The Russian Church Abroad and the Catacomb Church in Soviet Russia

Professor I. M. Andreyev (+1976)

 

 

The notorious executioner of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USSR, E. A. Tuchkov, during the final year of the life of Patriarch St. Tikhon, conceived the idea of forcing the Supreme Church Authority to issue a special “Declaration,” which was intended to transform the Russian Orthodox Church into a “Soviet Church,” serving the anti-Christian plans of the Satanocratic Soviet state.

His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, who had made a whole series of concessions to the Soviet authorities in order to alleviate the unbearable situation of the Church, categorically refused to issue such a “Declaration,” and paid for this with his life. According to the testimony of the physician and friend of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, Professor Dr. M. A. Zhizhilenko, who was executed by shooting in 1930—and who, while serving as chief physician of Moscow’s Taganka Prison, became in 1927 the first Catacomb Bishop, Maxim, for which he was exiled to Solovki and subsequently shot—His Holiness was undoubtedly poisoned.

The “Testament” of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, according to the authoritative opinion of A. A. Zhizhilenko, Professor of Criminal Law at Petrograd University and the brother of Bishop Maxim, was undoubtedly a forgery.

After the Patriarch’s death, the lawful Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Peter, became the head of the Church and proved to be truly a “rock” in the preservation of the Church’s spiritual freedom. Metropolitan Peter categorically refused to sign the “Tuchkov Declaration,” for which he was arrested, exiled, and tortured to death in exile.

The most outstanding hierarchs—confessors and martyrs, the highest both in rank and in moral stature—also refused to sign this “Declaration”: Metropolitan Cyril, Metropolitan Agathangel, Metropolitan Joseph, Archbishop Seraphim of Uglich, and others.

The “Deputy Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne,” Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), became the head of the Church. The nomination of Metropolitan Sergius to the position of “Deputy Locum Tenens” was an inadvertent mistake on the part of the Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Peter. Metropolitan Sergius should under no circumstances have been allowed to become head of the Church, if only because, during the arrest of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, he betrayed Orthodoxy and became a Renovationist. After Patriarch Tikhon’s unexpected release, Metropolitan Sergius “repented,” but, as Elder Nectarius of Optina said of him, “the poison remained in him.”

Metropolitan Sergius proved to be the Judas who betrayed the Russian Orthodox Church. He betrayed her into the hands of her enemies and signed the “Tuchkov Declaration,” which appeared on July 16 (29), 1927, in the name of the “Deputy Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne,” although the “Deputy” had no right to issue such a momentous act.

As is well known, in this “Declaration,” the “joys” and “sorrows” of the Soviet authorities were acknowledged as the “joys” and “sorrows” of the Orthodox Church, and it was proposed that “nationwide gratitude” be expressed to the anti-Christian authorities for their “care for Orthodoxy.” It was morally utterly impossible for truly Orthodox people to accept this “Declaration.” A schism occurred. The most brutal mass persecutions, executions, and tortures that descended upon those who “did not accept the Declaration,” whom the Soviet authorities began to identify with the help of the “Soviet Church,” defy description. Therefore, the true Russian Orthodox Church, that pure and undefiled Bride of Christ, was compelled to go into the catacombs, where she remains to this day. Information concerning the Catacomb Church in the Soviet Union is not subject to disclosure. From time to time, and only sparingly, brief tidings concerning the life of this much-suffering Church are communicated to certain former Catacomb Christians, invariably bearing the epigraph: “Neither will I tell the mystery to Thine enemies.”

The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, founded and headed until 1935 by Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), and after 1935 until 1964 headed by Metropolitan Anastasy, and now headed by Metropolitan Philaret, immediately understood, after the schism in the Church in Soviet Russia in 1927, all the tragic consequences of Metropolitan Sergius’s “Declaration” and refused to have any communion whatsoever with him. In this way, the Church Abroad rendered enormous spiritual and moral support to the Catacomb Church.

Metropolitan Sergius, as is well known, became the “Soviet Patriarch” on September 8, 1943; after his death, on May 15, 1944, Alexy (Simansky) became the “Soviet Patriarch.” Throughout the entire existence of the “Soviet Church” and of the “Soviet Patriarchs”—Sergius and Alexy—only the Russian Church Abroad never recognized, does not recognize, and can never recognize this “Church of the wicked” with its false patriarchs. All the other Orthodox Churches, both the Autocephalous Churches and those that had broken away from the Church Abroad—the “Paris Exarchate” and the “American Metropolia”—recognized the “Soviet Church,” depending on the favorable political situation, and maintained canonical communion with it.

Therefore, the Secret Catacomb Church in Soviet Russia recognizes the Russian Church Abroad as her “own sister” and blesses all Russian Orthodox church people abroad to enter the fold of this Church alone.

 

Russian source: Луч света: В защиту православной веры, в обличение атеизма и в опровержение доктрин неверия: В 2-х частях, Archimandrite Panteleimon [Nizhnik], Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, 1970.

Russian source online:

https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Panteleimon_Nizhnik/luch-sveta-uchenie-v-zashhitu-pravoslavnoj-very-v-oblichenie-ateizma-i-v-oproverzhenie-doktrin-neverija/16