Alexy (Dekhterev)

Born in 1889 in Vilna. About his childhood, he recalled:

... From the earliest childhood I was surrounded by church life, breathing church air. My parents, brothers, cousins ​​were religious people and strictly church people, which also reflected on me, which raised me in the “church fence”. As I remember, as a three-year-old boy, I see myself in a church sitting on the steps of a pulpit. Most often, I was in church with an old nanny, who took care of all my older brothers and lived at our place as a loved one. It was she, an old nanny, who taught me the first prayers; it was she who first baptized me in the morning and - the last - baptized me for the coming dream; it was she who with great zeal took me to church: in weather and bad weather ...

He prints his poems on the pages of the Vilnius newspaper North-West Voice. In 1906 he published a collection of poems. He published a book of poems, “Fragile Wings. Poems, 1905-1906 ”(Vilna: Type. S. Lichtmacher, 1906).

In 1908 he graduated from the Vilnius Classical Gymnasium , and in 1911 he graduated from the Naval College in Libau with the specialization of a long-distance navigation navigator.

He worked as captain of the oceanic ship "Burma" ^[2] at the Russian East Asian Society . The ship made regular voyages on Russian-American lines, in particular, sailed to New York. It was a large four-masted ship, with four decks. The ship “Burma” distinguished itself in two well-known events: it received a message about the death of the “Titanic” and tried to help him and delivered the Russian team to the V Olympic Games in Sweden .

While working in the Navy, he wrote about sea voyages to the magazines "Peaks" (St. Petersburg) and " Around the World " (M.).

In 1913-1914 he worked as a research fellow at the Statistics Division for Transcaucasia Subtropic Flora Survey.

With the outbreak of World War I, he worked in the Technical Department of the 12th Army, later heading the shipyard in Riga .

In 1917, it appears within the limits of the Don Don Region . He is engaged in journalism, collaborates with the newspapers Priazovsky Krai, Voronezh Telegraph, and was the editor of the literary and artistic magazine Rays of the Sun (one issue was published). Under the ataman Peter Krasnov, he began to organize the scout movement. Senior scout of the youth organization Russian Scout, publishes the Pedagogical Newspaper and the newspaper Donskoy Scout. About the years spent on the Don, in 1949 he recalled:

1918 and 1919 I spent on the Don. As a senior scout of the Don, organizing squads of boys and girls scouts in cities and villages, I involuntarily witnessed exceptional cases that surpassed any idea of ​​the possibility of mass feat, when children, forgetting about leisure, games, food, everything free from training and I spent time at home in hospitals, at food centers, and in institutions, replacing orderlies and technical employees, as there weren’t enough service people: the front absorbed everyone who was healthy.

In March 1920 he was sent to England and landed typhoid in Constantinople . He became the teacher of the gymnasium. Baron Wrangel in Gallipoli, a teacher of a Russian school on the island of Halki. Member of the Constantinople Committee of the Russian Scout Society.

Since 1923, he lived in Bulgaria , where he worked with emigrant children as an employee of the Schooling Department of Russian Children in Bulgaria , a teacher of the gymnasium in Tarnovo and Shumen . Founder and leader of the boarding school “My Little Russia”.

While working on a teacher’s field, he publishes his articles on the subject of child rearing on the pages of Prague magazines: Russian School Abroad and Bulletin of the Pedagogical Bureau for Secondary and Secondary School Abroad. A number of his books are published in Bulgaria: Death of a Toy. Stories "(1929)," With children of emigration. 1920-1930 "," My little Russia "," SOS. Fully armed with the heart ”(1931),“ The Pink House: short stories: 1921-1932. ”(1932). Published in newspapers “Russian Voice” (Lviv), “Russian People's Voice” (Uzhgorod), “Dawn” (Chicago), “Russian Voice” (Belgrade), “Rumor”, “Sword” (Warsaw), “Orthodox Carpathian Russia "( Ladomirova ).

While in exile, he maintained correspondence with Hieromonk Savva (Struve) , who lived in the Monastery of Job Pochaevsky in Ladomirova. In 1934, he left Bulgaria and moved to Czechoslovakia . At the monastery he performed various obediences: he taught Russian language and mathematics at the monastery school, in the surrounding villages he taught children the Law of God , edited the newspaper " Orthodox Russia ", published by the Printing Brotherhood . On his initiative, in 1934, the application "Childhood and Youth" appeared in "Orthodox Russia". The new edition set itself the task of Christian education and rallying of Russian Orthodox youth in exile.

In April 1935, he was tonsured a monk with the name Alexy in the monastery of St. Job of Pochaevsky.

In the same year he published the book "Writer of the Angelic Order" dedicated to Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) . For the poem “I love Russia” he was awarded a prize at the competition of the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1935).

In April 1936 he moved to Mukachevo , where he became editor of the official publication of the Mukachevo-Pryashevsky Orthodox Diocese - the journal Orthodox Carpathian Russian Bulletin, replacing Hieromonk Averky (Taushev) in this post. On the pages of this publication presents a number of articles on various issues of the development of the church: "Easter days in the Marmarosh Valley", "A Trip of His Eminence. the bishop of Damascus in the diocese ”,“ Orthodoxy Day in Subcarpathian Rus ”,“ Trip to Maramorosh ”and others.

He is interested in the history of Orthodox monasteries in Subcarpathian Russia. In the school help printing house in Uzhgorod, it prints brochures on the activities of convents in Domboky and Lipchi, collaborates with local and foreign periodicals: Orthodox Russia (Ladomirova), Svet ( Wilks-Barre ), and Russian Folk Voice (Uzhhorod). In 1937 he published the book Russian Scout in Czechoslovakia.

He continues to work with youth, was one of the organizers of the congress of the Union of Orthodox Youth of Subcarpathian Rus in Lipchan Monastery in 1938.

In December 1938, Bishop Vladimir Mukachevo-Pryashevsky (Raich) was ordained hieromonk and appointed rector of the Orthodox Church-monument to Russian soldiers in Uzhgorod . As a priest, he carries out active missionary work, maintains contacts with the white emigrant community in the world.

In September 1939 he left Uzhgorod and left for Belgrade. In 1941, he became head of the Russian church in honor of the Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky in Alexandria ( Egypt ), which at that time belonged to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad . During a visit to Egypt by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy I on June 14, 1945, he repented and was reunited with the clergy and parish and became subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate ^[3] .

November 1, 1946 elevated to the rank of archimandrite .

In 1947, he accepted Soviet citizenship.

In August 1948, he was arrested by local authorities on charges of pro-communist propaganda. He was imprisoned in the Komel-Dik fortress.

“First, they put me in a common cell with criminals (killers, big hashish traders, black-market dealers). I was in the heat, raving, and because of this I reacted poorly to all the phenomena ... For almost a month and a half I could not get a doctor or a medicine, although I became very weak and hallucinated, because the complications from untreated flu passed to the brain ... On the tenth day after the arrest I He was transferred to a solitary cell, where he stayed until May 11, 1949. My cell was a stone oblong bag (5 steps long and 3 steps wide); high above were two very narrow windows - in the bars and in the frequent wire; there were no glasses, so in winter a cold wind from the sea walked freely around the cell ... "

Upon release, deported to the USSR. Upon returning to Moscow, he was appointed librarian of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra .

Published on the pages of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate . In December 1949 it was placed at the disposal of the Czechoslovak Exarchate .

On December 30, 1949, a cathedral of the Orthodox clergy in Pryashev elected him bishop.

On February 3, 1950, in Prague, the bishop of Prešov was appointed .

On February 12, 1950, in the cathedral of Alexander Nevsky in Presov, his ordination to the bishop of Presov took place.

The liturgy and consecration were performed by Metropolitan Nikolai Krutitsky and Kolomna (Yarushevich) , Exarch, Metropolitan of Prague and all Czechoslovakia Eleutherius (Vorontsov) , Archbishop of Lviv and Ternopil Makarii (Oksiyuk) , Bishop of Olomouc-Brno Chestmir (Kralmach) . The liturgy was attended by sixteen priests of the Pryashevsky diocese, official representatives of the Czechoslovak government, the Soviet embassy in Prague and the Soviet consulate in Bratislava, representatives of local political and administrative institutions.

In 1951, in Pryashev, a book was published by Bishop Alexei, “Both Peace and Serenity Giving ...” The Contribution of the Orthodox Church to Peace. 1950-1951 years. " The publication collected the bishop's speeches delivered at various meetings and excerpts from the diary about his pastoral work in Africa.

It was difficult to manage the Pryashevskaya diocese, because it mostly consisted of former Greek Catholics. In early 1955, cases of conversion to Catholicism began to appear among the flock of Bishop Alexei. Concerned about the increasing influence of the Catholic Church in Slovakia, the Czechoslovak State Administration of the Church accused Bishop Alexei of inaction and raised the question of the need for his replacement by another bishop to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the summer of 1955, Bishop Alexander left Presov and moved to Moscow.

Since November 22, 1955 - Bishop of Vilnius and Lithuania .

July 25, 1957 was elevated to the rank of archbishop .

In the new department, Vladyka proved himself to be a good administrator. At his request, the patriarchy allocated funds for the repair of Lithuanian churches and for subsidies to the clergy. He regularly visited parishes in the diocesan machine, and studied their financial condition locally. During the three years of activity in the diocese, most of the churches were restored.

He died on April 19, 1959 and was buried in the Holy Spirit Monastery in Vilnius .

Author of books, mainly for children, about children, spiritual content:

• "Death Toys"
• “With children of emigration”
• "School year"
• The Pink House
• "My little Russia"
• "Children's games"
• Bear Cubs
• Forest Story
• "Writer of the Angelic rank"
• "White krin"
• "Treasure is unappreciated"
• “With God on the road”
• "Moses Ugrin"
• "Gazdynia Anna"
• “Wednesday” (dramatic study)
• "Images of the Past" play
• "After the Storm" play

articles

• Extraordinary joy (to visit His Holiness Alexis, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church in Alexandria (Egypt)) // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1945. No. 10. p. 12-13.
• A voice from Africa (for a visit by Pope and Patriarch Christopher II of the Russian Orthodox Church Community in Alexandria on January 29 (February 11), 1947) // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1947. No. 5. P. 44-45
• Holy Trinity Day in the monastery of St. Sergius (June 12, 1949) // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1949. No. 7. p. 4-6.
• From the life of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1949. No. 9. pp. 7-10.
• My way to my homeland // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1949. No. 10. p. 58-61.
• In the Name of God ... (on the activities of Rome today) // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1950. No. 1. P. 51-52.
• Telegram to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy [on the termination of the Union of Uzhgorod] // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1950. No. 5. p. 20.
• Orthodoxy in Slovakia // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1950. No. 9. pp. 41-42.

• Elena Bakhmetyeva. Three hypostases of Alexander Dekhterev // Vilnius. 1993. No. 7 (126). S. 123-138.
• Danilets Yuri Vasilyevich Archbishop Oleksiy (Dekhterov): Life and creative way (1889-1959) // Rusin, No. 2 (32). 2013