Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov): Russia is a country that is a mystery to itself
Alexander PROKHANOV.
Vladyka, thank God, we met with you. We also saw each other in Moscow. And you, in Moscow, this Babylon, created a piece of paradise. You enter the Sretenskoy Monastery and the roses are fragrant. And grace. Thank you for accepting me here in Pechory, family and no stranger to me.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
Thank you for coming, Alexander Andreevich.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
Vladyka, how did the blessed Pskov land greet you?
Metropolitan TIKHON.
You have to ask the earth itself. Of course, it is the grace of God to find ourselves in the place where almost 35 years ago I began my monastic and spiritual life, where everything is dear, everything is close. And where were perhaps the most important meetings in life. The same elders who were the main treasure of the Pskov-Pechora Monastery. Now they lie on the Holy Hill in the depths of the earth in caves. This was an amazing period in the life of the Russian church. And it was largely due to the fact that here, in Pechory, there was such a thing as eldership.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
The Pechora elders looked after our entire Orthodox Church.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
Very many. And in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra there were elders and confessors. But still, I’m not afraid to say this, their main concentration was precisely in the Pskov-Pechora Monastery. Elderhood is an amazing phenomenon. It wanders from place to place. And it’s unclear where it will end up. Once it was in the Trans-Volga forests, then in Optina, then, soon after the revolution, for some time in the Danilov Monastery. Then here - in Pskov-Pechora.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
And what grace! Self-movement of grace across Russia...
Metropolitan TIKHON.
It is the Spirit of God who “breathes where he will,” as the Scriptures say. He chooses both the place and the people in whom he reveals his special powers. This is absolutely amazing, incomparable to anything. An unusually powerful phenomenon.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
You met with the elders here, Father John blessed you. They were probably on the islands with Father Nikolai Guryanov. What kind of sensations were these, can you convey them? Or is it unspeakable?
Metropolitan TIKHON.
Feelings are, of course, subjective. And you are always afraid with some of your feelings, maybe a little enthusiastic, sometimes, maybe insufficient, to not convey the power of God and the divine love that came from these people. Love creates. The most amazing feeling was the love that came from the elders. This is a powerful feeling of divine power, divine protection, that through these people God is leading you. And it leads to good and to salvation, an outcome that is mysterious to you along a path that is mysterious to you. But absolutely true and correct. This is a feeling of complete security when you are next to them, and complete trust, complete clarity. The feeling of your readiness to fulfill what the Lord commands in his commandments, what these elders will bless.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
You once experienced moments with them that do not disappear throughout your life. Do you feel like you have broken up with them?
Metropolitan TIKHON.
Of course not. This is not forgotten. This defines your whole life. And all the people with whom I had the opportunity to talk about Father John, about Father Adrian, who recently died, about Father Nicholas, about Father Seraphim - about the Pechora elders - all talk about the same thing: this is not a meeting, this is a direction and continuation of life. It is most important.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
And now that you have arrived here, do you have the feeling that the world has changed, the environment has changed, the monastery has changed, and you yourself have changed during this time? This is not an idle question. I come here often and feel these changes, I feel a certain cooling.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
Of course, we were different, and life circumstances were different. Then I was a novice, and today my obediences are completely different, associated with a huge number of meetings, with greater responsibility for other people, including. This is the situational and eventual difference in a person’s life. Of course, we have become much more vain. And the greatness that was in the 70s and 80s, the calm and peace, probably gave way to greater vanity and, to some extent, more petty concerns than what those great spiritual fathers suggested we face. It's even impossible to compare us. Incomparable quantities. Therefore, in many ways we live by their prayers, we feed on their spirit, we are at least to some extent inspired by their strength and their courage. And for people who have not seen them and come here, there is a memory of them and their gracious presence. The Lord said that with God everyone is alive, with God there are no dead. This is clearly felt here. Because the presence of these ascetics was not limited to the time of their life. It extends further. After all, one of the rewards for a Christian who has lived his life, trying with all his might to keep the commandments that Christ left us, loving these commandments, one of the greatest rewards is the continuation of love for people. What? In participating in life. We pray to the saints and receive both admonition and help from them. And life circumstances often change precisely because of their prayers. But this is not only joy and benefit for us. This is the great happiness of those saints. Because their main happiness is through their love and the grace-filled opportunities that the Lord gives them to participate in the life of the world here on earth, in the life of Christians - disciples of Christ.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
I came here earlier than you. I arrived at a time when the terrible war had already ended, when the churches were still destroyed, when at the altar it was written “no mines,” when many churches were collapsing or had already collapsed. And after the war, the people who survived this massacre came here, who were wounded, who glorified life and the Lord. They may not have known that they were praising the Lord, but they were praising life for having survived. These were architects and restorers. Vsevolod Petrovich Smirnov, who restored the Pskov Kremlin, who hung amazing ensigns on weathervanes here. And a wonderful blacksmith - among other things. Boris Stepanovich Skobeltsyn, who walked with his long crane legs throughout the Pskov region. Semyon Stepanovich Geichenko, who restored the Pushkin Museum-Reserve from the ashes. These were amazing people who created such an attraction that the entire elite of St. Petersburg (Leningrad) and Moscow came here. Akhmatova was here, Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov came, writers, artists... And it was some kind of flash, jubilation. I think that it was the Russian Renaissance, the Russian revival, its brief moment. And I found myself in this flash. I remember it like sunstroke, as Bunin said. As I came here, and as my friends grew old and then left one after another, I saw that everything here somehow calmed down. Of course, the collapse of the state, the wounded Russian people, despondency - all this happened in the 90s. And when the 6th Airborne Company left here, in that timelessness, when there was no state, when people had nothing to rely on, Father John and Father Nikolai continued to live here.
And now that the country has survived, I am waiting for a new outbreak. Everything in me says that there must be a new outbreak. Again, terrible times, again great worries for the state, again we accumulated strength, we were not beaten, not exiled, not persecuted. And I have a feeling that it is here, in the Pskov region, that another flash of light will occur. I associate your visit with this. Maybe you won’t bring this flash here, but it will illuminate you here too.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
We can only hope and thank you for such a firm belief in the development of new forces and in the demand for forces rooted in this land and ready to come to us in support. Of course I would. The Pskov land is absolutely amazing. It seems to me that this is the most beautiful land in Russia. That's exactly how I perceive it. Even in the 80s, and in the 70s and 60s - probably to an even greater extent, it was the center of the spiritual life of Russia. Not only because the Pskov-Pechorsky Monastery, but because there were amazing priests in the parishes. Including war veterans who returned from the fronts and strengthened their faith not in seminaries, not in philosophical conversations, but between life and death. And here they saw God, here they grabbed his robe. God brought them here, like Father Alypius, who fought. I remember how in the early 80s, on May 9, the military commissar came to the Pskov-Pechora Monastery to congratulate our veterans. And they lined up on Assumption Square: in black cassocks, with and without crosses (depending on whether they were priests or not), but all with orders, with medal strips on their cassocks. The spectacle was extraordinary.
They were very different. A man of amazing courage, who served in military intelligence and mastered more than one language, Archimandrite Feofan. His chest was decorated with a huge number of orders. He was short, and his last name was Malyavka. He was a real old man - of the greatest love and greatest humility, perspicacious, great. And once he said: “Yes, I was in intelligence, I was sent there, but I prayed throughout the war so as not to kill a single person. Yes, I took prisoners. But by the grace of God I didn’t even kill a single enemy.”
Father Alypiy is a legendary figure. Archimandrite Alipiy Voronov reached Berlin, calling himself a Soviet archimandrite, without being at all confused or embarrassed by this definition. Although he sometimes had the toughest relations with the Soviet authorities. But he understood the time. And he led people to salvation at precisely that time; he affirmed faith in God at precisely that time. He churched a huge number of people, including the intelligentsia, including you, and Soloukhin, and Kozlovsky and many, many, many who were here. And, leaving him, they carried away in their souls a piece of faith, which he passed on to them through his monastic and officer’s fate. These were great people.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
I visited Matrosov. In the forest, in the clearing, in the place where he covered the pillbox with his chest, there is a lonely stele. And I had the idea that if he had survived, he would have gone to the temple. Because this is the highest experience of war, life, death, sacrifice, which radically changes people if they do not die in the process.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
It happens in different ways. I would not say that all people, even having received mortal wounds and surviving after them, became believers and church people. Most, yes. But for many, faith was such an intimate part of their lives that they were hostile to any talk about it and did not want to talk about it. Moreover, when suddenly somewhat exalted and far-fetched stories began. This was Viktor Petrovich Astafiev.
I knew that he was a believer. I can’t say that I was friends with him, but we had very kind, good and frequent communication: in Moscow, in Vologda, in Novgorod... And he told me about his faith in a confidential and very interesting way. But when one day someone began to say that there were priests on almost every front, and only thanks to them and some special prayers were victories achieved, he simply exploded: “We didn’t see any priests! Maybe they were somewhere. And I don't want to talk about it. What happened, happened, and I won’t let you think about it.”
And I understood him very well.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
I indulged in thinking about what the Pskov land is, with which I have probably been associated for 60 years. I tried to dismember this Pskov grace, which is not a grateful task. Because it is a holistic feeling. If Kyiv is the mother of Russian cities, then Pskov is the father of the Russian state. And all five empires in which we, Russian people live, have been and remain here. All five empires kissed the Pskov soil. And therefore Pskov is a statist city, a city-empire. Pskov is a shield, because they always wanted to conquer, fragment, defeat the empire. And Pskov always stood in the way of these defeats. He is all wounded, covered in bullets, tips and arrows. He is a city-hero who stood up to defend the state. In these battles and prayers, miracles were constantly performed. There were constant revelations here. And that’s why Pskov is a wonderful city, it is connected with a miracle. With a miracle also because all five empires, when one of them ended, and Russia should no longer exist, they, these empires, continued through a miracle! And Pskov carries within itself this wonderful, mysterious, Easter resurrection grace. And of course, Pskov is a palace of beauty. Such beautiful Pskov churches, similar to Russian white stoves, just as warm and smelling of honey...
Metropolitan TIKHON.
...Or porcini mushrooms...
Alexander PROKHANOV.
Yes, for porcini mushrooms... And I have never seen such monasteries, such frescoes, such icons anywhere. And the Malskaya Valley, which extends here, because this depression is somehow connected with a series of mysterious depressions...
Metropolitan TIKHON.
The path “from the Varangians to the Greeks”...
Alexander PROKHANOV.
Maybe even more. Because one sage, a local theologian, a visionary, may have told me that this depression was formed by the Star of Bethlehem, which flew from Bethlehem and stopped here. And in Budnik there is a large stone in the river. This is supposedly a fragment of the Star of Bethlehem. No wonder Vladimir the Saint was born there.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
This is strong!.. Well, a person has his own opinion.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
And no one knows where the Star of Bethlehem went...
Metropolitan TIKHON.
Well, of course, in Pskov, where else is it available? Naturally, there is nowhere else.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
Such a city is Pskov. I think about the Pskov dream. A dream is that mysterious amazing force that does not allow people to perish and leads them out of all gorges, gorges, troubles, and despondency. I think that the Pskov dream is associated with service, surrounded by holiness and holy beauty.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
You can probably think, reflect, maybe even dream a little. You can offer some kind of dream and try to formulate it. But it has already been formulated by a man with whom the Pskov land is now connected both in time and in eternity. This is Father John Krestyankin. He's been here since the mid-60s. Metropolitan Pitirim personally brought him here after prison and exile and handed this prisoner, a priest, to Archimandrite Alypius. And so Father John died here. Although he himself is from Orel, although he served in Ryazan, he will forever remain a Pskovite. So, he said amazing words that must be accepted, as the elder commanded, with faith and courage. He said (and this was his testament and dream, the same Pskov dream that you are talking about): “Russia, be what Christ needs you to be.” These words are not made up, but come from the very heart of the spiritual life of the Pskov land, the Pskov-Pechora Monastery.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
Yes... “Russia, be what Christ needs you to be.”
Any state, in particular the Russian one, is governed by traditional state means. Finances that are directed to one area or another. Sometimes - by force, when it is necessary to suppress unrest or protect the country. And a wise ruler, using this arsenal of means, manages to develop the state, move, protect and preserve it. But it seems to me that in Russia, in addition to these obvious and rational means of controlling the people, there is another arsenal of means that an enlightened ruler uses in the most difficult periods for Russia. These are ideas such as the Russian miracle, the Russian dream, the Easter meaning of Russian history, the holiness of Russian weapons, Russian nature and land. But the area of these ideas is forgotten or not very clear. And, probably, the church, and the Pskov church, and perhaps Vladyka Tikhon, is able to formulate these laws through which the people are saved, do not lose heart, overcome the state lack of money, overcome the stupidity of officials, overcome the adversary who is tightening the ring around Russia. Because when the rational falls silent, the divine, the delightful awakens in the soul of a Russian person. Don’t you think, Vladyka, that Pskov could be a school, a university of divine political science?
Metropolitan TIKHON.
And Pskov, and the entire Russian land. I absolutely agree with you and am even ready to fulfill your instructions - to formulate what you said, no matter how daring it sounds. I will express some thoughts, perhaps controversial, but for me they are absolutely unconditional, and they are suggested to me not only by our patristic thought and history, but also by the great rulers of Russia. Alexander II, when asked whether it was easy to govern Russia, replied: “It is not difficult to govern Russia, but it is useless.” He also said about what laws Russia is governed by: “All countries are governed by laws and rules, but Russia lives by proverbs and sayings.”
The irrational thing you are talking about sounded in the mouth of this great and tragic reformer of Russia in a special way. He was a very rational person. And this is the absolutely irrational conclusion he came to at the end, albeit an unexpected decline, of his life. There is one more example. This is no longer a Russian sovereign, but a Russian politician and nobleman Christopher Minich. His famous statement is that “Russia differs from all other countries in that it is ruled directly by the Lord God, because otherwise it is completely impossible to understand why it still exists.” Here is this Russian “maybe”, which, it would seem, one cannot hope for, but must work for; and everyone tells us: both the church, and worldly wisdom, and the wisdom of great people - work, work... And we work. And, thank God, when it works out. But this Russian “maybe”, which sometimes suddenly turns out to be an unexpected miracle, but in fact, begged for. This is one of the most amazing and, perhaps, the most important factors in our life. I will not list all those who suddenly discovered this for themselves: both our domestic thinkers, politicians, and foreign ones... Churchill said something like this: Russia is a mystery, shrouded in secrets and once again shrouded in the darkness of some mysteries.
“Russia cannot be understood with the mind, nor can it be measured with a common yardstick.” We also understand that this can only be believed. Western people are looking for this mystery of the Russian soul. And the Chinese partially revealed to me the secret of the Russian soul, the riddle of the Russian soul.
Once I was in China, and the translator told me that they have a certain common noun for each country, each state. China itself is the Celestial Empire. Under the sky there is only China, and the rest surround the Celestial Empire. The United States of America in their perception is a country of happiness, a country of mostly happy people for whom comfort is one of the main tasks; this is their historical choice. France is a country of laws. England is a country of courageous people. Germany is a country of craftsmen. And when the People’s Daily, even in Soviet times, said that the President of France was coming to China, for example, it sounded (as they told me about it) - “the president of the country of laws has arrived in the Celestial Empire.” Naturally, I asked what our Fatherland is called in Chinese? And the translator said: this is a country of surprises. A country and people from which you can expect the most unusual, unexpected. A country that is also a mystery to itself. Sometimes we really don’t know what to expect from ourselves. We are full of such forces that we cannot rationally evaluate or formulate ourselves. This is the strength, this is, to some extent, our problem and task for resolution. But that's who we are. We can also be Ilya Muromets, who suddenly gets up from the stove and accomplishes great feats. Or we can be Dostoevsky’s peasant, who stands for half a day in a sheepskin coat, tied with a sash, contemplating nature, and then suddenly it is unclear where he will go: either to Jerusalem, or to set something on fire. Do you remember these harsh words from Dostoevsky? Fyodor Mikhailovich says: this is the Russian peasant, this is our secret and our riddle.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
What exists in the world, but is indefinable? After all, there is something in the world that absolutely exists, but cannot be definitively defined.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
This is God.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
Of course it is God. And I think that the Russian dream is indefinable. She is inexpressible. And it is futile to try to find an explanation for it. Because if Russia is controlled by God, if Russian history is explainable only through a miracle, then, of course, the Russian dream is something in tune with the Kingdom of Heaven.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
We are waiting in our history and in a certain quintessence of our people for nothing less than the Kingdom of Heaven. Not earthly, but Heavenly. We want to place in our soul no more and no less than the infinite and inexplicable God Himself.
Alexander PROKHANOV.
Yes it is. This is our secret dream, which, probably, many still cannot pronounce and cannot understand. But this is a matter of time and a matter of prayers of the ancestors, who knew very well about this dream. Thank you, lord. Let us each continue to work in our own place. Because, as I told myself, there is nowhere to retreat further, the Kingdom of Heaven is behind us.
Metropolitan TIKHON.
Thank you, Alexander Andreevich, and to you.
Farewell liturgy
Even before the start of the service, the new monastery church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, which can accommodate about 2 thousand people, was filled to capacity. Despite the rainy weather, people gathered outside. According to the church calendar, on Sunday the feast of the Pskov-Pechersk Icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” is celebrated. It was in this monastery that the future metropolitan began his monastic path in 1982 as a novice.
Metropolitan Tikhon celebrated the liturgy together with his new assistant, the vicar of the Pskov diocese, Bishop Thomas of Gdov, as well as with the monks of the Sretensky monastery. Previously, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' appointed one of them, Hieromonk John (Ludishchev), as acting vicar of the monastery instead of Metropolitan Tikhon. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church will finally approve the viceroy in June.
Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov
Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) was appointed head of the Pskov Metropolis by a decision of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on May 14, 2018, leaving him the post of chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture. He managed the Sretensky Monastery, which initially had the status of a metochion of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery, since 1993. He was the rector of Sretensky Seminary, the editor-in-chief of the largest thematic portal Pravoslavie.ru.
For 25 years, Sretensky Monastery has become one of the most famous and populous Moscow parishes. A special event was the construction of the monumental Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the Sretensky Monastery a year ago. The artists designed the temple in such a way that it displays motifs of both Byzantine and Russian architecture, with reference to the ancient temples of Vladimir, Pskov and Novgorod.
