DOCSLIB.ORG

NEW ZION in BABYLON the Orthodox Church in the Twentieth Century

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
NEW ZION in BABYLON the Orthodox Church in the Twentieth Century NEW ZION IN BABYLON The Orthodox Church in the Twentieth Century Vladimir Moss Copyright: Vladimir Moss, 2010 Thou hast perfected the New Zion instead of the old through Thy precious Blood. Octoechos, Tone 8, Sunday, Mattins, Canon, Canticle Six, Troparion. [In the Church] one must get to the bottom of the problems, so as to eradicate the sickness from its very root. St. Basil the Great, Letter 156. Having no strength in their own teaching, they [the heretics] hunt for it in our weakness, and for this reason, like flies settling on wounds, they settle on our misfortunes – or should I say, mistakes? St. Gregory the Theologian, Sermon 27, 5. A want of zeal in small matters is the cause of all our calamities; and because slight errors escape fitting correction, greater ones creep in. St. John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Galatians. 2 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................4 PART I. SOWING THE WIND (1901-1917) ...........................................................6 Tsar Nicholas II and the Collective Antichrist ..........................................................6 The Origins of the Antichrist: (1) Communism........................................................11 The Origins of the Antichrist: (2) Ecumenism .........................................................26 Nationalism and Regicide in the Balkans ................................................................33 The Orthodox Churches and “Proto-Ecumenism”..................................................36 The Russian Church and the Intelligentsia: (1) Church-State Relations ................44 The Russian Church and the Intelligentsia: (2) Tolstoyism.....................................48 The Russian Church and the Intelligentsia: (3) Monasticism .................................50 The Russian Church and the Intelligentsia: (4) The New Theology........................53 The Sarov Days ........................................................................................................56 The Russo-Japanese War .........................................................................................59 Bloody Sunday .........................................................................................................64 Pobedonostsev’s Last Stand.....................................................................................66 The April Decree and the October Manifesto..........................................................70 The Church and the Jews.........................................................................................79 The Pre-Conciliar Convention.................................................................................83 Turmoil in the Western Borderlands........................................................................86 Georgian Autocephaly .............................................................................................93 The Beilis Trial ........................................................................................................98 The Struggle against Rasputin...............................................................................108 The Name-Worshipping Heresy.............................................................................117 The Balkan Wars and Albanian Statehood ............................................................122 Sarajevo .................................................................................................................129 Germany and Russia..............................................................................................134 The War and the Revolution ..................................................................................139 The Plot..................................................................................................................146 The Abdication of the Tsar.....................................................................................150 The Church and the February Revolution .............................................................156 Three Visions of 1917 ............................................................................................162 3 INTRODUCTION The subject of this book is the titanic struggle between the Orthodox Church and the Revolution in the twentieth century – both the communist revolution in the East, and the liberal-ecumenist revolution in the West. This struggle has involved hundreds of millions of people on several continents, and produced millions of martyrs. And yet, considered as a whole, it has gone largely unrecorded, at any rate in the English language.1 There are several reasons for this. One is that the historical documents recording this struggle are to be found mainly in obscure journals written in Russian or Greek that are not accessible to many English-speaking writers. Another is that in order to understand this struggle, since it is a spiritual one, it is necessary to take part in it. In other words, this struggle is not a theme for objective historical research in the usual sense: while historical objectivity is necessary, it must be mixed with faith, faith in the truth of the Church and her ultimate triumph over falsehood and evil. Thirdly and most seriously, however, to many, even to many Orthodox Christians, it looks as if the struggle has been lost, that “True Orthodoxy”, that is, the Orthodoxy which refuses to compromise in any way with the Revolution, has failed in the Darwinian struggle for survival; which must give it, in their imagination, the aspect of a gallant, but essentially vain, even harmful, attempt to hold up the inevitable course of history and progress. The thought arising in the minds of many that True Orthodoxy has lost the struggle is elicited particularly by its sadly divided state today. And yet it must be remembered that such a situation is by no means unprecedented in Church history. Thus in the fourth century St. Hilary of Poitiers wrote: “Since the Nicene Council, we have done nothing but rewrite creeds. While we fight about words, inquire about novelties, take advantage of ambiguities, criticize authors, fight on party questions, have difficulties in agreeing, and prepare to anathematize each other, there is scarcely a man who belongs to Christ, Take, for example, last year’s creed, what alteration is there not in it already? First, we have a creed which bids us not to use the Nicene ‘consubstantial’; then comes another, which decrees and preaches it; next, the third excuses the word ‘substance’, as adopted by the Fathers in their simplicity; lastly, the fourth, which instead of excusing, condemns. We determine creeds by the year or the month, we change our own determinations, we prohibit our changes, we anathematize our prohibitions. Thus, we either condemn others in our own persons, or ourselves in the instance of others, while we bite and devour one another, and are like to be consumed one of another.”2 1 The present work is a greatly expanded and revised version of The Orthodox Church at the Crossroads, 1917-1999 (Pravoslavnaia Tserkov’ na pereputie, 1917-1999 gg.), which was published in Russian in St. Petersburg in 2001 and Letopis’Velikoj Bitke (Chronicle of a Great Battle,) published in Serbian in Belgrade in 2006. 2 St. Hilary, Ad Const. ii, 4, 5; quoted by Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston in his “Statement on Grace, March, 2003”. St. Hilary’s younger contemporary, St. Basil the Great, spoke still more 4 This book is written in the firm belief that, however discouraging the present picture, the struggle for the True Faith is not over, and that this struggle is not only not vain, but of the very first importance; but that if True Orthodoxy is to triumph again, as the prophecies of the Holy Fathers indicate it will, lessons must be drawn from the history of the hundred years or so that have elapsed since it began – lessons that are drawn in the course of this book. These lessons are partly dogmatic in nature; for, like previous such struggles in the history of the Church, the struggle between Orthodoxy and the Revolution in the twentieth century has had the good consequence of providing the opportunity, through the necessity of struggling with heresy, of clarifying the Church’s teaching – in this case, the Church’s teaching on herself. For it has revolved around such questions as: In what sense is the Church One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, as the Nicene Creed defines her? Is she truly of Divine origin and nature, or is she a purely human organization? Does she evolve in her teachings and practice, or does she remain the same? What is the nature of her unity? What is her relation to the State and different forms of governmental power? Does she embrace all the vast multitudes who call themselves Christian today, or is she the gathering of a small faithful remnant on earth? Is she truly the only Ark of salvation, or only one of many roads leading to God? By the end of this book, therefore, I hope that clearer answers to these questions will have emerged. Since this work is confessional as well as historical in nature, I owe much not only to the historical sources I list in the footnotes, but also to my teachers in the faith, the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Orthodox Church. And in particular I should like to dedicate this work to the hierarch who received me into the Orthodox Church and whose confession of the faith I have tried to emulate – Archbishop Nicodemus of Richmond and Great Britain of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A History of the Fall of Rocor, 2000-2007
    A HISTORY OF THE FALL OF ROCOR, 2000-2007 Vladimir Moss If you see lying and hypocrisy, expose them in front of all, even if they are clothed in purple and fine linen. Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) of New York (1906) Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Revelation 3.11; the last words of St. Philaret of New York (1985) The Holy Flesh hath passed from thee. Jeremiah 11.15 © Copyright Vladimir Moss 2011. All Rights Reserved. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: THE 1990s ..............................................................................3 I. “THE SECOND OCTOBER REVOLUTION”................................................21 II. THE FALL OF THE NEW YORK SYNOD ...................................................26 III. THE CREATION OF THE MANSONVILLE SYNOD...............................36 IV. THE RUSSIAN TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH.........................................46 V. THE PLOTTERS FALL INTO THEIR OWN PIT.........................................55 VI. HERESY AND CORRUPTION IN SUZDAL..............................................61 VII. THE END-GAME ..........................................................................................74 CONCLUSION: THE HOLY REMNANT.........................................................81 2 INTRODUCTION: THE 1990s Who hath remained among you that has seen this House in its former glory, and how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes as it were nothing? But take heart now... Haggai 2.3-4. The return of the Russian Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) to Russia in 1990 after almost seventy years’ exile was undoubtedly one of the most significant events in Church history, comparable to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after the seventy-year exile in Babylon. And yet this momentous step was taken almost casually, without sufficient forethought or a clearly defined strategy. Hence difficult problems arose, problems that had their roots deep in ROCOR’s past history.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holy New Martyrs of Northern and Western Russia, Belorussia and the Baltic Introduction
    THE HOLY NEW MARTYRS OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN RUSSIA, BELORUSSIA AND THE BALTIC INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................3 1. HIEROMARTYR BARSANUPHIUS, BISHOP OF KIRILLOV ................................................5 2. HIEROMARTYR NICON, ARCHBISHOP OF VOLOGDA ....................................................9 3. HIEROMARTYR PLATO, BISHOP OF REVEL (TALLINN).................................................11 4. HIEROMARTYR EUGENE, BISHOP OF OLONETS .............................................................16 5. HIEROMARTYR BENJAMIN, METROPOLITAN OF PETROGRAD .................................17 6. HIEROMARTYR BARNABAS, ARCHBISHOP OF ARCHANGELSK ................................31 7. HIEROMARTYR JOSEPH, BISHOP OF VALDAI ..................................................................32 8. HIEROMARTYR HIEROTHEUS, BISHOP OF VELIKY USTIUG ........................................33 9. HIEROCONFESSOR EUTHYMIUS, BISHOP OF OLONETS ...............................................53 10. HIEROCONFESSOR NICHOLAS, BISHOP OF VELSK ......................................................54 11. HIEROMARTYR ANTHONY, ARCHBISHOP OF ARCHANGELSK..............................55 12. HIEROCONFESSOR MACARIUS, BISHOP OF CHEREPOVETS .....................................61 13. HIEROCONFESSOR BARSANUPHIUS, BISHOP OF KARGOPOL ..................................63 14. HIEROMARTYR JOHN, ARCHBISHOP OF RIGA..............................................................65
    [Show full text]
  • Romanov News Новости Романовых
    Romanov News Новости Романовых By Ludmila & Paul Kulikovsky №115 October 2017 Monument to Emperor Alexander III the Peacemaker in Livadia. Photo by Archpriest Dmitry Gotskalyuk Monument to Emperor Alexander III is in place in Livadia October 18, the long-awaited monument to Emperor Alexander III was put in its place, in the park of the Livadia Palace. The monument is made by sculptor Andrei Kovalchuk. The opening of the monument will take place later in November. "It is also necessary to put asphalt and bring the territory around the monument in order" it is said. First it was planned to open the monument on the 123 years since the death of Alexander III (he died on November 1, 1894), but then it was postponed. In 1894 Emperor Alexander III became ill with terminal kidney disease (nephritis). In the fall of that year, Maria Feodorovna's sister-in-law, Queen Olga of Greece, offered her villa of Mon Repos, on the island of Corfu, in the hope that it might improve the Emperor's condition. However, when they reached Crimea, they stayed at the Maly Palace in Livadia, as Alexander was too weak to travel any further. Recognizing that the Emperor's days were numbered, various Imperial relatives began to descend on Livadia. Even the famed priest John of Kronstadt, came and administered Communion to the Tsar. Emperor Alexander III eventually died in the arms of his wife at Maly Palace in Livadia on the afternoon of 1 November [Old Style 20 October] 1894 at the age of forty-nine. "God, God, what a day! The Lord has called to Him our adored, our dear, our tenderly loved Papa.
    [Show full text]
  • Turning Sites of Massive Repressions Into Memorials
    Turning Sites of Massive Repressions into Memorials Olga Cherkaeva doc. Olga Cherkaeva, PhD. Russian State University for the Humanities Faculty of Art Hist Department of Museology Miusskaya sq. 6, GSP-3 125993 Moscow Russian Federation e-mail: [email protected] Muzeológia a kultúrne dedičstvo, 2018, 6:1:67-76 Turning Sites of Massive Repressions into Memorials This paper is devoted to memorial complexes with museum exhibits of the victims of political repressions in Russia. They took place in the 1930th. Nowadays there are two great memorial complexes. One of them is Mednoe Memorial Complex not far from Tver sity. The second one is Katyn Memorial Komplex situated not fat from Smolensk. They are affiliated with the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia. There is one more memorial complex “Butovo Shooting Range” in Moscow region. A new museum exposition will be shown there. Its territory belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, but at the same time, it was recognized as a historical place. Despite the form of ownership, those memorial complexes work with different categories of visitors and deal with historical memory. Being part of memorial a museum reveals its information significance. Key words: the memorial complex, a museum, site of mass graves, victims of political repressions, historical memory, monument The subject of victims of political repressions has been studied in Russia from 1990s when it was first mentioned at the government level: in 1993, the RF Presidential Human Rights Commission was established (since 2004, President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights). Professional historians and social activists began to study archives and museums which were chronologically and thematically associated with the periods of mass repressions.
    [Show full text]
  • SECURITY INDEX No
    INTERNATIONAL EDITION SECURITY INDEX No. 2 (82), SUMMER/FALL 2007 The results of PIR Center's work are of particular interest for the Sergei Lavrov A Russian country's foreign policy agencies, given the relapses into a policy of the Journal on unilateral use of force that have caused small countries to feel that International security is scarce and pushed large countries towards increasing Security weapons procurement. The continuing stagnation in the area of disarmament, though no fault of Russia, along with the increasing potential for conflict in the world as a whole are causes for concern. SECURITYSECURITY Russia has inherited the tradition of fighting for disarmament. Gennady Evstafiev The decrease in its activities in this area has ended. There is every reason to expect that Russia will present proposals aimed, if not at stopping, then at least at slowing the most dangerous aspirations of those who believe that there are neither commonsensical nor other limits to their ambitions. IN EX INNo. 2 (82), EX SinoRussian relations are not only more complicated, but also more Dmitri Trenin DDPublisher: PIR Center — Center for Policy Studies (Russia) Summer/Fall 2007 contradictory than they appear in the speeches of the Russian president and the Chinese Communist Party chairman. Russia's leaders, whatever they say publicly and however strongly they suspect the United States of trying to drive a wedge into "model" SinoRussian relations, will not Gennady Evstafiev DISARMAMENT RETURNS accept a strategic bloc with China. Demographic threats could be woven into the discourse of the March Graeme P. Herd Andrei Frolov IRAN'S DELIVERY SYSTEMS CAPABILITIES 2008 presidential campaign.
    [Show full text]
  • My Work with English-Speaking Converts
    A JOURNAL OF ORTHODOX FAITH AND CULTURE ROAD TO EMMAUS Help support Road to Emmaus Journal. The Road to Emmaus staff hopes that you find our journal inspiring and useful. While we offer our past articles on-line free of charge, we would warmly appreciate your help in covering the costs of producing this non-profit journal, so that we may continue to bring you quality articles on Orthodox Christianity, past and present, around the world. Thank you for your support. Please consider a donation to Road to Emmaus by visiting the Donate page on our website. A RUSSIAN PRIEST: MY WORK WITH ENGLISH- SPEAKING CONVERTS Part I An Interview with Father Artemy Vladimirov For the past decade, Protopriest Artemy Vladimirov, an English-speaking priest from the Church of All Saints in Moscow, Russia, has been a mainstay of western Orthodox converts living in Moscow and visitors seeking a deeper spiritual life. His traditional belief, deep insight, warm humor, and willingness to reach out to souls from diverse backgrounds, has brought more than a few foreigners to Orthodoxy. As the expatriate community has come and gone, Fr. Artemy has generously presided over numerous missionary dinners, high teas, and spontaneous talks – unforgettable gatherings that awaken souls and delight the spirit. RTE: Father Artemy, will you please tell us a little about your background and education? Was your family openly Orthodox during the Soviet period, and did you go to church regularly? Opposite: Fr. Artemy Vladimirov 29 Road to Emmaus Vol. I, No. 3 (#3) FR. ARTEMY: To begin, I would like to apologize for my poor English.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Taste and See That the Lord Is Good' (Ps. 34:8): the Continuity and Transformation of the Spiritual Senses Tradition
    ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Ps. 34:8): The Continuity and Transformation of the Spiritual Senses Tradition -Dr. Brandon Gallaher Lecturer of Systematic and Comparative Theology Department Theology and Religion, University of Exeter The Spiritual Senses Tradition: Origen and Scripture There is a tradition in Christian East and West dating back to at least Origen of Alexandria (c. 185-c.254) that human beings have the capacity to see, hear, smell, taste and touch God or spiritual and ineffable realities given that they possess a special organ or organs: the spiritual senses.1 Thus Origen writes about seeing God with the ‘eyes of the mind’, hearing divine instructions with ‘spiritual ears’, ‘smelling […] with no sensible organs of perception’, a ‘taste that feeds on living bread that has come down from heaven’ and finally he describes a ‘sense of touch for handling the word of life.’2 For Origen there existed certain divine senses of the inner man as for every external organ of sense of the external man there existed a corresponding sense in the inner man. He elaborates this teaching of the divine sense of the inner human being through an exegesis of the notion in Paul of the ‘inmost self’ (Rom. 7:22) and the ‘inner nature’ of humanity (2 Cor. 4:16). He even quotes an ancient Greek non- Septuagint version of the Old Testament Proverbs 2:5 that ‘You shall find a divine sense.’ 1 The most easily accessible study is the landmark work, The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God on Western Christianity, eds.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Central Russia
    THE HOLY NEW MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS OF CENTRAL RUSSIA Vladimir Moss © Copyright, 2009: Vladimir Moss INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................4 1. HIEROMARTYR MACARIUS, BISHOP OF OREL .......................................6 2. HIEROMARTYR ISIDORE, BISHOP OF MIKHAILOV................................9 3. HIEROMARTYR METROPHANES, BISHOP OF MIKHAILOV...............11 4. HIEROCONFESSOR JOASAPH, ARCHBISHOP OF KRUTITSA.............12 5. HIEROCONFESSOR EUGENE, BISHOP OF KOSTROMA .......................13 6. HIEROMARTYR NICANOR, BISHOP OF NOGINSK ...............................14 7. HIEROCONFESSOR BASIL, BISHOP OF SUZDAL ...................................15 8. HIEROCONFESSOR THEODORE, BISHOP OF MOSALSK .....................16 9. HIEROCONFESSOR BORIS, ARCHBISHOP OF RYAZAN ......................18 10. HIEROCONFESSOR NICHOLAS, BISHOP OF VYAZNIKI....................20 11. HIEROCONFESSOR AGATHANGELUS, METROPOLITAN OF YAROSLAVL.........................................................................................................21 12. HIEROCONFESSOR NICHOLAS, BISHOP OF VETLUGA ....................27 13. HIEROMARTYR MAXIMUS, BISHOP OF SERPUKHOV .......................34 14. HIEROCONFESSOR MICAH, BISHOP OF KALUGA .............................61 15. HIEROMARTYR BENJAMIN, BISHOP OF RYBINSK..............................64 16. HIEROCONFESSOR AMBROSE OF MSTER .............................................69 17. HIEROCONFESSOR JOB, BISHOP OF MSTER .........................................70
    [Show full text]
  • Russia Final Itinerary and Com
    1 2 Monday, May 22nd – Day 1 For those of us traveling together, we depart LAX on Lufthansa flight #457 to Frankfurt, Germany at 3:20PM, gaining a day as we travel, and arrive in Frankfurt at 11:20AM the next morning. Tuesday, May 23rd – Day 2 After a relatively short layover in Frankfurt, we depart for St. Petersburg on Lufthansa flight #1436 at 1:15PM, arriving in St. Petersburg at 4:55PM. We will transfer to the hotel Angleterre (or hotel England) across from St. Isaac’s Cathedral , built in the 19th century and one of the largest Orthodox Churches in the world; named for St. Isaac the Confessor, the 4th century monk of Constantinople, it can accommodate as many as 14,000 people for the celebration of Liturgy. The first hotel on the site of today’s Angleterre was built in 1840 and the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), the author of Anna Karenina and War and Peace , was a frequent guest. That hotel closed in 1985. In 1987, during Gorbachev’s perestroika or re-structuring, city authorities decided to demolish the aging hotel and replace it with a modern building – with a facade copying the original. Members of the public gathered on St. Isaac's Square to protest the plan. This was the first major public protest in the history of the Soviet Union to be left unpunished by the Soviet authorities. The hotel was ultimately demolished in 1987 and the current hotel opened in 1991. We’ll have some time to set up our rooms, rest and then have dinner, followed by a brief orientation.
    [Show full text]
  • Lavra Easter 2013
    Following the closure of the monasteries in Sarov and Diveyevo, some monks and nuns escaped. Hiding in surrounding villages they continued secretly in the way of St Seraphim. EASTER 2013 EASTER The faithful of the closed city of Sarov now worshipped in God's Sanctuary, the forest, in which St Seraphim had dwelt and had been beaten, had now become ‘the Green Church’. The ‘monastery in the world’ was now beginning. In Russia the title Lavra was given to particularly large and famous monasteries, of which there were four: the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, the Trinity St Sergius Monastery, the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and the Pochaev Monastery. St Seraphim predicted that there would be a Lavra in Diveyevo: “There will be both a Lavra and a coenobitic monastery in the community of poor Seraphim!” Here, we use the term with reverence, to embrace those who, while not geographically within the community, feel drawn to the spirit of the saint. We use Lavra to include those who endeavour to follow the way of St Seraphim, his teaching and practice, as did those monks and nuns in hiding, so that we too may be held in the saint's prayer as a part of that ‘monastery in the world’. Saints Alive Saints Lavra the Publication for the friends of of friends the for Publication the 12 1 Christ is Risen! Glastonbury A day pilgrimage to Glastonbury Abbey in Dear Friends, Somerset is planned for May 25th 2013. Fellowship As you read this you may still be in the Led by Fr Maxim Nikolsky, accompanied by others involved in Saints Alive, this day is Easter season so I greet you all with that aimed at gathering our Friends and other joyous greeting 'Christ is Risen'.
    [Show full text]
  • Romanov News Новости Романовых
    Romanov News Новости Романовых By Ludmila & Paul Kulikovsky №121 April 2018 "The Museum of the family of Emperor Nicholas II" In the Governor's House, Tobolsk The opening of the "Museum of the Family of Emperor Nicholas II" in the Governor House in Tobolsk On April 26, 2018, the "Museum of the Family of Emperor Nicholas II" in the Governor House in Tobolsk, the place of captivity of the Imperial family from August 1917 to April 1918 was opened after 5 years of restoration. 100 years after the Imperial family left Tobolsk, taken to Yekaterinburg, the city opens the doors to the last house in which they actually stayed, that is still in existence! But why now and what is the idea behind it? Let us hear some statements: "The revival of public interest in the fate of the Tsar's family prompted us to create a memorial museum and decided to place the museum in the Governor's house in the lower village of Tobolsk where Nicholas II stayed in 1891 and then lived with his family in exile from August 1917 to April 1918," - said the Governor of the Tyumen region Vladimir Yakushev. General director of the Tyumen Museum and Educational Association Svetlana Sidorova added that the museum will perform an enlightening mission and, most importantly, a missionary function. "It will allow us to take a fresh look at the long-known facts, to uncover the new boundaries of private and public activities of the family of Emperor Nicholas II. After all, the Emperor and the Empress constantly cared for the enlightenment and welfare of the Russian state, gave examples of charity and philanthropy, and brought up their children in these traditions.
    [Show full text]
  • Romanov News Новости Романовых
    Romanov News Новости Романовых By Ludmila & Paul Kulikovsky №134 May 2019 St. Mary Magdalene with alabaster jar - Icon painted by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Murmansk Airport named after "Nicholas II" by Executive Order On May 31st, President Vladimir Putin signed Executive Order "On Giving Several Russian Airports Names of Persons Who Have Performed Special Service to the Fatherland". This means, that the airport in Murmansk will now be named after "Nicholas II". In addition, Voronezh airport will be named - Peter I, Krasnodar airport - Catherine II, and Kaliningrad - Empress Elisabeth Petrovna. Particular for the name of Murmansk airport a battle was fought between Communists and Monarchists. The fight was between supporters of the name of Emperor Nicholas II, the founder of the city, and Ivan Papanin, a two-time Soviet hero and a "butcher" in Crimea. In the end, 67,3 thousand people voted for Emperor Nicholas II, and 58.9 thousand people voted for Ivan Papanin. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree naming more than 40 airports in the country. The document was published Friday on the official Internet portal of legal information. The assignment of the names of prominent compatriots to the airports of the country is aimed at perpetuating their memory and contribution to the development of the state. The competition began on October 11, 2018, via a nationwide vote held on the Internet. A month later, a short-list of the names of the finalists for each airport was formed, then the final vote was held and the results were announced in December 2018. According to the website "Great Names of Russia", 4 million 828 thousand people took part in the final voting.
    [Show full text]