Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Shanghai)

After the revolution, a stream of Russian refugees from Russia rushed to China. A lot of them turned out to be in Shanghai.

The initiator of the construction of the first Orthodox church in Shanghai was Lieutenant-General Faddey Glebov , who organized the fundraising. The text of the appeal issued in 1932 to make a contribution to the “sublime cause” also contains the meaning of a special dedication to the memorial church: “the memorial church we’ve created here will reach its full value, will be a monument to the great Russian misfortune, a monument our sufferings, our longing for the Motherland, our heartfelt repentance of sins committed, faith in God and the resurrection of holy Russia. ” Along with the appeal, the imprint of a graphic sheet with a perspective image of the temple, signed by the author and dated November 25, 1932, was distributed ^[1] . The project of the temple was donated by the architect Alexander Yaron , who not only supervised the work, but also paid for the work of all the technical staff from his own funds ^[2] .

The laying of the Nicholas Church in Shanghai took place on December 18, 1932 in the territory of the French concession ^[3] . Rubezh magazine commented on this event as “an exceptional Russian Orthodox celebration in the history of Shanghai” ^[1] . The construction was carried out in a very short period for the cramped Russian emigrants - 15 months. The consecration of the temple took place in early 1934. This church was the first church monument to Nicholas II in the history of Russian emigration . The author of a note on the history of the erection of the church wrote in 1936: “... how much this holy building is a monument to the Russian heart, a monument to the suffering endured by the Russian people during the revolution, the symbol of which is the torment and death of Tsar Martyr and His Most August Family” ^[4] .

In 1949, most of the Russian émigrés left Shanghai. In August 1955, the church was closed ^[3] .

In 1952, the Bishop of Shanghai, Simeon (Du), in a letter to Patriarch Alexy indicated ^[5] :

beautiful in architecture and interior decoration, a temple that can serve as pride and decoration not only for the Russian colony, but also for our many million city, dedicated to the Great Protector of the Russian land, St. Nicholas, "managed" to raise money from the blood and sweat of the exiles in foreign land, which until now not redeemed. Having concluded a long-term contract for land with prolongation, they were unable to prolong it, and as a result, according to a stupid contract, by the decision of the highest court, the court had to transfer its land to the owner in full, and also a magnificent temple. And now I have to pay rent for the land, and [for] our temple, plus huge taxes compared with meager returns.

In 1965, after the death of the last Orthodox bishop of the Chinese Orthodox Church, Bishop of Shanghai, Simeon (Du) , all Orthodox churches in Shanghai were closed by Chinese authorities, the temple buildings were nationalized, declared architectural monuments and taken under protection. At the time of the “ cultural revolution ” in China, a laundry was located in a closed temple. The portrait of Mao Zedong, placed by an unknown person in a canopy on the pediment of the bell tower, helped the temple to survive during the outrages of the Red Guards . According to the Orthodox Chinese, John Chen, “someone told me that during the time of the cultural revolution, the frescoes were not knocked down, but covered with whitewash. Later the walls were plastered. Perhaps the frescoes are to be restored, but I am not sure ” ^[6] .

For over 20 years Nicholas church was used as a warehouse. Later, a stock exchange was housed in the cathedral itself, and at the end of the 1990s, an Italian restaurant ^[2] and a night club were set up in the nave of the cathedral. In 2002, John Chan described it this way: “The Frenchman, the owner of the restaurant <...>, plastered all the murals, and someone painted on top of undressed pagan goddesses. One Christian told me that when he and several of his comrades entered there, they crossed themselves with the words: “Lord, have mercy, what happened? Here was the icon of St. Nicholas, here was the Mother of God, but that here now - women without clothes! “. The master also set the table at the altar. Strange, but this table is more expensive than others. When I talked with him about all this, he said: “I paid the government for this building. If you want to get it, you must pay twice as much ""; “The building is divided into two floors, but it will not be difficult to remove this fake ceiling. Everything in the altar remained untouched, except, of course, the iconostasis and the throne — they are absent ” ^[6] .

In 2002, the Russian Club in Shanghai, with the support of the Consulate General of Russia, organized a collection of signatures requesting the eviction of entertainment establishments from the premises of St. Nicholas Church and the Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Bib of the Sinners". The request of compatriots, supported by the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state, was partially satisfied: a nightclub was removed from the cathedral, the cathedral itself after restoration was turned into an exhibition hall ^[2] .

In 2005, an Orthodox community was formed in Shanghai, regular services began in the Consulate General of Russia, which were led by Archpriest Alexy Kiselevich, who had come from Moscow. Negotiations on the resumption of church activities in the two remaining Orthodox churches in Shanghai seriously advanced after the adoption in 2007 of a law allowing collective worship services of foreigners in the territory of the PRC ^[2] .

The question of the resumption of worship in one of the historic temples of Shanghai during the World Expo 2010 was also raised during a visit by the delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations and the Council for Cooperation with Religious Associations under the President of the Russian Federation led by Archbishop Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk December 20, 2009. Then the members of the delegation made a short prayer in the St. Nicholas Church and sang chants in honor of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. After this visit, the Orthodox residents of Shanghai collected hundreds of signatures on the request for a temple to perform services. Not only Russians, but also citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and other countries took part in collecting signatures ^[2] .

From May to November 2010, for the period of the World Expo, held in Shanghai, the church was handed over to the Shanghai community of the Russian Orthodox Church for rent on weekends and holidays, the restaurant continued to work on weekdays in the temple. On May 9, 2010, Archpriest Alexy Kiselevich, for the first time after a half-century break, performed a service in the St. Nicholas Church-monument ^[2] .

On April 15, 2012, after a one-year break due to the lack of permission from the authorities, the church held a festive Easter service. More than 300 "Russian Shanghais" came to the temple, out of which there were more than 160 people involved. For the first time since the resumption of services, the temple could not accommodate everyone. By 11 o'clock some of them, due to lack of space, had moved even to the roadway. Despite this, the fate of the temple remains in question. In the same year, a cafe resumed its work in its premises ^[7] .

On June 23, 2012, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) , chairman of the RVTSS of the Moscow Patriarchate, served in the church as a servant. After the Liturgy, Metropolitan Hilarion addressed with words of gratitude to Priest Michael and other Orthodox Chinese believers, "who, despite all the difficulties and obstacles, firmly carried the Orthodox faith through life" ^[8] .

From 2015 until April 2018 (Easter), there were no church services. Currently, local authorities periodically allow church services in holidays ^[9] .

• Former St. Nicholas Monument Temple, Shanghai