216 Chronicle preach their faith in daily life. wife and two children; while Sergei' Recantations also serve to show other Timokhin - who apparently resisted for prisoners that the Soviet state is merciful to several months before breaking - may also those who see the error of their ways. In the have been motivated by concern for his case of Markus this has meant conditional family as he made his confession and release from his prison sentence, although denunciation of Valeri Barinov. Barinov's he was not at first permitted to return from own reaction to his friend's statement is Siberia to his family in Moscow. Sergei perhaps indicative of the perspective in Timokhin was likewise released early, in which such recantations should . be February 1986. understood. "I was surprised that Sergei did The reasons for recantations are difficult this," he said, "but it seems to me that he to identify, and very little documentation is was simply tricked by the KGB." He even available relating to the recent confessions. went on to give credit to his friend for not Past instances indicate, however, that the giving others. away. "Sergei did not say KGB is free in its use of physical and anything about our group,. about its psychological pressure to wean confessions members, about the equipment . we from its victims. M6tsnik was 57 years old used ....." and in poor health, with the prospect of There can be no doubt that, as Barinov's three years in camp ahead of him; Markus words imply, resistance to KGB pressure is was half way through his sentence, with a an agonisingly tough and demanding stance wife and four young children upon whom to maintain. For some it is unbearably so. considerable pressure could be exerted. Razveyev was in a similar position, having a IRENAKORBA The Return of the Danilov Monastery to the. Russian Orthodox Church In June 1983; the Danilov Monastery in In September 1983, he reported to the Holy Moscow was handed back to the Moscow Synod that restoration had commenced, a Patriatchate by the Soviet government, ac­ group of architects had been convened for cording to art announcement by the Soviet the purpose, and a new bank account had news agency TASS. Subsequent reports in been opened to receive donations to finance the Journal of the Moscow Patriaichate the work. He said that donations were al­ (JMP) have provided more details about ready being received from "diocesan the history and architecture of the monas­ bishops, superiors of monasteries and con­ tery, and the uses to which it would be put. vents, priests, church councils and lay The monastery, the oldest in Moscow, was people". Subsequently, JMP published the founded in the thirteenth century by a son name and,numberofthe bank accOunt, and of Alexander Nevsky, Grand Prince Daniil invited foreigners to send donations in any Alexandrovich, who is buried in the monas­ currency. tery.' He was also the founder of the It is intended that the monastery will be­ Moscow Kremlin. The monastery is come' the new spiritual and administrative situated on the River Moscow, just over centre for the church. At present it has of­ three ,mileS 'from the Kremlin. Restoration fices scattered in several parts of Moscow. and rebuilding at the monastery is clearly The monastery complex will accommodate going to be very extensive, but the church the' official residence ofthe patriarch, some hopes that it will be completed by 1988, in institutions of the Holy Synod, and, on an time for the celebration of the millennium adjacent plot of-land, a conference hall for of the church. "religious and peace-making conferences". The restoration of the monastery is the Th,e superior of the monastery, Ar­ responsibility of the Executive Committee chimandrite Yevlogi, was born in 1937, He for the Reception and Restoration of the has spent much of his life at the Moscow Danilov Monastery, headed by Metropoli­ Theological Academy at Zagorsk; where he tan Alexi of Tallinn, the chancellor (busi­ was awarded a master's degree in 1979 for a ness manager) of the Moscow Patriarchate. dissertation on Orthodox monasticism, and Dr Werner Leich, Bishop of Thuringia, newly-elected Chairman of the Conference of Protestant Church Leaderships, GDR. See Chronicle item on pp. 211-12. (Photo © W. E. Yoder.) Estonian Lutheran Pastor Harri Motsnik (left) and Orthodox layman Sergei Markus (right) whose "recantations" were published in the Soviet press in November 1985. See Chronicle item on pp. 214-16. (Both photos courtesy Keston Co{{ege.) Billy Graham's preaching tour of Romania, September 1985. Above: the first public meeting of the tour was held in Vorona Orthodox monastery in Moldavia. Below: large crowds gathered outside the "Speran(a" Baptist Church in Arad, western Romania, where many were able to hear Billy Graham's sermon relayed on loudspeakers. See Document section, pp. 224-27 for a Romanian's account of the tour. (Both \ photos courtesy Romanian Aid Fund.) Chronicle 217 became a professor in 1980. He was respon­ was plied with information about the his­ sible for the new building work carried out tory of the monastery, and felt the sense of recently at Zagorsk. being part of a great tradition which the At first it was not clear whether a monas­ believers working on the restoration posses­ tic community would be able to function at sed. In more recent times, though, the the monastery, or whether it would be sim­ monastery housed a concentration camp for ply an administrative centre. Reports in children. JMP spoke vaguely of an unstated number The return of the Danilov Monastery is of "residents" there. It now seems clear that one of several concessions made to the monks are residing there and that services Russian Orthodox Church in the last few are being held. According to recent verbal years. Another example was the modem, reports, as yet unconfirmed, there are purpose-built premises which the Publish­ about fifty monks in residence. It is thought ing Department was permitted to construct that these have been transferred from other near the Novodevichi Monastery. It is clear monasteries, and that the total number of that these concessions are rewards for monks in the Russian Orthodox monas­ "good behaviour" by the church leadership. teries has not increased. If a monastic com­ The most obvious example of this has been munity is in fact being established in the the church's heightened involvement in the Danilov Monastery, it will bring the total Soviet government's peace campaign, number of Russian Orthodox monasteries which amounts to nothing more than an in the Soviet Union to seven. There are also endorsement of Soviet foreign policy objec­ ten convents. They are all concentrated in tives. Though the church has done this the western part of the country: there are no consistently since the Second World War, monastic communities east of Moscow. its visibility in the peace campaign as a There have been several reports of whole has increased of late. Another services at the monastery in JMP. On 8 example has been the church leadership's June 1985 Patriarch Pimen visited the failure to support Orthodox Christian pri­ monastery and conducted his first service soners, and in some cases openly to con­ there, on the occasion of the anniversary of demn them. This has undoubtedly helped the translation of the relics of St Daniel to the KGB's crackdown on independent acti­ the monastery. On 6 July, Metropolitan vists within the church, and is clearly the re­ Alexi ordained two men, and their names sult of a "divide and rule" policy by the were entered into the annals of the church Soviet authorities. as a continuation of its centuries-old Not only is the return of the Danilov spiritual traditions. On 15 January 1986, Monastery a reward, it also affords an op­ Partriarch Pimen paid a ·further visit to the portunity to demonstrate that the church is monastery, and Archimandrite Yevlogi free and that relations between church and gave a speech reporting on the progress of state are "normal". This is the line taken in the restoration work. an article in the Soviet literary weekly He pointed out that an enormous amount Literatumaya gazeta published on 31 July of work had to be done in order to complete 1985. The author, Alexander Nezhny, takes the building work by 1988, but said that issue with comments in some western publi­ nearly all the facades of the churches and cations similar to those in the preceding cathedrals had already been restored. paragraph. He terms them "absurd inven­ Many foreign visitors to the church have tions and provocative fabrications". Having also visited the monastery. Mostly they visited the monastery to ascertain what the have been members of official delegations situation there really was, Nezhny wrote who have been officially received by the this article, entitled "Seven Centuries superior and brothers of the monastery. Later", which includes a good deal of his" One Russian emigre who was able to return torical comment, a de~cription of the resto­ on a visit to the Soviet Union was however ration work in progress and interviews with able to visit the monastery in an unofficial some of the workers and church officials. capacity, in the company of a priest to This is interesting, but does not add much to whom he had been introduced. He was im­ what was already known.In an attempt to pressed to see many believers working away disprove the western press comments, voluntarily at their immense task .. They Nezhny intervieWed Metropolitan Alexi; gladly stopped work to explain to him what Archimandrite .Yevlogi and Metropolitan they were doing, and showed great en­ Filaret of Minsk, Chairman of the Depart­ thusiasm and dedication for their work.