Chapel of Boris and Gleb on Arbat Square. Temple-chapel of Boris and Gleb on Arbat Square. On Sundays

The Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples took the initiative to build a chapel in the name of the Holy Blessed Princes Boris and Gleb on Arbat Square in Moscow.

The Church of Boris and Gleb was first mentioned in 1483 as a wooden one. In the ancient Russian chronicle - “Sofia Vremennik”, which mentions the grandiose Fire on July 28, 1493, it is written, in particular, that “... the burning of the settlements beyond Neglimnaya from the Holy Spirit along Chertorius and along Boris-Gleb on Orbat...”.

In 1527, it was already listed in the chronicles as a stone church, built by order of Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich. It is believed that in the middle of the 16th century the temple was even considered a cathedral and had special significance, since it was the place of royal prayer before the start of military campaigns.

Tsar Ivan the Terrible went to this church with a religious procession and received a parting blessing. This is how the chronicler described such an action on May 21, 1562: “...The Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of all Russia went to his Lithuanian business, and he was standing in Mozhaisk. And the Tsar and Grand Duke went to Boris and Gleb on the Arbat on foot for the icons ", and with him Tsar Alexander of Kazan and the boyars and many boyar children who were with him on his business, and with him came Archbishop Nikandr of Rostov and the archimandrites and abbots. And the tsar and the great prince listened to mass at Boris and Gleb on the Arbat."

In the same year, 1562, on November 30, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, again deciding to go against “godless Lithuania,” went after praying in the Kremlin cathedrals in a procession to the Church of St. Boris and Gleb. At the head of the procession with the tsar walked the Moscow Metropolitan of All Rus' Macarius and Nikandr, Archbishop of Rostov, accompanied by priests “... to the holy passion-bearers to Boris and Gleb on Orbat, and the miraculous image of the Most Pure Mother of God, the Merciful One, even that miraculous image of the Most Pure Ones. With his ancestor , was with the Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich, when the Great Prince Dmitry defeated the godless Mamai on the Don."

The tsar, his family, and the bishops were followed by the army, and they all listened to mass in the church and “performed a prayer service.” The chronicler reports in detail what the king and those present in the church prayed for: “...so that for the sake of the holy prayers of their Christians, the Lord God would give his king a peaceful and serene path and victory over his enemies, where would be the house of the Most Pure Mother of God and the city of Moscow and all living in them God preserved all the cities of his state from all evil slander.”

Boris and Gleb Cathedral was also the meeting place for the Tsar after the great campaigns. There is a known chronicle description of the meeting with Boris and Gleb on March 21, 1563 after the Russians captured Polotsk.

At the very end of the 17th century, one of the eminent parishioners, Ivan Alekseevich Musin-Pushkin, occupying the position of chief judge in the Monastery parish, added the chapel of the Resurrection of the Lord to the Boris and Gleb Church. Over the years, the chapel became a kind of house church, a special priest served in it, and the Musins-Pushkins maintained the chapel, locking it with their own castle. Members of the Count Musin-Pushkin family were also buried here.

Since 1677, another chapel of the temple in the name of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God has been known, where representatives of another noble family, the Bestuzhevs, were buried back in the 17th century.

In the middle of the 18th century, the Boris and Gleb Church on Arbat Square became a real arena for a clash between representatives of these two famous Moscow families. It all started with the idea of ​​a radical restructuring of the ancient Church. As you know, the second half of the 18th century was a rather dramatic period in the history of Moscow church antiquity. Excessive enthusiasm for Western architectural styles and the oblivion of national traditions led to the massive destruction of Old Moscow churches with their five-domes, platbands, and hipped bell towers. In their place, churches were built, with their domes, columns, bell towers and decorative decorations reminiscent of Rome, Vienna and Paris rather than of old Orthodox Rus'.

A similar thing happened on Arbat Square. The history of the demolition of the old church of St. Boris and Gleb and the construction of a new one in its place is very dramatic. In 1871, the famous church historian of Moscow N.P. Rozanov found a bunch of cases about this story in the archives of the Moscow Spiritual Consistory and published an article based on them. Let us trust this serious researcher and follow the fascinating chronicle of the demolition of the old church and the construction of a new one.

Returned from exile by Catherine II, who ascended the throne, an eminent parishioner, active state councilor, senator (who was also promoted to field marshal general), Count Alexei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin announced that he was undertaking to build a new building of the Boris and Gleb Church with his own money. Then things went along the traditional path.

In November 1762, parish priest John Ivanov submitted a petition to Moscow Archbishop Timothy to build a temple. On April 3, 1763, the Metropolitan gave permission to demolish the old building and build a new one. The usual course of events in these cases was unexpectedly disrupted by decisive opposition from the Musins-Pushkins, who had a kind of house church in the chapel.

The descendants of Ivan Alekseevich Musin-Pushkin flatly refused to give permission to demolish their church-altar with the coffins of their ancestors. The matter has come to a standstill. The Musins-Pushkins began to prove that a new temple could be built without destroying the specially constructed chapel. However, the donor to the temple A.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and the famous architect Karl Blank, whom he invited, insisted on the construction of a new building on the site of the old one.

Now everything depended on the final position of the Moscow Spiritual Consistory and the office of St. Synod.

The church authorities and the Archbishop of Moscow, having discussed the situation, decided in 1763 to demolish the old Boris and Gleb Church, and Bestuzhev-Ryumin to build a chapel in the name of the Resurrection of Christ at the new church, where the coffins of the Musins-Pushkins were moved. However, this compromise solution, apparently, did not suit the descendants of the ancient count family, who did not want to lose the house church and disturb the peace of their ancestors.

In September 1763, the minister of the Musin-Pushkins did not even allow those who came from the consistory into his side church. Only Countess Alevtina Platonovna Musina-Pushkina, who arrived from St. Petersburg in October 1763, gave permission to dismantle the family shrine with a creaking heart. Thus, the last obstacle disappeared, and by the middle of the next 1764, the Church of St. Boris and Gleb with its side chapels was dismantled. Then A.P. Musina-Pushkina moved the tombs of her parents and ancestors to the Kremlin Miracle Monastery, where there were also ancient burials of the family.

The Boris and Gleb Church took a long time to build - five years. The new church also had two chapels - Kazansky and Resurrection. The latter seemed to remind us of the Musin-Pushkin house church and the vicissitudes associated with the demolition of the ancient monument.

The new, elegant church with a huge dome was consecrated on December 6, 1768. Many ancient shrines of the old temple were transferred to it, and a portrait of the temple builder, Count Bestuzhev-Ryumin, was also placed in the altar.

The devastating Moscow fire of 1812 spared the new temple. The churches of Filippo-Apostolskaya, Tikhonovskaya, Ioanno-Milostivskaya, Kosmodamianovskaya and Rizpolozhenskaya, which were damaged by the fire, were assigned to the Boris and Gleb Church. Some of these churches were soon dismantled due to their disrepair, and the material from their dismantling was used for the construction of the third and fourth (Deposition of the Robe and Mary Magdalene) aisles of the Boris and Gleb Church. Many icons and utensils from the abolished churches were transferred to the Church of Boris and Gleb.

It contained many shrines revered by pilgrims: a large ancient icon of St. Boris and Gleb with the Life (XVI century), icon of St. John the Merciful (XVI century) from the church of the same name, demolished in 1817, the image of St. Nil Stolobensky with part of the relics, etc.

The temple was renovated in the 19th century. Its side iconostases were built of gilded bronze.

The advent of the 20th century turned into a tragedy for the temple, which is inextricably linked with the history of Arbat. Already the first post-revolutionary years brought a lot of unrest to its parishioners. Following the forcible confiscation of church silver at the end of 1923, a certain society “Cultural Link” filed a petition to close the church and transfer its building to a club. The leadership of the Museum Department of the People's Commissariat for Education immediately addressed the Moscow City Council with a letter, which indicated that the Boris and Gleb Church was built by the famous Karl Blank in 1764 and is “one of the best examples of baroque in Moscow.” The interior decoration, experts pointed out, was an excellent example of the Empire style. The restorers insisted on the “complete inviolability of the monument.” The authorities listened to authoritative opinion, and the “Cultural Link” was given a refusal.

But even then the hostile attitude towards the Boris and Gleb Church was clearly defined. An instructor of the administrative Moscow Soviet, a certain Fortunatov, reported to his superiors at the beginning of 1924 that “the group of church believers is not desirable in terms of their social composition.” The scenario was set.

But fate gave the historical Arbat church another five years of life. The year 1929 came - the first terrible year for Orthodox Moscow, when dozens of churches were closed at once. New legislation in relation to the state and the church made it possible to relatively easily, administratively, close and then demolish the churches of the Mother See.

The Orthodox Arbat with its alleys suffered especially severely at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. Arbat and the Arbat region as a whole lost most of the churches that adorned it in those terrible years.

The city authorities made the Arbat churches an experimental testing ground for the construction of faceless workers' dwellings, probably with the aim of “dilute” the Arbat nobility and intelligentsia with a proletarian element.

The initiators of the atheistic attack on the Boris and Gleb Church were members of the Khamovnichesky District Council, who asked the Moscow City Council to allow them to demolish the monument to expand the area. The request was transferred to the administrative department of the Moscow City Council, which gave a conclusion in the spirit of that time: “... the church is located, as it were, on an island of Arbat Square, and on all four sides there is increased and disorderly traffic, threatening the life and safety of passing citizens.” A reason for the destruction of the temple was found.

The destruction of the Arbat ancient monument was opposed by museum workers who addressed a letter of protest to the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet in July 1929. Experts proposed demolishing the two-story house in front of the temple to improve traffic and pointed to the possibility of reducing the wide sidewalks, “since pedestrian traffic here is negligible.” But could these grounds have influenced the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet, which consisted of people who were indifferent or even hostile towards old Moscow?

On October 4, the Presidium of the Moscow Regional Executive Committee makes a decision on the demolition of the Boris and Gleb Church, indicating in the resolution that “... the building of the Church of Boris and Gleb on Arbat Square restricts traffic and, in addition, according to the project of the new layout of the said area, it is subject to demolition...”.

In the long chronicle of the temple, the shortest, but most dramatic period of its history began. The defenders of the temple-monument - architects, restorers, faithful parishioners - had only two months left. It was this period that the new legislation allocated for the community to appeal the decision of the Moscow authorities.

If restorers and museum workers gave up the previous Arbat churches almost without a fight, the October decisions of 1929 were met with hostility in the Central Restoration Workshops. At a meeting of architects and restorers of the Central State Historical Museum on October 16, 1929, chaired by P.D. Baranovsky, the following unequivocal protest decision was made, which is worth quoting in full: “To confirm that the building of the Church of Boris and Gleb, designed by the architect Blank, is a monument of the 18th century of outstanding historical and architectural significance, both in its strictly consistent forms and external treatment, and and according to the internal structure, which corresponds to the external appearance. Note the expediency in the sense of unloading the area - the demolition of the two-story building located on it, which has no historical and artistic significance. Summarizing all of the above, recognize the destruction of a valuable and well-preserved monument as completely unfounded and inappropriate, therefore it is considered necessary take measures to preserve it."

On the same day, October 16, the parish council sent a statement to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in defense of the temple. Believers wrote that the church serves a large area and was recently renovated with funds from the parish. But it was all in vain, the highest authorities turned out to be merciless both to the unique monument and to the religious feelings of their people. On the eve of Christmas, on December 20, 1929, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to close and demolish three ancient monuments at once - the Boris and Gleb Church on Arbat Square, the temples of the Burning Bush on Novokonyushenny Lane and Mary of Egypt in the Sretensky Monastery.

The oldest Arbat church, which was rebuilt more than once after disasters and fires, which remembered the terrible fire of 1493, Grand Duke Vasily III, religious processions and prayers of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Metropolitan Macarius, which changed its image and architecture thanks to the noble General Field Marshal Count A.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, lived his last days. It was not evil foreigners, not fire and lightning, but the atheistic government, which did not recognize the old history of Russia and its monuments, that destroyed the Orthodox shrine. There was nowhere else to complain, and in February 1930 the Boris and Gleb Church was closed. Soon, ancient icons, church shrouds and vestments were taken to the storage facilities of the Museum Fund, and bells, gilded iconostases, candlesticks and other metal utensils were handed over for recycling.

Abandoned by believers, the empty temple with broken glass stood on Arbat Square for a long time. It was only in November 1930 that the Moscow Soviet sent workers and a truck and the demolition of the church began. Architect-restorer B.N. Zasypkin and students of Moscow University managed to take measurements of the destroyed monument. Another unique page of the city’s stone chronicle has disappeared...

In 1930, the temple was dismantled. Information about church utensils, icons and other items of church life remaining after the dismantling of the church has not been possible to find in full today. “The place that was chosen for the chapel,” said the author of the project, architect Yuri Semenovich Vylegzhanin, “is very sacred, previously there was a temple of Tikhon, also a previously demolished church. And it was decided that if we create one chapel of Boris and Gleb, then, It goes without saying that we must somehow capture the demolished Tikhon's temple. Therefore, we found a solution: one of the chapel's chapels will be Tikhon's chapel. The size of the chapel has increased. In connection with this, a church-chapel or a temple-chapel has turned out. It will be operational. Since we are building a chapel, then let it be a church-chapel, and let it be two meters wider. This will make the opportunity to serve in it more convenient both for clergy and directly for the laity. Moreover, there are few functioning churches on Arbat Square ", and the population density is high. And an extra two or three meters in area will only be beneficial."

The first stone for the reconstructed temple was laid on May 8, 1997. The cost of construction of the temple-chapel was about 6 billion rubles. On August 6 (Wednesday), 1997, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II consecrated a temple-chapel in the name of the holy noble princes and passion-bearers Boris and Gleb on Arbat Square.

In 1483, a wooden church of Boris and Gleb was built on Arbat Square. This church is mentioned in the chronicle in the story of the great fire that raged on July 28, 1493 from a penny candle. In the same chronicle message the name Arbat appears for the first time. The Church of Boris and Gleb turns out to be not only the same age as the Arbat in the chronicles, but even older than Red Square.

In the 16th century, the Boris and Gleb Church was already mentioned as a stone one, built by order of Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich.

This church was especially revered by his son Ivan the Terrible. Under him, by decree of the Stoglavy Cathedral in 1551, the Church of Boris and Gleb became one of the seven Moscow cathedrals (according to the number of Ecumenical Councils), that is, the main temple in a certain parish district. It was also a place of special royal pilgrimage before military campaigns, since it was located on the main, western, direction. According to custom, the sovereigns marched to it from the Kremlin with a procession of the cross, with their retinue, clergy and army, listened to mass there, then served a prayer service and received a parting blessing. Ivan the Terrible prayed here in May 1562, when he “went to his Lithuanian business,” and listened to mass here. In November of the same year, Ivan the Terrible, again deciding to march on Lithuania, after praying in the Kremlin cathedrals, went with his army to the Arbat Church of Boris and Gleb. St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, walked with the king in the procession of the cross, and the procession carried with it the miraculous Don image of the Mother of God, which was with Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo field. At the same temple, sovereigns returning from great campaigns were traditionally greeted. In March 1563, Ivan the Terrible was greeted here with triumph when Polotsk was captured by the Russians.

In the Time of Troubles - in 1612 - “at Boris and Gleb” the fate of Moscow was decided: here a victorious battle took place between the militia of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and the army of Hetman Khodkevich, who went to the aid of the Poles besieged in the Kremlin.

By the beginning of Peter’s time, the Boris and Gleb Church contained the tombs of two eminent families of Russia - the Musins-Pushkins and the Bestuzhevs.

During the reign of Catherine II, in the middle of the 18th century, Bestuzhev decided at his own expense to build a new parish church of Boris and Gleb on Arbat in a fashionable Western style on the site of the old one, and received permission from the Metropolitan. In 1763, a decree was issued to demolish the old church, and Bestuzhev was obliged to build a Resurrection chapel at the new church in the image of the old one and move the burials of the Musins-Pushkins there. But later the Musin-Pushkin family coffins were moved to the Kremlin Miracle Monastery, where their family burials were also located.

To build a new temple, Bestuzhev invited the architect Karl Ivanovich Blank, revered by Catherine II. Blank built the new, very elegant Boris and Gleb Church in the Baroque style. The temple took five years to build. A new church on the site of the old one with the chapels of the Kazan Mother of God and the Resurrection of the Word was built and consecrated in 1768. It was painted in Moscow style in a bright red fiery color. Two former chapels were consecrated in it - Kazan and Resurrection.

The church was not damaged during the fire of 1812. And the burned and destroyed surrounding churches were added to the surviving temple. The material from the dismantled churches was used for the construction of the chapels of the Robe in Blachernae and Mary Magdalene.

It was a small, typical single-domed parish church with a refectory and a bell tower. Many people in the city knew it because the revered icons of Nile of Stolbensky and John of Miloslavsky were kept here. But the main shrine of the Arbat church was the ancient temple image of Saints Boris and Gleb with a life, before which prayers were often served.

In April 1922, church silver was confiscated from the temple. In 1923, the Cultural Link society petitioned to close the church and transfer its building to a club. In October 1929, the Presidium of the Moscow Regional Executive Committee decided to demolish the Boris and Gleb Church, as it was obstructing traffic. A riot broke out in the Central Restoration Workshops. At the meeting chaired by P.D. Baranovsky, it was decided to reaffirm the great value of the temple as a monument of “outstanding historical and architectural significance”, again point out the expediency of demolishing the neighboring house, which has no such value, and recognize the destruction of the temple as unreasonable and inappropriate, especially since it was perfectly preserved. In those same October days, parishioners wrote a statement to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in defense of the temple. But on Christmas Eve 1929, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to demolish only the Boris and Gleb Church.

In February 1930, the Boris and Gleb Church was closed. Ancient icons and valuable vestments were taken to museum storerooms, and bells, bronze iconostases and utensils were handed over for recycling.

The church was one of the best examples of Baroque in Moscow, but was demolished in 1930 under the pretext of reconstructing the square.

Near the site of the church there is a small memorial sign - a stone chapel pillar.

The destroyed church is dedicated to a chapel on Arbat Square, which appeared during the reign of Boris Yeltsin, who named his grandson Gleb. The chapel resembles a ruined church.

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The first mention of this church appeared in historical documents in connection with a severe fire that occurred in Moscow in July 1493. It was then that its wooden prototype, built back in 1483, burned down in a fire. And it was restored in stone only in 1527, by order of Vasily III himself. Later, in 1551, already during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, who especially revered this church, by decree of the Stoglavy Cathedral it was included in the seven Moscow cathedrals for royal prayer before the start of military campaigns.

It was here that the tsar celebrated mass before his campaign against Lithuania in the spring of 1562. And when Polotsk was captured by Russian soldiers in 1563, it was here that they met the army led by Ivan the Terrible, returning with a triumphant victory from the great campaign.

At the end of the 17th century, through the efforts of Patriarch Joachim’s nephew, Ivan Alekseevich Musin-Pushkin, a chapel was added to the temple in honor of the Resurrection of the Word, which became the home church of this one of the oldest families in Russia. It was in this chapel that a tomb was built for representatives of the family of Counts Musin-Pushkin. In another chapel of the temple, in the name of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, known since 1677, there was the tomb of the Bestuzhevs, representatives of another noble family.

In 1763, this temple was demolished and in its place, at the expense of Bestuzhev, a new church was built. The construction of the new Boris and Gleb Cathedral was entrusted to the architect Karl Ivanovich Blank, who brilliantly coped with his task, building a new elegant Boris and Gleb Church in the Baroque style, which was consecrated in December 1768 (Vozdvizhenka 15). At the same time, two former chapels were consecrated - Resurrection and Kazan, also rebuilt. The shrines of the former temple were also transferred to them.

After the fire of 1812, the ruined surrounding churches were assigned to the miraculously preserved temple. Some of them were soon dismantled, and the material was used for the construction of new chapels for the Robe of the State of Blachernae and Mary Magdalene. Icons and utensils from dismantled churches were also moved here. The newly rebuilt cathedral had its own shrines, especially revered by pilgrims. This is an image of St. Nile of Stolobensky with part of the relics, a large ancient 16th-century icon of St. Boris and Gleb with a life, and a 16th-century icon of St. John the Merciful.

The Church of Boris and Gleb at the Arbat Gate was one of the best examples of Baroque in Moscow. Its interior decoration was done with great care and was an excellent example of the Empire style.

In 1930, under the pretext of reconstruction of the square, the Boris and Gleb Church was closed. Silver was requisitioned, ancient icons and valuable vestments were taken to museum storerooms, and bells, bronze iconostases and utensils were sent for melting down.

In the year of celebrating the 850th anniversary of the capital, the Moscow government decided to build a temple-chapel of Boris and Gleb a little away from the location of the ancient cathedral. In August 1997, on Arbat Square, 4, a monument to the lost shrine was already built, recreated in memory of the glorious Moscow church in the name of Saints Boris and Gleb, who remembered the times of Ivan III. And nearby, in front of the Khudozhestvenny cinema, on the very spot where the original temple of Boris and Gleb stood, a memorial sign was erected.

For ten years now, on Arbat Square there has been a temple-chapel in the name of Saints Boris and Gleb, recreated in memory of the glorious Moscow temple that remembered the times of Ivan III.

At the holy gates

The Arbat Gate was revered as saints in Moscow. According to legend, in 1440, when the Kazan Khan Magmet besieged Moscow, and Grand Duke Vasily II allegedly locked himself in the Kremlin out of fear (in fact, he left to gather an army), the schema-monk prince Vladimir Khovrin, the same one who together with his father he built the Moscow Simonov Monastery. By that time, he had long since left the world and founded the Holy Cross Monastery in his courtyard near the Kremlin, which gave its name to the street. When the enemy attacked Moscow, he gathered a fighting detachment from his monastery brethren and joined the Moscow military leader, Prince Yuri Patrikeevich of Lithuania. Under pressure, the Tatars began to retreat, and the warrior-monks recaptured the convoy of prisoners from them. Then Khovrin sprinkled them with holy water in the place where the Arbat Gate of the White City later appeared. At that time, Arbat was a suburb of Moscow, since in fact city, that is, the fortress, was the Kremlin itself: according to the traditional version, the word “Arbat” means suburb or suburb.

Perhaps the wooden church of Boris and Gleb witnessed this event. Its initial story is lost in the fog. There is a version that it has been known in Moscow since 1453 - the year of the fall of Byzantium! According to the chronicle narrative, it was in it that Grand Duke Vasily II, during a service, learned about the death of his sworn enemy Dmitry Shemyaka in Novgorod: messengers brought this news to him in the temple. Other researchers believe that the chronicle referred to another Boris and Gleb Church - the one that now stands on Varvarka, better known by its chapel as the Church of St. Maxim the Blessed.

But it was the Arbat church that was mentioned in the chronicle in the story of the great fire that raged on July 28, 1493 from a penny candle in the nearby Church of St. Nicholas on the Sands. In the same chronicle message the name Arbat appears for the first time. Thus, the Church of Boris and Gleb turns out to be not only the same age as the Arbat in the chronicles, but even older than Red Square. Since the flames then spread to the Kremlin, Grand Duke Ivan III ordered that the courtyards be moved away from the eastern wall of the Kremlin in order to protect themselves from fire in the future - this is how Red Square appeared.

The church, damaged by the fire, was not restored for a long time, but in 1527 a stone church already stood in its place, built by order of Grand Duke Vasily III. This church was especially revered by his son Ivan the Terrible. Under him, by decree of the Stoglavy Cathedral in 1551, the Church of Boris and Gleb became one of the seven Moscow cathedrals (according to the number of Ecumenical Councils), that is, the main temple in a certain parish district. It was also a place of special royal pilgrimage before military campaigns, since it was located on the main, western, direction. According to custom, the sovereigns marched to it from the Kremlin with a procession of the cross, with their retinue, clergy and army, listened to mass there, then served a prayer service and received a parting blessing. Ivan the Terrible prayed here in May 1562, when he “went to his Lithuanian business,” and listened to mass here. In November of the same year, Ivan the Terrible, again deciding to go against “godless Lithuania,” after praying in the Kremlin cathedrals, went with his army to the Arbat Church of Boris and Gleb. St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, walked with the king in the procession of the cross, and the procession carried with it the miraculous Don image of the Mother of God, which was with Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo field. At the prayer service, the shepherd and the sovereign prayed to the Lord for victory and for the preservation of Moscow and all Russian cities “from all evil slander.” At the same temple, sovereigns returning from great campaigns were traditionally greeted. In March 1563, Ivan the Terrible was greeted here with triumph when Polotsk was captured by the Russians.

During the Time of Troubles, the Arbat church found itself on the battlefield. In 1612, “at Boris and Gleb” the fate of Moscow was decided: here a victorious battle took place between the militia of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and the army of Hetman Khodkevich, who went to the aid of the Poles besieged in the Kremlin.

In 1618, the Polish prince Vladislav, invited to the Moscow throne back in the Time of Troubles, tried to defend his rights to it. On the night of the Feast of the Intercession, October 1, 1618, the army of Hetman Sagaidachny approached Moscow and stormed the walls of the White City. On Arbat, near the Church of Boris and Gleb, the hetman encamped - from there the cannonballs flew to the Kremlin. And, according to legend, a miracle happened: on the morning before the assault, the hetman heard the festive ringing of the Kremlin bells, burst into tears and left with his army away from the Moscow walls, without accepting the battle. It is reliably known that from here a detachment of the Maltese cavalier Bartolomeo Novodvorsky tried to break through to the Kremlin, and the Arbat Gate was defended by the okolnichy Nikita Godunov, who managed to push the enemy back from the walls of Moscow. Then the bell solemnly rang on the bell tower of the Church of Boris and Gleb, and Godunov and the soldiers held a thanksgiving prayer service in it. This victory, which was seen as the clear patronage of Moscow by the Most Pure Mother of God, ended the Time of Troubles.

At the end of the same 17th century, a knot tightened in the history of the Boris and Gleb Church, which led to the construction of a new church at the Arbat Gate.

The crafty courtier

By the beginning of Peter the Great’s time, in the Boris and Gleb Church there were tombs of two eminent families of Russia - the Musins-Pushkins and the Bestuzhevs: the nobility had long settled in these blessed lands. One of the most famous parishioners of the temple was Ivan Alekseevich Musin-Pushkin, the nephew of Patriarch Joachim, who became famous during the reign of Peter I. His solid stone chambers stood on the Arbat not far from the artisans' settlement of Kolymazhny Dvor. The nobleman ordered the addition of a chapel in honor of the Resurrection of the Word to the parish church, which became his home church. A special priest served there on holidays and days important for the Musin-Pushkin family, and on other days the owners locked it with a key. In this chapel they began to bury members of the family, by the way, one of the oldest in Russia: they traced their ancestry back to the same legendary Radsha, who came to serve Alexander Nevsky, as the Pushkins. A distant descendant of Radsha (great-grandson of Grigory Pushka) Mikhail Timofeevich Pushkin, nicknamed Musa, who lived in the 15th century, was the ancestor of the Musins-Pushkins. By the way, when A.S. Pushkin got married, he became related to them again, since Natalya Nikolaevna’s grandmother on her father’s side was Nadezhda Platonovna Musina-Pushkina.

The rise of this family began under Peter I. The Tsar entrusted Ivan Alekseevich with strengthening Moscow in anticipation of the invasion of Charles XII. He was also entrusted with managing the affairs of the Printing House and managing the construction of a military hospital in Lefortovo. In addition, the boyar headed the Monastic Order and became famous in the fight against the poor; he served as a commander in Astrakhan and on the battlefield in the Battle of Poltava. Peter greatly favored him and his eldest son Plato, who, according to family legend, was considered the illegitimate son of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The other two sons of Ivan Alekseevich died early and, presumably, were buried in the Resurrection chapel of the Arbat church. Platon Ivanovich, also a parishioner of “Boris and Gleb,” became a diplomat and rose greatly in his career thanks to the support of Anna’s cabinet minister Artemy Volynsky, for which he paid. In the summer of 1740, at the libel of Duke Biron, he was deprived of his awards and his entire fortune and exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, allegedly for impudent words against the empress. Only the house in the parish on Arbat remained for his wife and children. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna restored Platon Alekseevich to his rights and returned his sword, but ordered him to retire. On the day of the coronation of Catherine II, his son Valentin Platonovich was promoted to chamber cadet. And daughter Alevtina Platonovna decided the fate of the family chapel and tomb in the Boris and Gleb Church.

In another, Kazan, chapel there was the tomb of the Bestuzhevs. It was this circumstance that ultimately influenced the further fate of the temple. The most important page of its history is connected with the name of Count Alexei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin, who enriched Moscow with two magnificent churches at once and all because of his vigorous political activity.

He was also a representative of a very noble family. It is sometimes believed that the Bestuzhev-Ryumins go back to the boyar Dmitry Donskoy A.F. Pleshcheya, whose grandson was Andrei Bestuzh. Another version traces their origin to the English nobleman Best (baptized Gabriel) from the house of Besturov, who went to Grand Duke Vasily I Dmitrievich in 1403, and to his son Yakov Gabrielovich, nicknamed Ryuma. So read the letter issued to Pyotr Mikhailovich Bestuzhev, the father of our hero, when he was elevated to the rank of count at the end of the 17th century. In 1701, together with his closest relatives Peter I allowed to be called Bestuzhev-Ryumin, unlike the other Bestuzhevs. By that time, Alexei Petrovich was 8 years old.

Quite early on, he showed remarkable court abilities, was sent to Europe for diplomatic service and more than once came out unscathed. They say that in 1717, having learned about the flight of Tsarevich Alexei to Vienna, he allegedly hastily wrote him a letter with assurances of devotion and readiness to serve “the future Tsar and Sovereign,” and he did not give him up during the investigation. Alexey Petrovich visited the service of Anna Ioannovna, the future empress, and then the Dowager Duchess of Courland, and then did her a great service by finding in the archives of the Duke of Holstein the will of Catherine I, drawn up in favor of the descendants of Peter the Great. In 1724, while a Russian diplomat in Copenhagen, he achieved recognition of the imperial title of Peter I from the Danish king. Along with his service, while studying chemistry, he invented the famous “Bestuzhev drops” - a remedy that “has a very strong effect, restoring strength in the elderly and in people exhausted by prolonged severe illnesses.” The assistant pharmacist received a generous reward for the stolen prescription and lived comfortably for the rest of his life. And in Russia, only Catherine II bought the recipe for drops from Bestuzhev’s widow for three thousand rubles and published it in the St. Petersburg Gazette.

The future chancellor had many hobbies, but his main concern was always politics. At the end of the 1730s, he fell into favor with Biron and, in gratitude, he himself supported the duke in his appointment as regent under the young Ivan Antonovich. That is why, after the fall of Biron in 1740, Bestuzhev was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress and sentenced to death, replaced by exile to his only non-confiscated estate. Returning in October 1741, he took part in a palace coup. And so Elizaveta Petrovna ascended the throne. This happened in December on the feast of St. Clement of Rome - and Bestuzhev, who had chambers in Zamoskvorechye near the old temple of the same name, ordered it to be rebuilt in honor of the accession to the throne of his beloved autocrat. This is how this amazing temple in the Elizabethan Baroque style appeared on Pyatnitskaya Street.

Alexey Petrovich himself was awarded the title of count, the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called and the Great Chancellor. For 16 years he determined Russia's foreign policy, considering Prussia and its Emperor Frederick the main enemy, for which he partly paid with his service.

In June 1744, when the young Princess Fike, the bride of the future Peter III, arrived in St. Petersburg, Bestuzhev managed to achieve the removal from Russia of her mother, Johanna of Zerbst, who was very favorable to Frederick. Then Bestuzhev initiated Russia’s entry into the Seven Years’ War with Prussia. He was hated by his heir, Peter Fedorovich, who worshiped Frederick. Bestuzhev paid him in kind and hatched plans to remove him from the throne by transferring the right to inherit the throne to the young Pavel Petrovich under the regency of Ekaterina Alekseevna.

In 1757, Elizaveta Petrovna became seriously ill. The wind of impending political change began to blow. Chancellor Bestuzhev, thinking that she would not get up, and trying to win over the future Emperor Peter III, personally ordered Field Marshal S.F. Apraksin to return to Russia and withdraw from the war with Prussia. He returned - and the empress recovered and brought down her anger on Bestuzhev for his arbitrariness. A more common version says that he did not curry favor with the heir, but on the contrary, during the days of Elizabeth’s illness, his conspiracy against Pyotr Fedorovich was discovered.

One way or another, in February 1758, the empress deprived Bestuzhev of his ranks and awards. On charges of high treason, he was sentenced to death, with exile to the village of Goretovo near Moscow, where he lived for several years in a smoky peasant hut. He grew a beard. His favorite reading was reading the Holy Scriptures. Then he was allowed to build a new house, which he called “the abode of sadness.” He was rescued from exile by Catherine II, who ascended the throne in 1762. He was completely restored to his previous ranks and awarded the rank of field marshal general, but... left out of work: in returning the disgraced chancellor, the empress simply wanted to mark the beginning of her reign with a kind and majestic deed.

To celebrate and hope for a serene future, or, on the contrary, anticipating imminent death and to clear his conscience, Bestuzhev decided to use his own funds to build a new parish church of Boris and Gleb on Arbat in a fashionable Western style. The Metropolitan gave permission, but the Musins-Pushkins categorically opposed Bestuzhev’s plan. They demanded that a new temple be built not on the site of the old one, because they wanted to keep their tomb in the chapel. The church authorities were on the side of Bestuzhev, who insisted on the complete demolition of the dilapidated temple. And in 1763, a decree was issued to demolish the old church, and Bestuzhev was obliged to build a Resurrection chapel at the new church in the image of the old one and move the burials of the Musins-Pushkins there. In response, they did not even allow representatives of the consistory into “their” chapel, but still they had to give in. In the fall of 1763, Countess Alevtina Platonovna Musina-Pushkina arrived from St. Petersburg and gave her permission to demolish the chapel, and the family coffins were transferred to the Kremlin Miracle Monastery, where the Musin-Pushkin family burial grounds were also located.

To build a new temple, Bestuzhev invited the architect Karl Ivanovich Blank, a man of dramatic fate, who also did not escape exile (like so many of those whose destinies touched this Arbat temple). A descendant of French Huguenots who fled to Germany, Karl Ivanovich was the grandson of a master invited by Peter I to the Olonets factory, and the son of an architect who also fell into political turmoil under Biron. Little Karl also went into eternal Siberian exile with his father, but not for long: after the overthrow of Biron in 1740, they were allowed to return to Moscow.

Soon the chief architect Rastrelli himself appreciated the young man’s talent, entrusting him with the restoration of the tent of the Resurrection Cathedral in the New Jerusalem Monastery. By the time of Bestuzhev’s invitation, Blank was celebrated in Moscow by the Church of St. Nicholas in Zvonary on Rozhdestvenka. This architect was distinguished by his ability to combine European styles with native Russian architectural traditions. Blank built the new, very elegant Boris and Gleb Church in Baroque forms. Painted in a Moscow-style bright red fiery color, the church seemed to be glowing in the sun. Two former chapels were consecrated in it - Kazan and Resurrection.

The temple took five years to build. During this time, Bestuzhev managed to publish the book he compiled in exile - “Consolation of a Christian in Misfortune, or Poems Selected from the Holy Scriptures.” He minted medals dedicated to the Peace of Nystadt, his exile, and even his imminent death. Indeed, he never saw his church, dying in St. Petersburg in April 1766. The church was consecrated on December 6, 1768. The shrines of the old temple were moved into it, and a portrait of the temple builder was even placed in the altar.

The architect Blank was already in the prime of his creative abilities: he built the Church of St. Catherine on Ordynka in honor of the new empress, and the Church of Cyrus and John on Solyanka in honor of the day of her accession to the throne, and the Orphanage, and the Sheremetev Palace in Kuskovo.

An interesting interpretation of the Arbat temple was given by the famous Moscow scholar Rustam Rakhmatullin. In his opinion, the Boris and Gleb Church became the temple of the military Arbat. Arbat, as a special Moscow world, has always been looking for its own temple. The overall result of these Arbat searches was the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, but the incident lay in the fact that the Arbat intelligentsia preferred the “Great Ascension” to it.

They managed to build the Boris and Gleb Church on time. It turned out to be the urban center of the new Arbat Square, after the last section of the White City wall with a tower was broken here in 1792. And especially after 1812, when the square was decorated with new stone buildings and became one of the largest on the boulevard ring.

"At Boris and Gleb's on Arbat"

The flames of the Patriotic War miraculously spared the Boris and Gleb Church. Moreover, it was so well preserved that after the victory, neighboring destroyed churches were assigned to it, including the Church of the Apostle Philip, which a few years later became the Jerusalem metochion. The rest of the churches, such as St. John the Merciful in Kalashnoye (the parish of the actor Pavel Mochalov) and others assigned to the temple, were soon dismantled and went to the construction of new chapels in Arbat - the Robe and Mary Magdalene. Icons and utensils from dismantled churches were also moved here.

The main shrine of the Arbat church remained the ancient temple image of Saints Boris and Gleb with a life, before which prayer services were often served, but now the revered icons of Saint Nile of Stolobensky with a particle of relics and Saint John the Merciful were also kept here.

After the Patriotic War, “Boris and Gleb” developed a wonderful parish. According to historian Sergei Romanyuk, here, in the house of Anastasia Mikhailovna Shcherbinina, daughter of the famous Princess Ekaterina Dashkova and parishioner of the Boris and Gleb Church, the first ball of the Pushkin couple took place, held just two days after their wedding, on February 20, 1831. Previously it was believed that this ball was given in another house on Znamenka. Pushkin was very interested in the mistress of the house’s memories of her mother, her vivid stories about Catherine’s time, and especially about the conspiracy against Peter III.

Alexander Ivanovich Pisarev, the uncle of the famous revolutionary critic, lived in the parish of the Boris and Gleb Church. He was called the first Russian vaudeville performer, he was famous for his witty epigrams and satires and generally showed great promise - according to S.T. Aksakov, “everything made us expect Aristophanes’ comedies from him.” His vaudevilles, where he ridiculed social vices, were staged at the Maly Theater and even on the stage of the capital's Alexandria Theater; the roles were played by M.S. Shchepkin; music was written by A.A. Alyabyev and A.N. Verstovsky. And such a strict critic as V.G. Belinsky noted that all Russian vaudeville actors are not worth Pisarev alone. However, Pisarev was very prone to literary “fights”. Irritable and bilious, he did not bypass any authorities with his satirical pen.

Pisarev's talent faded at the very beginning of its heyday. He died of consumption on November 20, 1828 at the age of 27, and the priest of the Boris and Gleb Church gave him farewell before his death.

After 30 years, Pisarev’s friend S.T. will become a parishioner of the Arbat church. Aksakov. Once upon a time, from here, from the Arbat Gate, his happy family life began: S.T. Aksakov married Olga Zaplatina in the nearby Temple of Simeon the Stylite. And his last Moscow house was located at 6 Maly Kislovsky Lane, where, by the way, uncle A.S. owned it. Griboedova. When the seriously ill writer arrived in these parts, the first thing he did was ask what parish church was here, remembered Pisarev and predicted: “I will die here, and they will have my funeral service here.” His premonition came true. On the night of April 30, 1859, Aksakov died on Kislovka, and his funeral service was held in the Church of Boris and Gleb at the Arbat Gate. From the temple, the funeral procession, according to the last will of the deceased, went to the graveyard of the Simonov Monastery, and in Soviet times his ashes were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery.

This “literary” church, which appeared on the pages of Herzen and Mikhail Osorgin, turned out to be no stranger to the theatrical history of Moscow. On an October evening in the stormy year of 1905, Evgeny Vakhtangov and his chosen one, Nadezhda Baitsurova, got married there, and remained faithful to him for the rest of her life. Personal happiness compensated the creator of the famous theater for a family tragedy. His father, a large tobacco manufacturer, hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps and inherit the business. And the son, who was passionate about theater even in his high school years, dreamed that his father’s workshops would become theatrical. Marriage to a school friend against the will of the parent finally broke off their relationship. The father regretted giving his son an education and disinherited him. But Vakhtangov himself never regretted his choice.

"In a year of blood and thunder"

The revolution on Arbat began with a fire. There were fierce battles at the Nikitsky Gate, and the Church of Boris and Gleb was suddenly engulfed in flames. This was the first ominous harbinger of the coming tragedy. In April 1922, church silver was confiscated from the temple. The following year, a certain society with the characteristic name “Cultural Link” petitioned to close the church and transfer its building to a club. Employees of the People's Commissariat for Education, who contacted the Moscow City Council, pointed out the value of the temple as the best example of Baroque in Moscow and insisted on its complete inviolability. The transfer for the club was refused, although some in the Moscow Soviet vigilantly noted the undesirable social composition of the believers of this temple (Arbatians!). Meanwhile, the temple acted, rallying an increasing number of parishioners due to the Arbat churches being closed in the area. And in December 1926, the funeral service for the famous church composer A.D. was held here. Kastalsky, who was called the author of the first Russian requiem.

The year of the “great turning point” - 1929 - became tragic for the old Arbat. The authorities wanted to put an end to the “Moscow Saint-Germain”, the Arbat intelligentsia, and the Arbat churches with one blow. Now it was not about the club. Now members of the Khamovnichesky District Council asked the Moscow Council to demolish the Boris and Gleb Church to expand Arbat Square, to streamline traffic flow and for the further improvement of socialist Moscow. Museum workers hastily proposed demolishing the two-story house next to the temple and reducing the size of the pedestrian sidewalks, but since the real reason for the demolition of the temple lay elsewhere, they were not heard. In October 1929, the Presidium of the Moscow Regional Executive Committee decided to demolish the Boris and Gleb Church, as it was obstructing traffic.

However, a riot began in the Central Restoration Workshops. At the meeting chaired by P.D. Baranovsky, it was decided to reaffirm the great value of the temple as a monument of “outstanding historical and architectural significance”, again point out the expediency of demolishing the neighboring house, which has no such value, and recognize the destruction of the temple as unreasonable and inappropriate, especially since it was perfectly preserved. In those same October days, parishioners wrote a statement to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in defense of the temple. The authorities got angry, and on Christmas Eve 1929, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to demolish not only the Boris and Gleb Church, but also the Church of the Burning Bush in Zubov, and the Church of Mary of Egypt in the Sretensky Monastery.

In February 1930, the Boris and Gleb Church was closed. Ancient icons and valuable vestments were taken to museum storerooms, and bells, bronze iconostases and utensils were handed over for recycling. Architect B.N. Zasypkin managed to carry out the necessary measurements. The community was transferred to another St. Boris and Gleb Church - on Povarskaya, but in 1933 its time also ended. Now in its place is the building of the State Musical Pedagogical Institute named after. Gnesins, and the Arbat “Boris and Gleb” left an empty space. It is noted that in the 1930s, all the churches on the way from the Kremlin to Kuntsevo were demolished, and wits began to call Arbat the “Georgian Military Road.”

During the war, a German bomb intended for the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR on Znamenka destroyed an ancient house on Arbat Square and Vozdvizhenka. They did not build up the site and temporarily planted it with trees, since the General Plan for the Socialist Reconstruction of Moscow in 1935 outlined big changes in that area. However, after the war, a road tunnel was only dug on Arbat Square, and a new building of the Ministry of Defense, nicknamed the “Pentagon,” was built nearby. All that was left of the temple was a small wasteland, and yet history unexpectedly turned out to be more kind to it than to many of its dead neighbors.

Temple and monument

In 1997, for the celebration of the 850th anniversary of the capital, the Moscow government decided to build a temple-chapel of Boris and Gleb on Arbat Square. It was erected a little further from the place where the historical prototype stood, but exactly on the site of the ancient temple of Tikhon the Wonderworker, which was also destroyed by the revolution, which is why one of the chapels was consecrated in the name of St. Tikhon. The temple-chapel was built in the image of the old Boris and Gleb Church, but complete data about its interior could not be found.

The laying took place on May 8, 1997, and already on August 6, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II consecrated the temple-chapel, which became the best, sacred monument of the lost shrine. Nearby, in front of the Khudozhestvenny cinema, there is a memorial sign - on the very spot where the original temple of Boris and Gleb stood.

In preparing the material, V. Kozlov’s article “Church of Saints Boris and Gleb on Arbat Square: History and Fates” was partially used (

It was not for nothing that Moscow was called the city of forty forty; there were many churches in it. But the residents of the city have always had a special predilection for “their” church, as a native of Moscow, the anarchist prince Peter Kropotkin wrote, “the very church where they were once baptized and where their parents were buried.” But there were churches in Moscow that were revered and visited by everyone. The Church of Boris and Gleb at the Arbat Gate was considered one of these shrines.
After 1917, parishioners increasingly had to say goodbye to their churches - in the 1920s, churches began to close, turning over their buildings for warehouses and offices. In the surviving churches, a massive confiscation of church valuables began, which provoked reprisals against the clergy. In a letter to members of the Politburo dated March 19, 1922, Lenin wrote about the need to mercilessly suppress the resistance of the clergy who opposed the looting of churches. “The more representatives of the reactionary bourgeoisie and the reactionary clergy we manage to shoot on this occasion, the better,” Vladimir Ilyich instructed his comrades. But the churches, looted and desecrated, still stood, giving Moscow streets their unique architectural appearance.
The main blow to Moscow religious monuments was dealt on April 8, 1929 - on this day the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party adopted a resolution “On Religious Cults”, aimed at the complete eradication of religiosity in the country. The Soviet leadership, which in words declared loyalty to the principles of freedom of conscience, in fact turned atheism into a state ideology and, as part of the anti-religious struggle, easily swept away an entire layer of national culture, engaging in the massive destruction of church buildings and persecution of believers.
In Moscow, in front of the authorities, zealous executors of party guidelines launched the most active activities for the total demolition of churches. During the years of Soviet power, 433 churches were destroyed in the city, and the main wave of destruction occurred in the early 1930s...

Both Arbat Square and Arbat itself lost all their ancient churches. This is one of the most terrible and irreparable losses of our city. Several small churches have survived in the Arbat alleys, but they are not visible from the street. The architectural originality of Arbat, where ancient churches with bell towers, visible from any end of the street, served as “vertical landmarks” and visually “assembled” individual houses into the city ensemble, has been lost. The cultural and historical damage is also terrible - after all, most of the churches in the center of Moscow were built in the 19th century. VII V. - many countries cherish such ancient buildings as the greatest national value. How can we evaluate the pain of religious people, before whose eyes their shrines are thoughtlessly destroyed?
The Church of Boris and Gleb had a rich history. It was rebuilt several times, and its last building was considered by experts to be one of the best examples of Moscow Baroque.

Arbat Square with the churches of Boris and Gleb and St. Tikhon

Boris and Gleb, to whom the temple was dedicated, are one of the first Russian saints, the sons of the Kyiv prince Vladimir the Baptist. Brutally killed on the orders of their brother Svyatopolk, nicknamed the Accursed, Boris and Gleb were canonized and have always been especially revered by believers in Russia. The Church of Boris and Gleb was considered the main temple of Arbat Square.
The first chronicle evidence of the location of the Boris and Gleb Church dates back to 1493. The terrible fire that broke out on the Arbat, in the Church of St. Nicholas on the Sands and destroyed most of the wooden Moscow, reached the Church of Boris and Gleb, also wooden in those days. The wave of fire approached the church building, seemingly doomed to destruction, and suddenly stopped and began to subside on its own. The fire spared the temple and did not spread further. The townspeople considered it a miracle.

Saints Boris and Gleb
Icon painter Viktor Morozov 2006

30 years later, in 1527, by order of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily Ivanovich, a new stone church was built instead of a dilapidated wooden church. In those days, the great Moscow princes, and later the tsars, loved to pray in this church when setting off from Moscow on a long journey or returning to the capital after a difficult journey. Ivan was here too III , and Vasily Ivanovich, and Ivan IV Grozny.
The church served for more than 200 years, going through all the difficult times and unexpected turns of Russian history with Muscovites. In the middle of X VIII V. The question of reconstructing the church again arose. In 1762, the parish priest submitted a petition for the reconstruction of the church building, where he explained that the Boris and Gleb Church, “built over many years, became extremely dilapidated and it became inconvenient to repair it.”
However, it was possible to start building a new church only when the clergy found a wealthy donor or, as we would now say, a sponsor - Count Alexei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin. An influential nobleman, the right hand of "Peter's daughter" Empress Elizabeth, fell out of favor at court, but upon the accession of young Catherine to the throne II was treated kindly by her - reinstated in rank and even mercifully promoted to field marshal general. The count was full of hopes and claims to the important role of a courtier. Either fulfilling a vow, or simply out of gratitude for the luck sent by the Lord, Bestuzhev agreed to give money for the construction of a new building for the Boris and Gleb Church.

Alexey Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin

The count commissioned the construction project from one of the best and most fashionable architects of the time, Karl Blank.
However, the powerful Musin-Pushkin clan unexpectedly opposed the destruction of the old building. Parishioners and long-term donors of the Church of Boris and Gleb, the Musins-Pushkins added a special chapel to the old building, which they considered something like their courtyard church and in which there were burials of several representatives of this family. In order not to disturb the coffins of their ancestors, the Musins-Pushkins did not allow the old church or at least their family chapel to be demolished, demanding that it be built into a new building. Blank and Bestuzhev-Ryumin could not and did not want to commit such a violation of the project.
Church authorities intervened in the conflict. The Archbishop of Moscow found a compromise solution - to demolish the old church and build a special chapel at the new church in the name of the Resurrection of Christ for the Musins-Pushkins and the ashes of their ancestors. However, the litigation between the two count families did not end there. The Musins-Pushkins posted a guard of their servants at the old church, who did not allow anyone into it, not even representatives of the consistory.The construction project was saved only by the arrival of Countess Alevtina Platonovna Musina-Pushkina from St. Petersburg. This influential lady had the final say in the protracted conflict. She reluctantly gave permission to dismantle the family shrine, heeding the arguments of the holy fathers. Coffins of A.P.'s ancestors Musina-Pushkin was moved to the Kremlin Miracle Monastery. By mid-1764, the old church was dismantled and construction of a new temple began. The work was supervised by Karl Blank.
Ancestors of Blanca in X VI V. fled from France, fleeing religious persecution, and settled in Saxony. There's Peter I met the architect's grandfather and invited him to St. Petersburg. Having moved to Russia, the Blancs found themselves closely connected with the history and culture of this country. Karl Blank's father, Johann Blank, also an architect, built in St. Petersburg. The Znamenskaya Church at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, built by Johann Blank, has been preserved.

Znamenskaya Church at the Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo, built by Johann Blank

Karl Blank worked for over twenty years on the improvement of the Kuskovo estate, owned by Count P.B. Sheremetev. Moreover, Sheremetev personally discussed with the architect the smallest details of many buildings, for example, the Kuskovo Hermitage. At the same time, Bestuzhev-Ryumin ordered Blank to design a church at the Arbat Gate.
(The fate of the architect’s descendants is interesting - the grandson of K.I. Blank, N.V. Basargin, became a Decembrist, and the great-grandson, the son of Blank’s granddaughter Alexandra, P.P. Semenov-Tyanshansky is known as an outstanding geographer, traveler, art connoisseur and collector).
The Church of Boris and Gleb took five years to build. Bestuzhev-Ryumin financed and supervised the construction. Despite such generous donations, luck did not smile so widely on the count - it was difficult for the elderly courtier to compete in the struggle for power with the energetic Orlovs and other favorites of Empress Catherine.
Boris and Gleb Church was consecrated on December 6, 1768. By that time, the areas around Arbat were actively populated by nobles and the new church had many wealthy parishioners.
Two years later, in December 1770, the plague began in Moscow. Parishioners, seeking God's protection, donated a lot to the churches. Boris and Gleb Church at the Arbat Gate was known and loved in Moscow. Churchwas considered one of the most visited in the city.
By the 1780s, the demolition of the collapsed walls of the White City was completed. There was a beautiful view of the temple from Prechistensky Boulevard, built on the site of an old fortress. In order to develop the area near the temple, the authorities ordered it to be cleared of wooden benches, courtyards of insolvent townspeople and church beggars. The church became the architectural center of Arbat Square. Its majestic tent and slender bell tower were visible from afar.

A.P. Rozanov. Fair on Arbat Square

The fire of 1812, which completely devastated the Arbat area, spared the Boris and Gleb Church. The most terrible Moscow fires bypassed this church, as if it stood on a cursed land. Other Arbat churches were damaged so badly that not all of them were possible to restore. The parishes of the Philippo-Apostolic, Tikhonovskaya, Ioanno-Milostivskaya, Kosmodamianovskaya and Robozhenskaya churches were assigned to Boris and Gleb. (The Churches of the Apostle Philip and St. Tikhon eventually managed to be restored). After dismantling the destroyed church buildings, the surviving material was used for the construction of two more chapels of the St. Boris and Gleb Church - the Robe of St. Mary and Mary Magdalene.
The rescued shrines that were kept in the destroyed churches until 1812 also went to Boris and Gleb. Among them was the icon of St. John the Merciful X VI V. and the image of Nil Stolbensky with part of the relics, especially revered by pilgrims. An ancient icon with the life of Saints Boris and Gleb was in this temple from X VI V. and during all the reconstructions of the church building, she always found a place of honor.
The revolution of 1917 turned into a tragedy for the Church of Boris and Gleb, as well as for other Moscow churches. In the early 1920s, the interior of the temple was damaged - the Bolsheviks confiscated silver and religious objects made of valuable metals. Then a struggle developed between the parishioners and the Cultural Link society, which sought to close the church and place a club in its building. The intervention of the Museum Department of the People's Commissariat for Education helped briefly defend the Boris and Gleb Church, although the official authorities came to the conclusion that "the group of believers is not desirable in its composition."

1925 The House of Sanitation and Hygiene is already located in the Church of Boris and Gleb

The year 1929 came, when the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On Religious Cults” dealt a terrible blow to Orthodox Moscow. The total destruction of holy places began. On October 4, 1929, Moscow authorities decided to demolish the Church of Boris and Gleb. Architects, restorers, and church parishioners tried to fight, appealed to the highest authorities, hoping to appeal this decision. But it was all in vain. On December 20, 1929, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee signed a “sentence” to three ancient churches at once - the Boris and Gleb Church at the Arbat Gate, the Church of the Burning Bush in Neopalimovsky Lane and the Church of Mary of Egypt in the Sretensky Monastery.
Boris and Gleb Church was doomed. The ancient icons were taken out of the church by the Museum Fund. Bells, gilded bronze iconostases, candlesticks and other utensils were sent for disposal as scrap metal. At the end of 1930, the Moscow City Council began demolishing the church. Before the church died, the architect B.N. Zasypkin took measurements and photographs of the Church of Boris and Gleb. Soon, a unique structure that defined its appearance disappeared from Arbat Square.
In the mid-1990s, according to the design of architect Yu.S. On Vylegzhanin Square, a small chapel was erected, outwardly reminiscent of the main building of the Boris and Gleb Church in reduced proportions (materials left by B.N. Zasypkin were useful). But it was not placed on the site of the Church of Boris and Gleb, but to the side, where the Church of St. Tikhon used to be. Needless to say, this cannot be considered an equivalent replacement...

The Temple of Boris and Gleb, at the Arbat Gate, is an Orthodox church that existed in Moscow, in the White City, on Arbat Square.
The church was first mentioned in the chronicle, speaking about the events of July 28, 1493 - about the great fire that broke out from a penny candle in the neighboring Church of St. Nicholas on the Sands. In the same chronicle message the name Arbat appears for the first time.
The first stone church in honor of Boris and Gleb was built in 1527, by order of Grand Duke Vasily III. This church was especially revered by his son Ivan the Terrible. Under him, in 1551, the Church of Boris and Gleb became one of seven Moscow cathedrals (according to the number of Ecumenical Councils), that is, the main temple in a certain parish district. It was also a place of special royal pilgrimage before military campaigns, since it was located on the main, western, direction. According to custom, the sovereigns marched to it from the Kremlin with a procession of the cross, with their retinue, clergy and army, listened to mass there, then served a prayer service and received a parting blessing. Ivan the Terrible prayed here in May 1562, when he “went to his Lithuanian business,” and listened to mass here. In November of the same year, Ivan the Terrible, again deciding to march on Lithuania, after praying in the Kremlin cathedrals, went with his army to the Arbat Church of Boris and Gleb. St. Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, walked with the king in the procession of the cross, and the procession carried with it the miraculous Don image of the Mother of God, which was with Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo field. At the prayer service, the shepherd and the sovereign prayed to the Lord for victory and for the preservation of Moscow and all Russian cities “from all evil slander.” At the same temple, sovereigns returning from military campaigns were traditionally greeted. In March 1563, Ivan the Terrible was greeted here with triumph when Polotsk was captured by Russian troops.
The new church with the chapels of the Kazan Mother of God and the Resurrection of the Word took 5 years to build from 1763, and was consecrated in 1768. It was built at the expense of the former chancellor Count Bestuzhev. The architect was Karl Ivanovich Blank.
After the fire of 1812, which spared the temple, the destroyed surrounding churches were assigned to it. Some of them were soon dismantled, and the material was used for the construction of the chapels of the Robe of the State of Blachernae and Mary Magdalene. The church was one of the best examples of Baroque in Moscow, but was demolished in 1930 under the pretext of reconstructing the square. A small memorial sign has been placed near the site of the church.
In 1997, for the celebration of the 850th anniversary of the capital, the Moscow government decided to build a temple-chapel of Boris and Gleb on Arbat Square. It was erected a little further from the place where the historical prototype stood, but exactly on the site of the ancient temple of Tikhon the Wonderworker, which was also destroyed by the revolution, which is why one of the chapels was consecrated in the name of St. Tikhon. The temple-chapel was built in the image of the old Boris and Gleb Church, but complete data about its interior could not be found.
The laying took place on May 8, 1997, and already on August 6, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II consecrated the temple-chapel, which became the best, sacred monument of the lost shrine. Nearby, in front of the Khudozhestvenny cinema, a memorial sign was erected - on the very spot where the original temple of Boris and Gleb stood.

http://ru.wikipedia.org

Photos of Svetlana Komkova (Ufa)