Alexander Dvorkin: Is there a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church? Reply to Artem Naryshkin

US citizen Dvorkin sees sects in everything with frightened eyes and passionately wants to destroy them in this country
Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin

(Hebrew ras. דבוֹרקִין אַלֵקסַנדר בֵן לייבּ) - fighter against the global sectarian scam, professor and head of the department of sectology at the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University. Head of the sect-fighting center Irenaeus of Lionsky. Citizen of the UWB. We are fiercely hated by sectarians of all kinds and varieties, as can be seen from the above (and below) text (and did you think who wrote this article?). Many sectarian scammers suffered financially from his activities and were forced to start writing nasty things about him and the organization he belongs to in order to save themselves from complete ruin.

Dvorkin's merits[edit]

At the age of two, he refuted Leo Tolstoy’s assertion of non-resistance to evil by force, forcibly baptizing his nanny, who was trying to harm him by feeding him hated semolina, and then forced the convert to read aloud the complete works of Solzhenitsyn. However, he was subsequently forced to renounce his convictions under torture in the fifth department of the KGB, after which he quickly left the USSR to launch a preventive strike on the United States with his presence. The states survived, but Dvorkin was recalled to Russia for an internal struggle against corrupting influences. In this service he fully demonstrated his Nordic character, self-infiltrating into totalitarian sects and corrupting them from the inside. According to unverified rumors, not a single sect could tolerate the new member Dvorkin in its ranks, as a result of which it was liquidated:

• 8 living gods on Earth,
• 12 self-proclaimed prophets and 2 actually sent to Earth by higher powers,
• 48 alien residents,
• 534 Marmons masquerading as Mormons
• 5268 false Jehovah's Witnesses,
• 8090 psychological trainings aimed at developing personality in the wrong direction,
• 12879 suspicious circles of needlework, cutting and sewing, macrame and crocheting.

[edit]Also

Certificate from Scientologist Zasursky given to Dvorkin

• Steve Ballmer's grandfather, who lived in Belarus, bore the surname Dvorkin.
• There is, or rather there was such a fucking racial Pindos feminist Andrea Dvorkin.
• In Roger Zelazny’s epic series “The Chronicles of Amber,” there was also a character with this name; in terms of importance, he can far outshine all the other characters mentioned in this article combined. After all, this is Oberon’s folder (by the way, Oberon’s mother is a unicorn, draw your own conclusions), the folders of all the princes and princesses of Amber. Alsoo is the creator of the entire world of the Fiery Path. ICHSH, like the subject, is fucked all over his head across, obliquely and thoroughly paranoid. For those in the know, the very name Dvorkin symbolizes.
• The vocalist of the wine band Chalice also bore the surname Dvorkin. Interestingly, his family also comes from Belarus.

Dvorkin's incriminating evidence[edit]

In addition, Dvorkin A.L. collected 148 million testimonies exposing all surviving spiritual tyrants and fanatics. He generously shares this compromising evidence with everyone who wants to brainwash themselves from the remaining 20 thousand residents of Russia who have not stained themselves by participating in spiritual bacchanalia and have not shown signs of a totalitarian leader. There are few such people among the homeless, but Dvorkin does not give up, arranging lectures with visits to clients. Therefore, it can often be found in garbage dumps, city landfills and cemeteries.

In the fight against the insidious Hare Krishnas, he received an injury to his manhood, but did not leave the battlefield, continuing the battle even without dignity. For this feat he was awarded the Order of Dignity of Medveput, III degree, which partially compensated him for what he had lost. After this incident, the slogan “Destroy the Hare Krishnas - make the world cleaner” began to circulate among the people, the authorship of which is attributed to Dvorkin.

Biography

Family, study

Born on August 20, 1955 in Moscow, into an intelligent family. His father was an engineer, and his mother, a native of Belarus Bronislava Zinovievna Bukchina (1924 - November 7, 2014), defended her dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences and worked as an assistant professor in the speech culture sector of the Institute of Russian Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences. During the years of the German occupation, his mother was sheltered and saved by a family of school teachers in a Ukrainian village on the border of Vinnitsa and Odessa regions. She became one of the authors of the dictionary-reference book “Together or Separately?” Grandfather is a Doctor of Economic Sciences and a professor, was repressed (released in 1955, rehabilitated about a year and a half later), worked as a senior economist at a cheese factory in Uglich, often visited his grandson and was like a father to him[42].

He received his secondary education at Moscow schools No. 25, 91 and 112. After finishing 10th grade in 1972, he entered the Moscow Pedagogical Institute at the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature. During his studies he joined the hippie movement. He was expelled from his third year at the institute for poor academic performance and failure to attend classes, but Dvorkin himself believes that one of the motives for his expulsion was his participation in the hippie movement. After that, he worked as a radiologist at the Moscow Medical Academy. I.M. Sechenov and a hospital orderly. At the same time, he began to share and propagate dissident ideas, drawn mainly from the books of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. According to his autobiography, after the KGB began to persuade him, in the summer of 1976, either to refuse to disseminate such views, or to cooperate, or to emigrate, Dvorkin chose emigration [42][43][44].

A.L. Dvorkin has an older sister. Wife, Irina Georgievna (nee Dzyubinskaya), a native of Chelyabinsk and the daughter of an Air Force lieutenant colonel [spec. 1] Georgy Dzyubinsky, is a graduate of the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​of the Chelyabinsk Pedagogical Institute. Daughter Ulyana (Iuliania). The family lives in Moscow[42].

In his free time from work, A.L. Dvorkin serves as an altar boy and reader at the Moscow Church of the Holy Trinity in Khokhly. A.L. Dvorkin usually spends his holidays with his family either in Ukraine, where he spent his childhood, or in Mediterranean countries, for example, in Cyprus and Greece[42].

Emigration (1977-1991)

To leave the USSR, A.L. Dvorkin used a fictitious invitation from abroad - a way that existed in the 1970s to officially go abroad for permanent residence - which was sent to him by one of yesterday's Moscow hippies who moved to Tel Aviv. Before emigrating, Alexander Dvorkin and his friend managed to hitchhike for four months, visiting Georgia, Crimea, Moldova, Western Ukraine, and Belarus[43].

On March 6, 1977, A.L. Dvorkin emigrated from the USSR, automatically losing his Soviet citizenship. At first, he traveled by plane to Vienna, where the Schwechat airport was the main transit point for Soviet emigrants who were transported either to Israel or to the West. Accordingly, future Israelis were taken under the guardianship of the Jewish Agency, which sent them by plane to Tel Aviv. The rest followed mainly to the United States, using the services of the international Tolstoy Foundation, which helped transport former Soviet citizens to America. It was there that Dvorkin headed. To do this, he had to apply for a visa to enter the United States, which was done by the American embassy in Rome. Therefore, employees of the international organization put those interested on a train to Rome, where they filled out the necessary papers[43]. Using this service, Dvorkin ended up in Italy. Subsequently, Alexander Leonidovich said: “I had no intention of going to Israel. In my mind, it somehow differed little from the Soviet Union - there were kibbutzim that looked suspiciously like a collective farm, and compulsory military service, but I had nothing to share with the Arabs. On the contrary, like yesterday’s hippie, I dreamed of America.”[45] While in Italy, he hitchhiked, visiting a number of cities. In Florence, together with his friend A.L. Dvorkin, he spent the night in a Hare Krishna tent, and in the morning, waking up, he entered into an ideological dispute with them. As a result, one of the Hare Krishnas later joined them. Four months later, Dworkin received permission to enter the United States from the American embassy and on the same day arrived by plane from Rome to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York[42].

IN THE USA

During the first months of his stay in the USA, A.L. Dvorkin worked as a courier, waiter, and copyist. His acquaintance with the real world of American hippies brought him disappointment[44].

Current activities[edit]

In recent years, he has conducted extensive research, which has resulted in a scientific theory that replaces the concept of “the end of the world in 2012 from natural disasters” with the concept of “the end of the world in 2012 as a result of Putin’s departure,” for which he was nominated for the Ig Nobel Peace Prize by the Union The most zealous fighters for the purity and integrity of the thoughts of all inhabitants of the Earth in accordance with the recommendations and provisions of the Russian Orthodox Citadel" (USSR Russian Orthodox Church). They gave him a bonus, then they caught up with him and gave him another. Since then he has been limping on both legs and dragging his brain while walking. But this does not stop the brave Orthodox wrestler with sums. At the international conference of reindeer herders of Chukotka and Alaska he recently organized, “Threats to the Universe and methods of combating them by baptizing two fingers from left to right,” Dvorkin said: “If corrupt Western scientists prove the existence of the so-called God, we will be able to expose this totalitarian leader, spreading terror on Orthodox Russia for many centuries!” Knowing Dworkin’s dedication, there is no doubt in his words: the wrong God will be punished!

US citizen “sectologist” Dvorkin is a denigrator of Russian history.

Among the popular church activists of post-perestroika Russia, the figure of the most prominent Orthodox anti-cultist Alexander Dvorkin, whose name is associated with many scandals in the religious and political sphere, stands out.

Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin was born into an intelligent Moscow family on August 20, 1955. He received his secondary education at “language” secondary school No. 112 on Bolshoi Kozikhinsky Lane, which, in addition to compulsory English, provided opportunities for studying Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Polish and Czech languages. After finishing 10th grade, he entered the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, where he chose to specialize in Russian language and literature. At this time, A. Dvorkin participated in the hippie movement.

In the 70s, it became possible for Aliya Jews wishing to repatriate to leave the USSR. Having dropped out of university, Dvorkin leaves Russia on a “repatriation” visa, but not to Israel, where he really did not want to go because of the need to serve in the army there, but to the USA. True, there is a legend that he finally left for Israel, and only then, after some troubles associated with one of the kibbutzim, did he end up in the United States. More plausible is the version of one of the authoritative religious scholars, who testified that Dworkin from Vienna went straight to the USA as a “primer”. This advantage, according to the scientist, was awarded only to those immigrants on whom special consideration was made in the United States.

Be that as it may, in the USA from 1978 to 1980. Dvorkin continues his studies at Hunter College of New York University, from which he graduates with a bachelor's degree in Russian literature. Then he entered Fordham University in New York, where in most cases people from the “socialist camp countries” ended up, and there he met the historian of Orthodoxy, Archpriest John Meyendorff. Probably not without the assistance of this major religious figure of the twentieth century, having sharply changed his orientation from philology to historiography, Dvorkin defended his dissertation in 1988 on the topic “Ivan the Terrible as a Religious Type”, receiving Ph. degree D in history (although “PhD” is often translated as “Doctor of Philosophy”, in fact this corresponds to the candidate’s degree, which, for example, was awarded to all its graduates by the Moscow Theological Academy upon completion of their thesis). The dissertation itself is published as a separate edition in English. This completes the formal secular education of Alexander Dvorkin, and then he speaks of himself exclusively as a specialist with all kinds of degrees.

Adaptation in the USA...

A serious process of adaptation to the United States began for Alexander Dvorkin with baptism on January 19, 1980 in the New York Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and meeting Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann. After the death of Fr. Alexander's spiritual mentor was Protopresbyter John Meyendorff. As an Orthodox believer with a secular education, Dvorkin entered the St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Academy of the OCA in New York, and in 1982 he was made a reader by the First Hierarch of the OCA, Metropolitan Theodosius. During his years of study at the academy, Dvorkin served at the altar, and then became the senior “altar boy” of the academic temple. There he received a Master of Divinity degree in 1983, and in the same 1983, after the successful completion of the quarantine period, he acquired American citizenship. In 1984, Dvorkin entered doctoral studies at Fordham University, where he specialized in the study of Byzantine and Russian history of the Middle Ages. In 1987, he spent a semester doing research at the Pontifical Uniate College Russicum in Rome, and began teaching Russian history at the New York School of Fine Arts.

From 1988 to 1991 Alexander Dvorkin was a sexton and subdeacon at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, working simultaneously as a journalist for the Washington bureau of Voice of America radio, and then as editor of the news department of the Munich bureau of Radio Liberty. Let us note that both “Voice of America” and “Svoboda”, where Dvorkin immediately took a privileged position, according to their employees, carried out certain political orders of the intelligence services, in particular the United States CIA. However, judging by subsequent events, Dvorkin did not justify the trust of the management and he was fired from the staff of the “enemy” radio stations.

Perhaps for this reason, as reported from US emigrant circles, the future “sect expert” in the early 90s collaborated with a company that was engaged in the adoption of children from Russia. But the main thing is that it was at this time that his actual anti-cult activity began. Alexander Dvorkin begins to actively participate in the promotion of CAN (Cult Awareness Network). This organization, founded in 1974, specialized in the so-called “deprogramming” of people involved in religious movements unusual for society, at the request of their relatives. (Later, on June 20, 1996, the KAN organization was liquidated by a decision of the Chicago Federal Court due to bankruptcy. The reason turned out to be quite simple: the people who were subjected to “deprogramming” sued the KAN and obtained huge compensation for moral damages, which and bankrupted the organization. Details of the newly discovered KAN crimes continued to be investigated later. For example, in 2000, a US court found KAN and several individual agents of the organization guilty of specific kidnappings and attacks, which the court described as “so heinous in nature and so stunning in their degree, they exceed all possible boundaries of decency, are brutal and completely unacceptable in a civilized society." In the case described, the victim of CAN was a non-denominational Christian Jason Scott. CAN classified his small religious organization as a "cult" and decided to engage in "salvation" Scott, starting with his violent abduction. The executing agent for this “job” was Rikk Ross, whose criminal history includes, among other things, a conviction for grand theft of $100,000 worth of jewelry from a Phoenix, Arizona store. Even then, a prison psychiatrist diagnosed Ross with sociopathic tendencies (a tendency to engage in antisocial behavior). After the kidnapping of Scott, Ross and his accomplices kept him in custody for five days, during which they tried to force him to renounce the “wrong” Christian faith by various means. The Seattle court was so outraged by CAN's violent actions that it imposed a fine of nearly five million dollars on Ross and CAN.)

Through Germany to Russia

In 1991, when the FBI began to take a serious interest in the activities of the KAS, Alexander Dvorkin urgently moved to Germany, to Munich, but instead of the Russian Cathedral of the New Martyrs of Russia in the jurisdiction of the ROCOR, he chose a small Serbian church for his prayer and began to think about returning to the USSR.

Until the end of Mikhail Gorbachev's reign, Dvorkin visited Russia, but mostly remained in Germany. This was probably facilitated by his German like-minded person and ally, the famous anti-cultist Pastor Thomas Gandow, who also specialized in “deprogramming” (B. Falikov, Our Response to Curzon).

In fairness, it should be noted that Dworkin himself stubbornly denies his involvement in CAS, although in the latest edition of his book on “sect studies” he speaks very kindly about the “deprogramming” practiced in CAS, as such, justifying it to a certain extent: “But if there was programming, deprogramming also appeared, which often meant the forcible abduction of a sectarian (if it was not possible to snatch the victim from the sectarian environment in any other way) and holding him in an isolated place, where psychologists and former members tried to convince him for long days or even weeks sects... Sometimes anger at the people who kidnapped him only embittered the sectarian, his resistance increased from this, and he managed to escape. ...In general, the “knocks out fire with fire” method turned out to be completely unsuitable in this case. But it is unlikely that a person with a heart and conscience will condemn parents who, out of despair, resorted to deprogramming...” (A.L. Dvorkin. “Sectology: totalitarian sects. Experience of systematic research.” N. Novgorod, ed. Brotherhood of St. Alexander Nevsky, 2005).

To Moscow! To Moscow!..

Whatever it was, soon after the story with the State Emergency Committee, on December 31, 1991, having secured the blessing of Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, Dvorkin flies from Munich to Moscow. And already in March 1992, he went to work at the newly formed Department of Religious Education and Catechesis of the Moscow Patriarchate, where (in his words, “at the request of one priest”) he began the fight against the “Virgin Center.” And in 1993, Dvorkin founded and headed the Information and Advisory Center of the Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons (since 2003 - the Center for Religious Studies named after St. Irenaeus of Lyons). The newly created anti-cultist organization was sheltered by the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, which was then headed by Bishop Tikhon (Emelyanov) of Bronnitsky - in the future, his relationship with Dvorkin will remain invariably warm (now Archbishop Tikhon at the Novosibirsk See).

The activities of the Center's initiative group began with reconnaissance. Dvorkin visited Moscow parishes, where he talked with priests and believers, studied sentiments, and commented on the presence among church people of views and beliefs that were questionable from his point of view. The topic was relevant. Indeed, in the early 90s, after the proclamation of religious freedom in the country, along with the appearance of foreign missionaries from the largest Christian denominations of the world, new religious movements arose here, some of which turned out to be quite “exotic” for Russia. Therefore, for Dvorkin, a native of an American university who had contact with the famous Orthodox historian and theologian Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, and also worked for the Voice of America (from where, by the way, he was expelled by the host of a religious program, Archpriest of the ROCOR Viktor Potapov), this is a field of activity turned out to be quite wide. In addition, some connections in the Eileen Barker Center for the Study of New Religions “Inform” (Great Britain) and friendship with the head of the Danish anti-cult “Dialogue Center” Professor Ogard provided him with additional authority as a “great specialist” in a field that was then “for Russia” terra incognita.”

Thus, after the loud international scandal with CAN, the center of the anti-cult movement began to move to Russia. Great discoveries were expected from Alexander Dvorkin, who headed the Irenaeus of Lyons Center. However, if the official purpose of the Center was considered to be “the study of new religious movements and the dissemination of information about them,” then, in fact, Dvorkin, together with the famous Orthodox fighter against “sects” Deacon Andrei Kuraev, launched an active struggle of the largest Orthodox Church in the country against any manifestations of religious life in Russia outside the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church MP.

Difficult choice

The success of Kuraev, who had already gained considerable fame by fighting against the “Roerichs”, probably seemed very tempting to yesterday’s emigrant. In those years, Dvorkin constantly appeared in the company of the “chief deacon” of Yeltsin’s Russia. In order to popularize anti-cultism, quite reasonably relying on the stability of negative stereotypes instilled by anti-religious propaganda during the Soviet period, Dvorkin and Kuraev, with the right calculation, “bet” on the well-known term “sect,” which is still perceived extremely negatively in the country. In any case, it is precisely by fighting “sects” that anti-cultists from the very beginning justify their suspicion towards all new religious organizations, which will soon include quite respectable Russian Protestants and followers of the ancient religious teachings of the East.

According to Dahl's dictionary, a “sect” is “a brotherhood that has adopted its own separate teaching about faith; agreement, interpretation, schism or heresy.” Dvorkin, however, first formulated the concept of “sect” quite in the spirit of the atheistic norms of the Soviet era: “A sect is an organization or group of individuals who are closed in their own interests (including cultic ones), which do not coincide with the interests of society, are indifferent or contradict them.” Then this “classic” definition had an even more sinister version. The fact is that as a result of the Center’s developments, “sects” received the epithet “totalitarian” as a serious makeweight. Therefore, according to Dworkin, a “totalitarian sect” is “an authoritarian organization whose main raison d’etre is power and money, for which the sect hides behind pseudo-religious, pseudo-cultural and other pseudo-goals.” It is clear that in this way the circle of “clients” of the St. Irenaeus of Lyon expanded significantly, and it included many cultural and educational organizations that had nothing to do with religion. In addition, by now the circle of “sects” has also included the religious group of the famous religious educator, the current priest of the Russian Orthodox Church MP Georgy Kochetkov.

Today in the civilized world the concept of “sect” is practically not used. Religious organizations and groups that differ in religion from the “traditional” Churches are called “new religious movements” (NRM). At first they were perceived somewhat warily, but over the past twenty years the attitude towards NSD has noticeably softened. Most of them were socialized and quite adequately fit into modern society, filling the niches unoccupied by traditional Churches.

The powerful anti-cult movement in the United States was destabilized and destroyed by numerous lawsuits. However, in Russia, not without the help of Alexander Dvorkin, Fr. Andrei Kuraev and a number of their lesser-known associates, starting from 2000-01, and especially since 2005, it has noticeably gained strength. Dvorkin has become much more respectable in appearance, which is quite justified, since the position obliges him. However, being an impulsive and ambitious person, he still has not lost some of the characteristic features of the “early period” of his activity.

It must be said that the most problematic thing in the activities of Dvorkin and his Center was the confusion of concepts. He lumped together some of the ills of a society in transition, poverty-induced dependence on wealthy foreigners, actual attempts to use psychological influence methods in recruitment, and the fundamental Christian opposition of “church vs. sect.” And he put this whole mixture to boil on the fire of the political ambitions of the top of the Russian Orthodox Church MP, who decided to turn into a “department of state confession.”

In 1997, Dvorkin acted as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by several new religious organizations, which he accused of rather exotic criminal acts. The point was that the Hare Krishnas, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Moonies and others use blood, sperm (the quasi-sexual motive is generally very noticeable in Dvorkin’s “anti-sectarian” works) of their “leaders”, and, in addition, all they are “bandits”, Satanists and charlatans. Dworkin failed to provide specific reasons for any of his absurd accusations. All the arguments boiled down to the fact that all NRMs are “mafia”, that “children should be responsible for their fathers”, since somewhere someone convicted of a crime was a Moonite, Hare Krishna, Baptist, etc. The most piquant argument in court was the last, forceful one: the “sect expert” rushed at the videographer who was filming the trial, trying to snatch the camera from him and smash it on the floor. And when this failed, and they tried to restrain Dvorkin from the next attempt, he began to scratch the faces of those around him, squeal, spit, and bit the unfortunate Hare Krishna’s hand. The “witness” on Dvorkin’s part was Bishop Tikhon, whose appearance in the courtroom, with a panagia and a staff, was supposed to have a psychological impact on the court. As expected, the Khoroshevsky Court of Moscow rejected the claim of the non-believers slandered by Dvorkin.

Something extremist also happened on March 23, 2005 in Yekaterinburg. There, Dvorkin’s like-minded person, an employee of the local diocese, priest Vladimir Zaitsev, announced the organization of a lecture by a “Moscow professor” on the topic: “The totalitarian sect “New Life” - the pursuit of power and money.” But when the priest and the “sect expert” arrived at the place of fulfillment of their mission, it turned out that the director of the school where the act of denunciation was supposed to be carried out did not know about anything like this and did not give any permission for the event. However, Alexander Dvorkin, together with Fr. Vladimir and the diocesan TV cameraman attempted to break into the building. But this time it all ended in a complete fiasco: the local police, regardless of rank and professorship, took the violators to the local police department, where the self-proclaimed “missionaries” had to sit for a couple of hours. For Dvorkin, this story ended in fear and, of course, an apology, since Patriarch Alexy II officially stood up for him. But about. Vladimir was less fortunate: as a repeat offender (it turned out that similar cases involving the priest had already happened), in accordance with the violation provided for in Part 1 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the court fined him.

From trip to trip

It happens that Dvorkin is unlucky. For example, the rectorate of the Ural State University (Ekaterinburg) banned Dvorkin’s lecture in 2000. The anti-cultist’s arrival there was immediately marked by a scandal, since the professor-theologian was denied permission to give lectures at the university on the history of the Orthodox Church. And Dvorkin had to give a course of lectures on “sect studies” and the history of the Church at the District House of Officers. The agreement between the Yekaterinburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church MP and the university rectorate on lectures on Church history was canceled two hours before the start by order of the university rector Vladimir Tretyakov. The administration of the USU explained this cancellation on “ethical considerations”, since “a state educational institution cannot engage in religious propaganda...”.

Three years earlier, Dvorkin was expelled from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. On December 3, 1997, the dean of the faculty, Yasen Zasursky, terminated the contract with Dvorkin, who taught Church history, citing the “professor’s” lack of “educational level ... necessary to conduct teaching work at the university.”

Teacher

But his teaching career at the Orthodox Humanitarian St. Tikhon's University (PSTGU), which received this status according to the certification of the Russian Ministry of Education in the spring of 2004 (previously it was called the “theological institute”), was quite successful. Dvorkin actually has a professor's degree there, because in the Russian Orthodox Church MP this title is awarded not so much for scientific and teaching merits, but as an award from the Patriarch. Naturally, he heads the department of “sect studies,” and the work is going quite successfully. In addition to lectures that are given in Russia and Brussels, according to PSTGU, at the Dvorkin department “systematic anti-sectarian work is carried out” and “A.L. Dvorkin and Deacon M. Plotnikov actively cover sectarian topics in numerous speeches and interviews on radio and television, and constantly publish materials in the church and secular press, both in Russian and foreign.” There is also a consultation center where Dvorkin and his staff answer phone calls, receive “victims of sects,” and provide advice on how to free themselves from their harmful influence. For all this and in connection with his 50th anniversary in 2005, Dvorkin was awarded by Patriarch Alexy the Order of St. Innocent of Moscow.

Nevertheless, despite his successes in pedagogical and educational works, Dvorkin’s main activity remains anti-cultism itself.

The reason for the transition to sectarianism

However, there is some interesting detail, which, taking into account the entire previous biography of the “sect expert,” cannot be neglected. Back in 1993, the Moscow Patriarchate began to openly lobby for changes in existing religious legislation, focusing on limiting missionary activity and the activities of its competitors in the “religious market” - new, non-Christian Orthodox religious organizations that do not fall under its jurisdiction. In December 1994, at the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church MP a separate definition was adopted on this matter, and over time the trend towards updating such a policy only intensified. A much wider field of activity opens up for an energetic and ambitious anti-cultist, and even “with a guarantee.” Now it is difficult to say who was the first to use the concept of “crusade” against infidels, but the definition is very accurate. And Dvorkin is the best candidate for the role of leading such a campaign.

First of all, the “American professor,” as his like-minded people reverently call him, is undoubtedly a talented public figure. If we abstract from the content of his speeches, he speaks almost flawlessly before a very specific audience. This is the image - “an Orthodox pseudo-intellectual with noble hair disheveled as he speaks,” a constant tie and a white shirt - all this is very much according to the rules, but without the snobbish chic-glitter that always irritates the audience, establishing an unnecessary distance between it and the speaker. This is also a manner of speaking using a huge number of terms and concepts that the audience most often does not understand. But be sure to intersperse “learned speech” with all understandable, familiar stereotypes - enemy and hostility, Orthodox and Satanists, Russians and “alien” sectarians who appeared from God knows where, our children and our duty to them, etc.

It is different in each technique. On television, this is a quiet, calming interlocutor who speaks and has equal rights with the other participants. In front of meeting participants, among whom there are dangerous opponents, he is more active and often avoids discussing unwanted topics by imposing his logic, as if not hearing “unnecessary” arguments. Speaking in front of a completely illiterate audience, Dvorkin, as they say, is a father. And when the anti-cultist meets with specialists who are able to assess the dubiousness of his “teachings,” he simply talks about something completely different - about the truly depressing state of youth, about ignorance among the masses of the fundamentals of religion and the Christian faith, about the uncleanliness of famous leaders, about the need to “fall for the pure.” source." True, when he has to answer questions, he intuitively and, again, unerringly chooses some other technique suitable to the case. That is, in this respect he is a professional from birth. Something similar, only in a completely different register, can be observed in the example of the radical populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Speaking at a congress of diocesan missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church MP in 1996 in Belgorod, Dvorkin, it would seem, openly complained about the lack of church support for his Center - legal, moral, technical and material. But the question arises: who does he work for then? And who is its ideological, administrative and material guarantor? On the one hand, this speech was, albeit formal, a declaration of its own independence. On the other hand, a cry to the world designed for sure success: “give money for a good cause!”

Among Dvorkin’s most zealous patrons in the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate one can name, in particular, the chairman of the Department of the Russian Orthodox Church MP for interaction with the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies, Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov.

Father Dimitri, due to his status, significantly helps Dvorkin in popularizing the ideas of Orthodox anti-cultism, regularly presenting him with the conference hall of his Department to cover the topic of “totalitarian sects” as part of the annual program of Christmas readings. In addition, with the light hand of the “military-security” archpriest, in violation of the order of the Minister of Defense prohibiting foreign citizens from visiting military facilities, Dvorkin gives his lectures to military personnel in military units. The last time such a performance took place was within the framework of the Third Training and Methodological Camp of Military Clergy in Ulan-Ude from June 28 to July 1, 2005. By the way, Dvorkin feels so free among the military that he improvises on any topic, composing on the fly moralizing tales with a political educational slant, the heroes of which are various kinds of “sectarians,” the “Zionist-Mason” Condoleezza Rice and Patriarch Alexy II, who wisely debunks her machinations.

The “American professor’s” penchant for exaggeration, however, has been known to many for a long time. Here, for example, is what the writer and publicist Alexander Nezhny writes about this in the article “Lessons of Sect Studies” (“Moscow News”, 01/12/1999): “In everything that Dvorkin and his like-minded people repeat at all crossroads, there is not a single word of truth . He lies, wearing the crown of thorns of a political emigrant. He is not Father Pecherin, not Herzen or Galich - having declared himself a Jew, he left the USSR for Israel. I really don’t care what kind of blood flows in his veins, whether he’s a Tatar, a Persian or an Eskimo. A Jew is a Jew. Israel is Israel. No need to lie. He lies, declaring our 1990 Law on Freedom of Conscience to be a copy of the American one, if only because there is simply no such law in the USA. He lies, informing the shocked society about two hundred and fifty thousand families destroyed by sectarians. I called an employee of the Russian Prosecutor's Office, who supposedly had such information. He sent me to Professor Nikolai Antonovich Trofimchuk, head of the department of religious studies at the Academy of Public Administration. The professor replied that such statistics do not exist, and Dvorkin is “making it up.” He lies, accusing Jehovah's Witnesses, the Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Unification Church, the Church of Scientology and other religious groups of crimes against individuals and state security. Not a single fact, not a single criminal case - just a wretched and vile fiction.”

“A living classic of sectology”

Dvorkin looks quite clearly based on the results of his anti-religious activities and on the pages of his final work, “Sect Studies.” In the first case, these are masses of believers offended in their religious feelings due to his widespread negativism towards other people's beliefs. In the second there is a collection of disordered, distorted ideas about what the author, apparently, is simply not familiar with, a mass of falsifications, distortions, slander and pseudoscientific reasoning, which are much inferior in their artistry to the works of Academician Fomenko. Printed text, as you know, is fundamentally different from oral speech - it is always more transparent. Therefore, in order to see the Russian “sect expert No. 1” without any embellishment, it is best to read this work. Actually, this is what good specialists do.

In particular, the collection “Essays on Russian Sect Studies” published in 2005 in St. Petersburg included materials from philosophers dedicated to the work of Dvorkin: Chairman of the Presidium of the Russian Geopolitical Society S. Shatokhin and Co-Chairman of the World Russian Council I. Kolchenko, Professor, Doctor of Law M. Kuznetsov and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Slavic House” Yu. Isatov. It should be noted that all the mentioned authors of the collection published by the Orthodox brotherhood “zealots of Orthodoxy” are, of course, Orthodox themselves. Being religious orthodox (and Isatov also a nationalist), they all have a deliberately negative attitude towards “sects,” but the reviews of both Dvorkin’s activities and his book, published in the collection, are simply damning.

M. Kuznetsov: “As readers of the book are informed, Dvorkin teaches sectology at the Orthodox St. Tikhon’s Theological Institute and, moreover, heads the department of sectology there. This means that all students of this educational institution are doomed to assimilate its non-Orthodox views on this matter. In addition, as indicated on the cover, Dworkin in 1993 - 1999. taught Church history at the Russian Orthodox University. In this regard, it remains to once again express regret that such important academic disciplines in such respected Orthodox educational institutions were studied and are being studied by students under the guidance of a person so far in his views from Orthodox teaching and worldview.”

I. Kolchenko: “Being a teacher in educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church, giving lectures to future Orthodox pastors, theologians and scientists, A.L. With his activities, Dvorkin causes undoubted damage to the interests of the Church and the Orthodox people in Russia, teaching students to disdain scientific methods of work, superficial acquaintance with the topic of religious sectarianism, and does not form a canonical church view on this subject. Not being able (or not wanting) to work in the chosen field professionally from a scientific point of view, i.e. just as the subject of the study itself requires - modern religious sectarianism, A.L. Dvorkin, in his manuals, prepares for the Church self-confident amateurs who will not only fail to defend the interests of the Church in modern civil society, but will also discredit church science in the face of secular researchers, and the Hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church in front of society and the state.”

S. Shatokhin: “A.L. Dvorkin and a number of people speaking with him on these issues

(meaning A. Kuraev - author's note), demonstrate their lack of understanding of the processes of church canonization, glorification in the Saints, as phenomena of the internal life of the Church... Their conviction that in this regard something can be prohibited in principle, to exclude the possibility of this or that another event in this area, testifies, in our opinion, simply to their insufficient faith in God and therefore the appropriation to themselves (their understanding and understanding) of abilities and properties that in the Christian Church are considered to not belong to people, no matter how educated or high-ranking in the church hierarchy they were not, but only to God.”

Well, Yu. Isatov is generally convinced that Dvorkin is an American spy: “Continuing to remain a US citizen, A.L. Dvorkin cannot possibly violate American laws, even while in Russia. Then they will say, what are the claims against him? Yes. There are no complaints. Just A.L. Dvorkin should have decided for himself a long time ago who he was with – with the daughter of the US CIA or with the Russian Orthodox Church. He decided. Citizenship remained the same, although Russian was recently added. And the methods of work remained - denigration of Russian history and the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. A.L. Dworkin loves questions like: “Excuse me, who is the elephant’s son?” So let him answer for himself, and at the same time for all Russians: who is the son of an elephant, that is, who is the child of the Russophobic organization “Svoboda” - he himself.”

Dvorkin constantly declares his work in the anti-cult field as extremely necessary for the well-being of the country and at the same time extremely risky. In his speeches and publications, he describes the mortal dangers that constantly await the fearless overthrower of insidious “sectarians.” “My current job is akin to the work of a sewer man,” says Alexander Dvorkin about his activities in one of his interviews.

By the way, perhaps the only religious organization that the anti-cultist mentions in “Cult Studies”, but diligently avoids at meetings with the audience, accusing others of bloody crimes, is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormon. It can be assumed that the Mormons, closely connected by bonds of common interests with the Department of Religious Studies of the Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (RAGS) and representing a very influential political force in the United States, where their headquarters is located (Salt Lake City), are for Dvorkin obviously a restricted area. Firstly, Mormons finance official Russian religious studies, which means they perform a task beneficial to the authorities; secondly, if the anti-cultist returns for some reason to his “second overseas homeland,” it is not at all worth having enemies in the person of influential American believers.

Finally

Of course, if “scientific anti-cultism” and persecution of believers were not needed by someone very influential in Russia, then, of course, there was no anti-religious Alexander Dvorkin. And, who knows, maybe instead of this strange phenomenon there was just a good teacher of Russian literature - Dvorkin. Or a teacher at St. Tikhon's University, candidate of theology - Professor Dvorkin. Or someone else - Dworkin. True, then there probably wouldn’t have been this “portrait” in the style of Kandinsky...

And, of course, it is impossible not to mention that at present, information is persistently being circulated in the parachurch elite that the Russian Orthodox Church MP has finally made an attempt to distance itself from the “sect professor,” whose activities are becoming completely uncontrollable. This is associated, in particular, with Alexander Dvorkin’s unacceptable expansion of the circle of his “cliente” at the expense of... the Orthodox jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church MP. Dvorkin himself denies this, but the Moscow Patriarchate, which knows well the value of its personnel, does not want the scandalous anti-cultist to redirect his attention from new religious organizations to the search for heretical sedition in its own orderly ranks.

Alexey Muravyov, Mikhail Sitnikov

24.07.2006

Photo: “Neskuchny Garden”, “Novye Izvestia”, “Novgorodskie Vedomosti”, “Portal-Credo.Ru”

© Portal-Credo.RU

https://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=rating&id=29

What can we add here?

That the Russian people are overly trusting, sometimes to the point of naivety, and allow themselves to be taught Orthodoxy by such chameleons? Alas. But still, sooner or later, the mask of piety sooner or later falls off from the moles embedded in the body of the Church, revealing yellowish, rotten teeth. True, by this time the rodents have already managed to thoroughly undermine the tree of the Orthodox Church and inflict quite tangible damage on it, primarily in the person of the simple-minded flock. Without a doubt, this vile activity is generously stimulated.

And secular (read godless) authorities, apparently, are either completely at home with such figures, or, in extreme cases, are simply indifferent. And it is not surprising that such changelings find shelter on some seemingly folk-patriotic resources, along with the Shumskys, Karamyshevs and A. Osipov...

And further. We note with satisfaction that in the list of educational literature of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the MP devoted to sect studies, the “works” of the said character were not found.

List of recommended literature[edit]

• Dvorkin A.L. “Uniting people based on beliefs that do not correspond to mine is worse than a nuclear war,” 2000, Pidizdat.
• Dvorkin A. L. “Methodology of eradicating the devil in the aircraft modeling circle”, 2001, printer of the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren in the village of Blyudtsevo
• Dvorkin A. L. “Brief recommendations for survival in a non-Orthodox church”, 2001, publishing house “Orthodox Hero”
• Dvorkin A. L. “Scientology is a threat hanging over the whole world”, 2002, “Military Publishing House”
• Dvorkin A. L. “Basic rules of ideological vigilance when choosing a hobby”, 2003, HOBBIT publishing house
• Dvorkin A. L. “Big encyclopedia of totalitarian, destructive and other sects and similar associations of ideologically immature citizens operating on the territory of Holy Orthodox Russia”, 2004, publishing department of the Patriarchate
• Dvorkin A.L. “How great tyrants grow from wrong beliefs” textbook for senior grades of the parochial school in Uryukinsk, 2005, UryukIzdat.
• Dvorkin A. L. “Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on criminal liability for refusal of Orthodox baptism for foreign citizens living on the territory of the Russian Federation for more than one week,” 2009, press center of the State Duma of the Russian Federation
• Dvorkin A.L. “Threats to the Universe and methods of combating them by crossing two fingers from left to right” (brochure based on the materials of the international conference of reindeer herders of Chukotka and Alaska), Anadyr, 2010.

Content

• 1 Degrees and positions
• 2 Biography 2.1 Family, studies
• 2.2 Emigration (1977-1991) 2.2.1 To the USA 2.2.1.1 Study and adoption of Orthodoxy (1978-1983)
• 2.2.1.2 Dissertation, teaching activity (1984-1988)
• 2.2.1.3 Radio work (1988–1991)

Alexander Dvorkin: An extremist sect has formed around the ex-confessor of Poklonskaya

The Ekaterinburg diocese forbade the rector of the Sredneuralsky convent, schema-abbot Sergius (Romanov), from preaching. He denied the coronavirus epidemic, cursed those who close churches during the pandemic, and hinted at the murder of Patriarch Alexy by the Russian authorities.

• “For Christ’s sake, don’t go to church!”: Andrei Kuraev called on the Russian Orthodox Church to go into quarantine

Sergius Romanov gained fame during the period of criticism of the film “Matilda”. It turned out that his parishioners, including deputy Natalya Poklonskaya, hockey player Pavel Datsyuk and a number of other celebrities, deify the figure of Nicholas II. These ideas are called regality.

We asked the researcher of sectarianism, theologian Alexander Dvorkin to comment on the ban on Sergius (Romanov) sermons.

Alexander Dvorkin

– An obvious sect of a destructive nature has developed around Sergius Romanov. And it is developing. Tsarship is only one of their ideas, on which Hieromonk Sergius initially rose. His main idea now is conspiracy theory, exposing the “Jewish yoke” that rules Russia. Now he has already openly opposed both the Russian authorities and the hierarchy. Moreover, he accused the Russian authorities of the murder of Patriarch Alexy! And he called on the people to actively disobey. In my opinion, the reaction of the Yekaterinburg Metropolis was clearly inadequate.

- Insufficient?

- Well, of course. Firstly, Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg himself said nothing. There was only a statement from the press service. To this, schema-abbot Sergius can say that he is not obliged to obey the press service. This is true, by the way. Where is the opinion of the Metropolitan himself?

Secondly, what do the words “remove from preaching and statements in the media” mean? He will say, “I don’t preach. I just say it, and people record it and post it. I’m not responsible for this.” There were already those before him who said so. And third, he stated that he received direct instructions from God. Why on earth should one listen to some press service? Therefore, the measures that were taken were absolutely insufficient.

– Tsar-worship and disobedience to the current state – do one follow from the other?

“These are just a few of his ideas.” Please note that he has not said anything about Nicholas II in his sermons for quite some time. Now he endlessly chews conspiracy myths, screwing himself up more and more. He openly preaches ethnic hatred, hatred of the government (“Jewish yoke”), and so on. Honestly, I don’t know where our law enforcement officers are looking, because if this is not extremism, then I don’t understand what extremism is. Not to mention the fact that he is spreading fake information about the coronavirus epidemic.

– Previously, Schema-Abbot Sergius received reprimands from church authorities or is this the first warning?

– This is the first warning, despite the fact that questions about Sergius Romanov have been asked for a very long time. Starting with the fact that his ordination was absolutely uncanonical and illegal. A person with his biography has no right to be a priest. The fact that he was ordained is a gross violation of all church canons. And all the hatred that he constantly pours out in all his sermons, his constant curses on everyone and everything, can generally push his fans to commit the most serious crimes.

– Does the fact that Schema-Hegumen Sergius has so many famous parishioners affect impunity?

- You can guess.

Let us recall that the Znak.com resource previously wrote that before accepting monasticism, Sergius (Romanov) was convicted under three articles of the Criminal Code - “Murder”, “Robbery” and “Theft”.

• As is the parish, so is the priest. The most authoritative confessors in Russia