Rufin (Brekhov)

He was born in 1882 (according to other sources - 1886 ) in a peasant family in the village of Shurtan of the Kungursky district of the Perm province ^[1] . Belonged to single faith - a direction in Orthodoxy, whose representatives observe the "old" Donikon rites, but at the same time are in the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church .

He entered as a novice in the Voskresensky single-faith monastery, in the Zlatoust district of the Ufa province , where in 1912 he became a monk and then a priest. After the liquidation of the monastery, he settled in the city of Satka in the same province, where there were several single-faith communities.

He was elevated to the rank of hegumen of a single- faith monastery in the city of Satka ^[2] . This period of his ministry was described in the Proletarian Thought newspaper of December 21, 1928 ^[3] :

O. Rufin was considered one of the pious and decent servants of the Satka parish. He gained authority among the parish by his humility, meekness and piety. There have been cases: it will be necessary to marry a worker or to christen a child, to make a "soul release" - he is at your service at any time. There is no money, and the believer needs to perform the rite, Father Rufin, taking into account the financial situation of the worker, took the very minimum payment, and sometimes for free. By this he showed that he was not greedy for silver. He always served the service against other churches for a longer time and ended it with incendiary preaching, which, of course, was liked by believers.

- Although there was pain in the lower back from worship, but on the other hand they left the church vigorous, as the faithful of the veteran parish expressed themselves.

In everyday life, Father Rufin behaved very decently, almost a monastic way of life, and nourished [s], as they say, "acridas and wild honey." The robe was worn.

In 1923 he was arrested in Satka and sent to Central Asia for three years ^[2] . He lived in exile in the city of Tejen in Turkmenistan .

On May 7, 1925, in Tedzhen, he was consecrated Archbishop Andrei (Ukhtomsky) and Bishop Leo (Cherepanov) into the same faith bishop of Satkin and Igrinsky, Vicar of the Ufa Diocese ^[2] .

On September 3, 1925, together with Vladyka Andrei (Ukhtomsky), he ordained for the Old Believers the “Beglopopovsky” class bishop Clement (Loginov) . In the same year, he, along with Bishop Andrei and other clergy, participated in the Ashgabat adventure. Along with all the participants, Bishop Rufin was not recognized by the Old Orthodox Council of 1925 and remained in the New Believers ^[4] .

In 1926, after serving the exile, he arrived in Satka .

On March 16, 1926, a bishop’s meeting was held in Ufa, discussing the canonicity of delivering Bishop Rufin, as well as Pitirim (Ladygin) and Anthony (Milovidov) , which were attended by three vicars of the Ufa diocese: Bishop Zlatoust Nikolai (Ipatov) , interim administrator of the Ufa eparchy Poyarkov) , the Bishop of Askinsky Seraphim (Afanasyev) and the bishop of Baikinsky Benjamin (Frolov) . Despite the fact that the bishops who had gathered in Ufa were previously figures of the Ufa autocephaly, initiated in the fall of 1922 by Andrey (Ukhtomsky), consecrations were declared invalid. Despite the decision of the bishop’s meeting, some co-faith parishes recognized Bishop Rufin (Brekhov) as their bishop and left the subordination to local bishops. To curb influence among co-religionists, Bishop Rufin, on September 20, 1926, Vassian (Veretennikov) was consecrated as one-believing Bishop of Satkinsky ^[5] .

After the publication of the "Declaration" by the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) stood in opposition to him ^[2] .

On November 27, 1928 he was arrested ^[2] along with a group of his supporters. In the newspaper "Proletaskaya Thought" dated December 11, 1928 it was listed ^[6] :

In Satka GPU a group of Bishop Rufim was arrested, engaged in counter-revolutionary activities and the manufacture of all kinds of "divine miracles."

Arrested: Bishop - former coachman of Prince Ukhtomsky, “newly minted Archimandrite” - former tailor Alexander Agapitov and Deacon Podvitsky - former Social Revolutionary and suppressed counter-revolutionary work of the group in Zlatoust Cathedral, consisting of merchants, a former tsarist photographer and priests, in which he also took part technician of the metal plant - Murdasov.

March 29, 1929 sentenced to three years of forced labor camps and sent to the camp. After his release from the camp he returned to Satka ^[2] .

In the fall of 1931 he was arrested "for counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation." On October 12, 1931, he was sentenced by the Special Conference of the NKVD of the USSR under Art. 58 p. 10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to three years of exile in the Northern Territory “for counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation” ^[4] .

Then he lived in Ufa , where, as follows from the letter of the bishop Peter (Ladygin) , he fed the supporters of Bishop Andrey (Ukhtomsky) . From 1933 to 1937 he served in the Holy Cross Church of the city ​​of Ufa. ^{[7] [8]}

He was arrested by the NKVD of the Chelyabinsk region. On August 1, 1937, “a case was opened on charges of participants in the governing center of the counter-revolutionary organization of churchmen in Bashkiria.” The indictment recorded ^[9] :

In October 1937, the UGB NKVD of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic opened up and liquidated the rebel organization of churchmen, which had existed over the past few years and had been active in counter-revolutionary activities. The investigation established that the organization was created and operated by directives of the All-Union Joint Church Center in Moscow, headed by Metropolitan Sergius of Stragorodsky and other higher clergy <...> To prepare for an armed uprising, the Ufa rebel center was created as part of the defendants in this case: Vladimir Kozlov , Bishop of Sergius orientation , Sergius Korneev - Bishop of the Renewal orientation, Brekhov Rufim - Bishop of the Autocephalous Church. <...> A member of the rebel center Brekhov led espionage activities in favor of foreign intelligence, for which they widely used the clergy and the monastic element subordinate to him. Active anti-Soviet defeatist agitation was carried out among the general population, for which a monastic element was used, vagrant nuns were the main source of all sorts of counter-revolutionary provocative rumors spreading to restore the population against the Soviet Government.

Shot on November 16, 1937 ^[9] .