Baptism of Father Cyprian: “Five years of drunkenness, I declared war on demons”

Baptism of Father Cyprian: “Five years of drunkenness, I declared war on demons”

The house of Father Cyprian is located one hundred kilometers from the capital, in a bend of the Moscow River. People in difficult situations come here.

He demolished the fence long ago so that the palisade would not obscure the view of the forest and water surface. There are tracks of hares in the snow. And nearby you can see small birds frolicking - titmice or nuthatches.

Father Cyprian shovels snow. It is easy to control, it is impossible to believe that he moves on prosthetics. Next, taking a crowbar, he begins to break the ice on the pond, which he himself dug near the house. This is where the ice hole - a cross-shaped Jordan - will be equipped for the Epiphany.

— We hear more and more often that the liturgical charter does not prescribe anyone to bathe in ice water. And diving into an ice hole is a folk custom, not a church one.

— Since ancient times, for many peoples, immersion in water and washing in it have traditionally had important, even sacred, meaning. By bathing in the river, the Lord sanctified all the waters of the earth. And to this day, on this day, He sanctifies them with Himself with the participation of the priests. And the water acquires new, including medicinal, properties. And on this day, according to tradition, we go for a swim in the ice hole, despite any frost, to wash ourselves in the blessed water, drink it, cleanse ourselves and be sanctified by it externally and internally.

So on the day of the Epiphany of the Lord, I advise everyone to go and drink the holy Epiphany water. Take it and sprinkle it with a candle on your house - all the corners, the bed...

As for plunging into ice holes for people who are far from faith, for some it is just entertainment, like climbing a pole at Maslenitsa. Just have fun and fool around. The same thing happens at Epiphany. Without entering the temple of God, without thinking about the deepest meaning of the holiday, people, after drinking vodka, go to plunge into the ice hole three times. Of course, such ablution will not bring any benefit, nor, indeed, any harm. The Lord loves us, takes pity on us, and when even an unbeliever on this day goes for a swim in ice water under any pretext, He will at least prevent him from getting sick.

Father Cyprian himself is going, according to tradition, to go to the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in Zvenigorod.

“I’ll definitely take a swim there in the holy spring of Savva Storozhevsky.” I'll get a bottle of Epiphany water. I usually take a lot of it, because then I give it to the sick. I will bless my pond in the yard with Epiphany water and will definitely take a swim.

Photo: Svetlana Samodelova

“Navigators were considered “white bones”

Until July 6, 2021, Father Cyprian was Valery Burkov. He grew up in the family of a military aviation navigator. When Valery was in eighth grade, his father suggested that he think about what he wanted to become.

“He asked: maybe you should become a military man and go to the Suvorov Military School?” Maybe become a long-distance train driver and see the whole country? Or an investigator? - says Father Cyprian. — And I also studied music. In the second grade I learned to play the balalaika. In the third grade I entered a music school where I studied accordion. And there he learned to play the dombra and the piano. Then I learned the guitar on my own. In the seventh grade he already started playing in an ensemble, and a year later he headed the VIA. I thought about becoming a musician, but my father convinced me that I needed to choose a more masculine profession. And music will always be there.

As a result, Burkov entered the Chelyabinsk Aviation School of Navigators, which his father once graduated from.

— I chose the faculty of long-range aviation. Even when we passed the entrance exams, we formed our own company. Then we all ended up in the same department together. But the company commander, teacher from God, Veniamin Aleksandrovich Kabanov, soon disbanded it. We were too friendly and started getting into dangerous situations. If a birthday was celebrated, it would certainly be celebrated by the whole department, with the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Then we stood in formation, swaying slightly, supporting each other... Let me note: Veniamin Aleksanrovich did not kick anyone out. All of our company later reached heights in military service.

With Father.

Valery's interest in studying began when flying began.

— Already in my third year I flew with my classmates as an instructor. And then he entered the top ten leaders who trained according to a special program. In my 4th year in the combat training regiment, Tolya Chirkov and I became the best couple in the squadron. We received 10 days of vacation for this. We found out about this in the evening. The trains no longer ran. And we from Kamensk-Uralsky, in the hope that some kind of train would come, walked to Chelyabinsk along the sleepers. And we were actually picked up by a freight train... And we graduated with the qualification of a third-class navigator, with more than 300 hours of flight time under our belts.

—Where did you end up serving?

— To the Far East, to Vozdvizhenka, in the Ussuriysk region. He flew on Tu-16 missile carriers. We had very interesting, long flights, mostly at night. We were considered the elite, the “white bones,” because in long-range aviation a lot depends on the navigator. There were no computer systems back then. The navigator kept giving commands to the pilot: “Turn this way, this much, this way.” We set out on the combat path - the navigator again supervised the combat use. In the American Air Force, for example, it is the navigator who is the commander of the ship.

We flew into the ocean to escort the American aircraft carriers Enterprise and Midway. We took pictures of them. Our commander was simply a miracle. One of the flights was especially memorable. Large exercises were planned, we had to fly to check the air defense and enter from the ocean. They were supposed to detect us and conditionally shoot us down. Our commander began to ask the regiment commander: “Can I go at low level?” And this is 10 meters above the water. Got the regiment commander, he Fr. And we were in the same garrison. He began to torment the division commander, and at some point he simply waved his hand. Our commander perked up: “Got it, it’s allowed!”

We passed at low level, at night, right above the water, and then began to maneuver between the hills... But the Tu-16 is inert and heavy. When we landed, the navigator took off his headset and threw it angrily onto the concrete. Everyone got wet then. But our crew was the only one who was not detected by the air defense.

Valery Burkov in his youth. Photo: From personal archive

I remember another extreme flight. We flew from east to west. We were caught in a thunderstorm front. And the worst thing is to fall into the “bell”, into the upper part of the cumulonimbus clouds. Especially if lightning flashes. We took it to the fullest there. It felt like the plane was about to fall apart. I saw two pilots struggling to hold the plane. At one point, our engines stopped due to the effects of lightning discharges. The plane began to fall. We managed to start them at 3 thousand meters...

“I am Boatswain, welcome”

— How did you end up in Afghanistan?

— My father went there in 1981. He was the head of the operations department of the Air Force of the Ural District. But he was not satisfied with ordinary life. He wanted to be on the front line.

I remember I went on vacation to Lviv, suddenly the hotel bell rang, my father said: “I’m leaving for the south. Do you understand where? Do you want to come with me? I say: “Of course.” He dictated to me the telephone number of the personnel department in Moscow and said: “They know about you.” I went to the capital and waited for orders. And then a business trip to Irkutsk happened. We took out young pilots after retraining. And in Angarsk it was already frosty in the fall. I was wearing thin boots and my feet were frozen. He started sniffling and didn’t pay any attention to his cold. We returned, came to the flights, the doctor listened to me, took my temperature and removed me from work. With suspicion of pneumonia, I was sent for fluorography. At the hospital it turned out that I had caught focal tuberculosis. I was transferred to a tuberculosis dispensary. It was like walking into a typhoid barracks. A picture from childhood immediately surfaced: one of the village grandfathers was sitting on a rubble and coughing up blood... The doctors reassured him: “Chekhov’s times are over, tuberculosis is being successfully treated.”

The Mujahideen in Afghanistan paid for the lives of air raiders as if they were downing a plane. Photo: From personal archive

Valery Burkov spent more than 4 months in the hospital. Quit smoking, took up physical exercise.

“Showing old X-rays, the doctor asked me: “Do you see the lesions?” I say: “I see.” And then he showed me control pictures. There were no more outbreaks. The lungs were clean. For the rest of my life I remembered his phrase: “Everything disappeared like smoke from white apple trees.”

But there was the 220th order of the USSR Minister of Defense. Even after complete recovery from tuberculosis with my focal form, there was a taboo for three years on any business trips with an unfavorable climate. But after my three-month stay in a sanatorium near Kiev, the doctor wrote in the certificate: “I don’t mind.”

It was 1982. A month later I received an order. I have already packed my bags to go to Afghanistan. I was asked to go on patrol one last time. I return to the hostel at midnight, the duty officer calls me to the phone, I hear: “Your father, Colonel Anatoly Burkov, died heroically. Apply to the regiment commander for leave for the funeral. Go to the airfield." I remember everything else as if in a fog. Sverdlovsk, airfield, in the depths of the aircraft cabin there is a zinc box covered with boards. The inscription at the top: Colonel Burkov. This is how the meeting turned out...

He had already completed his service in Afghanistan and was waiting for a replacement and me. The Panjshir operation was carried out. He couldn't sit idle. I flew on a Mi-8, which was converted into an air control center. He ordered to descend when one of the combat Mi-24s, which was working on targets, requested help. The search and rescue couple was far away, but they were nearby. At 200 meters they shot off the beam; during a hard landing, the pilots managed to jump out of the side doors; the father left the helicopter through the hatch. At this time, a bullet hit the fuel tank... Dad burned, a white stripe remained only under the sword belt.

When Valery Burkov returned from the funeral, he was told that the order to be sent to Afghanistan had been canceled. He was transferred to serve in the Urals, closer to his mother.

— Serving in the regional air traffic control center was just a dream. I am a senior leader, and my position is that of a lieutenant colonel. You're on duty all day, three are at home. Military unit - 20 people. At the airfield, across the wall, there was a civilian control sector. We flew military planes, they flew civilian ones.

A year later, Valery learned that orders had arrived for Afghanistan and that an aircraft gunner was required. And he wrote a report. He was 26 years old.

“If initially there was a desire to help the fraternal Afghan people, then, at the airfield, when the coffin with my father’s body was unloaded, I had a question: “Was it worth it?”

— What were your first impressions when you landed in Kabul?

— I got off the plane and began to look at the new, interesting landscape. Suddenly I see a bearded man walking, it’s unclear what he’s wearing. Doesn't look like a military man at all. He asked: “Where can I find aircraft gunners?” And I heard: “I am a gunner.”

Then a lot of things became clear to me. We were on the staff of the 40th Army Air Force command post, but were assigned to Kunduz and Kandahar. In the aviation regiment we had our own room. But we didn't stay there. We were transferred from one operation to another. During all this time I had a maximum of three days between combat operations. Usually we came back from surgery and arrived in time for dinner. We went to the bathhouse. The next day, before lunch, we received a call from the command post from Kabul: “Tomorrow morning the board...” And on the second or third day we were already flying to another garrison, going to assign a mission to the infantry. And at night, as a rule, there was already a way out.

We went with motorized rifles, with special forces, with paratroopers. They were sent on combat missions without documents. They did not wear insignia. My first walkie-talkie weighed 23.5 kilograms. Then I tested the first small-sized radio stations. According to the order, the infantry must allocate one or two soldiers to protect and assist us. At best, one was singled out. We divided the entire load in half. The radio station was most often on me. As expected, I equipped myself only for the first combat operation. He was wearing a helmet and body armor. Then I didn’t wear them anymore. Mobility is important for an aircraft controller.

Nobody knew us by name, only call signs were used. At first I had the call sign “Boatswain”, left over from my service in the Urals. He went on air with the words: “I am the Boatswain,” and heard: “Hello, mustachioed!” When the Panjshir operation was planned, I had the call sign “Visit”. All the pilots knew me. It used to be that they came from a combat operation to army headquarters, where there was security - wow. We are all grimy, overgrown, in tattered clothes, without insignia. The security asked: “Who is this?” I said: “Aircraft gunner!” And they let me through.

— Which of the operations were the most difficult?

“I almost died on the first one.” We followed a separate route from the company. In one place with the battalion commander and a platoon of guards we stopped for a rest. As soon as I lit a cigarette, I heard the roar of machine gun fire. With my peripheral vision I noticed that only the fighters’ heels sparkled. A moment later they were already behind the duct. I hear a cry from there: “Into the ditch!..” And it’s January, it’s cold. Our guys started shooting back. The platoon commander, a young lieutenant, was already shouting with swearing: “Into the ditch!..” I fell into the water and I saw: where I was sitting, a line passed and hit a tree.

When the soldiers were drying our things, they accidentally burned my underpants. And the property was issued for a year, the standards were Soviet. I didn’t have any winter boots at all; they didn’t have my size in stock. I had to go through the authorities and take the bosses by the throat. As a result, I ensured that the gunners were properly equipped. We got good backpacks from the landing party. From the special forces - alpine mountain suits and boots. From the pilots - flight underwear, warm woolen sweaters, high boots, leather fur gloves. In the flight units we were also put on flight rations. Although the girls in the dining room, out of the kindness of their hearts, left us extra anyway.

"We were target No. 1"

— Was there a large reward for the gunners’ heads?

“We were the Mujahideen’s No. 1 target. The pilot himself is not afraid, because he is “blind”, he does not see from above who is hiding where in the mountains or greenery. He needs to be brought in. These are now satellites and lasers. And we threw a smoke bomb further away and told the pilots: “The azimuth is such and such, the distance from the smoke, for example, 200 meters, the target...” It happened that they pointed at the target 60 meters away from us. This is despite the fact that the spread of unguided aircraft missiles is 60 meters. But in the case when we were pinned down, this was the only chance to escape.

As soon as the planes appeared, the dushmans immediately began to closely monitor where the smoke would come from. And then a barrage of fire rained down on this area.

— On that fateful day for you, April 23, 1984, did you have a premonition that trouble would happen?

- No. I went to the Panjshir operation well equipped. Then they took Mount Khavaugar, 3300 meters high. The pilots performed excellently on their targets. The Mujahideen were driven out of the high-rise. When I sat down to rest, I saw a cave where the militants hid weapons and documents. I took a step and stepped on a mine... It was not far from the place where my father died.

Valery Burkov's right leg was torn off, his left was crushed. One arm was broken above the elbow. The soldier who helped carry the radio station tore the wire antenna into bundles and pulled the gunner’s legs.

Hero of the Soviet Union, Air Force Colonel Valery Burkov. Photo: From personal archive

At altitude, in the heat, when the “turntable” could be overturned by the air flow at any moment, the navigator miraculously managed to evacuate. In a hospital in Kabul, on the operating table, his heart stopped three times.

— In intensive care, I balanced between heaven and earth for a long time. Then they told me that, being in a semi-delusional state, I said: “It’s okay, guys, I’ll still dance at my wedding.”

The doctor Vladimir Kuzmich Nikolenko, who operated on me, said: “According to all the laws of medical science, you should not live.” When I later looked at the slides that he filmed, I saw: there was a corpse of a grayish-earthy color.

When I woke up in the morning, threw back the sheet, saw the remains of my legs and a plastered arm, the image of Alexei Maresyev appeared in front of me. I thought: “He is a Soviet man, and I am a Soviet man. He is a pilot and I am a pilot. He was able to get back on his feet, why am I worse?

Then there was a long rehabilitation process, terrible pain, bloody stumps. But Valery Burkov learned not only to walk on prosthetics, but also to dance. Once he danced rock and roll so wildly that the thread of the prosthesis broke and his foot fell off.

— How did you meet your future wife?

- Dancing. I had just started studying at the Gagarin Air Force Academy. On the weekend, my friends and I went to a cafe at the House of Officers. There was a dance floor nearby, I saw everyone dancing, and one girl was looking over everyone’s heads. He pulled up and asked: “Girl, why are you moving your eyes along the ceiling?” And I heard: “I’m tired of everyone.” I thought: something strange, I’m really young, I need to figure it out. Then we accompanied their company to the train. I didn't come to the next meeting. One of the girls asked the guys about me, they explained: “Yes, he tore off his leg.” The girls casually asked: “What’s wrong with his leg?” And they heard: “Yes, he has no legs at all.” My wife later admitted to me: “At that moment I realized that you are my man.” We got married a year later, in 1986. And then our son Andrei was born.

With his wife Irina and son Andrei. Photo: From personal archive

- Did fate bring you together?

— Fate — from the words “God’s judgment.” This is the same as thank you - “God bless you.” Balbes - “ball of demons.” The man got mad - the demon took over. He lost his temper - who came in? The Russian language says it all.

—When were you baptized?

— It was in August 1994, my aunt came to visit us from Kamchatka. She was a believer and sometimes went to church. We were sitting at the table, if there was a watermelon, and suddenly she suggested: “Valera, let’s baptize you!” I was 37 years old. At that time I no longer denied the existence of some higher power, a higher mind. I saw the flight of unidentified flying objects twice. Which was actually a demonic thing. But I didn’t know that then. As a pilot, I understood that these were not aircraft, they were not invented by man. Remarkably, it was impossible to capture them on film.

I then agreed to be baptized. I didn’t know who Jesus was, the Holy Trinity - what are you talking about? But what is the sacrament of baptism? You become a warrior of Christ, you declare war on Satan. This must be taken very seriously. I remember my aunt, when I was baptized, said: “Well, now you will receive temptations, wait!” And I had a drinking problem for five years. I declared war on demons, being completely unprepared for it. But they left my face covered in dirt. Serves me right!

And only 15 years later, in 2009, according to Valery Burkov, the Lord called him to Himself and stopped him in sin. He began to read spiritual literature and go to church.

And before that, left without legs, he served in the army for another 13 years, flew, jumped with a parachute, and retired as a colonel. Actively worked in the All-Russian Society of Disabled People, the Heroes Club of Moscow and the Moscow Region. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. He was engaged in business, was a deputy... And he found himself, by his own admission, at a dead end. There is emptiness in my soul...

When his candidacy was considered for the post of governor, Valery Burkov, who by that time had gone through fire, water and copper pipes, a successful person in everything, took monasticism and became Father Cyprian. His wife Irina agreed to the tonsure. Now he heads a community in Moscow and runs the Good Samaritan Center for Counseling, Psychiatric and Psychological Assistance. Accepts everyone who needs help.

And he continues to study at three Orthodox universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, receiving specialties as a teacher and a Christian psychologist.

How to come to God without legs: the story of the Afghan monk Cyprian

During the Afghan War, he lost his legs, but his fortitude helped him return to duty using prosthetics, overcome subsequent trials, and even learn to dance. In civilian life, he achieved both power and money. And one day, a deputy and businessman gave up what he had acquired and took monastic vows. Today the monk and warrior preaches the Gospel and wears the hero's star on his monastic robe. And he was recently awarded the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation Prize “For Faith and Loyalty” at the Kremlin Palace. About Father Cyprian (Burkov) - in the RIA Novosti material.

Prophetic dream

The war in Afghanistan became a turning point in the life of Cyprian's father, then captain Valery Burkov.

“An inner core appeared in me, I began to understand the values ​​and meaning of life differently, the principles that my parents raised in me became stronger. This later helped me overcome the temptation of power and money without harm to the soul.

In 1984, during a military operation in the Panjshir Gorge, Burkov almost died. The regiment immediately captured the dominant heights - Mount Khavaugar. Valery found himself in front of the entrance to the grotto, where there was a machine gun, climbed in, took captured grenades, machine gun belt, documents, climbed out, took a step... And at the same moment, a homemade mine filled with nails exploded. One leg was torn off immediately, and the second turned into a bloody mess. It was almost impossible to evacuate the wounded man - the helicopter could not land. He hovered above the ground, but how could a man with his legs torn off climb up a rope ladder? And this is the only chance for salvation. And Captain Burkov, with an incredible effort of will, climbed on board.

“When the explosion occurred, I instantly remembered the dream that turned out to be prophetic. It just pierced me: “Damn dream in your hand!” And then, immediately, I forgot about that dream,” says Father Cyprian.

In that dream, just before leaving for Afghanistan, he saw in great detail how he stepped on a mine with his right foot, and how both his legs were torn off by an explosion. And then suddenly I found myself in Kyiv, on Khreshchatyk - on prosthetics.