Martyr Tatiana Grimblit: execution for helping prisoners

Martyr Tatiana Grimblit

Martyr Tatiana was born Tatyana received her education at the Tomsk gymnasium, from which she graduated in 1920. That same year, her father died, and she went to work as a teacher at the Klyuchi children's colony. Brought up in a deeply Christian spirit, desiring achievement and seeking perfection in fulfilling the commandments of the Lord, she, barely graduating from school, devoted her life to helping her neighbors. In 1920, the civil war ended in Siberia and repressions against the people began, and soon Siberia itself, with its vast expanses, became a place of imprisonment and exile. At this time, the pious girl and zealous Christian Tatyana made it a rule that almost all the money she earned, as well as what she managed to collect in the churches of the city of Tomsk, was exchanged for food and things and transferred to prisoners in the Tomsk prison. When she came to the prison, she asked the administration which of the prisoners did not receive food parcels, and she passed them on to them. In 1923, Tatyana brought parcels to needy prisoners in prison in the city of Irkutsk. Here she was arrested and charged with counter-revolutionary activities, which included charity to prisoners, but four months later she was released. In 1925, the OGPU again arrested Tatyana Nikolaevna for helping prisoners, but this time she was released after seven days. After her release, she continued to help prisoners. By this time, she had become acquainted with many prominent bishops and priests of the Russian Orthodox Church who were languishing in prisons in Siberia. Her active charitable activities increasingly attracted the attention of OGPU employees and increasingly irritated the atheists. They began to collect information for her arrest, which eventually came down to the following description of the ascetic, who over time became an all-Russian philanthropist: “Tatyana Nikolaevna Grimblit has connections with the counter-revolutionary element of the clergy, which is located in the Narym region, in Arkhangelsk, in Tomsk and Irkutsk prisons. Makes collections and sends part of them by mail, most with opportunity. Grimblit has his close acquaintances in all Tikhonov’s parishes, through whom collections are made.” On May 6, 1925, the head of the secret department of the OGPU interrogated Tatyana Nikolaevna about whether she helped the exiled clergy and who exactly, as well as through whom she sent parcels to other cities. Tatyana Nikolaevna answered: “Since 1920, I have provided financial assistance to the exiled clergy and exiles in general located in the Alexander Central, Irkutsk prison and Tomsk and Narym regions. I collected funds from churches and the city, both in cash and in goods and products. I sent money and things by mail and with fellow travelers, that is, with opportunity. With a travel companion, she sent a parcel weighing about two pounds addressed to Bishop Barsanuphius (Vikhvelin) to Narym exile. I don't know the last name of my travel companion. Before Christmas, I also sent a parcel addressed to the same name; I also don’t know the last name of the fellow traveler. In the Alexander Central, I provided assistance to priests, in the Irkutsk prison to Bishop Victor (Epiphany), in Narym exile to priests Popov and Kopylov, Bishops Evfimy (Lapin), Anthony (Bistrov), Ioannikiy (Speransky), Agafangel (Preobrazhensky) and the imprisoned clergy, who were in Tomsk houses of detention, and to the laity; prisoners in general, without knowing the reasons for their imprisonment. “Have you approached the clergy with a request to assist in raising funds for prisoners and exiles,” asked the investigator. “Yes, I applied, but was refused by them,” Tatyana answered, not wanting to involve any of the clergy she knew in this matter. - Whom of the people do you know who, besides you, made collections for prisoners and exiles? – I don’t know the people who carried out the collections besides me. The next day, the OGPU issued a warrant for her arrest, and she was imprisoned in the Tomsk OGPU. On May 18, the investigation was completed and the OGPU decided: “Taking into account that the inquiry does not provide the opportunity to obtain the necessary materials for a public trial, but guilt ... is still established, and therefore the inquiry is considered completed and, according to the OGPU order No. 172, it is sent to A special meeting at the OGPU Collegium to apply... extrajudicial punishment - administrative exile." Tatyana Nikolaevna, along with some other arrested priests, was considered as “the inspirer of the Tikhonov movement in the province. With their removal from the province, the foundations of Tikhonov’s organization will be significantly shaken.” The documents of the case were forwarded to the OGPU in Moscow, and after a decision was made here on reprisals against those arrested, on March 26, 1926, a Special Meeting at the OGPU Collegium decided to expel Tatyana Nikolaevna to the Zyryansky region for three years. On July 1, 1926, Tatyana Nikolaevna was transported by stage to Ust-Sysolsk. On July 15, 1927, a Special Meeting of the OGPU Collegium decided to deport Tatyana Nikolaevna across the country to Kazakhstan for the remainder of her term. On December 15, she arrived in Turkestan. On December 19, 1927, the Special Meeting decided to release her, giving her the right to live wherever she wanted. OGPU officers in Turkestan informed her that she had been released only on March 10, 1928, and on March 16 Tatyana Nikolaevna left for Moscow. She settled not far from the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, where a priest she knew well, Archimandrite Gabriel (Igoshkin), served. Tatyana became a permanent parishioner of the St. Nicholas Church in Pyzhi, where she began to sing in the choir. Returning from prison, she was even more active in helping the prisoners who remained in exile and in prison, many of whom she now knew personally. Visiting prisoners and helping them became her feat and service to Christ. According to the expression of many saints who later won the crown of martyrdom, she became for them a new Philaret the Merciful. She had no equal in her feat of mercy and help, reliability and breadth of this help. Her heart, which contained Christ, was no longer crowded for anyone. In the early thirties, another wave of godless persecution against the Russian Orthodox Church arose, when several tens of thousands of clergy and laity were arrested. Hundreds of them were arrested in Moscow, and among them, on April 14, 1931, Tatyana was arrested. A few days later, the investigator interrogated her. She said that she really helped exiles and prisoners, but only she, especially at the beginning, helped all prisoners, not at all interested in whether they were church people or not, and even whether they were convicted under political or criminal charges, all that was important to her was that that they were in need and had no one to help them. On April 30, 1931, the Special Meeting sentenced Tatyana Grimblit to three years in a concentration camp, and she was sent to the Vishera forced labor camp in the Perm region. Here, in the camp, she studied medicine and began working as a paramedic, which perfectly corresponded to the ascetic path she had chosen - selfless service to her neighbors. In 1932, she was released with a ban on living in twelve cities for the remainder of her sentence. She chose the city of Yuryev-Polsky, Vladimir region, as her place of residence. After the end of her term in 1933, Tatyana Nikolaevna settled in the city of Aleksandrov, Vladimir region and got a job as a paramedic in a hospital. In 1936, she moved to the village of Konstantinovo, Moscow region, and began working as a laboratory assistant at the Konstantinovsky district hospital. Working in a hospital, and often much more than she was entitled to according to her duties, she gave almost all of her funds, as well as those that believers donated to her for prisoners, to help the imprisoned clergy and Orthodox laity, leading with all of them active correspondence. In her activities, not only her material support was felt for all those suffering, but also her verbal support - in the letters that she sent. For some, at other times she became the only correspondent and assistant. Bishop John (Pashin) wrote to her from the camp: “Dear, dear Tatyana Nikolaevna! I received your letter and I don’t know how to thank you for it. It breathes with such warmth, love and cheerfulness that the day when I received it was one of the happiest for me, and I read it three times in a row, and then read it to my friends: Vladyka Nicholas and Father Sergius, my spiritual father. Yes! You have a kind heart, you are happy, and for this you thank the Lord: this is not from us - God’s gift. By the grace of God, you understood that the highest happiness here on earth is to love people and help them. And you - weak, poor thing - with God's help, like the sun, with your kindness you warm the disadvantaged and help as best you can. I recall the words of God spoken through the mouth of the holy Apostle Paul: “My power is made perfect in weakness.” May the Lord grant you strength and health to walk this path for many, many years and to do good in humility in the name of the Lord. Your story about your illness[1] and further adventures is also touching. How wisely and mercifully the Lord arranged that you, having suffered a serious illness [2], studied medicine and now, working in the field of treating the sick and suffering, at the same time you will earn the small funds necessary for your life and helping others, and with this holy work of yours how many tears will you wipe away, how much suffering will you alleviate... Do you work in a laboratory, in a pharmacy? Wonderful. Remember the holy great martyr Panteleimon the Healer and his box of medicine in his hands (as depicted in the images) and work in the name of the Lord, work for the glory of God. Let every medicine scattered into powders, poured into bottles, be protected by the sign of the Holy Cross. Glory to the Lord God!” Archbishop Averky (Kedrov), who was in exile in the city of Birsk in Bashkiria, wrote to Tatyana Nikolaevna: “I received your closed letter, and after it a postcard. For both, I offer you my heartfelt gratitude. Thank God - they are still full of vigor and light, strong faith and firm hope in the providential right hand of the Almighty. God bless! May this life-giving source, which here on earth so facilitates the perception of life’s hardships, misfortunes, blows, failures and disappointments, never dry up or diminish in your soul. The path of your life blessed by the Lord is not yet long, and yet how many storms have swept over your head. And not only above your head: like a sharp weapon, they passed through your heart. But they did not shake it and did not move it from the cornerstone - the rock on which it rests - I mean Christ the Savior. These storms did not extinguish the brightly burning and flaming fire of the holy faith in your dear heart. Glory to God - I rejoice in this and bow before your feat of unshakable devotion to the Creator, before those painful sorrows, trials, moral sufferings through which your path lay to this victory in your soul of Christ over Belial, heaven over earth, light over darkness. Christ save you and preserve you, help you to continue to stand fearlessly and unshakably on the divine guard of your holy of holies...” Most of all among earthly places, Tatyana Nikolaevna loved Diveevo, where she often came and where her spiritual father, Archpriest Pavel of Peru, served. In one of the letters written on September 5, 1937 to Archbishop Averky (Kedrov), who was still in exile in the city of Birsk at that time, worrying about his fate, as news began to come from everywhere about the arrests of the clergy and laity, she wrote: “My dear Lord Averky! I haven't heard from you for a long time. I was on vacation for a month and a half. I went to Diveevo and Sarov. I had a great month there. Amazingly good. No, heaven is not sweeter, because it is impossible to love more. May God bless those people whose bright beauty of soul is still before me. I fell deeply in love with those places and am always drawn to them. This is the third year in a row that I have been there, each time longer and longer. I would have stayed there forever, but there was no blessing for me to do so. And everyone gave their blessing for the trip during the holidays. Answer me, dear sunshine. Otherwise, I’m worried that something bad has happened to you. Remind me of geography. How far is Birsk from Ufa? Write to me, I already miss you dearly, my dear.” In the evening, on the day that Tatyana wrote this letter, she was arrested. NKVD officers came to arrest her when she was writing another letter to a priest in exile, stopping her mid-sentence. When leaving for prison, she left a note for her friend so that she would notify her mother about everything that had happened. Preserving peace and calm even in these moments, Tatyana Nikolaevna wrote: “Dear Olga, forgive me! Clean everything up. Get underwear from Dunya. Put your laundry in the box under the bed. Sew the bedding and clothes into bags (there are two bags here, but you can find intact and clean ones in which you could send everything to your mother). When I was driven away from here, only ten days later everything was sent to my mother, first notifying her of my arrest by letter. You write a letter, and then a couple of days later things come. You will have money for shipping. After ten days, send the money to my mother along with my things, she will transfer it to me and send me what I need. Well, I kiss everyone warmly. I thank everyone for everything. Sorry. I knew when I put on the cross that I was wearing: I would go again. I will not only go to prison for God, but I will go to the grave with joy.” Tatyana was interrogated by the head of the Konstantinovsky district branch of the NKVD, Sudakov. – Accused Grimblit, during the search, correspondence was seized from you indicating a lot of addresses. What connections do you have with these persons and who are they by position? - he asked. – Six people indicated in the addresses are clergy, and all of them were in custody and in prison, and at this time they are in custody and in prison. I have contact with them only by letters. The remaining addresses of my relatives working in Moscow and Alexandrov. After the interrogation, the deputy head of the Konstantinovsky NKVD, Smirnitsky, interrogated Tatyana’s colleagues at the Konstantinovsky regional hospital - a doctor, a nurse and accountants - as witnesses. They testified: “I am aware that Grimblit visited a patient in hospital with whom Grimblit had nothing to do with medical care. As a result, the next morning the patient told the doctor that he had been dreaming about monasteries, monks, cellars, and so on all night. This fact leads me to believe that Grimblit had conversations with patients on religious topics. At a meeting of hospital employees on the issue of subscribing to the newly issued loan, Grimblit did not speak either for or against in the debate, but did not vote in favor of subscribing to the loan.” “In the winter of 1937, Grimblit, sitting in the ward of a seriously ill patient, in the presence of patients and medical staff after his death, stood up and demonstratively crossed him. In conversations, comparing the situation in the prisons of the tsarist regime with the present, Grimblit said: “Under Soviet rule, one can encounter no less ugly moments than before.” Answering questions about why she led a meager life, Grimblit said: “You spend your money on wine and cinema, and I spend my money on helping prisoners and the church.” When asked about the cross she wore around her neck, Grimblit repeatedly answered: “I will give my head for the cross I wear around my neck, and as long as I am alive, no one will take it off me, and if anyone tries to remove the cross, he will only take it off with my head.” , since it is worn forever.” In 1936, when one of the Dmitlag prisoners came to spend the night, Grimblit, when meeting with him, asked under what article he was imprisoned, and, having received the answer that he was imprisoned under article 58, gladly gave up her room for the night, declaring that it was for people imprisoned under Article 58 are always ready to help in any way. Grimblit, during her work at the hospital, had cases of leaving work to go to church to perform religious rites.” “I know that Grimblit is a very religious person who puts religion above all else. On the day of the Transfiguration, in a conversation with me, Grimblit said: “Now we have become not a people, but simply like cattle. I remember how it was before, when I was in high school. You go to church, you relax, and your work progresses better, but now there is no difference, but the time will come, the Lord will punish and ask for everything.” I also often heard the words from Grimblit: “The time will come when those who do not believe will later repent and suffer for it, just as we, the believers, are suffering at this time.” In addition, Grimblit used her official position to instill religious feelings among inpatients. While on duty, Grimblit accompanied the distribution of medicines to patients with the words: “With the Lord God.” And at the same time she baptized the sick. For weak patients, Grimblit put crosses around their necks.” “Regarding the upbringing of children at the present time, Grimblit has repeatedly said: “What good can be expected from today’s children in the future, when their parents themselves do not believe and children are forbidden to believe.” And, reproaching her parents, she said: “No matter how you turn away from God, sooner or later He will ask for everything.” In 1936, my nine -year -old daughter told me that Grimblit had learned to be baptized, for which she gave her guests. ” After interrogations of witnesses, the deputy chief of the NKVD of the Konstantinovsky district interrogated Tatyana. -The accused Grimblit, have you been and are not at present in any religious sect, if you are, then what are its goals? - I have not been in any sect and I do not meet. -The accused Grimblit, from what funds you assisted prisoners and are you a member of any organization that sets their assistance to their assistance, as well as the introduction of religion to the masses? - I have never been in any organization and did not meet. Assistance to prisoners and to whom I can help, I provide from my earned funds. I have never been engaged in the introduction of religion to the masses and do not. - What is the reason for your assistance in most cases by political prisoners, as well as the reason for your correspondence with political prisoners? - Being a religious person, I provided help only to the prisoners of the religious men, whom I met at the stages and in conclusion, and, when I released, corresponded with them. With the rest of the political prisoners, I never had any connection. - How did you manifest as a religious person regarding the Soviet power and the people around you? - Before the authorities and others, I tried to prove myself as an honest and conscientious worker and prove it that a religious person can be a necessary and useful member of society. I did not hide my religiosity. - The accused Grimblit, do you find yourself guilty of conducting anti -Soviet agitation during the service in the Konstantinovsky hospital? - I never led any anti -Soviet agitation anywhere. On the phrases, when, pitying me, they told me: “You would have dressed better and ate than to send money to someone”, I answered: “You can spend money on beautiful clothes and a sweet piece, and I prefer to dress more modestly, easier Eat, and send the remaining money to those in need of them. ” After these interrogations, Tatyana was placed in prison in the city of Zagorsk. On September 13, 1937, the investigation was completed and compiled an indictment. On September 21, before sending the indictment to the decision of the Troika, an employee of the NKVD Idelson called Tatyana for interrogation and, having learned why and when she was arrested earlier, asked: “You are accused of anti -Soviet agitation.” Do you find yourself guilty? - I do not plead guilty. I never engaged in anti -Soviet agitation. - You are also accused of conducting wrecking, conscious death of patients in the hospital of the village of Konstantinovo. You admit yourself guilty? - I do not plead guilty, I have never engaged in sabotage activities. After reading the interrogation protocol, Tatyana subscribed under the phrase that ends the protocol: “I was written from my words correctly, I personally read it.” On September 22, the Troika of the NKVD sentenced Tatyana to execution. The next day, she was sent to one of the Moscow prisons, where a photo for the executioner was shot from her before the execution. Tatyana Nikolaevna Grimblit was shot on September 23, 1937 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo training ground near Moscow.

Hegumen Damascene (Orlovsky)

“Martyrs, confessors and devotees of piety of the Russian Orthodox Church of the twentieth century. Biographies and materials for them. Book 7." Tver. 2002. pp. 128-136

See also: Martyr Tatiana (Grimblit). Lives of the new martyrs and confessors of the 20th century of the Moscow diocese

Bibliography

Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Tomsk region. Arch. No. 11803-P. Central Election Commission of the FSB of the Russian Federation. Arch. No. R-1086. GARF. F. 10035, house P-78635.

Notes

[1] This refers to arrest - in the conventional language of correspondence of those years. [2] This refers to being in prison.

Source: https://www.fond.ru

Canonization and veneration[ | ]

Church of St.
Tatiana Grimblit in the village of Bogashevo on July 17, 2002, by a resolution of the Holy Synod, was canonized as the holy new martyrs and confessors of Russia for church-wide veneration[5].

On November 4, 2005, on the patronal feast day of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, with the blessing of Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, a ceremony was performed in the fence of the Kazan Church in Reutov for the founding of a new church in honor of the Archangel of God Michael and the martyr Tatiana (Grimblit)[6].

In September 2010, the “Orthodox Volunteer Service of St. Tatiana (Grimblit)”[7] was founded, which works with children with cancer and helping the elderly at home, as well as organizing and holding charity events and concerts[8].

The documentary “Give It All” is dedicated to Tatiana Grimblit. Holy Martyr Tatiana Grimblit" (2010), directed by Inga Monaenkova, presenter Fyodor Melentyev[9], who received the diploma "For the discovery of the image of a new saint" of the VI International Orthodox Sretensky Film Festival "Meeting" 2011[10].

Part 12 of the documentary-historical program by Felix Razumovsky “Who are we?” is dedicated to Tatyana Grimblit. in the series “Russian Golgotha” (2013)[11].

On July 9, 2021, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved the text of the service to the New Martyr Tatiana Grimblit[12].

Literature[ | ]

• Martyr Tatiana (Grimblit)] // Abbot of Damascus (Orlovsky)
  . Martyrs, confessors and devotees of piety of the Russian Orthodox Church of the 20th century. Book 7. - Tver: Bulat, 2002. - P. 128-136.
• Martyr Tatiana (Grimblit) // Lives of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian XX century of the Moscow diocese.
  Add. volume I. - Tver: Bulat, 2005. - P. 174-186.
• Damascene (Orlovsky), abbot.
  The spiritual and moral feat of the Russian new martyrs and the significance of their documentary heritage for modern life (using the example of the legacy of the martyr Tatiana Grimblit) // The Ways of God's Providence and the Patristic Heritage: a collection of reports. Vol. 1 / ed. abbot. Peter (Pigol) [and others]. - M.: Department of Religious Education and Catechesis of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2008. - 336 p. — P. 96—100
• Melentyev F.I.
  Memories of childhood in the poetry of the New Martyr Tatiana Grimblit // IX Easter Readings: Materials of the Ninth Scientific and Methodological Conference “Humanities and Orthodox Culture” / Scientific. ed. I. G. Mineralova. M., 2012. - pp. 68-73.
• Burmistrova S.V.
  The era of persecution of the Church in the mirror of Russian literature of the 20th century: Based on the lyrics of the new martyr Tatiana Grimblit // Theological Bulletin. 2021. - No. 26-27. — P. 196—222

Notes[ | ]

1. Tatiana (Grimblit). Orthodox saint. Bulletin of Zamoskvorechye.
2. ↑ 12345
   “Dress more modestly and give the remaining money to the poor.” Martyr Tatiana Grimblit | Orthodoxy and peace
3. I. I. Osipova.
   “Through the fire of torment and the water of tears...” Persecution of the True Orthodox Church: based on materials from investigative and camp cases of prisoners. - M.: Silver threads, 1998. - 432 p. — ISBN 5-89163-005-2.
4. Idelson, Fried Iosifovich (unspecified)
   (inaccessible link).
   Personnel composition of state security bodies of the USSR.
   1935−1939 . Retrieved November 28, 2021. Archived June 22, 2018.
5. Journals of the meetings of the Holy Synod dated July 17, 2002: Russian Orthodox Church
6. Balashikha deanery. News archive for 2005. Archived May 6, 2009 on the Wayback Machine
7. Service of Orthodox Volunteers of St. Tatiana (Grimblit) » Site archive » WE ARE 3 YEARS OLD! Archived copy from August 10, 2015 on the Wayback Machine
8. Orthodox Volunteer Service of St. Tatiana (Grimblit) » About us Archived copy dated August 10, 2015 on the Wayback Machine
9. New Martyrs - Give everything away. Holy Martyr Tatiana Grimblit - video - TV channel “My Joy” (unspecified)
   . www.radostmoya.ru. Date accessed: September 27, 2021.
10. Results of the “Meeting” festival - MIRADOX (Russian). www.miradox.ru. Date accessed: September 27, 2021.
11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtBYE_GTW90
12. Service to the New Martyr Tatiana Grimblit / Official documents / Patriarchy.ru
13. Poems by Tatyana Grimblit (1920-1932) (inaccessible link), Reutov Orthodox. Spiritual Review, No. 3(5) April 2004.
14. Priest Maxim Maximov
    . Dedicated to Tatiana (Grimblit) (inaccessible link), Reutov is Orthodox. Spiritual Review, No. 3(5) April 2004.
15. Suvorov E.
    THE BURDEN IS WONDERFULLY EASY..., Eskom-Vera newspaper.

Poetry[ | ]

A notebook with poems by the martyr Tatiana has been preserved, containing both early works, starting from 1920, and later ones, written in prison and camp[13]. “It is not the splendor of the poetic style that attracts the reader of these verses, but first of all the boundless, eternal love for Christ, expressed in words and witnessed by the very life and death of the holy martyr.”[14]