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In 1921 the St. James of Zheleznoborovsk monastery in Bui district,
Kostroma region, was closed. The monks went over to an illegal situation in
the form of a community following the monastic typicon and headed by the
former superior, Fr. Seraphim (Gusev). The spiritual father of the monastery
was Hieromonk Joasaph, in the world Gregory Merkuryevich Sazanov, in schema
Seraphim, who enjoyed great authority both in the monastery and among the
inhabitants of the neighbouring villages. He had been ordained in May, 1917
and soon became spiritual father of the brotherhood. In 1923 he became dean,
and in the same year he was accused of "creating a counter-revolutionary
group" (according to article 120) and was exiled to the camps. He was
released. In 1929 the monks were arrested and exiled beyond the boundaries of
the province. Fr. Joasaph was exiled to Solovki. However, he escaped from
exile and managed to hide from the persecutors with his spiritual children.
In Kostroma he became close to the priests Gruzdev, Krylov and Borisov, and
joined the True Orthodox Church. Later, some former monks of the monastery
joined this Kostroma group. Thus Hieromonk Peter (Serov) returned to Kostroma
in 1930 after serving for several months in the Josephite church of the
Mother of God, the Joy of all who Sorrow in Leningrad. Another member of the
Zheleznoborovsk monastery, Hieromonk Seraphim (Borisov) also served in the
same church as deacon and then returned to Kostroma.
One of Fr. Joasaph's spiritual children was the clairvoyant Matushka
Angelina, in the world Alexandra Vladimirovna Borisova. She was born in 1887
in the village of Krasnikovo, Solikamsk uyezd, Kostroma province. During the
First World War she lived as a desert-dweller in the woods ten versts from
Adler. In 1916 she returned to her native village and lived in a cell in the
woods not far from her village. She had a cell-attendant, Nun Seraphima. She
was secretly tonsured with the name Angelina.
Mother Angelina was known to be clairvoyant and many came to her for
spiritual support and instruction. She also had the gift of casting out
demons. The Bolsheviks came many times to her cell with the intention of
burning it down. They would come, set light to it and see that it was
burning. Then they would go away, but the cell would continue to stand as it
did before. Through the prayers of Mother Angelina it was only the appearance
of a fire! They arrested her many times, but could do nothing to her.
Finally, on July 26, 1923 they arrested her in the village of Krasnikovo on a
charge of "religious propaganda and spreading slanderous rumours about the
speedy end of the world and the coming of the antichrist amidst the
population", and took her to Soligalich. The whole village came out to see
her as she passed. On February 22, 1924 she was sentenced to administrative
exile for two years in Narymsk region, Tomsk province in Siberia.
Mother Angelina suffered much from the communists, but she returned from
exile to die. She fell ill and prepared for death. Many priests came together
at her funeral, including Fr. Joasaph and matushka's brother, Hieromonk
Seraphim. When they let her coffin into the ground there was thunder and
lightning. Everyone was frightened - after all, it was a clear day. Everyone
wept. Batyushka blessed us and said: "Soon will come an iron time, it will be
difficult for all the believers."
Matushka Vera, in schema Michaela, was a fool for Christ and
clairvoyant. She foretold to Fr. Seraphim his whole future life. They
tortured her by placing her with naked feet on a red-hot plate. During her
tortures she looked indescribably beautiful. She suffered in the town of
Soligalich.
Through Fr. Joasaph up to 300 more people joined the True Orthodox
Church, which remained under the direction of Archbishop Demetrius of Gdov
and was in contact with other members of the Church in Leningrad, Vyatka,
Penza and the Kuban. Most of the True Orthodox Christians of Kostroma region
lived in the Sandogorsky, Fominsky and Pustynsky village councils. They were
peasant women who had been secretly tonsured by Fr. Joasaph - about 112
people, who lived a strictly monastic life. We know the names of Anisia
Yegorova, whose brother had been exiled, and a certain Shiryaeva. Others who
suffered were the clairvoyant Mother Ioanna and Mother Sergia, and the
parents of Maria Pavlonva Skvortsova, who became a novice with Fr. Joasaph at
the age of 14, was arrested, and is still alive.
In 1932 17 of the most active members of this group were arrested,
including priests and nuns. On July 7, 1932 Hieromonks Seraphim (Borisov) and
Peter (Serov) were sent to the White Sea - Baltic canal, at Bear Mountain
station on the Murmansk railway. The rest were sent to Arkhangelsk,
Kazakhstan and Gorodets.
We know that a community of the True Orthodox Church continued to exist
in the Kostroma region in the 1940s, but that several of its members later
joined the Moscow Patriarchate.
(Source: Michael Khlebnikov, "Dvizheniye istinno-pravoslavnykh v Kostromskoj
gubernii", Pravoslavnaya Zhizn', 49, N 5 (569), May, 1997, pp. 1-5;
"Pustynnitsa Angelina, o. Ioasaph i blazhennaya skhimnitsa Vera", Russkij
Palomnik, 18, 1998, pp. 153-157; Za Khrista Postradavshiye, Moscow: St.
Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1997, pp. 79-80)
*
Fr. Nicholas Georgievich Zazarin was born in November, 1882 in Vologda
province. After finishing school he entered Vologda theological seminary.
Then he served in one of the churches in Siberia when the area was occupied
by the armies of Admiral Kolchak. Towards the end of the 1920s he moved to
the village of Zavetluzhye, Pyshchugsky region, in what is now Kostroma
province. He was in spiritual obedience to Hieromartyr Bishop Victor of
Vyatka.
In 1930 Fr. Nicholas was arrested and condemned in accordance with
article 74, point 2, and served his sentence for two years in Arkhangelsk
before returning to Zavetluzhye village. However, the NKVD did not stop
harrassing him after his return from exile.
On March 3, 1932 the NKVD of the village of Pyshchug accused him of
antisoviet opinions and of passing on these opinions to believers. He was
accused of calling Soviet power satanic, of calling for resistance to it
since it persecuted the Church, and of calling the collective farms
antichristian institutions whose members had given themselves into the power
of the Antichrist.
Fr. Nicholas was arrested, but released again after a short period. In
his interrogation the following letter written by him to the local dean was
cited: "Venerable Fr. Protopriest Nicholas Arsenyevich!!! Having become
acquainted with your latest address to the church council, I am answering you
personally after conversing with, and at the request of, the church council.
You consider that we are schismatics who have broken with church unity. I
reply: no. With all our soul and body we belong to the Russian Orthodox
Church headed by the Lord Saviour Himself and ruled by the patriarchal locum
tenens Metropolitan Peter, who is in temporary exile. We only refrain from
recognizing the church orientation formed as a result of the division
introduced by Metropolitan Sergius and headed by him. We would like to ask
you and Vladyka Neophytus, instead of sending us various threats and bans, to
give clear and accurate replies to the following questions:
"1. What does the canonical or legal succession of the deputyship of
Metropolitan Sergius depend on?
"2. Is Metropolitan Sergius and his Synod in correspondence with
Metropolitan Peter?
"I do not know what opinion Metropolitan Peter now has of Metropolitan
Sergius, but I know that in 1930 he was against him. I have personally read
his letter to Archbishop Demetrius, where Metropolitan Peter gives a negative
appraisal of Metropolitan Sergius and his deeds, calling them
crypto-renovationism, and he counselled his Orthodox children to refrain from
recognizing Sergius.
"In conclusion I shall say what I think personally: the whole sergianist
orientation is based only on deception, woe to those leaders who keep the
masses in deception and fear for the time being; in the end, you know, the
believers, all the believers, will learn the truth when Metropolitan Peter
returns from exile, and then what?
"And here's something more. Tell me how to explain the doubling of
Metropolitan Peter's term. Was this not with the cooperation of Metropolitan
Sergius?
"That, at least, was the opinion of all the rectors and hierarchs who
were in exile in Arkhangelsk.
"May the God of peace and love be with us. We await your reply. Nicholas
Zazarin."
In March, 1935 Fr. Nicholas was again arrested in connection with his
opposition to the closing of the church in Zaveluzhye and his protests
against the attempts of the authorities to force the peasants to sign up to
the closure. On June 21, 1935, the NKVD sentenced him to three years in the
camps. He was sent to Karaganda, while his church was closed.
(Sources: Michael Khlebnikov, "Dvizheniye istinno-pravoslavnykh v Kostromskoj
gubernii", Pravoslavnaya Zhizn', 49, N 5 (569), May, 1997, pp. 15-18; M.V.
Shkarovsky, Rasprostraneniye iosiflyanskogo dvizheniya po strane, in
Pravoslavnaya Zhizn', 49, N 5 (569), May, 1997, p. 29)
*
Fr. Alexander V. Bogoslavsky was the superior of the church in the
village of Sidorovskoye in Krasnoselsky region. He condemned the declaration
of Metropolitan Sergius, but was arrested only on 24 December, 1941. At that
time he had in his flat an illegal chapel where he served in secret. A
military tribunal of the NKVD of Yaroslavl region sentenced him on April 10,
1942 to execution by shooting, and the sentence was carried out on May 14,
1942.
(Source: M.V. Shkarovsky, Rasprostraneniye iosiflyanskogo dvizheniya po
strane, in Pravoslavnaya Zhizn', 49, N 5 (569), May, 1997, p. 29)
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