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Until recently, only sparse lines were devoted to him in some publications. Since 2009, the http://histor-ipt-kt.org/ website has included not only the indictment of his latest investigative file and a biographical note, but also rare photographs of the Bishop.
According to the testimony of the saint at the investigation in 1952-1953: in the world [he was] Ivan Platonovich Kudryavtsev, and was born in 1892 in the village of Chunaki of the Petrovsky district of the Saratov province. After 4 years of study at the parish school in 1905, "he graduated from one class of the theological school in Penza. Then, on the recommendation of Archpriest Belyaev of the Penza Diocese, he became a novice to the bishop of the Penza Monastery Gregory Sokolov and stayed with him until 1909."
After that he left for his homeland. In 1911 he married a fellow villager (the marriage was dissolved in 1919). "I had my own hut, manor, roots of 14 fruit trees. I had one farm animal - a cow." From 1914 "he was at the Penza Resurrection Monastery. At the beginning of 1918 he entered short-term theological courses and in 1919 the same Bishop Gregory ordained him a hieromonk."
The time of his receiving the monastic tonsure with the name of Sergius was not asked at the investigation, so he did not talk about it himself. But Konstantin Platonovich Kubrin in his testimony mentioned that Brother Ivan, while in the village of Chunaki, was already a monk, but did not live there "from about 23 years of age".
After ordination, he "served as a priest for about 4 months" in Shishkaev (Mordovia), in the Trinity Church. In another interrogation, the saint claimed that he had just been appointed there, but "the post was occupied" and he returned to his homeland.
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| Hieromonk Sergius - 1920s |
"In 1922 I was consecrated bishop by Bishop Boris of Penza [another source relates that he was consecrated 'by bishops attached to the Danilov monastery in Moscow'], but since I did not receive a mitre, I did not accept the bishopric. True, I had documents for this." During the interval period [of the interrogation], the Bishop, pondered over the words he had spoken, and realized that he had said too much, mentioning his true ecclesiastical rank, and decided thenceforth to avoid giving any direct answers.
After a break the investigator immediately sought clarification: the accused did not accept the bishopric, because "you were not given a mitre, that is, a crown*? Is this true?" The saint replied: "Before his death, Bishop Boris blessed me for the post of archimandrite, that is, abbot of the monastery, but I was not one. That was in 1923."
[*According to the memoirs of the spiritual children of Bishop Sergius (Kudryavtsev), he did not have a mitre during all of the years that a secret monastery existed under his leadership.]
The investigator, apparently, having conducted more than one church case, immediately drew attention to the inconsistency in the testimony of I. P. Kudryavtsev and demanded an explanation: "So, in 1922 you were consecrated a bishop, and in 1923 you were made an archimandrite?". Vladyka explained: "I had no credentials as a bishop**, but I did receive them as an archimandrite."
[**Although a few hours earlier he claimed that he had documents on his episcopal consecration.]
The consecration was performed in secret. The name of the Cathedra that Vladyka was appointed to was unknown to his spiritual children, although certain authors who wrote about this secret bishop of the CPI indicate it as being Krasnokholmsk.
After his episcopal consecration, he served as a parish priest in the territory of today's Penza region. From 1923 to 1924 inclusive in the village of Nikolsk-Tuguzk, and not for long (under the surname of Kubrin) in the village of Kozlovka (where later he was to return and conduct illegal divine services). He last openly served as a missionary priest in the St. Michael the Archangel Church in the village of Zasechnaya Sloboda (Mordovia).
In the autumn, of 1929, he left for his homeland and lived with his brother. On November 16, 1929, he was arrested and "accused of hostile agitation against collective farms." During his transfer, he fled from a transit point in Petrovsk (Saratov region) and took refuge with his friend who lived in the same city. The very next day, Sister Efimiya arrived with a food parcel and brought a certificate of an old friend - Fyodor Kozin. At the end of 1929, Vladyka went to Frunze to live with his godmother, Barvara Stepanovna Malyshkina. On March 17, 1930 - he was arrested in Kyrgyzstan.
It should be noted here that Bishop Sergius was a brave and very active Bishop. Despite his recent escape from prison, judging by his testimony, during this brief stay in freedom he managed not only to get acquainted with Nikita Boykov***, but later, having traveled several tens of kilometers, went to visit him.
[***Twenty-two years later, Bishop Sergius ordained Nikita Boykov to the priesthood.]
The words of the accused amazed even the investigator: "Having escaped from the Saratov camp and concealing your identity with documents identifying you as Kozin [this is the name on the certificate that Bishop Sergius had received from Sister Efimiya], yet you still traveled to visit others?!" To this the Bishop humbly replied: "I am showing you how it was. I had no other purpose."
Being arrested again [in 1930] caused Bishop Sergius severe mental trauma. Explaining at the investigation, many years later, why he did not communicate with his ex-wife and son, he testified: "I therefore had no connection with them and do not know where they are at this time, believing that in 1930 in the city of Frunze my son handed me over to the Soviet authorities."
To serve time for the consequences of his actions, the Bishop of Christ was incarcerated in the Saratov region - in the city of Atkarsk. Here he was visited by his spiritual children who gave him provisions. As one of them, Alexei Buyanov, later testified: "We were not allowed to visit him, but he, Kudryavtsev, saw us from the top floor of the prison and we saw him too." Vladyka was charged with spreading religious cults and rites. On August 9, 1930, the troika of the plenipotentiary representation of the OGPU in the Lower Volga Territory sentenced him to 10 years in the concentration camps. He was sent to Saratov.
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| Bishop Sergius, monk Anatoly (Buyanov), and an unknown nun - 1930s |
One of the saint's spiritual daughters had a son working at the camp who arranged for the saint to be sent to work outside of the prison zone – a practice that was not permitted for prisoners with such lengthy sentences. At a designated location, his spiritual children were waiting for him [and all together they fled]. At the end of October, Vladyka and his companions safely reached the village of Zasechnaya Sloboda.
Since then, the persecuted Bishop hid in other villages of Mordovia (Novo-Pshenevo, Adashevo, Drakino, and Kulikovka) together with Alexei Buyanov, whom he tonsured a monk on December 13, 1930 with the name of Anatoly.
Bishop Sergius continued to spiritually nurture true Orthodox Christians. So in the village of Vinokurovsky (Mordovia) for about three years (until 1935) secret divine services were held, which he often headed. Even then, the saint was preparing places for the arrangement of a secret monastery.
He blessed several men from his flock to work in two villages of the Vurnarsky district of Chuvashia: Yubaly and Sinyal-Yaushi. In May of 1935, the choice of the saint rested upon the last of these two villages and his spiritual flock started to gather there. Here he held several secret services. At the same time, Alexei Savelkin was sent to nearby Podmoskovie [near Moscow region] – to Malahovka station, while Yegor Surkov was sent to the city of Vichugu (now Ivanov region).
On the 24th of July 1935, some of the saint's co-religionists were arrested in Mordovia: Roman Trubochkin (who died during interrogation), Fyodor Kozin, and Anna Ryabova. These were sentenced under Article 58-10 Part 2. The verdict also mentions Bishop Sergius: "In the village of Zasechnaya Sloboda, even before 1930, a counter-revolutionary group emerged, organized by the former priest Kudryavtsev, who is currently in hiding."
Apparently, the Bishop was afraid that the village of Sinyal-Yaushi might be mentioned during the investigation, so he moved the construction of the monastery to the worker's village of Shumerlya. By January-February 1936, all of the Christians from the Vurnarsk region moved there. At this time, the Bishop of Christ, together with his assistant, the monk Anatoly, were hiding with their co-religionists at the Kotluban station in the Stalingrad region.
As previously agreed upon, it was only after receiving a letter from Chuvashia, stating that everyone had settled into their jobs (they lived in "quarter No. 72 in the barracks"), that Vladyka and his company left for Shumerlya. It was here that I. P. Kudryavtsev labored for a short period in the forestry industry, because the passport in the name of Fyodor Kozin was valid until the beginning of March 1936, and it was necessary to obtain a certificate from your workplace. This soon came to pass and a new passport was issued.
A small (temporary) log house, at the address of 13 Volodarskogo Street, was ready in the autumn of 1936. According to the further testimony of Alexei Buyanov [Monk Anatoly]: "Timber was bought in the village of Myslets for 500 rubles including the service of delivering it to our place. We were carpenters ourselves."
Since that time, in order to hide the secret life of this True-Orthodox and mixed monastery from the authorities, they began to resort to two methods of conspiracy: living under the guise of family relations to the official homeowner, as well as the using of forged documents. This became the usual practice. A proper passport would be obtained, the photo replaced, and the missing part of the official stamp was then duplicated on the new photo.
As Alexei Buyanov explained at a court case: "I don’t regard living under false documents as being dishonest. I regard dishonesty to be if I climbed into someone’s pocket. That’s why living under false documents is fully compatible with Christian commandments".
From the time of Shumerlya, the saint kept a diary in which he shared not only his innermost thoughts, but also kept records of monastic events and finances: such as the travel expenses, and records detailing the help given by benefactors. Here, too, all of the inhabitants of the secret monastery are mentioned according to their documents. Vladyka was listed on his passport in the name of his spiritual son -Fyodor Kozin.
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| Bishop Sergius (Kudryavtsev) |
As for the financial side of the life of the monastery, the abbot explained during the interrogation: "All financial matters were handled by me. I handed out money for the purchase of needed products as well as other needs of the members such as clothing and footwear." There is a photograph of a diary entry of Bishop Sergius dated November 25/December 8, 1943, which shows what was issued to one of the nuns: "A warm, light and required scarf." It is true that before the arrest of Alexei Buyanov, the Bishop entrusted all of the money to him - and thus the burden of handling household activities and the financial matters of the monastery fell on him as the deputy abbot.
During the investigation, the saint's long-term assistant testified that not a single inhabitant of the monastery "did anything of their own free will. They did not communicate with strangers, and all household work was carried out jointly by them ... Joining a collective farm was seen by us as deviating from God and was regarded as a sin**** ... our inhabitants were forbidden to go to the cinema and theaters, because we considered such institutions to be godless, leading the people toward Antichrist."
[****"If some worked temporarily, as an exception, in state farms, or enterprises, it was seen as necessary for the purposes of conspiracy and maintaining the existence of the illegal communities" - from the testimony of A. P. Savelkin.]
The children of those who had them before coming to the monastery, "were allowed to go to school only up to 4th grade, because further education led to godlessness [atheism]", as was explained by Alexei Savelkin during an interrogation. The abbot of the monastery during the investigation did not deny that he had repeatedly reminded the flock: "The country is ruled by Communists, godless ones, that’s why I instructed the members of our group: not to read Soviet newspapers and magazines so as not to be torn away from religion."
Alexei Buyanov also revealed during the interrogation: "All of the members of our illegal anti-Soviet community-monastery were followers of Patriarch Tikhon***** and Metropolitan Peter Krutitsky, who were the main leaders and mentors of the One True Catholic and Apostolic Church. Like all Tikhonites, the members of our community-monastery are adversaries of the clergy of the 'Sergian orientation', since Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky and all of the clergy under his command work in contact with the Soviet authorities".
[*****According to the testimony of the bishop's spiritual children at the investigation, the secret monastery always commemorated the repose of Tsar Nicholas II and Patriarch Tikhon.]
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| Monk Anatoly (Buyanov) |
The attitude of Bishop Sergius (Kudryavtsev) to the Moscow Patriarchate is vividly illustrated by his diary entry of March 12, 1950 concerning the visit of an old acquaintance with a nun of his monastery: "At three o'clock, Olga Filippovna arrived from Tashkent. Her visit was a casual one. The reception of Anastasia Petrovna was very poor and no help was provided for the Abbot. Anastasia Petrovna herself [later] joined the Red Ministers and became misled." The saint explained its meaning during the investigation: "Anastasia Petrovna joined the new modern priests who recognize Soviet power and went against us, the followers of the CPI."
During the interrogation, the saint specified that he, together with the monk Anatoly (Buyanov) "formed an illegal group of adherents as a 'Co-religionist (Edinovercheskaya*****) Church.'" This is confirmed by the memoirs of one of the nuns from the Shumerlya monastery, who told the author: "Now I cannot remember in detail, but Bishop Sergius explained that to cross yourself with two fingers is a more ancient tradition. But this was accepted only for those living in the monastery. As for the benefactors who came to us, they crossed themselves with three fingers. They lived poorly and meat was never put on the table, not even for children."
[*****Edinovercheskaya refers to Orthodox Christians who practice the Pre-Nikonian rites of the Church while recognizing the hierarchical jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. These were reconciled with and joined the Orthodox Church around 1780.]
The numbers of inhabitants in the secret CPI monastery gradually grew. A five-walled house was built on one of the sites with a temporary house. It is important to note that the economic labors were inseparable from the ecclesiastical ones.
From the recollections of the spiritual children of the Bishop and the materials of the investigative files, it is known that the entire liturgical cycle was performed daily, and Matins usually began around three o'clock in the morning. The saint served the Divine Liturgy only in a temporary chapel. Here the altar stood close against the wall, and there was no curtain - for lack of space. The monastics of the monastery took Communion (with the exception of the seriously ill), as a rule, every Lent, and in Great Lent - twice: during the 1st week and Holy week. Bishop Sergius gave Unction to the elderly and the severely ill. Monastic tonsures were performed, while on the female side of the monastery, the threshold for entry was the person must be 40 years or older.
The monastery was completely fenced with a solid wall and large gates that were shut whenever there was a Church Service, during which time there was a sentry on the grounds to ensure that there would be no unwelcome guests. Also at the entrance, two secret mechanisms to offer warnings were installed.
Lukerya Borodavkina told about their devices at one investigation: concerning the first - "at the gate and to the right. At a distance of about one meter, a hole is drilled through which a wire leading to a piece of rail is passed. A piece of rail on all sides is upholstered with planks. A sound signal is produced by a special device when pulling the wire. The second alarm system is arranged through the front room and notifies in the room of the leaders of the community Toropov (Buyanov) and Kozin (Kudryavtsev). It is arranged as follows: in the side left wall of the front porch at the height of a grown man, a small window is cut, which is closed by a door. When opening the window on the wall, a padlock is visible, which is tied by a rope pulled through the wall and going to the room of Toropov (Buyanov) and Kozin (Kudryavtsev). At the end of this rope is fixed a bell, which is just designed as a sound signal. Only members of our community knew about this."
In addition, those living in the monastery were repeatedly warned that under no circumstances were any of them to disclose the secret activities of the monastery, and in conversations with representatives of the Soviet authorities, as Alexei Buyanov formulated at the investigation: "To be careful, restrained and not to bring suspicion to our doorstep."
In 1938, another monastery house was built in Shumerlya (at the address: 33, Krasnoarmeyskaya Street). It was registered in the name of Anna Ryabova, who had returned from prison. As Alexei Savelkin testified during the interrogation, that in this instance and future occurrences, "The Secretary of the Regional Council assisted in the subdivision of land for housing". And the assistant abbot explained at the investigation: "We secured building materials without any difficulties. As a bookkeeper of a forestry centre, I was never refused timber materials."
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| Alexei Savelkin |
The labors of Christ's Bishop in the field of God were not limited to Shumerlya. It is known that before the war he regularly came to the Moscow region, to the Malakhovka station. At this time, all of the leaders of the illegal communes were summoned, who came from Baku, Chkalova, and Vichuga. At the talks, Vladyka always warned the Christians how to act and how to write letters so that the secret church would not be revealed to the Soviet agencies. Therefore, as Anna Toropova later testified at the investigation, she personally "in letters, never used anyone's name, but wrote to everyone allegorically".
The search for locations to establish illegal communities always worried the saint. At first, he was planning to move the monastery to Vichuga, and then to Malakhovka, but the war in 1941 changed his intentions.
The attitude of the TOC Bishop’s congregation towards the war was briefly expressed during the interrogation by his assistant, the monk Anatoly (Buyanov): "We called the Soviet power the power of the Antichrist, so we considered the protection of godless power to be a sin, and in this regard, we had a negative attitude to service in the Red Army." On a related note, in one of his diary entries (of June 28/July 11, 1941), the saint called the communists - Antichrist.
The number of inhabitants of the monastery increased dramatically. They came mainly from Moscow, Vichuga, and Baku. Those who arrived were accommodated in the houses of the monastery and with the niece of the saint - Catherine Rogozhkina, where the monastic order was also in place. With the assistance of the secretary of the Shumerlinsky Executive Committee, Alexei Buyanov, Anna Ryabova and Ekaterina Rogozhkina were appointed commissioners of the street committee. This made it possible, as Alexei Buyanov revealed at the interrogation, to hide some of the arrivals from "other towns without registration in the house records..."
An insignificant number (of 5 or 6 individuals) would settle into a job, which gave the opportunity to register the unemployed, in the books, under the guise of close and distant relatives. One of the women from Shumerlya was appointed as "letter carrier" for the purposes of concealing the incoming and outgoing correspondence to and from other towns, while another was appointed as telephonist. When our women received notification for communal work, they were released by a worker from the Regional Command. During the war, the number of inhabitants of the secret community was between 40 and 60 members, "but the composition changed often - for some arrived, and others departed".
It must be said that during the war, many parents came to the divine services with their children. A humorous incident comes to mind, which was related by one of the saint’s parishioners: "During the Church Service, three children laughed together (after all – they were children!). However, Bishop Sergius being very strict and ardent turned around and spanked them with his Epitrahelion".
The arrival of a great number of faithful, who were not receiving food rations, posed a question before the abbot: "How are they to survive?" Vladyka testified at the investigation: "For the material support of the underground organization, by my directive from 1941 to 1944 inclusive, the inhabitants walked to Vichuga to secure manufactured items, thread, and the other goods that people needed. They brought them to Shumerlya and sold them in the surrounding villages”.
The parishioners of the saint who lived in this town assisted in the purchase of these goods. In Shumerlya itself, subsidiary farming was of great assistance. By 1944 it consisted of: 2 vegetable gardens, two fields sown with millet, an orchard, bee-hives which supplied 16 families, and there was a permit to produce hay. It also had farm animals: 3 cows, 1 bull, sheep, chickens and geese. All of the harvests went into the community’s storehouse. Food products were allowed to be sold only with the permission of Bishop Sergius and monk Anatoly.
At the beginning of 1945, it appeared that there was nothing to foreshadow a calamity. The saint, at this time, had plans to construct a woman’s monastery in Shumerlya. A plot of land was allocated for this purpose - in order to erect the needed dwellings there. Two large log cabins were erected.
But events developed rapidly. In accordance with Alexei Buyanov’s testimony, he returned from Gorky in 1945 where he was selling the monastery’s meat. He was detained on the grounds of profiteering and was then released with the incident being reported to the authorities in Shumerlya. Upon returning home, he found out that the militia had conducted a search and seized all of the manufactured products. During a conversation with the head of the district department of the NKVD, it was explained to monk Anatoly that after the inspection everything would be returned, but the NKVD officer also revealed a strange saying: "The main matter with you in town are Cheboksary."
Monk Anatoly immediately understood that the conversation was about the illegal activities of the monastery, which was already being investigated by the NKGB of Chuvashia. The conversation took place in the evening, and in the morning he and the Bishop fled first to one of the farmlands, where a house had previously been built, and the next day - they went a few kilometers away to the village of Medyany (this is already in the Gorky region), to a co-religionist.
They lived there for 7-8 days. During this time, despite the searches that took place in all of the houses of the monastery, the Christians managed to deliver the most valuable things and part of the products to the village where the abbot and his first assistant were hiding. All of these goods were loaded onto sleds and driven for over a week to Gorky by the faithful.
Here Bishop Sergius found his old friend Agafia Dusutina (from the working days in the Zasechnaya Sloboda) and asked her to buy and register a house in the city of Balakhna (1, Serbova Street), which she did. But what about the residence permit, because some of the monks of the secret monastery have already been put on the all-Union wanted list?
Quite soon, several passports were delivered from Mordovia, as well as blank forms with the stamp of one of the village councils and all kinds of certificates belonging to passport holders. Moreover, all Christians who have a residence permit lived under the guise of family relations, and those who did not have a residence permit - as temporarily visiting relatives. So, the monk Anatoly was registered, according to the document, in the name of Zakhar Radaev, and Anna Ryabova - under the name of Ulita Savelcheva. Vladyka, at this time, had a passport in the name of Nikita Sheinov, but lived without a residence permit.
Realizing that one house would not accommodate all of the members of the secret monastery, the saint did not repeat the experience of Shumerlya. As Alexei Buyanov explained at the investigation: "If we had 2 houses in the city of Balakhna, we could easily have been suspected by the authorities."
Therefore, in August of 1945, a second house was bought in the city of Semenov (66, Krasnoye Znamya Street), and was registered in the name of Anastasia Kazeykina [this was the name assumed by Praskovya Lapaeva]. The hostess registered the saint (Bishop Sergius) as her brother - with the name of Terence Kanaev. In Balakhna and Semenov, several people (who had a residence permit) got jobs. The rest sought other means to support the monastery.
According to the testimony of the accused, divine services during this period were held in Semenov. Here, Bishop Sergius reminded the flock: "We Christians, at the moment, are persecuted by the power of the Antichrist. In the future, this godless Soviet government cannot continue to exist. We must count on those governments that have Kings, Emperors and Tsars. Among them are most powerful governments such as England and America. They must turn against the Soviet Union and liberate us from the persecutions of our faith."
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| Bishop Sergius (Kudryavtsev) |
The spiritual daughter of the saint later confirmed that the holy Bishop even then foretold that "Stalin will not exist, there will be no Soviet power, and the borders of the country will open," and he also reminded: "Whoever now expects a good spiritual life – anathema."
In one of the investigative files there is a short description of the church annexed to the house in Semenov: "The church is a room measuring 6x4 meters with one window and one door. In the corner of the room there are icons and crosses. The smell of incense is present while the walls are covered with icons with lit icon-lamps hanging in front of them."
Unfortunately, the persecuted faithful in the Gorky region didn’t have long to pray in the church. Their whereabouts were revealed to the authorities by someone who knew the addresses of both houses.
A spiritual daughter of the saint later recalled: "Two came. There were three of us in the house, in Balakhna: me, Aunt Anya and Varya Podgornova. Then one of them left. And also, since after all we were not needed – we went looking for Bishop Sergius and Father Anatoly. First, Varya quietly left the house, followed by Aunt Anya. The remaining Chekist asked for a bed to be prepared for him and laid down to rest. That's when I quietly walked out. And so the Lord arranged that Varya and Aunt Anya on the way to the station met Bishop Sergius and Father Anatoly, who were walking towards them. The four of them then left for Gorky. And I, with the blessing of the bishop, first went to the post office and sent a telegram to our people in Vichuga stating 'The house has burnt down.' And although the telegram was intercepted, they had already left their city."
Undoubtedly, Vladyka understood perfectly well that it was necessary to leave immediately, but for this money was needed. 22 thousand rubles were hidden in firewood near the second house. However, Vladyka was unaware that there had been arrests at the house and a trap established. On the 15th of January 1946, he left for Semenov with the remaining faithful.
One of these then went to the house, and then a second followed - they were both caught. As the saint's spiritual daughter related: "Father Anatoly decided then to go himself. And while walking past the house through the crunching of snow, the NKVD agents cried out to him: 'Citizen, stop!' 'I am hurrying for the train' responded Father Anatoly. Of course, he was detained.
And Vladyka and I immediately went to his Old Believer friends here in Semenov. Here, he had his beard trimmed severely leaving only very little, and only after this, did he depart. We then stopped at a house of our own faithful.
Thinking that the NKVD agents had left, Vladyka again sent me late at night to recover the money. However, he advised me to first go next door and to ask whether the 'guests' had left. This is what I did and I was told that they had indeed left and I, along with the neighbor, went to the house. When we arrived and knocked on the door – I was arrested.
I was forced into the house and found all of our arrested faithful lying on the floor – it was nighttime. Father Anatoly then managed to ask me in Mordovian: 'Alone?' – 'Alone' I responded. They began to ask me: 'Where is Bishop Sergius?' I remained silent. Then the commander ordered me to take off my outer clothing and wearing only a blouse, skirt and a light handkerchief I was put under the floorboards. Upon my release in the morning, he untied my scarf and slapped both of my cheeks saying, 'still warm' and adding: 'We will now undress you and pour water over you'. There was a woman with them, who everyone called Raya. I answered him: 'Start pouring, only let Raya remain so that there are no men present'. But the Lord didn’t allow this to happen – they only said this to frighten me.
All of this was done to me so as to find out where Bishop Sergius was hiding. After all I came to Semenov on an errand from him, so I knew where he was - but I didn’t reveal this." By God’s will, the saint met two of his faithful at the railway station that had returned from Vichuga, and together they left unto a friend in the town of Hvalinsk (in the Saratov region); but they did not remain there long.
In the spring of the same year, in Kremenchug, Ukraine, a house was bought at the address: 31, Chkalov Street. Here the saint was registered on a passport with the name of Ivan Sergeyev. Other monastics of the secret monastery also came here. After the arrest of monk Anatoly (Buyanov), the latter's place was taken by monk Anthony (Pervov). He "became the first assistant and deputy" of Bishop Sergius. Here, the saint, together with Christians "from among the followers of the Edinovercheskaya Church", performed secret divine services, ordained the monk Anthony to the rank of hierodeacon, and tonsured his brother Ivan into monasticism with the name of Theodore.
In 1946, two trials of the saint's spiritual children and his relatives were held in Cheboksary. On February 18, a verdict was handed down under articles 58-10, part II and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 17 defendants (arrested in Shumerlya), of which: 9 Christians were sentenced to a term of 4 to 8 years in labor-camps, and the rest were released from custody under the decree on amnesty of July 7, 1945.
In December of 1948, the remaining monastics moved, upon learning that they were under investigation, from Kremenchug to the city of Lyubotyn, Kharkov region, to live with one of the spiritual daughters of the saint. They lived there without a residence permit, but not for long.
A new house for the monastery was then bought in the Bryansk region, in the city of Novozybkov, at the address: 71, Sadovaya Street. In June of 1949, Christians from Lyubotyn came here, and in October a second house was bought in Klintsy (48, Dekabristov Street). In the Bryansk region, the saint used two passports: with the names of Vasily Fedorov and Ivan Sergeyev.
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| Bishop Sergius (Kudryavtsev) with some of his spiritual children - 1950s |
While repair work was underway in Klintsy, Bishop Sergius performed the first priestly consecration known to the author in Novozybkov. In 1950 he ordained Hierodeacon Anthony (Pervov) to the rank of hieromonk. In the same year, some of the monks of the monastery, led by the holy Bishop, moved to Klintsy. In their new surroundings, they likewise "endeavored to limit their circle of friends in the town and to not allow the visits of outsiders to the homes without offering a prior warning".
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| The secret monastery in Klintsy |
The Divine services were held in a special room, and the windows in it were carefully closed. Here there was a temple in honor of the Archangel of God Michael. It should be noted that the Bishop of Christ not only constantly performed the divine services, including the Divine Liturgy, but also baptized, married, and tonsured into monasticism.
Here, at the end of 1950, Bishop Sergius elevated the nun Maria (Rodina) to the position of abbess, and in February of 1952 he ordained the monk Theodore (Pervov) to the rank of hierodeacon, and Nikita Boykov, whom he had known since 1930, to the rank of presbyter. A letter about this important event in the life of the CPI has been preserved: "Humble Sergius, Bishop of the Orthodox Church. By the grace of God, Nikita Nikitovich Boykov was ordained a priest at the church of Archangel Michael - 1952, January 28 of the old style at the bishop's house. This is a testimony given to Christian believers. Let Priest Nikita be faithful in word and deed to the Orthodox Christian Church. Signed by my hand and seal approved." Also, on August 6, 1952, in the same church, Hieromonk Anthony (Pervov) was elevated by the bishop to the rank of archimandrite.
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| Abbess Maria (Rodina) |
All of the letters and telegrams of Bishop Sergius from Klintsy – as everywhere, "had a coded character" and indicated a request from "grandfather". Their sender was one of the nuns of the monastery, who brought mail to the station and lowered it directly into the mail car. Parcels, money transfers, and letters to the address of those living in the house, were also received by her and handed over to the Bishop.
It is important to note that the bishop of Christ, without abandoning prayer for his spiritual children who were languishing in camps and exile for the True Orthodox Church, did his best to materially alleviate their fate: sending parcels, rendezvousing with the faithful, and organizing escapes from exile colonies******. All of those who escaped from the camps received passports in a new name.
[******In those years, the escape of an exile was punishable by 20 years of hard labor.]
One of the nuns of the secret monastery later recalled: "Wherever Vladyka sent us with his blessing, even if it seemed impossible, we went without any fear and everything transpired as he had said. If he said, 'Into the fire' - we would have gone into the fire. That's how much we believed him."
October of 1952 marked the elapse of 22 years since the humble Bishop Sergius (Kudryavtsev), of the CPI, began to live in an illegal position, using fictitious documents, in order to labor in God's field. The author would like the reader not to be tempted to know all of the names for which passports, certificates and other documents were issued for the personal use of the bishop. He did all of this for the sake of a full life in the True Orthodox Church.
The saint was not a recluse, he traveled throughout the country, gathering dribs and drabs of True Orthodox Christians. An answer to the question of whether it was easy, in those years, to move around with forged documents can be found in the testimony of Ignatius Pervov, who experienced all of this for himself: "Living in an illegal situation, I always expected to be arrested."
Realizing that the authorities would not leave the adherents of the secret TOC community alone, the Bishop was preparing beforehand to leave the land of Byansk and was examining new places in the Moscow region and Karaganda. He finally chose Karaganda, (perhaps, given its distance from the Bryansk region, as well as the fact that many of his spiritual children lived in this mining town), but this could not be realized.
On December 19 of 1952, most of the monastics of the secret monastery in Klintsy and Novozybkov were arrested. During the search in Klintsy, books of religious content were seized - 94 copies, as well as church items...
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| Church property of the Klintsy Monastery which was seized by the Soviets |
On December 23 of 1952, the completed document of the arrested I. P. Kudryavtsev was filled out, which stated: "Profession and specialty is a minister of the clergy cult. The last place of work and occupation before arrest was an underground monastery, an abbot". This was followed by a detailed physical description of him: "1. Height: medium (165 -170 cm). 2. Figure: medium. 3. Shoulders: lowered. 4. Neck: short. 5. Hair color: gray. 6. Eye color: gray. 7. Face: oval. 8. Forehead: low. 9. Eyebrows: arched. 10. Nose: small, thin. 11. Mouth: small. 12. Lips: thin. 13. Chin: beveled. 14. Ears: big".
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| Bishop Sergius (Kudryavtsev) - prison picture in 1952 |
On March 21, 1953, an indictment was prepared, which noted that "in 1936, in the city of Shumerlya, Chuvash ASSR, an illegal Bishop Kudryavtsev created a deeply conspiratorial and widely branched anti-Soviet organization of followers of the True Orthodox Church."
And from April 9 to April 13, 1953, a court hearing was held in Bryansk, at which 18 people were convicted under Articles 58-10, Part II and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. 13 defendants were sentenced to 25 years (these were: I. P. Kudryavtsev, Ig. K. Pervov, I. S. Sandin, A. P. Barysheva, O. F. Ivushkina, K. M. Kildisheva, E. F. Kozina, P. P. Pervova, E. I. Pervova, V. A. Podgornova, M. G. Rossoshanskaya, and M. A. Safonova) - and the rest, the remaining five, were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment (these were A. I. Rodina, E. I. Miroshkina, E. M. Sharkova, A. P. Anokhina, A. I. Khrustaleva).
According to the memoirs of the spiritual daughter of the saint: "We were separated during the entire investigation. I only met with my friends at the trial. Bishop Sergius was imprisoned separately from us. After sentencing, we were allowed a last meeting in the prison corridor before being sent off. I remember Vladyka saying to us: 'Don’t work during Church Feast Days: the rest of the time – work. Eat what you are given. If you find meat – throw it away and eat the rest.'" All of the Christians were sent to special camps. I.P. Kudryavtsev refused to lodge an appeal.
On July 29, 1953, Vladyka arrived in Dubravlag. It is known that from April 17 to November 19, 1954, he was held in the 7th section of the camp (the village of Sosnovka). At this time, several appeals for reconsideration of the case were written on his behalf (not in his handwriting): a statement to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (April the 17th), complaints to the USSR Prosecutor (November the 10th) and to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (November the 19th). In particular, the complaints indicated the ecclesiastical rank of the monk Sergius (Kudryavtsev) - a Bishop.
In the appeal of the prisoner I.P. Kudryavtsev to Khrushchev, it was noted that he "had to sign the investigative documents due to severe beatings on the part of the investigator Major N. At the trial of the case, I and the witnesses (defendants) rejected, in virtue of the above, our signatures which were on the documents of the initial examination, but the court didn’t accept our declaration and forced us to give our signatures on the court records" of the hearing.
Later, the saint was transferred to another camp section, where he was kept with his spiritual children - the monk Prochorus (Sandin) and Archimandrite Anthony (Pervov). The latter later recalled that they asked the Bishop about [the Catacomb bishop Anthony] Galynsky-Mikhailovsky and what kind of person he was, but our Vladyka replied that he did not know him. To these memoirs it is appropriate to add that it’s untrue that Bishop Sergius accepted the great-schema with the name of Michael.
A spiritual daughter of the secret CPI Bishop, who lived in the Kuibyshev region in those years, recalls: "Our house became a transit point. We received parcels for brothers and sisters who were in prisons, most of all for Bishop Sergius. We sent them onwards while also making our own to be sent. They wrote to us and we answered. I was about 14 years old, I studied well. I wrote letters under dictation (very briefly), addresses on parcels, and filled out receipts. In letters to the Bishop, my grandmother wrote as if she were his niece, for example: 'Uncle, we are all alive and well, everything is fine. What do you need?' He would answer us: 'Niece, how is your health?' and told us what to send. Only later did we find out that there were others incarcerated with him that didn’t receive anything from anyone, and they were the ones that he was concerned about. He took care of them too. - 'Did you ask for prayers in your letters'? - 'No, we didn't write [this].'"
The year was 1955. Lent was coming to an end. At this time Vladyka, together with his assistant Fr. Anthony, was in the camp hospital with heart problems. On Holy Saturday, April the 3rd/16th, Fr. Anthony, came into his room. The saint conducted a lively conversation with him and did not complain about his health. Together they discussed where and how the Bright Resurrection of Christ would be celebrated.
The warden came in and seeing the patient from another room, he immediately escorted him out. Then just as Archimandrite Anthony, [upon returning to his room] was stretching out on his bed, he again heard the voice of the supervisor: "Kudryavtsev is ready! Kudryavtsev is ready!"
Rushing out into the corridor, he asked: "How ready?" –
"Dead", explained the supervisor. Hearing this, the saint's spiritual son hurried to his room and saw that the saint wasn’t breathing. He couldn’t believe it!
According to the memoirs of Ignatius [Archimandrite Anthony] Pervov, "Bishop Sergius was buried with honor". The camp administration allowed him to be buried in a coffin. A cross was placed in the hands of the murdered Bishop, and for him alone, unlike all of the other graves which were marked by just a number, an oak eight-ended cross - without a single nail – was placed at the head of the plot.
A message filed from Dubravlag dated December 8, 1955, stated that "Ivan Platonovich Kudryavtsev died on April 16, 1955."
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| Dubravlag Concentration Camp - where Bishop Sergius was assassinated in 1955 |
After the death of the saint, his assistant remained in the camp hospital. The sudden death of his spiritual father caused great dismay unto him. Shortly afterwards, upon receiving his daily pills, he heard an inner voice say: "Don’t swallow!" and he spat them out in a way which would not cause this to be noticed. However, from the short time that the "pills" were in his mouth, ulcers formed on his tongue as a result. In the days that followed, Ignatius Pervov managed to throw them all away. He couldn't believe that the doctors, who are supposed to heal, could kill. After a while, he spoke to a doctor that was also a prisoner and whom he trusted. He showed him his tongue and asked: "What do I have here?" The doctor immediately understood the situation and while not explaining this to him, he just slapped him on the back and said: "Good man Father Anthony. It will heal with time".
The memoirs of Archimandrite Anthony allow us to identify the true cause of death for the Bishop of the CPI Sergius (Kudryavtsev) - it was murder. The Soviets had issued an order from above: to poison the bishop, and at the same time his assistant, and to pass it off as a consequence of their illnesses. But Father Archimandrite survived, and they turned a blind eye to this, because their main task had been accomplished.
Through the efforts of the saint's flock, a lawyer from Moscow was hired, who in January of 1955 filed for a court re-examination of the group trial. On August 26, 1955 (after the death of Vladyka), the judicial board for criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR decided that the sentences of I. P. Kudryavtsev and K. Pervov should be reduced to 10 years, and that the rest of the convicts should be released. In September and November of 1955, all of these Christians found freedom.
The labors of the Saint were not in vain. His spiritual children continued the construction of the True Orthodox Church, constantly sensing the prayerful help of the murdered Bishop of Christ – Bishop Sergius (Kudryavtsev).
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| A drawing of the Saint |
[Editor's note: Metropolitan Manuel (Lemeshevsky) of the Sergianist "Moscow Patriarchate", who had fought the CPI for decades, in his book "Russian Orthodox Hierarchs of the Period from 1893 to 1965" in a brief reference dedicated to Bishop Sergius, declares the false information that the saint, before his death, "repented" of his anti-Sergian position and joined the "Patriarchate". Catacomb sources utterly, and rightly, reject this false claim.]
Source: Voice of the Age. 2013. №1 which presented the Report of Igor Ilyichev which he offered at the conference "Church Underground in the USSR" (Chernigov, 2011). The text above has been kindly translated by Seraphim Larin and adapted by "Gregory Decapolite".
St. Sergius pray unto God for us!