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| Holy Trinity Monastery Cemetery (Jordanville, NY) |
"We had lived almost our entire conscious lives - I mean until the 1970s - under the Communists. We went to work, took the children to kindergarten, were afraid to stay out of work for more than one month - otherwise our service would have been interrupted and our pension would have been less. One of us was even a believer, attended churches, listened to sermons - in almost all of which we were reminded of the Christian virtues: to work diligently for the good of our homeland - the USSR and honor the authorities, for all authority is from God (they said). And only a few, as I think, by the special grace of God, knew that there was another homeland, another life, other Christians.
In the territory with the demonic whistling name of the USSR, Russia existed. It was a secret Russia. Only those who were supposed to know about its presence - namely, the inhabitants of this country themselves and its [Soviet] enemies knew of it. The inhabitants of this country are the Russian people - not Soviet, but Russian. Among this people there are many of various nationalities, but this is still the Russian people, because the main thing was never the nation. In the former Russia there was one nation - the Russian people, that is, Orthodox Christians... To be Russian means to be Orthodox!
So, this Russia has remained. She went underground - in the literal sense of the word, yet she was alive and did not allow herself to be exterminated. Her existence was blessed by Patriarch Tikhon for he proclaimed the anathema against the new [Soviet] government, and those who collaborate with it! Thus, for many Christians there was no question; they simply did not want to be under the anathema. Eventually the new government with its tentacles captured the patriarchate. This means that we must leave this organization, especially since its leaders pronounced the belief that the joys of the new government are their joys.
Now [in the 1990s] much is written in various publications about the metropolitans, bishops, and priests who did not accept the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius and preferred to go to death and to prison for the purity and truth of the Church. Their lives and photographs are printed, their martyrdom is reported. Thank God!
Behind each of them stood flocks - huge numbers of Orthodox Christians! Most of these were simple, often illiterate village people, peasants. However, they clearly knew - where there are communists, there must be sin: sin to be in their church, in their work, in their schools, sin in taking their documents. The Patriarch anathematized them!"
[The above text is excerpted from the writings of Alevtina Vladimirovna Belgorodskaya. Alevtina had been a member of the Russian Orthodox Catacomb Church while she lived in the USSR. She reposed near Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville NY) in 1995 after having succumbed to a terminal illness. She is buried in the Monastery Cemetery in Jordanville. May her memory be eternal!]
In the territory with the demonic whistling name of the USSR, Russia existed. It was a secret Russia. Only those who were supposed to know about its presence - namely, the inhabitants of this country themselves and its [Soviet] enemies knew of it. The inhabitants of this country are the Russian people - not Soviet, but Russian. Among this people there are many of various nationalities, but this is still the Russian people, because the main thing was never the nation. In the former Russia there was one nation - the Russian people, that is, Orthodox Christians... To be Russian means to be Orthodox!
So, this Russia has remained. She went underground - in the literal sense of the word, yet she was alive and did not allow herself to be exterminated. Her existence was blessed by Patriarch Tikhon for he proclaimed the anathema against the new [Soviet] government, and those who collaborate with it! Thus, for many Christians there was no question; they simply did not want to be under the anathema. Eventually the new government with its tentacles captured the patriarchate. This means that we must leave this organization, especially since its leaders pronounced the belief that the joys of the new government are their joys.
Now [in the 1990s] much is written in various publications about the metropolitans, bishops, and priests who did not accept the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius and preferred to go to death and to prison for the purity and truth of the Church. Their lives and photographs are printed, their martyrdom is reported. Thank God!
Behind each of them stood flocks - huge numbers of Orthodox Christians! Most of these were simple, often illiterate village people, peasants. However, they clearly knew - where there are communists, there must be sin: sin to be in their church, in their work, in their schools, sin in taking their documents. The Patriarch anathematized them!"
[The above text is excerpted from the writings of Alevtina Vladimirovna Belgorodskaya. Alevtina had been a member of the Russian Orthodox Catacomb Church while she lived in the USSR. She reposed near Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville NY) in 1995 after having succumbed to a terminal illness. She is buried in the Monastery Cemetery in Jordanville. May her memory be eternal!]