Preface
In recent years, many memoirs have appeared about the life of political prisoners during the “cult of personality.”
Scientists, military men, writers, old Bolsheviks, intellectuals of various professions, workers, collective farmers write. They write about their lives in camps and prisons, about interrogations, but no one has yet told us about the millions of believers who died in these camps, prisons or experienced unprecedented suffering during interrogations.
They suffered and died for their faith, because they did not renounce God and, dying, glorified Him, and He did not leave them.
“Putting a seal on one’s lips” means consigning to oblivion the suffering, torment, ascetic labor and death of these martyrs, who suffered for God and for us living on earth.
We must not forget, but we must tell about these sufferers; this is our duty to God and people.
The best people of the Russian Orthodox Church died in this difficult time: priests and bishops, elders, monks and simply deeply religious people, in whom the unquenchable fire of faith burned, equal in strength to, and sometimes even greater than, the strength of faith of the ancient Christian martyrs.
In these memoirs, one, only one of the many ascetics appears before us. And how many of them there were who died for us!
For twenty centuries humanity has been accumulating knowledge, Christianity brought Light and Life to people, but in the twentieth century people took away only evil from the arsenal of knowledge and, multiplying it with the achievements of science, brought the greatest and most prolonged suffering and painful death to millions of people. The Lord led me to walk a small part of the camp path with Father Arseny, but this was enough to gain faith, become his spiritual son, follow his path, understand and see his deepest love for God and people, and know what a real Christian is.
The past should not be lost; the past, as a foundation, is where the new is established, so let me tell you what I managed to learn about the life path of Fr. Arseny, I considered it my duty.
In order to collect precious information about Fr. Arseny, I had to turn to the memory of his spiritual children, letters he once wrote to friends and spiritual children, and memories written by people who knew him.
Spiritual children Fr. Arseny were numerous, and where the Lord settled him, they appeared around him, whether it was the city where he, an art scholar, accepted the priesthood and organized a community in a half-forgotten parish, a village where he was in exile, lost in endless forests Severa is a small town, or a terrible “special regime” camp.
The intelligentsia, workers, peasants, criminals, political prisoners - old Bolsheviks, organ workers, coming into contact with him, became his spiritual children, friends, believers and followed him. Yes! Many, recognizing him, followed him.
Everyone who knew Fr. Arseny, told me what he saw and knew about him.
Meeting with Fr. Arseny, I tried to find out about his life, but although he had many conversations with me, he talked little about himself. I managed to write down something during his lifetime, and, giving him notes to look at, I asked: “Was it so?” and he always told me: “Yes, it was,” but he always added: “The Lord led us all along many roads, and every person, if you look closely at his life, has a lot worthy of attention and description. My life, like everyone else’s, has always been intertwined or walked alongside the lives of other people. There was a lot of things, but everything was always from the Lord.”
He often corrected inaccuracies in what he had written several times. For the convenience of presenting memories, some events. I have shifted in time, the names of places and the names of almost all participants have been changed, since many are still alive, and time is changeable.
The search was difficult, but as a result, these memories, letters and notes appeared, although imperfect in their presentation, they recreated the image and life of Fr. Arsenia.
When starting my work, I had no idea at first what kind of material and volume the book would be, but now I clearly see that there will be three parts: “Camp” - the first part, and you will read it now, the second part - “The Path”, which will include separate letters, memories, stories of people who knew and know about. Arsenia. The second part has been written, but requires further work, and for the third part a lot of material has been collected, on which a lot of work still needs to be done. I pray to the Lord to help me.
It would be presumptuous to say: “I wrote, I collected.” Many, many dozens of people who know and love Fr. wrote, collected, and sent me their notes. Arseny, and what was written belongs to them. I just tried, like everyone else whom Fr. raised and put on the path of faith. Arseny, through my labor, to give back a small part of my unpaid debt to the man who saved me and gave me a new life.
After reading the notes, remember the health of the servant of God Alexander, and this will be a great reward for me.
Part one Camp
Camp
The darkness of the night and the severe frost froze everything except the wind. The wind carried snow charges, which, spinning, burst in the air, turning into clouds of fine prickly snow. Flying into obstacles, the wind threw shreds of snow, picked up new ones from the ground and again rushed somewhere forward.
Sometimes there would suddenly be a lull, and then in the darkness of the night a giant spot of light would appear on the ground. In the streaks of light lay a city spread out in the lowlands. Barracks, barracks and barracks covered the ground.
The towers with searchlights and sentries on them went beyond the horizon. Strings of barbed wire stretched between the posts formed several rows of barriers, between which lay stripes of blinding light from the searchlights.
Guard dogs wandered lazily between the first and last rows of barbed wire.
The beams of searchlights fell from some towers and rushed to the ground, slid along it, climbed onto the roofs of the barracks, fell to the ground again and again ran across the territory of the camp, surrounded by wire.
The beams of some searchlights searched the space outside the camp and, having run around a certain sector, returned to the rows of barbed wire, only to begin running again a few moments later.
Soldiers with machine guns, standing on towers, continuously scanned the space between the rows of wire barriers. The calm did not last long, the wind suddenly broke again, and everything again roared, hummed, howled, the prickly snow obscured the bright spot of light, and darkness covered the valley.
The special purpose camp was still sleeping, but suddenly there was a blow to the hanging rail, first one, at the entrance to the camp, and then the steel rails rang under the blows in different parts of the camp.
The spotlights on the towers darted frantically, the gates of the camp opened, and covered trucks with “educators”, guards, security workers and civilians began to enter the zone one after another.
The cars drove around the camp, stopped at the barracks, people jumped out of the trucks and four people at a time walked to the barracks, walked around it from all sides, checked the safety of the bars on the windows, the presence of locks on the doors, the absence of undermining of the walls or other signs indicating escape of prisoners .
Having examined and made sure that nothing was damaged, the guards unlocked the doors of the barracks, and at this time the searchlights continued to rush even more frantically, and the sentries carefully looked around the camp from the towers. The dogs between the rows of wire began to nervously run around their area.
The special purpose camp began its working day. Thousands, tens of thousands of prisoners began to work.
The darkness slowly brightened, a gray northern winter dawn set in, but the wind still tore the snow, threw it into the air, howled and hummed, meeting the slightest obstacle, and carried the hard, prickly snow further and further.
Outside the camp, not far from it, several fires were burning, the flames of which flared up and then died out.
The fires burned continuously day and night, warming the frozen ground for the mass graves in which the dead prisoners were buried. The camp sent hundreds and dozens of its residents there every day, paying tribute to the established camp regime.
Barack
The “special regime” camp came to life. The doors of the barracks slammed, the prisoners ran out into the street for verification, and lined up. There were screams, swearing, and someone was beaten.
Cold, piercing wind and darkness immediately enveloped the prisoners. Forming brigades in columns, they went to the distribution of “rations” and from there to the place of work.
The barracks were empty, but the smells of rotten clothes, human sweat, feces, and carbolic acid filled it.
It seemed that the screams of the guards, the echoes of soul-shattering swearing, human suffering, the stench of criminality still remained in the empty barracks, and this made it feel disgustingly sad among the bare benches and the corridor of bunks. The warmth remaining in the barracks made it habitable and softened the feeling of emptiness.
Twenty-seven degrees of frost and gusty winds were scary today not only for the prisoners who had gone to work, but also for the warmly dressed guards who accompanied them.
Those who had left the barracks a few minutes ago went out into the street with fear; work awaited them, frightening everyone with the incomprehensibility of the requirements, senseless cruelty and insurmountable difficulties created by the camp authorities.
The work performed by the prisoners was necessary, but everything was done in such a way that the work became unbearable. Everything became difficult, painful and scary in the “special regime” camp; everything was done in order to slowly lead people to death. “Enemies of the people” and criminals were sent to the camp, whose crimes were punishable only by death - execution and were replaced by imprisonment in a “special” one, from which exit was almost impossible.
Father Arseny, formerly Pyotr Andreevich Streltsov, and now a “convict” - prisoner No. 18376 - came to this camp six months ago and during this time he realized, like everyone else living here, that he would never leave here.
The camp number – 18376 – was sewn on the back of his padded jacket, hat and sleeves, which made him look, like all prisoners, like an “advertising man”.
The night turned into a dark dawn and a short half-dark day, but now lanterns and searchlights still illuminated the camp.
Father Arseny was a permanent barracks “orderly”, he chopped firewood near the barracks and carried armfuls of it to the barracks stoves.
"God! Jesus Christ, Son of God! “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” he repeated continuously as he carried out his work.
The firewood was damp and frozen and did not split well. There was no ax or cleaver allowed in the “zone,” so he split the logs with a wooden wedge driven into the crack by another log.
The heavy and frozen log slid and bounced in Fr.’s weak hands. Arseny and could not hit the end of the wedge being driven in. Work went slowly.
Incredible fatigue, deep exhaustion, and the grueling regime of camp life made it impossible to work—everything was hard and difficult. By the time the prisoners arrive, the huge barracks must be heated, swept and cleaned. If you don’t have time, the guard will send you to a punishment cell, and the prisoners will beat you.
In the camp they knew how to beat and beat mainly political ones. The authorities beat to instill fear, and the criminals beat “to take away the soul”; the accumulated hatred and cruelty came out. They beat someone every day, they beat them skillfully, with pleasure and joy. For criminals it was entertainment.
"God! Have mercy on me, a sinner. Help me. I trust in You, Lord and Mother of God. Don’t leave me, give me strength,” Fr. Arseny, exhausted from fatigue, carried armful after armful of firewood to the stoves.
It was time to heat up; the stoves had completely cooled down and did not provide any more heat. It was not easy to light the stoves: the wood was damp and there was little dry kindling. Yesterday Fr. Arseny collected dry wood chips and put them in a corner near one of the stoves, thinking: “I’ll put the dry wood for safekeeping, and tomorrow I’ll quickly light the firewood with them.” Today I went to get dry wood, and the criminal punks took it and poured water on me out of spite.
The time has come to light the stoves; if it’s too late, the barracks won’t warm up before the prisoners arrive. He rushed about. Arseny looks for birch bark or dry wood chips in the wood behind the barracks, and he himself says the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God! Have mercy on me, a sinner,” and adds: “Thy will be done.”
I looked through the firewood behind the barracks and saw that there was no bark or dry wood, and you couldn’t figure out how to light the stoves.
Bye o. Arseny was sorting through firewood; an orderly came out of the next barracks, an old man, a criminal with large charges and exorbitant cruelty. They said that in the old days it thundered throughout all of Russia. He had so many things to do that he even began to forget.
He didn’t talk about his affairs, and for the little that the investigator found out, they gave him a “tower” - execution, and replaced him with “special”, which for old criminals was sometimes worse than a “tower”. He was shot and immediately died a painful, slow death. Those who accidentally left the “special” became completely disabled, therefore, when they got here, people became embittered, and this bitterness resulted in them beating political and their own criminals to death.
This criminal kept his entire barracks under strict strictures, and his superiors were even afraid of him. It happened that he blinked at the guys and there was an accident, and then conduct an investigation.
The old man's name was "Sery", he looked about sixty years old, and outwardly he seemed good-natured. He started talking to people kindly, with jokes, and ended with abuse, mockery, and beatings.
I saw that Fr. Arseny sorted through the wood several times and shouted: “What are you looking for, priest?” “I prepared the kindling in the evening, and they poured water on it for fun, so I walk around and look for dry wood. The firewood is damp, I can’t imagine what to do.”
“Yes, priest, without kindling you’re in trouble,” answered Gray. “People will freeze when they come home from work, that’s what’s bad, and they’ll beat me up,” said Fr. Arseny.
“Let's go, pop! I’ll give you kindling,” and led Fr. Arseny to his firewood, and there is a whole woodpile of dried wood.
Flashed by Fr. Arseny's thought: the joke was invented by Sery, he knew his character and did not expect help from him. “Take it, oh. Arseny, take as much as you need.”
Became o. Arseny is collecting dry wood and thinks: “I’ll pick it up, and he’ll start beating me for the amusement of others and shouting: “Pop thief!”, but he was immediately surprised that Gray called him “Father Arseny.” I read a prayer to myself, mentally made the sign of the cross and began to collect dry wood. “Take more, oh. Arseny! More!" Gray bent down and began to collect dried wood himself and carried an armful after Fr. Arseny to the barracks. They placed dried wood near the stoves, and Fr. Arseny bowed to Gray and said: “God save you.” Gray did not answer and left the barracks. Father Arseny laid out the kindling in the stoves in a rack, covered it with firewood, set it on fire, and the fire quickly engulfed the logs in the first stove; you just had time to throw the wood in, carry it to the stoves, clean the barracks, wipe the tables, and carry the firewood again and again.
The time was approaching three o'clock in the afternoon, the stoves were heating up, the barracks gradually became warmer, the smells became sharper as a result, but the warmth made the barracks feel close and cozy.
Several times the warden came into the barracks, and, as always, his first words were angry swearing and threats, and when he entered the barracks one time he saw a piece of wood on the floor and hit Fr. Arseny on the head, but not hard. Carrying firewood and constantly throwing it into the stove completely weakened Fr. Arseny, his head was noisy from weakness and fatigue, his heart was racing, he was short of breath, his legs were weak and it was difficult to support his thin and tired body. "God! God! Don’t leave me,” Fr. whispered. Arseny, bending under the weight of carried firewood.
Greetings from His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos
With fatherly interest, we welcome the publication of the book “Elder Arseny of the Cave.”
Its author, Father Joseph Dionysiatis, a Cypriot by birth and a monk who spent more than thirty years on the Holy Mountain, was lucky enough to communicate with holy people who lived according to the commandments of the Gospel and were examples of virtue and holiness. One of our holy contemporaries is Elder Arseny, whose life and teachings are contained in this book.
Convinced that readers of the book “Elder Arseny of the Cave” will benefit from it, we bless its publication and offer it for reading to the fullness of our Church.
Prayer book to the Lord by Chrysostom,
Archbishop of Cyprus
Holy Archdiocese of Cyprus,
June 20, 2001
Elder Arseny
Where is Yatsenyuk now: everything that is known today about the former Prime Minister of Ukraine (7 photos)
The structure of the Ukrainian political system is peculiar: several months pass after the elections, and the people cease to love the government for which they recently voted. The disgraced 15th Prime Minister of Ukraine was no exception, who, after his resignation, ceased to be a public politician. Everyone is wondering – where is Yatsenyuk now? Today there are several versions about what Arseny Petrovich does and where he lives.
Yatsenyuk Arseniy Petrovich: where is he now? April 14, 2021 – the Ukrainian parliament sends Prime Minister Yatsenyuk to resign. The disastrous two years spent in this position should have finally knocked out the winner of the elections to the Verkhovna Rada from the highest echelon of the country's politics. However, this did not happen, and Arseniy Petrovich feels great in the role of the “gray eminence” of Ukraine: Party. As the head of the Popular Front, he constantly dominates party meetings and almost single-handedly decides how the faction should vote in the Verkhovna Rada. Ministers. Despite the fact that Arseny Petrovich is now in the shadows, he still has his own people in the cabinet. And this is “profitable” lobbying for the requests of large corporations. Key players. Three key players in the country’s political structure represent Yatsenyuk’s party: Avakov – heads the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Parubiy – dominates the Verkhovna Rada, Turchynov – the first person in the National Security and Defense Council. Key issues are resolved with their consent, which means, de facto, Arseniy Petrovich himself is involved in this. Ambition. Despite his young political age, Yatsenyuk had already become Minister of Foreign Affairs, headed the Ministry of Justice, headed the NBU and served as Prime Minister. What remains? That's right - the presidency.
Where is Yatsenyuk and his family now? After Yatsenyuk left the post of prime minister, rumors appeared that Arseniy Petrovich had left Ukraine. They even named specific countries: Argentina, Great Britain, USA. This was preceded by two scandals: Billionaire. In two years as prime minister, Yatsenyuk becomes a dollar billionaire. A civil servant, and according to the laws of Ukraine, Arseniy Petrovich did not have the right to engage in entrepreneurial activity, he physically could not earn the amount of two billion dollars, while living on a politician’s modest salary. Project "Wall". We most likely will not find out about Yatsenyuk’s “dark” affairs, but his public promises are known to everyone. During the PR of the “Wall” project, which should be located on the border with Russia, Arseniy Petrovich thus raised his low rating. The result is that 30 km of fence was built for $400 million, which strangely resembles an ordinary chain-link mesh. But money decides everything, and no criminal cases were brought against the ex-prime minister. Now Yatsenyuk and his family live safely in Kyiv, and in any favorable case, he will return to big politics. Friendship with the most influential oligarchs of the country, Akhmetov and Kolomoisky, leaves no doubt that Yatsenyuk will definitely participate in the next presidential elections.
Yatsenyuk's real surname Ukrainian politics is quite unique - all key people do not have their own surnames: Petro Poroshenko. The President of Ukraine changed his initials in his youth. Real name is Valtsman. Vitaliy Klichko. The famous boxer, and now the mayor of Kyiv, used to be Etinson. Yulia Timoshenko. The oppositionist and head of the BYuT faction has Armenian roots. For the purpose of “Ukrainization”, Yulia Grigyan turned into Yulia Tymoshenko. Semyon Semenchenko. The public deputy from the Samopomich party was formerly Konstantin Grishin. As for Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the politician comes from an ancient Jewish family – Bakai. But what to do if, just recently, people with Jewish roots did not have serious job prospects? That's right - change the last name to something more consonant with the Ukrainian voter. This is how Arseniy Bakai became Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Arseniy Yatsenyuk: what next? Whatever political experts say, Yatsenyuk’s future prospects in the political field are more than rosy. A superficial analysis of the current situation in Ukraine confirms this fact: Rating. The former prime minister's current rating is very low. But time is on Arseniy Petrovich’s side. All current power is concentrated in one hand - President Poroshenko. All the country’s failures are also associated with Pyotr Alekseevich. In the event of early elections to the Verkhovna Rada, political strategists will be able to turn Yatsenyuk into a new people’s “Messiah.” Oligarchs. Knowledgeable people associate the “People's Front” with the name of the Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky. On the other hand, and Yatsenyuk was once a member of Yanukovych’s government, no one denies Arseniy Petrovich’s friendly ties with another financial heavyweight, Rinat Akhmetov. From this we can conclude: the project, called “President Yatsenyuk”, is not the second largest faction, and is part of the Verkhovna Rada coalition. Until the situation changes, Arseniy Yatsenyuk remains a person who is able to influence the decisions of the country's leadership. American trace It will not be a secret to anyone that the US State Department was at the origins of the “Orange Revolution” of 2004 and the “Revolution of Dignity” of 2014. After an unsuccessful bet on Yushchenko, the American leadership began to promote new people, one of whom was Yatsenyuk. Facts confirming this: Joseph Biden. The US Vice President is a good friend of Yatsenyuk. Victoria Nuland. The Assistant Secretary of State in 2014 misspoke in an interview and called Arseniy Petrovich “her man.” Barack Obama . At critical moments of Yatsenyuk's premiership, he met twice with US President Obama. Interesting facts about Arseniy Petrovich Did you know that: Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who is Jewish by nationality, denies this in every possible way and claims that he is a pure Ukrainian. In 2015, Arsen Avakov awarded Arseny Petrovich a machine gun from the times of the first world wave “Maxim”. The ex-prime minister met his future wife while working at Raiffeisen Bank. As head of the NBU in 2005, it was Yatsenyuk who kept the hryvnia from devaluing. Arseniy Petrovich broke the anti-record for Yushchenko's popularity - in April 2021, the population's support rating for Yatsenyuk was 1.5%. The third president stopped at 2.5%. Now you know exactly where Yatsenyuk is now. Today we can safely say that Arseny Petrovich, after his failed premiership, did not run away anywhere, but lives in Kyiv and dreams of returning triumphantly to big-time politics. The next presidential elections will show whether he will succeed. And at the moment, Yatsenyuk remains one of the richest and most influential people in Ukraine.
