Patriarch
Tikhon was head of the Russian church during the revolution, and courageously
condemned what he saw as a demonic attack on a Christian civilization.
Previously he was a bishop in the US, from 1898 - 1907, where he was a very
successful missionary.
The first
Bolshevik government, which consisted mostly of atheists, tolerated the
popular Patriarch for a while, realizing that if they martyred him, it would
only increase the church's influence, but eventually they pushed him out, put
him under house arrest, and demonized and harassed him until his death in 1925.
The Russian church made him into a saint in 1989.
This
remarkable letter survives as a testimony of what was really happening in
Russia at the time, and to the extraordinary courage of this man to speak the
truth, knowing it would cost him his life.
It is all
the more important because the accounts to the West that came out of Russia at
the time, and subsequent histories, were mostly written by left-leaning
sympathizers who cheered the revolution on, having little idea what it really
was. This obfuscation continues to this day.
Take a
few minutes to read this passionate and poetic condemnation of evil. Its
startling clarity comes down to us through the years with great force. We
highlighted a few of the more moving lines, but honestly, almost every sentence
is gripping.
This view
of what actually happened during the revolution is as important today as it was
100 years ago. The 100 year commemoration of the Russian revolution shows
starkly divergent views of what it was continue to our own day.
This
excellent translation is by Nun Cornelia Rees:
“We address this prophecy of the Savior to
you, the current makers of our Fatherland’s fate, who call yourself “the
people’s” commissars.
For an
entire year, you have been gripping the power of the government in your hands,
and you are already preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the October
revolution; but the rivers of the blood of our brothers, pitilessly murdered at
your rallying, cry out to heaven and force us to tell you the bitter truth.
You have
traded the Fatherland for soulless internationalism, although you yourselves
know perfectly well that when it comes to defending the Fatherland, the
proletarians of all countries are those countries’ faithful sons, and not their
betrayers.
Having
seized power and called the people to entrust themselves to you, what promises
have you given them, and how have you kept these promises?
Truly you
have given them a stone instead of bread, and a serpent instead of a fish (cf.
Matt. 7:9-10). To a people worn out by a bloody war you promised to give peace
“without annexation or contribution”.
What
victory could you have turned down, you who have led Russia to a shameful
truce, with humiliating conditions that even you did not resolve to make fully
public? Instead of “annexations and contributions” the great Motherland is
conquered, diminished, dismembered; and as pay for the tribute placed on it you
secretly transport to Germany gold that you yourself did not amass.
... the
great Motherland is conquered, diminished, dismembered; and as pay for the
tribute placed on it you secretly transport to Germany gold that you yourself
did not amass.
You have
taken away from the soldiers everything for which they had valorously fought.
You have taught them, only recently brave and invincible, to leave off
protecting the Motherland and to run from the field of battle.
You have
extinguished in their hearts the inspiring consciousness that there is no
greater love than should one lay down his life for his friends (Jn. 15:13).
You have
traded the Fatherland for soulless internationalism, although you yourselves
know perfectly well that when it comes to defending the Fatherland, the
proletarians of all countries are those countries’ faithful sons, and not their
betrayers.
... the
freedom you have given consists in all manner of indulgence to the lowest crowd
instincts, in murder and theft with impunity.
And
although you have refused to protect the Motherland from external enemies, you
are ceaselessly gathering armies.
Against
whom will you lead them?
You have
divided the entire nation into warring camps and cast it into a fratricide
unprecedented for its cruelty.
You have
openly exchanged love of Christ for hatred, and instead of peace you have
artificially fomented enmity between the classes. And there is no end in sight
to the war you’ve generated, since you aim to deliver triumph to the phantom of
world revolution with the hands of Russian worker and peasants.
I will
not speak of the collapse of a once great and mighty Russia, of the total
fracturing of our railroad, of unprecedented agricultural devastation, of
hunger and cold that threatens death in the cities ...
It was
not Russia who needed the disgraceful peace with its external enemy but you
yourselves, who have plotted to irreparably destroy Russia’s internal peace.
No one
feels safe; everyone lives in constant fear of searches, robbery, eviction,
arrest, and execution.
Hundreds
of defenseless people are seized, then languish for whole months in prisons,
are often executed without investigation or trial, even without going to the
court you have simplified.
Not only
those who are somehow guilty before you, but even those who are in no way
guilty, but were taken only as “captives”—these unfortunate people are killed
to answer for crimes committed by persons who not only are not of one mind with
them, but very often your own followers or those with convictions similar to
yours.
Bishops,
priests, monks and nuns who are guilty of nothing are executed simply because
of some wild accusations of vague and indeterminate “counterrevolution”. This
inhuman execution is made even more onerous for the Orthodox because they are
deprived of the final consolation before their deaths—the Sacraments—and the
bodies of the slain are not given to their families for a Christian burial.
Isn’t
this the height of aimless cruelty on the part of those who pretend to be the
benefactors of mankind and who themselves supposedly suffered from cruel
rulers?
But it’s
not enough for you that you have reddened the hands of the Russian people with
their brother’s blood; hiding behind various names—contributions, requisitions,
and nationalization—you have pushed them into the most barefaced and wanton
thievery.
At your
hinting were plundered or seized lands, mansions, factories, houses, farm
animals, money, personal things, furniture, clothing.
First the
wealthy, whom you’ve called “bourgeois”, were robbed; then under the epithet of
“kulaks” were the more well-off and industrious peasants also plundered, thus
increasing the number of paupers—although you cannot but recognize that with
the impoverishment of a great multitude of individual citizens the wealth of
the nation as a whole is lost, and the country is impoverished.
Tempting
uneducated and ignorant people with the opportunity for easy and unpunished
gain, you have fogged their consciences and muffled in them the awareness of
sin; but no matter what names you hide this evil-doing behind, murder,
violence, and robbery will ever remain serious sins and crimes that cry out to
heaven.
You
promised freedom.
Freedom
is a great good, if it is properly understood—like freedom from evil, not oppressing
others, not turning into lawlessness and willfulness.
But you
have not given that freedom; the freedom you have given consists in all manner
of indulgence to the lowest crowd instincts, in murder and theft with impunity.
All manifestations of both truly the civilian and higher spiritual freedom of
mankind have you mercilessly crushed.
Is it
freedom when no one can bring home food or rent an apartment without special
permission, when families, and sometimes all the inhabitants of whole buildings
are evicted and their possessions are thrown into the street, and when citizens
are artificially divided into ranks, certain of which are consigned to hunger
and being plundered?
Is it
freedom when no one can speak his opinion openly without fear of being accused
of counterrevolution?
Where is
freedom of speech and press, where is freedom for preaching in church?
Many bold
preachers have already paid with their martyrs’ blood; the voice of social and
governmental discussion and criticism is being stifled; all press, other than
the narrow Bolshevik press, has been completely strangled.
Especially
painful and cruel is the violation of freedom in matters of faith.
Not a day
goes by when the most monstrous slanders against Christ’s Church and her
servants are not published in the agencies of your press, along with malicious
blasphemy and mockery. You deride the servants of the altar, force bishops to
dig trenches, and send priests to do dirty work. You have raised your hand
against the Church’s inheritance gathered through many generations of the
faithful, and have given no thought to violating their posthumous will.
You have
closed a large number of monasteries and churches without any excuse or reason.
You have blocked access to the Moscow Kremlin—that sacred inheritance of the
faithful people. You are destroying the ancient form of church community—the
parish; you destroy brotherhoods and other charitable and educational Church
institutions, close and rout diocesan meetings, and interfere with the Orthodox
Church’s internal government.
By
banishing sacred images from schools and forbidding the teaching of faith to
children there, you deprive them of the spiritual food necessary for an
Orthodox upbringing.
What else
can I say? The time fails me (Heb. 11:32) to describe all the catastrophes that
have stricken our Motherland.
I will
not speak of the collapse of a once great and mighty Russia, of the total
fracturing of our railroad, of unprecedented agricultural devastation, of
hunger and cold that threatens death in the cities, and of the lack of
everything needed for maintaining a household in the villages. This everyone
can see.
Yes, we
are experiencing terrible times in our reign, and it will not be erased from
the peoples’ soul for a long time, having darkened the image of God in it and
stamping in it the image of the beast. The words of the prophet have been
fulfilled:
Their
feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts
are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.(Is.
59:7).
We know
that our rebukes will evoke only anger and indignation in you and that you will
look for an excuse in them for accusing us of opposition to the authorities,
but the higher your “column of wrath” rises, the more proven will be the
testimony to the truth of our rebukes.
It is not
our business to judge earthly authorities; all authority, allowed by God, would
attract our blessing if it were truly “God’s servant” for the good of its
subjects, and not a terror to good works, but to the evil (Rom. 13:3).
Now to
you, who are using your authority to persecute your neighbors and decimate the
innocent, we extend our word of instruction: celebrate the anniversary of your
coming to power by freeing the prisoners, putting a stop to the bloodshed,
violence, devastation, and persecution of faith; turn not to destruction but to
the establishment of law and order, give the people their desired and deserved
rest from civil war.
Otherwise
all the righteous blood you have spilled will be required of you (cf. Lk.
11:50), and you who took sword in hand will yourselves die of the sword (cf.
Matt. 26:52).”
November 7, 1918
Source: https://russian-faith.com/persecution/church-leaders-brilliant-1918-letter-lenin-speaks-truth-about-revolution-n1265
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