Nedachin, Semyon Vasilyevich

Official career

Semyon Nedachin came from an Orthodox priest’s family. The biographical information about him is far from complete, and his attitude to Smolensk priests Nedachin ^{[5] [6]} , from where the Moscow teacher Vasily Pavlovich Nedachin originated, remains unexplained. After graduating from the Faculty of Oriental Languages ​​at St. Petersburg University (according to other sources, the Institute of Oriental Languages ​​in Vladivostok ^[4] ) began serving as an official in the censorship department at the General Directorate of Press Affairs . In the summer of 1907, Semyon Vasilyevich visited Japan, visited the Tokyo seminary , where he saw the work of the society of Japanese Orthodox Christians, who organized the “Orthodox partnership of spiritual comfort to prisoners of war”. This society impressed Nedachin with the fact that not only Orthodox Christians took part in its work, but also non-Orthodox, and even Buddhists ^[7] . Returning to the capital, from December 1, 1907, Nedachin carried out censorship control over publications in Japanese and Korean that were published in the Russian Empire ^{[2] [3]} .

On February 27, 1909, Semyon Nedachin was appointed to serve in the Ministry of the Interior and sent to the General Directorate of Press Affairs. On November 1, 1910, he became a senior assistant to the censor of the Central Committee for Foreign Censorship (CKTSI) "with the former at the time" in the General Directorate of Press Affairs. On January 1, 1912, Nedachin is appointed secretary of the metropolitan press committee. From February 16, 1912, he takes part in the work of the Petersburg Press Committee as a member of the committee. Then, on November 23, 1913, Nedachin again sent to serve in the General Directorate of Press Affairs. Two months later, on January 18, 1914, he was transferred to serve in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On August 13, 1914 he was appointed to the post of military censor at the military censorship commission of Petrograd. From April 21, 1915, Nedachin is again a member of the metropolitan press committee, at that time he was in the service at the same time both in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The last changes in Nedachin's career as an official of the censorship department occurred in June 1916 ^{[3] [2]} .

Nedachin Journalist

In addition to censor activity, S. V. Nedachin himself was an active journalist. As a publicist and military journalist under various pseudonyms, he participated in many newspapers and magazines: “Chronicle of War”, “ New Time ”, “ Moscow Gazette ”, “Evening Time”, “ Exchange Gazette ”, “Russia”, “Kolokol”, Rural Herald , Voice of Russia, Niva , Russian Reading ^[1] , Christian Reading ^[8] , Missionary Review ^[9] , as well as in other publications. As an official of the General Directorate of Press Affairs, Semyon Nedachin took part in the work of the state bibliographic index “ Book Chronicle, ” founded by the head of the General Directorate of Press Affairs in 1903–1912. by senator A.V. Bellegard ^[10] . The “book chronicle” was conceived, first of all, in the interests of the censor department. The weekly published lists of all periodicals and non-periodicals published in Russia, along with data on the novelties of the book market, lists of books not allowed for sale, orders to destroy and suspend publications, etc. were printed.

Nedachin was associated (not only as a censor) with other bibliographic publications. RGALI keeps Nedachin’s letter to N. G. Martynov , publisher and editor of the bibliographic journals Book Herald and Book Exchange, owner of bookstores ^[11] . He led the bibliography department in other publications, where he was an employee, in particular, in the Niva , where he reviewed Japanese-Korean literature, works of Russian orientalists.

Orthodox publicist and orientalist

As an Orthodox publicist, Nedachin investigated the missionary activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Japan ^[12] and in Korea ^[13] . Peru Nedachin owned materials on the life of St. Nicholas of Japan , including the obituary of the Archbishop of Japan. Excerpts from this obituary with the mention of its author were included in the official “Life of St. Nicholas of Japan”, timed to its canonization in 1970 ^[14] :

S. Nedachin writes: In the absence of railways, the young man had to be dragged along the terrible and now even Velsky slums to the provincial city of Smolensk to receive education in a theological seminary. Not all seminarians of that time went to study on horses. A great many of them, the poorest, to whom Kasatkin belonged, had to walk for over 150 miles to come to the walls of the seminary.

- "Saint Nicholas of Japan." Life

Military publicist

From the beginning of the First World War, Nedachin led tireless propaganda work on the pages of various newspapers and magazines to explain the meaning of this war, as it was seen by officials of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (For Religion in Honor of Belgium); "We and They"; "Under a great war ", etc.). In his military essays Nedachin publicist proclaimed the official position of the government to bring the First World War to a victorious end. Nedachin's chauvinistic pathos found expression in hopes of conquering Constantinople , which in the near future, in his conviction, should become Russian Tsargrad:

The desired hour of the great and bright dream of the whole Christian world, cherished for five centuries, is nearing. Constantinople will not become tomorrow Christian, European, Russian, Orthodox.

- S. N-chin, "Mix". Monthly literary and popular scientific supplements to the magazine "Niva", 1915, May, stlb. 143.

Years of Revolution and Emigration

The years of revolution forced Nedachin to change his career as a Petersburg official of the censorship department to the diplomatic service in China. Under the Provisional Government until 1918, Semyon Vasilyevich worked as secretary and translator of the Russian consulate in Gulja. Kuldzha is the Chinese city of Xinjiang province bordering on Russia, not far from the city of Verny (now Alma-Ata ). As a result of a tiff with the consul (Consul V.F. Lyuba ), Nedachin was forced to leave the service, after which he left for Omsk . Omsk was ruled by A. V. Kolchak , and S. V. Nedachin went to counterintelligence of the Supreme Ruler of Russia . In Omsk, Nedachin did not stay long and soon found himself again in Guldja ^[4] .

In 1919, the Kolchak command needed information about the economic situation of northwest China for possible cooperation with the Russian diaspora. In connection with this, the reconnaissance department of the headquarters A. V. Kolchak in August 1919 sent Ensign A. Sidelnikov to Xinjiang. The mission of the young officer was to "under the guise of an official of the Ministry of Supply," he studied the situation on the spot. The instruction to Sidelnikov involved “For the purposes of informing ... use the Russian merchants of Chuguchak Pavel Efimovich Botvin and Abduldzhapar Satarov. In the city of Kuldja ... enter into the closest connection with the dragoman [translator] of the Russian consulate Mr. Nedachin ” ^[15] . When the Civil War in Russia ended, Nedachin worked as a Chinese intelligence officer in Gulja, and was subsequently sent to the capital of Xinjiang province, Urumqi .

In Urumqi, S.V. Nedachin became the head of local customs. However, his duties included notifying the Chinese authorities about the activities of the Soviet consulate in Urumqi. Nedachin often visited the consulate and maintained business contacts with consul A. E. Bystrov-Zapolsky . In turn, Bystrov-Zapolsky asked S.V. Nedachin to prepare detailed information on the political and economic situation of the Xinjiang district, which Nedachin did. Soviet intelligence reported that Nedachin often met with the Soviet consul in Bystrov-Zapolsky’s private apartment. There was also a cipher and secret documents of the Soviet diplomatic mission . Subsequently, S. V. Nedachin took Chinese citizenship despite all the attempts of the Soviet consul to achieve Soviet citizenship for Nedachin and, moreover, to hire him to the Commissariat ^[4] .

At the same time, the Soviet consul in the Chinese city of Chuguchak Lajos Gavro was less optimistic about the prospect of making a Soviet diplomat out of S. Nedachin. According to him, Nedachin still continued to cooperate with Chinese intelligence. In China, Nedachina was also tied with an emigrant V. Chernov, a Khorunim from the closest circle of Colonel P. Papengut , who at one time headed the “Officer's Union” of former associates of the ataman A.I. Dutov . At the same time, V. Chernov was the personal secretary of the Soviet consul in Urumqi Bystrov-Zapolsky. Chernov served in the Chinese army, then, arriving in Urumqi, he became close to A.Ye. Bystrov-Zapolsky, and thanks to this acquaintance he gained Soviet citizenship, leaving China for the USSR ^[4] .

The fate of Nedachin was different. He stayed in China. As the modern historian E. N. Nazemtsev writes, in 1927–1930, S. V. Nedachin was a member of the émigré group of the former Russian consul A. A. Dyakov, I. V. Glushkov, Rossov, Fadeev, who was “one of the most active in their anti-Soviet activities of white immigrant groups. " A. A. Dyakov was an adviser to the governor of Xinjiang, and S. V. Nedachin was a teacher of the son of Xinjiang dujun, that is, the governor ^[16] . Subsequently, Nedachin left Xinjiang and settled in Manchuria . His latest documents, according to the Chief Bureau for the Affairs of Russian Emigrants in the Manchurian Empire, appear in 1935-1938. After this, traces of Nedachin are lost in the Chinese emigration ^[17] .

• Nedachin S.V. The beliefs of the Japanese and Japanese churches // Christian reading. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Theological Academy, 1908. - № 3 . - p . 448-466 . , No. 4. P. 604-624.