Nun Valeria (in the world, Valeria Zoroastrovna Makeeva ; 1929 , Novocherkassk , Rostov Region - 2007 , Moscow , Russian Federation ) - Soviet dissident , participant in religious samizdat , prisoner of punitive psychiatry in the USSR [1] , nun of the Russian Orthodox Church .
| Nun Valeria | |
|---|---|
| Valeria Zoroastrovna Makeeva | |
| Birth name | Valeria Zoroastrovna Makeeva |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Flow | Orthodoxy |
| Date of Birth | 1929 |
| Place of Birth | Novocherkassk , Rostov Region , USSR |
| Date of death | 2007 |
| Place of death | Moscow , Russian Federation |
| A country |  USSR →  Russia |
Content
Biography
She was born in 1929 in Novocherkassk into a family of geologists , from 1939 she lived with her parents in Moscow, in 1944 she became a nun in St. Michael’s Monastery in Odessa , then she moved to the Mother of God-Nativity Rechul Monastery in Moldova , and then, at the end of 1950- x years, - in one of the monasteries of the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine .
Makeeva gains his first experience of underground printing and photocopying in a monastery, where he masters the technique of making photocopies of icons, since the traditional writing of icons in the USSR has ceased, and the workshops of the Moscow Patriarchate, which were professionally engaged in the production of printed icons using various technologies, were very limited in their assortment and in the number of products, the demand for icons, especially among the rural population of Ukraine, remained high.
Since 1959 , together with other nuns, Makeeva has been involved in the underground printing of religious leaflets addressed to the local population with an appeal to protect holy places, churches and monasteries. The event that prompted this action was an attempt by the authorities to close the monasteries in Kremenets and Pochaev in Western Ukraine. The next event is the closing of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra , leaflets were also distributed among the people here, Makeeva was also involved in their production. Then, after moving to Moscow, Makeeva engaged in clandestine production of Orthodox prayer books, other books and religious objects in the 1960s and 70s, for this purpose she organized handicrafts at her summer house in the Moscow Region, for which she was repeatedly persecuted.
In 1968, Makeeva's first arrest followed, then she was repeatedly subjected to psychiatric examinations, as a result of which she was recognized insane ; was detained at the Moscow Regional Psychiatric Hospital No. 2 named after Yakovenko in the Meshcherskaya and Kazan special hospitals .
Makeeva's cousin Viktor Nikolayevich Cheverev initiated the defense and petition against the nun’s repressions, he is the author of a statement addressed to the Secretary General of the World Psychiatric Association on 02.24.1979, wrote in the "Newsletter" No. 16 of the Working Commission on the Investigation of the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes , dated 30.4. 1979, appealed to women's and public organizations of the world "in defense of women prisoners of conscience in the USSR, organized the" Makeeva Christian Defense Committee ".
The nun Valeria passed away in 2007 .
Notes
- ↑ Abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union: hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, first session, September 20, 1983 . - Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1984.
Bibliography
- Valeria (Makeeva), nun. Notes nuns. M .: Native Ashtray, 2008.