Truth to truth. Did the "Anathema of Soviet Power" have any force? Who was anathematized by Patriarch Tikhon, or should we believe the promises of the communists? Brief biography of the deeds of Patriarch Tikhon

Already March 2, 1917. the members of the Synod betrayed the Anointed of God and found it necessary to cooperate with the self-proclaimed new government. Many bishops even “expressed sincere joy at the advent of a new era in the life of Orthodox Church»; On March 4, the royal chair was taken out of the meeting room. God's vengeance overtook them quickly...

From December 1917, the Bolsheviks increased their seizures of church buildings, churches, monasteries, in January 1918 they confiscated the synodal printing house, and on January 13 they issued the same decree on the confiscation of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

On January 19, a detachment of Red Guards attacked the Lavra, while the elderly Archpriest Pyotr Skipetrov, who called on the Red Army soldiers not to desecrate the shrines, was killed, and Metropolitan Veniamin of Petrograd and the governor, Bishop Procopius, were arrested.

In response to this, on the same day, January 19, 1918, Patriarch Tikhon issued his famous Message with an anathema to the Bolshevik authorities and a call for popular resistance to the increasing attacks of the Bolsheviks on churches and the murders of the clergy:

“Come to your senses, madmen, stop your massacres. After all, what you are doing is not only a cruel deed, it is truly a satanic deed, for which you are subject to the fire of Gehenna in the future life - the afterlife and the terrible curse of posterity in the present life - earthly.

By the authority given to us from God, we forbid you to approach the Mysteries of Christ, we anathematize you, if only you still bear Christian names and although you belong to the Orthodox Church by birth. We also conjure all of you, faithful children of the Orthodox Church of Christ, not to enter into any communion with such monsters of the human race...

The authorities, which promised to establish law and truth in Russia, to ensure freedom and order, everywhere show only the most unbridled self-will and sheer violence against everyone and, in particular, over the holy Orthodox Church. Where is the limit to these mockeries of the Church of Christ? How and with what can one stop this offensive against her by the enemies of the frantic?

We call on all of you believers and faithful children of the Church: stand up for our now insulted and oppressed holy mother. We call on all of you, believing and faithful children of the Church: Stand up for the defense of our Holy Mother, now offended and oppressed... And if it becomes necessary to suffer for the cause of Christ, we call you, beloved children of the Church, we call you to these sufferings together with us.. .

And you, brethren, archpastors and pastors, without delaying a single hour in your spiritual work, call your children with ardent zeal to defend the now violated rights of the Orthodox Church, immediately arrange spiritual unions, call not by need, but by good will to become in the ranks of spiritual fighters, who will oppose the power of their holy inspiration to external power, and we firmly hope that the enemies of the Church will be put to shame and squandered by the power of the Cross of Christ, for the promise of the Divine Crusader Himself is immutable: “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against her.”

The message of Patriarch Tikhon was approved by the Local Council at the very first meeting of the second session of the Council, which opened the next day on January 20, 1918. The meeting was devoted to the development of measures to counter the actions of the authorities and protect the Church. The news of the patriarchal anathema against the enemies of the Church and the state was sent to the faithful through the emissaries of the Council. They read it in churches, called for unity in order to protect the Church.

The answer of the Bolsheviks to the anathema was the decree of the Council of People's Commissars adopted the next day on the "separation of the Church from the state": more precisely, the Church was deprived of the rights legal entity and all the property created over the previous millennium by our ancestors. The "legitimate" road was opened for the Jewish Holocaust over the Russian Orthodox people.

This is what was the result of the betrayal of the Anointed of God by the Church hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917!

The spiritual state of Russia at that time was revealed in the behavior of the highest bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. They did not condemn the February Revolution, did not come out in defense of the Tsar, did not support him spiritually, but only submitted to the Provisional Government, despite the calls of Comrade Chief Prosecutor N.D. Zhevakhov and telegrams from some branches of the Union of the Russian People to the Synod to support the monarchy.

As early as March 2, the members of the Synod “recognized it necessary to immediately enter into relations with the Executive Committee State Duma”, that is, with a self-proclaimed new government. Many bishops even “expressed their sincere joy at the dawn of a new era in the life of the Orthodox Church»; March 4 from the boardroom the royal chair was taken out, which was "a symbol of the enslavement of the Church by the state".

With rare exceptions, the hierarchs are surprisingly hasty with the decision of March 7 crossed out the name of the Anointed of God from the liturgical books and ordered instead of him to commemorate the "good Provisional Government", that is, conspirator Masons who were not elected by anyone for this position, who on the same day decided to arrest royal family. The supreme archpastors did not even remember about perjury, de facto freeing the army and the people from the oath to the legitimate Tsar, which every serving citizen of the Empire took on the Gospel.

On March 7, the text of the oath of the new government was sent to all dioceses with the words: “In conclusion of the oath given by me, I overshadow myself sign of the cross and I sign below"; the oath was taken with the participation of the clergy. And, finally, in the famous Address of the Holy Synod of March 9, it was said:

“The will of God has been done. Russia has embarked on the path of a new state life... trust the Provisional Government; all together and each one separately, make an effort so that through labor and exploits, prayer and obedience, alleviate great deal the establishment of new principles of state life and the common mind to lead Russia on the path of true freedom, happiness and glory. The Holy Synod fervently prays to the Almighty Lord, may He bless the labors and undertakings of the Provisional Russian Government...”.

Thus, the Synod, instead of calling for the observance of the Fundamental Laws and swearing an oath to the Anointed of God, made the ecclesiastical justification of the revolution for the sake of earthly blessings of "true freedom, happiness and glory." The synod could at least emphasize the temporary and conditional nature of the new government, but the bishops before the decision of the future Constituent Assembly (which was supposed to decide the form of government) considered the monarchy irrevocably abolished by the "will of God" and "general reason"; the message was signed by all the members of the Synod, even the Metropolitans of Kyiv Vladimir and Moscow Macarius, who had a reputation as Black Hundreds monarchists.

Such a call on behalf of the Church paralyzed the resistance of the monarchist organizations and the Orthodox church people throughout the country. Only in a few parishes did the prayer for the Sovereign continue to be heard, and from a few cities the Synod received requests for an oath and calls for resistance to the revolution. Most of the clergy remained silent in confusion, and many diocesan assemblies (in Vladivostok, Tomsk, Omsk, Kharkov, Tula) also welcomed the "new order". On July 12, the Synod sent a corresponding message to the citizens of Russia, which "threw off the political chains that bound it" ...

It doesn't matter whether the bishops did it under pressure from the Masonic authorities or out of a sense of their "enslavement" to the secular authorities in competition with it. In any case, this became possible due to the fact that even the head of the Russian Church succumbed to the general process of apostasy and lost understanding of the holding essence of the Orthodox monarchy. This was the main cause of the revolution: at first it took place in the heads of the leading stratum. And this was the main reason for the internal weakness of Russia in the face of the onslaught of its enemies ...

By the Grace of God, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, beloved in the Lord to the archpastors, pastors and all the faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"May the Lord deliver us from the present age of the evil one" ().

The holy Orthodox of Christ is now going through a difficult time in the Russian land: persecution has been raised against the truth of Christ by open and secret enemies of this truth, and they are striving to destroy the cause of Christ and, instead of Christian love, sow everywhere the seeds of malice, hatred and fratricidal warfare.

Forgotten and trampled upon are the commandments of Christ about love for one's neighbors: every day news reaches us of terrible and brutal beatings of innocent people and even on the sickbed of people lying on the bed, guilty only of honestly fulfilling their duty to their homeland, that all their strength believed in serving the good of the people. And all this is done not only under the cover of night darkness, but also in daylight, with hitherto unheard-of audacity and merciless cruelty, without any trial and with the violation of all rights and legality - is being done today in almost all cities and villages of our homeland. : both in the capitals and on remote outskirts (in Petrograd, Moscow, Irkutsk, Sevastopol, etc.).

All this fills our hearts with deep painful sorrow and compels us to turn to such monsters of the human race with a formidable word of rebuke and rebuke according to the covenant of St. apostle: “Reprove those who sin before all, and the rest have fear” ().

Come to your senses, madmen, stop your massacres. After all, what you are doing is not only a cruel deed, it is truly a satanic deed, for which you are subject to the fire of Gehenna in the future life - the afterlife and the terrible curse of posterity in the present life - earthly.

By the authority given to us by God, we forbid you to approach the Mysteries of Christ, we anathematize you, if only you still bear Christian names and although you belong to the Orthodox Church by birth.

We also conjure all of you, faithful children of the Orthodox Church of Christ, not to enter into any communion with such monsters of the human race: "remove the evil from yourselves" ().

The most severe persecution has also been raised against the holy Church of Christ: the sacraments of grace that sanctify the birth of a person into the world, or bless the marital union of a Christian family, are openly declared unnecessary, superfluous; holy churches are either destroyed by shooting from deadly weapons (the holy cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin), or robbed and blasphemously insulted (the chapel of the Savior in Petrograd); the holy cloisters revered by the believing people (like the Alexander Nevsky and Pochaev Lavra) are seized by the godless rulers of the darkness of this age and are declared to be some kind of supposedly national property; schools maintained at the expense of the Orthodox Church and preparing pastors of the Church and teachers of the faith are recognized as superfluous and are converted either into schools of unbelief, or even directly into hotbeds of immorality. The property of Orthodox monasteries and churches is taken away under the pretext that it is the property of the people, but without any right and even without the desire to reckon with the legitimate will of the people themselves ... And, finally, the government, which promised to establish law and truth in Russia, to ensure freedom and order , shows everywhere only the most unbridled self-will and sheer violence against everyone, and in particular - over the Orthodox saint.

Where are the limits to these mockeries of Christ? How and with what can one stop this offensive against her by the enemies of the frantic?

We call on all of you, believers and faithful children of the Church: Stand up for the defense of your holy Mother, now offended and oppressed.

The enemies of the Church seize power over her and her property by the power of deadly weapons, and you resist them with the power of your faith, your powerful popular cry, which will stop the madmen and show them that they have no right to call themselves champions of the people's welfare, builders of a new life at the behest of the people. reason, for they even act directly contrary to the conscience of the people.

And if it becomes necessary to suffer for the cause of Christ, we call you, beloved children of the Church, we call you to these sufferings together with us with the words of the holy apostle: “Who will separate us from the love of God? Is it sorrow, or oppression, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or trouble, or a sword? ().

And you, brethren, archpastors and pastors, without delaying a single hour in your spiritual work, call your children with ardent zeal to defend the now trampled rights of the Orthodox Church, immediately arrange spiritual unions, call not by need, but by good will to become in the ranks of spiritual fighters, who will oppose the power of their holy inspiration to external power, and we firmly hope that the enemies of the Church will be put to shame and squandered by the power of the cross of Christ, for the promise of the Divine Crusader Himself is immutable: "I will build mine, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" ().

Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. January 19th 1918

January 19, 1918 Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Tikhon published perhaps the most famous document signed in his name. The real name of the document is simple and not burdened with pathos: "Message of His Holiness the Patriarch of January 19." However, he is better known as either "The Curse of the Communists and Their Sympathizers" or "Anathema Soviet power».

There are some reasons for such a substitution of concepts. The message is really fiery, in some places extremely harsh, and some fragments really contain the very terms “anathema” and “curse”. The most frequently cited passage is this one:

“Come to your senses, madmen, stop your massacres. After all, what you are doing is not only a cruel deed, it is a truly satanic deed, for which you are subject to the fire of Gehenna in the future life - the afterlife, and the terrible curse of posterity in the present earthly life.

By the authority given to us by God, we forbid you to approach the Mysteries of Christ, we anathematize you, if only you still bear Christian names and although you belong to the Orthodox Church by birth.

We also conjure all of you, faithful children of the Orthodox Church of Christ, not to enter into any communion with such monsters of the human race.

No doubt - the words are terrible, formidable. But their specific addressee is never mentioned by name in this document. Roughly speaking, the message of the patriarch can indeed be called an anathema. It's just that it is proclaimed to some abstract "bad guys" who create "massacres".

Bolsheviks in companions

It is very tempting to see Bolsheviks in them. You can even say more - most likely, the way it is. However, the recognition of this fact does not negate one curious detail. By issuing this document, His Holiness the Patriarch found himself in a vulnerable position from the point of view of law and conscience. The fact is that a few months ago the Church and the Bolsheviks were, of course, not allies, but fellow travelers, for sure. In any case, church hierarchs were able to extract from revolutionary situation 1917 and its development is almost more than Lenin and company.

The fact is that after the February Revolution, the long-standing dream of the Church, the convocation of a Local Council, became a reality. Moreover, in the message of the Holy Governing Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, it was quite calmly and even joyfully announced: “The coup d'état that has taken place in our country, which has radically changed our social and state life, has provided the Church with the opportunity and the right to free dispensation. The cherished dream of the Russian Orthodox people has now become realizable, and the convening of the Local Council as soon as possible has become imperative.

The most important task of this Council was to resolve the issue of restoring the patriarchate in Russia. Its discussion began immediately - in mid-August 1917. It went on, though stormily, but without any real results. Until it became known that the "second coup" had taken place - the October Revolution.

And then the Cathedral went into forced mode. Quickly, one might say suddenly, just three days after Lenin issued his “Decree on Peace” on October 25, the Council interrupts all debate and takes an urgent decision to restore the patriarchate. The election of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is also taking place abruptly and rapidly - it was necessary to squeeze everything possible out of political uncertainty and immediately turn it to your advantage. On November 5, 1917, after the secret ballot was completed, the lottery was drawn. The die pointed to Tikhon. On the candidate who received fewer votes than the other leaders of the vote.

Ancient oaths

The first thing he did was offer up a prayer according to the protocol approved by the Local Council. It contained the words: "We still pray for our authorities." Since the Bolsheviks had already been in power for 10 days, it was embarrassing. It turns out that, in fact, Tikhon has priority in the liturgical commemoration of Soviet power.

Did he have the right to proclaim anathema to her? Formally, yes, I did. How legitimately, albeit hastily, an elected patriarch. But judging by conscience, then again we get an ugly story.

Long ago, in 1613, when he ascended the Russian throne Mikhail Fedorovich, the first king of the dynasty Romanovs, the oath was taken. "All Russian Land" swore allegiance to the new dynasty. From now on and forever and ever. In particular, there was one clause there: “If anyone does not want to listen to this Council Code and goes against it, then such, whether he is a priest, a military rank, or from ordinary ones, let him be expelled from the Church of God and excommunicated from the Holy Mysteries of Christ , let revenge be accepted, and there will be no blessing on him from now on until the age. Let this be firm and indestructible, and not a single line of what is said here will change.

This oath has been partly broken February Revolution. Nicholas II, the last representative of the Romanov dynasty, was overthrown. Six months later, she was completely trampled - Kerensky proclaimed Russia a republic, thereby cutting off from the throne all the heirs of Nicholas II.

All these actions were supported and blessed by the Church. Including Vasily Bellavin, who for a long time already bore the monastic name Tikhon, was well versed in church and secular history, perfectly remembered both the Cathedral Oath and what its violation threatens. With this knowledge, he entered the patriarchal throne.

Cathedral of the Local Fathers about the Cathedral of 1917-18
The icon was painted in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi

In the current 2018, among many extremely important events of a century ago, we recall the famous anathema proclaimed by the holy Patriarch Tikhon at the Local Council of the Russian Church in January 1918 against the persecutors of the Church. This anathema was never forgotten in the church environment, but in the terrible Soviet times it was impossible to talk about it as an event. Over the past 30 years, a large church-historical literature about the Church of the Soviet period has appeared, where there are many references to the anathema and its meaning.

The 100th anniversary makes us return to this topic again.

Let us say at once that the Epistle of the Anathema is one of the most important results of the activity of the Council.

By Divine Providence, the convening of the Council and its activity coincided completely with the most fateful events in Russian and world history. And this predetermined “coincidence” had the most important consequences.

After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in October 1917, the aggravation of relations between the new government and the Church increased every day. Unheard-of terror almost instantly seized the entire gigantic country. By mid-January 1918, the demonic triumph of hatred for everything Orthodox-Russian began to be keenly felt not only at the cathedral, but everywhere where the “iron hand of the proletariat” reached out ...

The ongoing bloody events forced the cathedral to raise its voice in order to give a true assessment of the unheard of upheavals into which the Church and all of Russia were plunged. Exactly two months after the restoration of the Patriarchate (in November), circumstances forced the Patriarch to mark the renewal of the activities of the Russian Church with an unprecedentedly formidable address of truly universal significance.

During the Holy Week of Great Lent, on January 19, 1918, Saint Patriarch Tikhon published an Epistle in which he anathematized the group of persons who had come to power in Russia. On the formal side, this action of Patriarch Tikhon had an ecclesiastical legal basis, since in 1869 an anathema was added to those who dare to revolt and treason against Orthodox tsars.

The possibility of issuing such a document was discussed at preliminary meetings. This is directly indicated in the acts of the council. The message about the anathema was not only the own initiative of one Patriarch Tikhon. Moreover, initially it was assumed that a group of participants in the council would work on this document, but then the Patriarch decided to take over the entire drafting of the message personally. There is no doubt that he was well aware of the consequences of this document and wanted to protect others from persecution.

To determine the meaning of the Epistle, we must look at how it was perceived by contemporaries - primarily by the participants in the Council. The epistle was first read out on January 20, the day after it was composed, at the council, in the presence of more than a hundred members of the council, and included in its 66th act. Before the announcement of the Message, the Patriarch in a short speech drew the attention of all those present to the hostile position of the current government towards the Church: it, says the patriarch, “turned unfavorable attention to the Church of God, it issued a number of decrees that are beginning to be carried out and violate the basic provisions of our Church” . In other words, Patriarch Tikhon personally directly connects the Message with the policy of the new government. The Patriarch proposes to discuss this situation and work out the position of the Church in a conciliar way: “how to treat these decrees, how to oppose them, what measures to take.” The message is directed specifically against the decrees and other measures of the Bolsheviks. Having indicated all this, the Patriarch left the cathedral chamber. Immediately after his departure, the message was read out by Archbishop Kirill of Tambov (the future holy martyr) in the presence of only members of the cathedral. The seriousness of the situation did not allow the presence of outsiders. Thus, the basis of the discussion proposed by the Patriarch of the emerging relations between the Church and the state was his Epistle, which, thanks to this, became an integral part of the conciliar activity. As the Patriarch said: “The upcoming session of the council… in addition to the current tasks, has a special task: the discussion of how to relate to current events concerning the Church of God.”

Therefore, let us briefly dwell on the review of the text of the Epistle. It can be presented as a series of detailed provisions that the meeting participants should discuss and express.

The Epistle begins with the well-known, often quoted words: “The Holy Orthodox Church of Christ in the Russian Land is now going through a difficult time, open and secret enemies of this truth have raised persecution against the truth of Christ and are striving to destroy the cause of Christ.” The meaning of this phrase is that it is an announcement to the entire Orthodox people on behalf of the Head of the Church about the persecution of the faith that began in Russia for the first time. The goal of the persecutors is immediately determined: "to destroy the work of Christ." Those who do this are, by definition, the servants of the Antichrist. The persecution is quite accurately called "the most severe", although everything was just beginning. The Epistle indicates that the persecution was initiated by "open and secret enemies of the Church." Who were the obvious enemies, it is clear from the public words of the Patriarch about the actions of the government, given above, but secret enemies are also mentioned. Who they are is not disclosed, but for some reason the Patriarch decided to point out that such exist... The Patriarch indicates what this persecution has already expressed and addresses the persecutors with the necessary, according to the testament of the Apostle, "a formidable word of denunciation and rebuke." He menacingly calls them "monsters of the human race." They are "the godless rulers of the darkness of this world." These are the most extreme expressions that can be used in an ecclesiastical document, and we are talking specifically about the current government. What these monsters are doing, whose affairs have just begun, is not just a cruel deed, but a "satanic deed." Here everything is said in the most direct and uncompromising sense: they are direct servants of Satan. They are punished, says the Patriarch, by the fire of Gehenna in eternal life, and also, he points out, they are subject to "a terrible curse of posterity in the present life - on earth." These words are not rhetoric, since they are part of an official document proposed to the council and then approved by the council. These are thoughtful, precise and definitive definitions. The authority of the spiritual Head of the Orthodox people of Russia has already pronounced a curse, and a “terrible one” at that, on behalf of future generations. Thus, Patriarch Tikhon, in his Epistle, also addresses posterity with undoubted confidence that they will join the bans he has announced. He warns posterity that no reconciliation can take place with these persecutors, since they will not repent.

During the period of persecution, which turned out to be longer than contemporaries apparently expected, any free expressions within historical Russia were impossible. However, Patriarch Tikhon in it obliged the descendants to take a certain position in relation to these destructive forces.

The anathematization is combined with the prohibition to approach the Mysteries of Christ, which is also indicated in the epistle, that is, it applies only to persons of Christian origin, since those deprived of the grace of baptism are already subject to a curse due to their bloody deeds. Defining the new "lords of darkness" as servants of Satan is also essentially a curse.

The word "anathema" means the taking away of grace, which in its meaning is a curse. AT this case pointed to evidence of punishment in eternal life, but the curse as such, this is, in accordance with the words of Christ: “Depart from me, cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). It is mentioned, although left in a more direct sense only to posterity, as a future confirmation of the eternity of this extreme excommunication. But the excommunication will be mentioned again a little later, in the Epistle about the starving and about the seizure of church valuables in 1922.

Here, in anathematizing, obviously, not only the rulers are meant, but also numerous pogromists of Russian origin, who anarchically throughout the country have already seized and plundered the Church, and in general everything, but not only them.

“The godless rulers of the darkness of this world”, according to the Message, are quite specific carriers of the real power at that time, which they seized. The word "lords" directly implies the power of those who issued anti-church and generally anti-people decrees, as pointed out by the patriarch in his opening speech. The Epistle directly states: “The authorities, which promised to establish law and truth in Russia, to ensure freedom and order, are showing the most unbridled self-will and sheer violence against everyone and, in particular, over the holy Orthodox Church.” This is the power that has reigned in Russia since October 1917. At that moment it consisted of people of different nationalities, not all of them belonged to the Orthodox Church by origin, however, nevertheless, they were mostly baptized people and therefore they fell under anathema as a whole. The list of persons included in the first Soviet government - the so-called Council of People's Commissars, mainly includes persons of Russian origin, and almost all of them belong to the Bolshevik Party, partly Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Another, most influential group of people was of Jewish origin, in the new power structures there were also Georgians, Armenians, Latvians and others; but among them were many who had been baptized in childhood. The general situation of persecution of the Church was purposefully developed by the Bolshevik Party.

Thus, the message announces to everyone about the coming period of persecution, denounces the Soviet government in numerous crimes, warns its bearers about eternal torment, anathematizes and warns of the impending curse from posterity, excommunicates baptized persons from Holy Communion and Church communion, calls on the Orthodox people and the hierarchy to protect shrines.

Immediately after the announcement of the Message was followed by its discussion by the participants of the meeting. This discussion is interesting material, testifying to the perception of what was happening by contemporaries. At the meeting, eight people made rather lengthy speeches, mostly of a serious analytical nature. All speakers unconditionally supported the Message. The discussion continued at subsequent meetings. Many thoughts were expressed in substantiation and development of the provisions of the Message.

So, according to Archpriest I.V. Tsvetkov, “the strongest point in the message of the Patriarch is the anathematization of the enemies of the homeland and the Church and the prohibition to enter into communion with them ... but still it requires explanation ... I would say that the authorities that currently exist are subject to anathematization ...” (p. 44). Prof. THEM. Gromoglasov (the future holy martyr) spoke of the need for conciliar support for the deeds of the Patriarch. Bishop Ephraim of Selenginsky (hieromartyr), among other things, pointed to the guilt of the clergy, he also directly pointed to the "bouquet of Bolshevism", "against which the message of His Holiness the Patriarch is essentially directed." (item 52). Nobody argued with this obvious fact.

As a result of the discussion, the Council adopted its resolution endorsing the Epistle of the Patriarch. This resolution, or, according to the text, the Definition, was drawn up by a commission specially created under the Council of the Council. At a meeting on January 22, the text of the Definition was reported to the Council by Archpriest A.P. Rozhdestvensky and adopted at the suggestion of the presiding Metropolitan Arseniy of Novgorod. It was immediately published on February 7 (20), 1918 in the "Church Gazette" No. 5, on p. 24: and, thus, immediately became public domain. It is a document entitled: "Resolution of the Holy Council of January 22, 1918." The text was also published in the acts of the council (act 67, paragraph 35-37).

The Epistle was also sent to the parishes and read by the priests. It evoked many responses, some of which were included in the conciliar acts.

As I have already noted, the Council calls the Epistle of the Patriarch a "spiritual sword" "against those who commit continuous abuse of the shrines of the faith and conscience of the people." It is necessary to note the following phrase of the Definition: “The Holy Council testifies that it is in complete unity with the father and prayer book of the Russian Church, heeds his call and is ready to sacrificially confess the faith of Christ against her detractors.” And so, the council fully accepts the message - in complete unity with the Patriarch - that is, in terms of anathematization, denunciation, formidable warnings and the rest. The participants in the Council actually confirmed their readiness to confess their faith expressed here: almost all of them were later martyred and are now canonized as saints.

This is important, because the recognition by the Local Council of the anathema of the Patriarch means that no one can cancel the anathema imposed on the "godless rulers of the darkness of this age" - the party of the Bolsheviks, their followers and the like. It is imposed forever and all followers, successors of the Bolshevik ideology, as well as all persecutors, robbers and pogromists of the Church, even without any ideology, like church thieves, are subject to it. "Church tatba" has always been considered one of the gravest sins, and the guilty person has always been subjected to church excommunication, but this sin has never reached such a universal scale.

Many members of the council felt that these documents were not enough. And they were right, as the aggression escalated. Already on January 25, the Council adopted a new Decree in response to the Soviet decree on the separation of the Church from the state. This response was called “historical” in the action of the Council. The document was drawn up in the spirit of the Patriarchal Epistle on the athematization of the "lords of darkness", being its real continuation. The resolution analyzes the decree, reveals its anti-religious meaning, calls it "satanic". The council declares that the decree "has the appearance of a law, but in fact it is ... a malicious attempt on the entire order of life of the Orthodox Church and an act of open persecution against her." In stating this, the council recalls that “God cannot be mocked”, calls on the Orthodox people to unite and expresses confidence that “God’s righteous judgment will be carried out on the bold blasphemers and persecutors of the Church” (act 69, paragraphs 21-23).

In the next document - the decision of the council on the decree "on freedom of conscience" - the council speaks in the same spirit and directly recalls the Patriarch's Message of January 19, where he calls on the people to a feat. At the same time, the council assumes the continuation of persecution and indicates that if there is no popular resistance, “then holy Orthodox Russia would have turned into the land of Antichrist, into a spiritual desert ...”. Subsequent history fully confirmed the correctness of these documents, and most of the participants in the council became martyrs for their faith. The mention of the "land of Antichrist" is also of considerable interest. The Council, firstly, in principle admits such a possibility in the future; secondly, he clearly understands by it the territory of a global, all-round persecution of Christianity; and thirdly, the Council calls on the people to prevent the domination of the Antichrist in Russia. The Council, of course, was not going to claim that the Antichrist had come in the literal sense. But all the activities of the "lords of darkness" are fully consistent with the Orthodox teaching about the Antichrist: he will have his own "forerunners", to which the collection refers the Bolsheviks. Indeed, the new rulers were already dreaming of world power: revolutions were already being prepared in other countries, a “world (!) republic of soviets” was being designed, and so on. But for this, the beast did not yet possess sufficient strength ...

Thus, the Epistle of Patriarch Tikhon on anathematization was the most important primary document that determined the spirit and nature of the chain of conciliar actions necessary in the current conditions against the forces that for the first time in history unleashed a merciless anti-church war of this magnitude. This Epistle is central in a group of documents that consistently and comprehensively analyze the anti-Christian actions of the new government, give it a completely accurate and final assessment. It was in these documents that the cathedral fulfilled one of its main purposes: to warn the Russian people and all of humanity about the hitherto unprecedented threat of direct antichrist power, about the new era of unprecedented confrontation between the Church and the forces of evil. The epistle of the anathema and the documents adjoining it are filled with prophetic wrath and pathos, and this is their significance.

In 1923, Patriarch Tikhon declared that "from now on he is not an enemy of the Soviet regime." Of course, he, like the whole Church, was not the enemy of any authority, only the earthly authority itself can be an enemy of the Church.

Bequeathed to posterity by Patriarch Tikhon and the Council of 1917-1918, the curse of the enemies of the Church actually received its real embodiment in the new anathema proclaimed by the Council of the Church Abroad in 1970. In this definition, Vladimir Lenin is personally named, as well as other persecutors. New is also an indication of the murder of the Anointed of God - Sovereign Nicholas 2nd.

Here is an extract from the text:

Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

The Russian Church Abroad, expressing the cherished aspirations of its archpastors, clergy and flock, with special maternal care, always calls on everyone to unite in prayer for the salvation of our suffering people from the bloody yoke of godless communism implanted by Lenin, as a result of which the Synod of Bishops determines:

1. On Sunday, March 16/29, 1970, on the Week of the Cross, after the Divine Liturgy in all churches of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, a prayer service is to be served with the preliminary announcement of the Message of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon of 1918 on the excommunication of the Bolsheviks and with the corresponding sermon - On the salvation of the state Russian and the appeasement of human passions (Following this is attached on separate sheets).

2. After the dismissal of the prayer service, proclaim an anathema to Lenin and all the persecutors of the Church of Christ, who were anathematized by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon of All Russia in 1918, in the following form:

Vladimir Lenin and other persecutors of Christ's Church, impious apostates who raised their hands against the Anointed of God, who killed clergy, trampled on shrines, destroyed the temples of God, tortured our brethren and defiled our Fatherland, anathema.

The choir sings three times: anathema.

The Russian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate did not speak out in any way about this anathematization, being then in captivity of the godless authorities. But both parts of the Church were reunited in 2008, mutually recognizing the legitimacy

all church activities on both sides.

His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon anathematized the Bolsheviks for the fact that “open and secret enemies of this truth have raised persecution against the truth of Christ and are striving to destroy the cause of Christ, and instead of Christian love, seeds of malice, hatred and fratricidal warfare are sowed everywhere.

Oct 13(26) 1918. Message from Patriarch Tikhon to the Council of People's Commissars "All who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52)

We turn this prophecy of the Savior to you, the current arbiters of the fate of our Fatherland, who call themselves “people's” commissars. Hold state power in your hands for a whole year and are already preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the October Revolution. But the rivers of blood spilled by our brothers, mercilessly killed at your call, cries out to heaven and forces us to tell you a bitter word of truth. When seizing power and calling on the people to trust you, what promises did you make to them and how did you fulfill these promises? Truly, you gave him a stone instead of bread and a snake instead of a fish (Matthew 7:9-10). To the people, exhausted by the bloody war, you promised to give peace "without annexations and indemnities." What conquests could you refuse, having led Russia to a shameful peace, the humiliating conditions of which even you yourself did not dare to make public in full? Instead of annexations and indemnities, our great Motherland has been conquered, belittled, dismembered, and in payment of the tribute imposed on it, you are secretly exporting to Germany the accumulated gold not by you. You have taken from the warriors everything for which they fought valiantly before. You have taught them, recently still brave and invincible, to leave the defense of the Motherland, to flee from the battlefields. You have quenched in their hearts the consciousness that inspired them, that “no one has more sowing love, but who will lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). You have replaced the Fatherland with soulless internationalism, although you yourself know very well that when it comes to defending the Fatherland, the proletarians of all countries are its faithful sons, and not traitors. By refusing to defend the Motherland from external enemies, you, however, are constantly recruiting troops. Who are you leading them against? You divided the entire people into hostile camps and plunged them into fratricide unprecedented in cruelty. You openly replaced the love of Christ with hatred and, instead of peace, artificially kindled class enmity. And there is no end in sight to the war you have created, because you are striving with the hands of the Russian workers and peasants to bring triumph to the specter of the world revolution. It was not Russia who needed the shameful peace you concluded with an external enemy, but you, who planned to finally destroy the inner peace. Nobody feels safe; everyone lives under constant fear of being searched, robbed, evicted, arrested, shot. Hundreds of the defenseless are seized, they rot for whole months in prisons, they are executed by death, often without any investigation or trial, even without the simplified court you introduced. They execute not only those who have been guilty of something before you, but also those who are not guilty of anything even before you, but are taken only as “hostages”, these unfortunate people are killed in retaliation for crimes committed by persons not only they are not like-minded, but often your own supporters or those close to you by conviction. Bishops, priests, monks and nuns are executed, innocent of nothing, but simply on a sweeping charge of some vague and indefinite “counter-revolutionary”. The inhuman execution is aggravated for the Orthodox by the deprivation of the last consolation before death - parting words with the Holy Mysteries, and the bodies of the murdered are not given to relatives for Christian burial.

Isn't all this the height of aimless cruelty on the part of those who pretend to be the benefactors of mankind and who supposedly themselves once suffered a lot from cruel authorities? But it is not enough for you that you stained the hands of the Russian people with their brotherly blood: hiding behind various names - indemnities, requisitions and nationalizations - you pushed them to the most open and shameless robbery. At your instigation, lands, estates, factories, factories, houses, livestock are plundered or taken away; money, things, furniture, clothes are robbed. At first, wealthy people were robbed under the name of “bourgeois”; then, under the name of “kulaks”, they began to rob the more prosperous and industrious peasants, thus multiplying the beggars, although you cannot help but realize that with the ruin of a great many individual citizens, the wealth of the people is destroyed and the country itself is ruined. Having tempted the dark and ignorant people with the possibility of easy and unpunished gain, you have befogged their conscience, drowned out the consciousness of sin in them; but no matter what names the atrocities are covered with - murder, violence, robbery will always remain serious and crying out to Heaven for vengeance by sins and crimes.

You promised freedom...

A great good is freedom, if it is correctly understood as freedom from evil, not constraining others, not turning into arbitrariness and self-will. But you did not give such and such a freedom: in all sorts of indulgence to the base passions of the crowd, in the impunity of murders and robberies lies the freedom you have granted. All manifestations of both the true civil and the highest spiritual freedom of mankind are mercilessly suppressed by you. Is it freedom when no one can bring food for himself or rent an apartment without special permission, when the family, and sometimes the population of entire houses, are evicted, and property is thrown into the street, and when citizens are artificially divided into categories, some of which are given to starvation and plunder? Is it freedom when no one can express his opinion openly without fear of being accused of counter-revolution? Where is the freedom of speech and press, where is the freedom of church preaching? Many bold church preachers have already paid with their blood of martyrdom; the voice of public and state condemnation and denunciation is muffled; the press, except for the narrowly Bolshevik press, is completely stifled.

The violation of freedom in matters of faith is especially painful and cruel. Not a day passes without the most monstrous slander against the Church of Christ and its ministers, vicious blasphemy and blasphemy being placed in your press organs. You mock at the servants of the altar, force the bishops to dig trenches (Bishop Hermogen of Tobolsk) and send the priests to dirty work. You laid your hand on the church property, the collected property, collected by generations of believers, and did not hesitate to violate their posthumous will. You have closed a number of monasteries and house churches without any reason or reason. You blocked access to the Moscow Kremlin - this is the sacred property of all believing people. You are destroying the original form of the church community - the parish, destroying brotherhoods and other church-charitable educational institutions, dispersing church-diocesan meetings, interfering in the internal administration of the Orthodox Church. By throwing sacred images out of schools and forbidding children to be taught the faith in schools, you are depriving them of the spiritual food necessary for Orthodox upbringing. “And what else can I say. I won’t have time” (Heb. XI, 32) to depict all the troubles that befell our Motherland. I will not talk about the collapse of the once great and mighty Russia, about the complete breakdown of communications, about unprecedented food devastation, about hunger and cold that threaten death in the cities, about the lack of the necessary for the economy in the villages. All this is in front of everyone. Yes, we are living through a terrible time of your dominion, and for a long time it will not be blotted out from the soul of the people, clouding the image of God in it and imprinting in it the image of the beast. The words of the prophet come true - “Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are unholy thoughts; desolation and destruction in their paths” (Isaiah 59:7). We know that our denunciations will only arouse anger and indignation in you, and that you will only look in them for a reason to accuse Us of resisting the authorities, but the higher your “pillar of malice” rises, the surer it will be evidence of the justice of Our denunciations.

Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia