Original Title of the Article below: THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN THE USSR (and "On the Soviet Church") by Protopresbyter Michael Polsky (written in 1946-47)
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| Protopresbyter Michael Polsky |
“When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44)
1. Today, above all else, Russia is in need of truth and freedom.
And it will only reach freedom through truth. In the meantime, as long as we lie, we will be slaves and through falsehood, bear witness to our slavery and further strengthen it. That’s why our Confessors and Martyrs of the last decades led us toward freedom, while the hypocrites and liars of our times are leading us toward slavery.
We will not emerge from this accursed embroilment until we honestly and concisely separate the truth from the lies and begin to speak the truth steadfastly and courageously. Already 30 years have elapsed since they drowned us in lies, and they continue to humiliate us with lies, fear and violence. And now they have managed to infect many of us with this lie; and it is sorrowful to see how the honest [people] began to believe it and repeat it...
From the very beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution, it was clear that the Orthodox Church was a spiritual organism that opposed this, historically unheard of, undertaking, which was totally unacceptable to Her and, and as a consequence, destined Her to be annihilated. It was clear that while the spirit of the Orthodox Church was alive in the Russian person, the godless spirit of Communism would not overwhelm the soul of the Russian person, would not lead Russia, would not become the Russian spirit... But this was precisely what was essential to the Bolsheviks, because their agenda for Russia was always one and the same: “Russia is the weapon [instrument] for a world-wide revolution; the Russian people themselves must be infected by it till the end, so as to infect the rest of the nations - and then: let them perish or dissolve in the universal miscegenation...”
The Bolshevik revolution was never a Russian affair, and it didn’t promote itself as such. It was always a universal scheme, formed by an international rabble, not in the name of Russians but with aims hostile towards Russia.
Thus, in order to carry out this monstrous undertaking, the Bolsheviks had to instill into the Russian masses – the consequential godlessness and theomachy, the poignancy of internationalism, the willingness for a bloody slaughter on a universal scale, and the belief in totalitarian Communism. This was right from the beginning – a plan of global tyranny, an anti-Christian plan, both unconscionable and dishonest. This was a plan to inflame envy and hatred among all nations, to unbridle and then enslave them with the help of their monopoly of employership and systematic terror. Today, this plan has not been dropped – not by a long shot; it’s alive and more active than ever before. And those who say that it is "rejected and forgotten" lie and thereby serve its implementation, whether consciously or otherwise.
The Bolsheviks need Russia for their survival, as a springboard of implementation, as a governmental, diplomatic, economic, financial and military weapon. Beyond that, the soul of the Russian people is indispensable to them: its living poignancy, its genius, its entire culture, all of its natural wealth, its whole territory, its name, its language, its very being...
This was made quite clear right from the beginning. And now, it’s become quite clear to many foreigners. In any case, after the past 30 years, there is no need to prove this. This has been proven by facts, statistics, speeches by the Bolsheviks themselves and their slogans… And also the torture of millions of the best Russian people. This is a historical truth that is undeniable and conclusive. But woe to him that has forgotten this or begins to deny it… We now ask: could the living spirit of the Orthodox Church accept this? – Of course not.
Could the Orthodox Church that formed and brought up Russia with Her spirit, carry out an artificial and false façade between the “Church” and “political” spheres, and indulge in ambiguity and a betraying “non-interference”? Of course not – and She did not do this. And if She attempted to do this, an immediate merciless onslaught on Her by the Bolsheviks would terminate Her endeavor. And so it was reality.
2.
From the very the beginning, totalitarian Communism didn’t trust the so-called “neutrals”, although it agreed to use them in the first years. Its basic rule was: “He who is not with us and for us, is our enemy and is subject to extermination”. The first years passed, and everybody became answerable. Workers, peasants, intellectuals, engineers, lawyers, officials, clergy, craftsmen and criminals – all had to state either: “yes, I am with you”, or “no, I am against you”; and not just to “say” it once, but to speak this repeatedly and confirm this with continually new acts in line with the vulgar rule: “Prove it to the one you love”. One had to help, serve, be useful, and fulfill all of the demands – even the most repulsive, dishonest, demeaning and betraying ones. One had to go either to his demise as a hero-confessor, or to become an all-obliging fiend ready for everything: to inform on your mother and father, to destroy whole nests of innocent people, to betray friends, to vocally demand the death penalty for honorable and brave patriots (as the artist Kachalov did, for example, on the radio), to carry out provocative acts, to simulate views which you don’t have and which you despise, to promote atheism, to preach the most idiotic theories from the pulpit, to believe in a deliberate and shameless lie and to tirelessly and shamelessly flatter petty "dictators" and big tyrants... In short, the choice was and still is simple and unambiguous: heroism and martyrdom, or enslavement and complicity.
The Russian masses understood this at the very beginning – and attempted to go into a masquerade mode.
And so, the entirety of the political development of the revolution can be described as a systematic pressuring of the masqueraders – a pressure by which the silent were provoked, the evasive were reported, the uneasy were run out, the suspected exiled, the careless were liquidated; whereas on the other hand, the masqueraders continued to develop new means to remain unnoticed. In order to avoid the pressure, they searched for ways to disguise their lives, new formulas of neutrality or semi-loyalty, new nooks and crannies of being, new "forests", "ravines" and "tundras" - for their survival. And finally, all of this was crowned with the production of a living mask on their faces.
How many times in the last years have the foreigners asked us: why do Russians have such “stony faces”? They were correct: all Soviets wear a living mask and are silent.
On their faces there is expressed - no feeling, no thought, no interest. Rather there is a dead impassiveness, an inflexible neck, one unobservant - although the eyes are constantly prowling, one filled with a mixture, from of frozen fear, of a servility that’s ready for anything and a cunning sadism. This can be seen with Soviet officials. With the ordinary people – it’s the same mask, but only of course without the servility and sadism. It’s frightening to look at!
Protective masks. Frozen lies. Some corpses of totalitarianism. The works of the Soviets. The drugs of Communism. And what is hidden and silent in the soul? History will reveal this in the future. This is what our guileless and voluble Russ has been transformed into…
3.
It’s understandable that the Russian Orthodox leaders were unable to walk away from this dilemma – from this masquerade. Some went on to martyrdom. Others fled into exile or went underground – into the forests and ravines. Yet others went undercover – into their own souls: where they learned the silent, outwardly invisible, secret prayer, a prayer of the innermost fire...
Others, however, were found who decided to say to the Bolsheviks: “Yes, we are with you”, and not only to say it, but to enunciate and confirm this with action; to help them, to serve their cause, to carry out all of their demands, to lie together with them, to participate in their deceit, to work hand in hand with their political police, to elevate their authority in the eyes of the people, to publicly pray for them and for their successes, to provoke the nationalistic Russian emigration, and to thereby convert the Orthodox Church into an effectual and obedient weapon of the world revolution and universal atheism...
We have seen these people. They all possess those typical, stony-masquerading faces and cunning eyes. They do not hesitate to lie openly, and moreover in the most important and sacred circumstances, about the situation of the Church and about the Confessors who were tortured to death by the Bolsheviks. They have made private agreements with the Soviet authorities and, without any concern for the Ecclesiastical canons - they have "excreted" from their midst a "Patriarch" pleasing to the Bolsheviks who now officially heads their new, unheard of, and religiously paradoxical, "Soviet Church".
Here is the reason for what transpired.
Why did they do this? Let’s leave their personal beliefs aside. They will answer for them before God and history. Let us ask them about their “ecclesial” considerations. Why did they do this?
1. So that through their subordination to antichrist, they would extinguish or at least soften the persecutions against the faithful, clergy and churches; - in order to “purchase” a breather at the price of promoting Bolshevism in Russia and abroad.
2. From fear that antichrist would reach an agreement with the Vatican about the complete eradication of Orthodoxy - so that the Catholics would have antichrist behind them in the struggle...
History will show what in reality this group will be able to achieve, what it will lose and what it will gain, and what its future will be. However, there is no doubt that the future Orthodoxy will not be determined by compromises with antichrist, but specifically by those of heroic stand and confession, which this group betrayed and renounced. Not for one moment can we doubt that this entire group will “in due time” i.e. at the opportune moment, be executed by the Bolsheviks: but they will exit this world not as true Orthodox Confessors and holy Martyrs akin to Metropolitan Benjamin, Peter of Krutitsa and the others. You know their names Lord and those who have obliged antichrist and who are his servants.
Let us establish this here and now, because in their dealings with the Soviet authorities, they are forced to pay with real services and unconditional cooperation.
4.
The agreement which they have concluded cannot be called a "concordat", because a concordat presumes a certain, at least modest, "equality" and at least a minimal freedom for the contracting parties. Stalin and Sergius, Stalin and Alexy, were never equal in status - Sergius and Alexy were always Stalin's terrorized prisoners. They were not free; they did not "come to an agreement" with Stalin, but were enslaved to him. At the same time, it was important for Stalin, in order to deceive Europe and America, to portray this matter as a "concordat", as a "free agreement of equal parties". The world had to believe; and the world, according to a wise Roman proverb, already always "wants to be deceived"...
Alexy understood this right from the beginning and knew perfectly well what he was doing: he helped to deceive the world so as to elevate his own authority in its eyes (how?... as the “Independent Patriarch of all Russia”), and concerning the authority of the Soviet government (how?... "now the Church in the Soviet government is free and respected… and Herself denies all of the previous persecutions as non-existent”).
Bearing this deceptive "news" Alexy, and then his emissaries, travelled overseas. They knew better than anyone that the Church had become a submissive institution of the Soviet state, that they were obliged to only speak those lies which were dictated to them. They were aware that they were lying and had lied about the supposed freedom of the Church.
When Alexy was received in the Middle East there was always a "trio" presented - consisting of himself and two stenographers (who were agents of Internal Affairs). These wrote down every word which was said (for the sake of mutual control). Every word said by the "Patriarch" and his visitor were recorded. At the same time, Alexy assured his interlocutor that the “Orthodox Church was quite free”, thereby provoking his visitor to betray himself [by speaking freely]; and revealing himself as being with the head of the secret police. He, of course, knew that his speeches had a meaning of political provocation – and he went along with it. The “Patriarch of all Russia”, played the role of a conscious political provocateur of the Antichrist...
Likewise, were the performances of his political emissaries in Paris, these so-called “Metropolitans” and “Bishops”. The same was happening in America. They all lied and provoked knowingly. And they saw that they were believed – either by their “own agents”, or also by certain famous emigrant fools, who wanted to be deceived. However, concerning those emigrants who still possessed some intelligence - they knew that they were just pretending, as though believing, but in reality, they knowingly aided them to deceive in order to sway the opinions of the public and emigrant communities in favor of Bolshevism, and concordantly, in favor of the international directive which had been given from behind the scenes of the global stage. They knew all of this and yet continued to lie. And if there was a “slip of truth”, the individual was immediately flown back to Moscow (as it happened in Paris).
It’s amazing how easily, habitually and adroitly they rolled along this line of lies. This is understandable as their main lie was behind them. They found the spirit to declare verbally, and in print, over the past 30 years: that all of the martyrs and hieromartyrs of the Orthodox Church suffered not for their faith, not for Christ, and not for the Church at all, but for their “political crimes” against the Soviet authorities. They had enough audacity – even from his Eminence Metropolitan Sergius – to announce that there were no persecutions at all against the faith, against the believers, against the Church, against the churches and against the holy relics in the land of the Soviets. After such egregious lies – the rest of the lies came easily and smoothly.
5.
The book of his Eminence Sergius that was published in Moscow in the second half of 1942, had to be seen and studied – which we managed to do.
This is a collection of articles, "statements" and "testimonies". The participants were Sergius himself, his closest church assistants and a long list of “spiritual” and secular individuals.
The thesis was one and the same: the Soviet authorities never conducted any persecutions against the Church, the Faith or the faithful: these persecutions began only with the German Fascist invasion and were conducted by them only. Every article was accompanied by the author’s portrait or a facsimile of his signature.
Those who read this book, knowing the historical truth, were seized with a sense of dizziness and horror. This was a stream of arousing, deliberate and shameless lies; all of this was written in the same, identical style and pronounced with a melodramatic tone and factitious resentment, with caustic peals of the “true-Communist pathos”. And with that, after 30 years of demonic subservient “loyalty” - what was – “never was”. The Church is “flourishing”, the people are “praying freely”, the churches are “opened” and there was never any oppression!
When the waves of villainous intent, hatred and ferocity advanced into Russia from Germany - according to the custom of Soviet propaganda - a deliberate lie was fastened to the obviously indisputable truth... And all of this was pronounced by the inflamed tone of a known liar, who knows that no one believes him, and no one will ever believe him.
Later, these “hierarchs” appeared to us abroad, and invited us to recognize their “authority” and to subordinate ourselves to their ecclesiastical guidance - as they had subordinated themselves to Soviet control. However, regarding the latter: they remained silent. And abroad, there were those who viewed these individuals as the wearers of a “true and free Orthodoxy”, and who saw Alexy (how frightening it is to say this) as “a guardian of the Canons and a great leader of the Church”... these hastened to “believe” in him and subordinate themselves to him – and of course, they accepted the “Soviet Church”.
And the “Soviet Church” is, in reality, an institution of the Soviet anti-Christian totalitarian State - it carries out its instructions while serving its aims, it is unable to freely judge or pray, or preserve the secrecy of Confession. Truly, only that person that has forgotten everything and learned nothing, can imagine that totalitarian Communism is capable and inclined to honor the Mystery of Confession; that a priest of “Alexy's Soviet Church” would dare to preserve this Mystery, and having received a confession from a honest patriot (i.e. a “counter-revolutionist” or anti-Communist idealist), would not reveal it to the NKVD or to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Indeed, only they who got tired of battling with the Soviet slavedrivers and succumbed to their propaganda, can think that “Patriarch” Alexy is preserving and building true Orthodoxy. Only they who have never read the Canons, who have never delved into their deep Christian meaning, can regard Alexy as a “protector of the Canons". This meaning – before all else, is to be free from all human influence “for the pleasure (or good will) of the Holy Spirit” and inspired obedience to His suggestions. Therefore, what Alexy can maintain, of course, in the welcome and convenient boundaries of the Soviet political police is the traditional exterior of historical Orthodoxy. The Canons – he has already trampled upon - mounting the desolate throne of the Patriarch of all Russia.
In response to those forgetful and weary, we promote the following thesis: “The Orthodoxy which subordinated itself to the Soviets and became an instrument of the world’s anti- Christian temptation—is not Orthodoxy, but a seductive heresy of anti-Christianity, wrapped in the torn garment of historical Orthodoxy.”
But we will not attempt to prove this thesis for we have just proven it.
Let anyone who truly “cannot see” the false role of the new “patriarch”, just think: being enslaved himself – why is he endeavoring to crush and enslave Orthodoxy abroad in order to subjugate it as he himself is subjugated? Having been forced into a compromise with the enemies of Christianity and Orthodoxy, why is he trying to foist this compromise onto us who, thank God, have the opportunity not to pray for the devil and his successes on earth? It would appear that we should thank God that Orthodox Christians abroad can live and pray without serving Antichrist. Where does this irresistible need for hierarchical subordination, for the ability to appoint, to prescribe, so alien to true Orthodoxy, come from?
Why did it suddenly become necessary to deprive Orthodoxy abroad of the freedom of her prayerful and ecclesiastical breathing? Does Orthodoxy need to enslave all foreign parishes and dioceses under the foul hand of the NKVD, so that its unscrupulous and ferocious agents, these fiends of evil and shame, can poke their noses everywhere - dictating, spying and compiling their proscription lists? In reality, who is really in need of this - our dependence – the Orthodox Church or the Soviet government?
To ask is to answer. The Soviet Church exercises in all of its speeches not the will of the Church, but the will of the Soviets. And blind men and hypocrites rush to meet her.
6.
As a resident in Italy, I once saw inside a cathedral in Orvietto, a magnificent fresco by the painter Luke Signiorelli from the XV-XVI century: “Advent of antichrist”. The impression was devastating, unforgettable. Especially for us – who clearly saw the persecution of the Bolsheviks against the Orthodox Church...
“He” is depicted in frightening features, which blasphemously remind one of Christ the Saviour's face. It was terrifying to look at these features. They are shifted toward gluttony, falsehood, hypocrisy, affectation and some kind of subtle depravity… These repulsive traits are reproduced in detail in photographs… “He” appears on a huge fresco a number of times.
Here, “he” is performing false, tempting miracles – healing a sick individual among his rejoicing relatives. Here, “he” is speaking to the people while the devil, holding him by the waist on his left side, whispers his instructions into his ear… At his feet there is a pile of just confiscated consecrated vessels, while his agents are distributing gold - left right and center. There are all types among the crowd: those who have already been lured and those who are still in doubt, the lost and the inquisitive, the sonorous and venal, the intelligent and the untutored, the indifferent and the frantic. And on the left and on the right, executioners are choking protestors, beheading the faithful, beating up the clergy and the insubordinate…And the agents, dressed in black, have taken over the churches and are looting the sacred items…
A terrifying scene… a prophetic scene.
And you involuntarily think and pronounce these unnatural and meaningless words – “Soviet Church”.
1947
AFTERWORD
His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon had anathematized the Soviet authorities for persecuting the Holy Church. He regarded fellowship with theomachists impossible and unnatural...
“We exhort all of you, faithful children of the Orthodox Church of Christ, not to enter into any communion with such monsters of the human race”, and even more so into negotiations and treaties. Who lifted this curse? Who permitted the faithful, and even those living in the free world, to commune with the Satanists?
Since 1920 [perhaps 1927 was meant? - editor] the Orthodox Church in Russia has been in the hands of the Bolsheviks, just like a bird in the claws of a cat. It’s known that at the end of the 30’s, the Bolsheviks in some places of the USSR, re-established certain monasteries, and filled them with their cronies – even with the unbaptized, and taught them the general Christian and monastic life. Then during the war of 1941- 45, they released these young “clergymen” throughout the whole nation: filling the churches with pseudo-clergy!
"The diabolical lie of the Soviet Government is also that religious persecution is called a political struggle, and the confession of faith and truth is qualified as a political crime."
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| Protopresbyter Michael Polsky (prison picture from 1928) |
In the 30’s, I had to serve a “five-year plan” in the Soviet concentration camps. In many camps, 25% of the occupants were Tikhonite clergy – Bishops, Priests, Deacons, as well as laity. The majority of them remained there – in graves. During the years of 1932-35 some 90% of the churches were destroyed. And after this and what I saw there, the “Moscow Patriarch” is attempting to convince me that there has never been any persecution against the Church in the USSR. Lies, Lies!
Didn’t the Patriarch say this? In explanation of this question, let us recall the closed decree of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, which the Tikhonite clergy applied up unto the times of Metropolitan Sergius: having confirmed his attitude to the anti-Christian authorities, the Patriarch added that "if other decrees are sent from us, do not believe them, because decrees can be issued on our behalf without my knowledge. As an example, when I was held prisoner and under forced pressure, there was nothing that I would sign to the detriment of the Church”.
That’s why there was no correspondence between the Patriarch and also his Locum Tenens Peter with the Diocesan Bishops. The authorized representatives from the dioceses were liaisons – selfless and intelligent laymen.
Christ’s Church is the Divine Institution on earth. Christ is the Head of the Church. She is holy, immaculate and grace-filled. In the USSR the Antichrists concocted a false Church, externally similar to the Church of Christ, but false!
In every nation, everything necessary for living (i.e. goods and products) are purchased with real legal money – but for using fake currencies, the evil counterfeiters are sent to jail. In due time Christ our Saviour will deal with the false-churchmen, but for now – we the faithful – have to be careful and cling to our Mother Church, and distance ourselves from the falsity and lies and from those who have believed the lies.
The Russian Orthodox Catholic Church Abroad, providentially received a high mission to preserve the fundamentals of Russian Orthodoxy and to speak freely from abroad in the name of the Mother Church, which is enslaved in the Motherland.
We, Orthodox Russian immigrants, are not heretics, schismatics, politicians, unscrupulous or without a conscience - as we are called, unscrupulously or shamelessly, by those who are hoodwinked by Antichrist. We want to be sincerely true to Christ and are trying to save our souls for eternity. We hate Satan and despise Satanists. The number of us Russian Orthodox Christians abroad is relatively small, but… when the Flood covered the face of the earth, only 8 souls survived while millions perished. The same will happen now.
Those who are insane are vainly deceiving themselves and others with Christ’s words: “I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Mat. 16:18). While Christ did say this, will we be in His Church? Succumbing to lies and shifting to the side of lies and falsity, will we drop out of the true Church? As a forewarning to us, Christ also said: “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find the faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).
Oh, how we Christian brethren must be judicious, alert, and careful in our works of faith, and follow the true shepherds, and fear the false shepherds and run away from them as from fire.
Much to our sorrow, false shepherds, evil doers, insubordinate wafflers and deceivers, especially from “those of the circumcision” (Titus 1:10) have long ago appeared in our Russian Orthodox Émigré communities. According to the Gospel: “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:19), and as the proverb states: “The core of their fruit is not from our field but from a foreign one”. They have their own aim: to destroy the true Church of Christ, to seduce believers to depart from the faith and to lead them into the “unity of all cults” – so as to greet the universal lord of Antichrist. With this aim, “they bend their tongues like their bow for lies… They have taught their tongue to speak lies and weary themselves to commit iniquity” (Jer. 9:2-5). They have accustomed their tongues to speak lies until the point of exhaustion.
Orthodox Russians Abroad! Be vigilant: stand in faith, be stalwart, firm (1 Cor. 16:13). “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Save yourselves for eternity – for heaven. And by the words of Chekhov: “There is nothing in earthly life for which we can give a small part of our soul to the unclean one”.
Protopresbyter Michael Polsky.
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| Protopresbyter Michael Polsky |