The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a video message Svetlana Ageeva to the president Petru Poroshenko with a request to take personal part in the fate of her son, a corporal, who was detained along with other Russian military personnel in the Lugansk region by Ukrainian fighters.
The mother of a Russian contract soldier who went to Donbass to kill people for money said that she was ready to personally come to Ukraine to take part in exchange negotiations and hoped for mercy.
« Dear Mr. President! I would like to appeal to you to pardon my son and would really like to get your permission to meet with him, or at least to be allowed to give him my video letter“Novaya Gazeta quotes Svetlana Ageeva. She added that if Petro Poroshenko pardons her son, then “ for him(son. - Ed.) this will be a great life lesson!»
« They ask me how this could happen, that something irreparable happened to him, how he got there(in Donbass. - Ed.). But I can say one thing - that the family discussed contract service(in the Russian army. - Ed.). I myself am still in the dark, I still can’t understand how it happened, who influenced my child so much that he ended up in those places(in the east of Ukraine. - Ed.),” said Svetlana Ageeva.
Her compatriots commented on the video message published on the Novaya Gazeta website: “ An adult takes a machine gun in his hands and goes to kill. Mom, I would have repented first, God forgive me. And not a word about condemning my son’s act, it just sounds like I don’t know and my son didn’t know that killing is bad».
« Why doesn’t he turn to Putin? She would say: “Bring our sons out of Ukraine, whom you sent to kill.” And then you can turn to Poroshenko with repentance and a request».
« As long as Russia cowardly and vilely refuses its soldiers, whom it sends to Ukraine to kill Ukrainians, as long as all the Russians caught doing this in the East of Ukraine will be simply terrorists and murderers, and not prisoners of war enjoying a certain status. And these Russians will be treated as terrorists and murderers, which in fact they are».
« Take Oleg Sentsov with you and come».
Let us remind you that on June 24, near the village of Zhelobok, Lugansk region, Ukrainian fighters neutralized an enemy reconnaissance group. Ukrainian soldiers killed two militants, including a Russian officer, and captured four. Among the prisoners was a 22-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation, a resident of the Altai Territory, Viktor Ageev. Ageev announced his entry into contract service on his social network page.
The same information was later confirmed in an interview with journalists by Ageev’s mother, naming the exact date of signing the contract - March 17, 2017. Corporal Ageev recently confirmed to the 1+1 TV channel that he was sent to Donbass after signing a contract in the Rostov region to serve in the Russian Armed Forces.
« I'm a military man. Unit 65 246 (located in the city of Novocherkassk, this is a communications regiment and training center of the Russian Aerospace Forces. - Ed.)“,” said Ageev.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation traditionally does not recognize the participation of Russian army personnel in the conflict in Donbass.
The Commission on Pardons in the Rostov Region has existed since 2002. During this time, it received 1,806 appeals from those convicted of various crimes. About 70% of them are serving sentences for serious and especially serious crimes and still ask for leniency. The interlocutors of the donnews.ru journalist - the head of the pardon department of the government of the Rostov region, Albert Atamanenko, and the priest Andrei Mnatsaganov - told how the decision is made about where to put a comma in the sentence “execute cannot be pardoned.”
How does the commission work?
Previously, there was a pardon commission that considered applications from all over the country. It was headed by the writer Anatoly Pristavkin, and in one meeting it had to consider up to 300 appeals. In 2002, they decided to create pardon commissions in each region separately. The commission http://www.donland.ru/Default.aspx?pageid=79213 has 11 people who work on a voluntary basis. Every two years the commission is supposed to change three people.
Before each meeting of the commission, petitions undergo a thorough check. Specialists of the pardon department consider all the circumstances, collect characteristics, and request characteristics from the places where the sentence is being served. If necessary, members of the commission communicate with the relatives of the convicted person, with the victims and their relatives.
Sometimes victims are ready to forgive their offenders: “God will forgive!”, but more often they say that the criminal should not be released under any circumstances - the damage has been done too much.
Any convicted person, even a murderer, can apply for clemency. The presidential decree regulating the work of the commission states that “as a rule” persons who have committed a crime during a probationary period associated with a suspended sentence cannot ask for pardon; previously released on parole; pardoned; amnestied, as well as those who have already received leniency. But this is “as a rule”, but in practice everyone applies. And every appeal has to be considered, even if the criminal has been convicted for the twelfth time and is unlikely to be able to take the path of reform.
According to priest Andrei Mnatsaganov, writing petitions is an art.
“It happens that when you read, you see that a person has a 9-10 grade education, he worked somewhere as a loader, but you read it like a novel. Everything went smoothly, not a single mistake. It happens that two petitions come from one colony, written in the same handwriting. There are special masters in the zones who write these letters. They write letters not only about pardon, but also about freedom for their loved ones. Of course, not for free - for food, cigarettes.
Who is asking for mercy?
According to Albert Atamanenko, 70% of petitions come from people who have committed serious and especially serious crimes, of which 20% are convicted of murder or intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm resulting in death.
It is noteworthy that 60% of the contingent had never worked before going to prison, and about half had already been convicted, some of them up to 12 times.
A third of those convicted committed drug-related crimes. The percentage of robbers and robbers asking for mercy is very small.
As priest Andrei Mnatsaganov notes, as a rule, a person who has committed a not particularly serious crime is aware of his guilt, and he is even ashamed to ask for mercy. However, seasoned criminals who have served several prison terms save pardon, so to speak, for the future, remembering that such a chance only comes once.
There are also glaring cases. Thus, one of the Novocherkassk students who violated the corpse of an elderly woman asked for pardon. This story outraged all of Russia in November 2014. A guy and two girls dug up the body of an 84-year-old woman buried in January of the same year, separated the head and fingers, hastily covered the grave with earth and brought the remains to their dormitory. There, in the kitchen, they boiled the deceased’s head to clean it of hair and other biological debris. During interrogation, the detainees said that they were going to make an ashtray from the woman’s skull, and fortune-telling runes from the finger bones. They hid the remains. The commission did not recommend pardoning the girl who committed such a terrible crime.
Who has already been pardoned?
As members of the commission note, from year to year the number of those whom the president is ready to pardon is decreasing. As Albert Atamanenko reported, in the first year when the commission was created, Vladimir Puti pardoned 183 people, in 2003 - 187. In 2007, the president did not approve a single pardon petition from all over the country, and in 2014 - only 2. In In 2015, 5 people were pardoned, in 2016 - 6, in 2017 - 4.
Over the entire 15 years of the commission’s existence, the president pardoned only 13 people from the Rostov region, although the commission recommended 73 people. The fates of those pardoned turned out differently, but none of them broke the law again.
Among those pardoned is a man who stood up for his mother-in-law, who was being beaten by her father-in-law. The man pushed the offender, he fell, hit himself and died. Another example is a man over 60 years old who committed an accident. The commission also recommended pardoning and expunging the criminal record of the former judge, who was discredited by her assistant and then accused of beating the woman. True, while the trial was ongoing, the woman was released after serving her sentence.
Who do they want to pardon?
In 2017, the Rostov Region Pardon Commission received 138 petitions. Of these, only two young women were recommended to be pardoned.
Albert Atamanenko says that the girl was driven to crime by difficult life circumstances. Her parents are alcoholics, besides her there are four other minor children in the family, and she herself has a small child in her arms. She moved away from her parents, worked in a clothing factory, raised her baby, and also helped her brothers and sisters, took them to her place for the weekend - to take a break from her parents' drinking and eat normally... But on one not very beautiful day, January 1, she was visiting in her father's house, when a conflict broke out between her and her mother. During the quarrel, the girl, unable to bear it, stabbed her mother with a knife.
“The mother is alive and says that she provoked her daughter.” The girl is very repentant. She is not sitting - she was given a deferment until the child’s fourteenth birthday. I stumbled, isn’t it possible to meet a person halfway in such a situation?
The second case is much more complicated. A young resident of the Rostov region was convicted of illegally acquiring child pornography for the purpose of distributing it.
The files were stored in cloud storage, and access was allegedly made available there, which was regarded as distribution. However, there were no downloads.
- The situation is complicated. But while the mother is sitting, she has two children left - one is an infant, the other is at school. The family recently took out a mortgage, and the husband left with two children found himself in a very difficult situation,” Atamanenko said.
Most often, crimes are committed while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Until recently, Priest Andrei Mnatsaganov was the head of the department for prison ministry of the Rostov diocesan administration, is a member of the commission for the observance of rights in places of deprivation of liberty and often communicates with prisoners. Mnatsaganov adds that about 60% of all convicts have nothing to do in the colony.
“These are people who simply stumbled.” They really could have been sent to the streets of revenge or worked like Soviet “chemistry”.
But in modern conditions this is hardly feasible.
After all, today the economy is in the hands of entrepreneurs - and who cannot oblige a businessman to employ five prisoners from a colony.
Meanwhile, just recently a return to this type of punishment was discussed quite seriously. In Novocherkassk, back in 2016, a correctional center with 200 places for those sentenced to forced labor was supposed to be built. This is a kind of analogue of “chemistry”, that is, the transfer of convicts to the jurisdiction of special commandant’s offices. “Chemistry” is an unofficial name for one of the types of parole or conditional release with mandatory involvement in work. The convicts were transported to the special commandant's office, where the prisoner was required to live in a special dormitory and work at the enterprise indicated to him. This type of punishment was abolished in the countries of the former USSR in 1992-1992.
However, the plans were never implemented.
Is the current pardon system good?
By the spring of 2018, Vladimir Putin instructed the regions to prepare proposals for improving the system and work of pardon commissions.
Albert Atamanenko says that one of the main proposals is to issue a law that would regulate the work of the commission.
— We are still working according to the decree. It does not clearly state to whom a pardon cannot be applied. It says “as a rule, cannot...”. How to approach this norm? To apply or not to apply? In Belarus, the pardon law clearly states which categories of criminals cannot be pardoned. But with us, anyone can submit a petition, even if he has been convicted at least twenty times. Clear regulation of such things would reduce the number of applicants and give time to more carefully consider the requests of those who really need leniency.
The commission members also have questions about the judicial system itself. Priest Andrei Mnatsaganov notes that often, when considering petitions, commission members see that the defendant’s guilt is doubtful. But once the verdict has already been passed, the commission has no powers.
— The imperfection of the laws, their streamlining leads to the fact that the law is twisted as they want. The system needs to be changed. People are sometimes driven to white heat, especially entrepreneurs. Many people take advantage of this: they see that it is a good company, they order it from the police, the police find violations, the businessman is taken to a pre-trial detention center, his company changes hands, and the person leaves with nothing. Or another case: a guy was sentenced to 17 years for rape and sexual activity against a minor. At the same time, the woman whom he allegedly raped in the elevator says: it’s not him. And the judge convinces her - you were just in shock. And when a crime was committed against a child, the defendant was in the hospital, and the judge says: he bought a certificate.
According to the priest, public control would help solve this problem.
“To improve the life of society, it is necessary to create public commissions so that they can be present at trials and during the investigation. Because sometimes a case is simply concocted, fabricated, and still goes to court. I met with the judges, and they told me: father, I see everything, but I can’t do anything, they’re putting pressure on me from above. And if there was such a commission, the judge could refer to it and save himself from pressure. I myself am present at courts, and in front of me the judge behaves completely differently. The commission could be present, She could listen, stand up and leave silently, and then write her resume.
If the president decides to pardon a person, an order is sent to the head of the region to provide assistance to the released person. And here all the ministries are already involved - for example, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Health. They should help with employment and, if necessary, with treatment.
Also, assistance to people released from places not so remote (not only those who were pardoned by the president) is provided by the Spas MOBO center on Shcherbakova, 97a. Priest Andrei Mnatsaganov says that there are several state social centers in the city, but those released do not go there; for them it is psychologically unacceptable. As a result, many don’t even have a place to stay overnight and find themselves in new troubles on the first night. MOBO “Spas” helps such people.
— The organization is engaged in accepting people who are leaving prison and giving them socialization. Provides them with housing and food. If a person is sick, a social worker takes him to the hospital to undergo a medical examination; if he is elderly, he is sent to a nursing home. We also have lawyers - a person can turn to both domestic and criminal issues while still in prison. In some cases, we were able to obtain parole.
People come to the center from all over Russia; work with many wards is carried out while still in the colony. Previously, Spas existed only on donations, but for two years now it has been winning a presidential grant. This year, 150 people passed through the center. And, according to Andrei Mnatsaganov, the relapse rate in the center is very low - only 20%, and 80% of the wards are able to return to normal life.
Pastoral hour on Orthodox Radio of St. Petersburg
with priest Roman Zelensky 10/9/11.
Presenter Elena Badyanova.
Subject of the program:
The Russian people are not the Regicide! He is the prodigal son!
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Dear brothers and sisters!
What common denominator can there be between people who hold completely different points of view? If some claim that the Russian people are allegedly guilty of the Regicide, while others firmly take the position that the Russian people are not guilty of this sin? In order to understand this sometimes complex controversy, it is necessary to turn with the Royal prayer of repentance to the Lord Himself and ask Him to judge us in such a difficult dispute.
The key point of this dispute lies in the desire to fully repent before the Lord. This is especially worrying now for many Russian believers, and sometimes even non-believers.
Brothers and sisters, I will not hide from you, I, as a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, have taken a clear position according to which I cannot accept these unfounded accusations against the Russian people, that they are to blame for the sin of Regicide, or, as these unreasonable accusers also claim, that the Russian the people are guilty of complicity in the Regicide.
All these absurd statements are also based on the accusation that we, supporters of the innocence of the Russian people in the murder of the Tsar, are also accused of preventing the true repentance of the Russian people. If the people do not repent of the Regicide, then this means, in their opinion, the Lord will not have mercy on Russia and will not give us His Anointed One. Agree, brothers and sisters, this is a serious accusation against us, and therefore it is simply necessary to answer these spiritual Kingslayers clearly and clearly what we think about their false position built on sand.
Now, just overburdened with his own sins, and even having taken upon himself the sin of others, the Russian man will fall off his feet spiritually and will not reach true repentance! This is what our enemies are striving for. This is called OVERLOAD, a Russian person simply does not have enough strength to bear the EKATERINBURG CRIME.
“It’s interesting,” say those who want to brand the Russian people in the Regicide, “in what case would you recognize the participation of the Russian people in the Regicide: if 1 Russian person, 2, 100 or a million participated in it? But the important thing is that no one knows for certain how this ritual crime was actually committed: with the participation of at least one Russian person or not, but it is known for certain that the Russian Royal Family was arrested, guarded, i.e. kept in captivity - Russians, got rid of the bodies of the Tsar's Martyrs - Russians, rejoiced at the overthrow of the Tsar - Russians, etc. Why don’t you explain your position to us, based on at least the simple example of a woman committing an abortion: she does not kill the child herself, but the so-called. doctor. But according to Church rules, she is a murderer. She agreed or did not prevent (if she was forced to do so) the murder of an innocent child and her sentence is one - murderer. And how does the Russian people differ from it in this case? In our firm opinion, nothing.”
If we talk about the arrest of the Royal Family, their detention in Tobolsk under guard, then this does not at all relate to the sin of Regicide. The Tsar himself clearly outlined this sin: “There is treason, cowardice and deception all around.” As for the burning of the bodies of the Tsar Redeemer and the Royal New Martyrs, the well-known spirit-bearing elder Father Nikolai of Pskovozersky answers this question to us:
“The sacrifice of Tsar Nicholas,” said the priest, “a complete co-crucifixion with Christ, a sacrifice for Holy Rus'.” It is necessary to comprehend the greatness of the Tsar’s Sacrifice; it is exceptional for the Russian Church.”
The great Elder of the Russian Land Nicholas constantly cried about this Sacrifice and begged for forgiveness, and the Lord revealed to Father that He had mercy on Russia, had already had mercy, and the Russian people were forgiven - for the Redemptive Golgotha of the Holy King... “The Holy King did not renounce, there is no sin of renunciation. He acted like a true Christian, a humble Anointed One of God. We need to bow down at His feet for His mercy towards us sinners. It was not He who denied, but He who was rejected.”
“The sword of a terrible war constantly hangs over Russia, and only the prayer of the Holy Tsar Nicholas averts the wrath of God from us. We must ask the Tsar so that there is no war. He loves and pities Russia. If you only knew how He cries for us there!”
The Blessed Elder spoke about what was seen through the eyes of a soul purified by suffering. The angelic world, the world of dark spirits, was clearly seen by his eye. It was unbearably painful to hear the Elder’s revelations about the bloody torment of the Royal Angels: he said: “Children were tortured in front of the speechless Holy Sufferers, the Royal Youth was especially tortured... The Queen did not utter a word. The Emperor turned white all over.” Father cried: “Lord! What did they do to them all! Worse than any torment! The angels could not mature! The angels wept over what they had done to Them! The earth wept and trembled... There was darkness... They tortured, chopped with terrible axes and burned, and drank the ashes... With tea... They drank and laughed... And they suffered themselves. The names of those who did this have not been revealed... We don’t know them... They did not love and do not love Russia, they have satanic malice... Damned Jews... After all, they drank the Holy Blood... They drank and They were afraid to be sanctified: after all, the Royal Blood is Holy... We must pray to the Holy Sufferer, cry, beg to forgive everyone... We don’t know their names... But the Lord knows everything!
Here, brothers and sisters, these are the words: whoever raised his hand against the Tsar, know that such a person entered into an agreement with the devil himself. Such will be separated from the Love of God in Eternity. This is the holy elder’s warning to everyone who wants to plead guilty to the Regicide. Wow, “repentance” (in quotes) – I repented and did not enter the Kingdom of God. There is something to think about.
It is also interesting, brothers and sisters, how supporters of such false repentance imagine the very picture of the Regicide of the Sovereign and the Royal Family. They directly compare the Russian people and the Jewish people, based on the Gospel Events. And the Russian people are called the Regicide, and the enemies of Christ are compared with those Roman soldiers who drove nails into the Honest Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is what one of the supporters of this worldview writes to me: “It’s also in our case. The Tsar and the Royal family were “crucified” by the Jews (Romans), and the Russian people are considered the Regicide, having betrayed the Anointed One of God to crucifixion. If you, Father Roman, think, "that the Jews are not guilty of the murder of Christ, then give arguments from the teachings of the Church and the Holy Fathers that would reject the guilt of the Jewish people in the Deicide. Only then why did the Lord punish the entire Jewish people, scattering them throughout the world, and not the Romans?"
This is what brothers and sisters, I answered, although of course I was immensely surprised by such a comparison of the enemies of the Lord with simple Roman soldiers simply performing their service: “So, of course, I don’t think the Jewish people were scattered, with the help of the same Romans, by to the whole world precisely for the sin of Deicide. Note that the Russian people were not scattered like the Jewish people. And the Lord saved the Russian people through Joseph Stalin from complete extermination by the enemies of God.
But that the fighters against Christ, according to your conviction based on the example of the Yekaterinburg Golgotha, are Romans, and the Russian people are Regicides, here I cannot agree with you. Well, think for yourself, how can Christ-haters be Romans, when, according to Father Nicholas of Pskovezersk, they killed not just the Tsar as a person, but again crucified the Image of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? Wow, SIMPLE ROMAN SOLDIERS... Can this even be compared? They planned their plan in advance and carefully selected the house for the execution of the Royal Family. And you say that they are just Roman soldiers, like an instrument of execution. Of course not.
What about the Russian people? Well, what kind of Kingslayer is he if he didn’t even stand nearby during the ritual slaughter. The Russian people were not present and did not watch this atrocity. Did any of the Russians shout that His Blood is on us and on our children? Believe me, this is a completely different story. There is no need to confuse the Russian people and the Jewish people.”
Think for yourself, did the prodigal son, according to the parable, kill his Father? No, he didn’t kill him, he just went to a far away country. And now the Russian people need to return to the Tsar Father. Because the Russian people became like this prodigal son.
And finally, the sin of the Russian people is clearly defined by the Sovereign Himself: TREASON, COWARDNESS AND DECEPTION ALL AROUND. Here is the Holy Man’s answer to what exactly the Russian people are to blame for.
But these arguments were not sufficient for lovers of false repentance. This is what they write to me:
“Dear Father Roman, weren’t the Russian people scattered throughout the world? Millions of Russians left Russia and scattered in exile. And this fact cannot be refuted.
The fact that the Jewish “Romans” crucified not just a human Tsar, but the image of Christ Himself, the Russian people are even more guilty of this. After all, read the same Saint John of Kronstadt, who warned about the invasion and dominance of the Jews in Rus'. This was noticed and warned about not only by clergy, the RUSSIAN aristocracy and intelligentsia, but also by ordinary Russian people. Or did the Russian people as a whole not know that the Jews are God-killers and enemies of the Church, the Tsar and Rus'?! Knew. He knew perfectly well, but he gave his King to be crucified.
And why did you, Father Roman, get the idea that the Russians did not stand at the crucifixion of the Holy Royal Martyrs?! In front of Pilate’s balcony, too, stood not all of Israel, not all of the Jewish people, but only a small part of it. But the whole people became God-killers.
The definition of sin always occurs after it has been committed. Therefore, at that time, the Emperor pointed out those sins that He witnessed - treason and cowardice and deceit.”
To these categorical statements of theirs, I responded with the following objections:
“If you mean emigration, then this is not the dispersion of the entire Russian people. Most remained to live where they were born and where their ancestors lived. Therefore, I do not agree with your arguments that the Russian people were scattered like the Jews.
And where did you get such an unreasonable term “Jewish Romans”? It's either one or the other. It turns out that by calling Christ-haters Romans, you justify them, since the executioner, as the murder weapon, is less guilty than the person who ordered the execution.
The Russian people, in your opinion, are the customer, and the perpetrator, like a murder weapon, are the enemies of Christ. This means that the Russian people are guilty, and those who fight Christ are either less guilty or not at all guilty, since they only carried out the order of the Russian people. This conclusion follows from your logic.
The fact that you gave the example of Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt proves once again that the Russian people are LIKE A CHILD. Yes, children do not always obey their parents, in this case the shepherds who are in the Spirit. So what of this? This is not a reason to blame the Russian people for the Regicide.
The Prodigal Son, like the Gospel example, which you reject because he does not fit into your false concept, also did not obey his Father, and neither did his elder brother.
But for the words that the Russian people KNEW EVERYTHING PERFECTLY, BUT SUDDEN THEIR KING TO BE CRUCIFIXED, you will answer before the Lord.
I wouldn't say this so categorically if I were you. Of course, there was the sin of betrayal, but none of the Russian people knew about the impending Golgotha in Yekaterinburg. It was a secret of lawlessness, and there were not many initiated into it.
Under Pontius Pilate, the entire Jewish people stood, since the day before there was a holiday, and the majority of the Jews were present in Jerusalem.
Your arguments are based on some unreliable sources that say one or two thugs, supposedly Russians, did something there with the bodies of the Royal Family and were supposedly still on guard somewhere. All this is a complete lie of our enemies, and you all believe in it.
The Lord revealed to our Holy Sovereign Nicholas II what sin the Russian people were guilty of. You say that He did not know this, although the Lord revealed a lot to him about the future of Russia through the Holy Pleasants of God (Reverend Seraphim of Sarov, for example). Yes, and He, being a Holy Pleasant, was constantly strengthened by the Holy Spirit abiding on Him.
The definition of sin always occurs after it has been committed, you write. But this is only a temporary argument. But the Lord abides in eternity. And what He reveals to His Saints, Tsar Nicholas the Redeemer, concerns not only the present, but also the future. You can't help but know this."
But, brothers and sisters, let us leave the polemics with anonymous people unknown to me.
Although, of course, the main thoughts taken from it will be useful for even deeper reflection on all this.
And now I would like to move on to some striking statements on this issue.Heads of the Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers Leonid Donatonovich Niksic, who writes and says the following:
“The Russian people really knew very little about the impending and completed Regicide. How little he knew about where and who was taking the Royal Family and on what routes. Where were they taken: to Perm? Tobolsk? Ekaterinburg? Alapaevsk? It was very difficult to understand in general what was happening in the country at this time. And not only where the Tsar and His Family were taken. There were rumors that they were saved, replaced, transferred to England, transported to the Caucasus, to Ukraine, that the scoundrels Socialist-Revolutionaries killed the Tsar, and the Bolsheviks tried and shot these Socialist-Revolutionaries for this, etc. and so on. In addition, the people believed that the Tsar had really abdicated the Throne; part of the people believed that the Tsarina was really working for Germany. millions of leaflets came from abroad, and illiterate men, reading them syllable by syllable, believed the printed word, just as the Russian People generally believe it ... "
This statement by Leonid Niksic, brothers and sisters, is fully consistent with the historical reality that existed at that time.
“The anonymous authors of the article (note, like the anonymous authors of the Rite of Repentance for the Sins of the Russian People, our opponents do everything - from beginning to end - anonymously and often resort to direct forgery) write to all of us: “Other arguments are also given, such as the opinions of the elders . With the blessing of THESE ELDERS, we turn to you, brothers and sisters.” What kind of “THEM” are these, anonymous gentlemen? Are you unknown yourself and are you relying on unknown people? You will clearly state their names. We are not afraid to write or speak openly.
Let's go further (on this article): “This question (about repentance for the sin of Regicide) seemsextremely important, since to lead a people away from repentance means to deprive them of salvation.”
Wow! We are withdrawing the people - the Russian People! - from repentance. Wait, wasn’t it Lenin who wrote this article, these are his words! Gentlemen unknown! Haven’t we said many times that the Russian people need to repent of Apostasy and Apostasy, of departing from the very foundations of Russian life - Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality? Do we need to repent of violating the 1613 oath of allegiance to the Romanov Family? Repent of betrayal, treason, cowardice, indecision?
Indeed, brothers and sisters, this is so. At least here it is at least clear what the Russian people are guilty of and one can conclude why they are suffering.
“There is a fierce debate in the Orthodox-monarchist movement on the issue of repentance of the Russian people. A certain author prepared “The Order of Conciliar Repentance for the Sins of the Russian People,” in which the entire Russian people is accused of the sin of Regicide.
Although it is obvious that the text of the Council’s repentance should be the subject of a long discussion at the Local Zemsky Council of the entire Russian people.
Such a discussion took place at several conferences, one way or another having the status of preparatory pre-conciliar meetings. The first such conference was held at the Russian Writers' Union several years ago. When voting, 90% of those present were categorically against the sin of Regicide. On October 1 last year, a conference under the characteristic title “Orthodoxy and Russia in the Light of the Apocalypse” was held at the Elbrus cinema. Almost all participants (with the exception of five or six people) spoke out for the need for Repentance for the Apostasy, but not for the Regicide. However, articles were published in the press, signed anonymously by all the “conference participants,” claiming that all those present were in favor of repentance for the sin of the Regicide. This is undoubtedly a direct forgery.
On October 8 last year, on the day of St. Sergius of Radonezh, banner bearers held a traditional religious procession in Sergiev Posad. We stood in front of the monument to the Reverend in a long line. It was beautiful. Big square. White wall of the Lavra with towers. Gold autumn. In the center there is a monument to St. Sergius, around it there is a platform, and on it there are two huge black banners, on the sides - the Savior ... and Tsar Ivan the Terrible with a sword, with a huge black braid at the corner, strewn with stars and crosses.
In the middle between the banners and in front of the monument is our large icon of the Holy Royal Martyrs, decorated with thuja and roses by the monks of the Svyatogorsk Lavra...
And on the other side, facing St. Sergius and the white wall, there is a long, entire square, line of Crosses, banners, banners, banners, and flags.
The power is great. If you put up such a line in Moscow, somewhere in a large space, the impression will be very strong...
I took two megaphones and started talking.
– Let our accusers answer one question: why is it that the Russian people themselves, when asked whether they killed the Tsar, always answer categorically: “No!”
You say: it is He who does not want to repent for the sins of his fathers! And we say that He understands with His gut, with all His Russian soul, that it was not He who killed the Tsar, that others killed the Tsar, that these others have been killing Himself for at least a century and a half. He understands, still vaguely, that the Tsar was not killed so easily, not only for the sake of destroying the Royal Family of the Romanovs, but precisely in order to kill the Russian people. Having killed the Tsar, the people beheaded (cut off) his Mystical, Sacred Head, and then began to destroy the body. For, in order for the power of the world elite, headed by the Moshiach-Antichrist, to be realized on earth, it was necessary not only to destroy the Russian Autocratic Monarchy, but also to destroy, disintegrate from within (replace) the Russian Orthodox Church.
First of all, it is necessary to destroy and exterminate (up to its complete disappearance) the God-Bearing People themselves - the RUSSIANS. For the church (as an organization) can be diluted, mutated, made obedient, entangled with power over the flock and power privileges in society, the monarchy can be made civilized and constitutional, again drawing the main Royal families of the world into the 500-600 main families ruling the world, mixing their blood with the blood of monarchical families, thus stealing the “Royal gene”. But one cannot completely mutate Holy Rus', which is by no means the same thing as the modern Orthodox Church. Holy Rus' is precisely and first of all the Russian Orthodox people themselves. Those same men and women who, in sincerity and simplicity of soul, when asked whether the Russian People are guilty of the Regicide, immediately answer: “No!”
We, the banner bearers, have been walking across Russia in a religious procession for ten years now. And everywhere we ask ordinary Russian people a short and clear question: “Are the Russian people guilty of the murder of the Tsar?” - and everywhere and always we get the same answer: “NOT GUILTY!”
Because the people themselves, with their united Russian spirit, sense the truth. And one day, on the platform of a stop in the Yaroslavl region, there was a completely amazing incident. We were waiting for the train. A gloomy-looking man stood nearby. We asked him something. He us. We started talking. Well, we, wanting to show sympathy for him, say: “You feel bad now, they robbed you, ordinary people...” And suddenly, out of the blue, he answers:
- Nothing. I stole it myself, I stole it myself. He lived as a wolf himself.
- What, did you live unjustly? – our Father asked him.
- Yes! “You need to confess,” the man said unexpectedly.
And right here on the platform, moving a little to the side, Father confessed to him. He covered it with an epitrachelion and absolved his sins...
Later, on the train, our Father suddenly said:
“He repented very sincerely of many sins. And I suddenly asked him: “Do you repent of the Regicide of Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov and His Family?” And he firmly answers: “No. I didn’t kill the Tsar!”
That's all. We receive this answer everywhere throughout the vast territory of the Russian Empire. This is what the simple Russian People, that is, Holy Rus' itself, thinks so. Simple, sinful and often even criminal. But she loves God like a child, with childish naivety. I'm not even talking about the hundreds of thousands of believers who go through processions of the Cross across Holy Rus', on the centenary of the glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Diveyevo and Sarov in 2003, on the 250th anniversary of the birth of St. Seraphim in Kursk, in the almost constantly lasting Cross during the Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Montenegro.
And everywhere we heard the same thing from ordinary people: “The Russian people did not kill the Tsar. They killed the Tsar...” - you know the rest. And we, banner bearers, believe and profess the same thing. Because we are part of our people, because we cannot think differently than Him. After all, it is well known that the voice of the People is the Voice of God. The voice of the common people. The one who is pure in heart. And therefore he will see - always sees - God. Our Lord God Jesus Christ.
No one is against repentance. But, firstly, repentance, the very concept of repentance, is understood in completely different ways. Some - as a kind of lamentation and lamentation of the entire Russian people and the subordination of their “spirit-bearing fathers”, and others - as an active action to liberate Russia and the Russian people from the power of the Grefs and Chubais, who are now striving at all costs to lead the Monarchist movement, for in order to prove to us that since the simple Russian people - that is, we ourselves - killed their Tsar, then we do not have the right to desire a new Tsar for ourselves, for what can the past Kingslayers understand about the issue of calling a new Tsar?!
Then, moving on to the question of Regicide and repentance, I showed that the entire article in the “Russian Bulletin”, all the statements of the Hierarchs of the Russian Church cited in it work for our point of view. Everyone except Ioann Maksimovich. Such as John Maksimovich, who, in order to somehow smooth out his guilt (since he, too, with all the higher clergy betrayed the Sovereign), being already in Yugoslavia, in 1938 demanded repentance from the entire Russian People... Of course, how about: there, in Royal Yugoslavia, surrounded by the same liberal White Guards, it was time to demand repentance from the Russian People, when this people was completely exterminated by the bloody Moloch of Bolshevism.
And it’s not clear how our opponents cite quotes that are directed against them as proof of their rightness? The Lord really took away their minds!”
I will stop at this interesting thought of Leonid Donatonovich Niksic, brothers and sisters. And I will try to read to you various authoritative statements that are given to us by supporters of the repentance of the Russian people for the sin of the Regicide.
They tell us that they rely on the opinions of the Holy Fathers, on the Holy Scriptures and other spiritual fathers of our time, and we (supporters of the innocence of the Russian people in the sin of the Regicide) rely solely on our own reasoning. Let's see, brothers and sisters, how true this accusation is based on their references.
Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, from the pulpit of the Kazan Cathedral on July 21 1918 ., on the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, said the following words:
“But we, to our sorrow and shame, have lived to see the time when obvious violation of God’s commandments is not only no longer recognized as a sin, but is also justified as legal. So, the other day a terrible thing happened: the former Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich was shot...We must, in obedience to the teaching of the Word of God, condemn this deed, otherwise the blood of the executed man will fall on us, and not only on those who committed it...
" This quote is taken from the bookRussia before the Second Coming.
Ed. 2nd. M., 1994, p. 197.
Patriarch Tikhon, having said that we must condemn the Regicide, does not at all call on the Russian people to repent of the Regicide. He simply asks to condemn this crime, otherwise the BLOOD OF THE PERSON WILL FALL ON US.
This means that there is still no BLOOD OF THE TSAR on the Russian people.
Because no, it would be strange to think that the Russian people could accept this heinous crime and not condemn it in their souls.
In fact, our opponents claim the opposite, that the Russian people are the Regicide and must repent of this sin.
But isn’t it obvious that it was after the words of Patriarch Tikhon that the Russian people condemned the murder of their Tsar? And for decades, different generations of the Russian people, comprehending what happened to Tsar Nicholas and the Royal Family, even those who succumbed to communist propaganda about “bloody Tsarism,” still could not accept with their hearts this terrible crime of all times and all peoples. Therefore, the very words of Patriarch Tikhon (Belavin) testify to the complete non-involvement of the Russian people in this terrible satanic business.
Prince N.D. Zhevakhov, comrade chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod of Tsarist Russia, while abroad, wrote in the article “Causes of the Death of Russia”: “The Tsar is above the law. The King is the Anointed One of God and as such embodies the Image of God on earth. And God is Love.
The King's kindness is His duty, His glory, His greatness. This is the halo of His Divine Anointing, this is a reflection of the rays of the Heavenly Glory of the All-Good Creator.
The kindness of the authorities subordinate to the Tsar is treason, theft, and crime. Whoever condemned the Tsar for His kindness did not understand the essence of the Tsar’s power; whoever demanded firmness, severity and severity from the Tsar, he dumped his own responsibilities on the Tsar and testified to his betrayal of the Tsar, his lack of understanding of his official duty and his unsuitability for either the Tsar, neither Russia...
Not a single Russian Tsar understood his Royal mission as deeply as the gracious Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich understood it...This misunderstanding by the Russian people of the nature of Autocracy and the essence of the Tsar’s service expressed the main crime of Russian thought, which fell into the Judeo-Masonic network and penetrated so deeply into its thickness that it has not been eliminated even to this day...
Another crime of the Russian people was expressed in a lack of understanding of Russia itself and its tasks... If there is no Tsar, there is no Russia, and the Russian State will inevitably leave the path prescribed by God...
And until the Russian people understand the mission of the Autocratic Russian Tsar, until they realize what the tasks of Autocracy and God’s anointing were and should be, and vow to God to help the Tsar in the implementation of these tasks, until then the Grace of God will not return to Russia, until then There will be no peace on earth for a time."
Book Zhevakhov N.D. Causes of the death of Russia.
"Novi Sad"
In these wonderful words of Prince Nikolai Zhevakhov, explaining the specific sin of the Russian people before God and His Anointed One, there is no accusation at all of the Russian people of Regicide.
This is clear to any sane person who carefully reads this quote, which for some reason was taken by our opponents as the basis for their unfair accusations
His Serene Highness does not blame the Russian people for the murder of the Tsar at all. He points to precisely the sin that actually occurs to this day. This is still the same sin of perjury, not understanding the nature of the Autocracy and the essence of the Tsarist Service and not understanding Russia itself, as he writes.
If there is no Tsar, there is no Russia, and the Russian State will inevitably leave the Path prescribed by God.
This example with Zhevakhov serves us as a reliable and compelling argument in favor of God’s Truth about what we really should repent of. To repent means to change your consciousness in relation to the God-established Royal Power.
Thus, brothers and sisters, John Maksimovich alone took on the role of judge and confidently accuses the Russian people of the Regicide:
From the speech of Bishop. John (Maksimovich) at the All-Diaspora Council of Bishops in 1938:
« The Russian people as a whole committed great sins that were the cause of real disasters, namely: perjury and Regicide. The public and military leaders refused obedience and loyalty to the Tsar even before his abdication, forcing the latter from the Tsar, who did not want internal bloodshed, and the people clearly and noisily welcomed what had happened, without loudly expressing their disagreement with it anywhere.Meanwhile, here a violation of the oath taken to the Sovereign and His legal Heirs was committed, and in addition, the oaths of the ancestors - the Zemsky Council of 1613, which sealed its decrees with a curse for those who violated them, fell on the head of those who committed this crime. It is not just the physical perpetrators who are guilty of the sin of Regicide, but the entire people, who rejoiced on the occasion of the overthrow of the Tsar and allowed him to be humiliated, arrested and exiled, leaving him defenseless in the hands of criminals, which in itself predetermined the end. Thus, the disaster that befell Russia is a direct consequence of grave sins, and its revival is possible only after cleansing from them.However, there is still no real repentance, the crimes committed are clearly not condemned, and many active participants in the revolution now continue to argue that it was impossible to do otherwise then. Without expressing a direct condemnation of the February revolution, the uprising against the Anointed One, the Russian people continue to participate in sin, especially when they defend the fruits of the revolution.”
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose). Blessed John the Wonderworker. M., 2003, p. 836.
In his sermons, Saint John (Maksimovich) more than once pointed out the grave sin weighing on the Russian people:
“It is a great sin to raise a hand against the Anointed of God; not even the slightest involvement in such a sin remains unavenged... Let us remember that this atrocity was committed on the day of remembrance of the creator of the Great Canon, St. Andrew of Crete, calling us to repentance. A deep consciousness of the sinfulness of what we have done and repentance before the memory of the Tsar-Martyr is required of us by God’s truth.But our repentance must be without any self-justification, without reservations, with condemnation of ourselves and the entire evil deed from the very beginning.
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose). Blessed John the Wonderworker. M., 2003, p. 856 - 857.
In “A Sermon on the Martyr King” (1960), Saint John, whose death in 1966 occurred on the day of remembrance of St. Job, Patriarch of Moscow (June 19 / July 2), who accepted repentance from the Russian people in 1607, says:
«
That sin lies on everyone until it is washed away by sincere repentance...
In one day, the greatness and glory of the Russian Power, the stronghold of peace throughout the world, collapsed. The signature of the Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich on the act of abdication of the Throne is the historical boundary separating the great and glorious past of Russia from its dark and painful situation now... What happened on that day?..The retreat of the people from the Anointed of God, the retreat from power submissive to God, the retreat from the oath of allegiance given before God to the Sovereign, the Anointed of God, and his delivery to death.
The one who gave all his strength in the Name of God to serve Russia is deprived of power, and then of freedom.
Before us, before the Russian people, the path of uprising is the path of consciousness of sin and repentance. For the revival of Russia, all political and programmatic unifications are in vain: Russia needs a moral renewal of the Russian people.”
Alferev E.E. Letters of the Holy Royal Martyrs from Imprisonment. Jordanville, 1983, p. 438, 440.
These are such loud quotes, brothers and sisters, although in them the Truth is mixed with lies about the guilt of the Russian people in the murder of their Tsar.
It's like putting a fly in the ointment in a barrel of honey. This kind of honey is simply impossible to eat.
These words were spoken by a man whom the Russian Church Abroad glorified as a saint, which is why all today’s false repentants love to refer to him.
Alas, archbishop. John was mistaken in his extreme regicidal conclusion. And not only in this he was mistaken, let us take at least his completely unfair words addressed to God’s Anointed Holy Blessed Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, taken from his literarywork "The Origin of the Law on Succession to the Throne in Russia".
Let me briefly read, brothers and sisters, his erroneous opinion, which he apparently formed after reading Karamzin, and therefore other slanderers of the Tsar. Here's what he writes:
“Seeing treason and conspiracy everywhere with his sick imagination, John began terrible executions, thinking that by doing this He was fulfilling the sacred duty of the Royal service entrusted to Him by God: to give improvement to His land, cleansing the state of evil people.
In search of treason, the Tsar devastated entire cities (Novgorod). No one could be sure that tomorrow the Royal wrath would not befall him. In 1569, the Tsar’s cousin, Prince Vladimir Andreevich, and his family, and the widow of Yuri’s brother, Princess Juliana, died. The state was divided into the oprichnina - the Tsar's region itself, inhabited by especially loyal, as it seemed to Him, oprichniki servants, and the zemshchina - the rest of the State, governed by the usual order, through the boyars. The guardsmen robbed the zemshchina, slandered the Tsar and carried out reprisals, sometimes with extraordinary cruelty. It happened that John himself carried out the execution.
In 1581, Ivan the Terrible, in a fit of anger, killed Tsarevich Ivan, leaving no offspring. Theodore became the heir. John did not consider Him capable of holding the scepter firmly, since Theodore was more inclined to wear the monastic robe “than the Royal purple.” “You should be a bell ringer, Fedya, and not a Tsar,” Tsar John used to tell him.”
Draw your own conclusions, brothers and sisters, whether to believe or not to believe the archbishop. John of San Francisco.
“Holy Elder Nikolai Pskovozersky said thatTsar Ivan the Terribledidn't kill his son - Tsarevich John,And never didn't allow even a thoughtabout the murder of Saint Philip and Venerable Cornelius : “It is impossible to even think, let alone say, that King John killed the Saints and his son! He didn't kill!This diabolical lie!“Father claimed that church chronicles testify to this, and the Church knows about this, since Tsar the Terrible was a revered local Saint already in the 17th century. The elder also said that the relics of both Saints and his son testify to the truth - the innocence of the Tsar.” (Elder Nicholas - Royal Bishop. Page 197 “If you hear that someone is blaspheming Tsar John, immediately ask the Lord to forgive this person. He could face a terrible punishment! He could die without repentance! God forbid from this! ”
Here is another quote that our opponents use to prove they are right:
“In 1934, the book “Russian Ideology” by Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) was published in Bulgaria. Based on the patristic teachings, the archpastor says that the entire people as a whole need to repent of their rebellion against the authority of the Anointed of God and through this return to the humble and grace-filled faith of our ancestors:
“This humble faith will be a saving asset for us and for Russia only if we embark on the path of the first expression of humility, i.e.on the path of repentance for our sins, especially our most serious sin, of which all Russian people are actively or passively guilty, - in the sin of rebellion against the Autocratic Power of our Tsar - the Anointed of God. This sin is so grave for us because it entails the loss of conscience by the Russian people, their removal from the Church - its faith, teaching and grace. It is the culmination or fruit of those various religious and moral grave crimes that were committed by Russian people for many, many years.”
Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev). Russian ideology.
M., “Lestvitsa”, 2000, p. 82–83.
In the next work “On the true Monarchical worldview” ( 1941 .) Archbishop Seraphim again focuses on the need for repentance:
“...Showing the essence of the work of Christ, clarifying the mission of the Church and the need, according to Her requirements, to have the True Faith, which our ancestors had, we say that this Faith requires of usrepentance for the grave sin of rebellion against the Autocratic Anointed Tsar ».
Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev). Russian idea.
Archbishop Seraphim writes clearly that we must repent of the grave sin of rebellion, and not the sin of Regicide. This is obvious, brothers and sisters.
It is not at all clear why there is a reference to him when they are trying to accuse the Russian people of murdering the Anointed One.
This sin is a consequence of the apostasy of the Russian people from the Orthodox Faith, from the Church and from conscience.”
These are absolutely exact words. “Is this why they want to divert us, distance us from repentance for this main and genuine sin, the sin of rebellion against the Autocracy, so that in the era of anti-Christ globalization we can come to terms with a cosmopolitan republic and the prevailing anti-monarchical “consciousness of justice”,” Leonid Donatonovich Niksic makes an interesting conclusion.
And so, in essence, they are, brothers and sisters. We are led away from true repentance when we are asked to repent of something we simply could not do.
So the words of schemamonk Nikodim (Karulsky) are used for their own unrighteous purposes:
“For the Russian people, for their liberation from satanic power, prayers alone are not enough, even the most zealous ones,”national repentance is required
with a deep consciousness of the great and grave sin - rejection of God's power over oneself in the person of the Anointed One.
Let's open up the Bible and see how God controlled people. An angel and a man sinned before God - God sent the first angel to hell without mercy to eternal torment, but He left His mercy to man, sent him to earth to repent and promised a return to Paradise if he kept God’s laws and commandments.
From that time on, God began to rule with His power the people who believed in Him, and ruled from Adam continuously until Nicholas II, the Emperor, the Anointed of God: first through the patriarchs from Adam to Abraham and other patriarchs inclusive, then by the prophets - from Moses to Samuel, and from David to Nicholas II, the Emperor, through the Grace of Anointing in Kings...
In our evil times, people, having lost faith in God’s Providence, asked for freedom, and rejected God’s authority in the person of God’s Anointed.
They rejected the Royal Power, gave themselves up to kill the Tsar, freed themselves from the Divine Power - and fell under satanic power.
Oh! What a grave sin this is!.. And all Russian people sinned in it, some in deed, some in word, and some in thought, desire and consent. For this great sin, the whole world suffers, and the Russian people suffer more than anyone else.
According to the truth of God, “to whom much is given, much is required.”
People free from direct satanic power should be charged with universal repentance.If these people do not see the need for such repentance, then they impose great guilt on themselves for sin against the Anointed One...
»
"Orthodox Rus'", No. 14 for 1953, p. 10
Schemamonk Nicodemus said that they were given to kill the king. And from these words our opponents conclude that it was the Russian people who killed the Tsar? Well, it’s clearly stated that he DIDN’T KILL, but GAVE IT TO KILL. There is a completely different meaning here: THEY WERE GIVEN TO KILL, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD BETRAYED INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMIES. The name of this sin is BETRAYAL, and NOT REGICIDE.
Here is the personal opinion of the archbishop. Averky (Taushev) is used for Regicide proof:
“It is little consolation for us that the direct murder of the Royal Family was committed by non-Russian hands - the hands of non-Orthodox and non-Russian people. Although this is true, butthe entire Russian people are guilty of this terrible, unparalleled atrocity, since they did not resist or prevent it , but behaved in such a way that this atrocity was an expression of the mood that by this time had matured in the minds and hearts of the undoubted majority of the unfortunate lost Russian people...The entire Russian people bears the guilt for this grave sin committed on Russian soil ».
Archbishop Averky (Taushev). Modernity in the light of the word of God. Words and speeches. T. III, Jordanville, 1975, p. 298.
Let us note that Archbishop. Averky here is forced to admit that the Regicide was committed by non-Russian hands. This is a very important testimony for us. He writes that this is little consolation for us. And we are to blame because we did not resist and did not prevent this atrocity. That is, they actually accuse the Holy Apostles of not preventing the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Apparently, according to Averky Taushev, the Lord’s disciples had to take Him with weapons in their hands from the tenacious hands of Annas and Caiaphas.
Let us not forget, brothers and sisters, to also emphasize that our Holy Tsar Nicholas Himself consciously embarked on the Redemptive Feat for the sake of all His subjects. Therefore, at that moment no one could stop Him from doing this. Any attempt to save Him would not have failed, for this was God’s Providence for His Anointed One.
It was necessary to protect the Tsar while He was on the Throne, and after the Descension from it, after the self-deprecation of the Sovereign for the sake of saving the Russian people and Russia, any armed attempt to save the Emperor no longer worked. So there is no point in blaming the Russian people for not saving their Tsar.
Likewise, the Apostles can be called accomplices in the Deicide only because they did not prevent and did not oppose the opponents of Christ. They can also be accused of silence and inaction when the Savior was crucified.
Here is another quote, another one, essentially pulled in by our opponents with great effort, supposedly an authority.
Bishop Nektary (Kontsevich), disciple of the Venerable Elder Nektary of Optina, (as it is loudly said). As a child, he lived in Ukraine, and repeatedly visited the Optina Hermitage with his mother, where he was cared for by Elder Nektary of Optina. He pointed out:
« The mortal sin of Regicide weighs heavily on the entire Russian people, and therefore, to one degree or another, on each of us. ».
Yearbook "Orthodox Way". Jordanville, 1985, p. 45.
During World War II he lived in Kyiv and was the spiritual child of Fr. Adrian Rymarenko, was part of the community he led.
Before the entry of the Red Army into Kyiv in 1943, he left for the West, and after the war he emigrated to the USA. He accepted monasticism.
Since March 11, 1962 - Bishop of Seattle, vicar of the Western American Diocese.
He was the closest collaborator of Archbishop John (Maksimovich), supported him during his trial in 1963 . He ruled the Diocese of San Francisco for several years.
As you can see, again everything comes down to one figure of John (Maximovich), whose impudent opinion about Tsar John 4, you have already heard.
And how should the bishop understand this? Nektary, his words that the sin of Regicide weighs on the entire Russian people to one degree or another? So the severity of sin is already measured in mathematical units - degrees? One means the Kingslayer by a quarter, the other by two quarters, and the third by half, but the fourth is already completely? To be honest, this Kontsevich has a very strange opinion.
Well, and finally, the opinion of Vladyka John (Snychev) is also used by guardians about false repentance for their own purposes.
Metropolitan John writes:
Actually, Regicide in the spiritual understanding is a rebellion against God, a challenge to His Providence, an atheistic impulse of satanic, dark forces...
Willingly or involuntarily, consciously or unconsciously, the entire people participates in the Regicide, if only by allowing it, without trying to atone for the terrible sin of denial of God by repentance and correction.
And only then, plunged into the abyss of disorder and rebellion, in suffering and sorrow, he finally realizes his mistake. At the beginning of the 17th century, this took eight years. In the twentieth century, the eighth decade of unrest is already coming to an end...
The turmoil of the early 17th century gives us a textbook example of how popular unrest and rebellion, overshadowed by the Regicide, almost plunged the country into final and complete ruin, putting it on the brink of death and foreign enslavement. Then consciouscathedral repentance together with the conciliar action to recreate the sovereign foundations of Russia, they literally revived it from the ashes, giving the State for three centuries a strength and greatness that, it seemed, weakened Rus' could not even dream of. Numerous historical, spiritual, moral and religious parallels that arise when considering those ancient events can clarify a lot for us in the current problems of the country...”
Metropolitan John (Snychev). Cathedral Rus'. St. Petersburg, “Tsarskoe Delo”, 1995, pp. 38 - 41.
By Regicide, Vladyka John understands a rebellion against God, a challenge to His Providence, a God-fighting impulse of satanic, dark forces. In fact, he blames dark forces for the Regicide. This is clear from his words.
Where is there a direct accusation of the Russian people in the actual Regicide? No, on the contrary, the Master emphasizes that this is not the sin of Regicide, but the sin of Rejection of God, otherwise the sin of TREASON.
Yes, also, brothers and sisters, our opponents cited a quote from Archimandrite Konstantin (Zaitsev) But now I don’t have time to read it out. One thing I can say is that he, like Prince Zhevakhov, does not blame the Russian people for the Regicide at all. This is just our man!
And in conclusion, I would like to add only one thing, that as the Word of God teaches us: ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH, BE IT DONE FOR YOU. If you, supporters of false repentance, believe that you are accomplices in the murder of the Tsar and the Royal Family, then that is what you are. Such false repentance will not help you whiten yourself, but you have actually voluntarily already taken upon yourself the BLOOD OF THE HOLY KING.
Did you want to brand the entire Russian people for Regicide? Truly, you FAILED. As the proverb says: DON’T DIG A HOLE FOR OTHERS, YOU WILL FALL INTO IT YOURSELF.
If taking upon yourself this BLOODY CRIMINALITY, ABOUT WHICH THE HEAVENS CRY, is your faith and your imaginary repentance, then of course this is your will, but not mine and not the will of the overwhelming majority of the Russian people. And not just the overwhelming majority, but all of our long-suffering people, who, like the prodigal son, begin to return to their Father.
WHO ARE YOU, RUSSIAN PEOPLE? PRODIGAL SON OR KINGKILLER? WHATEVER PATH YOU DETERMINE FOR YOURSELF IS WHATEVER YOU WILL FOLLOW. WHO YOU KNOW YOURSELF IS, IS WHAT YOU WILL ACT,
“Do you hear, Russian People, the breath of the Holy Spirit?! You are not guilty! The blood of the King and His Family is not on You,” he exclaims from the bottom of his heart. head of the ORTHODOX PLANNAL BEARERS.
Holy Tsar Nicholas the Redeemer and
Holy Royal New Martyrs - pray to God for us!
Amen.
Public opinion polls and the entire popular movement speak about this. The Russian people are ready to look for the Tsar today both in Vladimir Putin, and in the descendants of the Royal Family of the Romanovs, and among the descendants of Grand Duke Rurik of Novgorod. The Russian people are waiting for the Tsar.
We are waiting for the Chosen One of GOD, like the Holy King and Prophet David, and not the people’s chosen one like King Saul. Saint Theophan of Poltava and many ascetics prophesied about the coming Russian Orthodox Tsar.
“The Monarchy and Autocratic power will be restored in Russia. The Lord has chosen the future King. This will be a man of fiery faith, a brilliant mind and an iron will... God Himself will place a strong King on the Throne.”
Who is the Tsar for the Russian people? And why in the depths of the people’s soul and in the depths of the heart of every truly Russian person is there such a thirst for the Tsar of the earth? As is known, from the very beginning of human history - the Tsar, the royal family meant the eldest over the people, the eldest in flesh and blood. That is, both the eldest in the family (that is, the eldest son from the eldest son), and the eldest in spirit, as, for example, the Lord revealed King David, the eighth son of Jesse - by no means the eldest by blood, but invisibly anointed by the Lord from his mother’s womb to reign over Israel, the people of God, because David loved God and glorified Him from his heart with his psalm songs, sung to the accompaniment of a golden-stringed harp psalter.
In those “last” times, when the world was already perishing in pagan depravity and suicidal pride, the Jews were waiting for the King of the earth, the King over Israel, as their Messiah, the Savior of the world! But the Messiah - Jesus Christ came to earth not as the Jews expected him: not in the form of an earthly King, not in the form of a strong King in the flesh, but in the form of a spiritual King of Israel. Although, undoubtedly, Jesus Christ is the King of Kings both in heaven and on earth, and His Kingdom possesses everyone.
The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, created by our Lord Jesus Christ and moved by the Holy Spirit, another hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, in just three centuries transformed the universal Roman Empire into the Christian Kingdom, and the Equal-to-the-Apostles King Constantine became the “Restrainer” about whom the Apostle speaks Paul in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians (For the mystery of iniquity is already in action, only it will not be completed until the One who now Holds is taken from the environment 2:7), became the Orthodox Emperor over the entire Roman ecumene. And over the next 1150 years, under the leadership of the Roman Emperors, the Orthodox faith, the Orthodox ecumene, flourished and multiplied. But after the renunciation of Orthodoxy at the Ferraro-Florentine Council of almost all the bishops of Rome and the Emperor John Palaiologos VIII, after the conclusion of a union with the Catholics, the Orthodox Roman Emperors soon disappeared into history. And instead of them, in the 16th century, in the place of the Holder, the Lord placed the faithful - the Russian people, led by the Tsar - the Anointed of God, the first Russian Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible.
The mercy of the Lord descended on us for the faithfulness of our ancestors to the Orthodox faith, for the fact that Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich expelled Metropolitan Isidore, a Greek who signed the Ferraro-Florentine Union, from the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin in 1439 and preserved the purity of the Russian Orthodox Church. And so the small Grand Duchy of Vladimir-Moscow in just three centuries turned into a great powerful Orthodox Power, the Russian Empire. According to Orthodox teaching, the Orthodox Emperor, the Orthodox Tsar is a living icon of the Heavenly King, our Lord Jesus Christ. And just as the Lord is our heavenly Father, so the Russian Tsar is our earthly father. Alas, it is difficult for us, who now live in the cities and villages of Russia - in Great Russia, Little Russia and Belarus, to understand and realize what it means to live in the Russian Empire, what it means to be a servant of the Emperor and a servant of God. We must add all “equality”, all “freedoms” to being servants of God - our Lord Jesus Christ and associates and subjects of the Orthodox King of the earth. This is happiness for any Russian.
It is difficult for us living today to realize this, but try! Imagine that we are members of a large patriarchal family, and there is a father who takes care of all family members, pays this or that attention to all of them, you can seek protection from him, you can seek advice from him, you can seek justice from him, which is always above the law. He is merciful and he cares about his family. This is how the Russian Tsars were, and now the Russian people have no earthly father, no earthly protector, no earthly icon of the Heavenly King, and this is God’s punishment for the sin of perjury to Tsar-Martyr Nicholas and Tsarevich Alexei, heir to the throne. Every man in the Russian Empire took an oath of allegiance to the Emperor for himself and his family; military and spiritual officials took a special oath to the Emperor. Most of the people closest to Tsar Martyr Nicholas - the highest military, state and spiritual officials - disgustingly and vilely betrayed him in February 1917, and as a result, they handed him over to be torn to pieces by the Gentiles, and allowed the ritual murder of the Emperor and the entire Royal Family, which took place on the night of July 17 (new style) in 1918. In one way or another, not only the highest Russian officials were involved in this connivance. And you and I, now living, are the physical and spiritual heirs of our ancestors who committed this sin, which is akin to the sin of condoning parricide. Whatever we do, no matter how much we turn away from the obvious facts, the sin of conniving at the Regicide lies with us, our people.
Think about it, Emperor Nicholas II, who did nothing wrong for the Russian people, could not be accused or condemned of anything real even by his most arrogant opponents - the infidels, masons and Bolsheviks who came to power in 1917.
The Royal Family was imprisoned for a long 16.5 months. And so 150 million subjects (more than 120 million Russians) could not find any worthy forces to free the Tsar and the entire Royal Family, to save from execution the innocent Tsar, Tsarina, Tsarevich youth Alexei, Princesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia. For no reason, for no fault, but only because they served as an obstacle to the ruin, plunder, and strangulation of Russia and the Russian Orthodox people, they were subjected to torture and death. The overwhelming majority of their killers did not even know the Russian language and were not Russian people, which is already common knowledge. But they acted in the Russian environment - in the Russian city of Petrograd, in the Russian city of Tobolsk, in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.
The Tsar forgave us all - those who were directly guilty, those who were indirectly guilty, and those who were almost innocent. He did not renounce us, his service as an Orthodox Tsar, but he also did not cling to power and did not consider it necessary to drown the country in the blood of civil war in order to preserve personal power. He measured all his actions against serving God. And seeing that the people did not want to serve Him, he prayed for this people, for our ancestors, who - some through silence and inaction, and some through actions - broke their oath and betrayed the Sovereign. The Emperor was blocked, actually arrested, first in Pskov and Mogilev, then He and His Family languished under arrest, first in Tsarskaya Selo near Petrograd. Our ancestors had to flock from all over the country, interrupt this illegal arrest, pray to the Emperor to return to the Throne, take his father’s place and rule us again.
But our people, out of stupidity and greed, succumbed to false promises of freedom, equality, brotherhood, more satisfying bread, new orders that will give happiness to humanity, wanted to exchange heavenly riches for earthly riches... and lost them all.
The carnage of the Civil War claimed tens of times more lives than the First World War. Mass hunger and devastation instead of food and prosperity, the ruin of industry and agriculture for many decades, the occupation of territory by enemies of the Russian people - these are the fruits of perjury.
The Lord is merciful, and the holy Royal martyrs pray for us sinners. They, the only ones innocent of the sin of perjury, pray to the Lord God to forgive Russia.
It has been 22 years since the fall of the atheistic government began, which to us who lived in the Soviet Union seemed eternal and unshakable. Already in many cities, idols - statues of the ghoul Lenin - are being toppled from their pedestals. Now Patriarch Ermogen in bronze from the Kremlin walls appeals to the Russian people, as in 1612, to protect the Kremlin from foreign invasion, from the occupying power.
So let us pray to the Lord to have mercy on the Russian country and accept our repentance for the sin of perjury and connivance in the murder of the Royal Family.
Pray to God for us, Holy Royal Martyrs - Holy Tsar-Martyr Nicholas, Holy Queen-Martyr Alexandra, Holy Tsarevich-Martyr Alexei, Holy Princess-Martyrs Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia!
Vasily Boyko-Veliky
Who did the Russian rulers pardon?
Shuisky
Perhaps the most unique case in the history of pardons is that of Vasily Shuisky. Not only was he pardoned, but he later became king. During the reign of False Dmitry I, Shuisky actively spread the word that “the tsar is not real.” For this he was sentenced to death. June 25, 1605 was set for the execution of the sentence. Shuisky was taken to the scaffold, a fairy tale or an announcement of guilt had already been read to him, he had already said goodbye to the people, declaring that he was dying for the truth, for the faith and the Christian people, when a messenger rode up announcing a pardon. The execution was replaced by exile to the Galician suburbs; the entire Shuisky estate was taken away to the treasury.
Novikov
Nikolai Novikov was the most prominent representative of the culture of his time, a journalist, writer, and publisher. With his active work, Novikov was not convenient for everyone, including Catherine II herself. A thunderstorm began to gather over him, Novikov was accused of a “vile schism,” of selfish deception, of Masonic activity, of relations with the Duke of Brunswick and other foreigners.
Emperor Paul I pardoned Novikov on the very first day of his reign. Novikov was imprisoned in the fortress while his strength and energy were still fully developed, and he came out “decrepit, old, bent.” He was forced to abandon all public activities and until his death on July 31 (August 12, 1818) he lived almost continuously in his Avdotyino. Novikov's estate was put up for auction
Radishchev
Alexander Radishchev was pardoned twice. Convicted and exiled by Catherine II, he was first pardoned by Paul the First, but not completely pardoned - he was ordered to live in the Kaluga province. Radishchev was finally released by Alexander the First. The disgraced writer was summoned to St. Petersburg and appointed a member of the commission to draw up laws. He neither worked nor lived for long. According to rumors, he persistently continued to talk about the equality of all before the law, but he was not heard, and those who heard reminded him of Siberia. Radishchev drank poison.
Decembrists
Alexander II, in honor of his coronation in 1856, pardoned the Decembrists. This was an unprecedented step in Russian history: mercy was shown to those who wanted to overthrow the regime and the tsar. For Alexander II himself, such liberalism ultimately backfired. In addition to the Decembrists, he pardoned the Petrashevites and participants in the Polish uprising. The emperor died in 1881 at the hands of “revolutionaries.”
Ulyanov
Alexander Ulyanov, a Narodnaya Volya member, the elder brother of Vladimir Ulyanov, was one of the organizers of the assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander III. After his arrest he was kept in prison. His mother wrote petitions for pardon to the emperor and Alexander III even signed the petition (taking into account the merits of Ilya Ulyanov), but the prisoner himself refused the pardon. He compared his relationship with the emperor to a duel and said that it was not appropriate to deny the right to fire to an opponent. Alexander was hanged, and his brother did not forget this.
Korolev
Sergei Korolev was accused of sabotage in 1938. Moreover, he was in the first category, that is, he was on the execution list. Korolev “passed through Kolyma”, and after that he worked in Tupolev’s “sharashka”, took an active part in the creation of the Pe-2 and Tu-2 bombers and at the same time proactively developed projects for a guided aerial torpedo and a new version of a missile interceptor, and worked in a prison-type design bureau.
