church organization is itself
being used to liquidate Orthodoxy in Russia, while continued its Communist propaganda
abroad and its now totally incredible assertions of the absence of any persecution
of religion in the USSR. A majority of the remaining Sergianist churches, monasteries,
and seminaries have been closed in this period, and an especially fierce persecution
has been conducted against "unregistered" church bodies such as the
Catacomb Orthodox Church, which is known to the Soviet authorities under the names
of "Josephites," "Tikhonites," and the "True-Orthodox
Church." The persecution was especially fierce in the years 1959-1964; since
the downfall of Khrushchev it has been less intense, but it continues all the
same, especially against the "unregistered" bodies.
In this most recent period a new spirit of boldness has entered
church life in Russia; this, coupled with a greatly increased freedom of communication
between the USSR and the free world, has produced what, beginning with a few isolated
protests in the early 1960's, has now become a wave of protest and indignation
from believers in Russia directed against the religious persecutions of the Soviet
government and the spineless apologies for it of the official church organization.
The Open Letter to Patriarch Alexis of the Moscow priests Gleb Yakunin and Nicholas
Eshliman in 1965, the articles on "Sergianism" by Boris Talantov in
1968, the righteous protests against the church policy of the Moscow Patriarchate
from Orthodox Christians as diverse as Archbishop Ermogen and Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
and most recently the desperate cries of conscience of Father Dimitry Dudko and
the new church history of Lev Regelson (who has given the first sympathetic account
of the "Josephites" from within the Moscow Patriarchate)—have led
to a veritable "crisis of Sergianism" in Russia; the chief factor, it
would seem, that now prevents a new break with the Moscow Patriarchate on the
scale of the "Josephite" movement of 1927 is a certain fear of the specter
of "schism" and "sectarianism," coupled with a widespread
ignorance of the actual state and mentality of the present-day Catacomb Church.
The most striking testimonies regarding the meaning of "Sergianism"
from within the Moscow Patriarchate today are included in Part IV of this book.
Finally, the past few years, beginning with the death of Patriarch
Alexis in 1971, have seen a certain re-emergence of the Catacomb Church itself
in Russia. In particular, the two "catacomb documents" of 1971 have
given us the first real view in forty years of the mentality of the present-day
Catacomb Church, which would seem to be quite sober and not at all "sectarian"
or "fanatical" (an impression which is only reinforced by the just-printed
catacomb epistle of 1962, the very existence of which was known up to now only
by a few people in the Soviet Union); the testimony of A. Kransov-Levitin after
his exile from the Soviet Union in 1974 has provided us the first real information
since 1938 concerning the episcopate and the chief hierarch of the Catacomb
Church; and the information from the Soviet press in 1976 concerning the trial
of Archimandrite Gennady is the most striking evidence since before World War
II of the actual activity of the Catacomb Church and its astonishing scope.
These documents are contained in Part V of this book.
This book should not be regarded as a mere "apology"
for the Catacomb Church; out attempt has been to be a little more "objective"
than that. In fact, the present historical moment, just after the 50th anniversary
of the "Declaration" that divided Russian Orthodoxy in the 20th century,
offers an unparalleled opportunity for an "objective" view of the past
half-century of church life for us who belong to the only free and uncompromised
part of the Russian Church. The soul of Russia is speaking today, more clearly
than at any time since the beginning of Sergianism; but the pain and difficulty
of speaking make it almost impossible for those inside the Soviet Union to understand
the message fully. In particular, those within the Moscow Patriarchate find themselves
still enclosed in an "enchanted circle" of inherited opinions about
the church organization, which will probably not be broken until the realization
finally dawns upon them that the Catacomb Church of Russia is not primarily a
rival "church organization" which demands a change of episcopal allegiance,
but is first of all the standard-bearer of faithfulness to Christ, which
inspires a different attitude towards the Church and its organization than now
prevails throughout much of the Orthodox world. This realization will perhaps
not dawn until the downfall of the godless regime; but when it does, the Sergianist
church organization and its whole philosophy of being will crumble to dust. In
this light, it is surely no exaggeration to say that he future of Russia, if it
is to be Orthodox, belongs to the Catacomb Church.
A deliberate attempt has been made, in the appendix to this
volume where the sources for the history of the Catacomb Church are presented,
to indicate the "bias" of the authors, whether "Sergianist"
or "Josephite." There have, of course, been exaggerations on both sided.
To the future historian of the Russian Church there will indeed be no doubt (in
fact, the church history of Lev Regelson already proves it) that the Josephites
were correct and the Sergianists were fatally wrong. But the significance of the
Catacomb Church does not lie in its "correctness"; it lies in its preservation
of the true spirit of Orthodoxy, the spirit of freedom in Christ. Sergianism
was not merely "wrong" in its choice of church policy, it was something
far worse: it was a betrayal of Christ based on agreement with the spirit of this
world. It is the inevitable result when church policy is guided by earthly logic
and not by the mind of Christ.