The prospects for the institution of military priests in the Russian army are assessed positively due to the fact that this initiative of the leaders of the largest religious communities in Russia is supported by the Russian authorities and society. The need for military clergy stems from the presence of a significant flock - believing military personnel, including those serving in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. However, the initiative also faces visible problems.
Story
Russian empire
According to Boris Lukichev, head of the department for work with religious servicemen of the main department for work with personnel of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, 5 thousand military priests and several hundred chaplains served in the army of the Russian Empire. Mullahs also served in national-territorial formations, such as, for example, the "Wild Division".
In pre-revolutionary Russia, the activities of the priests of the army and navy were secured by a special legal status. So, although formally the clergy did not have military ranks, in fact, in the military environment, the deacon was equated with the lieutenant, the priest - with the captain, the rector of the military cathedral or temples, as well as the divisional dean - with the lieutenant colonel, the field chief priest of the army and fleets and the chief priest of the Chief headquarters, guards and grenadier corps - to the major general, and the protopresbyter of the military and naval clergy (the highest church position for the army and navy, established in 1890) - to the lieutenant general.
This applied both to the monetary allowance paid from the treasury of the military department, and to privileges: for example, each ship priest was entitled to a separate cabin and boat, he had the right to moor the ship from the starboard side, which, apart from him, was allowed only to flagships, ship commanders and officers , who had the St. George awards. The sailors were obliged to salute him.
Russian Federation
In post-Soviet Russia, according to the head of the synodal department of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) for interaction with the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies, Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, Orthodox priests resumed their activities in the army immediately after the collapse of the USSR, but during the first two decades they did this free of charge and on voluntary basis.
In 1994, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev signed a cooperation agreement - the first official document on relations between the church and the army in the Russian Federation. On the basis of this document, a Coordinating Committee for interaction between the Armed Forces and the Russian Orthodox Church was created. In February 2006, Patriarch Alexy II allowed the training of military priests "for the spiritual guidance of the Russian army," and in May of the same year, the then President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, also spoke in favor of recreating the institution of military priests.
Modernity
Need
According to Sergei Mozgovoy, Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Conscience of the National Assembly of Russia, in 1992, 25% of Russian military personnel considered themselves believers, and by the end of the decade, their number began to decline. Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, referring to the sociological data of the Russian Ministry of Defense, claims that the proportion of Russian military personnel who consider themselves believers increased from 36% in 1996 to 63% in 2008.
In February 2010, the Newsru.com portal reported, citing the RF Ministry of Defense, that two-thirds of Russian military personnel call themselves believers, of which 83% are Orthodox, 8% are Muslims. According to the same portal, as of July 2011, 60% of Russian servicemen considered themselves believers, 80% of them were Orthodox.
According to VTsIOM, in August 2006, the introduction of the institution of military priests or other representatives of the clergy in the Russian army was supported by 53% of Russians. In July 2009, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov estimated the need for military priests in the Russian army and navy at 200-250 people. According to Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, the need is much higher: “In the Israeli army, there is one rabbi for every 100 soldiers. In the USA, there is one chaplain for 500-800 military personnel. With an army of a million people, we need to have about one thousand clergy.”
The chief priest of the Russian Airborne Forces, Priest Mikhail Vasiliev, in 2007 estimated the need for clergy in Russian troops as follows: about 400 Orthodox priests, 30-40 Muslim mullahs, 2-3 Buddhist lamas and 1-2 Jewish rabbis.
Organization
Reconstruction of the institution of the military clergy is an initiative of the leaders of the largest religious communities in Russia, which in July 2009 was supported by President Dmitry Medvedev. On December 1, 2009, the positions of assistant commander of a unit for work with religious military personnel were introduced in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which will be occupied by military priests. They will be classified as civilian personnel of military units, which fully corresponds to Dmitry Medvedev's position.
The importance of this circumstance is also recognized by the clergy. In particular, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Synodal Department of the Russian Orthodox Church for Relations between the Church and Society, Mufti Ismail Berdiev, Chairman of the Coordinating Center for Muslims of the North Caucasus, and Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov speak in support. The latter declared in December 2009: "Shoulder straps on the shoulders of a priest are not in our national tradition." At the same time, he believes, "... the priest must be equated with senior officers in order to have an adequate attitude towards him in the officer corps."
As Boris Lukichev, head of the department for work with religious servicemen of the main department for work with personnel of the Russian Defense Ministry, explains, this is the fundamental difference between the Russian system and the situation, for example, in Italy, Poland, and the United States. Chaplains serve in the armies of these countries - priests who have military ranks and are administratively subordinate to the unit commander. Russian military priests will be subordinate to their church leadership, closely interacting with the unit commander in the educational aspects of their work.
It is noteworthy that the positions of assistant commanders for educational work are not abolished, and military chaplains will not duplicate their functions. They are not allowed to take up arms. In fact, they can be considered representatives of the clergy seconded to the army. The position of a military priest is contractual. The contract is concluded between the priest and the commander of the unit, in agreement with the Ministry of Defense. As of July 2011, 240 such positions were introduced. The salary of such an assistant is set at 10,000 rubles per month; taking into account allowances for the regional coefficient, for complexity and for length of service, the total amount of monthly payments can reach 25 thousand rubles. This money is paid by the state.
A number of church hierarchs consider these sums insufficient. So, Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov recalls that the rank and monetary allowance of a regimental priest of the pre-revolutionary army corresponded to the rank of captain, and Archbishop Ignatius of Khabarovsk and Amur Region explains: “In order for a priest to devote himself completely to service, he must be provided with a decent content. The monetary allowance of military priests, regulated by the Ministry of Defense, is very modest. It will not be enough to support the clergyman and his family. It's impossible to live on that amount. The priest will have to look for earnings on the side. And this will greatly affect his service, and his potential will be greatly reduced.”
At the beginning of 2010, Rossiyskaya Gazeta announced higher figures for the planned salaries of military priests - from 25,000 to 40,000 rubles a month. It was also reported that they would presumably live in officer dormitories or service apartments, and each would be given an office at the headquarters of the unit. In July 2011, the same newspaper cited the example of Andrey Zizo, a military priest serving in South Ossetia and receiving 36,000 rubles a month.
In December 2009, the head of the department of the Main Directorate for Educational Work (GUVR) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel Igor Sergienko, said that the newly created department for work with believing military personnel could be headed by a clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church, but in October 2010, reserve colonel Boris Lukichev became the head of this department. ; he leads it to this day.
Implementation
The first 13 military priests were sent by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to serve at foreign bases of the Russian army in December 2009, however, in July 2011, Boris Lukichev announced that out of 240 such positions, only 6 were occupied so far - at the military bases of the Black Sea Fleet, in Armenia, Tajikistan , Abkhazia and South Ossetia; in addition, there is one military mullah in the Southern Military District. Lukichev explains this by the fact that the candidates are very carefully selected - each one is personally approved by Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
Some representatives of the clergy consider this state of affairs the result of inaction and red tape of the military. Thus, in September 2010, the Religion and Mass Media portal quoted an unnamed "high-ranking representative of the Moscow Patriarchate": "There is a complete sabotage of issues related to the appointment of religious representatives in the army and navy on the part of the military department."
According to the same source, by September 2010, military chaplains should have been formed in the headquarters of the districts and in the fleets, but this was not done. Moreover, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense did not hold a single meeting with representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church on this issue.
However, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia lays responsibility for red tape on church hierarchs, in particular, on the bishops of the Southern Federal District. The process of introducing the institution of military priests, according to Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, given by him in December 2009, will take from two to five years.
Special premises for the work of military priests in the territories of military units have not yet been provided, but Patriarch Kirill, speaking in May 2011 to students of the General Staff Academy in Moscow, said that such premises should be allocated. In November 2010, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that the construction of Orthodox churches in military units would be discussed by a working group that would be created specifically for this purpose in the ministry.
By mid-2011, according to Boris Lukichev, about 200 churches, chapels and prayer rooms were built in the garrisons of the RF Armed Forces. This was done without an order and without government funding. In total, at the beginning of 2010, 530 churches operated on the territory of Russian military units.
purpose
Patriarch Kirill believes that military priests will achieve a fundamental change in the moral atmosphere in the Russian Armed Forces and the gradual eradication of "negative phenomena in relations between conscripts." He is convinced that a positive influence will also be exerted on the morale, because a person who has "the religious experience of life" and is deeply aware that betrayal, evasion of his direct duties and violation of the oath are deadly sins, "will be capable of any feat."
Boris Lukichev, head of the department for work with religious servicemen of the main department for work with personnel of the Russian Defense Ministry, is more skeptical: "It would be naive to think that a priest will come and there will be no incidents right away."
According to Lukichev, the mission of military priests is different: “The service of military priests carries a moral aspect to the army, a moral dimension. How was it during the war? The priest was always next to the fighters. And when a soldier was mortally wounded - in the first-aid post, where he saw him off on his last journey, he buried. Then he informed his relatives that their son or father had died for the Tsar, the Fatherland and faith, and had been committed to the earth in accordance with Christian customs. It's hard but necessary work."
And Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov believes this: “We want every serviceman to understand what the Christian attitude to life, service, and comrade is. So that there are no suicides, escapes, crossbows in the army. And most importantly - to convey to a person in uniform, for what and in the name of what one must be ready to give one's life for the Motherland. If we succeed in all this, then we will consider that our work has borne fruit.
Abroad
By the beginning of 2010, the institution of the military clergy was absent only in the three major military powers of the world - China, North Korea and Russia. In particular, there are military chaplains who receive an officer's salary in all NATO countries.
This issue is solved differently in neighboring countries. For example, in Moldova, military priests are appointed by official decrees and given military ranks. In Armenia, military chaplains report to their spiritual leadership in Etchmiadzin and are paid by the church, not the state.
In Ukraine, the Council for Pastoral Care under the Ministry of Defense, created to form the institution of the military clergy (chaplaincy) in the armed forces, operates on a voluntary basis, and there is a discussion about the prospects for such an institution. Annual gatherings of Orthodox military priests are held in Sevastopol, at which, in particular, these prospects are discussed. They are attended by representatives of all dioceses in Ukraine, as well as representatives of the military leadership of the republic.
prospects
Training Centers
In February 2010, Patriarch Kirill announced that the military clergy would be trained in special training centers. The duration of the training course will be three months. Until such centers are operational, the ROC will allocate 400 candidates for this purpose. In November of the same year, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that the first such center would most likely open on the basis of one of Moscow's military universities.
A few months earlier, Archpriest Mikhail Vasiliev, Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies, indicated that such a training center would be opened on the basis of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School named after Margelov. He said that in addition to the priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, mullahs, lamas and clergymen of other faiths will be trained in this center. However, this project was not implemented.
In July 2011, Boris Lukichev informed that military priests would be trained in one of the departmental universities in Moscow, and that the training course would include not spiritual disciplines, but "military basics", including practical exercises with trips to training grounds.
Confessions
In July 2011, Boris Lukichev stated that the introduction of the institute of military priests would not entail any discrimination against military personnel of non-Orthodox confessions: "Discrimination is excluded when the Orthodox go to church, and the rest - dig from here until lunch."
Two years earlier, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pointed out the importance of this approach: “When introducing the positions of military and naval clergy ... we must be guided by real considerations, real information about the ethno-confessional composition of units and formations.”
At the same time, he proposed the following implementation of the inter-confessional principle: “If more than 10% of the personnel, brigade, division, educational institution are representatives of peoples traditionally associated with a particular confession, a clergyman of this confession can be included in the staff of the corresponding unit.”
Anatoly Serdyukov, in response, assured that the clergy of all major religions would be represented in the relevant department at the central apparatus of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and departments in military districts and fleets, which will be created in the process of introducing the institution of military and naval priests.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin believes that the Russian army should have clergy from all four major confessions in Russia. Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov declares: “The interests of representatives of all religions traditional for Russia cannot and should not be infringed upon in the army. And I hope it won't. We already know how to help a Muslim, a Buddhist, and a Jewish young conscript.”
According to the chairman of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations of Russia (KEROOR), Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, an Orthodox priest, if necessary, can provide spiritual support to servicemen of other faiths. The representative of the Supreme Mufti in Moscow, Rastam Valeev, shares a similar opinion: “I told the Muslim soldiers: you don’t have a mullah now - go to an Orthodox priest.”
objections
The idea of the institution of military priests also has opponents, who believe that when this institution actually works, negative consequences will also be felt. Thus, Andrey Kuznetsov, Associate Professor of the Department of Socio-Cultural Activities of the Military University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, points out the imperfection of the statistics: believers ... What does it mean to believe? Do military personnel consider themselves believers or are they believers? These are different things. You can consider yourself anyone, and today Orthodox, and tomorrow Buddhist. But faith imposes special duties on a person, including the conscious observance of the basic prescriptions and commandments.
Another problem that skeptics pay attention to is what to do with the remaining 30% of the personnel while the believers send their religious needs? If supporters of the institution of military chaplains believe that at that time educator officers will deal with them, then Andrey Kuznetsov, referring to his many years of experience in serving in the Soviet and Russian armies, reproaches them with idealism: “I would venture to suggest that in a real situation everything will be happen differently. After all, the army principle is that all personnel should be involved in any event.
Another argument of the opponents is Art. 14 of the constitution of the Russian Federation, proclaiming Russia a secular state.
PhD in Law, Associate Professor of the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Professor of the Academy of Military Sciences Sergey Ivaneev doubts that "a clergyman whose main values of religious doctrine are concentrated on the concept of" salvation "or, as it is formulated in science," deferred gratification ", will be able to to help the commander in educational work - after all, it should form a completely different worldview among military personnel. In addition, Ivaneev notes,
Religion elevates faith in God (gods) to the main criterion of attitude towards a person: a co-religionist is ours, a non-believer is not ours ... The tradition developed by religion of feeling the elbow only with co-religionists does not at all contribute to the unity of people in uniform.
Finally, citing relevant examples from the history of pre-revolutionary Russia, Andrey Kuznetsov expresses his fear that the most important sacraments of the Christian church can be used to please politics.
Opinions
Power
It is possible to offer representatives of various religious denominations to each division, but will this be of any use? I would not make hasty conclusions... This will entail the problem of integrating religion into the system of education of military personnel.
Yuri Baluevsky, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. "Military-Industrial Courier", May 3, 2006.
We studied the experience of world armies, armies where there is an institution of military clergy, and we believe that today there is no “one-time” solution to this issue in our multi-confessional country ... But what about conditions, for example, a nuclear submarine, where 30% of the personnel are Muslims? It is very thin matter.
Nikolai Pankov, Secretary of State - Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia. Newsru.com, May 27, 2008.
Everyone has the right to receive spiritual support in accordance with their beliefs. The constitutional principles of equality, voluntariness, freedom of conscience must also be observed in relation to all servicemen.
There is a decision of the head of state on staffing positions of military priests. And it will be strictly implemented. But, I repeat, I am not a supporter of haste in this matter. Because the issue is extremely delicate. Personnel work is currently underway, close cooperation is being carried out with the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious associations. Hurry - you will ruin the idea itself.
Boris Lukichev, head of the department for work with religious servicemen of the main department for work with personnel of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. "Military-industrial courier", July 27, 2011.
Clergy
I consider it obligatory to introduce the institute of regimental priests, since it is necessary to educate our young people. However, the introduction of priests into the state is a violation of the constitutional separation of state and religion.
Shafig Pshikhachev, I. about. First Deputy Chairman of the Coordinating Center for Muslims of the North Caucasus. "Military-Industrial Courier", May 3, 2006.
I am in favor of having chaplains and priests in the Russian army, pastoral service is carried out on a permanent basis… This is a global practice, and it is difficult for me to understand why there is nothing like this in Russia yet.
The priest should be in the barracks next to the military. He must share the hardships of military service, the danger, be an example not only in words, but also in deeds. Here, in order to realize this potential of the church, the institution of the military clergy is needed.
There are priests in the armies of all countries, including those countries that actively teach us about the separation of the state from the church.
Vsevolod Chaplin, archpriest, head of the synodal department of the Russian Orthodox Church for relations between the church and society. Newsru.com, July 15, 2009.
The presence of clerics in the army will contribute to the growth of patriotism.
The initiative to introduce the positions of regimental priests in the army and navy did not come from us. Everything went naturally... We have 100 million Orthodox in the country. Why, going into the army, many of them "for a while" have to "say goodbye" to their faith? Personally, as a priest, I think that this is the Church and the priest in the army - the main thing in general! Not one of the components, but the main thing! Better not to drink, not to eat. The temple is the first necessity.
Dmitry Smirnov, archpriest, head of the Synodal Department of the Russian Orthodox Church for cooperation with the armed forces and law enforcement agencies. "Military-industrial courier", December 23, 2009.
If the church goes to the army, it will be fair if the army comes to the church. This is when ordinary priests will be trained as chaplains (perhaps in one of the combined arms academies), who will become connoisseurs of the culture of peoples traditionally belonging to other religions. A Jewish chaplain should know them (these cultures), as well as representatives of other religions... Rabbis in the army, I believe, will eventually appear as well. Today there are about a million Jews from mixed families, and they will also fulfill their military duty. In the meantime, the military priests, who will be responsible for curating all believers, must learn first-hand Judaism, Islam, Buddhism as religions. I don't see anything wrong if, at first, the "functions of a rabbi" will be performed by priests.
Zinovy Kogan, rabbi, chairman of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations of Russia (KEROOR). "Military-industrial courier", July 27, 2011.
Experts
The introduction of the institute of military priests who will work directly in the troops is a positive step... Priests in the troops will help to strengthen the morale of soldiers and officers in real combat operations, as well as in regions with a difficult socio-political situation... At the same time, it should be noted that persons holding atheistic views should not be forced to perform church rites.
Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine. Newsru.com, July 22, 2009.
The appearance of a clergyman in the unit reassures the serviceman. Young guys who came from civilians are more willing to communicate with a priest than with a military psychologist.
Vladimir Khoroshilov, officer of the department for work with personnel of the Separate Special Purpose Division of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Infox.ru, November 16, 2009.
Modern Russian society is fundamentally different from the one that existed before 1917. Therefore, if we are going to adopt the experience of the activities of the structures of the Russian Empire, then we should approach this very carefully and with an amendment for today. I believe that the actualization of the problem of introducing the institution of military priests is due to the fact that the state, having not developed any more or less intelligible ideology over the past two decades, signed in complete impotence to influence the spiritual and moral world of military personnel. And in order to “plug” this gaping hole, the Russian Orthodox Church is called in by fire… The decision to introduce the institution of clergy in the RF Armed Forces has not been worked out enough and is premature.
Andrey Kuznetsov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Social and Cultural Activities of the Military University. "Military-Industrial Courier", January 20, 2010.
In a modern war, 400 priests, whose positions are now being introduced by the leadership of the Ministry of Defense in the troops, are unlikely to radically improve anything.
Leonid Ivashov, Vice President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems. "Military-industrial courier", March 3-9, 2010.
Believers call Easter the celebration of all celebrations. For them, the Resurrection of Christ is the main holiday of the Orthodox calendar. For the sixth time in a row in its modern Russian army celebrates Easter, overshadowed by military priests who appeared in units and formations after a ninety-year break.
At the origins of tradition
The idea to revive the institution of military priests in the Russian army arose among the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) back in the mid-nineties. It did not receive much development, but secular leaders generally positively assessed the initiative of the ROC. The benevolent attitude of society towards church rites and the fact that after the liquidation of the state of political workers, the education of personnel lost its intelligible ideological core. The post-communist elite was never able to formulate a bright new national idea. Her search has led many to a long-familiar religious outlook on life.
The initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church bogged down mainly because there was no main thing in this story - the actual military priests. The priest of an ordinary parish was not very suitable for the role, for example, of the confessor of desperate paratroopers. There should be a man of their environment, respected not only for the wisdom of the religious sacrament, but also for military prowess, including, at least, for the obvious readiness for a feat of arms.
This was the military priest Cyprian-Peresvet. He himself formulated his biography as follows: first he was a warrior, then a cripple, then he became a priest, then a military priest. However, Cyprian has been counting his life only since 1991, when he took monastic vows in Suzdal. Three years later he was ordained a priest. The Siberian Cossacks, reviving the familiar Yenisei district, elected Cyprian as a military priest. The history of this divine ascetic deserves a separate detailed story. He went through both Chechen wars, was a prisoner of Khattab, stood at the execution line, survived after being wounded. It was in Chechnya that the soldiers of the Sofrino brigade called Cyprian Peresvet for courage and military patience. He also had his own call sign "YAK-15" so that the fighters knew: the priest was next to them. Supports them with soul and prayer. Chechen comrades-in-arms called Cyprian-Peresvet their Brother, the Sofrins called Batey.
After the war, in June 2005, in St. Petersburg, Cyprian will take the tonsure to the Great Schema, becoming the elder Schema Isaac, but in the memory of Russian soldiers he will remain the first military priest of the new time.
And before him - a large and fertile history of the Russian military clergy. For me and, probably, for the Sofrians, it begins in 1380, when the Monk Sergius, abbot of the Russian land and the Wonderworker of Radonezh, blessed Prince Dmitry for the battle for the liberation of Russia from the Tatar yoke. He gave him his monks to help him - Rodion Oslyabya and Alexander Peresvet. This Peresvet will then enter the Kulikovo field for a duel with the Tatar hero Chelubey. With their deadly fight, the battle will begin. The Russian army will defeat the horde of Mamai. People will associate this victory with the blessing of St. Sergius. The monk Peresvet, who fell in single combat, will be canonized as a saint. And we will call the day of the Battle of Kulikovo - September 21 (September 8 according to the Julian calendar) the Day of Russia's military glory.
There are more than six centuries between two Peresvets. This time contained a lot - the laborious service to God and the Fatherland, pastoral deeds, grandiose battles and great upheavals.
According to military regulations
Like everything else in the Russian army, military spiritual ministry first acquired its organizational structure in the Military Regulations of Peter I of 1716. The reforming emperor considered it necessary to have a priest in every regiment, on every ship. The naval clergy were mainly represented by hieromonks. They were headed by the chief hieromonk of the fleet. The clergy of the ground forces were subordinate to the field chief priest of the army in the field, and in peacetime - to the bishop of the diocese on whose territory the regiment was stationed.
By the end of the century, Catherine II placed a single chief priest of the army and navy at the head of the military and naval clergy. He was autonomous from the Synod, had the right to report directly to the empress and the right to communicate directly with the diocesan hierarchs. A regular salary was established for the military clergy. After twenty years of service, the priest received a pension.
The structure received a military finished look and logical subordination, but was corrected for another century. So, in June 1890, Emperor Alexander III approved the Regulations on the management of churches and the clergy of the military and naval departments. Established the title of "protopresbyter of the military and naval clergy." All the churches of regiments, fortresses, military hospitals and educational institutions were assigned to his jurisdiction (except for Siberia, in which "because of the distance" the military clergy were subordinate to diocesan bishops.)
The economy turned out to be solid. The department of the protopresbyter of the military and naval clergy included 12 cathedrals, 3 house churches, 806 regimental, 12 serfs, 24 hospitals, 10 prison, 6 port churches, 34 churches at various institutions (407 churches in total), 106 archpriests, 337 priests, 2 protodeacon, 55 deacons, 68 psalmists (569 clerics in total). The office of the protopresbyter published its own magazine - "Bulletin of the Military Clergy".
The highest position determined the service rights of the military clergy and salaries. The chief priest (protopresbyter) was equated with a lieutenant general, the chief priest of the General Staff, the guards or grenadier corps - with a major general, the archpriest - with a colonel, the rector of a military cathedral or temple, and also the divisional dean - with a lieutenant colonel. The regimental priest (equal to the captain) received an almost complete captain's ration: a salary in the amount of 366 rubles a year, the same number of canteens, bonuses for long service were provided, reaching (for 20 years of service) up to half the established salary. Equal military salaries were observed for all spiritual ranks.
Dry statistics give only a general idea of the priesthood in the Russian army. Life brings its own bright colors to this picture. Between the two Peresvets there were wars, heavy battles. There were also their heroes. Here is the priest Vasily Vasilkovsky. His feat will be described in the order for the Russian army No. 53 dated March 12, 1813, the commander-in-chief M.I. Kutuzov: with courage he encouraged the lower ranks to fight without horror for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland, and he was severely wounded in the head by a bullet. In the battle of Vitebsk, he showed the same courage, where he received a bullet wound in the leg. I presented the Sovereign Emperor with the chief certificate of such excellent deeds undaunted in battles and zealous service of Vasilkovsky, and His Majesty deigned to award him the Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George 4th class.
This was the first time in history that a military priest was awarded the Order of St. George. Father Vasily will be awarded the order on March 17, 1813. In the autumn of the same year (November 24) he died in a foreign campaign from his wounds. Vasily Vasilkovsky was only 35 years old.
Let's jump a century into another great war - the First World War. Here is what the famous Russian military leader, General A.A., wrote about that time. Brusilov: “In those terrible counterattacks, black figures flashed among the soldiers’ tunics - regimental priests, tucking up their cassocks, walked with the soldiers in coarse boots, encouraging the timid with a simple gospel word and behavior ... They remained there forever, on the fields of Galicia, not being separated from the flock.
For the heroism shown during the First World War, about 2,500 military priests will be awarded state awards and 227 gold pectoral crosses on the St. George ribbon. The Order of St. George will be awarded to 11 people (four - posthumously).
The institute of military and naval clergy in the Russian army was liquidated by order of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs on January 16, 1918. 3,700 priests will be fired from the army. Many are then repressed as class alien elements...
Crosses on buttonholes
The efforts of the Church yielded results by the end of the 2000s. Sociological surveys initiated by priests in 2008-2009 showed that the number of believers in the army reaches 70 percent of the personnel. The then President of Russia D.A. Medvedev was informed about this. With his instructions to the military department, a new time of spiritual service in the Russian army begins. The President signed this order on July 21, 2009. He ordered the Minister of Defense to take the necessary decisions aimed at introducing the institution of the military clergy into the Russian Armed Forces.
Fulfilling the order of the president, the military will not copy the structures that existed in the tsarist army. They will begin with the fact that within the Main Directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for work with personnel, they will create a Directorate for work with religious servicemen. Its staff will include 242 positions of assistant commanders (chiefs) for work with religious servicemen, replaced by clergymen of Russia's traditional religious associations. This will happen in January 2010.
For five years, it was not possible to fill all the proposed vacancies. Religious organizations even presented their candidates to the Department of Defense in abundance. But the bar of military requirements was high. For work in the troops on a full-time basis, they have so far accepted only 132 clergy - 129 Orthodox, two Muslims and one Buddhist. (By the way, the army of the Russian Empire was also attentive to believers of all denominations. Several hundred chaplains guarded Catholic military personnel. Mullahs served in national-territorial formations, such as the Wild Division. Jews were allowed to attend territorial synagogues.)
High demands on the priesthood, probably, matured from the best examples of spiritual shepherding in the Russian army. Maybe even the ones I remember today. At least the priests are being prepared for serious trials. Their cassocks will no longer unmask the priests, as happened in the battle formations of the unforgettable Brusilov breakthrough. The Ministry of Defense, together with the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies, developed the “Rules for the Military Clergy to Wear Uniforms.” They were approved by Patriarch Kirill.
According to the rules, military priests "when organizing work with religious servicemen in the context of military operations, during a state of emergency, liquidation of accidents, natural hazards, catastrophes, natural and other disasters, during exercises, classes, combat duty (combat service)" will wear not church vestments, but field military uniforms. Unlike the uniform of military personnel, it does not provide for epaulettes, sleeves and breastplates of the corresponding type of troops. Only the buttonholes will decorate the Orthodox crosses of dark color of the established pattern. When performing divine services in the field, the priest must put on an epitrachelion, handrails and a priestly cross over the uniform.
The base of spiritual work in the army and navy is also being seriously updated. Today, more than 160 Orthodox churches and chapels operate in the territories subordinate to the Ministry of Defense alone. Military temples are being built in Severomorsk and Gadzhiyevo (Northern Fleet), at the air base in Kant (Kyrgyzstan), and in other garrisons. The Church of the Holy Archangel Michael in Sevastopol, the building of which was previously used as a branch of the Black Sea Fleet Museum, has again become a military one. Minister of Defense S.K. Shoigu decided to allocate rooms for prayer rooms in all formations and on ships of the 1st rank.
...A new history is being written in the military spiritual ministry. What will she be? Definitely worthy! This is due to the traditions that have developed over the centuries, melted into a national character - the heroism, stamina and courage of Russian soldiers, the diligence, patience and selflessness of military priests. In the meantime, in military temples, the great Easter holiday, and the collective communion of soldiers - as a new step in readiness to serve the Fatherland, Peace and God.
In pre-Petrine Russia, clerics were temporarily seconded to regiments by patriarchal order or direct order of the tsar. Under Peter the Great, a special fee began to be levied from parishes from the year - help money in favor of regimental priests and naval hieromonks. According to the Military Charter of the year, each regiment was to have a priest, in wartime subordinate to the field chief priest of the army in the field, and according to the Charter of the naval service of the year, a hieromonk was appointed to each ship (sometimes non-family priests from the white clergy were appointed), and at the head of the naval clergy was placed chief hieromonk of the fleet. In peacetime, the clergy of the ground forces were subordinate to the bishop of the diocese where the regiment was stationed, i.e. was not merged into a separate corporation.
The position of the military clergy began to gradually improve after Catherine II ordered the construction of special churches for the guards regiments, and also granted the military priests the right to receive side income from the requirements for the civilian population.
In accordance with the nominal decree of Nicholas I of December 6, the post of regimental priest was equated with the rank of captain. The legal status of the military and naval clergy remained rather vague until the end of tsarist Russia: the repeatedly legally prescribed double subordination of military and naval priests to their spiritual superiors and the military command, which was in charge of the unit cared for by a particular priest, was not explained in any of the normative documents.
Statistics
The Office of the Protopresbyter of the Military and Naval Clergy included:
- cathedrals - 12; churches - 806 regimental, 12 serf, 24 hospital, 10 prison, 6 port, 3 house, and 34 at various institutions. There are 907 temples in total.
- Protopresbyter - 1, archpriests - 106, priests - 337, protodeacons - 2, deacons - 55, psalmists - 68. In total - 569 clerics, of which 29 graduated from theological academies, 438 - theological seminaries, and 102 had school and home education.
Periodicals
- “Bulletin of the military clergy”, magazine (from the year; in - years - “Bulletin of the military and naval clergy”, in the year - “Church and public thought. Progressive body of the military and naval clergy”).
Headship
Chief priests of the army and navy
- Pavel Yakovlevich Ozeretskovsky, archpriest. (-)
- Ioann Semyonovich Derzhavin, prot. (-)
- Pavel Antonovich Modzhuginsky, prot. (-)
- Grigory Ivanovich Mansvetov, prot. (-)
- Vasily Ioannovich Kutnevich, archpriest. (-)
Chief priests of the army and navy
In war, Divine justice and God's care for people can be seen especially clearly. War does not tolerate dishonor - a bullet quickly finds an immoral person.
Venerable Paisios the Holy Mountaineer
In times of hard trials, upheavals and wars, the Russian Orthodox Church has always been with its people and its army, not only strengthening and blessing the soldiers to fight for their Fatherland, but also on the front line with weapons in their hands, as in the war against Napoleon's army and the fascist invaders to the Great Patriotic War. Thanks to the Decree of the President of Russia of 2009 on the revival of the institution of full-time military clergy, Orthodox priests have become an integral part of the modern Russian army. Our correspondent Denis Akhalashvili visited the department for relations with the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies of the Yekaterinburg diocese, where he learned firsthand about how relations between the Church and the army are developing today.
So that the Liturgy is served in parts, and conversations on spiritual topics are held
Colonel - head of the department for relations with the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies of the Yekaterinburg diocese:
In the Yekaterinburg diocese, the department was created in 1995. Since that time, we have prepared and concluded cooperation agreements with all law enforcement agencies in the Urals Federal District: the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Sverdlovsk Region, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Sverdlovsk Region, the Ural Military District, the Urals District of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The Yekaterinburg diocese was the first in post-Soviet Russia to sign a cooperation agreement with the military commissariat of the Sverdlovsk region. From our structure, departments for working with the Cossacks and for prison ministry were subsequently created. We cooperated with 450 military units and formations of the Armed Forces and subdivisions of law enforcement agencies on the territory of the Sverdlovsk region, where 255 clergymen of our diocese regularly took care of the faithful. With the transformation of the diocese into a metropolis in the Yekaterinburg diocese, this is 154 priests in 241 military units and subdivisions of law enforcement agencies.
Since 2009, after the issuance of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the establishment of the institution of full-time military clergy in the Russian army, the posts of full-time military clergy 266, assistant commanders for work with believing military personnel from among the clergy of traditional faiths, including Orthodox priests, have been determined. There are five such posts in our diocese.
Today, we have 154 priests visiting military units, where they perform the sacraments, give lectures, conduct classes, and so on. Once, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill said that a priest who visits a military unit once a month is like a wedding general. I'm not sure if I'm translating verbatim, but the meaning is clear. As a regular military man, I understand perfectly well that if a priest comes once a month to a unit where 1,500 people serve, then in reality he will be able to communicate at best with a couple of dozen soldiers, which, of course, is not enough. We decided to increase the effectiveness of our cooperation in the following way: with the consent of the command of the units, on a certain day, 8-10 priests come to a specific military unit at once. Three of them are serving the Divine Liturgy directly in the unit, the rest are confessing. After the Liturgy, confession and Communion, the military go to breakfast, after which they are divided into groups, where each of the priests conducts a conversation on a given topic, based on the church calendar and the specific needs of one or another part. Separately - staff officers, separately - contract soldiers, separately - conscripts, then doctors, women and civilian personnel; a group of those who are in medical facilities. As practice has shown, in today's conditions this is the most effective form of cooperation: military personnel receive spiritual knowledge, but also participate in the Liturgy, confess and receive communion, and also have the opportunity to communicate and discuss an exciting personal topic with a specific priest, which, given the psychological requirements for a modern army , very important. From the command of the formations, I know that the effect was very good, the commanders of the units ask to carry out such events constantly.
Every year we celebrate Defender of the Fatherland Day. And on the eve of this holiday, with the blessing of Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye, we go home to congratulate our veterans, present them with congratulatory addresses and memorable gifts from the ruling bishop.
“A father for a soldier is a native person,
with whom you can talk about sore"
My history of serving in the army began many years ago, when I was the rector of the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh on the outskirts of Yekaterinburg - in the village of Bolshoy Istok behind the Koltsovo airport. Our dean was a wonderful priest, Archpriest Andrei Nikolaev, from the former military, who served in the army for 13 years as an ensign and enjoyed great authority among the military. Once he asked me how I look at not just going to the military unit that we provided for from time to time, but becoming a full-time army priest. I thought and agreed. I remember when Father Andrei and I came to our Vladyka Kirill for a blessing, he joked: well, they say, some (points to Father Andrei) are leaving the army, and some (points to me) go there, on the contrary. In fact, Vladyka was very glad that our relations with the army had moved to a new level, that in addition to me, four more priests of our diocese were approved by the Minister of Defense and became full-time priests. Vladyka blessed and said many warm parting words. And since July 2013, when the official order on my appointment came, I have been serving at the location of my unit.
How is the service going? First, as expected, the morning divorce. I address the servicemen of the military unit with a parting speech, after that the official part ends, legs in hand - and went to wind kilometers through the units. Our military unit is large - 1.5 thousand people, until you go around all the addresses outlined according to the plan, by the evening you can’t feel your feet under you. I don’t sit in the office, I go to people myself.
Our prayer room is in the middle of the barracks. When it is not easy for a soldier, he will look - and God is He, near!
Our prayer room is located in the hall, in the middle of the barracks: on the left there are beds in two tiers, on the right there are beds, the prayer room is in the middle. This is convenient: if you want to pray or talk with the priest - here he is, please! There I take every day. And the presence of shrines, icons, an altar, an iconostasis, candles in the middle of a soldier's life also has a beneficial effect on the soldiers. It is not easy for a soldier, he will look - God is here He is, near! I prayed, talked to the priest, participated in the sacraments - and it became better. You can see it all, it's happening before your very eyes.
If there are no drills or jobs, I serve every Saturday and Sunday. Who wants to and not in finery, comes to the evening, confesses, prepares for Communion.
During the service at the Holy Chalice, we all become brothers in Christ, this is also very important. This then affects the relationship between officers and subordinates.
In general, I’ll say this: if priests were not useful in the army, they wouldn’t be there either! The army is a serious matter, there is no time to deal with nonsense. But as experience shows, the presence of a priest in the unit really has a beneficial effect on the situation. A priest is not a psychologist, this is a father, father, for a soldier - a native person with whom you can talk heart to heart. Literally the day before yesterday, a corporal conscript came to me, eyes sad, lost ... Something doesn’t work out for him, somewhere they treated him rudely, so despondency attacked the man, he closed himself in. We talked to him, looked at his problems from the Christian side. I say: “You didn’t just get into the army, did you choose the service yourself?” He nods. "You wanted to serve?" - "Of course I wanted to!" - answers. - “Something went wrong, something was not as rosy as I thought. But is it only in the army? Everywhere, if you look closely, there are tops and roots! When you get married, you think that you will lie in front of the TV and rejoice, but instead you will have to work twice as hard to support your wife and family! It does not happen, as in a fairy tale: once - and it's ready, at the behest of a pike! Need to work hard! And God will help! Let's pray, let's ask God for help together!"
When a person sees that he is not alone, that the Lord is near and helps him, everything changes.
In the conditions of a modern army with increased psychological and professional stress, such warm, trusting, sincere relationships are very important. You communicate with the guys every day, talk, drink tea, everything is open, eye to eye. Pray for them every day. If you don’t have this, if you are all impregnable, you have nothing to do in the army, no one will understand you, and no one needs you here.
“We already have a tradition: we always take a field church for all teachings”
, assistant head of the department for work with religious servicemen of the Office for Work with Personnel of the Central Military District:
In 2012, I was the rector of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the working settlement of Achit and provided for the military registration and enlistment office, the fire department, and the police, so when Vladyka blessed me for this service, I already had good experience in relations with representatives of various law enforcement agencies. At the headquarters of the district, a department for work with believing military personnel was created, where two priests and the head of the department are constantly present. In addition to providing spiritual guidance to the officers of the district, our task is to help military units where there are no full-time priests to establish work with believers, come as needed and fulfill their priestly duties. By the way, sometimes not only Orthodox people turn to you in the unit. Recently a Muslim soldier approached me. He wanted to get into the mosque service, but did not know how to do it. I helped him, found out where the nearest mosque is, when services are held there, how to get there…
At this time, Father Vladimir's phone rings, he asks for forgiveness and answers: “I wish you good health! God bless! Yes, I agree! Write a report addressed to the ruling bishop. If he blesses, I will go with you!”
I ask what's the matter. Father Vladimir smiles:
For exercises? Of course I'll go! We will be in the field, live in a tent, the regime is like everyone else
The commander of the unit called, next week they are leaving for the exercises, he asked me to go with them. Of course I'll go! The exercises are short - only two weeks! We will be in the field, I will live in a tent, the regime is like everyone else. In the morning they are in charge, I have a morning rule. Then in the field temple, if there is no service, I accept those who wish. We already have a tradition: for all teachings, we always take a camp church with us, where we can perform all the necessary sacraments, baptism, Liturgy ... We also put up a tent for Muslims.
Here we were at the training camp near the city of Chebarkul, in the Chelyabinsk region; Nearby was the village where the temple was. The local priest not only served the Liturgy with us, but also gave us his vessels and prosphora for worship. There was a large divine service, where several priests gathered, everyone confessed, at the Liturgy there were many communicants from several military units.
On the territory of our unit on Uktus (one of the districts of Yekaterinburg. - YES.) the church of the martyr Andrei Stratilat was built, where I am the rector and regularly serve there. In addition, by agreement with the unit commanders, we constantly travel in groups of up to ten priests to some part of our district, where we give lectures, hold open classes on a given topic and always serve the Liturgy, confess and take communion. Then we dispersed to the barracks, and - if desired - communicated with all the believers, both with the military and with civilian personnel.
Serving in intelligence is not an easy task.
, rector of the Church of St. George the Victorious in the village. Maryinsky:
I twice went on business trips to the North Caucasus region, where I was with the marching church of Alexander Nevsky at the location of the military unit of the Ural District of Internal Troops. How was the service? In the morning at the formation, with the permission of the command, you read morning prayers. You go out in front of the formation, everyone takes off their hats, reads “Our Father”, “Virgin Mother of God”, “To the King of Heaven”, a prayer for the beginning of a good deed and an excerpt from the life of the saint to whom this day is dedicated. In addition to those who are on the road, 500-600 people are present at the formation. After prayer, divorce begins. I go to the temple, where I receive everyone. Once a week I hold spiritual conversations with the staff. After the conversation, face-to-face communication begins.
There is such a joke that they don’t swear in the army, they speak this language in the army. And when a priest is nearby, even the officers begin to restrain themselves in this regard. They say words closer to the Russian language, remember politeness, ask for forgiveness, relations between themselves and subordinates become more friendly, more humane or something. For example, a major comes to confession in our tent, and a simple soldier stands in front of him. After all, the major does not push him away, does not climb forward, he stands and waits for his turn. And then they, together with this soldier, take communion from the same Chalice. And when they meet in a normal setting, they perceive each other differently than before.
You immediately feel that you are at the location of a military unit that performs combat missions every day. It is in civilian life that all grandmothers love you, all you hear is: “Father, father!”, And, no matter what you are, they love you simply because you are a priest. It's not like that here. They've seen everyone here and just won't accept you with open arms. Their respect must be earned.
Our field temple is assigned to a reconnaissance platoon. They are responsible for setting up, assembling and moving the mobile temple. These guys are very serious - maroon berets. To become a maroon beret, you must die and then rise again - that's what they say. Many of them went through both Chechen campaigns, saw blood, saw death, lost fighting friends. These people are accomplished individuals who have given their all to the service of the Motherland. All scouts are simple ensigns, they do not have high ranks. But if there was a war, each of them would be placed separately as a platoon commander, they would fulfill any tasks of command, they would lead the soldiers behind them. They keep the fighting spirit, they are the elite of our army.
Scouts always invite a newly arrived priest to their place for tea to get acquainted. This is a very important ritual, in fact, during which the first and often the last impression is formed about you. What are you? What kind of person are you? Can you be trusted at all? They check you as a man, look closely, ask various tricky questions, are interested in your past life.
I myself am from the Orenburg Cossacks, and therefore for me checkers and pistols were familiar from childhood, we have a love for military affairs at the level of genetics. At one time I was engaged in the club of a young paratrooper, from the age of 13 I jumped with a parachute, I dreamed of serving in the paratroopers. Unfortunately, due to health problems, they did not take me into the landing force, I served in ordinary troops.
The scouts examined the target, laughing: “The test passed!” Come on, they say, to us, in maroon berets!
I went with the scouts to the firing range, where they checked what I was worth in battle. They gave me a gun first. I didn’t really like it: I shoot on a “civilian” in a shooting range from a heavier “Beretta”. But nothing, got used to it, knocked out all the targets. Then they gave me some new machine gun, designed specifically for scouts, with a short barrel. I shot at a common target, I see: its recoil is weak, it’s easy to shoot, it’s convenient - and the second store shot at moving targets, knocked out all the “tens”. They examined the targets, laughing: “The test passed!” Come on, they say, to us, in maroon berets! I shot from an AK machine gun, it also turned out well.
After the shooting, the number of parishioners in the unit increased dramatically. Now with Pashka from intelligence we correspond regularly. He writes to me how they are doing there, and I - how are we here; be sure to congratulate each other on holidays. When we met during my first business trip, when he read Our Father, he made a mistake eight times, and on an extreme business trip two years later, when we met again, he read the Hours and prayers for Communion at the service.
I also have a friend from the Cossacks, Sashka, a FSB officer. This one looks like Ilya Muromets, half a head taller than me and wider in the shoulders. Their FSB detachment was transferred, and he was left to guard some of the remaining equipment. Here he is guarding. I ask: “How, Sasha, are you doing?” He takes the blessing, we kiss like brothers, and he joyfully replies: “All glory to God! I'm guarding a little!"
The banner was carried by a standard-bearer from the Kremlin regiment. So carried - do not take your eyes off! The banner floated through the air!
On Epiphany, our scouts and I found an abandoned old fountain, quickly cleaned it, filled it with water and made a Jordan. They served a festive service, and then there was a night religious procession, with banners, with icons, lanterns. We go, we eat, we pray. Ahead, the banner was carried by a real standard-bearer, so carried - you can’t take your eyes off! The banner just floats through the air! I then ask him: where did you learn this? He says to me: “Yes, I am a professional standard-bearer, I served in the Kremlin regiment, I walked on Red Square with a banner!” We had such wonderful fighters there! And then everyone - both commanders, and fighters, and civilian personnel - went as one to the Epiphany font. And all thanks to God!
Are you interested in how I built the temple? I am the abbot in it, so I will say. When we finished the construction, the temple was consecrated, I went to my confessor. I tell, I show photos: so, they say, and so, father, I built the temple! And he laughs: “Fly, fly, where have you been?” - "As where? The field was plowed!” They ask her: “How, yourself?” She says, “Well, not quite by herself. I sat on the neck of an ox that plowed the field. So people built your temple, philanthropists, various donors ... Maybe grandmothers collected a pretty penny. The people built your temple, and the Lord put you there to serve!” Since then, I no longer say that I built the temple. And to serve - yes, I serve! There is such a thing!
“God willing, we will serve this Easter in the new church”
, assistant commander of a separate railway brigade:
It's good when a commander sets an example for his subordinates. Our unit commander is a believer, regularly goes to confession and takes communion. Head of Department - too. Subordinates watch, and some also come to the service. No one forces anyone, and this cannot be done, because faith is a personal secret matter of everyone. Everyone can manage his personal time as he wants. You can read a book, you can watch TV or sleep. And you can go to the temple for a service or talk with a priest - if you don’t confess, then talk heart to heart.
No one forces anyone, and this cannot be done, because faith is a private secret matter of everyone
Sometimes 150-200 people gather at our service. At the last Liturgy, 98 people received communion. General confession is not practiced now, so imagine how long confession lasts for us.
In addition to the fact that I serve in the unit, in the “civilian” I am the rector of the church of St. Hermogenes on Elmash. When there is an opportunity, we take an onboard Ural, it can accommodate 25 people who want to come to my service. Naturally, people know that this is not an excursion or an entertainment event, that they will have to stand in the service there, pray, so random people do not go there. Those who want to pray in the temple for worship go there.
Previously, the evening time in the unit was occupied by the deputy commander for educational work, now they decided to give the evening time to the priest, that is, to me. At this time, I meet with military personnel, get acquainted, communicate. I ask: “Who wants to go to my temple for service?” We make a wish list. And so on for each division. I submit the lists to the brigade commander and the commander of the unit, the company commander, they let the servicemen go when they need to serve. And the commander is calm that the soldier is not hanging out somewhere and is not engaged in nonsense; and the soldier sees a good attitude towards himself and can solve some of his spiritual issues.
In a unit, of course, it is easier to serve. Now our parish of St. Hermogenes is building a temple on the territory of the unit in the name of the heavenly patrons of the railway troops, the martyr princes Boris and Gleb. The head of the department, Major General Anatoly Anatolyevich Bragin, initiated this case. He is a believer from a pious believing family, since childhood he confesses and takes communion and warmly supported the idea of building a temple, helped with paperwork and approvals. In the fall of 2017, we drove piles into the foundation of the future temple, poured the foundation, now the roof has been laid, the domes have been ordered. When the service is held in the new temple, of course, there will be no shortage of parishioners. Even now people are stopping me, asking: “Batiushka, when will you open the church?!” God willing, we will serve this Pascha in the new church.
“The main thing is a specific person who came to you”
, cleric of the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Yekaterinburg:
I have been caring for private security for more than 12 years, from the time when they belonged to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I have been caring for the Directorate of the Russian Guard for two years, from the moment of its formation.
You ask, who came up with the idea to consecrate all traffic police cars? Unfortunately, not for me, this is an initiative of the leadership of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region. I just completed the ceremony. Although, of course, I liked the idea! Still would! Collect on the main square of the city - the square of 1905 - all 239 new vehicles of the traffic police and consecrate at once! I hope this will affect both the work of employees and the attitude of drivers towards them. What are you smiling at? With God everything is possible!
In my pastoral life, I have seen many things. From 2005 to 2009, I served in the parish in the name of the Archangel Michael in the Zarechny microdistrict - and for four years in a row I served in the open-air park every Sunday. We didn’t have any premises or a church, I served right in the middle of the park - first prayers, then with God’s help I bought vessels, my mother sewed a cover for the Altar, and already in the fall we served the first Liturgy. He pasted up announcements around the district that on such and such a date, at such and such a number, we invite you to worship in the park. People sometimes gathered up to a hundred people! On holidays, we walked throughout the region in procession, sprinkled with holy water, collected gifts, gave them to veteran grandmothers! We lived happily together, it's a sin to complain! Sometimes I meet old parishioners with whom I served in the park, they rejoice, they hug you.
They listen to the priest in the army. We help. Yes, for this, God sent me here - to help people
If we talk about the specifics of serving in law enforcement agencies, then the priest there is a sacred figure. Imagine a building with high offices and big bosses, busy with important state affairs related to the security of the country, and so on. If a civilian comes there, they will not listen to him and will immediately put him out the door. And the priest is listening. From experience I can say that there, in large offices, wonderful people are sitting! The main thing is not to ask anything from them, then you can find a common language with them. So after all, I don’t ask, I, on the contrary, carry such treasures to them, which is a pleasure! What, as it is written in the Gospel, and rust does not take, and thieves will not steal - the treasures that faith and life in the Church give us! The main thing is people, this is a specific person who is sitting in front of you, and shoulder straps are the fifth thing.
In order for a priest to successfully take care of the law enforcement agencies, first of all, he needs to establish good contacts with his superiors and with the head of the personnel department. He knows the personal matter of everyone, he is, if you like, an executor in law enforcement agencies. He knows a lot of things and can tell you and save you from many mistakes. As you can help him in his work. It's all mutual, he helps you, you help him, and as a result, everyone has fewer problems. He can call me and say: “You know, such and such an officer has problems. Can you talk to him?" I go to this officer and, as a priest, I help him sort out his problem.
If the contacts took place, everything will be fine. I know what I'm talking about. During my service in law enforcement agencies, three leaders were replaced, and I had good constructive relations with all of them. All people, by and large, are only interested in themselves. We must try to be necessary and useful to the extent that these busy people are ready to perceive you. You were put there to help them solve their problems with the help of God! If you understand this, then everything will work out for you; if you start to engage in enlightenment or sermons, it will all end badly. The specifics of power structures make their own severe adjustments, and if you want to succeed in your business, you need to take this into account. As the apostle Paul said: for all to be everything!
Over the years of communication, people begin to trust you. I baptized someone's children, married someone, consecrated someone's house. With many we have become close, almost family relationships. People know that at any moment they can turn to you for help with any problem and you will never refuse and help. God sent me here for this: to help people - that's what I'm serving!
God brings people to faith in different ways. I remember one colonel was very hostile to the fact that a priest comes to their office and, as he thought, only hinders everyone. I could see from his contemptuous look that he did not like my presence. And then his brother died, and it so happened that I buried him. And there, perhaps for the first time, he looked at me with different eyes, saw that I could be useful. Then he had problems with his wife, he came to me, and we talked for a long time. In general, now this person, although he does not go to church every Sunday, has a different attitude towards the Church. And this is the main thing.
Not everyone knows that there are military priests in the Russian army firsthand. They first appeared in the middle of the XVI century. The duties of military priests were charged with teaching the Law of God. For this, separate readings and conversations were arranged. Priests were to become an example of piety and faith. Over time, this direction in the army was forgotten.A bit of history
In the Military Charter, the military clergy first officially appeared in 1716, by order of Peter the Great. He decided that the priests had to be everywhere - on ships, in regiments. The naval clergy was represented by hieromonks, their head was the chief hieromonk. The land priests were subordinate to the field "commander", in peacetime - to the bishop of the diocese where the regiment was located.Catherine the Second changed this scheme somewhat. She put at the head of only one ober, under whose leadership were the priests of both the fleet and the army. He received a permanent salary, after 20 years of service he was awarded a pension. Then the structure of the military clergy was adjusted for a hundred years. In 1890, a separate church and military department appeared. It included many churches, cathedrals:
prison;
hospitals;
serfs;
Regimental
port.
The military clergy had their own magazine. Certain salaries were determined, depending on the rank. The chief priest was equated with the rank of general, lower in rank - with ober, major, captain, etc.
Many military priests showed heroism in the First World War and approximately 2,500 people received awards, 227 gold crosses were awarded. Eleven clergy received the Order of St. George (four of them posthumously).
The institute of the military clergy was liquidated by order of the People's Commissariat in 1918. 3,700 clergy were dismissed from the army. Many of them were repressed as class alien elements.
Revival of the military clergy
The idea to revive military priests arose in the mid-1990s. The Soviet leaders did not give the direction of wide development, but gave a positive assessment to the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church), since the ideological core was needed, and a new bright idea had not yet been formulated.However, the idea was never developed. A simple priest was not suitable for the army; people from the military environment were needed, who would be respected not only for wisdom, but also for courage, valor and readiness for feat. The first such priest was Cyprian-Peresvet. Initially, he was a soldier, then he became an invalid, in 1991 he took tonsure, three years later he became a priest and began to serve in the army in this rank.
He went through the Chechen wars, was captured by Khattab, was at the firing line, and was able to survive after severe injuries. For all this, he was named Peresvet. He had his own call sign "YAK-15".
In 2008-2009 special surveys were conducted in the army. As it turned out, almost 70 percent of the servicemen are believers. Medvedev D.A., who was the president at that time, was informed about this. He gave the decree to revive the institution of the military clergy. The order was signed in 2009.
They did not begin to copy the structures that were still under the tsarist regime. It all started with the formation of the Office for Work with Believers. The organization created 242 units of assistant commanders. However, during the five-year period it was not possible to fill all the vacancies, despite the many candidates. The bar was too high.
The department began work with 132 priests, of which two are Muslims and one is a Buddhist, the rest are Orthodox. For all of them, a new uniform and rules for wearing it were developed. It was approved by Patriarch Kirill.
Military chaplains must wear (even on exercises) military field uniforms. It does not have shoulder straps, outer or sleeve signs, but there are buttonholes with dark Orthodox crosses. During the divine service, a military priest over a field uniform is obliged to put on an epitrachelion, a cross and handrails.
Now bases for spiritual work on land and in the fleet are being renovated and built. More than 160 chapels and temples are already in operation. They are being built in Gadzhiyevo and Severomorsk, in Kant and other garrisons.
St. Andrew's Naval Cathedral in Severomorsk
In Sevastopol, the church of St. Michael the Archangel became paramilitary. Previously, this building was used only as a museum. The government decided to allocate premises for prayers on all ships of the first rank.
The military clergy begins a new history. Time will tell how it will develop, how much it will be needed and in demand. However, if you look back at the previous history, the clergy raised the military spirit, strengthened it, and helped people cope with difficulties.
