New Russian Martyrs

Priest Michael of Poland. Prison photo. Zyryansky Krai. 1928 year.

Priest Mikhail Polsky began collecting material for his book in the USSR. The case against many clergy and laity, including Bishop Seraphim (Zvezdinsky) , Bishop Andrei (Ukhtomsky) and others said: “The investigation established that Fr. Michael collected materials for his book, which he managed to export abroad. According to the conclusion of the investigation, V. N. Maksimov, with whom Fr. M. Polsky met while living illegally in Moscow. ” As stated in the indictment, “back in 1923, Polsky and Maximov, being together on a pilgrimage in the Diveevsky monastery , staying at the apartment of the accused Pavel Borotinsky , were engaged in compiling manuscripts, later, as can be seen from the above, turned into [ontr] -r The [evolutionary] book [referring to “The Situation of the Church in Soviet Russia: An Essay on a Priest who Fled from Russia”], published by Polish abroad. Maximov was also aware of the Polish flight to Jerusalem and his activities abroad through the Polish correspondence from abroad with some people in Moscow ” ^[1] .

In addition to documents exported from Russia, the collection was replenished with materials collected from abroad from memoirs, letters, diaries, published and unpublished articles transmitted to him in exile. The first source in the second volume is “The Case of Metropolitan Sergius,” whom Archpriest Michael of Poland managed to meet. An incomplete set of this case is stored in the ROCOR Synodal Archive in New York ^[1] . In this book, materials accessible to the compiler were collected: personal recollections of participants in events, information from the White Guard, foreign and Soviet periodicals with a description of the position of the church during the Civil War , trials of the clergy, the seizure of church values, the destruction of churches and monasteries and the opening of holy relics ^{[2 ]} .

In 1949, the printing house of Rev. Job Pochaevsky in Jordanville printed the first volume. In 1957, the second volume was also published there. The author continued to work on the third volume, but death in 1960 interrupted his activities, and the third volume never came out, remaining in the form of a typewriter ^[3] .

In the preface to the first volume of his book, Protopresbyter Michael of Poland wrote:

Gathering materials about life, suffering and martyrdom for faith, or simply in the faith of those who were tormented and killed in Russian unrest from the Bolshevik godless persecution, we consider only the beginning of this matter. Anyone who can only give the names of the martyrs and their at least brief messages about them, or point to materials about them and photos, as well as give additions and corrections to the messages that are in this book, we invite you to do this and help this undertaking. No one can be indifferent to the glory of the Church of Christ. The suffering for her cannot be forgotten. May it not be erased, but may the memory of our martyrs from generation to generation be glorified.

In 1972, an abridged English-language publication of the work “The New Russian Martyrs” ^{[4] [5]} was published.

Materials from the 1st and 2nd volumes of the book “New Martyrs of Russia” served as documents for the canonization of the Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 1981 by the Russian Church Abroad ^[6] .

The works of Protopresbyter Michael of Poland, dedicated to the new martyrs, were illegally distributed in the 1970s and 1980s among believers and clergy in the USSR ^[7] . In the post-war period, many sources on the history of the persecution of the church in the 1920-1930s, including most Soviet newspapers and magazines, became almost inaccessible to researchers in the USSR, therefore, for very few readers of this book in Russia, this book was a revelation about recently events that occurred ^[2] .

Archpriest Arkady Makovetsky in his book “The White Church: Far from Atheist Terror” notes: “Being a confessor of faith, who saw the suffering and death of many new martyrs in Solovki and in the Zyryan Territory, the author testifies to them with particular strength of personal experience. Being a pioneer in this new stage of domestic hagiography, Fr. Michael drew attention primarily to the holy royal martyrs , as well as to the most famous saints, pastors and laity. In the approach of. Michael to compile the lives of the martyrs can be traced two important points. First, considering the Soviet government essentially anti-Christian, Fr. Michael recognizes as a new martyr any Orthodox Christian who has been put to death by this authority. Secondly, about. Michael emphasizes that Christian martyrdom washes away all previously committed sins from a person ” ^[8] .

As the historian Olga Kosik notes: “Despite the undoubted value of this publication, which introduced the feat of new martyrs to readers in exile, and then in Russia, the collection was not without flaws. Some documents were reproduced unchanged, others were arbitrarily reduced. The author did not have the opportunity to check the dating, as well as carry out archaeographic preparation, and he did not set such a task. There are many factual errors in books ” ^[1] .

Archpriest Andrei Bezborodov, teacher of the Kaluga Theological Seminary , analyzing emigrant publications about new martyrs and confessors: “New Martyrs of Russia” by Protopresbyter Michael of Poland, “Tragedy of the Russian Church” by Leo Regelson and “Evidence of the charge” by Vladimir Rusak , states: material, excessive emotionality and politicization. Unfortunately, these same shortcomings also haunt many modern works. Their main goal is to show the arbitrariness and lawlessness of the Soviet government, and the martyrdom and confession of deed is often only a means to achieve these goals ” ^[9] .

According to Archpriest Maxim Kozlov , “no matter how much our knowledge of the new martyrs has increased now, whatever inaccuracies were discovered in the book about. Michael, but, appearing in the troubled years of the atheistic power, she was a ray of church truth, enlightened and warmed the souls of many, many people ” ^[10] .

Priest Alexander Mazyrin noted that if Protopresbyter Michael made harsh expressions in his passion, but “nevertheless, he knew firsthand the persecution of the Church in the USSR, he was able to pay tribute to the martyrs for their faith, regardless of their jurisdictional affiliation. In his two-volume “The New Russian Martyrs” one can find stories about many figures of the Russian Church who suffered from atheism and did not separate from Metropolitan Sergius ” ^[11] .

According to Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov , “historically not very reliable and stylistically not very seasoned book“ The New Martyrs of Russia ”, Protopresbyter Michael of Poland greatly influenced Soviet Orthodox Christians. I can say it on my own. The pathos of guilt before the new martyrs, the feeling that we should not be proud of the fact that we have so many new martyrs, but be ashamed of the fact that we made it possible to destroy how many good people that we really devastated ourselves, having lost them ” ^[12] .

A member of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, Father Superior Damaskin (Orlovsky) notes: “The information about the new martyrs in this book is far from always reliable, which is quite natural, since the author in most cases was not able to verify what was communicated to him, yes and did not claim the absolute authenticity of everything he wrote. Protopresbyter Michael of Poland did not have access to the archives, and therefore the shortcomings of his book are completely excusable, but the book cannot serve as the basis for canonization with a bona fide scientific and church approach ” ^[6] .