Melchizedek (Averchenko)

Mikhail Evfimiev Averchenko ^[1] was born in the village of Usokhskaya, Buda, Krasnobudsky volost, Gomel district, Mogilev gubernia (now Dobrush district , Gomel region , Belarus ).

He graduated from the Gomel spiritual school .

In 1897, in the Glinsky desert, he was tonsured a monk.

In 1906 he was moved to the Trinity Issyk-Kul Monastery in Turkestan .

July 20, 1906 elevated to the rank of deacon . On August 15, 1907, he was elevated to the rank of hieromonk .

In 1914-1918 he served in various churches around his monastery.

In 1918 he returned to his monastery, where he served until its liquidation. Then, in 1918, he was transferred to Tashkent . He served simultaneously in Tashkent and in the village of Chernyaevo .

Manuil (Lemeshevsky) introduced hieromonk Melchizedek (Averchenko) to his "Catalog of Russian Archbishop-Renovationists of 1922-1924". However, the surviving documents from the archives of the NKVD testify to Melchizedek’s negative attitude towards the renovationists. Nor does Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky) ^[2] mention his stay in the Renovationism. Renovation Bishop Nikolai Koblov, who considered himself the legitimate authority in the Turkestan diocese, convinced that Hieromonk Melchisidek was harming their organization, banned him from serving. Nicholas reported on hieromonk Melchizedek in a letter to the GPU and the NKVD for No 16119 dated July 22, 1923, calling him a counterrevolutionary and political criminal ^[3] , and in 1924 he informed the NKVD that around hounded by the Renovationists in the priesthood hieromonk Melchizedek "grouped together , who previously considered Leo Tolstoy to be the Antichrist, and now Lenin and Trotsky, and the Soviet Authority in general is antichrist ... The whole community promotes Tikhonism, stirring the people and supporting in it discontent with the legitimate both church and Soviet power ” ^[4] .

It is not documented in what year Abbot Melchizedek was elevated to the rank of archimandrite , but most likely in the period 1923-1925.

On June 13, 1925, Bishop Andrei (Ukhtomsky) and Bishop Lev (Cherepanov) of Nizhne-Tagilsky were ordained bishop of St. Andrew.

After returning to Tashkent after the first link, Bishop Luka (Voyno-Yasenetsky) approved Melchizedek ordination, describing it as follows: “Although Bishop. Melchizedek does not even have a secondary education, but those who know him speak very highly of his piety, loyalty, humility and exemplary life, and of the high praiseworthy attitude to pastoral duties. I would be glad to have him as my vicar ” ^[3] .

From May 1926 - Bishop Urazovsky, Bishop of the Voronezh diocese ( Valuysky district, Voronezh province ) ^[5] .

From October 1926 - Bishop of Pishpek and Semirechensky , Vicar of the Turkestan Diocese .

About this period of the life of Bishop Melchizedek (Averchenko) information is very scarce. It is known that in 1928 he traveled around his vicariate ( Chui oblast ), and the authorities, fixing this event, stated with displeasure the failure of their atheistic propaganda: "In a number of villages the bishop passed, and solemn meetings were held everywhere." There is a photograph of 1928, which depicts a bishop with the singers of the Seven Rivers ^[3] .

With the arrival of the bishop in Kyrgyzstan was associated unique for the late 1920s. event - the congress of the Orthodox "old church" clergy. According to the inspector's report, “in the village of Alekseyevka by priests, a solemn congress of priests was held, where it was established that the religious work among the population was intensively developed” ^[3] .

During the interrogation of 1933, he told about this time to the investigator of the GPU: “I expressed my opinion about inviting all clergymen in exile, in concentration camps and serving sentences for a / c and c / d activity to be invited to the Council. I was forced to express this idea by saying that at that time most of the best, devoted to the cause of the Orthodox Church bishops and priests of the Old Church orientation by the Soviet authorities were repressed. On my initiative, the church council and believers in the parish in Tashkent wrote a petition for the release of the Bishop of Voyno-Yasenetsky. I conducted private conversations with believers, urging them not to forget God, go to church, pray to God, and not listen to atheists who are atheists who are fighting against religion and the Orthodox Church. I disagree with the methods of their struggle and consider these methods as blasphemy and persecution of the Orthodox Church ” ^[3] .

Since October 17, 1929 in custody. On October 30, 1929 dismissed for state.

As I showed at the interrogation in the GPU on February 3, 1933, from 1929 to 1931, "due to the lack of vacancies, I was behind the staff and lived in Tashkent ."

On August 11, 1931, he was appointed Bishop of Trinity , Vicar of the Chelyabinsk Diocese , but refused to be appointed.

Since the end of 1931 - Bishop of Kurgan .

He lived in Troitsk , where he was arrested on November 19, 1932. On April 22, 1933, he was sentenced to five years of ITL on charges of organizing and directing “clerical groups of churches” and “anti-Soviet activities”.

On July 1, 1933, he was sent to Frunze Special Forces, and on October 23, 1933, he was transferred to the Central Asian office of the OGPU in Tashkent.

On October 23, 1933, the troika of the OGPU changed the sentence to him, condemning him already for 10 years. The OGPU in the Urals sends telegrams in Frunze and Tashkent, trying to find out “the results of the new case on Averchenko”, but receive only an extract from the decision of the OGPU trio.

The further fate of Bishop Melchizedek is unknown. Most likely he was shot after the start of the “ big terror ”.

• Melchizedek (Averchenko) on the site "Russian Orthodoxy"
• Melchizedek (Averchenko, Mikhail Efimovich) // New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church of the 20th Century