KestonKeston NewsletterNewsletter

No. 12, 2010

Interior of datsan at Women’s Buddhist Centre in Ulan-Ude: Sergei Filatov is shown round by Zorigma Budaeva

Buddhism in Buryatia: Recent Trends

by Sergei Filatov

Buddhism was well established in Buryatia by the ers while the CBSA in 1992 was granted the status mid-17 th century. Once this area of Eastern Sibe- of an All-Russian religious organisation and given ria had been colonised by Russia, its religion was the Ivolginsky datsan, about a half-hour drive from eventually given official status by the Russian Buryatia’s capital Ulan-Ude, as its main headquar- monarch in 1741 and some 20 years later allowed ters. During the early years of perestroika the to establish its own hierarchy of lamas. After the CBSA gained respect through its leader, Khambo Revolution in the 1930s Buddhism was totally Lama Munko Tsybikov, the last and much revered destroyed, and although in 1948 Stalin allowed a lama from the older generation who had been im- Central Buddhist Spiritual Administration (CBSA) prisoned in Stalin’s labour camps. After his death to be established and legalised Buddhism, its lead- ers continued to be arrested, its holy places dese- Also in this issue: crated and only one datsan could function. [Datsan = Buddhist temple. The Ivolginsky datsan remained open during the communist pe- North Caucasus Jihad ...... p.9 riod. Ed. ] Orthodox Evangelism ...... p.13 Zoya Krakhmalnikova ...... p.15 The revival of Buddhist structures in Buryatia be- Keston Members Recollect ...... p.17 gan in 1990: Buddhist religious buildings and Kenneth Rundell: In Memoriam . . . . . p.23 valuables were now returned to their rightful own- Where Nightingales Sing ...... p.25 Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 Home News ...... p.28

preached. He aimed to revive Buryat Buddhist tradition which, he believed, was indissolubly linked with the Traditional Sangha (TBSR) and the Gelug school. He promoted the use of the Buryat language, rather than Russian, and to a lesser extent Tibetan, for rituals at the datsans,

which alienated many Russian-speakers, including Russian Federation members of the Buryat intelligent- sia who did not fully understand their own language. Lake Baikal The material and organisational health of TBSR depended on the Buryatia datsans which were subordinated to it, so Ayusheev focused much of his attention on the education and training of the monks and on the revival of the monastic tradi- Irkutsk tion. He was strongly opposed to the existence and spread of sha- manism in Buryatia, and disap- proved of mixing Buddhist tradi- Ulan-Ude tions with those of shamanism. Buddhism, in his view, was the only fruitful and beneficial religion for Buryats: in 1992, and for the next four years, three Khambo Lamas successively headed the CBSA which dur- ‗Shamanism is the religion of primitive ing this period faced a number of crises: its finan- man, it is a spiritual expression of his fears cial and ideological control over all Buryatia‘s and superstitions. Shamans cannot explain datsans was challenged by new independent Bud- to anyone where a person has come from or dhist organisations. whither he is going, which are the two main questions facing man. Shamanism In 1995 an energetic leader called Damba Ayu- has no future.‘ sheev, who had successfully revived an important datsan in a traditionally Buddhist area of Buryatia, Furthermore, Ayusheev disliked European influ- was elected Khambo Lama and set about reform- ences and completely rejected their value for ing the CBSA: he changed its name to the Tradi- Buryat Buddhism. In his view Buddhists had noth- tional Buddhist Sangha of Russia (TBSR) and ing to learn from Europeans; rather the opposite – adopted a new set of Statutes. [Sangha = collective Westerners should search for Buddhist wisdom noun denoting the whole community of Buddhist among the Buryat people: monks, nuns and laity. Ed.]

TBSR or the Traditional Sangha with Ayusheev at its head (he was regularly re- elected as Khambo Lama), became the official religious organisation of Buryat Bud- dhists and conduit for the na- tional and religious revival of the Eastern Buryats (those liv- ing east of Lake Baikal). Ayu- sheev proved to be an inflexi- ble leader: he only allowed the teachings of the Gelug school [one of four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism which em- phasises scholarship and mo- nastic discipline. Ed.] to be Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 Ivolginsky datsan 2

where some of the traditions were alien to Buryatia‘s Traditional Sangha.

As the Dalai Lama is the main spiri- tual leader for all Buddhists who belong to the Gelug school, includ- ing those in Russia, attitudes towards him have political significance for Buryat religious leaders. Ayu- sheev‘s rigidly centralised organisa- tion is based on principles which are threatened potentially by the author- ity of the Dalai Lama, so it is inter- esting to note Aysheev‘s somewhat contradictory position: he recognises the Dalai Lama as the nominal spiri- tual leader of all Buddhists, but is Buddhist monks at the Ivolginsky datsan critical of his concrete recommenda- tions for the organisation of Buryat religious life. ‗Russians, and Europeans in general, adopt ‗For many years we have been cut off from Tibet. the methods and practice of Buddhism, but Without any direct contact, respect for Tibet has its core is not accessible to them. Those grown to a large degree. We now see how unfor- Russians who are really serious about Bud- tunate are the Tibetans and we feel very sorry for dhism become pupils in our datsans; they them,‘ he commented. By distancing himself should not try to teach us.‘ from the authority of the Dalai Lama, Ayusheev has tried to emphasise the special role of Buryat Some Russians responded to this challenge and national Buddhism, as distinct from Buddhism went to study in the Sangha‘s datsans, since, de- which has been influenced by the West. Critics of spite its strong nationalistic character, the Tradi- Ayusheev think he is suspicious about the activity tional Sangha, having preserved the living tradi- of Tibetan monks within Buryatia, trying to con- tion passed down from teacher to pupil, and tradi- trol their every move, and in June 2000 they sent tional forms of monastic life, had maintained its an open letter of complaint about him to Leonid authority among Russians. Potapov, the President of Buryatia, claiming that the activity of TBSR‘s leadership was in reality Ayusheev saw himself not only as a religious but ‗destructive‘. They accused Ayusheev of foment- also as a national leader for Buryatia. He believed ing ‗enmity and scandal‘, rejecting the authority of he could defend and express the interests of the leading Tibetan spiritual teachers and opposing Buryat people, particularly of the Eastern Buryats, the work of Tibetan lamas in Buryatia. Was it who, unlike the Western Buryats (many of them because Ayusheev had objected to inviting the were Russian Orthodox or shamanists), were Dalai Lama to Buryatia that the head of world nearly all Buddhists. He focused much of his en- ergy on mission among the indigenous peoples of Siberia, including those not traditionally Buddhist, and in 2000 a number of young Buddhists from Tuva, Kalmykia, the Altai and Khakassia came to study in the educational institutions of the Tradi- tional Sangha. To achieve his goals Ayusheev created a rigidly centralised organisation with an authoritarian administration and a unified ideol- ogy, and tried to keep the Traditional Sangha‘s datsans strictly subordinated to his leadership. His critics accused him of trying to copy the Moscow Patriarchate with its authoritarian structure. He also tried to develop international links allowing TBSR to take part in the Asian Buddhist Confer- ence for World Peace, in the World Buddhist Brotherhood and the World Buddhist Sangha, and sent Buryats to study at Buddhist institutes not only in India but also in Burma and Thailand Buddhist prayer wheels Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 3

Buddhism had not once visited the republic for the dhist tradition established by Catherine. past five years? Buddhism as it was under the tsars needs to be revived.‘ Ayusheev was opposed to the policies of Leonid Potapov, Buryatia‘s President, and accused him of In 2007 Leonid Potapov was replaced by failing to take an interest in the spiritual needs of Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn as the new President of the Buryats, especially of the Eastern Buryats. Buryatia, and with this change the relationship According to Ayusheev, Potapov brought into the between the Traditional Sangha and the Buryat administration shamanists from a Buryat minority, authorities also changed: the long-running conflict who were not local people but recent arrivals from ran out of steam and relations improved, at least the Irkutsk oblast, and had held back the develop- publicly. At the same time the new government ment of Buryat national consciousness and Bud- adopted a relatively tolerant policy towards the dhism in Buryatia. Ayusheev‘s relationship with ‗alternative‘ Buddhist groups which rejected Ayu- the administration was exacerbated by the support sheev‘s authority and had begun to emerge some it received from some ten years earlier: many new Buddhist organisa- Buddhist leaders, espe- tions, founded between cially those who had 1997-2001 as a coun- come under European terbalance to the Tradi- Buddhist influence, tional Sangha. He disliked the Traditional turned to the Federal Sangha‘s authoritarian- government in the hope ism, nationalism and its that it would recognise conflicts with the re- TBSR as the dominant public‘s authorities. In central organisation for 1997 the first split oc- all Russia‘s Buddhists, curred, led by Nimaz- believing that Moscow hap Ilich Ilyukhinov, wanted a strong Bud- who during the 1980s dhist organisation, to- had been a monk in the tally committed to it, Lama Nimazhap Ilich Ilyukhinov Ivolginsky datsan and a which was ideologi- pupil of Lama Bakula cally and structurally monolithic: ‗the indigenous Rinpoche, India‘s ambassador in Mongolia. peoples of Siberia, on becoming Buddhists within the Traditional Sangha, will be committed Rus- From the start of perestroika Ilyukhinov had par- sians; the ground for separatism will disappear for ticipated in the democratic movement, had joined good,‘ he stated. the Christian-Buddhist Union (a section of the Christian-Democratic Union of Buryatia) and in Although Ayusheev failed to make Buddhist or- 1996 took part in elections to the Duma as a sup- ganisations in Kalmykia and Tuva join TBSR, he porter of the democratic movement. Ilyukhinov was able to obtain recognition by Moscow of believed that Buddhism could and should provide TBSR‘s status as the only official Buddhist tradi- the spiritual foundations for the democratic devel- tional organisation, enabling it to participate at the opment of Buryatia. In January 1998 a Congress beginning of 1999 in the creation of the Inter- of Buddhist Communities of Russia was held in religious Council of Russia which included Rus- Moscow at which a new body, the Spiritual Ad- sian Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish representation. ministration of Russia‘s Buddhists (SARB), was As leader of TBSR he was now the only person set up under the chairmanship of Ilyukhinov. This who represented Buddhism at the Federal level, new structure became an association of autono- and as such participated in the debates on legisla- mous communities, which followed different tion and other government decisions connected schools of Buddhist teaching, and included some with Moscow‘s religious policy. Ayusheev‘s reli- traditional communities of the Gelug school in ance on the Federal government reflected the kind Buryatia, as well as a number of communities in of relationship with the state which existed in pre- European Russia composed mostly of Russians. revolutionary days – and Ayusheev was an ad- SARB‘s centre was the Dkharma community, mirer of tsarist Russia: made up in the main of young Buryat members of the intelligentsia, in Ulan-Ude. ‗I hate the communists, but love the tsars; under them Buddhism in Buryatia flour- In 2008 Ilyukhinov built a large datsan in Ulan- ished. Catherine the Great established the Ude with space for teaching Buddhism and ac- hierarchy of lamas; I‘m proud to be the 25th commodation for Buddhist monks. He was com- Khambo Lama, in the direct line of Bud- mitted to the revival of Buddhist education and

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 4

supported closer ties with Tibet—with Tibetan teachers and with the Dalai Lama. He accused Ayusheev of de facto oppos- ing the authority of the Dalai Lama: ‗We should revere the Dalai Lama like God,‘ Ilyukhinov said, adding:

‗Ayusheev considers that he is leader of Buryatia‘s Buddhists and the Dalai Lama only leader of those in Tibet. Buryatia‘s leader holds a purely bu- reaucratic post, whereas the Dalai Lama is a sacred person. Almost all the Tibetan monks, invited here by Ayu- sheev, have left thanks to the disgust- ing treatment they‘ve received. A few have married Russians or Buryats, Hills around Ulan-Ude have found some sort of job and are now indistinguishable from locals.‘ in 2008 his community started to make contact with some highly-regarded teachers. Unlike Ayusheev, Ilyukhinov recognised the value of various schools of Buddhist teaching and did not In mid-1999 the Traditional Sangha was shaken consider them to be heretical. He and his support- by yet another schism, this time led by Lama Dan- ers valued European Buddhism and built up con- zan-Khaibzun (Fyodor Sergeevich) Samaev who tacts with many Western groups, recognising the was ideologically even further removed than significance of a Western worldview for Bud- Ilyukhinov from the position of Ayusheev. On the dhism. One of Ilyukhinov‘s main aims was to end one hand, Samaev was a Western Buryat belong- the conflict among Buryatia‘s Buddhists, most of ing to the tradition of Buryat Buddhism which whom belonged to TBSR, and the conflict with the combined Buddhism and shamanism. On the Buryat government. other, he had a degree from St Petersburg Univer- sity (he also obtained advanced spiritual training Another two communities, belonging to two sig- in India and Ulan Bator) and had headed the St nificant strands of Buryat Buddhism, joined Petersburg datsan from 1990-1997; so Russian SARB. The first of these was the ‗Dzogchen‘ Buddhist circles were familiar to him. In 1999 he communities in Ulan-Ude which were founded by led a revolt of three datsans against ‗Ayusheev‘s A. Vyaznikovtsev and N. Dudko, both members dictatorship‘ with the aim of forming a new cen- of the St Petersburg Intelligentsia. These commu- tral organisation called ‗Maidar‘ which was finally nities were composed mostly of Russians, with a established in Ulan-Ude in July that year. In Oc- significant number of Buryats, had Russian teach- tober 1999 Samaev declared that ‗Maidar‘ had ers and had become a basic component of Buryat been created to enable Buddhists to defend them- religious life. The second community to join selves against Ayusheev, who through Russian SARB was the ‗Dzogchen‘ community belonging legislation had the power to expel the head of a to the Nyingma school [the oldest school of Ti- datsan and appoint a replacement; now any new betan Buddhism. Ed] in the village of Mogsokhon. datsan, which did not wish to join the Traditional Most of its members, too, were Russians and it Sangha, could join ‗Maidar‘. was headed by Batodalai Dugarov, one of Bidia Dandaron‘s pupils (the Buddhist teacher impris- Samaev did not think that there was yet a Buddhist oned in 1973 whose case was known to Keston revival in Buryatia: and publicised in its journal). However, the teach- ing of Dugarov and the Dandaronovtsy— ‗building datsans does not represent a re- ‗followers of Dandaron‘—diverged considerably vival of Buddhism; real revival requires from the worldview of their teacher who did not spiritual development... Buddhist revival belong to the Nyingma school, and this led to involves changing people‘s thought proc- strong criticism from traditional Buddhists who esses. In Buryatia Buddhism has degener- adhered to the Gelug school. The Dandaronovtsy, ated; there is no revival‘. they said, had isolated themselves, and without well-qualified teachers their spiritual development Nevertheless he believed that Buddhism in Russia had been arrested. Dugarov, nevertheless, man- had a great future: aged to overcome this opposition and moved to a semi-ruined datsan near to the village of Shuluta; ‗you don‘t have to go to the Himalayas to

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 5

he has followers in other parts of Russia and in Ukraine. The Ulan-Ude group is respected by the local Intelligentsia and government, and continues to organise conferences in Samaev‘s memory dedi- cated to ecological and cultural questions.

The most serious challenge to Ayusheev‘s Traditional Sangha occurred in 2001. A group led by Choi-Dorzhe Budaev broke away and formed the Association of Buryatia‘s Buddhists (ABB) which by 2010 had eight registered organisations. Budaev was a charismatic figure, with great authority among Buryatia‘s Bud- dhists, and was highly-regarded by the Dalai Lama. A number of Tibetan monks Rigzen Lama joined ABB. Of all the ‗alternative‘ Bud- dhist organisations the ABB‘s criticism of Ay- study. Contemporary Russia‘s instability sheev was the most clearly formulated and se- creates the conditions for adaptation and vere. In the words of Rigzen Lama, a close makes a person think... Russians who study colleague of Budaev: Buddhism from foreigners are a new phe- nomenon.‘ ‗Education, teaching, prayer and preaching are the most important in Buddhism, not He was convinced that Buddhism needed to un- the organisation of local festivals, perform- derstand modern society and become an integral ance of rituals, or the building of datsans. part of it; it should teach modern man in a contem- If we always give priority to rituals, rather porary environment to think and act well. than to prayer and the search for truth, then we will always lose our way. We don‘t On the outskirts of Ulan-Ude he created a need some sort of ―Buryat‖ Buddhism. ‗Maidar‘ centre, which included a Buddhist spiri- The Dalai Lama is our leader and teacher.‘ tual academy and an educational centre called ‗Arigun‘ where, in collaboration with Americans ABB‘s leaders believed that it was indeed Ayu- and Europeans, Buryatia‘s ecological problems sheev who had undermined the possibility of a were studied. ‗Maidar‘ attracted both traditional visit to Russia by the Dalai Lama; the Russian Buryat datsans which opposed Ayusheev, as well Foreign Ministry kowtowed to the Chinese Com- as Russian Buddhists; it used mostly Russian in its munist Party possibly thanks to his intrigues. rituals and adopted many shamanist practices. Samaev maintained con- In 2003, with the Dalai Lama‘s tact with European Buddhists and blessing, Budaev ran as a candi- invited the president of the European date in the City Duma elections Union of Buddhists to Buryatia. He in order ‗to defend true Bud- was loyal to the Buryat government dhism‘ at a government level. – ‗conflicts with the government go One of ABB‘s plans had been to against Buddhist teaching‘ – and create some sort of association opposed, in principle, associating between the three national Bud- Buryat nationalism with Buryat dhist unions of Buryatia, Kal- Buddhism as he thought this was mykia and Tuva, a plan which destructive. Aysheev tried his best to under- mine. Aysheev also found ways In 2005 Samaev was tragically of preventing ABB from getting killed in a road accident, but his land for its buildings and under- movement did not die out. It is now mined its contacts with the local headed by Dashi-Lama, who pro- government and with sponsors. motes ecological ideas and focuses Thus relations with the Tradi- on restoring and protecting sacred tional Sangha and with Ayusheev spaces. Within Ulan-Ude‘s aca- personally were strained to demic community a group of breaking point. ABB wrote to Samaev‘s followers still exists, and Putin attacking Aysheev‘s poli- Zorigma Budaeva Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 6

tions in support of Tibetan independ- ence and keep in touch with the Soci- ety of Friends of Tibet in Ulan-Ude. The Buddhist monastery for lay women enjoys the semi-official sup- port of the Dalai Lama‘s representa- tives and this has earned the unspoken disapproval of the Traditional Sangha‘s leadership. In the current situation the Dalai Lama cannot, on the one hand, oppose the Traditional Sangha as most Buddhists in Buryatia belong to it; any deterioration in rela- tions would inevitably undermine his influence on Buryat territory. On the other hand, the ‗alternative‘ Buddhist associations, which are hostile to the Traditional Sangha and to Ayusheev, are the closest spiritually to the Dalai (Left to right) Xenia Dennen, Zorigma Budaeva Lama, and manage to maintain unoffi- & Sergei Filatov in the women’s lay monastery cial links with him.

cies and stressing that ‗if the Russian government Some six years ago a spiritual centre which di- separates Russia‘s Buddhists from the Dalai rectly represents the Dalai Lama was established Lama, extremist national ideas will grow in Rus- in Buryatia: in July 2004 the ‗Rinpoche-Bagsha‘ sia‘s republics‘. centre, with a datsan containing the largest golden Buddha in Russia, was dedicated and given a A unique development in the life of Buryat Bud- grand opening. The datsan stands on Bare Moun- dhism occurred in the early 1990s: a group of lay tain overlooking Ulan-Ude with a magnificent women Buddhists, with support from Darima view. The founder of the centre was the highly Tsyngueva, founded the Association of Lay Bud- revered Tibetan lama, Eshe-Lodoi Rinpoche, who dhists, headed by Zorigma Budaeva, which led to obtained Russian citizenship and has committed the creation of a lay women‘s monastery. Such his life to Russian Buddhism. Many Buddhist an untraditional and modernising idea for Buryatia leaders and believers came to the opening from – a rare phenomenon within Buddhism generally India, Tuva, Kalmykia, Vladivostok and other (apart from a few examples in Tibet and Mongo- cities and regions of Russia. According to Rin- lia) – was supported by the Dalai Lama and his poche the centre was opened at the request of be- representatives, with whom Tsyngueva maintained lievers who wanted to study Buddhist philosophy close contact. The women‘s monastery – the seriously. Funding came from Rinpoche himself, fourth in the world and the first in Russia and from Buryatia‘s government and from the city of Buryatia – known as the ‗Buddhist Women‘s Cen- Ulan-Ude, as well as from individual Buddhists tre‘, was built in Ulan-Ude thanks to the efforts and pupils of Rinpoche in Buryatia and other re- and financial support of Buddhist believers. A gions. As well as looking after the centre, Rin- few dozen women regularly attend the Centre; poche acts as the spiritual teacher for all the their teachers are nuns from Mongolia who regularly travel to Buryatia. The Association does not get involved in poli- tics, but is loyal to Buryatia‘s President, and in exchange is supported by the Buryat gov- ernment as an apolitical Bud- dhist organisation involved in social and charitable work.

SARB, ABB and ‗Maidar‘ recognise the authority of the Dalai Lama in all things and keep in contact with Tibet: they take part in demonstra- ‘Rinpoche-Bagsha’ datsan overlooking Ulan-Ude Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 7

‗alternative‘ associations in Buryatia, and is now There were relatively few Buryat Orthodox as the considered the most authoritative Buddhist leader Russian Orthodox Church was weak in Buryatia: a in the region. No longer can Aysheev claim that separate diocese was only created in 2009 and his organisation has overarching spiritual authority many priests only worked among Russians; fur- over all Buddhists in the republic. thermore, at the end of the 1990s, the life of Buryat Orthodoxy was shaken by a number of President Leonid Potapov during his time in office church scandals which were discussed widely in was particularly concerned about Buddhist reli- the local press and alienated many people. The gious organisations and wanted them to overcome Pentecostal churches in contrast had gained the their divisions. The Council for Cooperation with most Buryat converts: there were now congrega- Religious Organisations (an institution within the tions composed exclusively of Buryats and some Buryat government) strongly recommended that Buryats had become pastors. A Russian Pentecos- the Traditional Sangha hold a congress to help tal pastor commented: ‗It‘s easier to convert Bury- unite all Buddhist associations. But Aysheev in- ats than Russians; they are more open to the spiri- terpreted this recommendation as interference in tual. Whole Buryat families turn to Christ; they the Traditional Sangha‘s internal affairs and as an are friendlier, their families are stronger, more attempt to oust him as leader. He subsequently closely-knit.‘ refused all contact with Potapov. After 2007, un- der President Nagovitsyn, the Traditional Sangha The long history of Russian interest in Buddhist acquired a privileged position and received the wisdom and the absorption of European values by most financial support, unlike SARB and ABB Buryats have helped create a unique Eurasian syn- which received almost nothing and faced prob- thesis. Buryats are fascinated by the West and lems in relation to rentals, the purchase of land, Russians by Buryat Buddhism. For nearly all the and bureaucratic hitches over various projects. peoples of the Russian Federation religion pre- eminently provides the basis for national identity. According to Anatoli Zhalsaraev, consultant to The Federal authorities and the Russian Orthodox Buryatia‘s government on national questions and Church‘s clergy constantly inject into public dis- civil initiatives, the Traditional Sangha was course the term ‗traditional religions‘, by which strongly represented in the countryside; peasants they mean those religions which are historically did not care which jurisdiction they belonged to, the largest and associated with a particular ethnic while Ayusheev, with his administrative ability, group. These ‗traditional religions‘ claim a privi- had managed to develop ‗a religious infrastruc- leged position in relation to the state. Public opin- ture‘ throughout the republic. In contrast, in Ulan- ion and most of Russia‘s ethnic groups, even if Ude where people took their religion more seri- they have not overtly supported this concept, do ously, only three out of 29 Buddhist organisations not oppose what is essentially a nationalistic doc- belonged to the Traditional Sangha, while all the trine. rest belonged to ‗alternative‘ jurisdictions. In ad- dition the Aginsky datsan and other Buddhist reli- The Buryats, in contrast, are the only nationality gious organisations in the Irkutsk oblast and the where this ethnic principle has failed: it is sup- Zabaikalsky krai (east of Lake Baikal) did not ported by only one strand of Buddhism, the Tradi- accept Ayusheev‘s leadership in practice. The tional Sangha, which, despite all its efforts, has Traditional Sangha, stated Zhalsaraev, had lost not succeeded in establishing its monopoly. The almost all its authority and had simply become a awareness that transcendental relations with the factory providing religious services. Absolute cannot be equated with commitment to ties of kinship, clearly has its roots in the Buddhist Yet Buryat Buddhism in general had lost none of worldview. Yet this awareness is not universal its authority, Zhalsaraev believed, neither among among Russia‘s Buddhists: in the two other Bud- the Buryat people nor among Russians and other dhist republics of Russia – Kalmykia and Tuva – nationalities in the Russian Federation. For the religion fulfils the same role as among the other majority of Russian converts, Buddhism in Bury- peoples of Russia; religion is linked with national atia was, as ever, the source of wisdom and the identity and the question of separating the two has best school for Buddhist practice: ‗People come not even been posed. Unlike Buryatia, you will here from all corners of Russia‘. Buryat Bud- find no Russians in the Buddhist communities of dhism‘s attraction for Russians, however, was not Kalmykia and Tuva. In essence Buryat religious ‗a one-way street‘; many Buryats were converted life is the complete opposite of the norms which in to Christianity – to Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lu- recent years have become part of Russia‘s reli- theranism or Pentecostalism. There was no signifi- gious life: however surprising this may sound, cant opposition to this process: Buryat public Buryatia turns out to be the region of Russia opinion, the majority of lamas and the government where religious life most closely conforms to reacted calmly to the conversion of Buryats. European norms.

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 8

Caucasus Emirate: North Caucasus Jihad

by Mikhail Roshchin

The situation in the re- ment, and on 5 September a video clip on the same publics of the North Cau- website showed Said Buryatsky himself announc- casus is extremely unsta- ing that he was alive and well, and that the end of ble and it may not be to- the earlier video had been mistaken. ‗Every Mus- tally inappropriate to lim will in turn become a shahid [i.e. be willing to compare this area‘s insta- lay down his life. Ed] but at a time appointed by bility with that of Af- Allah. My time has not yet come,‘ he said. His ghanistan, Iraq and the time in fact did soon come: he was killed on 3 Gaza Strip. In the small March 2010 in the Ingushetia village of Ekazhevo North Caucasus republic immediately after pronouncing his last sermon of Ingushetia the summer (http://www.rosbalt.ru/2010/03/05/717962.html). of 2009 proved very tur- bulent: on 22 June at On 13 August 2009 President Evkurov, who had around 8.30 a.m. a sui- managed to recover from his injuries caused by the cide mujahedin in a June explosion, was able to return to his duties, Sheikh Said Buryatsky ‗Lexus‘ car with Moscow and, with the help of his skills as a former military number plates crashed into intelligence officer, succeeded in reducing the the motorcade of President Yunus-bek Evkurov of wave of terrorist incidents and shootings against Ingushetia (appointed on 31 October 2008) and Interior Ministry personnel in Ingushetia. blew himself up. Evkurov was seriously wounded and transferred to a Moscow hospital for treatment On 27 November 2009 the North Caucasus jihad where it was not clear how quickly, or indeed emerged on central Russian territory: jihadis man- whether, he would recover. aged to detonate a home-made bomb on the ‗Nevsky Express‘ passenger train as it was travel- During the summer of 2009 there were also regu- ling between Moscow and St Petersburg on the lar clashes between the local militia and mujahe- stretch between Aleshinka and Uglovka, not far din in various corners of Ingushetia. Ruslan from Bologoi; the three last carriages were de- Amirkhanov, the Minister of Construction, was railed. As a result of this accident, 28 people died shot on 12 August in his office in the government and over 90 were taken to hospital. complex in Magas, while his murderer was calmly able to leave the building. On 17 August at 9 a.m. By March 2010 Federal and local forces were able during the morning police parade in front of the to inflict some serious blows on the Caucasus local Interior Ministry (MVD) building in Nazran, Emirate: during the course of special operations a ‗Gazel‘ car stuffed with explosives and driven which successfully destroyed a sabotage base of by two suicide bombers was blown up. The pow- radical Muslims—all supporters of the Caucasus erful explosion killed over 20 people and wounded Emirate in the Ingushetia village of Ekazhevo— about 150. Zelimkhan Aushev and nine Kartoev brothers, who be- On 26 August on the website of the Ingushetia longed to the group which mujahedin (http://hunafa.com) a video was posted planted the ‗Nevsky Express‘ in which the young and totally Europeanised bomb, were arrested (http:// Sheikh Said Buryatsky (see Biography, p.11), www.digester.ru/ considered by the Russian authorities to be one of Cluster.aspx? the most dangerous figures in the leadership of the uid=2010031030&id=7). Anzor Astemirov Caucasus Emirate and a prolific producer of lec- Later that month on the eve- tures and sermons on Islam, explained how the ning of 24 March 2010, on the corner of Tarchok- explosion in front of the Interior Ministry building ova street and Baisultanova street in the Gorny on 17 August was prepared and why such action district of Nalchik (in Kabardino-Balkaria), Anzor was justified. At the end of the video the presenter Astemirov, the spiritual father and creator of the stated that one of the suicide bombers had been Islamic Emirate concept (for the last few years he Said Buryatsky (see the ‗video‘ section on the has headed the Caucasus Emirate‘s Sharia law- http://hunafa.com website). To confuse matters, court), and his bodyguard were stopped by law- exactly two days later a representative of the In- enforcement officers who asked to see their identi- gushetia mujahedin leadership denied this state- fication papers. The former in response opened

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 9

fire and during the ensuing gun battle (http:// erally acknowledged commander of all the Emir- www.izvestia.ru/obshestvo/article3140159/) Anzor ate‘s military operations. There are grounds for Astemirov was killed. believing that he was directly in charge of the school siege in Beslan at the beginning of Septem- Despite these setbacks for the Caucasus Emirate, ber 2004. ‗Magas‘ was captured by special forces, on 29 March 2010 another wave of violence and after six months of planning and attempts to catch resistance, nevertheless, reached central Russia, him alive, in one of Ingushetia‘s villages, where and this time the blow hit he had been living quietly Moscow itself. Two Dagh- without arousing the suspicion estani suicide bombers blew of his neighbours. He was themselves up in the Moscow transferred to Moscow and is metro‘s Lubyanka and Park now being held in the Lefor- Kultury stations. As a result tovo prison (http://slon.ru/ 24 passengers died at Luby- blogs/istamulov/post/408598/). anka station and 12 at Park The Emirate leadership‘s reac- Kultury; 102 people received tion to the arrest of ‗Magas‘ injuries of varying severity; was one of shock. Even the four of the wounded later died usually loquacious and bom- in hospital. bastic Caucasus-Centre web- site (www.kavkazcenter.com ) Afterwards it was established Dzhanet Abdullaeva & Umalat Magomedov was unable to give a coherent that Maryam Sharipova commentary on this event, (b.1982), an Avar from the village of Balakhani in while their main leader, Dokka Umarov, preferred Daghestan‘s Untsukulsky district and the former to go quietly to ground and remain silent. wife of Magomed-Ali Vagabov (a leader of Dagh- estan‘s mujahedin who was killed in the village of Eventually on 7 July 2010 the website http:// Gunib on 21 August 2010: see http:// hunafa.com announced the execution of the man www.lifenews.ru/news/35320 and Biography who had betrayed ‗Magas‘. It published an offi- p.12) was the Lubyanka suicide bomber (http:// cial statement from the Ingushetia mujahedin lead- www.extra-m.ru/society/articles/245276 - ership which announced that on 21 June Timur mnogorazovaya-smertnitsa-maryam-sharipova). Arselgov, a FSB secret agent who had infiltrated The second suicide bomber was Dzhanet Abdul- their movement, had been shot, commenting laeva (b.1992), a Kumik from the village of somewhat gruesomely, ‗the salvo from the auto- Kostek in the Khasavyurtovsky district of Dagh- matic rifle left only the lower part of the munafik‘s estan – she was only 17. About a year before she [= hypocrite. MR] head from which hung an inor- had married Umalat Magomedov, who was ap- dinately long tongue‘ (http://hunafa.com/? pointed the Emir of the Caucasus Emirate‘s Dagh- p=3684#more-3684): estan Front in April 2009 by Dokka Umarov (Emir of the Caucasus Emirate) and known by the nick- ‗Timur Arselgov over two year ago was name of al-Bara. At the time photographs of the planted by the special forces into one of the pair appeared on the Internet showing them em- jamaats1. In order to win the trust of the bracing, with grenades and pistols in their hands. mujahedin he volunteered as a sniper. On New Year‘s Eve 2009, FSB officers stopped a Arselgov turned out to be well-trained and car on Groznensky street, in the Daghestan city of a first-class shot, and spread fear among Khasavyurt, containing Umalat Magomedov and the local murtaddy [apostates, i.e. Ingushi three other fighters who tried to grab their oppo- who collaborated with the Federal authori- nents‘ guns but were shot on the spot. Therefore, ties. MR]. But he usually only shot at low by the time Dzhanet Abdullaeva blew herself up in ranking police whose lives the bosses of the Moscow metro she was a widow, and most the munafik exchanged for people whom probably wanted to avenge her husband‘s death the agent recommended. When the muja- (http://www.kommersant.ru/doc -y.aspx? hedin asked why he only went for ordinary DocsID=1348776). menty [police], Arselgov replied that they were all the same and had to be ―stuffed‖. On 9 June 2010 a devastating blow was inflicted While not leading a jamaat himself, he on the Caucasus Emirate: a man was arrested exposed the jamaat‘s emirs by giving away whom the law-enforcement agencies identified as their addresses and car number plates. either Akhmed Evloev or Ali Taziev, a figure Thus his job as a marksman came to an widely known in the North Caucasus by the nick- end; the goal was achieved.‘ name of ‗Magas‘ (see Biography, p.12) who was the leader of Ingushetia‘s mujahedin and the gen- The derailing of the ‗Nevsky Express‘ and the

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 10

explosions in the Moscow metro are evidence that his intention to lead the jihad in the North Cauca- the Caucasus Emirate and armed Muslim opposi- sus. On 14 August a number of Chechnya‘s lead- tion in the North Caucasus are much more serious ing field commanders – Aslambek Vadalov and problems than is currently realised in Moscow Husein Gakaev (both Chechens) as well as the government offices and in the editorial offices of famous Arab Mukhannad – opposed this and re- the mass media. Many who have not studied seri- fused to recognise the authority of Dokka Umarov. ously the situation in the North Caucasus think (See weblink: http://www.youtube.com/watch? that Chechnya is the main focus of conflict, v=zyUX4zf8tAQ&feature=player_embedded for whereas recent events confirm that it is actually in their video address.) Meanwhile, in Daghestan Ingushetia and Daghestan that Federal forces and and Ingushetia Umarov continues to be recognised the local law-enforcement agencies face the most as the Emir. serious confrontations with the Emirate‘s mujahe- din. Violence in the North Caucasus is breeding It would appear that a new stage in the radical yet more violence, and so far no way out of this Muslim movement of the North Caucasus is be- impasse seems to have been found.2 ginning: whether this indicates the disintegration and collapse of the movement and its transition to Postscript the level of virtual reality – the websites of North Caucasus jihadists are particularly active – will On 2 August 2010 Dokka Umarov announced his become evident over the next year. retirement on health grounds as Emir of the Cau- 1. A jamaat is a Muslim group devoted to the study of Islam and casus Emirate and transferred his authority to to mutual support. However, in the North Caucasus this Aslambek Vadalov, a Chechen field commander. term came to mean a Muslim terrorist group. Ed. Evidently this step was provoked by the Emirate‘s 2. More background information on the Caucasus Emirate can be found in Keston Newsletter No 10, 2009, pp.4-6, ‗The recent failures. On 4 August, however, Dokka Caucasus Emirate and the Movement of Military Jamaats‘ by Umarov withdrew this statement and confirmed Mikhail Roshchin. Ed Biographies Said Buryatsky which were soon circulating among of the Caucasus‘, emphasising ‗we young Muslims ( h t t p : / / have already witnessed preachers Said Buryatsky, also known as www.imamtv.com/ belonging to different ethnic Said abu Saad al-Buryti, was born vse_propovedi__Saida.htm ). groups. We have seen Avars, in Ulan-Ude (Buryatia) in 1982 of Among his best known lectures is Laks, Karachaevs, Cherkess, Ar- a Buryat father and Russian the cycle ‗Righteous Precursors‘, abs.... But they were all worthy mother. According to his Russian ‗Journey into Eternal Life‘, ‗Talbis people who either came from the passport his name is Alexandr Al- Iblis‘ [= Satan‘s Veil] in Arabic, Caucasus region, or, at least, be- exandrovich Tikhomirov. The ‗The Fate of the Unrighteous in longed to one or other of the tradi- newspaper Trud stated: ‗he was 100 Stories‘. He also translated tional Muslim peoples. In this brought up from a young age by his religious documentaries from Ara- case, for the first time, someone of Chechen stepfather‘( http:// bic into Russian (‗The Crimes of Eurasian origin, in whose veins www.trud.ru/article/10 - 03- the Shiites Through the Ages‘, runs Russian and Buryat blood, has 2010/237733_said_burjatskij_pogi ‗Description of the Prophet‘s spoken in the name of the Cauca- b_shaxidom.html). When he was Prayer‘). In early 2008 he received sus Emirate as an authoritative 15 he converted to Islam; he stud- a video letter from the famous representative and ideo- ied Islamic literature on his own Arab field commander Mukhan- logue‘ (http://islamkom.org/ initiative and took the name of nad, who is still active in Chech- analitika/3818--l-r). During the Said. He later studied with a vari- nya, and decided to join the North following months Buryatsky took ety of authoritative academic Caucasus armed resistance. After a part in sabotage operations and sheikhs in Egypt and Kuwait. few months he travelled secretly to fighters‘ sorties. While deep in the According to information from the Chechnya where he met the Emir forest he recorded a few addresses ‗Guraba‘ website, ‗he was known of the Caucasus Emirate, Dokka on video, taped some lectures and among the students of that time to Umarov, and swore an Islamic oath articles about the jihad and the be sincere about religion and to be of allegiance (bayat in Arabic). situation in the North Caucasus; constantly reading Islamic Buryatsky announced: ‗After the they were mostly posted on the books‘ (http://guraba.net/rus/ proclamation of the Caucasus website of Ingush mujahedin, content/view/364/105/). Buryatsky Emirate my doubts evaporated. http://hunafa.com. Khamzat Tair- worked for the Muslim organisa- We have one Emir and one state. bekov, a former top spy from the tion ‗Darul-Akram‘ and collabo- Today the immediate duty of every disbanded Chechen battalion rated with the religious publisher Muslim is to join the jihad and to ‗Vostok‘ which was incorporated ‗Umma‘ (http://www.kavkaz- support it through word and deed.‘ into Russia‘s Federal forces, stated: uzel.ru/articles/158565). The Muslim writer Geidar Dzhe- ‗Tikhomirov [Buryatsky. MR] was mal, well-known in Russia, has one of the most dangerous figures From 2002 Buryatsky began writ- called Buryatsky ‗a symbol of the in the leadership of the Caucasus ing lectures on religious subjects new generation in the epic struggle Emirate – he was responsible for

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 11

the training of the shahids were called the ‗Jamaat-Caliphate‘. year he learned the Koran off by [Muslims willing to lay down their The name of Akhmed Evloev first heart, passed the required exam life for their faith. Ed] and com- appeared in MVD reports in 2004. and was given a diploma as a hafiz, manded the network of sabotage In April he was appointed com- and then went on to study Sharia in training schools‘( h t t p : / / mander of the Ingush sector of the Karachi. He learnt Farsi and Urdu. www.trud.ru/article/10 - 03- armed units in the Chechen Repub- During his studies he became a 2010/237733_said_burjatskij_pogi lic of Ichkeria [the unrecognised convinced salafi. [Salafism: a b_shaxidom.html). secessionist government of Chech- branch of Islam which rejects in- nya proclaimed on 6 September corporating elements of other relig- 1991. Ed]. On the night of 22 June ions into Islam. Its adherents be- ‘Magas’ 2004 more than a hundred fighters lieve they are preserving Islam in under the personal command of its original pure form. They reject ‗Magas‘ was once known by the Basaev, Abu Kuteib and Ali Taziev Sufism which is widespread in the name of Akhmed Evloev. He was (‗Magas‘) entered Nazran North Caucasus. Currently the in fact an Ingush and his real name (Ingushetia), captured the local most widespread type of Muslim was Ali Musaevich Taziev. Born MVD building and firearms depot, fundamentalism in the North Cau- on 19 August 1974, ‗Magas‘ par- shot about 99 people (including casus and particularly in Dagh- ticipated in the movement of workers from the office of the pub- estan, salafism has led to serious armed opposition in the North lic prosecutor, police, and just ordi- conflict not only with the Federal Caucasus, and since the end of nary citizens) and then disap- and local authorities but within the 2007 was the commander (Chief peared. Emir) of the armed units of the Caucasus Emirate and head of the A few years later, the investigation Emirate‘s Ingush vilaiyat [Arabic in Ingushetia discovered that for ‗province‘. Term widely used Taziev, using the name Gorbakov, in Muslim countries. Ed]. Before had been living since 2007 in a his capture and arrest, he was private house on Merzhoeva street Dokka Umarov‘s second-in- in the Sagopshi suburbs of the command within the hierarchy of Ingush town of Malgobek. He the Caucasus Emirate. There are told the neighbours that he was an serious grounds for thinking that immigrant from Chechnya, and ‗Magas‘ was Sergeant Ali lived quietly and inconspicuously, Musaevich Taziev, a security offi- arousing no suspicions. The opera- cer who disappeared without trace tion to capture ‗Magas‘ began six in 1998. At the time he was part of months before he was finally ar- the group who protected Olga rested. Three times he fell within ‘Magas’ after his arrest on a plane to Moscow Uspenskaya, wife of Valeri Fateev, the line of sniper fire, but the order adviser to the President of In- was to capture him alive. On the Muslim community itself. MR] gushetia. In October 1998 Olga night of 9 June 2010 his house was Once Vagabov had completed his Uspenskaya and the two police surrounded by the FSB; Taziev had studies in Pakistan, he returned officers, Taziev and Dzhandigov, no time to resist capture. He was home in 1997 and opened a me- who were with her, disappeared. immediately transferred by plane to dresseh in Gubden for hafiz where She was eventually released from Moscow and at the Lefortovo Dis- he taught hadiths. He preached in captivity 18 months later. Then trict Court charged and taken into a number of Daghestan‘s mosques the body of Dzhandigov was dis- custody (see h t t p : / / and was an imam at one in Gub- covered in Chechnya and buried www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx? den. That year he met the well- with full honours in his homeland. DocsID=1383992). known Arab mujahedin, Emir Taziev was also treated as a hero Khatab and Abu Dzhafar in Chech- who had perished in the line of nya. He received military training duty. In 2000 a court in Ingushetia Magomed-Ali Vagabov (all Daghestan‘s Muslims were officially reported his death, but called to jihad) and brought re- according to operational informa- Vagabov, known as Emir Saifullah [Arabic: ‗Sword of Allah‘. MR] a cruits to Emir Khatab‘s training tion, Taziev joined the opposition camps in Chechnya. In the spring fighters, got a passport in the name Darguin by nationality, was born on 1 January 1975 in the village of of 2004 he organised a group of of Akhmed Evloev and used the mujahedin in Gubden and in 2009 name ‗Magas‘, based on his sec- Gubden (Karabudakhkentsky dis- trict, Daghestan). He attended a headed the Central Sector of the ond name of Magomed, as his Caucasus Emirate‘s Daghestan radio identification during his Soviet secondary school in Gubden (up to class 9) but at the same time Front. On 15 July 2010 he was broadcasts (http://www.utro.ru/ appointed commander of the Dagh- articles/2004/09/08/348692.shtml). studied Sharia with local Muslim teachers, Arabic, hadiths [accounts estan Front and Chief Judge of the of the Prophet‘s life. Ed] and tafsir Caucasus Emirate‘s Sharia Court According to information from [body of commentaries on the Ko- (http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/ Russia‘s security services, Taziev ran. Ed]. In 1994 he went to Paki- articles/173122). On 21 August organised the first detachments in stan where he first joined a school 2010 he was killed during an inci- Ingushetia territory with the help of for hafiz [Arabic: ‗those who can dent with Muslim radicals in the the field commanders Abu Dzeit recite the Koran‘. MR] where in a Daghestan village of Gunib (http:// and Magomed Khazhiev. These www.lifenews.ru/news/35320). Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 12

The Orthodox Evangelism of Fr Evmeni

by Vera Filatova

Fr Evmeni (Peristy) is one of the most striking Brompton with the support of Archbishop Ioann and controversial figures in today‘s Russian Or- was held in Belgorod. A team from London, thodox Church (ROC). From 1992-2006 he was including the founders of the Alpha course, Abbot of the Makariev-Reshemsky Monastery in Sandy Millar and Nicky Gumbel, spent two days the village of Reshme in the Ivanov oblast, where explaining the principles of Alpha to a Russian he was involved in social and missionary work: audience. According to Fr Evmeni, the ROC he set up an educational centre, a publishing decided that it could not use the course as it stood house called ‗Light of Orthodoxy‘, a drug reha- and so, with Archbishop Ioann‘s approval, it was bilitation centre, and ran a missionary course adapted and renamed ‗The Way‘ when he entitled ‗Alpha and Omega‘, based on the Alpha worked within the Missionary Department. An- course pioneered by London‘s Holy Trinity other influential church leader, Fr (Protoierei) Brompton. Dmitri Smirnov, head of the Holy Synod‘s de- partment for relations with the armed forces and Mainly because he built up warm relations with health service, also supported the course and Christians from a number of different denomina- gave space in his premises for it to be taught. tions, his activity was constantly criticised in Russia, and particularly by so-called ‗anti- In Fr Evmeni‘s opinion, the Alpha course had sectarians‘ – campaigners against all religious been well thought out by Holy Trinity Brompton groups defined by them as ‗sects‘ which usually from a psychological point of view. Each meet- included all Protestant denominations and par- ing consisted of four basic components: a meal ticularly Charismatics. Fr Evmeni said of these together, singing to guitar accompaniment, pres- ‗anti-sectarians‘: ‗they first look for enemies entation of a topic which was expounded by a among aliens, then among their own people, and member of the Alpha leadership team, followed then ―accurately‖ shoot them down using, among by open discussion in small groups. A central various methods, the instrument of political de- aspect of the course to Fr Evmeni was the sense nunciation.‘ Accused of ‗behaviour unbecoming of fellowship within the leadership group, which, to a monk‘ Fr Evmeni was removed from his he said, was just as important as the creation of position as Abbot of the Makariev-Reshemsky fellowship among those they were trying to Monastery at the beginning of 2006. He was reach; when people encountered a friendly group then rescued by Archbishop Ioann (Popov) of of likeminded people, rather than seeing a priest Belgorod, head of the Moscow Patriarchate‘s preaching a sermon, people would be able to Missionary Department where he was allowed to experience the reality of ‗Christ among us‘. organise a programme called ‗The Way‘, a new Through the Orthodox version of Alpha, he version of the ‗Alpha and Omega‘ course which hoped to get young people, who knew nothing he had been running at the monastery. On 6 Feb- about the church, interested in Christianity; he ruary 2008, however, he was dismissed from the wanted to show that the church was not gloomy Missionary Department as well. and old-fashioned, but exciting, joyful and hu- man, able to be completely open to people rather Fr Evmeni was condemned by his critics for his than cut off from life and inward-looking. interest in the charismatic movement and for his involvement in promoting the Alpha course. Yet Reactions within the ROC to the proposal to he was not the only member of the ROC to be adapt the Alpha course were by no means all interested: in December 2005 representatives positive; nevertheless, at the conference in Bel- from the St Filaret Institute (founded by the Rus- gorod in 2006 it was officially accepted, and Fr sian Orthodox priest Fr Georgi Kochetkov) in Evmeni was given permission to use ‗The Way‘ Moscow visited London to learn about the Alpha among Orthodox believers. The most important course and this method of introducing people element taken from the original course – some- outside the church to the Christian faith. At the thing which was unusual in Orthodox catechet- time a Russian Orthodox course, somewhat ical courses – was the absence of a clearly de- analogous to Alpha called ‗The Way‘, was being fined hierarchy between the leader and the group used in London by Metropolitan Anthony of listeners. The work of the group was based on Bloom‘s church, the Dormition Cathedral in En- dialogue – people were able to be heard even if nismore Gardens. Then in June 2006 a ‗Russia their ideas seemed unacceptable and silly to the Alpha Conference‘, organised by Holy Trinity rest. As a result ‗The Way‘ was often accused

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 13

of superficiality, while the total openness and mostly focused on so-called neuro-linguistic pro- friendliness of the group leaders gave rise to gramming (NLP) which he had studied. In accusations of sectarianism, of spreading Protes- Dvorkin‘s words, Fr Evmeni had actively adver- tantism or even ‗the Orange Revolution‘! Ac- tised NLP and applied this ‗dubious psychologi- cording to Fr Evmeni, one of the main arguments cal technique in his work with young people‘. in Orthodox circles against the Alpha course was This was not true, and anyway, as Fr Evmeni its provenance: it was unacceptable for the Or- explained, NLP had been misrepresented and thodox to use the missionary experience of Prot- viewed negatively because the word estants. ‗programming‘ had been misunderstood: it did not mean manipulation or the imposition of a The most energetic critic of ‗The Way‘ was Alex- particular form of behaviour. In 2000 he had andr Dvorkin, well-known in Russia as someone been interested in this method, but had never who claimed to be a specialist on sectarianism: used it in his work: he saw, he said, ‗the basic he considered the course to be the work of a neo- inapplicability of some theoretical propositions charismatic sect and was supported in this view of applied psychology, and neuro-linguistic pro- by a number of Russian Orthodox clergy, includ- gramming, in pastoral care‘. He had been more ing Fr Oleg Stenyaev and Fr Alexandr Ilya- interested in pastoral psychology, and when he shenko. The course‘s critics did not distinguish was still Abbot of the Makariev-Reshemsky ‗The Way‘ from Alpha: they condemned the Monastery had got ‗Light of Orthodoxy‘ to pub- methods used by Charismatics, their teaching lish a series on this subject. about the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, and saw their imprint on ‗The Way‘ as much as ‗Light of Orthodoxy‘ had also published books by on Alpha. Dvorkin ignored the missionary pur- various authors on subjects which concerned pose of the course and looked at it as a method of people in contemporary society – on family mat- catechising. He accused the course leaders of ters, the birth and upbringing of children, medi- using non-Orthodox language and failing to in- cine, psychology, drug dependency and help for clude talks on Orthodox culture and church his- the mentally ill. It published books and articles tory. Fr Evmeni fully admitted that those run- by Fr Evmeni, too, such as Pastoral Help for the ning ‗The Way‘ tried to use accessible language Mentally Ill and a trilogy against drug addiction without a lot of Church Slavonic words. Leaders which was a particularly important focus in Fr had to take a special training course during which Evmeni‘s ministry. While Abbot of the Makariev they learned to talk in a lively and interesting -Reshemsky Monastery he created a rehabilita- way, without using incomprehensible ecclesiasti- tion centre, and after his ‗expulsion‘ from the cal terminology which could put off young peo- monastery, although the centre was for a time ple. Fr Evmeni said that he tried to talk to those disbanded, he managed to start it up again in the who came on the course as equals; he used a light village of Reshme. Rehabilitation, in Fr touch when discussing the church, as the basic Evmeni‘s view, involved giving a person the aim was not to familiarise newcomers with chance to live in a different social environment – church rituals, but to enable them to have a direct in a Christian community whose primary aim experience of God and of the Gospel. was to communicate the love of God.

The angry comments of the course‘s critics re- In 2007 Fr Evmeni published a book called On vealed how incapable they were of understanding Victorious Christianity in which he stressed how the new approach of ‗The Way‘, created first and imperative it was to attract talented, clever and foremost for people for whom Russian Orthodox successful people to the church and to encourage tradition and dogma were more of an obstacle Orthodox Christians to take an active interest in than something to be valued. Alexandr Dvorkin contemporary questions. This book aroused the supervised a whole dissertation (by Fr Alexandr opposition of Dvorkin and his supporters who Usatov) on ‗The Way‘ in which the course was accused Fr Evmeni of advocating love of money, described as the product of a neo-charismatic success and other ‗American‘ values. He was sect which turned Orthodox believers away from also criticised for his book in the series Parables the church. Even a film attacking Alpha called of an Orthodox Missionary, which was banned ‗The Alpha Course. Hell‘s Trap‘ was produced by the St Petersburg diocesan missionary depart- by two Orthodox priests (Fr Oleg Stenyaev and ment whose press section officially announced Fr Daniil Sysoev). that it did not conform ‗with the main task of a missionary – the spread of the Orthodox faith‘. Fr Evmeni believed that a knowledge of psychol- As ever, beneath the criticism of Fr Evmeni lay ogy was essential for any pastor and he was con- the principle that for the Orthodox it was unac- demned for using it in his ministry. Widespread ceptable to work with Christians of other de- criticism of his ‗psychological‘ activity was nominations; and he had done exactly this when

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 14

supporting an inter-denominational rehabilitation important for them to reconnect with the source – centre in St Petersburg called ‗New Life‘ which the Gospel – and recognise themselves as Chris- was initially organised by Protestants. The St tians first of all and then as Orthodox believers. Petersburg diocesan missionary department at- After his dismissal from the Moscow Patriar- tacked him and, according to Fr Evmeni, ex- chate‘s Missionary Department, Fr Evmeni re- pressed their position in a particularly unkind mained a priest within Archbishop Ioann‘s diocese manner with the statement ‗It is better for these of Belgorod but was given no role there and drug addicts to die as baptised members of the worked for a time at the Church of St Nicholas in Orthodox Church than for them to find faith Otradnoe (a district on the edge of Moscow) through some of those psychopaths, charismatics where he continued to run the Orthodox version of and such like!‘ the Alpha course. In 2009 he was dismissed yet again. According to recent information, he has In his work against drug addiction as well as in been helping in a central Moscow parish but not as other areas, Fr Evmeni used the experience of a member of staff, while also spending part of his other denominations and was happy to work with time in Reshme where he has a flat. As one non-Orthodox Christians. Although he recognised source commented when asked what Fr Evmeni that it was important to communicate the riches of was doing now, ‗No doubt he is continuing to Russian Orthodox culture to people outside the speak in tongues, an occupation which he loves church, yet in today‘s world he felt it was more above all else on earth.‘

Zoya Krakhmalnikova Protagonist of Spiritual Resistance

by Janice Broun This article is based on a tribute to at her trial ‗was baptised a thousand Zoya Krakhmalnikova (1919-2008) years ago... Nadezhda is intended written by a close friend, Vladimir for those who seek a faith, for be- Ilyushenko, in La Nuova Europa lievers. There is nothing criminal July 2008. involved in having ones writings published by presses abroad. Re- Zoya was a key figure in religious joice, because the will of God is samizdat and was to become one of manifest in everything...‘ the most trenchant critics of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in The journal contained extracts from its post-communist role; she died the Church Fathers, messages and on 15 April 2008. Born in guidance from the new Russian Kharkov, she became an expert on martyrs, letters from priests and lay world literature and a regular con- folk in exile, complete records of tributor to Literaturnaya Gazeta. the influential sessions given in his In 1971 she was baptised by Fr parish church by Fr Dmitri (at that Dmitri Dudko. Three years later time still a dissident), answering she was sacked and forbidden to publish in the questions about the faith. Zoya‘s husband, Felix USSR whereupon she turned to editing a religious Svetov, who was also condemned to exile, joined samizdat journal, Nadezhda (Hope). At this time her. When after four years in exile they were told there was little religious – as compared with civil they could return home to their family if they ad- and socio-political – samizdat. In 1982 she was mitted they had broken the law, they refused and arrested after the appearance of the tenth issue and were not released until July 1987 when, with the sentenced to one year in prison and five in exile in advent of perestroika, all political prisoners were the Altai. freed.

At her trial, she claimed that if she had not taken it Zoya had very strong opinions and she and Ilyu- on herself to collect material and edit Nadezhda shenko often argued, but their differences of opin- someone else would have. ‗I take no credit or ion never disturbed their friendship. She was not a blame for having published it; I have only at- person who believed in compromise. After her tempted to revive something which was sup- release she found it necessary to monitor the pro- pressed 60 years ago.‘ ‗Our land,‘ she pointed out gress of the religious revival for which she had so

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 15

longed. She was soon disillusioned. Her articles itself. It has stifled its prophetic voices and spirit were scathing. She condemned the Russian Ortho- of liberty. The more it emphasises its primary dox hierarchy for failing to confess their culpabil- commitment to its role as a national church, the ity in collaborating with an atheist state. She said more the spectre of paganism seeps into it, almost that by claiming that they were in solidarity with imperceptibly. Nationalism, by infiltrating the the Russian people and their government, they church, is starting to dominate it and make it de- were following the example of Metropolitan Sergi pendent on national xenophobia, which is escalat- Stragorodsky back in 1927. She believed that the ing. Little by little it has assumed the characteris- main obstacle to a genuine revival of religion was tics of a cult which venerate earthly idols. This ‗pseudo-Orthodoxy‘, the betrayal perpetrated by pseudo Christianity is contaminating the nation, by many of her bishops against Christ and his com- elevating the Russian people as the basic reality mandments. She warned of the threat of a Russian given by God as a means to serve him. Two doc- fascism, pagan in essence, which was using Ortho- trines, one Christian, the other nationalistic, are doxy as a mask. mingling and trying to harmonise with each other, and as they do so, they are undermining the This neo-fascism was a combination of ‗a xeno- church. The nationalistic element is squeezing out phobic Nazism, anti-Semitism and pseudo- its evangelical outreach, in its fullest sense, its Orthodoxy‘. She regarded anti-Semitism as a con- availability to everyone, whatever their national- sequence of the moral collapse and spiritual deca- ity.‘ dence of Christianity. Bolshevism evolved as a variant of Fascism. Auschwitz and the Gulag were ‗Many people in Russia – perhaps the majority – two interlinked catastrophes and did not belong wear a crucifix round their necks, often ostensibly. only to the past. The threat of a resurgence of But how Christian are they? A Christian doesn‘t Nazi and Bolshevik ideals, united by a common only carry a crucifix; they carry Christ, in their hatred of God and man, continued to threaten our hearts.‘ Zoya was this kind of person. In prison world. The massacres of so many innocent people and exile she had reflected deeply about what represented an attempt to crucify Christ yet again. Christianity really meant. She wrote, ‗We Chris- Zoya saw creation from an apocalyptic standpoint, tians aren‘t capable of living in a truly Christian with terrible sin infecting the church, priest and lay way in this world. We select from the Old Testa- folk alike, poisoning water and land and the at- ment what we can do easily but we merely dream mosphere, as predicted by St John in the book of about how we could put the New Testament into Revelation. practice. Where there is no persecution, there is no faith. The salt has lost its savour and the She expressed alarm that the virus of nationalism church, in opening its doors to the world, has lost was becoming ever more deeply entrenched within its spiritual force. The martyrs of the 20th century, the ROC. She noted that in recent times many whatever confession they belonged to, are the seed theologians had expressed their regret that the of the One Universal and Apostolic Church. The church was losing its catholicity, its universality. church isn‘t defined by numbers; it is a little flock; ‗Its close alliance with the nationalist state has it isn‘t the language in which the liturgy is cele- resulted in its becoming dangerously closed in on brated; it is the Body of the Lord.‘

Entrance into the harbour of the Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery from across the White Sea, June 2010 © Xenia Dennen Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 16

KestonKeston MembersMembers RecollectRecollect

The Very Reverend John Arnold

I accompanied Archbishop Donald Coggan (inter alia a Patron of Keston College) on his visit to the Russian Orthodox Church 20-28 April 1975. We were received by Patriarch Pimen in the old Resi- dence (Chisty Pereulok) in a heavy Byzantine at- mosphere. The discussions were fraught by Rus- sian disquiet about the prospect of the ordination of women in the Church of England, and by our raising concerns about dissidents and persecution in the USSR. The formidable Metropolitan Niko- dim, who took the lead on the Russian side and was sitting opposite the Archbishop, leaned for- ward and said, ‗And there is the matter of a so- called research institute under distinguished eccle- siastical patronage.‘ Archbishop Coggan looked him straight in the eye and said firmly and calmly, ‗I agree with His Excellency that the research in- stitute is under very distinguished patronage in- deed.‘ There was a short, intense silence. Then (Left to right) Canon Michael Moore, the Very Revd John Arnold Metropolitan Nikodim, like a chess player who has & David Gowan (member of the Council of Management ) just realised that he has been outplayed and would at the Keston AGM, November 2009 do well to resign immediately, smiled through his beard, bowed his head and murmured, ‗Nu ladno‘, we in the Archbishop's entourage took plentiful which roughly corresponds to ‗Okay, you win.‘ I supplies, which we distributed to trusted friends in am not sure if that got picked up by the micro- the course of the visit. During the splendid closing phone in the daffodils! liturgy before a huge congregation both of believ- ers and also of agents of the State in the Cathedral Sir John Lawrence had been chairing a working of the Epiphany, Archpriest Borovoi came up to group of the East-West Committee of the British me, got me to my feet, swung round so that his Council of Churches, of which I had the honour of broad back clothed in a swirling brocaded cope being chairman. Paul Oestreicher was secretary was turned to the congregation, swallowed me in a and Michael Bourdeaux was a very active mem- bear-like embrace and whispered, ‗Have you got ber. In 1974 we published Discretion and Valour, another copy of Discretion and Valour?‘ I had written by Trevor Beeson on the basis of expertise, been expecting some exotic liturgical greeting; much of which had been supplied by Keston. It but, by a providential chance, I did have my last was the first trustworthy and easily available ac- copy with me in my cassock pocket, and was able count of religious conditions in Russia and Eastern to transfer it to his and return to my seat without Europe, and it rapidly became a bestseller. It was either of us missing a beat in the ornate rites and also both publicly vilified and also pri- ceremonies of the Orthodox Church. Those were vately highly prized east of the Elbe. Of course, the days!

Canon Michael Moore

In the 1970s I paid half a dozen visits to churches the language. Now at long last it was to become in the Soviet Union as an emissary from the active. My first penetration of the Soviet Union Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth. I went to was in the very early hours of Thursday 26 April churches in the former Soviet Republics of Arme- 1973. I was arriving by train, a slow introduction nia, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, and Ukraine, as well for acclimatisation, from Warsaw where I had been as to Russian Churches. I had studied the Russian celebrating Easter the previous weekend with the language in National Service in the 1950s, as so English-speaking congregation, and making ecu- many young men did in those days, and later at menical calls on behalf of Archbishop Michael Oxford, so I had some mainly passive knowledge of Ramsey. On this first Soviet visit I would simply

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 17

concentrate on the Russians in Moscow, Leningrad Raymond met me as I made my way towards the and Novgorod, embracing other nationalities later exit. He was to be my constant guide for nearly a on. What follows are excerpts from my diary, of fortnight. It seemed to me he had put on weight. early impressions written at the time. My first Rus- His progress through Russian circumstances was sians were customs men on the train at Brest Li- always to remind me of a battleship ploughing tovsk. through a rough sea. The black Volvo with its rear windscreen wiper, warmth and easy seats awaited Then the Russians arrived. They came in waves, us, easy to see in a Russian street. It was mild and group after group, each interested in something wet. There was more traffic than I had expected, different. It was intriguing to hear Russian for the and crowds coming and going on the pavements. first time natively. I did not try to be too bright in Not many of them were shoppers. We got into the the language... They went through all my luggage car for the first of many times, and Raymond be- closely, looking at every book to see whether it gan the first of many briefings. His knowledge of was in Russian. They did not mind the Scriptures Russian life seemed vast already. He was forever that I had, as all were in Latin scripts... But what imparting information, whether on churches or the really caught the Russians‘ interest was my com- system of ‗razvorot‘, the Russian road rule of ef- ing from London: when had I last been there? I fecting a manoeuvre by U-turns, so that you end did not elaborate that I had been sprayed at War- up going in the opposite direction. How far does saw airport in the meantime. It was not that I this reflect a style of life? might import Christianity from Lambeth to Mos- cow: ‗It is your smallpox which will really interest The Oppenheims (Raymond and Winifred) live in us.‘ (There had been an outbreak in England.) All a diplomatic block in the south-west suburbs of the the particulars of my recent injections were noted city near the gigantic university building, one of (and sent on ahead, as I was later to learn). the seven ‗wedding cakes‘ of the capital – a unique Soviet phenomenon which appears in imitation in There follows a detailed description of how the a few of the East European capitals as palaces of train was lifted up from the narrow-gauge Euro- culture. Diplomats are not encouraged to frater- pean rails and bodily lowered on to the wider Rus- nise with local people, and the particular block in sian ones. Eventually we moved off again, and I which we were to find ourselves was protected by plotted our route on a map as the Russian dawn a Soviet guard, and could only be approached from broke and day returned. the back under the guard‘s surveillance. It was a large block, hundreds rather than tens of families, The train lumbered on through the day. Occasion- and most of them, judging from the children play- ally we passed little villages. I looked in vain for ing outside, were Arab or Indian. village churches. Sometimes we saw peasants working in fields, but usually we were passing I spent the rest of the day soaking off the journey, through woods, even forest. Sometimes I thought settling in, and having detailed discussions of our of a Russian folk-song, ‗My Barren Acres‘. At plans. After a night in a motionless bed I was last we reached Moscow. rested and ready for Friday 27 April, the Ameri- can Embassy, and first visits to churches. We drew in to the Belorussky Station and came to a final halt at 4 p.m., exactly on time – as always. Outside my window the traffic stirred early, tear- We had been coming into the capital city long ing down a dual carriageway, with large lorries before that. Our progress along the ever- struggling up the other side. The volume did not multiplying tracks and through suburban stations compare with a real rush hour though. The chil- became ever slower and more stately to befit a dren, still well wrapped up, were going to school notable occasion. And it had begun to rain. much earlier than in England. We breakfasted, and then drove to the US Embassy to register me. I I stepped out on to the platform, a case in each was technically their guest. hand, almost into the arms of two Russian matrons not in uniform. Whether they were actually medi- The Embassy is a large modern building on a main cal I shall never know: one clutched a telegram road, the wide middle ring road (such as London and the other was perhaps there to watch. News of has now rejected). We had to make a ‗razvorot’ to the plague had gone before me. I looked around reach it. In front of every entrance, blocking it, but could see nothing of Raymond Oppenheim two guards were standing. No one could make a (the American chaplain in Moscow, who was to be dash for American territory. Diplomatic cars, hav- my host). Interrogation began. They were very ing special number plates, were easy to recognise. nice about it. They wanted to know where they Inside was a rabbit warren, and very overcrowded could find me, if an epidemic broke out, and – not least by the propensity for large automobiles. whether I felt at all ill. There had been no Ambassador for several

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 18

months, rather sapping of morale. After visiting and I found to my delight that when talking to a several offices and saying Hi to all and sundry, we genuine Russian, Russian would soon come to me. found ourselves with a pillar of the church, a We had a glance at plans for the coming days, and young man with close-cropped hair who had a lot took our leave looking forward to seeing the of collection to count (from Easter services) in Bishop again. different currencies. I handled my first roubles. There are about two to the pound. The notes are We were not expected at the Patriarchal Cathedral very small, like monopoly money, which is maybe until the early afternoon, and so we had some time appropriate. I took 25 roubles in case I needed to spare. We made our way back along the river to them, but there would not be much opportunity to the British Embassy, a solid Victorian building spend them. They were entered on my account. standing in its own grounds directly on the other At the end I would refund my expenses with a side of the river from the Kremlin. I noticed with sterling cheque. We were escorted out of the se- some chauvinistic satisfaction that the British Em- cure part of the Embassy as per regulations, to bassy cars are numbered 01. The Americans are where the Marine guard still sat, and then we were 04. The also-rans may be anything down to 99. in free America again. After more Hi-ing we re- Raymond did not knock either of the guards down turned to Russia and set off for our first church. standing in front of the British gate – perhaps that is not really his ambition – and we came to rest This was the Orthodox Good Friday. In the next outside the Consular Section. There we met Mr few days there would be much opportunity to see Chris Ingham and he took us into the Embassy how live the Russian Orthodox Church was; but I proper where I signed the Book. would be able to judge only from the ‗active‘ churches, which I saw, and I would not know how Honour satisfied we went for a ride round the many had been closed. I would need to remember Kremlin. It is surrounded by an impenetrable that Moscow was a ‗show case‘, with so many wall. It is dominated by a golden tower with a Western visitors; conditions there were likely to be golden cross on it. A lot of garish red decorations better than anywhere else. were beginning to appear for May Day, but they would not remain long. A secular festival would We drove along wide and empty streets with few be observed, but would not a religious feast be traffic lights. I contrasted average progress celebrated? through London. Our way took us eastwards along the river. We came to the Church of St Pe- We looked into the huge Hotel Rossia where all ter and St Paul in Soldatskaya Street (No 35 in the foreigners stay. Inside it was a beryozka shop. Raymond Oppenheim‘s catalogue). Climbing out These shops are only for those who can pay in of the car we put on our cassocks and pectoral hard currency. A little man stands at the door crosses, which in this country would distinguish us keeping out doubtful customers. Sometimes local from lay servers. A few men outside the church citizens protest: they pay their taxes, why should- looked at us strangely. A drunk approached us, n‘t they use the shops? – because they are not so but we did not heed him (lest we should be ac- equal. Then we went to a bazaar market, where cused of proselytising). anyone could buy... I felt uneasy: the crowd looked like a lot of pickpockets. In fact there is a We went into the church, which was dark and lot less petty crime here than in the West; mugging mysterious and mainly full of old women. But is hardly known... there were a few younger faces. Immediately we were taken up into the atmosphere of worship After lunch we went to the Patriarchal Cathedral which was to meet us so often. The service was (No 1). We were going through our act of putting nearly over; the chanting was coming to an end. on our cassocks outside the car in the beginnings We reverenced icons and made our way forward, of drizzle when a large long black car drew up the babushki (a more homely and devout-sounding outside the Cathedral and went round the back. word than ‗old woman‘) made way for us. We The Patriarch himself (Pimen) was arriving. This went through the icon screen and were there was to be the ‗winding sheet‘ service, the service greeted by Bishop Chrysostom of Zaraisk. He is symbolising the descent of the Lord from the the assistant of Metropolitan Yuvenali and No 2 in Cross, His being wrapped in grave clothes and laid the Russian CFR (Council on Foreign Relations; I in the tomb. was General Secretary of Lambeth‘s CFR). He looked very youthful. Some say he is 32, others The Cathedral was well full. We went beyond the 39. It was the first of many kissings and ex- icon screen to the spacious sanctuary and drank in changes of Easter Greetings: Khristos voskrese – the singing and the atmosphere of solemn worship. Vo istinu voskrese, which were to become so much The Patriarch and his bishops and priests were part of daily conversation. We had a brief talk, performing solemn rites around the altar. I was

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 19

still weary from my journey and after a while I sat of whom were sitting on the floor in the growing down around a corner and simply listened rather heat (but they would all stand up with the begin- sleepily to what was going on. It was always in- ning of the service) and among the vesting teresting. Something is always happening in an priests. The chief of these was the Archbishop, Orthodox service, like an acted drama. It is not a white-haired, short and stocky, his eyes twinkling question of stopping in one place, standing or sit- through rimless spectacles. Here we were in a ting or kneeling; there is movement, a rising and different world from the Patriarchal Cathedral and falling, an ebbing and flowing like the motion of its solemn order; here there was happy chaos – the waves, and all borne on by heavenly music nobody quite knowing what to do or what would such as angels sing. happen next. I was presented to the Archbishop. He told me to sit on a stool beside him while he After a time the Patriarch moved into the body of sat in an armchair waiting for the service to begin. the Cathedral, where the ‗tomb‘ had been set up He had been to England years ago but his chief for the ‗burial‘. We moved outside the screen to foreign recollection was Berlin. We exchanged watch. All the congregation were holding candles. badinage in Russian and I at once felt at home Some young children in the front were looking with him. As the magic hour of eight approached rather tired. The Patriarch gave a sermon, but it he went to stand at the altar, his priests around did not seem to me that he had anything very mo- him. A low-voiced conversation went on, led by mentous to say. Preaching must be careful, with- the Archbishop, which looked for all the world out social or political embarrassment. Even so, like a staff meeting over the breakfast table. Was Raymond remarked that some people manage to it who would do what that they were discussing, preach worthwhile sermons, for example Fr or last week‘s visiting? Shpiller, to whose church we would go. At the end of the service the Patriarch agreed that I The screen was drawn back and the drama of the should greet him. He has a great presence about liturgy (‗the work of the people‘) began. It really him. I approached him with some awe and kissed was very theatrical, with priests and deacons his hand, and said in Russian what a privilege and ‗going on‘ to ‗play their part‘ or ‗sing their piece‘ joy it was. There was a silence, and then came and then withdraw to the ‗wings‘. From time to back his answer, rather like a machine intoning time the Archbishop would turn to the people and from deep inside a bottle: ‗It is a great pleasure to himself contribute a blessing or a versicle. I re- have you attending our services.‘ After that I re- solved that we must return again next week, when treated. It had been rather like consulting an ora- we would not have to leave early; we were al- cle... ready going to be late for Winifred‘s supper. And so it was arranged, and in the wings we began to This evening the ‗active‘ churches would be hold- say Goodbye. The Deacon, an enormous man ing their services of vigil at the tomb. We should with a very deep voice which we had so much go and see them. There were three within fairly admired, and a head like the Queen of Hearts in easy reach of the British Embassy. At the first Alice in Wonderland, got out of his armchair Skorbyashchenskaya (the Joy of the Sorrowing – where he had been resting and wiping his brow. No 8), we found that the service would not start He advanced on me and suddenly said from the until 8 p.m., and so we decided to return. Nearly depth: semdesyat chetyre – 74. I could only sup- two hours before, people were already gathering. pose he meant his age, and that he was not talking The next was St Nicholas (No 9), the church of Fr in some secret code... Shpiller. We stood at the back for a while. I do not think I have ever seen a church so full, with This day would have no end, Holy Saturday for people shoulder to shoulder as at a football match. the Orthodox (Saturday 28 April). We began a Where would one see that in England? Fr Shpiller further tour of active churches and saw the enact- attracts the young and intellectuals as well as the ing of a most interesting custom. At each of the babushki. The third church, St John the Warrior churches there were queues of babushki. Some- (No 7), we could not get into at all. A couple of times there were men, younger people, and chil- good-natured policemen were standing outside, dren too. Each was clutching a plate full of food. apparently in case any mocking youngsters should This was to symbolise the end of the Lenten fast, try to break things up. The crowded congregation and they were bringing the food to be blessed by was tight-packed and reverent. a priest before making a feast of it tomorrow.

We returned to the first of the three, the church of On this occasion our way had taken us to the Archbishop Kiprian, who was once Bishop of north of the city. I caught my first real sight of Berlin. Now the service was only a quarter of an the television tower soaring to an immense height hour away. We went into a side entrance and into the sky. It is beautifully proportioned, but its soon found ourselves beyond the babushki, some height is difficult to tell as it is so thin and there

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 20

was nothing to measure it against. We also saw About two hours later, around 10 p.m., we were the monument to Russian space shots – a rocket drawing into Zagorsk, and the vague outline of the at the top of a triangular column, and in the dis- monastic buildings could be discerned in the dark- tance, an exhibition of Soviet economic accom- ness. We should see them better later. Already plishment with its double statue of a peasant and people were thronging into the monastic grounds, an industrial worker locked in firm embrace: a by no means all of them babushki. In fact the ba- nice piece of idealism. bushki were mostly already there. We found them in the various chapels as we made a preliminary It was becoming clearer all the time that the State tour, camped on the floors in the warm. Maybe was going to have a festival as well as the Church. some of them had been there for days, rather than As well as multitudes of flags and slogans on a red hours, patiently waiting for the services to begin. background, frames were going up for portraits of Many young men and women of student age were the Politburo. With the retiring of two members there, walking about in groups, some believers, and their replacement by three, the apostolic num- some enquirers, not many scoffers. None indeed ber was spoilt and one frame and one portrait per would scoff openly on this night. While people set were being erected without much warning. It might hesitate to attend their own local churches, would also be interesting to see how the portraits here they could be anonymous and they came in would be arranged now that Mr Brezhnev was no their hundreds... longer first alphabetically. Always the biggest portrait was of Lenin (nothing of Stalin). This is At last the bidding was given and we made our very much the apostolic age of Leninism, and it is way through the crowds to the Theological Acad- already very much a religion. Unfortunately his emy, and through the Academy itself to the chapel relics are putrefying in their place of honour. Per- which was quite full of people standing expectant. haps they will be replaced by something wax be- We entered through a side door in front of the icon fore too long. There will be no Resurrection in screen and found places reserved for us there. We this religion, though (perhaps to the relief of the exchanged bows with a Germanic-looking bishop present-day apostles!) and one can only wonder and his wife whom we were to meet often. I later whether it will last 2000 years. discovered him to be Bishop Held of Hesse- Nassau (of the German Evangelical Church of the Meantime Christianity maintains a strong and ob- Union). Apart from the party of Indians, including vious hold in the folk culture. The queues were the Ambassador, there seemed few foreigners pre- undiminishing in all the churches we visited. The sent. babushki patiently stood in line; when it came to their turn they and their provisions were asperged; Soon after we had taken our places we were told then in some churches they passed under a flutter- that Archbishop Filaret (Rector of the Academy) ing canopy held by two men and symbolising the wished us to join him beyond the icon screen. We angels. It reminded me fleetingly of oranges and trooped through to greet him. Orthodox bishops, lemons – but nobody would have her head and it seems Russians in particular, are endowed chopped off for this... with an immense presence. The Archbishop is also hardly 40, but he dominated the gathering. And so to the Easter Vigil at Zagorsk. He has an immense black beard and eyes set very wide apart. He is a notable theologian, and an This evening I felt as I feel on Christmas Eve, but article by him, recently published in the Journal of more so: a night on which I know I shall be up the Moscow Patriarchate, on the Filioque will be very late, and when I should like to sleep in ad- good for the Anglican Orthodox Joint Doctrinal vance; but that cannot be. Raymond and I had Discussions. We heard during the service, in one supper, and just as it was getting dark we left for of the litanies, that he would soon be going to Ber- Zagorsk. lin to take charge of the Russian Orthodox there. Now we greeted him and were made welcome. As We passed the Kremlin and took the main northern I came through the door I was aware of a little yelp road out of the city. Once clear of the outer ring of delight, and there was the Romanian deacon road we were soon out in the country. The surface who is always writing me letters about his studies of the road became unpredictable, and there were and his ambition to study in England. It was an no cat‘s eyes to guide us. Every so often we effort to dispel Russian, but after a little I found passed a police check point – we had had to have some Romanian for him. special visas for this journey – but we were not stopped. Our passing was probably reported to the The Archbishop was arranging the Procession of next point on the line, and a search party would the Cross. Soon the incessant and insistent greet- have come to look for us if we had not arrived, a ing – ‗Christ is risen: He is risen indeed‘ – would system which renders the AA dispensable. be taken up and answered by a thousand voices,

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 21

and the Troparion (Easter Sentence) would begin curled up on one another like puppies. to be sung: a chant which one hears so often that it enters one‘s subconscious, and one finds oneself Some time after four o‘clock the last litany had waking up with it on one‘s lips and singing it at all been sung and the last greeting exchanged. And hours of the day – which is of course the whole then it was time for breakfast. An immense feast idea. It was a triumphant procession. We went all had been laid out in the dining-room, and we went round the chapel, outside and in, greeting groups and sat down. Outside it was light again. True to of the faithful and being greeted in return. There the Gospel, when the Archbishop arrived he called was no room for doubt: He is rise indeed. There is us to a ‗higher room‘ and we transferred to the top no mouldering in the grave for this Messiah. table. By this time I was hungry again, though I did not know for what meal, and I tucked into the We returned to the chapel and the service went on plates of cold delicacies for a real breaking of fast. for hours with readings and litanies: the Easter In a short speech at the close the Archbishop wel- message from the Patriarch, a sermon from St John comed everybody to his table, and the Indian Am- Chrysostom, a sermon from the Archbishop, and bassador replied. There was also a good lot of egg readings of the Gospel in several languages repre- cracking after the manner appointed. sented among the staff and the students. But it did not seem like hours. Always something was hap- Raymond and I at length took our leave, the Ro- pening and the congregation were gathered up in manian deacon coming out to see us to our car. the movement of the liturgy. I did not feel in the The clear cold light of a new day was upon us. least tired during the long night watch, but I was Turning the corner from the monastery we paused lucky with a chair to sit on at appropriate times. to look back. A rare sight of onion domes and Some people one could see almost asleep on their crosses met our eyes. It is a holy place of Russia... feet, and two small children in the front simply lay down on the floor after a while and slumbered, And it was the holiest Christian festival day.

Keston AGM Keston AGM Saturday 6thth November 2010

The Great Chamber The Charterhouse

Charterhouse Square London EC1M 6AN

12.00 noon Annual General Meeting Entrance to the Charterhouse

12.45 p.m. Lunch

2.00 p.m. ‘Walking a Tightrope in Cold War Diplomacy’, a talk by Canon Paul Oestreicher, secretary of the East-West Committee of the British Council of Churches 1964-1980

3.00 p.m. ‘The Western Balkans’, a talk by David Gowan, Ambassador in Belgrade 2003-2006

4.00 p.m. Tea

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 22

InIn MemoriamMemoriam

Kenneth Rundell 1919-2010

seeking ways forward for the church in the ‗new Russia‘. Kenneth had just moved into a broken- down, but once-splendid building near the Alexan- der Nevsky Monastery at the end of the Nevsky Prospekt.

He told me of his plans and ideals, but his modesty concealed his past. He had dedicated his life, I later discovered, to the cause of Moral Rearma- ment, about which I knew little, but following dis- tinguished service in the Second World War (winning the Military Cross for bravery under en- emy fire), he worked for them without salary for many years. Now widowed, his second marriage was to Pirkko, a Finnish lady, and a call came to him to change the direction of his life completely. In the words of his son Michael, paying tribute at Kenneth‘s memorial service in London on 19 April, ‗He set out on a completely new challenge: to bring understanding between the peoples of Rus- sia and Europe, and, while he was at it, between the various faiths within Russia. This was, of course, a task every bit as ambitious and unachievable as his earlier mission to remake the world, but not made any trace less worthwhile due to its impossibility. And the way he felt he could best bring about this understanding was to return to what he saw was best in his previous work with the Oxford Group, and to create within Russia a community – a com- Sadly, I never knew Kenneth until the last phase of munity whose numbers would later grow and ex- his life, but we immediately hit it tend beyond anyone‘s ex- off. Not only did we both love St pectations.‘ Petersburg as it struggled to re- establish its western-looking iden- At our first meeting Ken- tity and restore its culture after the neth told me how difficult collapse of communism; we also he was finding it (how could had the common bond of having it be otherwise, Russia being been born and brought up in Corn- in such a chaotic state?). wall, and we both maintained a But at least it was a time strong connection with our home- when a foreigner could gain land. I was privileged to stay, sev- a foothold unmolested. His eral times, with my family in his first step on the rung of the delightful Ferry Cottage at Rock. property market met with The view across the Camel Estuary difficulties. Already there to Padstow was always balm for were Russians ready to look the soul. Kenneth‘s spirit per- on any foreigner as a poten- vaded this place. tial provider of charity; Kenneth soon learnt not to At the time of our first meeting, be quite so trusting of those Kenneth had recently moved to St he met. His second effort Petersburg. We met at a confer- took him to a magnificent ence sponsored by ‗Open Christi- Kenneth Rundell is decorated building on the Fontanka anity‘, where lay people were with the Military Cross by River and to a flat which had Field Marshal Montgomery Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 23

once belonged to Modest 300th anniversary of the founding of St Petersburg. Tchaikovsky, the com- We needed his guidance on locating a second poser‘s brother, but which venue – a church with a superb choir – for the sec- had been totally dese- ond programme. His local knowledge not only crated inside during the provided us with exactly the right contact, but he communist period. He insisted on taking us there on foot. Stephen and I managed to purchase – or could hardly keep up – and Kenneth was 83! gain a lease on – the building‘s two upper Let his son Michael take up the story again. ‗We floors and raised funds to worked together, learning new lessons, delighting do up the top one as a in the mad anarchic life that was post-Soviet Rus- library, communal room sia. And piece by piece, person by person, he grew and several bedrooms for roots and connections all over St Petersburg, visit- visiting Christian guests ing a dissident priest here, supporting a struggling which he called Agora. artist there, until he created a place for his commu- The floor below became nity to grow and flourish. I well remember the first living accommodation and church service I attended with him at Agora, held eventually he acquired the in a small room that is now my bedroom. There Kenneth Rundell in Agora May 2007 bottom floor and restored were two people in attendance and that was one it as the concert hall it more than normal. Sometimes he was on his own. used to be in better times. But by the time he left last year the number had grown, For a man already in his late the church had moved to a seventies this was a remark- more permanent home and the able achievement, not least fledgling congregation had because he was soon widowed established itself.... Perhaps for a second time. Kenneth more importantly he had in- had what I like to think of as deed been able to build a com- Cornish grit; better, he was a munity quite independent from rock hewn out of his native the church itself – a commu- granite. His son Michael, an nity that offered lectures, exhi- architect and designer, helped bitions and, most importantly, in the remodelling of this fellowship to a largely Russian wonderful building. Because circle. It offered friendship of the cheapness of Russian and support to whomsoever labour they could do this to a Kenneth Rundell, at the head of the table, my father came into contact standard and a finish which presides at breakfast in Agora with.‘ would have been unimaginable for a comparable property in Western Europe. Kenneth Rundell was one of the most remarkable people I ever met – not exactly a national figure, Like several Keston supporters, I was able to stay not a man who had held high office, not a person in this attractive and convenient place on several of means, yet someone without whom this coun- visits to St Petersburg. I shall always think of it as try, as well as St Petersburg, would have been my home there. For visitors there was one obliga- poorer. tion: breakfast was always communal. Kenneth Michael Bourdeaux would preside and lead the con- versation, which would cover the whole range of his interests, or he would gain especial pleasure from finding out more about his guests, who would be paying only a small percentage of the cost of staying in a St Petersburg hotel.

Kenneth, too, was fit and ener- getic well into his eighties. In 2003 I was staying at Agora while I was making two programmes for BBC Radio 4 with the Revd Stephen Shipley to celebrate the Fontanka River frozen in March Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 24

Where Nightingales Sing

by Xenia Dennen

work 946 hectars of land, and had just bought a large new green tractor made in America; Fr Pankrati was very proud of it; when spring came it would come into its own. In addition to working the land, the monastery kept 20 cows, 17 chickens and some goats. As much of the farming equip- ment had on occasion been stolen, it was essential, said Fr Pankrati, to have guards on the premises. Encyclopaedia team at Korennaya Pustyn From the grain store we walked downhill – the Last March Keston‘s Encyclopaedia team – my- snow was still deep and my Moscow boots coped self, Sergei Filatov and Roman Lunkin – set off well – to a beautifully appointed wooden cottage from Moscow on a fieldtrip to the south-west of which was used by the bishop when he visited. Russia, near the Ukrainian border. One of the We settled down round a table and began to pose cities we visited was Kursk. our questions. The monastery, we learnt, had been re-established in the late 1990s by Fr Ippolit, About 120 km west of the city revered by many as a holy fool in Rylsk was an interesting reli- (yurodivy) – some even believed gious community, the only one he was a starets – and an exam- in Russia which was involved in ple of exceptional Christian love, agriculture, called the St Nicho- who took in all and sundry, be las Monastery. On a fine sunny they alcoholics, drug addicts, ex- day after Sergei had found a prisoners, or drunks. Many came taxi driver who was happy to to him for advice and guidance, drive us there for a reasonable many sick came to him for heal- price, we set off. The great thaw ing. He died in 2002 and his was already beginning; large St Nicholas Monastery grave now lies beside one of the puddles of water were forming beside three churches ‗anchored‘ side by side at piles of dirty snow. We drove past the centre of the monastery. Fr Pankrati re- snow-covered fields, one side melting into a vast counted how he had been a down-and-out, living lake in the sun, the other still glistening white in rough in Georgia, how he had then discovered the shade. I could see no villages, no sign of life. Orthodoxy at Optina Pustyn and entered the This was the area where the great battle of Kursk Kursk seminary. While a seminarian he had often had taken place during the Second World War. visited the St Nicholas Monastery where he loved ‗the joy, the lightness of heart‘. One day his Rylsk was a substantial town, with a supermarket bishop suggested he become the abbot: he felt he and a number of businesses; the monastery was up could not refuse, although, he admitted, he did not a hill on the edge. Beyond the belfry over the at all feel up to the job; he came there finally in entrance rose three churches, side by side like 2005. ships in harbour, two painted and partly restored, the other covered in scaffolding. To one side was a large new accommodation block for the monks (27 of them in all). We just had time to get our driver to photograph us by the entrance when a large figure in black walked slowly towards us – this was Fr Pankrati (Zaikin), the abbot.

He first showed us round, taking us to view the three churches from the rear, and then up the hill to a large grain store where a number of tractors were parked, and where one of the monks called Ieromonakh Andronik, in charge of the farm, was talking to some workmen. The monastery had six Belorussian tractors, five combine harvesters to Walking down from the grain store Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 25

When Fr Pankrati arrived the monastery‘s churches and buildings were in a dreadful state (the previous abbot, Fr Ippolit, had fo- cused on helping people and had left the buildings to deteriorate). The bishop insisted that he get on with restoration: ‗It‘s important just to begin,‘ added Fr Pankrati, ‗even if you have no money; you must have faith; the money will come.‘ And so it did: some un- known benefactor had put 500,000 roubles in the collection box just at a moment when money was desperately needed! The land had had to be cleaned and cleared of the detritus left over from the war, but now it produced enough wheat to make a profit and the mon- astery had paid off its debts. Wheat was ex- ported to Ukraine and Moldavia, and soon the monks would start making bread to sell. At (Left to right) Sergei Filatov, Ioromonakh Andronik, first the neighbouring farmers had been jeal- Fr Pankrati, Roman Lunkin & Xenia Dennen ous, but Fr Pankrati had now built up friendly relations, after giving away grain to the elderly: trusting – open to God. Our ideal has always been ‗If we are rude we will be treated likewise.‘ holiness.‘ Although he praised childlike trust, he was realistic about how to get things done in Rus- Few novices had stuck it out; many came for two sia – bribes were unavoidable! He was deter- years, said Fr Pankrati, and had then left. In all mined to improve the conditions at the monastery, things ‗good judgement is essential,‘ he empha- to make them more tolerable for visiting pilgrims, sised. He had established a balanced form of mo- and to introduce better food. The monks, he be- nastic life and had given up the draconian Ortho- lieved, should have more time for reading, for dox monastic statutes, like the ones at the Trinity- visiting holy places, even Mount Athos. But he St Sergius Monastery near Moscow, which, he admitted how hard it was to achieve all he wanted: added, had led to lack of sleep and irritation: ‗I ‗When I came here I wanted to do so much, but think one must keep to the golden mean. Some everything is difficult.‘ who come here are too zealous and burn out. Everything must develop harmoniously. Work Shortly after our visit to the monastery in Rylsk, should be a joy; you must not overdo work or we visited another community called Korennaya prayer; you must respect the body. Prayer and Pustyn (Root Hermitage), about 30 km from relationships within the community are the most Kursk, which was built on the spot where in 1295 important; work is secondary. We don‘t have the a holy spring had been discovered beneath a resources to take on any social work. We have to ‗wonder-working‘ Icon of the Sign lying among admit our limitations.‘ the roots of an elm tree (thus the name ‗Root Her- mitage‘). Kursk, we discovered, had a particular Fr Pankrati‘s Orthodoxy was non-aggressive, non- devotion to this image of the Mother of Jesus, judgemental: ‗You mustn‘t use force. with Christ, the Sign (Isaiah 7:10-14) within her: The motive for not sinning must be a much revered Icon of the Sign, origi- love of God; not force. Don‘t start by nally from Kursk, was brought back judging people.‘ He believed in being temporarily to the city in September open to the outside world, and ran a 2009 by the Russian Orthodox Church Sunday school in the monastery for Abroad in the US, which had preserved 15 children, while the monks visited it in Jordanville. Over 50,000 people five local schools where they talked processed with it to Kursk‘s cathedral about their faith. Only 1% of the and over 500,000, including the Presi- population attended church, he said: dent and Prime Minister, came to pray ‗Easter is treated like Victory Day; it before it. Korennaya Pustyn was should not be counted in this percent- founded in 1597 and dedicated to the age.‘ He felt that the Russian Ortho- Birth of the Mother of God. In 1611 it dox Church should take care not to was destroyed by the Crimean Tatars interfere in politics as this could lead the State to and then restored in 1618. After the turn against the Church: ‗Russians still have a Revolution, in 1923, it was closed and its Soviet mentality, they like power.‘ At the same churches destroyed until, with the advent of pere- time Russians were ‗like children – naive and stroika, it began to be restored once again in Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 26

1989. It is now a special place faith: ‗I don‘t stick to a text of pilgrimage. book; I simply talk to them. The We had heard that Korennaya children always greet me in the Pustyn was focusing its ministry street when we meet.‘ Some- on helping the deprived and times the children ‗have prob- needy and decided it would be lems‘, he added, and he tried to worth a visit. Sergei managed to help. Some had asked to be speak to a member of the com- baptised although, he empha- munity, Brother Rufin, and ar- sised, ‗nothing is forced on ranged for us to arrive in the them‘. Currently 15 young lads early afternoon. We were met at from difficult backgrounds lived the entrance and taken by in the monastery and attended Brother Rufin first to the Church services while studying at the of the Birth of the Mother of college. A group of orphaned God, rebuilt from 2006-2009 sisters were supported by the and consecrated last year. I monastery; they had been taught thought the interior rather gar- to cook and now ran the kitchen ish, but according to Brother which had to cater for large Church of the Birth of the Mother of God Rufin the acoustics were wonder- numbers of pilgrims who came to ful; as he was the choir master I guess this was rather important to him. The icons and iconosta- sis, made of carved wood, were all the work of local craftsmen. We then walked down a long flight of steps to the chapel built over the holy spring which Brother Rufin opened up for us. We were given some of the water to drink. The long line of small buildings, covering a passageway down to this chapel, enabled crowds of people to stand within earshot of the liturgy celebrated down below.

Buildings covering the steps to the spring The monastery had first shown concern visit the holy spring. The church services were Brother Rufin lifts the cover over the for the world out- not attended by locals, he said; usually those fill- holy spring side its gates, re- ing the church and counted Brother chapel had come from Rufin, by writing to prisoners and sending them afar. Local people re- parcels. Now some of the monks visited Kursk‘s sented the monastery as large psychiatric hospital many of them, when with 1,500 inmates and the monks returned, 1000 staff where there had been forced to were 70 men in one room; leave their accommo- the stench of urine and dation in what had cigarette smoke was dread- once been monastic ful, he said. They also sent buildings. parcels of books to poor parishes in Ukraine and We sat talking to Kirgizia. At the monastery Brother Rufin in the Steps down to the spring gates was a large polytech- refectory where we nic with 500 pupils of were fed with home-made soup, kasha, honey which 25% were either and fruit juice, while the orphaned sisters, orphans or from single- heads modestly bescarfed, bustled about and parent families. So he had pilgrims came and went. As on the day when made contact and now Icon of the Sign, above an we visited the monastery in Rylsk we had taught 12 groups at the elm tree’s roots, hanging again been lucky with the weather: outside the college about the Orthodox near the entrance to sun was shining, bringing out the colours of Korennaya Pustyn Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 27

Patrons

The Archbishop of Canterbury The Archbishop of Westminster The Chief Rabbi of Great Britain The Moderator of the Free Churches Home News The Archbishop of Glasgow Home News The Archbishop of Thyateira & Great Britain Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia

Professor Davorin Peterlin, a University, studying the predica- been closely following develop- former Director of Keston Insti- ment of minority religious groups ments in the government‘s plan tute (2003-2006), died tragically in the USSR, who will also spend to introduce compulsory religious aged 51 on 14 June. At the time some time working at the Keston education. Experimentally, this of his death he was on the staff of Center. In August Rita Rimkiene began in selected regions on 1 the Evangelical Theological Fac- from Redcliffe College, who used April. The Patriarchate was con- ulty in Osijek, Croatia, where he material from Keston‘s archive, vinced, wrongly, that the vast headed the doctoral program and completed her thesis on the majority of parents would opt to the research and publishing de- Lithuanian Catholic Church‘s enrol their children on a course of partment. He had previously role in the overthrow of the com- instruction on the ROC, but in been in charge of biblical studies munist regime and the implica- fact only a minority have made at the International Baptist Theo- tions for the future of Protestant this choice, ‗Secular Ethics‘ logical Faculty in Prague (1998- mission in Lithuania. proving far more popular (see his 2000) and, after his time at article in The Times, 31 July, Keston Institute, had headed the p.90). doctoral program at Milltown Institute in Dublin (2006-2007). The Russian publishers of Keston‘s Encyclopaedia Reli- Shortly after the encouraging gious Life in Russia Today visit by the President and have been very pleased with Chairman to the Keston Center the way it has sold and would at Baylor University in Febru- like Keston to work on a sec- ary, the Center‘s Director in- ond edition. The Encyclopae- formed the Council of Manage- dia fieldtrips have therefore ment that funds he was expect- been continuing: in March the ing for equipping the new team visited Belgorod and Keston’s Encyclopaedia team in front of the premises on the Baylor campus Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery Kursk in the south-west of Russia for the Keston archive had unfor- (left to right) Roman Lunkin, near the Ukrainian border, and in tunately not materialised. At its Sergei Filatov & Xenia Dennen June they visited Naryan-Mar, April meeting the Council there- capital of the Nenetsky Autono- fore decided that, as the accessi- Michael Bourdeaux, Keston‘s mous Region (within the Arctic bility of the archive was a prior- President, has expressed concern Circle), Archangel and the So- ity, it would transfer sufficient about the direction which the lovki Islands in the White Sea funds to the Keston Center so Putin-Medvedev Russia is fol- where they were able to speak to that the archive could be used by lowing as there seems to be no the Prior of the Solovetsky Trans- researchers from the beginning of end to the reversal of so much figuration Monastery. After the the autumn term. that was promised when Mikhail fieldtrip to Belgorod and Kursk, Gorbachev set the Soviet Union Xenia Dennen, once in Moscow In April the Council awarded a on a course of reform a quarter of again before flying home, was scholarship to Sister Tatiana a century ago. Particularly dis- invited to speak on Radio Rossia Spektor from a Russian Orthodox turbing, he comments, is the un- which gave her an opportunity to convent in the US who has a dis- healthy alliance between the speak about Keston‘s history and tinguished academic record. She Moscow Patriarchate and the the saving of the Keston archive. will spend a semester gathering Kremlin; there is no sign that the Aware that many Keston mem- material in the Keston archive for church and its moral values exer- bers would like to read the Ency- a book she is writing on the Cata- cise any kind of constraint over clopaedia, the Council has com- comb Church. At its meeting in government policies. However, missioned a feasibility study for July the Council awarded a grant the Moscow Patriarchate, he an English edition, and will con- to Dr Zoe Knox, lecturer in Mod- adds, does not always have it sider the findings of this report ern Russian History at Leicester completely its own way. He has later on this year.

Keston Institute PO Box 752, Oxford OX1 9QF Tel: +44 (0)20 8133 8922 [email protected] www.keston.org.uk

Keston Newsletter No 12, 2010 28