Biography of Prince George of Georgia. Nizhny Novgorod Encyclopedia I got faith in God from my mother

The exceptionally fruitful work in literature of a member of the Union of Writers of Russia, the famous Nizhny Novgorod poet Maria Sukhorukova cannot fail to attract attention. Several of her large, beautifully illustrated books of the last decade have forced her to do this. Some of them seem to form a kind of series, where several genres are organically combined at once. As a result, these are not purely poetic collections, but books that are more complex in their internal content. They, in fact, begin with “The Tsar’s Forget-Me-Not” (2003), dedicated to the poet’s spiritual mentor, everyone’s beloved and revered Eldress of the Makarievsk convent Macaria, in the schema of Maria (Kudinova).

While caring for her spiritual daughter, whom Mother affectionately called “my Pushkin,” the spirit-bearing Orthodox ascetic blessed her literary work and saw its undoubted benefit to people. This long-term close communication has determined the special value of the book, which brings to us the dear to our hearts statements of the God-wise Elder on many issues of the surrounding life and about historical figures of our past. For example, about Grigory Efimovich Rasputin.

Along with the memories of the schema-nun, the book to some extent gives her life story with the fateful meeting of the young mother Macaria with the Venerable Kuksha of Odessa.

Filled with human gratitude to her spiritual mother, Maria Sukhorukova soon complements “The Tsar’s Forget-Me-Not” with a large poetry collection “Praise God” (2005), also dedicated to Mother Macaria (Kudinova), whose lifetime holiness was obvious to everyone who knew her. Therefore, the extremely precise title of the collection involuntarily forces us to imagine the well-known continuation: “Praise God in His saints. Praise Him in the highest,” which directly refers to schema-nun Maria (Kudinova).

Following the beaten path, Maria Sukhorukova in a short time creates a new book, “The Hero of the Russian Spirit” (2007) about the great righteous man of the land of Nizhny Novgorod, Mikhail Alekseevich Smetanin, better known to thousands of Orthodox laity as Elder Mikhail of Khabarsky.

The image of this righteous man, revered by the people, has long worried the poet. She even, together with Irina Vysotskaya, initiated the filming of a documentary film about him, made by Moscow film director A.S. Moskvina. However, the narrative of the book is not limited only to Elder Michael, but quite naturally also turns to his younger contemporary, the famous Velikobrazhsky ascetic of the faith, Archpriest Grigory Vasilyevich Dolbunov.

Revealing the spiritual feat of the two elders, the author brings about them the memories of relatives and people who personally knew the Orthodox ascetics during their lifetime, introduces readers to the distant Russian village of Naruksovo, now the Pochinkovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region, where they were born and joined Orthodoxy from childhood.

This wonderful series is continued by Maria Sukhorukova’s book “The Shining Sun of Russia” (2008), dedicated to the blessed memory of the Moscow Elder, writer and theologian, Archpriest Mikhail Trukhanov, Mary’s confessor, with whom the poet shared years of soul-soothing communication.

The conventional series is crowned by “Rainbow over the Snow” (2011), which tells about the ever-memorable Metropolitan Nikolai (Kutepov), the ruling bishop of Nizhny Novgorod, who died in Bose ten years ago. For more than a quarter of a century, he ruled a vast diocese and for many Nizhny Novgorod residents he was simply Nikolai Vasilyevich, a front-line soldier, a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, awarded military orders and medals of the Motherland.

For the Orthodox laity, he was the Metropolitan, the Hierarch, to whom one could freely come, talk, and receive an archpastoral blessing for specific matters. Maria communicated with him personally more than once. His simplicity, cordiality and accessibility were well known, and his authority and respect in Orthodox and social circles of Nizhny Novgorod were strong.

The above books, despite their impressive volume, constitute only part of the literary works of Maria Sukhorukova for the period under review. However, taken together, they represent an impressive list of publications from the past decade. Looking at him, someone may be tempted to accuse the poet of dubious fertility and will be wrong, for this is the fertility of St. Augustine, bestowed by the Grace of God.

In order to write and publish like this, one must lead the same ascetic life of a deeply churched Orthodox person that a poet leads. In addition, you must have her talent as a writer and incredible performance. And finally, we must bear the same numerous sorrows that Maria Sukhorukova bears.

Reflecting on her work, it is appropriate to remember V.V. Rozanov, who, pointing to a popular contemporary, said that Merezhkovsky writes all the time about Russia and Orthodoxy. And what’s interesting is that he has neither Russia nor Orthodoxy.

Unlike Dmitry Merezhkovsky, who actively published at the beginning of the 20th century, Maria Sukhorukova lives with an inescapable love for her great Orthodox Fatherland, the thought of which permeates her entire being, echoing with piercing pain in many poetic lines.

The courageous, sacrificial service of the poet to his beloved Fatherland with sincere, artistic, often shouting from the depths of the heart a fiery word of denunciation and suffering is akin to the everyday life of a warrior guarding his native borders.

From here the author is not attracted by the warm seas and sunny beaches of Egypt and Turkey. Nor is she attracted by the vaunted delights of soulless Europe. To all this, Maria Sukhorukova prefers a pleasing Orthodox church, pilgrimages to holy places, a quiet Russian river with crystal water, a field full of herbs, a forest and a piece of land in the Lyskovsky district, which, by the will of fate, became part of the poet’s personal biography.

True to the behest of N.A. Nekrasov, real Russian poets have always lived by the big and topical themes of their native land, rising high above the momentary lisp of the “curly-haired Mithreikas” and “wise-wise Curly-haired women”. More than once, in their capacious lines, Lermontov’s stern warning about the Heavenly Judge sounded: “But there is also God’s Judgment, confidants of depravity! There is a Terrible Judge: he is waiting; He is not accessible to the ringing of gold, And he knows thoughts and deeds in advance...” Perhaps that is why unearthly poetry is so mysterious and prophetically sharp. Sometimes it is even dangerous for those in power. Especially if they openly abuse it, neglecting the interests of the country and people. Is this why the fate of A. S. Pushkin and M. Yu. Lermontov, D. V. Venevitinov and A. V. Koltsov, N. S. Gumilyov, S. A. Yesenin and V. V. Mayakovsky, Igor Talkov is so tragic ?!..

How many of them were there in the prime of ruined Russian talents?! Such as Boris Kornilov, Alexey Ganin, Sergei Chekmarev, Pavel Vasiliev, Nikolai Klyuev, Nikolai Rubtsov, Alexander Liukin... It’s not for nothing, apparently, that the hero of the Caucasus, General A.P. Ermolov, once said that prose comes from the mind , poetry is given from above. This means that she is always fearless and impartial when she addresses socio-political life and topics of high citizenship.

This is exactly how the work of the poet Maria Sukhorukova appears in the eyes of readers, whose conscience is clear, and whose voice often rises from the sincerely intimate to a resounding alarm bell. Today it serves as a bright beacon of how and what to write about in our troubled times in order to pass the earthly “exam” mentioned by our outstanding contemporary, Schemamonk Paisiy Svyatogorets.

The poet’s solid books of four hundred and even eight hundred-plus pages clearly testify to God’s clear help, without which their publication would simply be impossible for financial reasons alone.

THE HAPPINESS OF RARE MEETINGS

Finally, this essentially exciting in content and, it must be said, “unplanned” book by V.V. Sdobnyakova has become a reality, will be available to a wide range of readers and will undoubtedly delight them.

Its beginning was laid before my eyes even in the author’s first conversations with completely extraordinary people, often very famous and famous, who, in fact, constitute the pride and color of the Russian nation and their native Fatherland. Otherwise it is impossible, for example, to talk about Yu.V. Bondarev - Hero of Socialist Labor, Laureate of the Lenin and two State Prizes of the USSR, as well as the Literary Prize of the RSFSR named after

A.M. Gorky, a direct participant in the Great Patriotic War.

A man of amazing modesty and personal charm, Yuri Vasilyevich is now a recognized classic of Russian literature, whose books have been published in millions of copies and translated into many foreign languages. They served as scripts for the best feature films, stunning in their epic scope and piercing truth, about the great and bloodiest war in the history of mankind.

This fully applies to one of the creators and witnesses of the naval power of the Soviet Union, a hereditary sailor, the savior of the legendary Russian Hero City of Sevastopol in times of liberal timelessness and nightmarish tyranny, Admiral I.V. Kasatonov

Equally important personalities include the world-famous modern scientist-encyclopedist, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences V.P. Polevanov. True, this is only a part, although probably the most significant, of the very rich biography of Vladimir Pavlovich. In addition to his main field in geology and his personal hobby as an excellent photo artist, he is also a fairly well-known politician in the country. This is just V.P. Polevanov, as the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation under B.N. Yeltsin, at one time had to accept the scandalous “management” of the notorious A.B. Chubais at the Ministry of State Property of the Russian Federation. Naturally, because of his expressed patriotism and sincere love for the Motherland - Russia, V.P. Polevanov, as well as the Minister of Press of the Russian Federation of that time B.S. Mironov was not destined to stay long at the top of government in liberal democracy. In a matter of months, both had to leave their high government posts, to the undisguised joy of the entire pseudo-democracy.

An interesting page in the life of Vladimir Pavlovich was his governorship in the Amur region of Eastern Siberia, remote from the capital of Russia, rich in protected areas, natural resources and traditions of the peoples living there.

Any meeting with such extraordinary personalities can constitute the happiest fact in the biography of any person. And you must literally catch every word they say in order to forever preserve it in memory for yourself and your descendants. Valery Viktorovich gave us not one or a few words, but large and detailed conversations with them, touching on many vital aspects of Russian history. Take Yu.V. Bondarev, who went through the absolute hell of Stalingrad and survived there against all odds. Where they died in the thousands, and the count of the dead lasted for minutes. And he survived only to wonderfully tell about the incredible, unprecedented feat of soldiers, officers and generals of the heroic Red Army, who fought against a brutal enemy in the most difficult conditions of the open, unprotected space of the ruins of Stalingrad, where it was simply impossible to survive.

But a miracle happened. Exactly the same as with another, recently deceased front-line writer, Hero of the Soviet Union, famous intelligence officer V.V. Karpov, the author of the wonderful books “Commander”, about the commander of the Southern Front during the war, Army General I.E. Petrov, and the dilogy “Generalissimo” - about the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the State Defense Committee of the USSR of the same period, I.V. Stalin.

Something even more interesting happened to Vladimir Vasilyevich. Staying during the war in the penal battalion, which is now being slyly discussed in all negative ways, and risking death every day, he, by personal admission, was not thinking about death at all, but about what he would describe what he saw in future books!

So does Yu.V. Bondarev recalled how they in Stalingrad, firing at fascist tanks with direct fire, contrary to the current Instructions and the strictest orders of the command, first removed the armored shields from the guns, since they not only unmasked the combat crews, but also interfered with fast and aimed shooting in an environment where decided in a split second.

Returning years later to the site of the former fierce battles of the hero city of Stalingrad, where they, young Red Army artillerymen, stood to the death against an armada of Nazi tanks and survived the greatest battle in world history, Yuri Vasilyevich could not believe his eyes that this was happening on a tiny piece of land , where, it would seem, there was nothing to grab onto! I remembered that long-ago miracle, which after many years was not only not forgotten, but became even more obvious.

I must admit, I was very lucky to constantly observe all the difficult, labor-intensive and painstaking work of creating complete conversations with the heroes of V.V. Sdobnyakova. During the meeting, he always shared how and where the meeting took place, how long it lasted, and what made the greatest impression and was especially memorable about it. All these details and other important details, of course, always remained outside the scope of the insensitive voice recorder. As, naturally, is the author’s opinion about the interlocutor. Dwelling on it, Valery Viktorovich most often never ceased to be amazed at the abundance of our talented nuggets, with which the Russian land has been fabulously rich in all centuries. And no matter how much one admires them, when each of the interlocutors involuntarily grew in the author’s eyes not from cheap PR of an extremely dubious reputation, but from the vastness of accomplished deeds, solved problems of extreme complexity, which almost always required the hero to fully devote his physical and creative forces, that is all of yourself without a trace. And how can one not feel compassion for the fact that, for example, the emotional production worker R.P. Patzelt, Laureate of the USSR State Prize, one of the creators of unsurpassed fighter aircraft in the world, states with heartache that we have lost not only them, but also the priceless technology for their creation. Everything was thoughtlessly destroyed by vandalism! And wasn’t it the Chief Welder of the aircraft plant, who worked there, R.P. Patzelt, don’t know about this?!.. And Rudolf Petrovich was not just him, but worked technical miracles in his narrowly specialized work as a highly sophisticated specialist, for whom they, by the way, turned out to be very useful when creating a combat aircraft, where welding its large parts and units, as indeed in rocket and space technology, without any exaggeration, play the most decisive role.

The very first conversations, conceived by the author as detailed interviews with interesting people, imperceptibly grew, which is quite natural, into a large and serious conversation about what was experienced and painful. Moreover, the seemingly broad framework of V.V.’s universal formula turned out to be cramped for him. Mayakovsky “about time and about himself,” because the issues discussed sometimes carried away the captivated interlocutors into the depths of Russian history, as happened with V.P. Polevanov. He involuntarily recalled the famous governor of Eastern Siberia from tsarist times, Prince N.N. Muravyov-Amursky, moved on to centuries-old Russian-Chinese relations with the almost unknown feat of Albazin, where 800 Cossacks of this small wooden fort on the distant Amur held the defense for several months against an army of 30,000 Manjurs who unsuccessfully stormed it!

Unfortunately, in contrast to the famous “Azov seat” of the Don Cossacks in the Turkish fortress of Azov in 1637-1642, the valiant heroism of the defenders of a small wooden fort on the Amur in 1685 and from the summer of 1686 to the spring of 1687 has not yet become widely known in the country and undeservedly forgotten. And the first combat episode of the Siberian Cossacks’ actions to protect Albazin is especially interesting and is presented by official history in a too inexpressively simplified manner: “In 1685, a large Chinese detachment approached Albazin. Its garrison, led by governor Tolbuzin, after a short resistance, surrendered under conditions of free exit. The Chinese destroyed this stronghold of the Russian presence on the Amur, and then left the area...”

The Cossacks did not surrender, but voluntarily left the prison armed, in battle formation and with banners. And this happened, that is, such a stern solemnity of the defenders’ exit from the prison, was not at all accidental. The intriguing details of all the circumstances of that bright page in the military history of the Fatherland were told by V.P. Polevanov, who had previously deeply and comprehensively studied, as a governor and a scientist, the real, and not the dissected history of the region presented by someone.

Thanks to the noble initiative of Vladimir Pavlovich, a beautiful monument to the above-mentioned outstanding predecessor and zealous owner of Eastern Siberia, the Russian patriot prince N.N., was erected in the city of Blagoveshchensk. Muravyov-Amursky, who in every possible way strengthened our presence on the Russian outskirts, consolidating it with beneficial bilateral treaties between the Russian Empire and China, the significance of which has not been lost to this day.

Meanwhile, Valery Viktorovich’s gallery of interesting meetings grew and grew, which was facilitated by the author’s rather extensive circle of personal contacts, rare in terms of level and persons. Suffice it to say that it included statesmen and politicians, scientists, writers, military leaders and even prominent hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, one of whom now became its Primate, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill (Gundyaev).

One cannot help but pay tribute to the sensitive thoughtfulness of the conversations, their harmony and selectivity. The author seems to be trying to cover, as much as possible, many areas of the cultural and economic life of the country, as well as its past and present. But the main thing in any of these conversations was always the hero himself with his inner world, an impressive store of accumulated knowledge and personal experience, an independent opinion and absolutely independent and extremely reasoned judgments on a variety of topical issues of the time.

They are the wise writer and editor of the Slovo magazine, A.V., experienced by fame and glory. Larionov; the oldest Soviet poet and holder of state awards, an excellent expert on the deep relationships in the literary circles of the two capitals, O. N. Shestinsky; his desperately courageous in exposing many of life’s untruths, his younger St. Petersburg brother V.I. Shemshuchenko; always even and calmly restrained, a storehouse of inexhaustible historical and literary knowledge, Professor A.A. Parpara; who grew up as a major engineer in an atmosphere of eternal strict secrecy of the Soviet aircraft industry, Laureate of the USSR State Prize N.S. Nikolaev; original artist and major public figure V.G. Kalinin and his Nizhny Novgorod colleague K.I. Shikhov... - seem to be in many ways different from each other in appearance and character, but they are all united by sincere service to the cause, the country, and the people.

The rapid readership success and recognition of the conversations, which immediately outgrew the boundaries of the literary genre and became a document of Russian life and era, was determined not only by the outstanding personalities of most of the author’s heroes. He owes to a large extent to the extraordinary skill of the now also long-venerable writer, editor and journalist V.V. Sdobnyakov, his extraordinary ability to win over his interlocutor and imperceptibly force him to open up as fully as possible, so that he could then meticulously and slowly get to the bottom of the most interesting, the essence. Skillfully lead a long thin thread of conversation, without letting it break or weaken.

The invariably revealed kinship of souls also played an important role here. A kind of invisible unity between the author and the interlocutor, welded together by one common pain, experience and great love for their great and long-suffering Fatherland. They, perhaps, have always been the reason for the author’s inherent selectivity in everything, which was mentioned above.

Valery Viktorovich, unlike many others, was connected with Oleg Nikolaevich Shestinsky by years of warm human friendship, which was reinforced by constant and lively correspondence between the two writers. The large age difference did not in the least interfere with their regular, though mostly correspondence, communication. She only gave birth to the touching care and fatherly attention of the elder - O.N. Shestinsky to the younger - V.V. Sdobnyakov. But in their favorite field, literature, the ages of both were almost equal, without in the least preventing them from delving deeply and interestedly into its creative and theoretical problems. The fruitful communication between the eminent metropolitan writer and his gifted Nizhny Novgorod colleague led to the subsequent publication of an interesting book of their correspondence, “Apples of the Russian Garden” (2010), to which Valery Viktorovich, as in this case, also had to be persistently pushed and almost forced, which is how the impermissible method still paid off. The book was immediately noticed by the reader, appreciated and very soon distributed throughout Russia, as well as near and far abroad.

As conversations quickly accumulated, it became clear that the obvious importance of the material received, of course, requires collecting them in a separate book, which, moreover, is unlikely to find a suitable analogue in the literature. However, as mentioned above, it took a long time and persistently to convince the author, who, as always, out of personal modesty, was sincerely afraid to overestimate his work. And now, after overcoming all the hesitations and doubts, a wonderful book saw the light of day to replenish the treasury of modern literature. It seems that she, like everything real, is doomed to a long and happy fate.

FAITH IN GOD FROM MY MOTHER

Vladimir Georgievich Tsvetkov is a famous Russian publicist, the author of many articles in periodicals, literary magazines and almanacs, as well as about two dozen books, the most famous of which are “New Friend”, “Khrushchev’s Revenge”, “Russian Valor”, “Beautiful” Trotsky’s doll”, “The price of love is death”, “Staff for entrepreneurs”, “Orthodox leader”... The main theme of Tsvetkov’s historical and journalistic research is Orthodoxy as the basis of Russian statehood, the Russian worldview, the Russian world. For several years now, Vladimir Georgievich has been working closely with our magazine and publishing house “Vertical. XXI Century”, where several of his books and collections of articles were published in the “Times and Opinions” series. Today we are talking with the writer shortly after the publication of his book, “The Homeland of the Elders,” which, without a doubt, will arouse the keenest interest among Orthodox readers, and not only among them.

Valery Sdobnyakov. But I, Vladimir Georgievich, still want to start our conversation with another topic. You and I both grew up in Nizhny Novgorod, which in our childhood was called Gorky, in a country called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, under great pressure from anti-religious and international propaganda, which excluded the memory of the pre-revolutionary historical path of Russia. Where, in the end, did the sprout of love for the Motherland, for Russia, emerge in our hearts? How was the saving Orthodox faith nurtured in our souls? Regarding myself, in this problem I tried to understand the essay “The Finding of Russia.” But, I understand that everyone has their own path, their own experience.

Vladimir Tsvetkov. The late Patriarch Alexy II (Roediger) once said that the complexity of our situation lies in the fact that during the years of Soviet power, generations of people have grown up “who have nothing to return to.” That is, under conditions of state atheism, they did not know Orthodoxy. It was different with me. I grew up without a father with one mother - Evdokia Mikhailovna Tsvetkova, born in 1907. She comes from Balakhna and as a child was still in tsarist times. And therefore, in the gymnasium I studied “The Law of God” as one of the subjects, which was abolished immediately after the revolution in 1918. Naturally, my mother was an Orthodox, deeply religious person, from whose lips never left: “Lord, have mercy!” or “How to endure in the Other World!” I heard these words constantly as a child and, in fact, absorbed them into myself. Yes, and I was baptized already at age three, in our Vysokovsky Trinity Church, which at that time replaced the cathedral of religious persecution. There were probably no more than three of them left in the city - the rest were closed. The circumstances of Holy Baptism were remembered all subsequent years. Moreover, I really liked the Communion, which I asked for more.

These are, so to speak, private moments. Of course, there were no icons or spiritual literature in the house at that time. The only time I saw the Bible as a boy was when someone gave it to my mother for a few hours.

Objectively, Russia is a great Orthodox power with more than a thousand years of history in the faith, to which every Russian person is obliged to remain faithful. And it is on Russia that all Ecumenical Orthodoxy rests. And the fact that she is the Third Rome is not empty words. This is chosenness sent from above. In addition, the Holy Fathers clearly said that the Russian people are the third chosen God-bearing people. In this regard, the famous words of the Russian prophet and world-famous writer F.M. are no coincidence. Dostoevsky: “All of Russia lives only to serve Christ.” I think that they, like a unique formula, contain everything. The whole meaning of our human life, starting from birth.

B.C. Holy Fathers, and tuning our lives to the resonance of the spiritual perception of everything that is happening both in the country and in the world is a certain obviousness, noted by many thinkers of both past years and today. That is why, apparently, such a phenomenon, very important for our life, I emphasize, not only spiritual, but also social in general, appeared in Russia as eldership. A unique phenomenon in its own way, born from the depths of the spiritual, religious state of society. Nurtured in Russian society not by the mind, but by centuries of religious experience. The tradition of eldership, thank God, has not been interrupted to this day. I remember how impressed I was by the statement of Schema-Archimandrite John (Maslov), who in his work “Reverend Ambrose of Optina and the Russian intelligentsia of the second half of the 19th century” asked: “How can we explain that representatives of all classes turned to a simple elder, although he had a seminary education? and positions, and even those whom the world called “giants of thought and spirit”? (This refers to Vl. Solovyov, S.P. Pogodin, N.V. Gogol, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, K.N. Leontiev, A.N. Tolstoy... - B.C.). The answer can be expressed in the words of the holy Supreme Apostle Paul: “Not I, but grace that is within me.” And then in Vasily Vasilyevich Rozanov, in his amazing work “Near the Church Walls,” I found another statement on the same topic. Thus, our famous philosopher writes: “Some of the educated came under the guidance of an elder. Nobody forced them to do this. They started it when they wanted and finished it when they wanted. But, as a rule, once the person who applied never wanted to leave due to the obvious benefit of the advice, based solely on the circumstances of the one who asked for advice, and not the mood of the elder.”

You have just published the book “The Homeland of the Elders.” Tell us about it and what prompted you personally to take up this topic?

V.Ts. I don’t think that such an experienced monk as Fr. John (Maslov), some confusion might have arisen about the elderly care of representatives of all classes of old Russia, which you spoke about. Of course, he knew very well why thousands and thousands of suffering Orthodox lay people turned to the great elders of the Holy Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage, now the Kaluga region, in person, as well as by letters and telegrams. Eldership, as a phenomenon of the Church of Christ, has been known for a very long time and has extensive patristic and hagiographic literature. We are still looking for some wonders on the side, but they are nearby. This happened to our wonderful fellow countryman you mentioned, Nizhny Novgorod resident V.V. Rozanov. For a long time he attacked Orthodoxy with his sharp words and only later, in his declining years, he discovered that all the power was in him. That this treasure is eternal, indestructible. He also saw the light in relation to K. N. Leontiev, whom he singled out from everyone as an outstanding Russian Orthodox thinker. By the way, Konstantin Nikolaevich never had such tossing, and even on Mount Athos he wanted to take monastic vows, being burdened by secular life. But there were elders there, experienced in spiritual work, who, of course, foresaw the future life path of the Russian scientist-pilgrim, whose dream came true in Russia, and not in Greece. It was at home that he fell into the hands of the same highly experienced Optina elder Ambrose, who blessed Leontyev’s works.

Simply put, the elders are Orthodox ascetics of a high spiritual life, who through many labors and deeds have cleansed themselves of passions and acquired true, and not ostentatious, humility. In the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, they included monks, up to hierarchs, and representatives of the white clergy (parish priests), and even laymen. The Lord endows such His chosen ones with the gifts of the Grace of the Holy Spirit - insight, healing of spiritual and physical ailments, reasoning, consolation, love... This is what draws many people to the elder for help in various life difficulties. And he, guided by the will of God, reveals to a person what to do in this or that case.

B.C. And yet, I will return to my statement that this is, to a greater extent, a purely Russian phenomenon. The phenomenon of Russian Orthodox spiritual life. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain the phenomenon of love and reverence that exists in relation to today's elders in Russia. Not only lay people, who in today’s cruel world have to endure too many sorrows, come to them for advice, but also wealthy people, burdened with world fame, power, and having large fortunes.

V.Ts. The great and revered saint, St. Lawrence of Chernigov, said that the elders in Russia will remain until the end of time. He himself ended his life in 1950. How incomprehensibly difficult the feat of spiritual work on the path to senile, public service can be seen in the example of the Holy Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, who, according to the famous spiritual writer Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), received the gifts of the Grace of the Holy Spirit only seven years before his death. But this was quite enough for Fr. Seraphim became a great saint and beloved by the entire Orthodox world.

Among the most famous and revered elders of recent times abroad, we, of course, must include Schemamonk Paisius of the Svyatogorets, who passed away to the Lord in 1994, about whom every self-respecting Orthodox person in Russia knows today. His biographies and teachings have been published in many publications. This is how God’s chosen ones are glorified, who cannot be silenced or slandered, for the truth will sooner or later be revealed anyway. And woe to anyone who gets in her way.

Russia especially flourished with eldership in the 19th and early 20th centuries, during the time of the great Optina elders - Anatoly (Zertsalov), Anatoly (Potapov), Nektary (Tikhonov), Varsanofiy (Plikhankov)... Just in time for their brothers and predecessors , Reverend Macarius, Ambrose, Joseph and others, and the outstanding figures of your native Fatherland you cited - N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, Kireyevsky brothers. And there was also the Glinskaya Hermitage and other centers of Russian spirituality. Moreover, the ensuing death does not in any way interrupt the possibility of turning to the elder for help, which can be seen in the example of our Nizhny Novgorod ascetics of domestic piety - Elder Macaria, in the schema of Maria (Kudinova), Archpriest Grigory Vasilyevich Dolbunov, elders Mikhail Khabarsky and John Shorokhov... I must say , Merya was literally struck by the incident with Naruksov. It’s incredible, but it’s a fact that three Orthodox ascetics of great holiness came from this very remote Russian village in the Nizhny Novgorod outback! Moreover, they are all contemporaries, the youngest of whom is Archpriest Grigory Dolbunov. There is no doubt that this is a rare, if not the rarest, case in the history of the Church. I would like to say especially about the last of them - the holy martyr, Archbishop of Tver and Kashin Thaddeus (Uspensky) - the wonderful hierarch of our Church, if only because he seems to continue the primate line of Nizhny Novgorod residents. I mean Patriarchs Nikon and Sergius. Vladyka Thaddeus (Uspensky), albeit purely nominally, albeit for a very short time, was also at the head of the Russian Orthodox Church! And his personal human and archpastoral qualities simply captivate with their originality. Here I would like to make a reservation about the existing misconception that Vladyka Thaddeus (Uspensky) belonged to our city of Vasilsursk, which did not escape me. The question is, where did it come from? And the whole point is that the parent of Archbishop Thaddeus (Uspensky), Fr. Vasily Fedorovich Uspensky, after graduating from the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary in 1870, together with Mother Lydia Andreevna, arrived in the village of Naruksovo, Nizhny Novgorod province, where he served as a priest in the church and taught at the parish school. Subsequently, the Uspenskys moved to the city of Vasilsursk, Nizhny Novgorod province, where Fr. Vasily served as rector of the cathedral church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Later, Archpriest Vasily Fedorovich Uspensky moved to the village of Belavka to the Church of the Ascension of the Lord and became dean of the 1st District of the Vasilsur deanery. That is why Vladyka Thaddeus (Uspensky) was mistakenly attributed to the city of Vasilsursk. But he, among the three children of the Uspenskys - Alexander, born in 1871, and Vasily, born in 1873 - was born in Lukoyanovsky district, and therefore in the village of Naruksovo.

B.C. Two years ago I made a trip up the Volga and from there along the canal and across the lakes to St. Petersburg and back. During this multi-day voyage, I somehow felt the meaning of Russian life in a completely different way, so different from what modern media imposes on us. Throughout our land, in large cities and very small villages, in churches and monasteries, shrines revered by the Orthodox people are kept - miraculous icons, relics of saints. And these are not some “museum exhibits”, but facts that participate in everyday people’s life. The flow of Russian people to worship shrines does not dry out. And not only Russians. It would be more correct to say - a popular stream of Orthodox lay believers.

V.Ts. In the elders, as in the greatest Orthodox ascetics, the spiritual power of the Russian people and their Orthodox Russia was and is expressed without any exaggeration. It was in it that an unprecedented fact was noted, when a three-year-old boy from the Perm region went to Mount Athos and reached it! By his youth, he had already been endowed by the Lord with the gifts of the Grace of the Holy Spirit, which aroused the envy of adult Greek monks who, unfortunately, often disliked Russians precisely for their rapid spiritual ascent in matters of Orthodox piety. This boy was Saint Theodosius of the Caucasus or “Father of Jerusalem”: he spent nine years at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, which is also an extraordinary case. Nowadays, the Venerable Theodosius of the Caucasus is glorified as a locally revered saint in the Krasnodar and Stavropol dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, and his holy relics rest in the main church of the city of Mineralnye Vody in the North Caucasus. Crowds of Orthodox pilgrims from different places in vast Russia come and go to venerate them. Even during his lifetime, the Monk Theodosius promised to help everyone who turned to him for help after his blessed death.

B.C. You are a child of the post-war years. How do you remember that time now and is it remembered at all? In modern Russia, it has become simply an obligatory rule of good manners for politicians of the “democratic persuasion” to throw a pebble at that historical period of our country, and as much as possible.

V.Ts. Well, firstly, this tone is far from good, but unacceptable and quite risky, since it can entail the most unpleasant and unpredictable consequences for its apologists and guides. It’s not for nothing that scientists have developed Le Chatelier’s Law, according to which all these immoral twists and historical untruths entail punishment from above. As a result, sooner or later, it comes. Therefore, all falsifiers of Russian or world history should think twice if they value their personal well-being or the well-being of their loved ones. Prudent people do not joke with such things.

As for me personally, I, like many children of that happy time of carefree childhood, went through a nursery and kindergarten. Then there was the native seven-year-old Pink School No. 32, which was located next to the house on our Nevskaya Street in Voroshilovsky, and later in the Prioksky district of the city of Gorky. I went there in the mournful autumn of 1953: in the spring, on March 5, the outstanding statesman of the Soviet Union, unsurpassed geopolitician and beloved Soviet leader Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin died. This then became a great national grief - sincere tears were in everyone’s eyes. We children also cried. In the first grade, I found that boys and girls were still taught separately. Since 1954 we have been united.

I remember well the state’s care for the children of low-income families of that time, to which I belonged. Helped with clothes. In the summer they gave tickets to the pioneer camp in the Green City, and in the winter - tickets to the Christmas tree, right up to the Palace of Pioneers in the city, with the obligatory well-chosen New Year's gifts. All this was done, of course, for free, through the trade unions of the Lenin Plant, where my mother worked.

We lived then, naturally, very modestly, without excesses in clothing and food, but we did not go naked and were not hungry. And the Oka River, the stadium and the Switzerland park, which were nearby, did not let us get bored. Moreover, for a teenager of that wonderful time, everything was open: libraries, many different clubs and sports sections. Go wherever you want! And I went - to the children's library named after Sasha Chekalin on Novy Poselok, near the bathhouse, and then to the adult library named after T.G. Shevchenko on Karavaikha, to the art studio of the Krinova club on Stary Poselok. My friend, Zheka Borovkov, besides her, began to study in a wind circle, and after graduating from high school he graduated from our conservatory in the oboe class. I was more attracted to sports. Fortunately, the Radiy stadium, and then Energia, was nearby. Therefore, skating, skiing, hockey, football, and later small towns occupied me in my leisure hours. Everywhere all that was required was desire. There were no other obstacles. There could be no question of any money: everything was provided for free. The choice of such activities was unusually wide. One day we, a group of Myzin guys, wanted to take up boxing. And what? We went to the House of Officers, where the coach of the Spartak sports school, master of sports in boxing N.M. Batalin signed us all up without talking.

The same unlimited opportunities opened up for studying after high school: go to any university, any college in any city. I remember how happy the Admissions Committee was at the Medical Institute, where I applied: there weren’t enough guys! At the same time, at the direction of the military registration and enlistment office, I went to Leningrad to the military department of the Lesgaft Institute, which trained the chief of physical training of the regiment.

B.C. By the way, along with the book “The Homeland of the Elders”, your other work, “The Myaliki - Gorodosh Dynasty,” was published in January 2012, which aroused great interest among veterans and sports fans, and in general among readers who are not indifferent to Russian history. This was due to several factors at once - the fact that the book was written by a talented publicist, and the fact that the author himself is a master of sports in the towns, and, mainly, the fact that it tells about one of the most ancient games of our ancestors, which in today's Russia is clearly not in favor. But the towns can be called the Russian national game? It’s not for nothing that you once chose it from the many opportunities to play sports.

V.Ts. Living in a house outside the stadium fence, it is impossible to protect yourself from sports. And I was involved in many types of it - skating, skiing, football, hockey, table tennis, and somehow, imperceptibly for myself, I became addicted to small towns. At first, as a spectator, sitting on a high fence and watching the game of gorodoshniks: on the Manse there was an active section of gorodoshki sports, headed by its enthusiast - Viktor Alekseevich Zakharov, thermist of the 4th workshop of the Lenin plant, that is, the current NITEL. He and his colleagues hardened parts and parts of equipment such as punches, dies, cutters, etc. Therefore, the whole Manor knew Vitya by his famous nickname “Kalila”. Yes, that's what they called it. So I watched from above as he and his comrades in the section deftly knocked out pieces from five towns. Of course, I knew well the personalities of all the gorodoshniks, as well as the fifteen pieces they regularly practiced taking. And so, hearing the characteristic sound of city beats, I immediately ran to the sites from the side of our street, climbed onto the fence and, without stopping, watched the game. Sometimes, with a particularly unsuccessful throw, I was chased away as the imaginary culprit of the breakdown: I had to take it out on someone! And more often than not they didn’t touch it. As a regular spectator, I knew very well where the towns were hidden. Of course, they didn’t get the sticks: they were taken with them to the locker room, where they were kept. So gradually I learned about the individual design of bits. After all, most of the Gorodoshniks - Vitya Zakharov himself, Pavel Telepenin, Kolya Kudelkin, Ivan Krestyanov, Yura Novikov and others - were masters of sports. And when they left, my time began, stimulated by the impression of the masters’ play. He threw whatever he could get his hands on, that is, anything that could be used instead of bits. Only the towns, although not new, were real. And this went on for a long time. And both in winter and in summer. Occasionally, I was trusted to lead a youth team, which was recruited for a one-time occasion from fellow football players. In the end, I got to the real bits, which I bought for three rubles from Nikolai Semyonovich Kudelkin. And after some time I began to compete with the masters, for which I was immediately included in the team.

I achieved the title of “Master of Sports of the USSR” in Murom in August 1966, winning with a great advantage the All-Union personal competition for the prize of Hero of the Soviet Union N.F. Gastello. They were organized by the Lokomotiv DSO. According to the rules that existed at that time, it was necessary to master the master's standard twice before the main competition. Therefore, we had to successfully preface

The All-Union tournament fulfilled the norm of a master of sports at the championships of the city and the Gorky Railway, where gorodochny sports were well developed and the gorodoshny section “Lokomotiv”, which had several sites, was active. One of them was even in the locomotive depot of the Gorky-Moskovsky station not far from the Moskovsky station.

For me personally, gorodki have always been not just a sport, but an element of Russian national culture that determined a person’s skill and prowess. That is why traces of the folk game are lost in the centuries of hoary antiquity, and it was not for nothing that Grand Duke Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky was fond of it. That is why it was so popular and loved everywhere among other outdoor games of the Russian people.

Since 1923, towns have become an official sport with a qualifying standard, the number and type of figures, as well as a specifically defined area, that is, squares for towns and a “con” and “half-con” for knocking them out. Since 1928, the towns have been indispensable participants in all Spartakiads of the peoples of the USSR with scoring points for the participating teams. Throughout the 50s until the 80s, the gorodosh sport was in continuous development and achievements: metal coating of gorod squares appeared, asphalting of racks, master bits became more complex and improved, where grams of weight and millimeters of their alignment were captured.

By the way, abroad, say, in Finland, Sweden and other countries of the world, such national treasures as our towns are treated extremely carefully. In recent years, with the decline in the popularity of sports and the authority of its organizational state-social structures, completely irresponsible figures have appeared, not burdened by any historical memory, who believe that they can do whatever they want with the towns. Hence, the Rules change almost every day, some three- and octagonal towns are imposed, which neither sport nor the Russian folk game knew, and the role of the refereeing apparatus is reduced. In addition, with the same tenacity and persistence, a certain unification is being imposed, that is, limiting the weight of the bits to the point of ridiculousness. For example, up to two kilograms. As a result, in fact, it turns out that from those perfect and technically complex beats to which the masters, together with their favorite sport, have been moving for decades, we must return to the starting point. To ordinary sticks, with which inexperienced amateurs played in any recreation center or cultural park. The only thing is that they will not be birch or oak, but some kind of polymer. That’s right, one of the country’s leading city workers is A.V. Gorbatykh from the Tomsk region called it “a return to the cave age.” It looks like our pseudo-innovators are not right in the head.

These and many other issues of Gorodosh sports are revealed in my book against the backdrop of a story about the famous Nizhny Novgorod Myalikov dynasty, which I knew very well personally. The first reviews of the gorodoshniks’ book indicate that it is successful and very necessary. In any case, urban sports did not know such a complete and large-scale serious publication. This alone makes me happy.

B.C. What prompted you to study the life and work of Vladimir Mayakovsky? Apparently, this is also a consequence of a deep interest in Russian history in general. Or were you, as a professional lawyer, primarily interested in the fact of the mysterious death of Vladimir Vladimirovich? Still, many, both then and now, did not accept the well-known version of the poet’s suicide. In his book “The Price of Love is Death,” after reading which one scientist told me: “I thought I knew everything about Mayakovsky. Now I understand that I didn’t know anything,” you, citing many sources, convincingly prove that it was a murder.

V.Ts. My interest in the great Soviet poet arose somehow by chance while studying at the secondary evening-shift school No. 23, on Beketov Street. This was around 1965. We were just studying his work. I remember we were analyzing the famous poem about the Soviet passport. It was here that, I would say, an unexpected discovery occurred, a comprehension of the poet and his work, in which Lidia Afanasyevna, an excellent and thoughtful teacher and an expert on Russian literature, played a significant role. There were many such teachers then. From that time on, I began to collect the books of the great poet, the most famous collection of his works. Then there were several of them, different ones. Mayakovsky's works entailed a completely natural interest in his personality, and therefore in his biography, which turned out to be extremely interesting. Therefore, when going on business trips for work, wherever I was, I made sure to “check” the stores for any memories of the poet. Therefore, even now, many years later, I remember well where and what book I discovered and purchased. For example, an album of photographs by L.F. Volkov-Lannit “I See Mayakovsky” - in Alatyr; memoirs of the Georgian prince Bebutov “Reflection” - at the Udmurt station Balezino...

Mayakovsky generally stands apart in Russian Soviet literature, having received literally legendary fame from his contemporaries during his lifetime. And it is never born out of nowhere and in vain. Everything served this glory - his mighty tall figure, his beautiful appearance, his voice, his erudition, his phenomenal memory, his grandiose poetic and organizational talent, and the lightning-fast wit of an unsurpassed polemicist. Mayakovsky, an artist by training, was also a critic and an excellent publicist. His American notes are equally topical even decades later. But the main thing in him, which was especially emphasized by the poet’s contemporary, the Austrian Hugo Huppert, was moral purity, which purified and ennobled everyone who came into contact with him. There were no literary prizes or other honors. They were replaced by Mayakovsky's encouraging words. His praise, attention and support.

This is how I came to systematize biographical materials about the great poet, into alphabets with sections - “trips”, “speeches”, “growth”, “eyes”, etc., etc.

Such a keen interest in the poet made me friends with his ardent admirer and propagandist, engineer of the “Grazhdanproekt” B.C. Kuznetsov. We communicated with him for many years, went to Moscow together for the poet’s big anniversaries, where I met Vladimir Vladimirovich’s American daughter, Helen Patricia Thompson, and her adult son, Roger, a lawyer by profession. She is very similar to Mayakovsky in appearance and only called herself Elena Vladimirovna.

But I especially value my acquaintance and friendship with one of the most profound researchers of the last period of the poet’s life, his interesting biographer and talented Moscow journalist, author of the unique book “The Mystery of Mayakovsky’s Death” (1998) V.I. Skoryatin. We actively corresponded with Valentin Ivanovich for almost three years (from July 1990 to April 1993), met more than once in Moscow at his apartment, on Verkhnyaya Maslovka, next to the Dynamo stadium, at the Novodevichy cemetery, at the IMLI on Povarskaya, and in GMM on Lubyansky Proezd. Useful, mutually enriching communication continued until Skoryatin’s unexpected and clearly premature death. How close the communication was is evidenced by the fact that Valentin Ivanovich included me, as a researcher of the poet’s biography, in the reference apparatus of his book, which never saw the light of day during the author’s lifetime. We were like-minded people and were convinced that Mayakovsky had been killed. And we’ll have enough of all sorts of equivocations on this score. We must speak directly and only about the murder of the great poet, as admirers wonderfully did

S.A. Yesenin, having demonstrably “dealt with” his official biographer Yuri Prokushev, who insisted on suicide. By the way, the mass murder of Russian poets of that time cannot but outrage. Suffice it to say that the Trotskyists, with their anti-Soviet opposition, which covered the entire country with its ominous tentacles, criminally shot sixteen (!!!) peasant poets at once!.. Their names are well known.

My book, modest in size, like “Trotsky’s Beautiful Doll”, is a small, but still incriminating act of that vile time of tyranny of the anti-Soviet Trotskyist opposition - the real culprit of mass repressions and the atmosphere of fear in our country, and it will never wash away the blood of the innocent sufferers from their own hands.

B.C. In the correspondence between you and V.I. Skoryatin, did you share your thoughts with each other only about the biography of Mayakovsky, or did you still discuss issues of modern Russian history, and the general political situation in the USSR in general?

The suicide of the poet, brought about by the Briks and their adherents, could only be done with many new, and not hackneyed, evidence that would be impossible for anyone to ignore. Skoryatin, thanks to his authority and experience, meticulous meticulousness and exceptional, I would say, uncompromising professional integrity, did along this path simply incredible. It is no coincidence that in this regard, Professor Albert Todd from New York involuntarily summed up: “The outstanding work done by the Russian researcher Valentin Skoryatin forces us to take a fresh look at the version of Mayakovsky’s suicide...” This led me to Bumazhny Proezd, 4, Moscow, where the magazine's editorial office was located. We were introduced there by our Nizhny Novgorod resident from Gorky, the head of the department, Valentin Alekseevich Kuznetsov, who published Skoryatin’s materials. His sensational, revealing findings fairly alarmed the entire numerous and influential camp of Briks’ supporters. In fact, it was a whole epic of the collapse of a huge thickness of, as it were, I repeat once again, legalized lies, carefully covered up with “textbook gloss” and a mass of dubious prohibitions. Therefore, the main thing was done by the supporters of the GPEush Brikov family, whose close connections included a group of professional killers of the head of the EMRO, General A.P. Kutepov, both the name of the researcher and the results of his stunning discoveries were stubbornly hushed up. In contrast to them, many publications were organized in various media - newspapers, magazines, etc. - materials insisting on Mayakovsky's suicide and praise of the Briks, especially Lily Yuryevna, née Lily Uryevna Kagan. Direct participation and personal interest in the physical elimination of the great Soviet poet of the right hand of the odious Chairman of the OGPU G. E. Yagoda - Yankel Shevelev-Shmaev-Agranov, the bloody executioner of the Russian people, whose rehabilitation is not discussed even in today's time of legal lawlessness, practically made L Brik was the wife and heiress of all Mayakovsky's literary works with the appointment of a solid lifelong pension by a special Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of 1930. This completely unscrupulous treachery was carried out in front of a living and real, and not imaginary, husband, Osip Maksimovich (Meyerovich) Brik, who constantly hung around as a free addition to the numerous husbands of his clever wife, completely sharing her intricate life moves. In essence, they carried them out jointly according to a single carefully thought-out and sophisticated plan of sophisticated swindlers. It was not for nothing that Lilechka so sincerely lamented only about Osya, who died safely in 1945. Other “husbands”, as individuals and spouses, simply did not interest her. And with Osya, as Lilya Uryevna put it, she herself allegedly died. True, this death was very long in time and occurred much later after the beloved and only legitimate husband of Osya Brik. Moreover, Lilechka even hurried her, committing suicide at the age of 88.

Despite these shocking circumstances for a normal person, Brikov’s “guard” of opportunistic admirers rushed to zealously defend such an unfair and unnatural historical “alignment” arranged by the then unlimited capabilities of the executioner from the OGPU Agranov. As soon as Skoryatin’s first “Mayakov’s” publications appeared in “Journalist,” everything immediately took off... In 1989, the “Theater” magazine began publishing Yu.A.’s libelous book. Karabchievsky “The Resurrection of Mayakovsky”, first published in 1985 in Munich. And in 1990, it was urgently published by the prestigious “Soviet Writer” in our country in the form of a small book.

On June 18 of the same year, Yuri Arkadyevich from 22.15 to 22.35 in the evening takes part in an artificial skirmish on the 1st channel of the Central Television in the television program “Libra” entitled “Again about Mayakovsky” with the venerable and, in addition, official biographer of the poet A.A. Mikhailov. Its ending was supposed to unanimously convince TV viewers of the certainty of Vladimir Vladimirovich’s suicide, which was done by fake opponents.

By the way, the apologist for Mayakovsky’s suicide, Karabchievsky, got so accustomed to his role as an expert on the death of the great poet that, having traveled to Israel, he extended his stay there a little, and upon returning to the country, like Lilya Brik, he committed suicide.

In the same 1990, TASS journalist Elena Bernasconi got involved in the matter, publishing her first material about Mayakovsky in the magazine “Echo of the Planet”, No. 18. The theme continued until 1993 under the banner “Mayakovsky. Love story". Her final material was in the 9th issue of “Echo of the Planet” for February 27 - March 5, 1993.

B.C. Can you quote from Skoryatin’s letters some of the most important, in your opinion, statements, observations, maybe even warnings?

“They say a transmission flashed through the “box.” At the center of this program, as I was told, was this Jewish woman from the TASS magazine Bernasconi! This is what the Jewish grip means! Learn. One material (Babich) was prepared for publication as an editor. Then I wrote it myself. “Echo of the Planet” (No. 31/32?). And what do you think? She is already acting as the largest specialist on Mayakovsky! It's all funny."

But besides E. Bernasconi and Y. Karabchievsky with A.A. Mikhailov, others also took up the task of urgently disavowing the incriminating results of Skoryatin’s journalistic search: the Slavist from Sweden B. Youngfeldt became suspiciously active, the admirer A.V. Brikov began to frequent Moscow from Kazakhstan. Valyuzhenich, the elderly but still alive V.V. was quickly included in the circulation. Polonskaya is the main witness to the suicide of the poet, who shot himself almost before her eyes. The name of Veronika Vitoldovna, with the inevitable stories about the poet’s suicide, flashed across periodicals. And then there is K. Kedrov from Izvestia, V. Radzishevsky from Literaturnaya Gazeta, L. Kolodny, 3. Boguslavskaya... Even a well-known expert on A.N. got involved in the big game. Tolstoy - philologist V.I. Baranov, who changed his residence permit from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Moreover, Vadim Ilyich somehow managed to end up not just somewhere, in the Moscow outskirts, but right in the famous “House on the Embankment”, made famous by Yu. Trifonov.

So, Skoryatin establishes some new previously unknown stunning facts of Mayakovsky’s biography, bringing to light the perpetrators of his death, and all around there is silence, silence, diving on radio and television of the partially brought “guard” of refutors of the revealed facts, led by A. Mikhailov. They once again insist on the poet’s suicide, in every possible way hushing up the name of the corrosive journalist who disturbed their quiet life.

It must be said that the “creative” thought of the “guardsmen” of the black cause worked perfectly. In addition to personal statements, for greater importance and persuasiveness, some far-fetched examinations were invented, such as “psycholinguistic” ones in relation to Mayakovsky’s suicide note, or unknown experts like a certain A. Maslov appeared. He was presented magnificently as an experienced forensic expert, associate professor at the Moscow Medical Academy named after I.M. Sechenov. Even more interesting was the material itself, which appeared in LG and was reprinted on January 15, 1992 by Nizhny Novgorod News. It was called “How Mayakovsky died”, its remarkable heading read “dot the i”, and the unambiguous summary was summed up by the subtitle: “The dispute is concluded by experts.”

However, A. Maslov, whom Skoryatin called just a “spent cartridge case,” failed to end the dispute. Behind the colorful surroundings of the performance, he turned out to be an ordinary neighbor of the Briks, who had lived with them in the same house for thirty years.

The fraud was obvious, and any conclusions of such an “expert” were questionable.

Therefore, the topic of our correspondence was based mainly on the biography of the great poet, since comments suggested themselves from the behavior of unscrupulous opponents. Valentin Ivanovich also wrote about the constant unhealthy interest in his investigation by the famous Moscow journalist Lev Kolodny, who tried to find out about the plans and findings of the biographer. Skoryatin sincerely lamented that his book about the poet was stuck in publication.

Occasionally Valentin Ivanovich touched upon the ongoing political life. Mostly in passing. So he bitterly brought Shokhin, who then appeared on stage, calling his real name - Shaikhet. He, in my opinion, became the Minister of Labor or State Property under Yeltsin. “In a word, you will bend under the weight of taxes, and we will remain in poverty while Monsieur Yeltsin is surrounded by this shantrapa...” Skoryatin wrote to me on September 29-30, 1991.

Shortly before this, on September 15, he lamented: “The democratic pogrom in the party archives complicated the situation and delayed work with the main materials about the poet. We'll have to start from scratch. I’m not losing hope.”

And in the spring of the same year, or rather on May 10, Valentin Ivanovich asked me, at the same time indignantly:

Have you seen “Youth” No. 2? There Boguslavskaya (the wife of the poet Andrei Voznesensky - V.Ts.) planted so much misinformation... why are they making such “humpbacks”? They just confuse. Or are they deliberately fooling themselves?

Makarov went underground. I think forever."

In the same letter Skoryatin reported other current news:

“I called Veronica Vitoldovna the other day. Already after the transfer. We had a nice chat. He congratulated her, wished her health and good spirits. We agreed (once again!) to meet. (I’m getting ready!..) But I don’t know how it will turn out. And with all this, she doesn’t say a word about publications in “Journalist”, and I don’t say a word about her performance on Russian radio. Like this. No peace, no war. Strange situation. Curious..."

In early spring, on March 11 of the same year, 1991, Valentin Ivanovich told me an extraordinary incident from the life of “democratic” Moscow:

“...Deputy Yu.P. Vlasov (famous athlete, Olympic champion, journalist - V.Ts.) (my old acquaintance), rare (“old”) books relating to the VUK - OGPU, other materials and his own diary entries disappeared from the apartment. Moreover, he said that his “hut” had been visited by gepeushniks before, got acquainted with the materials, but did not touch anything. Now let’s go to “mayhem.”

B.C. I remember with a shudder those years of unrest. The end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s showed gangster chaos both on the part of criminals and on the part of the state itself, on the part of those who seized power in it. It seems that all the basest and most insignificant things have come into the world to rob, humiliate, and destroy it. But the most disgusting thing was to see the cynical betrayal, the public meanness of those who are now “outstanding cultural figures.” They are awarded the highest orders of the country and state prizes.

V.Ts. Yes you are right. But I will still continue quoting Skoryatin’s letters, because it seems to me that his thoughts, comments, and premonitions are very important for a true understanding of the processes taking place in our country today. Behind the lines of letters, the heavy artificially created atmosphere in which the journalist worked was not always visible, but sometimes it still broke through when he wanted to somehow relieve himself from nervous tension. On May 2, 1991, he wrote to me:

“I limited all contacts. There will be a lot more technical work on the book. ... But still. Random meetings occur in the editorial office. Again this villain came upon me - Kim Izrailevich Lyasko. He calls me nothing less than a continuer of Koloskov’s work. I popularly explained to this cretin that my version differs significantly from Koloskov’s...", "...I’m not accusing anyone of anything, I’m just restoring events. And if the recreated events present the Briks in an unsightly light, then it’s not my fault. The Briks themselves should have taken care of their good name, not Kim Izrailevich...”

The same Kim Izrailevich, having once come to the State Museum of Museum, brought the director of the museum, Svetlana Strizhneva, to such a state that she, all disheveled and pale, jumped out of her own office, leaving there an admirer of the Briks, aggressive with anger.

“Lyasko is a small little man,” Skoryatin wrote to me a little later, “and you are undoubtedly right. You shouldn't get into arguments with him. For the family of L.Yu. Brick is ready to scratch his eyes out. Angry, aggressive, irreconcilable. Just a chain dog!”

Of course, our correspondence could not ignore the daughter and grandson of the great Soviet poet:

“Of course, I met with Patricia. At the very finish line, that is, on the day before departure, she took the initiative into her own hands, wrote Skoryatin on September 25, 1991. - He snatched her from the hands of “admirers”, all kinds of clubs and teapots, burst into Strizhneva’s office with her and started an “interview”. Then he himself could no longer fight her off. The entire subsequent scenario (her conversation with representatives of the cultural fund, the impudent girl from the Trud newspaper, tea drinking, a trip to the embassy to get passports, etc.) was broken. The museum ladies squealed with indignation. But, to be honest, they did it with sympathy for me. Patricia became interested in our conversation. We agreed to continue this “interview” in October. Like this".

With Valentin Ivanovich we got a very interesting combination of knowledge and interests in Mayakovsky. For example, based on the poet’s acquaintance with T.A. Yakovleva in Paris, we had different points of view. He believed that Tatiana was slipped to him by L. Brik’s younger sister Elsa Triolet, who successfully married the French communist writer Louis Aragon and settled in Paris. According to Skoryatin, she was afraid that Mayakovsky’s fatherly feelings would awaken when Ellie Jones met little Patricia in Nice. It was 1928. I believed that the poet’s meeting with Tatyana Yakovleva in France had nothing to do with Triolet. She, on the contrary, was very wary of this story and hostile towards Tanya. More than once we mutually exchanged search sources. For example, I helped clarify the identifying information of Zori Volovich, who participated in the kidnapping of the general

A.P. Kutepova in France. In turn, Valentin Ivanovich helped to navigate Moscow authorities and organizations. This is how he wrote to me on October 18, 1991 about TsGALI:

“Collection. “Description of documents, materials” was released in 2 “volumes”. ...Sh was supposed to come out too. But, as far as I know, it’s not ready yet. You can check this with a certain I.I. Abroskina (“friends” with V.V. Katanyan!). She serves at TsGALI. Tries not to let materials out of his clutches. And now, by the way, he is preparing an inventory of the archives of L.Yu. Brik and V.A. Katanyan. He treats this family with great reverence. He feeds on publications. Vasya also ensured her participation in the three-volume work, which is being prepared at Goslitizdat under the leadership of A. Mikhailov... With Vasya’s blessing, she was taken into the team to prepare for the publication of the correspondence between L. Brik and E. Triolet. It's clear? Who is friends with V.V. Katanyan and idolizes L.Yu. there won't be a piece left. This Abroskina (I call her Barboskina!) made a disgusting impression on me...”

B.C. Can you tell us more about Valentin Ivanovich’s cooperation with the Mayakovsky Museum in Moscow?

V.Ts. In the correspondence, for obvious reasons, the State Museum of V.V. was mentioned more than once. Mayakovsky (GMM). So August 1, 1992 could not have happened without him:

“M.A. Nemirova puffed out her cheeks and remained silent. According to rumors, he condemns me. He says that Skoryatin treated Podonskaya badly. Her supporters in the museum talk to me through clenched teeth. They were offended that I did not bring this matter to them, and did not consult what and how I should write. I'm a bad person! There are so many specialists on Mayakovsky in the museum, but a certain Skoryatin ignores them.”

M.A. Nemirova, Deputy Director of the GMM for Science, is mentioned more than once by Valentin Ivanovich in this letter: “One more thing. Patricia allegedly insists that the comments to her mother’s diary entries be made by Muse Nemirov. I'm imagining these comments! Poor Mayakovsky! 60 years have passed since his death, but passions do not subside. There are no Briks, but their work lives on!..”

“Al Mikhailov has quieted down. Al. (the journalist called him nothing less than the head of “destructive forces”! - V.Ts.). He silently celebrated his 70th birthday in January 1992... and hid. And yet the museum “young ladies” dance in front of him. Why, breadwinner! Under his editorship, Hudlit prepared a 3-volume volume of memoirs. The young ladies were fussing about. They raised all the museum funds... But I don’t trust them. They will do anything for the sake of profit. They will make any banknotes without reservations.” “...Mayakovsky is a figure you can’t ignore. This is undoubtedly a phenomenon. April 14 passed unnoticed. In the museum they cook dinner, discuss their internal news, and weave intrigues. Mayakovsky, as they say, is with them. They prepare routine publications for anniversaries (small and large)... In a word, they subordinate everything to their interests...”

Individual letters from Skoryatin spoke about the difficult situation and literary life in the capital of that heated time of coups, collapse and disorganization:

“Publishing house “Panorama” (formerly “Planet”) somehow very sluggishly offered me to publish a book with them. But, firstly, I have not yet gotten rid of MG, and, secondly, they promised 1.5 thousand per printed sheet. Funny! Sent them carefully... Tired of poverty! Amazing country. They don’t value work at all,” Valentin Ivanovich was indignant in a letter dated August 26, 1992.

In the same letter, he mentioned his friend Vladimir Dyadichev, saying that he “...continues to work. Wrote almost 1.5 pages. sheet about Briki and Mayakovsky. The occasion was the release in our country of Youngfeldt’s book “Love is the Heart of Everything.” I read. Gave Vova some advice. He agreed. Now the concern is: where to arrange it? Moscow refuses. “Our contemporary” turns his nose. Stas Kunyaev, as you know, is obsessed with Yesenin. In “MG” sits an illiterate... Khatyushin, who imagines himself to be a poet... In a word, he gave Vova Dyadichev advice - to write a book. Conventional title “Life after death”. He even came up with the themes for individual chapters. The book is about what happened to the poet’s biography after his death, what kind of struggle unfolded around the name of Mayakovsky. All sorts of resolutions of the leaders, resolutions of the Central Committee, actions of the Brikovs, letters from Simonov to the Central Committee, the relocation of the museum, publications by Vorontsov and Koloskov, the epic with the “Ogonkovsky” editions of Mayakovsky. A lot of interesting things can be said about how the history of our literature was written.”

“We are now working, as they say, in the “first row,” wrote Valentin Ivanovich on September 8, 1992, “but there are other memoirists. Of course, they, these memoirists, cannot give a detailed, or rather, detailed portrait. But, as a rule, interesting details are revealed in such memories.”

These thoughts, apparently, occupied him more than once: “We have been making judgments since the top of the century,” Skoryatin wrote on November 30, 1992. - Much has become clearer and laid bare. You and I are touching already exposed wires. And, therefore, much is clearer to us. Of course, not because of a woman! And not “suicide for political reasons”! Most likely a murder for political reasons!”

Even earlier, on February 17, 1992, he touched upon the topic of the death of the poet, referring to A.A. To Akhmatov: “...Isn’t it funny to fight over a young actress? Akhmatova is still wise. She said: “It can’t be because of the woman, when there were so many of them at the same time...”

She said it right!

I don’t believe Polonskaya myself. Or rather, I don’t really believe it. But I still think. Maybe she is involved. Maybe she’s passively involved...”

By the way, another slightly earlier mention is also interesting. Polonskaya in a letter dated September 1 of the same 1992:

“I worked at the Moscow Art Theater Museum. ... Polonskaya’s personal file was never given. He fought and fought. But... The hypocrisy is complete. Like, we have no right. The man is alive. What if... etc. I managed to look at the magazine. rehearsals of the play “Our Youth”. And what? It turns out that V.V. (the rehearsal was canceled on the 14th) calmly, as if nothing had happened, I went to rehearsals on April 15, 16, (on the 17th I went with Yanshin to the investigator on N. Basmannaya, there was no rehearsal), April 18, 19, 21, 22 etc.

What is this? Cynicism? Shamelessness? Callousness? Maybe not a husband, maybe not even a loved one, but a loved one shot himself! How so?!

I can’t understand this!”

“Vova Makarov (you should know about him) is an ally of Vorontsov and Koloskov. At one time he brought Polonskaya to the museum and interrogated her. The Briks unleashed K. Simonov on him. In short. Vova was “removed” from the museum and, it seems, from circulation too. But he knows something and, naturally, can talk about it.”

Towards the end of the correspondence, Valentin Ivanovich’s letters became more alarming. He reported that L. Kolodny was very interested in the results of the journalistic search, calling and asking questions. Then, apparently due to some concerns, he once wrote about his desire to replace the apartment door with an iron one. Carefully monitoring the reaction to his publications, Skoryatin wrote to me after another publication on September 8, 1992:

“There is no reaction to the publication. The Jews are silent. Their press too. Katanyan hid. Youngfeldt is stunned. Valyuzhenich was taken aback. Remember: before, they reacted. Sluggish, unconvincing. But still... And now they’ve become quiet. A certain Kedrov from Izvestia is not fluttering either. What does all this mean? How do you want to understand this mysterious silence? Strange!"

However, there was nothing strange. Everything went on as usual, and by the end of the correspondence Valentin Ivanovich wrote with all frankness: “... the pressure of Zionism is increasing every day. Apparently, they have already surrounded me with red flags...”

So, in general, we had no time to be distracted from the main topic. And the drama of the events taking place in the country and, in particular, in Moscow did not contribute to this. The cessation of correspondence caused alarm. Only after some time did I learn about the unexpected death of Skoryatin, a wonderful person and journalist. He was not old. Hence, his death raises many questions. Therefore, I am happy that I was friends with him and that Valentin Ivanovich included several of my facts in his book “The Mystery of the Death of Mayakovsky”, and his name in its reference apparatus.

B.C. Three of your books - “Khrushchev’s Revenge”, “Trotsky’s Beautiful Doll”, “Orthodox Leader” - are one way or another dedicated to the life and work of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who led our country in the post-Leninist fateful period. In your books you share the views of his supporters. Why is this historical figure significant to you?

V.Ts. Firstly, I am happy that I was a contemporary of the great Soviet leader and was a witness and participant in that nationwide grief of March 1953, which cannot be erased from human memory and mine in particular. Secondly, J.V. Stalin is the creator of the era of creators and winners who lived only in the interests of the country and the common people. He, better than anyone, showed in practice the inexhaustible and unlimited capabilities of Russia to tame any planetary evil, the source of which is obviously known and openly indicated by outstanding Russian patriots - S.A. Nilus, I.A. Ilin, A.S. Shmakov and others. All attempts to eradicate I.V. Stalin and his life’s feat are in vain from our consciousness. They are not new in Russian history. It always goes to those who served Russia most faithfully and faithfully. But “gets it” from pseudo-historians and pseudo-history, whose future fate is unenviable. None of them will escape responsibility. And thirdly. I am personally obliged to I.V. Stalin by his birth. I was born in 1946, and ten years before that he banned abortion in the USSR. They were criminalized in the country. So, if it weren’t for the leader, I might not have been born. How can I not thank him?!..

It is from this position of grateful memory to the great man that my three books about the leader you cited were written. They are called upon to dispel the slander in which they are trying to drown his name. However, I.V. is better. Stalin, who said: “The truth is protected by battalions of lies,” is perhaps impossible to express. The example of the unfinished Trotskyist Khrushchev is very indicative in this regard. No matter how hard he tried to thicken the black colors in his unscrupulous and fraudulent report on February 25, 1956, nothing remained of him except the personal shame of a slanderer, about whom you will not hear a single kind word today. In a vile report against I.V. Stalin was not found a single truthful fact! It was probably not for nothing that there was no place for him in the Resolution of the 20th Congress, where the name of the leader was not mentioned at all. We, playing on our gullibility, were constantly told for many years about revelations, about the cult. In another book, I sought to show the difficult pre-war situation in the USSR, in which a huge anti-Soviet Trotskyist conspiracy was ready to plunge the country into terrible chaos and suffering. I.V. Stalin resolutely stopped these attempts, constantly being in mortal danger.

To my great joy, excellent, conscientious books about the Soviet leader are now being published one after another. But this spontaneous “Stalinian” was clearly missing another one. The book “Orthodox Leader,” which I consider my main work, tried to fill the gap. Numerous excited and touched reviews of readers about it only convince that it was not undertaken in vain.

B.C. In general, can you give any assessment of today's patriotic movement? To be honest, I got the impression that it did not become a serious expression of popular feelings. What's the matter here? Isn’t there a truly talented organizer who can unite people who are sincerely concerned about the future of their country and who are offended by the desecration of its past?

V.Ts. Many years ago, I think in the 90s, I had to speak on this topic. I outlined it then specifically and definitely: “The patriotic movement is doomed to disunity.” And now I hold the same view. Why? If you look at our patriots from the outside, your eye will be dazzled by their diversity and diversity. Many such “patriots,” unfortunately, do not truly know the history of their glorious Fatherland and its outstanding personalities. We have communists, Orthodox Christians, pagans, and many others - all patriots. Some do not tolerate Orthodoxy, others - communism, others - something else... For example, the honest and famous modern scientist R.I. Kosolapov, who did a lot to further develop and publish the works of I.V. Stalin, can speak condescendingly about the holy and great Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II, denying him all his virtues. At the same time, Richard Ivanovich does not bother to understand that Russia during the last reign was at the peak of its pre-revolutionary achievements in literally all areas. It's like an eclipse!

How to fight with Orthodoxy when patriotism is an integral part of the Orthodox worldview of the Russian person? After all, our patristic faith is the mighty, indestructible foundation of Russian statehood. This has been the case for centuries. First of all, any person who considers himself a patriot of Russia should think about this.

1. C. A separate topic is your historical research into the life and work of the saints of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is, in fact, what your latest book is dedicated to. And before that, you can remember “New Friend” and a number of other works.

V.Ts. Russian history, the true presentation of which was briefly proposed by our outstanding contemporary, Metropolitan John (Snychev) in his famous work “Autocracy of the Spirit,” has not yet been fully discovered. To some extent we know, of course, incompletely, a thousand years of official Russian history. Genial M.V. Lomonosov added several more millennia to it and was right. But the already known history of Russia is extremely interesting and rich in facts and events that will not leave anyone indifferent. I started speaking with this, and then the book “Russian Valor” was born, the first publication of which took place in 2005. True, I was limited in volume by defining a very modest number of pages. In reality, this topic is vast. At the same time, she is intriguing. She makes you proud of your native Fatherland and loves it to the point of self-forgetfulness. Therefore, it is no coincidence that in our unfavorable time for publications, “Russian Valor” has already gone through four editions.

Nizhny Novgorod February 2012

The Union of Diveevo Writers at the RDK "Literary Diveevo" invites ALL lovers of the literary word to a creative evening of a member of the Russian Union of Writers

MARIA SUKHORUKOVA

During the Free Mic there will be

Video material about the work of Ivan Bunin and Fyodor Dostoevsky has been presented; the works of everyone will be performed by the author

Free admission

Reference:

Maria Arsentievna Sukhorukova was born on June 7, 1952 in the Dolgiy farmstead, Uryupinsky district, Volgograd region. Graduated from the historical and philological department of the Volgograd Pedagogical Institute. She worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in high school, as a journalist in a number of periodicals, and as a teacher.

The beginning of literary work and the first publication - 1966. Lives and works in Lyskovo, Nizhny Novgorod region.

Poet. Member of the Russian Writers' Union since 1990.

Main publications:

1. “Under the Sun”, collection of poems, Moscow, 1977.

2. “Azure”, collection of poems, Moscow, 1989.

3. “Lyskovsky chimes”, collection of poems, Moscow, 1995.

4. “Call of Heaven”, collection of poems, Nizhny Novgorod, 1997.

5. “Holy Love”, collection of poems, Nizhny Novgorod, 1997.

6. “Angels of Kindness”, collection of poems, N. Novgorod, 2001.

7. “The Tsar’s Forget-Me-Not”, collection of poems, Nizhny Novgorod, 2003.

Don Cossack Maria Sukhorukova was born on the Dolgiy farm, Uryupinsky district, Volgograd region. Graduated from the historical and philological department of the Volgograd Pedagogical Institute. She worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in a secondary school, a journalist in a number of periodicals, and a teacher.

To the other shore through Lethe

IN MEMORY OF THE POET

On March 25, 2018, an amazing, original Nizhny Novgorod woman, the beautiful Russian poetess Maria Sukhorukova, passed away. As always happens on our sinful land, especially in a creative environment, there is no prophet in his own country. Literary officials are worried whether the overseas wind will bring some Bakhyt Kenzheev to their region, or a metropolitan outcast, tired of fame and Russian history, Viktor Erofeev, and in addition to them a couple of other expensive visiting things. And to the extent that true talents live close by, on their native soil, far from public roads, from all sorts of vanities, quietly and quietly, in love for Russia, for the Russian people and the Russian word, these well-fed gentlemen have nothing to do with it. . To satisfy their own ambitions, these gentlemen need local literary Cannes, an indispensable mixture of French and Nizhny Novgorod... And such as the old half-forgotten names Fyodor Sukhov, Alexander Liukin, like the now deceased Maria Sukhorukova, the eternal homeless wanderer, the poetic bird of the sky, the Russian Orthodox Christian, the keeper of Russian history , culture, speech, the fate of Russia, the flesh of their people - they don’t remember, they don’t know, because on their difficult and painful biographies, on their honest and noble creativity, on their selfless service to the Fatherland, you can’t promote yourself, you can’t show off your own dubious talents , you won’t join the “civilized” Western world!..

Alas, fellow writers often also do not indulge their strange, odd, “spiritually thirsty” fellow countrymen and fellow writers, with love and attention. Maria Sukhorukova followed this path for many years, beloved by simple listeners, ordinary people, inhabitants of monasteries and Russian hinterlands, blessed on her path by simple village priests and holy elders...

Businessmen from literature will never know the bright and pure happiness that the Russian wanderer Maria Sukhorukova knew on a difficult land, they will never know the happiness that she will know in eternity, in the memory of the Russian people...

Let us pray for the newly deceased servant of God Mary.

I am attaching to these bitter lines my essay, written two years ago for the book of poems by Maria Sukhorukova “Fragrant Sounds”. It is a great joy for me that I managed to say words of respect and recognition to the true Poet during his lifetime.

Gennady KRASNIKOV,
25.3.18

WHAT'S IN MARIA'S BACK

Therefore we also, having such a cloud of witnesses around us, let us lay aside every burden and the sin that besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1, 2

It happens that you listen to the performances of modern poets at today's poetry evenings, see how sophisticatedly and slyly they weave philological snares, intended exclusively for “initiates” who can enthusiastically appreciate all this spectacular verbal imitation of thoughts and feelings, and you think - but, perhaps, among of such a “highbrow” public would have been lost, ridiculed, at best condescendingly listened to as a primitive simpleton who had come to the wrong address, the one with disheveled gray hair, with a glowing gaze through the shiny lenses of glasses, in the usual carelessly unbuttoned tailcoat, would have read here his such a simple and discreet poem:

These poor villages
This meager nature
The native land of long-suffering,
You are the edge of the Russian people!
He won’t understand or notice
Proud look of a foreigner
What shines through and secretly shines
In your humble nakedness.
Dejected by the burden of the godmother,
All of you, dear land,
In slave form, the King of Heaven
He came out blessing.

This is how, at first glance, similar to Tyutchev’s lines given here (without comparing the authors!), the verses of the Nizhny Novgorod poetess Maria Sukhorukova look simple, simple-minded and pure in their pristine essence...

The fact that Maria Sukhorukova is a natural, original Poet, once I saw her for the first time in person, heard how she read what she wrote, learned how she lives (only birds of the sky live like that!..) - I was convinced without any doubt. I just couldn’t determine for myself what the charm of simplicity and some kind of trusting openness to the world of her poems was. This is how primitivist artists paint; This is how Ksenia Nekrasova wrote down her picturesque lines in capital letters like a child...

Here are the poetic drawings of Maria Sukhorukova:

The sky rolls the earth in its palms,
Star dust at night dust.
Melts like a blue snowflake
And the earth will never melt...
(« Blue snowflake»)

* * *
The snow did not reach the ground,
I couldn’t touch her, the spring one.
And he melted, as if he knew
That he couldn't stay here.

This is how they believe, as Elder Grigory Dolbunov said, “purely, from the soul, from the heart” (after all, it is “the pure in heart who will see God,” and all Russian philosophy is the philosophy of the heart!)... Maria Sukhorukova sees and feels pictures of today’s world with her heart:

I hear heavenly sighs
In which thunderstorms are clean.
The darker the eyes of the era,
More radiant are the Eyes of Christ.

This poetry, on a cultural and genetic level, remembers, knows, feels the poetry of Koltsov-Nikitin-Nekrasov-Yesenin-Rubtsov-Sukhov... It also contains the music of Glinka, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Sviridov, Gavrilin... - just like in any Russian heart, in the Russian word , even from those who, unfortunately, have not heard this music (and they don’t favor it now), but Russian composers took this music from such Russian souls.

Without the cross, all words are empty,
The cross is like rain in the middle of a hot land.
Only through bearing the cross
God will hear singing souls.
(« Poetic Cross", dedication to the poet F. Sukhov)

So bird cherry, so thyme, so wormwood (emshan-grass from the poem by A. Maykov) - every year they are not only born and appear in the world with their newness, transmitting and remembering the aromas and smells that were before us, will be with us and after us:

The hot rain touched me
With your gently cool little fingers.
By the gentle lake, by Pletnya,
The soul enjoyed the sweet flowers.
Saw aromas of wormwood, cloves
And tansy, and clover, mint, oregano.
And the green tongue comprehended the grass,
And the babble of thick meadow fescue...
It was August, it brought a new century,
It’s no longer the twentieth, but the twenty-first century.
I recognized him on the grass:
Wheeled, wrinkled, rough and nervous.
And I yearned for the past, dear,
About the neighing of horses with their fragrant breath,
About the house with fresh cow's milk,
About Grandma Duna with a clean milk pan...
(« Under the August thunderstorm»)

Outwardly, Sukhorukova’s poetics seem simple - no frills or formal tricks, no spicy seasoning to lure the reader. But in this simplicity there is the transparency of a spring, the transparency of the sky, through which the Russian soul, Russian destiny shines through. The same simplicity that such a brilliant intellectual as Tyutchev said: “He will not understand and will not notice // The proud gaze of a foreigner, // What shines through and secretly shines // In your humble beauty...” That’s why Mary’s poems are sung this way, this is how they set to music Sukhorukova, to which folk musicians and professionals write songs. For them, her words are freedom, since the melody is already embedded in her poems, in her rhythms, in the breath of the lines.

And in the photographs, which are so organically, like illustrations for poetry, abundantly included in her books, she almost always smiles. Just as Bunin’s wonderful story “Birds of Heaven” tells of a meeting in the bitter cold of a student and a beggar wanderer:

“Frozen, old man? - the student shouted with feigned cheerfulness.
The beggar paused and took a deep breath, opening his mouth, raising his chest and shoulders.
“No,” he answered unexpectedly simply and even as if cheerfully...”
And to the surprised question: “Isn’t that bad for you?”, he answered: “Only the demon is poor, there is no cross on him. And I live for myself..."...

In the poem “Song of the Lord,” one of the characteristic poems in her entire work, Maria Sukhorukova seems to echo the words of Bunin’s hero:

All the birches are in the cold,
Snow among the plains.
Lord, my Lord,
You are alone with me...
The sky is in wonderful gold,
Rivers of silver fur.
And when you are with me,
I'm richer than everyone...

After reading Sukhorukova’s poem “The Tale of the Small Village of Ochaikha,” I accidentally found the key to her poetics. Yes - this is exactly a tale, and the fabulousness of her poems is obvious, as in Leskov’s stories, as in Russian folklore, as in Vladimir Dahl. This is how the old wandering women from Ostrovsky’s plays carried news, rumors, folk myths and legends home. So once upon a time, in my native Kursk village of Krasnikovo, in the house of my grandmother Olga Afanasyevna, a wanderer appeared - Aunt Kulina (Akulina), who came every year before winter with a bag of crackers and left with the first warm days of spring - to celebrate Christ and pray in holy places , and to collect Russian speech, Russian tales throughout Russia, both happened and not, collecting Russian life, Russian folk history, Russian share from the bitter and bright Russian bottoms. And after my grandmother’s death, she stayed in the house for several years to help orphans. But one spring, like a migratory bird, having nevertheless felt something, she got ready to set off on the road and never returned, left, dissolved in Mother Russia, just as the poet-wanderer Alexander Dobrolyubov left and disappeared without a trace at the beginning of the last century, how, according to legend, Tsar Alexander left - becoming Fyodor Kuzmich. This is the one who was Emperor Alexander the First - “blessed”, as the people called him, “our angel”, as they said at court...

That is why Sukhorukova has an abundance of poems - like in that knapsack of wanderers with stories and tales, like songs in the hands of travelers. Not all poems, perhaps, are artistically equivalent, but they are still priceless, like those crackers and that little thing, collected for Christ's sake throughout the world in order not to die of hunger, when no one listens to anyone, does not want to listen or hear. These are a kind of simple-hearted prayers, praises to God, to God’s creation, where today it is so uncomfortable and you so want to be in silence, alone with nature, with the Motherland, with your thoughts, with departed loved ones...

Again the dew watered my hands,
And bare feet - in the dew.
I, almost like everyone else, love Russia,
But in the end it’s not like everyone else.

Touch every leaf and flower.
They are different in the midst of existence.
I am the only one like this with God,
And there will be no one like me here...
Isn’t that why we gravitate towards each other?
As long as the star burns.
That's why I want to communicate,
Because no one will repeat us.
(« Uniqueness»)

You don’t have to read her poems in a row, but simply open them on any page, as if putting your hand into a wanderer’s bag, not knowing what you will come across this time, but knowing for sure that it will still be a small piece of the word discovered in the wanderings, discovered by the poet, peace. Selflessness is the motive of these verses, contemplation, thanksgiving, compassion, immeasurable love:

For the birds in the forest, for the south in the warmth,
For being the Nourisher of all colors,
For all nature on earth
Thank You, Creator.
I sing Your gardens in bloom
And in the sun there is a path and an alley.
You created all the beauty
And he himself was touched by her.
(« Thanksgiving»)

In her poems, echoes and echoes with the native voices of Rubtsov and Sukhov sound so natural and organic:

My eyes are filled with water,
The tracks are overgrown with swan.
My ship is stuck aground.
The flesh hears the attraction of the earth.
And the birches call your feet into the forest.
But the soul lacks heaven.
(« Lacks»)

A Don Cossack by birth, in her not only the late humility “not of this world” is expressed in poetry, but also the volcano of passions “of this world,” even if subsiding, forgotten, erupts in poems-memories:

I asked God for bread.
And during the day
The sky ran towards me
Let's rain.
The garden rustled with apple blossoms
Light.
Indian summer is rosy within me
It was blooming.
May sang like a nightingale in the undergrowth,
In forests,
That all the curtains froze
In houses.
I opened the windows merrily
Shoulder
I asked the sky to walk around the hall
Beam...
This happened for ten to twenty years
Back.
The years fly, they sparkle,
They're burning...
(« The years are burning»)

As a true poet, Maria Sukhorukova always felt her otherness, dissimilarity, uniqueness:

People have ceilings.
I'm breaking up about them
I strive into the distance from longing
And I smile at the flowers
(« People have ceilings...»)

But this is by no means pride, but a through line that runs through all her poetry, through her entire fate, through the fate of the Russian woman - the Orthodox perception of the world as a unique creation of God, where “ Every leaf of God is not superfluous", Where:

Nothing is alike.
Uniqueness reigns everywhere.
Everything, everything is God's creation
It speaks of the wealth of the Creator.
Oh, the Lord's diversity!
Having suffered and burning in beauty,
I will go forever into irrevocability.
But I won’t leave like everyone else.
(« The Lord's diversity») -

Such is “pride”, which in fact is the highest humility and admiration before the Creator and First Artist of the world!..

What does she collect, what news, what sorrows and joys in Maria Sukhorukova’s wandering poetic bag? No, she is not a passive contemplator and guardian; in every poem, in every line, she brings her brick, her log, her straw to the creation of the temple, nature, and Motherland. Even her suffering is creative, since it preserves lost origins:

There are no farms, only thorns.
No cattle, no people.
The sorrow of the weeping birches is silent.
There are not even a scattering of lights.
Lights flicker here and there,
Reviving everything discreetly.
One dog in the village barks,
And even then he’s a stray here,
Red, like clay on a hill,
This dog is named Ryzhik.
Life around is like wormwood and viburnum,
The bitterness in her is from the bitterest tears.

Behind the external simplicity of her poems, in fact, lies the true skill of the poet; Sukhorukova brilliantly masters the form where the plot and artistic task require it. This is evidenced by both her short miniatures given above and such sophisticated and in their own way exquisite poems:

The song fire burns me.
I can't sleep, my friend.
Lunar headlight. The space is yellow.
A forest without leaves, a meadow without flowers...
And the trail goes into emptiness,
And winter touches the lips.
My youth is long gone,
I hear the snow crunching in the clouds.
I return to the pain of poetry again.
And my ears are ringing.
Only in the morning into my chest, into my blood
A dream floats like a white sail.
(« White sail»)

Only mastery of form allows Maria Sukhorukova to create, for example, the following poems:

The horse hung his red bangs
On the green shoulders of the hillock,
The quail repeats incessantly:

The moon smiles innocently,
The yard smells like dry hay,
Mother shouts to her playful son:
“It’s time to sleep... It’s time to sleep... It’s time to sleep...”
The night comes silently, silently,
And there is silence until the morning,
And she sings lovingly:
“It’s time to sleep... It’s time to sleep... It’s time to sleep...”

Such poems should be included in all anthologies and studied at school, teaching love for the Motherland, for native nature, for the unclouded spring of Russian speech...

Maria Sukhorukova’s new book “Fragrant Sounds,” like almost all of her books in recent years, is like a herbarium of leaves, page after page lined with photographs of Irina Vysotskaya. So, once upon a time, the wonderful Russian poet, participant in the Great Patriotic War, Fyodor Sukhov (husband of Maria Sukhorukova), loved to include wild flowers and herbs from Russian fields and meadows in every letter he sent to all his addressees (I myself have several of his letters with dried blue forget-me-nots, with stalks of clover...). Like these simple and dear to every Russian heart, forget-me-nots, cornflowers, bells, and cuckoo’s tears, the sweet and touching photographs of Irina Vysotskaya are perceived among the poems of Maria Sukhorukova, adding a special volume and spaciousness to the poet’s poems of Russia... That is why the lines of gratitude to Irina sound so quietly and heartily in the book - a faithful friend and assistant in all works and concerns:

I met at dawn
With a big twist.
The Lord united me
At that time with Irina.

She and I are going to church to pray,
We don't lose hearts.
We publish books with her,
We love nature...
(« My Irina»)

The book “Fragrant Sounds,” as stated by the author, is dedicated “As a consolation to the abbot of the Oran monastery, Archimandrite Nektary (Marchenko) in the year of the 380th anniversary of the Oran monastery.” Which is also no coincidence. Maria Sukhorukova, year after year, in mysterious ways goes to the Truth, seeks this Truth in holy places, falling to holy springs, to wonderful elders and prayer books, such as Archimandrite Nektary, to those like the great noble prince Dmitry Donskoy, Tsar-martyr Nicholas II and his family, the Venerable Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, as were our contemporaries, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga John (Snychev), Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev), Blessed Elder Martha of Tsaritsyn, Elder Mikhail Khabarsky, Father Grigory Dolbunov, Schema-nun Maria (Kudimova)… Falling to all that host of “clouds of witnesses” by which a person is saved in Rus', for, as Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky said: “a Russian man without a cross is a rogue”...

Maria Sukhorukova, with all her creativity, with all her destiny, leads the reader along earthly and spiritual, poetic paths, showing how difficult and how sweet it is to come to simple discoveries given as grace:

I'm at the church door
I’m still in a hurry in the human circle.
I would like to fall at the Feet of God
Golden petal...

@Gennady Krasnikov,
2015 - 2018

It is very joyful that the “Russian People's Line”, which I respect, has recently twice paid attention to the remarkable historical personality of His Serene Highness Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Gruzinsky, the creator of the Nizhny Novgorod people's militia of 1812 against Napoleon and for thirty years the provincial leader of the nobility. In the first material "Comes from the Bible » famous publicist Sergei Skatov spoke about participationNizhny Novgorod branch “Russian Assembly” in celebrations on the Day of Remembrance of Prince George of Georgia - May 28 this Vthe city of Lyskovo, Nizhny Novgorod region (once the prince’s family estate). Then in the article “Say a word about Prince Gruzinsky! » Irina Vysotskaya,the director of the Nizhny Novgorod charitable foundation "Mecenat", my long-term publisher, rebuffed the "devastating" review of my book "From the Line of David", dedicated to the prince, by the philosopher and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of two convocations from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation N. Benediktov... The author of the review sees in Prince Georgiy Gruzinsky a typical tsarist landowner - “tyrant”, and if he did something good in life, it was this"arrogant whim."

AS AN INSTITUTOR and author-compiler of a book “From the line of David”, too I can’t resist a few remarks about the review of the communist doctor of philosophy N. Benediktova. And in conclusion, I offer a biography of the prince that I compiled (included in the book). It is not large in volume, but I think it can fill in many of the “gaps” in the prince’s biography.

But first, a few words about why the figure of the prince so excited me that a book about him was written and published.

I am no stranger to Lyskovo - I lived here for 16 years. And I know perfectly well why this regional center should be primarily famous. Not beer or apple wine, not sausages or grain granaries, but its epoch-making great people! One of them is the thoroughly Russified His Serene Highness Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Gruzinsky. Once upon a time, the small town of Lyskovo, the former village, was primarily famous and important for this person.

For a long time I nurtured my thoughts about Prince George, my love for him and my reverent attitude.

I met Mother Maria (Kudinova), schema-nun of the Makarievsky Zheltovodsky Monastery, who later became my spiritual mother, a long time ago, when she had just arrived, by the Will of God, to pray in the ruined monastery, where there was a complete abomination of desolation. We sat with mother and talked on the banks of the Volga, and talked about Prince Gruzinsky.

Mother did not approve of those people who defamed the prince and are still defaming him. And she said deeply in a firm voice: “We must state the positive, especially since the dead have no shame. In addition, he was a zealous man of prayer and knew how to openly and sincerely repent.” And Mother Maria even then blessed me to write a book about the prince and expose people who tell lies about him.

My spiritual father, the famous Moscow writer-theologian Archpriest Mikhail Trukhanov, also called me to this and also gave his blessing.

The popularly venerable Archimandrite Nektary (Marchenko), abbot of the Oransky Mother of God Monastery, values ​​Prince Georgy Alexandrovich of Gruzinsky very highly. And with his prayerful help, the book “From the Line of David” was written and published.

I was not the only one who wrote about the prince. A few years ago, for example, a book was published by Lyskovsky local historian and local school teacher A.N. Myasnikova “Prince Gruzinsky and his capital - the village of Lyskovo.” On polished shiny paper, with color illustrations. Unfortunately, there are a lot of dubious tales in her book about the prince, made up from nothing. However, everything is in the traditions of the Bolshevik education system. The author's foamy emotions overwhelm sound logic and often resemble village women's gossip.

Albina Nikolaevna called the prince her “horse”, which, therefore, can be mercilessly curbed and hit on the sides. She fought with us more than once (I mean Irina Vysotskaya and myself) both in personal meetings and through the Lyskovskaya newspaper “Privolzhskaya Pravda”. I was offended that we publish books so often.

Evil and envy destroy a person, the Lord gives everything good through prayers to Him and petitions... It is regrettable that A.N. Myasnikova died suddenly, without having time to come to church and repent, put on a cross and sigh about her mistakes. Have mercy, Lord, and forgive her sinful soul.

I once wrote in poetry: “... communist arrogance is tormenting my Motherland”!

My own grandfather, priest John Makarov, the martyr of Solovkov, had the good fortune to communicate with Pavel Florensky and died for the Orthodox faith at the Solovetsky Gologath. I was there at one time with my husband, the famous front-line poet Fyodor Grigorievich Sukhov, who left the ranks of the CPSU; walked in the footsteps of my grandfather's suffering. My grandfather John wrote poetry, spoke bold sermons about the Tsarist power, for which he was executed by the Bolsheviks. God forbid that you come into contact with them and have disputes, for in disputes with atheists you will never achieve the truth, but there will only be confusion and “branch fights.” Where there is no peace, there is no God. God, as you know, is the Chief of silence.

Worldly philosophy does not give birth to Prophets. Prophets are born from love and standing in prayer for each other.

And again I return to the prince.

The venerable His Serene Highness Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Gruzinsky constantly and tirelessly read the Psalter and Gospel, sang in the choir, humbled to the point of death, declaring himself once dead for three years during his lifetime. Who is capable of this?! Proud - no way. The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And generous grace coming from the Prince is poured out onto the lands of Lyskov and Nizhny Novgorod. And I am not indifferent to the people who are mired in the “mists of philosophy”:

It's a pity, Nikolai Benediktov

Evil is overflowing.

From behind his glasses he looks, frowning,

For him, a prince is a tyrant prince.

Communist evil

It fell like a log for the philosopher,

It fell on my shoulders and chest.

You know, such evil is not easy

Carry along the black path,

And we should get off it.

And take the white, narrow path,

Yes, and shake off the sins from the soul,

Pray, repent in churches,

Have the Fear of the Lord in you,

The result is only good.

It is the holy core of love.

Widows do their mite

And don't judge anyone

Moreover, of royal blood

Highly moral people

What was the Georgian Prince like?

It contains conscience and honor

Shines with God's fire

And everything is brighter every day.

And the philosophical gray darkness -

What a pack of fierce dogs.

Our Prince is truly mighty,

There is a wonderful ray of the Sun-God in it,

He knows how to burn all lies.

Amen. What else can I say?

Everything has been said. The heights sigh.

Arise, philosopher, pray.

The dreams are over, it's time to get up

And drive away the fogs from the yard!

There is, there is something to think about here as you blaze your saving path - towards God.

Maria Sukhorukova, member of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the “Russian Assembly”,member of the Writers' Union of Russia, full member of the Academy of Russian Literature and Fine Arts named after G.R. Derzhavina, professor

BIO OF THE HIGHEST REVERENCE PRINCE GEORGE ALEXANDROVICH GRUSINSKY

(Maria Sukhorukova - based on the book “From the Line of David”: publishing house “Vertical XXI Century”, charitable foundation “Maecenas”, N. Novgorod, 2013. pp. 4-13)

Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Gruzinsky was born on November 2 (November 15 according to the new style) 1762 in Russia. Its roots come from the ruling kings of the Georgian land, descended from the Old Testament king, Prophet and Psalmist David.

His parents were Tsarevich Alexander Bakarovich and Countess Daria Alexandrovna Menshikova. Grandfather - Georgian king Bakar Vakhtangovich, great-grandfather - King Vakhtang VI. He was raised by his pious grandmother Anna Georgievna Aragvis-Eristava.

Georgy received an excellent education, knew many languages, studied history, geography, artillery, and architecture. I constantly read the Gospel and the Psalter.

At one time, the prince lived in the capital of Russia at that time - in St. Petersburg, where his aunt Elizaveta Bakarovna, brilliantly educated and deeply religious, was involved in his upbringing.

In his youth, Georgy Alexandrovich also lived in the rich village of Vsekhsvyatskoye near Moscow in the palace of his noble relatives. But when the St. Petersburg Highway was built through the village, Prince Gruzinsky Georgy Alexandrovich left for the village of Lyskovo, Nizhny Novgorod province, which was granted to the Gruzinsky princes by Tsar Peter I back in 1700.

In Lyskovo, Prince G.A. Georgian would live O most of my life. Under his ownership, the village of Lyskovo began to be called the capital of Prince Gruzinsky. It was famous throughout the world for its Makaryevskaya Fair. In Lyskovo there were more than a thousand houses, solid, two-story, with storage rooms. Near the Volga there is a huge pier where steamships and barges with bread stopped. More than a hundred winged mills rose on the hills. Various crafts flourished in the village: leatherworking, pottery, carpentry, carpentry, weaving, keyworking, tinsmithing, and blacksmithing.

The Prince of Georgia was an active, energetic man, lively in character, Orthodox in essence, the custodian of many shrines: particles of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the cross of St. Nina, the cross of the Holy Prophet John the Baptist, the hand of St. Anastasia the Roman and other shrines brought to Russia by the prince’s royal ancestors.

In Lyskovo, Prince Gruzinsky had a rich palace, built according to Rastrelli’s design, which was surrounded by a huge garden with greenhouses and greenhouses, and a picturesque park. Near the palace there were various warehouses, servants' quarters, stables and carriage houses.

Living luxuriously and richly, the prince did not forget his prayers to the Lord. With his funds, an architectural ensemble was erected in the center of the village, consisting of the beautiful Ascension Church and four L-shaped buildings around it: a religious school building, a bell building and shopping arcades. The ensemble was built in honor of the victory of the Russian army over Napoleon.

The prince tirelessly cared about people's lives and their well-being. He built a hospital and a library. His footmen were smart and clean. The prince loved to feed people. He received runaway peasants, soldiers, wanderers, supported beggars and orphans, warmed widows and cripples.

The prince had a strict disposition, loved discipline and order, denounced and severely punished immoral people - parasites, thieves, deceivers coveting other people's wealth, drunkards, fornicators, debauchees. Sometimes he himself held court: if necessary -

with a whip, or even a fist, so that it would be discouraging to sin more and tempt others to sin.

The prince not only lived with money, but also made it. In the city of Makarievo he had a cloth factory, in the village of Negonov - a stud farm, and in Lyskovo - a distillery and brewery. Under him, there was a brisk trade in Lyskovo in wax, salt, leather, iron, and horses.

On the opening day of the fair, the prince arrived at the Makaryevsky Monastery on twelve horses drawn by a train, in a gilded, truly royal carriage. Church services led by the archimandrite did not begin without him. The Lord Himself seemed to say that the prince was His worthy chosen one. On his chest the prince always wore particles of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord. The prince did honor to his fair and his churches.

The prince was a legendary figure. For 30 years he was elected provincial leader of the Nizhny Novgorod nobility. He was revered and respected in the most educated circles of Russia.

Following the example of the Nizhny Novgorod elder Cosma Minin, he called on the nobles to invest their funds in the Militia of 1812, and he himself led this Militia from Nizhny Novgorod.

The prince gave extensive charity to monasteries, churches, hospitals, shelters, hospice houses, and night shelters.

Over the years, the prince became wiser, more sedate, confessed and received communion more often, tearfully repented and asked for forgiveness from the people whom he had offended in the heat of the moment. The prince loved to sing in the choir. The service in St. George's Church under him was conducted in Georgian. Until his death, he did not forget how to speak his native Georgian language.

He raised his children Anna and Ivan in the deep Orthodox faith, virtually alone, since his wife Varvara Nikolaevna Bakhmeteva, being a sick person, died early. The prince was very sad when his son Ivan got involved with the Decembrists. He told his son: “I don’t support your whims.”

Anna absorbed the best traits of her father. She led a strict monastic lifestyle and was distinguished by her boundless mercy and gift of charity. As Countess Tolstoy, Anna gave shelter to the great spiritual writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in her Moscow palace on Nikitsky Boulevard.

The prince, feeling the attack of black forces on Russia, heartily suffered that society was becoming godless and morally sick, striving to plunder and destroy everything. He was deeply worried that Holy Tsarist Rus' was losing itself, pride, self-will, and disrespect for those in power were taking over.

In 1999, the year of the millennium of the appearance of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, miracles began to occur on Lyskovskaya land.

On the night of November 13, two days before the birth of Prince G.A. Gruzinsky, Elena Viktorovna Maslova, who actively helped in the restoration of the Transfiguration Cathedral, had a dream: some unfamiliar man said to her: “Why do you keep walking all over me?” Arriving at the cathedral, Elena Viktorovna realized that she kept stepping on some rough slab stained with cement. With the help of her husband, son and another woman, she turned the slab over. It turned out that it was the tombstone of the prince himself

Georgy Alexandrovich Gruzinsky.

Simultaneously with this miracle, images of Saints and Angels, previously hidden, began to clearly appear on the walls of the temple and on the inside of the dome of the cathedral.

On the eve of the 240th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of his dormition, the prince revealed a new miracle. An evening of his memory was being prepared at the Noble Assembly of the city of Nizhny Novgorod, where the Georgian community was to take part. The Maecenas Charitable Foundation, the initiator of the evening, developed a postcard about the prince for publication. But the printing press suddenly broke down, and we had to wait for a technician to repair it. With a prayerful appeal to Prince Georgy Alexandrovich, the machine was repaired. The organizers of the evening read an akathist every day to the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, patron of Prince G.A. Georgian. And the photograph depicting the house in which the prince lived in Lyskovo became covered with oily stains and began to smell fragrant.

All these phenomena tell us that the Lord Himself glorifies His chosen one.

Your Serene Highness, the Honorable Prince George, pray to God for us sinners!

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