There is an amazing connection between house number 3 on Zabelin Street, the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow and the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, on the slope of the Mount of Olives in Gethsemane, a small Orthodox church, its domes shine brightly in the Middle Eastern sun among the greenery of the Gardens of Gethsemane.
This is the Church of Mary Magdalene, consecrated in 1888 in honor of the Russian Empress Maria Alexandrovna, born Princess of Hesse, who died in 1880.
The temple was built by the Russian Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS), founded in 1882, for which a piece of land was bought. The first chairman of the society was Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, son of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna.
Today, the IOPS has been recreated and registered in Moscow at No. 3 on Zabelin Street.
The society was created to popularize Orthodoxy in the countries of the Middle East and organize Orthodox pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
Schools were established in Palestine, Syria, and Libya, in which, along with general subjects, the Russian language was taught.
Compounds were opened to receive pilgrims, where you could get one free lunch, leave your belongings in a storage room. Hospitals and shops with cheaper products and souvenirs than in the city worked at the farmsteads.
Pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land by sea from Odessa to Jaffa, and a ticket for a steamboat cost forty percent cheaper than for ordinary passengers.
The consecration of the Church of Mary Magdalene was attended by the Grand Dukes, members of the imperial family, including the wife of Sergei Alexandrovich, Elizaveta Feodorovna, as well as his mother, the Hessian princess. At the solemn ceremony, she bequeathed to bury her in this particular temple.
After the death of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Governor General of Moscow, at the hands of the terrorist Kalyaev in 1905, his wife Elizaveta Feodorovna became the chairman of the Imperial Society.
In 1909, at her own expense, having sold valuables and jewelry, Elizaveta Fyodorovna founded a monastery in Moscow on Bolshaya Ordynka, and she also became its abbess. Elizaveta Feodorovna devoted her life to mercy and the cause of helping the destitute. The church at the hospital opened in the monastery was consecrated in honor of the myrrh-bearing wives Martha and Mary.
In addition to the hospital, the monastery had a school and a free canteen for the poor.
During the First World War, a hospital was organized in the Marfo - Mariinsky Convent.
In 1912, the Church of the Intercession was built in the monastery. Holy Mother of God according to the project of A.V. Shchusev.
In 1917, the abbess of the monastery was threatened with reprisal because of her German origin, her good deeds were not taken into account. She repeatedly received offers from the British government to leave the country. Elizabeth Feodorovna was the granddaughter of the British Queen, but she rejected all proposals, deciding to share the fate of her new homeland.
In 1918, Elizaveta Feodorovna was arrested and taken with other members of the imperial family to Alapaevsk. There, the arrested were executed, thrown alive into an abandoned mine.
The White Guards lifted the bodies of the dead from the mine and took them to China. In 1921, following the will of the Grand Duchess, her remains were transported to Jerusalem and buried in the Church of Mary Magdalene.
Currently, there is an Orthodox women's monastery in Gethsemane, founded in 1934.
The Marfo-Mariinsky monastery was closed during the Soviet period, a club and a cinema were opened in the Intercession Church, and a sculpture of Stalin was installed in the altar.
Currently, the monastery has been revived, services have been resumed in the temple.
In 1992, Elizaveta Feodorovna was canonized as a holy martyr.
The modern IOPS, with the help of the Russian and Israeli governments, is trying to return the farmsteads in Jerusalem, and this activity is bringing encouraging results.
Propaganda of Orthodoxy in the Holy Land continues.
Yuri Trifonov
, I. L. Goremykin, B. V. Stürmer) and chief prosecutors of the Holy Governing Synod (K. P. Pobedonostsev, P. P. Izvolsky, V. K. Sabler), clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church (St. Tikhon Patriarch of Moscow, St. Nicholas of Japan, St. Vladimir Metropolitan of Kiev, St. Right John of Kronstadt, Bishop Porfiry (Uspensky), Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin), Metropolitan Arseniy (Stadnitsky) and others.
Through the efforts of the IOPS, the Middle East created its own school system, which by 1914 consisted of more than 100 schools and two teachers' seminaries. The development of the school system in the Middle East was also facilitated by the Consul General in Jerusalem, State Councilor Alexei Fedorovich Kruglov. The IOPS schools resisted the dissolution of local Orthodox communities in the surrounding mass of the heterodox and non-Orthodox population. They taught children mainly from Orthodox families, including the poorest, because education was free. The first elementary school was opened already in the year of the foundation of the Society in the village of Mujedil on December 6, 1882, and a little later, in 1882-1884, three more elementary schools were opened in Galilee, a male boarding school, later transformed into a male teacher's seminary in Nazareth. For many years, Alexander Gavrilovich Kezma was the head of the network of Galilean educational institutions of the IOPS. The Society's schools experienced competition from Catholic and Protestant institutions, as well as opposition from the Patriarchs of Jerusalem. Starting in 1895, new schools were opened mainly in Syria, on the territory of the Patriarchate of Antioch. The teachers in the schools were secular, and in the early years some of them were invited from Russia or were educated in Russia. Later, two teachers' seminaries were established for the training of local teachers, a men's seminary in Nazareth and a women's seminary in Beit Jal (see Women's Teacher's Seminary), in which students received full board. The elementary schools taught the Law of God, Arabic, arithmetic, geography, history and handicrafts. In addition, Russian was taught in many schools, and the best students continued their education in Russia. The necessary textbooks were compiled and printed on their own, mainly in Arabic. Premises for schools were usually rented, but in some cases they were built.
The maintenance of schools cost more than 240 thousand rubles a year and was a heavy burden for the Society, therefore, starting from 1904, the question of state funding was raised. Later, in 1912, Nicholas II approved the law of July 5, approved by the State Duma, on the financing of educational institutions of the IOPS in Syria as a separate line of the state budget (more than 150 thousand gold rubles a year). In 1911, the total number of students was 11,112 people (5,426 boys and 5,686 girls), and there were 1,493 students in the schools of Palestine, 1,231 in the schools of Lebanon, and 8,388 in Syria. Several generations of the Arab intelligentsia of the Middle East passed through Russian schools. In the first two decades, the schools did not have legal status and received it only on May 1, 1902 with a special firman of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II. The IOPS schools practically ceased to exist after the outbreak of the First World War.
From the very beginning of its activity, the IOPS actively paid attention to the promotion of pilgrimage, which corresponded to the goals and objectives of the Society, recorded in its Charter: “The Society’s concern for Russian pilgrims is not limited to one cheaper way to the Holy Land, but is even more aimed at meeting their material and spiritual needs in the Holy Land."
Since February 10, 1883, the Society has been creating special pilgrimage books that make it possible to significantly reduce the cost of a trip to the Holy Land. Pilgrimage books were sold by authorized representatives of the Society in various provinces of the Russian Empire, were valid for a year from the date of their issue and gave the right to stop along the way at railway junction stations, with special coupons. The Company entered into an agreement with ROPIT on special tariffs. So, if an ordinary ticket of the III class from Odessa to Jaffa at the usual rate cost 20 rubles. 50 kop. one way, then a ticket taken according to the pilgrimage book cost 24 rubles. both ways.
By the end of the XIX check, the number of pilgrims wishing to visit the Holy Land reached 9178 people a year, of which more than 4000 remained for the celebration of Easter, and in 1907 there was a record figure - 6410 people staying on Easter days in Jerusalem.
Easter conversations in the courtyard of the Sergius Metochion of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society in Jerusalem. Photo of monk Timon. End of the 19th century
To receive pilgrims, thanks to the efforts of the Palestinian Committee, the Elizabethan and Mariinsky metochions were arranged, and a Russian hospital was built next to them to serve the sick. In 1889, the Elizabethan, Mariinsky Compounds and the Russian Hospital were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, which soon, as part of a program to improve the life of pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem, built a water sewer in Jerusalem - the first in the history of the city. Also, as part of the expansion of the number of pilgrims in 1889, the New (Sergius) Compound was built next to the Russian Compound by the efforts of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, in 1891 the Veniamin Compound in Jerusalem was transferred to the Society, in 1896 the Alexander Compound built by the Society was consecrated next to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the old city of Jerusalem, in 1905 the building of the Nikolaev metochion built by the Society in Jerusalem was consecrated, also in 1904 a pilgrimage compound was built in Nazareth, named after the first Chairman of the IOPS Sergievsky, in 1916 a pilgrimage complex was built with the church of St. Nicholas in the city of Bari (Italy). Branches of the Society that promoted pilgrimage worked in 52 cities of the Russian Empire.
Pilgrims usually arrived from Odessa to the port of Jaffa and from there, accompanied by IOPS kavass, went to Jerusalem. Since 1895, pilgrims have been able to take advantage of the rail link between Jerusalem and Jaffa. At the Russian buildings of the Society in Jerusalem, pilgrims had the opportunity to check in their luggage in the pantries of the farmsteads and deposit their passports, tickets and valuables against the receipt of the IOPS Farmsteads Management Office.
In the folk refectory of the Sergius Metochion, pilgrims could get a free lunch. Also, pilgrims could use the services of a grocery store, book and icon shops and visit a bathhouse at the Sergius Compound. In the evenings, Palestinian readings were held for pilgrims, telling about the history of the Old Testament and the shrines visited by pilgrims during the pilgrimage routes.
For the journey of pilgrims, pilgrimage caravans were formed, to which the Society's guides and guards were allocated. In the course of the routes compiled by the efforts of the Society, pilgrims visited the shrines of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, the Judean Desert, and bathed in sacred waters the Jordan River, visited the shrines of Galilee.
On the feast of Pascha in the courtyard of the Sergius Metochion, the efforts of the Society in Jerusalem organized Paschal conversations.
The pilgrimage is significantly reduced in connection with the First World War that began in 1914, and then the revolution in Russia in 1917. Between 1917 and 1991, only rare groups and official delegations had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land. The intensification of pilgrimages and visits by IOPS delegations to the Holy Land became possible after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Since November 2009, through the efforts of the Jerusalem branch of the IOPS, at the Sergius Compound, returned to Russia, the tradition of Palestinian readings for Russian Orthodox pilgrims arriving in the Holy Land, which are called Sergius Readings, has been revived. On April 24, 2011, the Jerusalem branch of the IOPS revived the pre-revolutionary tradition of Easter conversations at the Sergius Compound in Jerusalem. Since 2013, Sergius readings for Russian Orthodox pilgrims and different parts of the Russian Diaspora have also been held in the Russian Museum and Park Complex in Jericho.
The scientific activity of the IOPS was laid down in the Charter of the Society, which stated: "to collect, develop and disseminate in Russia information about the Holy places of the East", for this the Society created a separate scientific department from the first year of its foundation.
From the first year of its existence, the Society began to engage in scientific activities, primarily in the Holy Land and the countries of the Mediterranean.
Despite the paucity of its material resources, the Society immediately began to publish scientific works on Palestine studies and the publication of monuments of ancient Russian, and then Byzantine pilgrimage writing. Because of this, the Society at the very beginning tries to attract solid scientific forces to its Council: professors V. G. Vasilevsky, I. E. Troitsky, and through them to build relationships with other scientists and scientific authorities. M. A. Venevetinov, Dr. A. V. Eliseev, Archimandrites Leonid (Kavelin) and Antonin (Kapustin), Professor A. A. Olesnitsky, G. S. Destunis, A. A. Tsagareli also took an active part in various publications of the Society , L. V. Stoyanovich, K. D. Petkovich, Professor I. V. Pomyalovsky, Professor N. I. Ivanovsky, Academician N. Ya. Marr, S. O. Dolgov, Academician V. V. Latyshev, Professor N. F. Kapterev, Professor N. A. Mednikov, A. I. Papadopulo-Keramevs, P. A. Syrku, H. M. Loparev, P. V. Bezobrazov.
In the pre-revolutionary period from 1882 to 1917. significant and tangible results were achieved in the publishing activities of the Society. First of all, 63 volumes of the Palestine collection were published - a permanent scientific temporary collection of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. Also published: 10 volumes of the Analect and the Catalog of Jerusalem Manuscripts by A. I. Papadopoulos-Keramevs, 4 parts Wanderings of Vasily Grigorovich, 7 volumes The Book of Genesis ep. porfiria, Bibliotheca geografia Palaestina, Palestine and Sinai(bibliography) VN Khitrovo. Since 1891, the Society has also published Communications of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society and numerous reports on the activities of the Society. In addition, the Society published popular science publications in the form of readings about the Holy Land. For this, the Society involved a number of authors: Archpriest V.I. Mikhailovsky, Archpriest N.A. Eleonsky, Archpriest V.S. Solovyov, Archpriest P.Smirnov, Archpriest N.N. Levochsky, I. V. Malinovsky, A. N. Pypin, V. N. Khitrovo, I. A. Vinogradov, M. I. Osipov, I. V. Viktorovsky and others.
Scientific research in the Holy Land, Mediterranean countries and the Biblical region in the pre-revolutionary periodThe first independent scientific project of the Society was the organization of archaeological excavations at the Russian site in the old city of Jerusalem under the leadership of the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and the Jerusalem architect Konrad Schick, not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The result of the excavations was the discovery on June 10, 1883 of the Threshold of the Judgment Gate, through which, according to legend, Christ went to Golgotha.
In 1886 produced Scientific research the historical site of the Temple of Solomon on the Temple Mount by the efforts of the professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy in the Department of the Jewish Language and Biblical Archeology A. A. Olesnitsky, as a result of which his monumental work was published under the title Old Testament Temple in Jerusalem. His main works devoted to ancient Palestine are also known: holy Land, Jerusalem and its ancient monuments, Other Important Sites in the Holy Land, The fate of the ancient monuments of the Holy Land etc. He is a translator from the Hebrew books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel.
The flag of the IOPS on the south tower of the Sergius Compound in Jerusalem and the cypher to Emperor Nicholas II with the badge of the Society on the day of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the existence of the Society in 1907. Photo of monk Timon. 1907
In the same 1886, a member of the IOPS, Dr. A. V. Eliseev, researched the ancient route to the Holy Land through the Caucasus and Asia Minor. Following the results of the trip, A. V. Eliseev reads a report at a meeting of the meeting of the Orthodox Palestine Society in 1887.
Description of liturgical manuscripts kept in the libraries of the Orthodox EastIn 1891, a joint expedition consisting of professors: N. P. Kondakov, A. A. Olesnitsky and Ya. I. Smirnov carried out scientific research of Christian antiquities in Hauran, Ajlun and in Transjordan. As a result of the expedition, the scientific work of N.P. Kondakov is published under the title Syria and Palestine, which included 1000 photographs, over 50 watercolors and 20 plans.
In the same 1898, the artist N. L. Kluge, who was staying at the Sergius Compound in Jerusalem, arrived in the Holy Land to reproduce in watercolor drawings the mosaic map of Medva (Madeba) in Transjordan, which had just been opened in the floor of the Greek Orthodox Church in Madeba.
In 1900, the Society sent Professor V. N. Myshtsyn to Jerusalem to study and subsequently describe the manuscripts and the museum of the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Honorary Member of the IOPS - Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin). The works compiled by V. N. Myshtsyn are stored in the Russian State Historical Archive and in the collection of the Holy Synod in St. Petersburg.
In 1902, the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, together with the eastern branch of the Russian Archaeological Society, organized and financed a scientific expedition to Sinai to study Georgian manuscripts, headed by the famous philologist, orientalist, historian, ethnologist and archaeologist N. Ya. Marr. The expedition also included I.A. Dzhavakhov and the later famous Byzantine painter A.A. Vasiliev.
A very significant contribution to the study of the shrines of the Middle East was made by a graduate of the Faculty of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University, a student of Academician V. R. Rosen - I. Yu. Krachkovsky. In 1908-1910, he made a business trip to the countries of the Middle East, where he visited Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine in search of ancient manuscripts. In Palestine, he visits the monastery of St. Savva the Sanctified, in Syria explores the manuscript fund of the library of the Patriarchate of Antioch in Damascus. In 1913, 44 manuscripts of this collection ended up in St. Petersburg and were transferred to them in, and in 1971-1974. eighty Muslim manuscripts were donated by his wife V. A. Krachkovskaya to the National Library of Russia (RNL). I. Yu. Krachkovsky took an active part in scientific activity IOPS and was a member of the commission for the teaching of Russian, Arabic and Western European languages in the Society's schools in Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. He worked in the field of the Society in the Soviet period as well.
The Society received a new impetus for development in 1951, when it was headed by Professor S. P. Tolstov, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He gathered around him a number of talented scientists. In 1950, a well-known church figure, Metropolitan Nikolai Yarushevich, came to the Palestinian Society. Since 1954, publications have resumed Palestinian collection- the main printed collection of the Society. The Palestinian Society continued to work in a branch in Leningrad and in two different sections in Moscow. One of them was called Literary ties between East and West. Until 1988, this section was headed by L.P. Zhukovskaya, a professor, a well-known historian of the Russian language, a researcher of ancient Slavic and Old Russian texts, who studied about 500 manuscript gospels, starting from the very first - Reims, Ostromirov, Mstislavov and up to the 16th century. In 1988, the well-known historian N. N. Lisovoy headed the section. The section consisted of historians, philologists, and Byzantine scholars who dealt, in particular, with Russian-Palestinian relations and the Russian heritage in the Middle East. The second section, where the issues of politics and economics of the countries of the Middle East were discussed, was called Contemporary Issues Palestine. Many respected scientists also worked there: historians, jurists and economists.
The Palestinian Society during this period was headed by the following chairmen: S. P. Tolstov (1951-1970), Academician A. A. Guber (1970-1971), Academician S. L. Tikhvinsky (1971-1978), Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Z. V. Udaltsova (1978-1982), Corresponding Member of the RAS V. G. Solodovnikov (1982-1985), Corresponding Member of the RAS A. P. Novoseltsev (1985-1988), Professor R. T. Akhramovich (1988-1989) , professor O. G. Peresypkin (1989-2001) .
Since 1917, the period of British colonial rule over Palestine begins. Since December 11, 1917, the troops of the English General E. Allenby have occupied Jerusalem. From 1917 to 1919, Russian buildings in Jerusalem were supervised by an employee and member of the Society and. O. Manager of the farmsteads K. N. Petropulo. Contrary to the decision of the Council of the Society, Petropulo allows Turkish officers and soldiers to enter the Russian buildings, and then, after the arrival of the British authorities, he allows the British colonial authorities to use the courtyards of the IOPS. These actions, contrary to the instructions of the IOPS Council, subsequently led to the fact that most of
Christian Antiquities: An Introduction to Comparative Studies Belyaev Leonid Andreevich
Orthodox Palestine Society and the Russian Spiritual Mission in Palestine
Information on archeology came to Russia not only from individuals, pilgrims and travelers, but also through state channels, as well as from religious organizations. Government from the first half. 19th century relied on very informative consular, military and trade and economic reviews that complemented the picture of life in the Middle East. Often two sources of information, official and unofficial, go back to the same person. So, sent in 1843 to Jerusalem by the Synod, Archimandrite Porfiry (Uspensky) had secret assignments for the affairs of the Orthodox Church; Reports on the state of affairs in Syria and Palestine were submitted by the Synod to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Subsequently, it was Porfiry who became the head of the first Russian religious mission in Palestine. 32
The Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem was established in 1847 to alleviate the plight of the pilgrims. But it was possible to expand its activities only in 1857, after the end of the Crimean War, when it was resumed "in view of the strong development that was accepted, taking advantage of our absence, in the Holy Land ... Catholic and Protestant propaganda." (Antonin, 1884). An important role in the Mission was played by its leaders, Archimandrites Antonin (Kapustin), and later Leonid (Kavelin). 33
Active research of the church antiquities of Palestine by Russian scientists became possible from the 1880s, from the moment of the formation of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS). Created to "order the movement of pilgrims and help them," from the very beginning it had among its tasks scientific popularization and strictly scientific. 34 In 1881, the Grand Dukes visited Jerusalem and supported the idea of creating a special society. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich became its chairman, immediately pointing out, among other tasks, the need to study antiquities (1882). 35 IOPS equipped expeditions, worked on the publication of sources. The special “Orthodox Palestine Collection” became the official publication, which has survived, albeit in a modified form, to this day (the same can be said, in fact, about the IOPS). Already in the first 15 years of its existence, up to a hundred studies and written monuments (160 volumes!) were published, including, in addition to popular church literature, Old Russian "walking", texts of Latin (4), Greek (11) and South Slavic pilgrims ( 2). 6
Archaeological and archaeological expeditions of the IPPO studied the paths of ancient pilgrims to Syria through the Caucasus and Asia Minor (A.V. Eliseev), searched for Greek (P.V. Bezobrazov) and described Georgian (A. Tsagareli) manuscripts, studied architecture (N.P. Kondakov). The work in Palestine was especially important. In addition to the scientific interest in Christian antiquities, behind them was the need for Russia to take a certain position in the study of the Holy places (without which it would be more difficult to claim control over them), as well as the gradually manifested desire to form its own, different from others, network of pilgrimage centers in Palestine, similar to that which, for example, the Franciscans and rival orders had. This was partially achieved thanks to the extensive purchase of land by the Russian government and the Spiritual Mission. 37
Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), whose name is closely associated with the archaeological activities of the IOPS and the Spiritual Mission, understood well that only the ownership of land and monuments would ensure the progress of the process. This was one of the reasons that prompted them to enter into a “competition” with representatives of other faiths and try to acquire plots in historical areas promising for the discovery of biblical or church antiquities (for example, plots with the tombs of “King Solomon’s wife, an Egyptian, in the village of Siloam”; Hebrew the tombs of Er-Rumaniya; "the tombs of the prophets" in Jerusalem). Of course, in these lands, as almost everywhere in Palestine, "antiquities" were found and it was possible to conduct their research. 38
M. Rostovtsev, in a brief outline of the archaeological life in Palestine before the First World War, very clearly showed its boiling, the revival of various speculators with relics and antiquities, as well as the intensification of the efforts of European "religious schools" and non-confessional societies. The fierce, constant competition of national scientific groups, in which the British and Germans were in the lead, with the growing competition of the Americans and the French, was striking. 39 He had no doubts about the need to defend Russia's interests: "In Palestine, we cannot and must not retreat." Approving the desire to purchase the lands of Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin), Rostovtsev pointed to the poor organization of the museum of antiquities created by Archimandrite Antonin in the Mission (although he praised its composition) and to the incomparably modest role of Russian archaeologists in natural research. Rostovtsev considered it necessary to include Palestine in the zone of control of the RAIK, at least for observing discoveries on the lands of the Mission and the museum. 40
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From the book Lectures on Historical Liturgy author Alymov Viktor AlbertovichRUSSIAN PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - see Palestinian
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From the book Unity and Diversity in the New Testament An Inquiry into the Nature of Early Christianity by Dunn James D.6. Palestinian Monasticism As we have already said, the attempt of St. Hilarion the Great to inculcate monasticism in Palestine in the form of anchorage of the Egyptian type had no continuation, with the exception of m. b. laurels of St. Gerasimus († 475), who was a native of Thebaid. Therefore, the true father
From the book The Science of Self-Awareness author Bhaktivedanta A.C. Swami Prabhupada3. Khabiri in Palestine (XIV century) In the diplomatic archives of Pharaoh Akhenaten, letters were found from the kings and rulers of Canaan - proteges of Egypt. They complain about the unrest in the cities and the hostilities of the wandering Khabiri clans. From the letters of Abdhiba, ruler of Jerusalem: To my king
From the book Pilgrimage to Palestine author Yuvachev Ivan PavlovichIf 54. How "orthodox" was early Palestinian Christianity? 54.1. The first Christians were Jews. Even if we accept Luke's account of the number of nations present at Pentecost, they were all "Jews and proselytes" (Acts 2:10). Although they believed that Jesus was the Messiah and
From the book History of Secret Societies, Unions and Orders the author Schuster GeorgHuman society or animal society? In an interview with India's Bhavan Journal in August 1976, Srila Prabhupada asked, “Is happiness and peace possible in an animal society? They want people to be at the level of animals and create the United Nations...
From the book Christian Antiquities: An Introduction to Comparative Studies author Belyaev Leonid AndreevichCHAPTER 30. Orthodox Palestinian Society "Palestine" is a Russian oasis. - People's canteen. – A cheap way of pilgrimage. - Russian women in Jerusalem. - Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. - Common areas. - Bath for pilgrims. - Flaw
From book Guidelines organizing the work of the diocesan press service the author E Zhukovskaya E From the author's bookThe Orthodox Palestine Society and the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Palestine Information on archeology came to Russia not only from individuals, pilgrims and travelers, but also through state channels, as well as from religious organizations. The government from the first
From the author's bookExample 7. The Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society held a round table in Nizhny Novgorod on June 15 in Nizhny Novgorod in Voznesensky Pechersky monastery a round table was held on the topic “I will not be silent for the sake of Zion and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest. Russia on
The annual general meeting of the full members of the historical Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society took place in Munich. But before telling what it was dedicated to, a little about the society itself.
The goal is good, not personal gain
In 1859, the Palestine Committee was established by the Decree of Emperor Alexander II “for the establishment of charitable and hospitable institutions in the Holy Land”. Five years later, it was renamed the Palestinian Commission, which, after some time, was closed, and all the lands and buildings belonging to it were transferred to the Orthodox Palestinian Society established by the Decree of Emperor Alexander III of May 8, 1882.
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was elected Chairman of the Society. Among the founders and members of the Board were seven representatives of the House of Romanov, the Governor-General of Moscow, Prince V.A. Dolgorukov, Director of the Asian Department Count N.P. Ignatiev, oriental scholars, professors of Theological Academies, writers, historians.
On May 24, 1889, Tsar Nicholas II approved the assignment of the name "Imperial" to the Orthodox Palestinian Society.
By 1916, the Society consisted of 2,956 people. Its honorary members were the chairmen of the Council of Ministers S.Yu. Witte, P.A. Stolypin, V.N. Kokovtsev, chief procurators of the Holy Synod K.P. Izvolsky, V.K. Sabler, other politicians, as well as well-known businessmen, writers, lawyers, scientists. Every year, only for charitable purposes, the Society spent more than half a million gold rubles. Subsidies to pilgrims (up to 12 thousand people per year), of which 72 percent were peasants, for trips to the holy places - Palestine and Mount Athos in Greece, amounted to 35 percent of the fare on railway to Odessa and further by steamboats.
For pilgrims, special pilgrimage caravans were formed, to which the Society's guides and guards were allocated. These caravans delivered them to the shrines of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, the Judean Desert, Galilee, the sacred Jordan River. In the evenings, Palestinian readings were held for pilgrims, telling about the history of the Old Testament and the shrines visited by them.
To receive pilgrims, the Society in Jerusalem is building special courtyards - Elizabethan, Mariinsky, Sergievskoe, Nikolaevskoe, Aleksandrovskoye, Veniaminovskoye, as well as the Russian Hospital. In addition, as part of a program to improve the life of pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem, he is laying a water sewer, by the way, the first in Jerusalem.
The next important aspect of the Society's activities is educational. By 1914, in the Middle East, he opened 102 rural and urban four-grade schools, as well as women's and men's teachers' seminaries for the local population. Several generations of the Arab intelligentsia of the Middle East passed through Russian schools, the financing of which since 1912 was joined by the Russian government (150 thousand gold rubles were allocated annually).
At the same time, members of the Society were actively engaged in scientific and publishing activities, conducted archaeological excavations, organized and financed scientific expeditions.
An important detail. All real estate acquired by the Society in the Holy Land for religious and public purposes, including temples, farmsteads and hospitals, could not, in accordance with the laws of the Ottoman Empire, be registered in the name of institutions, so it was registered as the property of individuals. In particular, in the name of Prince Sergei Alexandrovich, who was the chairman of the board of the Society. And this subsequently helped to save Orthodox real estate, which almost fell under the jurisdiction of English and Turkish owners. Unfortunately, not for long, and not all, but more on that later.
"The Turks came - they rob, the British ..."
First World War, revolution, civil war in Russia dealt a terrible blow to Orthodoxy in general and Orthodox missions in the Holy Land in particular.
Cleaning the walls of the courtyard
In December 1914, the Turkish authorities requisitioned the property of the IOPS, closed the temples and ordered the members of the Society and the clergy to leave Jerusalem. Turkish soldiers settled in farmsteads, shelters and monasteries. Storerooms and warehouses were looted, church utensils were partly stolen, partly defiled. Monks, sisters of mercy and employees of the Orthodox mission were insulted, humiliated, and some were killed. Communication with Russia was interrupted. After the end of the war and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine comes under the control of the British Empire. From the buildings belonging to the IOPS, the Turks are removed, but the British are now housed in most of them.
Installation of unique stained glass windows
At the same time, on the ruins of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in Moscow, the Russian Palestine Society (RPO) arose under the Academy of Sciences, which took an openly anti-God stance, but the other part of its members, by the will of fate, who found themselves abroad, including in Palestine, retained their former name and loyalty former goals and ideals. It is important to note that the Soviet government, having categorically renounced the definitions “imperial” and “Orthodox”, which were unacceptable to it, did not want to give up the property that belonged to the IOPS, repeatedly trying to give it the official status of “state”.
Installing new shutters on windows
April 28, 1948, as it seemed, in these claims of the Kremlin to the "Imperial-Orthodox" property was finally put an end to. It was on this day that the Decree of the British High Commissioner, who ruled Palestine under a League of Nations mandate from 1922 to May 15, 1948, was promulgated, on the management of the property of the Palestinian Society and the establishment of the Bureau of Administrators. Thus, after decades of red tape and ordeals, the right of the Society, at that moment headed by Prince Kirill Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, to all possessions in the Holy Land was officially recognized and confirmed. However, the first Arab-Israeli war of 1947-49 between Jewish population Palestine, and later - the newly created state of Israel and the armies of neighboring Arab states and irregular Arab military formations reshaped not only geographical map but also property.
On May 14, 1948, the USSR was one of the first to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, and six days later, I.L. Rabinovich.
On September 10 of the same year, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.A. Zorin in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Committee for Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR G.G. Karpov (by the way, who had the rank of Major General of the NKGB) wrote: “Given the situation in Jerusalem, the envoy comrade Ershov made the following proposal: Appoint and send in the near future the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission from the Moscow Patriarchate, as well as a representative of the Russian Palestinian Society, giving them appropriate legal powers and powers of attorney…”. And soon the socialist government of Israel, among its first decrees, decided to "recognize all the buildings and lands of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society and the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in the Holy Land" located on its territory as the property of the USSR.
This is how the house church of St. Alexander Nevsky looks now
This "transfer of property" to representatives appointed personally by Comrade. Stalin, according to the recollections of the clergy, sisters and laity who were in Jerusalem at that moment, "was sometimes unnecessarily cruel." But not all the property of the IOPS and the RDM was then transferred to the USSR, in particular the buildings located in the Old City and East Jerusalem, which went to Jordan after the Arab-Israeli war. Among them is the Alexander Compound, located 80 meters from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and including the Threshold of the Judgment Gate, the house church of St. Alexander Nevsky, a small museum and other attractions. Looking at it, it is difficult to imagine today that even ten years ago, part of the buildings of the courtyard more resembled ruins. But thanks to donations, primarily from Orthodox Christians living outside of Russia, the perseverance and diligence of the IOPS members, it has been revived, it receives pilgrims, church services are held here, and archaeological excavations are underway.
Stained glass windows of the Alexander Compound after restoration
Well, as for the “property returned in 1948 by Israel to the Russian Orthodox Church”, the actual owners of which, and this should be specially noted, were private individuals, public and church organizations, then in 1964 it was sold ... to Israel for 4.5 million .US dollars under the so-called "Orange Deal". Officially, this act, inspired by N. S. Khrushchev (first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, chairman of the Council of Ministers) was called agreement No. 593 “On the sale by the government of the Soviet Union of property belonging to the USSR to the government of the state of Israel”. During this atheistic action, the buildings of the Russian Consulate General, the Russian Hospital, the Mariinsky, Elizabethan, Nikolaev, Venyaminovskoe metochions in Jerusalem, as well as a number of buildings and land plots in Haifa, Nazareth, Aful, Ein Karem and Kafr Kanna (a total of 22 objects with a total area about 167 thousand square meters) were actually exchanged for oranges and textiles.
Entrance to Alexander Compound
“Both you and they, let me remind you, are Orthodox”
After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian government began to challenge the legality of this transaction, stating that the Soviet Union was not the legal owner of the farmsteads. On May 22, 1992, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation renamed the Russian Palestine Society that existed under the USSR Academy of Sciences into the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, despite the fact that the Society with that name had existed for a long time. This "remake" was headed by the former head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Stepashin. Here it is, according to the official Kremlin, and is the “legal owner of all Russian real estate in the Holy Land”, which was illegally sold to Israel by “the theomachist Nikita”. However, Nikita Sergeevich, as we know, not only exchanged Jerusalem real estate for citrus fruits, but also transferred Crimea to Ukraine, so what? Another "referendum" to hold, now in Jerusalem? Or maybe try to improve relations with people who have preserved and continue to protect the pearl of Orthodoxy in the Holy Land, especially since you and they, let me remind you, are Orthodox?
However, this is the topic of another article and not one, especially since the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, which has recently had the prefix “historical”, is not to be confused with Stepashin, despite wars and global cataclysms, as it was, and is. And nothing, and it did not sell to anyone, including the Alexander Compound.
I, on the other hand, will take this opportunity to name the names of those who led the Society in perhaps the most difficult (starting from 1917) period of its existence, when Orthodox Russia and the Sovereign Emperor died, when it, like all Russian monasteries, monasteries, the temples lost their help and support, both sovereign and financial, when it seemed that they no longer had the strength to resist the onslaught of theomachists and provocateurs. I will name not only the names, but also the places of their residence, which, in the light of the events unfolding around the Alexander Compound, is important. So, these are Prince Alexei Shirinsky-Shikhmatov (Sevres/Paris), Anatoly Neratov (Villejuif/France), Sergei Botkin (Saint-Briac/France), Sergei Voeikov (Paris), Prince Kirill Shirinsky-Shikhmatov (Chellet, France), Nikolai Pashenny (Paris), Mikhail Khripunov (Jerusalem), Bishop Anthony (Grabe) (New York), Olga Wahbe (Bethlehem). Since May 2004, the historical IOPS has been headed by Nikolai Vorontsov (Munich).
Well, before announcing the new composition of the board of the historical Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, elected at the last general meeting of its members, I note that there is enough slander and tales about his activities in the yellow press. Don't believe. Not a single word. It is better to cross the threshold of the Alexander Compound in Jerusalem once, and you will see everything with your own eyes and feel it with your heart.
So, the new composition of the board of the historical IOPS: Nikolay Vorontsov (Munich), Sergey Wilhelm (Bonn), Elena Khalatyan (Kiev), Ekaterina Sharay (Kiev), Vladimir Alekseev (Moscow), Evgeniy Ugliai (Nikolaev), Sergey Grinchuk (Munich) . Reserve members of the board (in case one of the main members of the board cannot fulfill their duties) Ksenia Rar-Zabelich (Munich), Vladimir Artyukh (Kiev) and Galina Roketskaya (Moscow).
(“Project by V.N. Khitrovo”)
The second most important figure, to whom we are most indebted for the strengthening and assertion of the Russian presence in the Holy Land and the Middle East, must be recognized as the founder and de facto leader of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, V. N. Khitrovo.
V. N. Khitrovo was born on July 5, 1834. Having received an excellent education at the Alexander Lyceum, he entered the service in the State Control, then - in the Commissariat Department of the Naval Ministry. Later he served in the Ministry of Finance, was engaged in the organization of the first savings and loan partnerships in Russia and led them for 20 years.
But he found his true calling in the Palestinian society - in the work of studying the Holy Land, enlightening the Orthodox Arabs of Palestine. At the same time, V. N. Khitrovo preferred to remain a modest worker, not making his responsible patriotic work a source of income or awards and honors.
A deep interest in the Holy Land manifested itself in the activities of VN Khitrovo long before the founding of the society. In the summer of 1871, he made his first - still semi-tourist, semi-pilgrimage - trip to Palestine. What he saw during this trip: both the difficult, helpless situation of Russian pilgrims, and the bleak state of the Orthodox Arab population of the Jerusalem Patriarchate - made such a strong impression on the quite prosperous St. Petersburg official that his entire spiritual world changed, his whole future life was devoted to the cause of “strengthening Orthodoxy in the Middle East. After that first journey, he visited the Holy Land six more times, became close to Archimandrite Antonin Kapustin, in whom he found - in many, although not in all matters - a like-minded person and ally. The specific experience and tireless work of Antonin in the creation of Russian Palestine became a model and example for VN Khitrovo for all subsequent years 36 .
The success of his project at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s was facilitated by many circumstances, both objective and subjective. Here, first of all, we should mention the rise of Orthodox-patriotic consciousness in Russian society, associated with the liberation Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, when Russian troops almost reached Constantinople. The Eastern question and the Russian cause in the East acquired a completely new, victoriously offensive perspective.
Among the subjective, but no less important factors, one should note the appointment of the chief procurator of the Holy Synod in 1880 of the state and Orthodox-minded K.P. and Pavel Alexandrovich.
The latter fact was of fundamental dynastic significance. At one time, Emperor Alexander II said to the first chairman of the Palestinian Committee, Secretary of State Obolensky: "This is a matter of the heart for me." The emperor remained faithful to this cordial attitude towards the Holy Land and the Russian presence in it all his life and bequeathed it to his successors Alexander III and Nicholas II. Importance Empress Maria Alexandrovna, whose memory was worthily immortalized by her sons in the Church of Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane (1885-1888), also gave care to Russian pilgrims.
The charter of the Orthodox Palestinian Society was approved by the highest on May 8, 1882, and on May 21, in the palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich the Elder, in the presence of members of the imperial family, Russian and Greek clergy, scientists and diplomats, after a prayer service in the house church, its grand opening took place . The day was not chosen by chance. On this day the Church celebrates the memory of Saints Constantine and Helena. Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, did a lot for the Christian revival of Jerusalem and Palestine. She owns the honor of the first archaeological excavations in Jerusalem, the acquisition of Golgotha and the Cross of the Lord. In Rus', the summer construction season traditionally began with "Deer Day" (May 21).
As noted above, the first pilgrimage of Sergei Alexandrovich with his brother and nephew, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich (later a famous poet, published under the initials "K.R.") to the Holy Land in 1881 was timed to the same date. It was Grand Duke Sergei who in 1882, at the suggestion of V. N. Khitrovo, became the founder and first chairman of the Orthodox Palestinian Society (it was awarded the imperial title a little later, in 1889).
The society was called upon, according to the charter, to carry out three main functions:
Organization and arrangement of Russian pilgrims in Palestine (by 1914, up to 10 thousand people annually passed through the courtyards and hotels of the IOPS);
Help and support for Orthodoxy in the Middle East through charitable and educational work among the local Arab population. The society contained by 1914 113 schools, colleges, teacher's seminaries in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon. In approaching this task, the society acted as the heir and continuer of the religious and educational undertakings of the RDM: let us recall the first schools and printing houses founded in Jerusalem by Archimandrite Porfiry; Let us also remember the Beit-Jal school for girls, founded by Archimandrite Antonin in 1866 and handed over by him 20 years later to the IOPS (in 1888 the school was transformed into a women's teacher's seminary);
Research and publishing work on the study historical destinies and the modern situation of Palestine and the entire Middle East region, biblical philology and archeology, organization of scientific expeditions and excavations, promotion of knowledge about the Holy Land in Russian society. On the eve of the October Revolution, in order to expand the volume of scientific research and give it a purposeful systemic character, it was planned to create in Jerusalem after the end of the First World War the Russian Archaeological Institute, like that, which successfully functioned at the beginning of the century in Constantinople 37 .
Throughout its history, the society has enjoyed the most august, and therefore direct State attention and support. It was headed by the successively mentioned above Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (from the moment the society was founded until 1905), and after his death, by the widow of the late Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, now canonized in the Russian Orthodox Church.
This ensured high status and active both public and private funding of the IOPS. Suffice it to say that if on the day of the grand opening of the society on May 21, 1882, according to the recollection of V. N. Khitrovo, “his cash desk was not only empty, but there was even a deficit of 50 rubles in it,” then in 1907 Emperor Nikolai II in the highest rescript addressed to the Chairman of the Society, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, summed up an impressive result of the first 25 years of his work. “Now, having possessions in Palestine worth almost 2 million rubles, the IOPS has 8 farmsteads, where up to 10 thousand pilgrims find shelter, a hospital, 6 clinics for visiting patients and 101 educational institution with 10,400 students; in 25 years he published 347 publications on Palestinian studies 38 .
Since 1893, departments of the Palestinian Society began to open in many dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.
An important place in the life of the diocesan departments was taken care of the preparation and conduct of palm collections - the main source of funding for the Palestinian Society. According to the estimates of the secretary of the IOPS, already mentioned above, VN Khitrovo, the company's income had the following structure. “In each ruble of the parish: membership fees - 13 kopecks, donations - 70 kopecks. (including the fee), interest on securities - 4 kopecks, from the sale of publications - 1 kopecks, from pilgrims - 12 kopecks. 39. It is obvious that the really Russian cause in Palestine was carried out primarily with the selfless help of ordinary believers. Accordingly, the cost structure of the IOPS (as a percentage, or, as V. N. Khitrovo said, “in each ruble of expenditure”) looked as follows: “for the maintenance of Orthodoxy (that is, for the maintenance of Russian schools and hospitals in Syria and Palestine. - N.L.) - 32 kopecks, for allowances for pilgrims (for the maintenance of Russian farmsteads in Jerusalem, Jericho, etc. - N.L.) - 35 kopecks, for scientific publications and research - 8 kopecks, for collecting donations - 9 kopecks, for general expenses - 16 kopecks. 40. In other words, the main expenses of the society were reduced, according to the calculations of V.N. 18 kopecks, except for those received from each 3 p. 80 kop. - 12 p. 38 kop. Every Russian student Arab schools- at 23 p. 21 kopecks.
The estimate for the first year of the 20th century (1901/1902) was approved by the highest authority at 400,000 rubles. (excluding one-time construction costs 41 .
The educational work of the IOPS is still remembered among the Arab intelligentsia not only in Palestine, but also in Syria and Lebanon. Five public schools were organized in Beirut with the assistance of the remarkable Russian teacher M. A. Cherkasova. In 1895, Patriarch Spyridon of Antioch turned to the IOPS with a request to take over a women's school in Damascus and several men's schools, and then gradually the society spread its educational activities throughout almost all of Syria. Total number Arab children studying in IOPS schools reached 11,000 people. Unlike French or English schools, where teaching was (and still is) exclusively in European languages, IOPS schools and teachers' seminaries taught in Arabic. Of course, they also taught the Russian language and literature. As British researcher Derek Hopwood writes, “The fact that the school was Russian and the Russian language was taught in it created a certain reputation and atmosphere for it. Knowledge of the Russian language was a matter of pride” 42 . But at the same time, familiarization with the Russian classics, with its recognized “all-humanity” and “all-responsiveness” brought up on Pushkin and Dostoevsky, did not narrow, but expanded the mentality and spiritual horizons of students, and made it easier for them to enter the space of world culture 43 .
The fate of the Russian heritage in the Middle East in the 20th century
(“Project of I. V. Stalin”)
World War I and then 1917 radically changed the situation. Russia's ties with Palestine were interrupted for a long time. The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission with its numerous sites, churches and monasteries, as well as schools, hospitals and farmsteads in the Holy Land, which belonged to the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, were left without any support. In a canonical sense, the mission, cut off from the Moscow Patriarchal Center, found itself subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which did a lot in the following decades to preserve the Russian Orthodox heritage in Jerusalem. Since 1918, the lands, buildings and property belonging to both the IOPS and the RDM came into the possession of the British colonial authorities, who were implementing the so-called League of Nations mandate for Palestine, legalized since 1922. It was the British authorities who introduced into practice the forced "lease" use of Russian property, the traditional religious "waqf" - often without the sanction of the rightful owners - for secular and commercial purposes.
However, it would be unfair to say that the new, Soviet Russia abandoned its Middle Eastern heritage. Despite the complexity of the situation, in the conditions of a tough ideological struggle and the Civil War, the Palestinian society survived in Petrograd, although it gradually lost its former epithets "imperial" and even "Orthodox". Now it was the Russian Palestinian Society as part of the Academy of Sciences. As soon as the Soviet State was recognized by European countries, attempts were also resumed to protect Russian interests and property rights in Palestine. On May 18, 1923, the representative of the RSFSR in London, L. B. Krasin, sent a note to the British Foreign Secretary, Marquis Curzon, stating: “The Russian government declares that all lands, hotels, hospitals, schools and other buildings, like everything else movable or immovable property of the Palestinian Society in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Kaif, Beirut and other places in Palestine and Syria, or wherever it is located (meaning the St. Nicholas Compound of the IOPS in Bari, in Italy. - N.L.) , constitutes the property Russian State. The Russian government simultaneously confirms its similar rights to the property of the former Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, which was under the jurisdiction of the former Holy Synod and which, by virtue of this and in accordance with the decree of January 23, 1918 on the separation of the Church from the State, became the property of the Russian State. Finally, the Russian government states the same with respect to the movable and immovable property of the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Palestine and Syria (consulate buildings, etc.).”
The note by L. B. Krasin, as well as the subsequent (in 1925) negotiations of Plenipotentiary Rakovsky in London, had no effect. In the 1940s, when the USSR and Great Britain were allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, the situation, it would seem, should have changed. Even before the end of the war, on March 5, 1945, the USSR ambassador in London handed a note to the British government with a reminder of a significant number of real estate belonging to the Russian Empire in Palestine (including both consular property and church property, and owned by the IOPS), and demanding instructions to the British To the High Commissioner of Palestine "on the transfer, as soon as possible, of all property, as well as the income received from its exploitation, to the jurisdiction of the Soviet diplomatic mission in Egypt." The note was accompanied by a "List of Russian property in Palestine", which included 35 properties. At the same time, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs discussed the need to open a Soviet consulate in Palestine.
Despite repeated reminders and a note dated September 17, 1945, the British, in anticipation of the approaching cold war, dragged out the issue until the very end of the Mandate.
Then the proven channels of ecclesiastical diplomacy were again activated. On April 10, 1945, the new Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy I met with the Head of State, I. V. Stalin. In May 1945 he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The battle for Berlin continues with the ecclesiastical-diplomatic “battle for Jerusalem”.
Moreover. In 1946, the report of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church speaks of “new measures that have a fundamental political significance". Colonel G. G. Karpov, who heads the Council, as a real theologian (of course, under the dictation of Stalin) formulates: “As you know, the Russian Orthodox Church, which received independence (autocephaly) in 1448, occupies only the fifth place among all the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches of the world. Meanwhile, its share in Orthodox world and increased recently (during the years of the war. - NL) authority give grounds for her to take first place. Permitted even earlier by the government and planned by Patriarch Alexy for September 1947, the Pre-Conciliar Meeting in Moscow of the heads or their representatives of all the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches and pursues as its main goal the preparation of the convocation in 1948 (500 years of the independence of the ROC) which has not been assembled for several centuries Ecumenical Council to resolve the issue of conferring the title of Ecumenical to the Moscow Patriarchate.
From the point of view of historical and church-canonical, "Stalin's project" seems to be a pure utopia, devoid of a future. But, oddly enough, rooted in an almost Byzantine past. The idea of transferring the Ecumenical Patriarchate to Moscow belongs to ecumenical patriarchs. Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople was the first to express it, proposing himself (in 1588) to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. In 1915, the issue was again on the agenda: the annexation of Constantinople seemed to be a settled matter. The most radical model of the post-war structure was proposed by the then notorious Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky): Tsargrad should be left to the Greeks, fulfilling the dream of Catherine II of restoring the Greek Byzantine Empire, and annexing Palestine and Syria to Russia.
But neither Jerusalem, nor Constantinople, nor even Russia's temporary allies in the coalition, neither in 1915 nor in 1945, wanted such an outcome. And when in July 1948 the Pan-Orthodox Conference took place in Moscow, Western diplomacy took its own measures so that neither the Patriarchs of Constantinople, nor Alexandria, nor the Jerusalem Patriarchs would come to Moscow.
The creation on May 14, 1948 of the State of Israel made its own adjustments. On May 20, 1948, I. L. Rabinovich, “Commissioner for Russian Property in Israel,” was appointed, who, in his words, from the very beginning “did everything possible to transfer it to the Soviet Union.” Immediately after the exchange of envoys, the Russian side took measures to revive the activities of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. In a letter from the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR V. A. Zorin addressed to the Chairman of the Committee for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR G. G. Karpov dated September 10, 1948, it was indicated: “Given the situation in Jerusalem, the envoy comrade Ershov introduced the following proposal: 1. Appoint and soon send the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission from the Moscow Patriarchate, as well as a representative of the Russian Palestinian Society, giving them the appropriate legal authority and power of attorney to receive and manage property.<…>2. In order to preserve the remaining archives of the Spiritual Mission and the Palestinian Society from possible destruction or plunder, transfer all documents for storage to the Anglo-Palestinian Bank or take them out under the protection of the Jewish authorities to Tel Aviv for storage in our mission. The USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs agrees with Comrade Ershov's proposals. I ask you to take the necessary measures ... ".
On October 14, 1948, J. V. Stalin signed an order of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “to give consent to the Moscow Patriarchate to leave the USSR for the State of Israel for the permanent work of Archimandrite Leonid (Ilya Khristoforovich Lobachev) as head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and Vladimir Evgenievich Elkhovsky in as priest of the mission." On November 30, the appointed members of the mission were already in Jerusalem. In one of the first messages, Archimandrite Leonid said that “the church and buildings in Jerusalem, not to mention other places, are in a state of disrepair and need to be repaired, which must also be done to raise the authority of the Spiritual Mission and the prestige of the Russian Church in Palestine. The income received from the tenants is negligible, since the main part of the property in Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinian Society, and therefore they will not cover the expenses of the mission. With the receipt of the property of the Palestinian Society, the situation will change, not only the expenses of both organizations will be covered, but also significant amounts will go to the revenues of the State.
After the end of the first Israeli-Arab war, the demarcation line between the territories of Israel and Jordan (under the terms of the truce) marked a different "space of fate" for Russian churches and monasteries in the west and east of the country. Temples and plots that ended up on the territory of the State of Israel were returned to the ownership of the Soviet government.
As for the churches, monasteries and plots that remained in 1948 in the territories ceded to Jordan, they retained the subordination of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia - Status quo, which did not change after the "six-day" war of 1967.
The current activities of the RDM in Jerusalem, intense and fruitful, could be the subject of a separate study. On the occasion of the 2000th anniversary of Christianity, the mission, now headed by Archimandrite Theodosius (Vasnev), took on a huge task of restoring its churches and courtyards, building new hotels for the steadily increasing flow of pilgrims.
There are also new opportunities for the return of Russia to its primordial heritage. A few years ago, the Government of the Russian Federation was returned a large plot that belonged to the IOPS in Jericho and registered in the name of the chairman of the society, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. In 1997, by decision of the administration of the Palestinian Autonomy, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, during a visit to the Holy Land on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, was presented with the Al-Atn site in Bethlehem as a gesture of goodwill. And a month later, in July 1997, the news came that the Hebron site with the famous Mamvrian Oak, once acquired by Archimandrite Antonin and until recently was under the jurisdiction of Church Abroad. Finally, in January 2000, it was reported that the Moscow Patriarchate had received another “Antoninovsky” site in the already mentioned Jericho.
Palestinian society also experienced periods of decline and rebirth in the 20th century. The resumption of his work in the early 1950s. related to the changing situation in the Middle East. Then a new charter of the society was adopted, the release of the "Palestinian Collection" - one of the most authoritative publications in Oriental studies - was restored.
At the turn of the 1980-1990s, when the current chairman O. G. Peresypkin and Scientific Secretary V. A. Savushkin, a comprehensive renewal of the social life of the country made it possible to achieve the restoration of the main directions of the statutory activities of the society. In January 1990, a large international scientific symposium "Russia and Palestine: cultural and religious ties and contacts in the past, present and future" was organized, in which scientists from the Arab countries, Israel, England, the USA, Germany and Canada took part. In the autumn of the same year, for the first time, members of the society were able to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to participate in the "Jerusalem Forum: Representatives of the Three Religions for Peace in the Middle East."
May 22, 1992 Presidium of the Supreme Council Russian Federation adopted a resolution to restore the historical name of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society and recommended that the government take the necessary measures for the practical restoration and return of the IOPS to its property and rights. In accordance with the new charter adopted in 1992, as close as possible to the original one of 1882, the institution of honorary membership was restored to the IOPS. The Committee of Honorary Members is headed by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus'.
Over the past years, the society was able to organize several dozen pilgrimages to the Holy Land, to conduct, together with the Department for External Church Relations, a number of scientific conferences, including those dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of Antonin Kapustin (1994), the 150th anniversary of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem (1997) - in Moscow, Balamand (Lebanon), Nazareth (Israel). The 100th anniversary edition of the "Orthodox Palestinian Collection" is being prepared for release. Branches of the IOPS are actively working in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl, as well as in the CIS republics - in Odessa and Chisinau.
Some results
The main result of a century and a half of Russia's work in the Holy Land is the creation and preservation of Russian Palestine. The volume of the article does not allow highlighting, at least in basic terms, the history of the temple building activities of the RDM in the Holy Land.
But, perhaps, the most important thing is the spiritual contribution that is not taken into account by any figures, which is associated with tens of thousands of Russian Orthodox pilgrims going to the Holy Land. Their flow steadily increased throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. If under Archimandrite Porfiry, in the early years of the mission’s existence, there were three or four hundred Russians in Palestine a year, then in 1914, the last peaceful year before the First World War and the revolution, there were about 6 thousand of them in Jerusalem only on Easter Human.
Historians to this day marvel at this experience of "dialogue of cultures" and "people's diplomacy", unprecedented in the history of mass character and intensity. The envoys of the great Northern Empire, "Hadji-Moskov-Kods", as they were called in the East, humbly learned to overcome ethnic, confessional and "autocephalous" exclusivity, brought up in themselves, as Archimandrite Antonin liked to say, "tolerance, so necessary for those who dared to bring tribute to the Holy Sepulcher and his grateful soul along with thousands of other aliens like him, often not like him in anything, except for one image of a human and a Christian name.
Let's not forget that the heritage of Russian Palestine is a whole "library" of works and studies of the church-historical, biblical-philological, archaeological and Byzantine nature, carried out in different years heads and employees of the RDM, scientists of the IOPS. Suffice it to mention the many-sided scientific heritage of Bishop Porfiry, the remarkable archaeological discoveries of Archimandrite Antonin.
We should also mention here the historical and literary works related to the publication of such outstanding series as the “Palestinian Patericon” (Issue 1–22; edited by Professor I. V. Pomyalovsky and Academician V. V. Latyshev), “ Orthodox holidays in the Holy Land” by A. A. Dmitrievsky, as well as almost all ancient Russian “walks” to the Holy Land, published in different years in the “Orthodox Palestinian Collections”.
It is difficult and responsible to attempt to formulate any "final" conclusions about modern meaning and prospects for the development of Russian Palestine on the threshold of the third millennium of Christianity. We note only two aspects.
Preservation and succession of the traditions and main activities of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission and the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society - despite the change of governments and regimes, under the tsar, under Soviet power, under democratic Russia, on the one hand, and equally under the Turks, under the British, under the State of Israel, on the other, it involuntarily makes one wonder what the strength of such a succession is. It may seem strange to some, but the restoration of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in the Holy Land as an institution of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1948, as well as its foundation in 1847 by the sovereign will of Nicholas I, was again a matter of State policy. In a broader context, the first visit was part of the same State policy His Holiness Patriarch Alexy (Simansky) to the Holy Land in the victorious May 1945, and Moscow’s attempt at the Meeting of Heads and Representatives of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches in July 1948, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Russian autocephaly, to reassemble the Orthodox East, “like a bird gathers chicks under own wing."
Does this mean a revival - in new historical conditions, in a new social reality - of the former "Constantinople-Jerusalem" vector of Russian spiritual geopolitics? It is spiritual - not "imperial", and not imperialistic. In any case, even if the leaders of Soviet foreign policy were not aware of this, it was still about the presence in the "center of the world", in Jerusalem, of the Russian Church, and through it Orthodox Russia (even if not remembering, in the statistical majority of its sinful children that she is Orthodox).
In other words, the "Constantinople-Jerusalem" component of Russian foreign policy in both 1948 and 1998 is almost exclusively spiritual, idealistic, disinterested, and sacrificial in character. The Holy Land still invisibly but powerfully "orients" - and stabilizes - Russia's position in the "mad world" of economic, political, nationalist interests, global restructuring and local wars.
The "canonical experiment" also acquired new facets. Russian Palestine, against its will, found itself for almost the entire 20th century divided between the so-called White (foreign) and Red (Moscow) jurisdictions within the Russian Orthodox Church itself. We believe that "heavy metal, crushing glass, forges damask steel", that historical trials will be crowned at the turn of the new millennium by the reunification of the "whites", "reds" and other islands of a single Russian Palestine.
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Notes
1. The life and journey of Danilo, the Russian land of the abbot. 1106–1108 Ed. M. A. Venevitinova//Orthodox Palestinian collection. -T. I. - Issue. 3. - Prince. 3. - St. Petersburg, 1883; T. III. - Issue. 3. - Prince. 9. - St. Petersburg, 1885. The latest edition with a parallel modern Russian translation and comments by G. M. Prokhorov: Literature Library Ancient Rus'. -T. 4. - XII century. - St. Petersburg., "Nauka", 1997. - S. 26-117.
2. Kapterev N. F. The nature of Russia's relations to the Orthodox East in the 16th and 17th centuries. - M., 1885. - 2nd ed. - M., 1914; Jerusalem Patriarch Dositheus in his relations with the Russian government. - M., 1891; Relations between the Jerusalem Patriarchs and the Russian Government from the Half of the 16th to the End of the 18th Century. - St. Petersburg., 1895.
3. Ponomarev SI. Jerusalem and Palestine in Russian literature, science, painting and translations. Materials for the bibliography. - St. Petersburg., 1877 (SORYAS, T. 17). - S. XVI.
4. Under the banner of Russia. Collection of archival documents. - M., 1992.
5. Kostomarov N. I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures. - M „ 1992. - T. III. - Issue. 7. - S. 100.
6. Arsh G. L. Prehistory of the Greek project // Age of Catherine I. Balkan affairs. - M., 2000. - S. 211.
7. Grigorovich N. Chancellor Prince Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko in connection with the events of his time. - St. Petersburg, 1879. - T. I. - S. 385. Cited. Quoted from: Century of Catherine II. Balkan affairs. - S. 212.
8. Vinogradov V. N. The most famous personal letter in history // Age of Catherine II. Balkan affairs. - S. 213–214.
9. Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society. - T. 13. - St. Petersburg .. 1874. - S. 69. Compare: p. 132.
10. Bezobrazov P.V. On relations between Russia and Palestine in the 19th century. Historical essay. 1. Emperor Alexander I and Patriarch Polycarp // Communications of the IOPS. - 1911. - T. KhP. - Issue. 1. - S. 20–52.
11. Materials for the biography of Porfiry Uspensky. Ed. P. V. Bezobrazov. - V. 1. Official documents. - St. Petersburg, 1910. - S. 3.
12. This refers to the monastery of St. Life-Giving Cross near Jerusalem (now within the city), located on the site where, according to legend, a cypress tree was cut down, from which the Calvary Cross of the Savior was made.
13. Ants A. N. Journey to the Holy Places in 1830 - Part 1–2. - St. Petersburg, 1832; 2nd ed. - 1833; 3rd ed. - 1835; 4th ed. - 1840; 5th ed. - 1848. See also him: Letters from the East. - SPb., 1851. -S. 88–296.
14. Dmitrievsky A. A. Bishop Porfiry Uspensky as the initiator and organizer of the first Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem and his merits for the benefit of Orthodoxy and in the study of the Christian East. - St. Petersburg, 1906; Materials for the biography of Bishop Porfiry Uspensky. - Vol. 1–2. - St. Petersburg, 1910.
15. Lisovoy N. N. Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem: history and spiritual heritage / / Theological works - Sat. 35. To the 150th anniversary of the RDM in Jerusalem (1847-1997). - M., 1999. - S. 36–51.
16. In the letters of Archimandrite Porfiry Uspensky, the combination “Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem” is found already at the beginning of 1844 (Materials for the biography of Bishop Porfiry Uspensky. - Vol. 2. Correspondence. - St. Petersburg, 1910. - P. 129).
17. Materials for a biography. - T. 1, - S. 18.
18. Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov). History of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem. - Serpukhov, 1997.
19. Detailed critical analysis preparation and results of the first stage of the RDM activity, see: Khitrovo V. N. Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem (in vol. 2 present ed.).
20. Khitrovo VN Orthodoxy in the Holy Land//PPS. - T. I. - Issue. 1. - St. Petersburg, 1881. - S. 55.
21. 1857–1861. Correspondence of Emperor Alexander II with Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich. Diary of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. - M., 1994. - S. 97 and others.
22. Priest Feodor Titov. His Grace Kirill Naumov, Bishop of Melitopol, former rector of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. Essay on the history of Russia's relations with the Orthodox East. - Kyiv, 1902.
23. Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin). Old Jerusalem and its environs. From the notes of a monk-pilgrim. - M., 1873. For other works, see: Priest Anatoly Prosvirnin. Proceedings of Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin. (Bibliography)//Theological Works - Sat. 9. - M., 1972.
24. A modern researcher rightly notes: “the conductors of Orthodox policy in the east were pilgrims, most of them “gray men and women”, very few publicists-ideologists (they can be counted on one hand), members of the royal family and ... in general, Russian diplomacy . As K. N. Leontiev wrote, “our diplomacy in this matter was much more restrained, more cautious, and therefore more Orthodox than our journalism. Some of our diplomats, with a foreign surname and even a Protestant confession ... were, really, much more Orthodox than they (Russian publicists) in practice "" (Lurie SV. Ideology and geopolitical action.
Vector of Russian cultural expansion: Balkans-Constantinople-Palestine-Ethiopia / Scientific almanac "Civilization and Culture". -Issue. 3. Russia and the East: geopolitics and civilizational relations. - M., 1996. - S. 170). The author cites an article by K. N. Leontiev “My historical fatalism” (from Notes of a Hermit): Leontiev K. N. The East, Russia and the Slavs. - M., 1996. - S. 448.
25. Dmitrievsky A. A. Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (1882-1907). - St. Petersburg, 1907. - S. 15–16.
26. Dmitrievsky A. A. Essay on the activities of Archimandrite Leonid Kavelin, the third head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. See t. 2 present. ed.
27. Dmitrievsky A. A. Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (1882-1907). - St. Petersburg, 1907. - S. 18.
28. Ibid. - S. 19.
29. Ibid. - S. 19–20. Compare: Dmitrievsky A. A. In memory of B. P. Mansurov // Communications of the IOPS. - 1910. - T. XXI. - Issue. 3. - S. 448–450.
30. Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern). Father Antonin Kapustin, archimandrite and head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. - Belgrade, 1934. Reprint edition: M, 1997.
31. Dmitrievsky A. A. Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) as a figure for the benefit of Orthodoxy in the East, and in particular in Palestine. - IOPS messages. - 1904. -T. XV - Issue. 2. - S. 106.
32. Ponomarev S. D. In memory of the father of Archimandrite Antonin. 1. Chronological list of his works and translations. 2. Articles about him // Proceedings of the Kyiv Theological Academy. - 1894. - T. III. - S. 636–652.
33. Dmitrievsky A. A. Russian Gornenskaya women's community in the "city of Judah" near Jerusalem / / IOPS. - 1916. - T. XXVII. - Issue. 1. - S. 3–33. See also a very small, but capacious, well-written and beautifully published book: Hegumen Seraphim (Melkonyan). Gornensky convent in the Holy Land. - Ed. RDM in Jerusalem. - 1997.
34. Archimandrite Mark (Golovkov). Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem//Theological works. - Sat. 35. - M, 1999. - S. 32.
35. Lisovoy N. N. Cited. op. S. 46.
36. Back in 1876, his book A Week in Palestine was published, dedicated to the impressions of the first trip to the Holy Land. (Second edition: St. Petersburg, 1879; 3rd, posthumous - St. Petersburg, 1912). It was followed by: “Palestine and Sinai. Part 1." (St. Petersburg, 1876), “Orthodoxy in the Holy Land”, which was the 1st edition of the 1st volume of the “Orthodox Palestine Collection” founded by him (St. Petersburg, 1881), “Excavations at the Russian Place in Jerusalem” (St. Petersburg, 1884 ), "Scientific significance of excavations in the Russian place" (St. Petersburg .. 1885). Successful were the experiments of popular science presentation, intended for the widest, unprepared reader. We mean a very small, pocket-sized, but capacious, informative book “To the Life-Giving Sepulcher of the Lord. The Tale of an Old Pilgrim" (St. Petersburg, 1884; in 1895 the 7th edition of this book was already published), as well as several issues (or "readings") in the popular science series "Russian Pilgrims of the Holy Land" published by the IOPS (Reading 39 and 40. Jerusalem and its environs. - St. Petersburg, 1896, 1897; Reading 41. Bethlehem, Hebron. Gornyaya. - 1898; Reading 42. Jordan. - 1900. Reading 44. Savva's Lavra, Feodosia. - 1898).
37. Ryazhsky P. I. Issues related to the restoration of the activities of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society in the Holy Land after the end of the war with Turkey. (Petrograd, 1915. Stamped: Confidentially).
38. Anniversary celebrations of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society in Peterhof and St. Petersburg // Communications of the IOPS. - 1907. - T. XVIII. - Issue. 3–4. - S. 398–399, 432–433.
39. General meeting of the IOPS on April 8, 1901 // Communications of the IOPS. -1901. - T. XII. - Issue. 1. - S. 11.
40. Ibid. - S. 12.
41. Ibid. - S. 13.
42. Hopwood D. Russian educational activities in Palestine until 1914 // Orthodox Palestinian collection. - M., 1992. - Issue. 31(94). - S. 11–17.
43. Mahamed Omar. Literary and Cultural Relations between Palestine and Russia.- St.Petersburg, 1997.-P.34-69.
