Karelin, Felix Vladimirovich

Born in Odessa ^[2] in the family of Vladimir Karelin , deputy head of the special department of the NKVD in the RSFSR. Felix's mother, Esther Lvovna, nee Gantvarg, (1898—?) Was an artist, a graduate of the Odessa Art College. She married his father, a retired law student, in 1917. When Felix was 6 years old, in 1931, his parents divorced. And Vladimir Karelin, already a successful Chekist at that time, remarried to Alla Izrailevna, nee Boxer (1906—?), A former employee of the OGPU . Father, Vladimir Karelin, paid alimony to Felix's mother. Since 1932, Esther and her son moved to Moscow, where, in her own words cited in her investigation, “lived with Poluyan Evsey Karlovich, who worked as the director of the radio store.” In the mid-1930s, Esther was the artistic director of the batik workshop of the Soyuzgalanterei experimental art workshop. As follows from the testimonies of the later arrested batik artist, from March-May 1937 she “lived” with the former Odessa security officer, later a journalist, and at that time unemployed Ya. M. Belsky . But by June 1937, relations with Belsky had broken up, as the historians O. I. Kiyanskaya and D. M. Feldman suggest, because of the complaint of Esfiri Karelina to the CCP that Belsky was "drinking" all the time. But the clouds over Belsky had long been gathering completely independent of the complaint of Felix's mother. On July 26, 1937 he was arrested, and on November 5 of the same year he was shot. On January 27, 1938, it was in connection with the arrest and execution of Belsky that Esther was arrested ^[3] . On February 9, 1938, she was sentenced to exile for 5 years as an ESR , but only 2 months later, on April 9, 1939, the case was dismissed by a resolution of the USSR NKVD OS, and freed from exile by E. L. Karelin ^[4] .

Apparently, during the investigation of the mother and her short exile, Felix was placed in an orphanage for children of repressed parents, he later recalled that there was a banner over the stage in the auditorium: “ Thanks to Stalin for our happy childhood ” ^[5] .

Felix was drafted into the army in the Alatyr district military registration and enlistment office in the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (the date of the draft was not indicated). In 1943 he joined the Komsomol. Junior sergeant, Komsomol of the 2nd Division 522 of the small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery regiment. February 3, 1945 "for good work to put together a Komsomol organization" was awarded the medal "For Military Merit" ^{[6] [7]} .

After serving in the army, Felix Karelin, as the son of a high-ranking Chekist in the past, was offered cooperation with the authorities. According to Lev Regelson, who knew Karelin well, Felix continued to be proud of his father, believed that he was repressed by mistake, and therefore willingly agreed, seeing in this proposal signs of trust of authorities ^[8] . He was introduced as an informant and provocateur in the student literary and God-seeking “Kuzma circle”, whose members were then sentenced to various terms of imprisonment by his denunciations. About this circle and the fatal role of Karelina talks about Ilya Shmain. ^[9] Felix himself said that under the influence of the circle he experienced religious conversion - after that he openly repented to its members and wrote an official statement to the authorities about the termination of cooperation with them. As a result, he was convicted along with others as a real member of the circle. ^[10] At the camp, Karelin began to wear a cross and entered an underground “order” called “The Cross and the Sword”, which was preparing an escape — for further activities with the goal of overthrowing Soviet power. A traitor was found among the members, the organization sentenced him to death: while the executor of the sentence was determined by lot - which fell on Felix Karelin. The contractor was obliged to take the whole blame on himself, declaring the murder personal motives. After that, Felix was locked up in solitary confinement, where he spent 9 months awaiting the inevitable execution - according to his stories, he received important “spiritual revelations” at that time.

In the summer of 1953, Karelin was in the 5th camp unit in Omsk, where he prophesied that the authority of the Antichrist (i.e. the Soviets ) should last only 36 years and that it would end on November 7, 1953. When the prophecy was not justified, it pushed away from him the majority of admirers from among the prisoners ^[11] .

However, in connection with the “Khrushchev’s rehabilitation,” the sentence in the first case was canceled, and the case of the camp murder was suspended ^[12] . As a result, Karelin got into the Tashkent exile, where he was engaged in theological self-education under the leadership of Archimandrite Boris (Kholchev) and Archbishop Yermogen (Golubev) ^[13] . After the end of the exile, he began to intensively preach (in private apartments in Moscow) his "interpretation of the Apocalypse " - indicating the time for the fulfillment of the prophecy in 2000. He entered the community of Father Alexander Me and became his spiritual son - although Father Alexander was wary of his sermons.

In 1965, Felix Karelin wrote “A Letter to the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council” under the pseudonym “Humble Christian of the Russian Orthodox Church”, where he outlined his thoughts on the coming reunification of the Church. At the same time, he refers to the “inner voice” that he heard while praying about it at the tomb of Vladimir Solovyov: “The mystery of the unification of the Churches in God. Deepen your knowledge and expand your heart ”(Bulletin of RSHD No. 79 1965) ^[14]

In the mid-1960s, a group of Orthodox zealots decided to write an open letter to the Government and the Patriarch criticizing the anti-religious policy of the state and the compromising behavior of church authorities. Variants of the Letter were proposed by father Alexander Men and then Anatoly Krasnov-Levitin , but were not accepted by Nikolai Ashliman and Gleb Yakunin , who attracted Felix Karelin to cooperation. He did most of the literary work, although each wording was discussed and accepted by the three of them. In his letter to Nikita Struve dated 11/15/1971 about. Gleb Yakunin openly calls Felix Karelin “the third author of the letter” ^[15] . However, it was decided not to put his signature, since Karelin had a criminal record, and this could give the church authorities a formal canonical reason for refusing to consider the appeal. It was originally supposed that this would be a joint letter from several bishops and priests (in particular, Hermogenes (Golubev) ). But later Archbishop Germogen refused to participate in the project, and without him all the other clergy refused to participate.

On November 25, 1965, an open letter ^[16] was sent to Patriarch Alexy I signed by the priests Gleb Yakunin and Nikolai Ashliman. The letter sharply criticized the servile policy of the church authorities during the “Khrushchev’s persecution” of the Church, during which more than half of the existing churches were closed - moreover, exclusively “by decision” of local bishops (the so-called “merger of parishes”).

The letter was printed on a typewriter in 100 copies and sent out in mid-December to all the ruling bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate. On December 15, another open letter criticizing the anti-church actions of state bodies was sent to the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the USSR N.V. Podgorny , Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin and Prosecutor General of the USSR R. A. Rudenko .

On the meaning of the Open Letter, Nikita Struve, editor of the Bulletin of the RSHD, said:

“At once, the Church of silence has become a Confessing Church ... in the mystical depths the irrational element of fear has been overcome, fettering the Church - as it fetters to some extent the whole Russian people. With this feat, the Church finds its place in the new revival of Russia, strengthening and revealing the popular consciousness. Before the “letter” the Church fought only for existence, now it fights for its entirety ”(Bulletin of the Russian Orthodox Church No. 81 1966) ^[14]

For their activities, priests Gleb Yakunin and Nikolai Ashliman were Patriarch Alexy I "forbidden to serve until repentance."

After that, on the initiative of Felix Karelin, in October 1964, a “home theological academy” was created - in which he became the main “teacher”. Meetings were regular and frequent: once or twice a week, and usually took a whole day. These classes continued until 1972. O. Alexander Men at first approves the creation of an “academy,” but then abruptly breaks with it, in view of its “apocalyptic” mood, emanating from Felix Karelin. ^[17] Together with him, the closest students of A. left me: Mikhail Meerson, Evgeny Barabanov and Alexander Borisov . In early 1968, for the same reason, Fr. Nikolay Ashleyman. Priests Gleb Yakunin and Nikolai Gainov, together with Leo Regelson , Viktor Kapitanchuk and Vladimir Prilutsky, remain its members until the end.

After the publication of the Open Letter, Ashlyman and Yakunin contacted the leaders of the “catacomb Church” ^[18] , which arose in connection with the well-known “ Declaration ” of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of 1927. - which brought a large number of documents stored by them on the history of this period. With the active participation of Karelin, a thorough analysis of these materials was carried out in order to clarify the little-known church events of that era. The results of this work are set forth in the book of Lev Regelson, “The Tragedy of the Russian Church. 1917-45. ”Paris, 1977 ^[19] .

In July 1968, Felix Karelin organizes a pilgrimage trip (mainly for members of the “academy” with their families) to New Athos (Abkhazia), in anticipation of the event described in Revelation as the “sixth seal” (Rev. 6: 12-17). It was assumed that we are talking about a geophysical disaster associated with the possible fall of the asteroid Icarus to Earth. ^[20] Participants took with them preparatory materials on the topic “ Nicodemus Rotov 's heresy,” which they continued to work on in New Athos. These materials were seized during a search by local KGB authorities. After two months of waiting, the pilgrims returned to Moscow.

In 1967, the “Karelin Academy” began work on the study and analysis of the so-called “theology of Nicodemus Rotov,” which he and his assistants energetically developed in various ecumenical forums and meetings. The result of this work was an Appeal to the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971. “Concerning the newly appeared false doctrine of Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) and his unanimous people.” Authors: priest Nikolai Gaynov, lay people - Felix Karelin, Lev Regelson, Victor Kapitanchuk. ^[21] A letter was mailed to all participants in the Council dedicated to the election of the Patriarch, as well as personally handed over to the then head of the Patriarchate’s affairs, Metropolitan Alexy (Ridiger) . According to unofficial information, the Appeal was actively discussed on the sidelines of the Council: as a result, the “KGB sanction” for election was “withdrawn” from Metropolitan Nicodemus and “assigned” to the less “disputed” Metropolitan Pimen (Izvekov) .

In the mid-1970s, Karelin switched to the position of an anti-liberal "Orthodox-communist patriotism": in the hope of an "Orthodox rebirth" of the existing state power. During this period, he draws close to Gennady Shimanov and collaborates with the Veche magazine. He publishes a number of works, the most significant of which is Theological Manifesto, in which history is viewed from a “Eucharistic” perspective - Western civilization is declared vicious, in view of the extreme diminution of the role of the Eucharist by Protestants and especially Calvinists ^[22] .

In August 1980, appears at the trial of Gleb Yakunin as a witness for the prosecution ^[23] .

In 1985, in connection with the 40th anniversary of the victory, he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the II degree ^[2] .

“Gorbachev perestroika ” and the collapse of the USSR plunged Karelin into a state of deep disappointment and depression: all his hopes for “Orthodox communism” collapsed as a positive conclusion to Russian and world history, as he believed the only real possibility of confronting “liberal anti-Christianity”.

He categorically rejected the values ​​of the “new Russia” ^[24] , he stopped journalistic activities and died in 1992 - at the age of 67.

• The first stepfather is Ya. M. Belsky (some witnesses of the Belsky case call E. Karelin his wife, Belsky managed to register Esther and Felix in his apartment) ^[3]
• Second stepfather - sculptor Shan-Giray ^[25]
• The first wife (circa 1958) - Valentina Lvovna Karelina, nee Boguslavskaya (born 1928), actress, received distribution in Irkutsk ^[26] . Later, she returned to Moscow and taught stage speech at GITIS .
  • Son - Pavel Feliksovich Karelin, (born in 1959 in Moscow). Architect, stage designer, theater figure and astrologer. Since 1973, lives in Israel, where he repatriated with his mother, Valentina Karelina.

• Second wife (from October 27, 1967) - Margarita Sergeevna nee Bystrozorova (September 17, 1939 ^{[27] —} December 18, 2004) ^[28]
  • Son - Andrei ^[28] (b. December 6, 1968), physicist, candidate for membership in the Central Committee of the Communist Party (since July 2004) ^[29] .
  • Son - Peter (born 1972), architect and restorer of wooden temples ^{[28] [30] [31]}
  • Son - Sergey ^[28] (born April 13, 1974)

• 1937 - st. Petrovka, d. 26, building 2, apt. 110 (registered in Belsky’s apartment) ^[3] .

• Karelin Felix Vladimirovich (07.24.1925 - 11.30.1992)
• Victor Kapitanchuk . Felix Karelin and his doctrine of dominants.
• Felix Karelin Theological Manifesto