Age : 40 years.
Education : Russian Economic Academy named after. Plekhanov, specialty “economist-mathematician”. He studied at PSTGU and Kolomna Seminary.
Place of service : Peter and Paul Church in the village of Pavlovskoye, Domodedovo district.

About Father Vasily Shvets and baptism
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I’ve been in church for a long time, since I was nineteen, and I encountered the church world like this: in high school I really liked one girl - purebred, bright. I was a shy young man and could not express myself properly. And I had a friend - today he is a fairly prominent priest in the Moscow region. We studied together from first grade. Then my friend became interested in history and was preparing to enter the Russian State University for the Humanities, the history department. And a rather typical thing happened to him: every person, reading about the history of Russia, comes across Orthodoxy in huge quantities. And for my friend it was a shock - a parallel reality was revealed to his eyes, which, although it was not officially voiced and was practically not mentioned in school textbooks, left a bright mark on the history of the country. Accordingly, he developed certain interests, and the girl I liked told him: “I see that you are interested in Orthodoxy, but my mother is a believer. Would you like me to introduce you to her?” A friend went to meet her, and since we were close friends, he invited me to go with him for company - so I followed him to get to the house of the girl I liked.

Soon the comrade decided to be baptized. His future godmother decided to take us to her confessor, who served in the Pskov region. And we, first-year boys, who had almost never left Moscow before, went to the Pskov region, to mysterious and wild places. The priest to whom we were going, Archpriest Vasily Shvets, was an absolutely exceptional person. He was born in 1913, and died quite recently, a few months short of his centenary. His family survived dispossession, he worked in a circus as a gymnast, sailed on a ship, then went through the Finnish campaign and the Great Patriotic War, served in our troops in Germany and was ordained only at the age of fifty. That is, in fact, he lived two huge lives. We must also understand that we went to baptize my friend in 1989, when there was no mass fashion for baptism yet and the baptism of a young man was a one-off event, caused great excitement among everyone and was arranged accordingly. I looked at what was happening a little from the outside, with the eyes of a researcher.

He worked in a circus as a gymnast, sailed on a ship, went through the Finnish campaign and the Great Patriotic War, served in our troops in Germany and was ordained only at the age of fifty

Upon arrival, we were placed in inhumane conditions - Father Vasily turned out to be a radical in the best sense of the word. We defended services for six, eight hours - boys who found themselves in church for the first time in their lives. At the same time, there was no clear schedule of services: the parish was in the wilderness, almost on the border with Estonia, with dilapidated villages all around, and Father Vasily, who had been serving for thirty years, could begin the service at an unpredictable time. The temple is not heated, it is the month of November, there is no food - constant fasting. In the process, it turns out that I am also being baptized, for which, it seems, I was completely unprepared. But I was overcome by paralysis of will - finding myself in another world, a thousand kilometers from Moscow, I did not resist and completely surrendered to what was happening. Late at night, the rite of baptism began in the frozen church. My friend was very serious and purposeful. I was also serious, but for a different reason: the big problem for me was the need to undress. I was worried about my underwear: it was immediately clear that I was from a very poor family. I looked like the wolf from “Well, wait a minute!” - in colorful knee-length shorts, and this greatly puzzled me.

About faith
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Very soon Father Vasily moved to Moscow, handed over the parish to his pupil and began to live with his spiritual children. I became attached to him immediately and inevitably. In the circle of my friends, as well as in the circle of my parents, there was no personality in any way comparable in scale to him. He was a real giant, a man of unique and rich life experience, a real charismatic - as far as this is possible within the framework of today's Orthodoxy. For several years we traveled with him around Russia - by that time I had a car, and among the other young people who revolved around him, I served as a personal driver. They showed me a Russia of quiet church people. There is a loud, public faith, and there is a faith of people who, simply due to the format of their lives, cannot be public. There is such a term - “crypto-Christians”; it arose in Turk-occupied Asia Minor. As a rule, these are Greeks who secretly professed Orthodoxy, but lived according to the laws of Muslim society. And the people whom I met thanks to Father Vasily did not hide their faith, but did not advertise it in any way, but simply lived the quiet and simple life of virtuous Christians. And among us now there are a lot of such people - believers who do not declare their faith, but try to live by it.

It is difficult to say which faith is correct and which is ostentatious. Which of us has this measuring instrument by which to evaluate the faith of another?

However, it is difficult to say which faith is correct and which is ostentatious. Which of us has this measuring instrument by which to evaluate the faith of another? Moreover, assessment easily slips into condemnation. Someone else's soul is in the dark, and one should not think that a person demonstrating the attributes of his faith does it solely for the sake of the demonstration itself. Predicting at what point a person will meet with God and what will influence this meeting and whether it actually happens is a thankless task.

About how I became a priest
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I saw the very beginning of the revival of Orthodox life - poor, destroyed monasteries. I saw a temple in the Moscow region that used to be an abortion clinic. The operating room is in the altar. Apparently, it was very convenient to have abortions there: the floor was tiled, and the blood was easily washed away. This temple had a painting - an arch with round shades. The lampshades were painted with images of babies with posters: “Give us the right to decide whether we want to live or not!” And below, like a crossed hammer and sickle, are the instruments of a gynecological surgeon.

In the early 90s, priests were in short supply, and the church crowd sooner or later begins to provoke and push any young man towards the priesthood. All the men who delve into the space of the temple a little further than the candlestick think about this. At one point, my confessor told me: “You know, you would make a good priest.” We returned to this question several times, and I answered: “I am not ready and not worthy.” And once again I thought: “Okay, if the church needs me, I’ll go serve.” I took the words of my confessor as a call. Like mobilization: humanity is in danger, it needs help. And the danger is the same as always: sin. That's how it all happened. I quit all my jobs, passed the required commission, and the Metropolitan ordained me as a priest. They assigned me to the same church where I went as a layman, in the Moscow region, where I sang in the choir, where I helped at the altar. It is not customary for us to ask the question: “Where do you want to serve?” You serve where they send you, where you are needed most.

About service and work
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Six months after my ordination, in 2000, I found myself in an absolutely terrible situation: my little daughter fell ill and needed medication. The wife did not work, she looked after the child. And in general, it is not very customary for the wives of priests to work. The last fee I received in the world had ended by that time. And my salary, a young priest, then was one hundred dollars and a bag of potatoes a month. In our church, unfortunately, it is not very common to pay normal salaries, even if there is money. And for seven years I took a “part-time job”: as an economist in a development company, an expert in the credit department at a bank. Then there was also research work on studying the development market in Russia at an academic institute - I wanted to write a dissertation, but it didn’t work out. I must say that I went to church, burning all my bridges, and for a long time I suffered from combining worldly work with ministry. Jack London has a story about Mexican revolutionaries: a man comes to a cell and says that he wants to help the revolution. They answer him: “Well, wash the floors after the meetings.” And now this adult, big and strong man is washing the floors and hears out of the corner of his ear that the revolutionaries need money. The next day he brings a large sum. They ask him: “Where does the money come from?!” What are you, rich?!” And it turns out that he is a commercial boxer who decided to quit the dirty sport for the sake of the revolution. But to help the revolution, he was forced to return to dirty sports. When I had to work, I felt like that boxer.

At work, I never advertised that I was a priest, but I didn’t hide it either. And in the church it’s the same: he didn’t advertise it, but he didn’t hide it either. In our church it is not customary for us to work and earn extra money. Although many fathers, I know, would not mind. It is believed that a priest must devote himself entirely to ministry. In addition, a financially and socially independent priest is a danger to the administrative church system; he is potentially not as obedient and subservient as a priest who is completely dependent on his lifestyle... I also wanted to devote myself completely to the church. But one hundred dollars and a bag of potatoes were completely not enough. And cheating parishioners out of money is not my style.

A financially and socially independent priest is a danger to the administrative church system

Different groups reacted differently to the fact that a priest was working in their midst. Still, our people perceive the priest as an alien, an epic character. He must be different in everything. And when an employee is negotiating with you at the same table, but you know that he is also a priest, it breaks someone’s mind. There were unpleasant situations and conflicts. When I worked at a bank - and people there knew who I was - I prepared expert reports for the credit committee. And most of my findings were negative because the loan applications did not meet formal economic parameters and because the clients were extremely careless in preparing them. This often caused murmurs from the managers who handled these clients - sometimes it got quite hot. And one day I was photocopying some urgent documents on a shared photocopier, a woman from another department ran up, literally pushed me aside with her hip and began photocopying her papers. I was taken aback for a second by such impudence. Then I felt that this was a kind of provocation. I thought for another second and made a decision - I moved it away from the photocopier in the same way and continued photocopying my papers. She choked with indignation: “How can you? You, you…” “Me—what?” I asked. “You shouldn’t do that!” - she blurted out. "And you?" - I retorted. Now, by the way, I’m not sure about that action: now I would probably silently let her doxerize.

I always tried to do quality work and treat my colleagues humanely. I seemed to let them know that the priest was a normal person, normal in the best sense of the word. And I always loved both the church and my projects, despite the fact that I was torn between them. There were successes too. The development company where I worked was one of the first after the 1998 crisis to receive a multi-million dollar loan from a foreign bank - the application was based on my calculations. An office building was built with this money, recognized as the best in Moscow in 2005. With the same company, we published the first Russian consolidated catalog of commercial office buildings.

But four years ago, my church authorities suggested that I organize a parish and build a church in a new location, in a village where there had never been a church. I took on this task with pleasure, and I can’t say that I regret it. The parish and the temple are a real living thing. Necessary. It is still possible to combine service with work when you are the second or third priest in a parish. But to be the rector of a church, especially one under construction, and to work is already completely impossible.

When an employee is negotiating with you at the same table, but you know that he is a priest, it breaks someone’s mind

About the arrival
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I don't know how big my income is; I've never measured it. Our temple was always full. We started serving in a construction shed. It fits 13–15 people, and during the service the last one always fell out, because the door opened outward and there was only so much space. Then they cast the foundation, built a basement for the chapel of thirty-six square meters - and we always had a full basement. They built another floor, sixty square meters, and it was also full. If we complete the gallery around the temple, glaze it and install heating, then people will be there too. Not because I am like that, but a temple is needed here.

I, just like surgeons who have been practicing for many years, have developed an immunity to impressions, but recently I had one striking episode. I have a parishioner, I’ve known her for ten years. A mother of many children, an adult woman over forty. For the last four years I have been regularly confessing to her, and these confessions are painful for me: I hear endless repetitions of the same unsolvable problems. And the worst thing is that I can’t help her. And suddenly she comes to me before Easter, and I hear the confession of an absolutely calm and mature person. And I throw up my hands, because this is a real miracle.

About Pussy Riot, anger and punk culture
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The portal “Orthodoxy and the World,” which often publishes me, asked me and other priests a number of questions. I replied that if I were invited to the pre-trial detention center, I would ask Pussy Riot for forgiveness for all those wild manifestations of aggression and hatred that were voiced by members of the Orthodox community. I think this is not so much my personal point of view as it is the teaching of the church. No problem gives an Orthodox person the right to anger, since anger is a sin, it is one of the seven passions that are destructive to a person. But this is like a conversation “in general”: they asked and answered. I do not want and have no right to advise anyone, especially the patriarch. This situation did not happen in my church: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is a cathedral, the rector there is the patriarch, it’s up to him to decide. I have my rural temple under construction, into which I have invested my whole soul and all of myself. I have been going to this temple for several years, and, probably, in order to assess the situation correctly, I would have to imagine that Pussy Riot came to my temple and danced with me. Although this is, of course, unpleasant, this is what would probably hurt me less than the priests of the older generation: I listened to the Sex Pistols in my youth, I know what punk culture is, and I don’t have culture shock from it. But this doesn’t mean anything, because surely something could happen in my church that would shock me and drive me crazy. Then we'll see how I react.

About church and state
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There are two fundamental concepts that have always coexisted in the church. They are mutually exclusive: both have their supporters. The first concept is that the church must cooperate with the world in the broadest sense of the word in order to Christianize the world. The second concept is based on the fact that you need to understand that the church and the world are things of different natures: the church is from God, and “the world lies in evil,” and one must speak with caution about cooperation with the world. It seems to me that the church should exist in the world, remaining free from it. When the church begins to cooperate with the state, with public institutions, adopts their ideas, and especially methods, and operates with them, the church, firstly, loses its ontological status, and secondly, loses its freedom. And having become closely involved with the world, at some point the church is forced to act not according to church law, but according to worldly law. A very fine line must be kept, since Christ did not call the church to isolationism, but dissolution in society and its service was also not intended.

I was wondering if the obvious presence of a church representative would stop possible counterfeiters

About election fraud
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I went as an observer to the parliamentary elections on December 4th. I had the motivation of a natural scientist. They started talking about possible falsifications about two months before the elections, and I just went to study the situation on the spot. In addition, I was interested in conducting a purely priestly experiment and seeing how much the church influences society: I was in a cassock, and I was wondering whether the obvious presence of a church representative would stop possible falsifiers. Before the votes were counted, everything was relatively calm, nothing special happened. But after the polling station closed, the show began: stacks of ballots were laid out on the table, sorted by batch. There are two seemingly identical packs - “United Russia” and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The chairman of the PEC, without announcing the results, writes in an expanded form of the protocol: for “United Russia” - six hundred and ninety votes, for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - two hundred and twenty. I turn around, look at the table and still see two absolutely identical packs. Observers demanded a recount, and now, imagine, the final meeting of the PEC is underway, school teachers are on the commission, and I tell them: “Girls, we all understand what happened, and now a lie is being committed. Here you are teaching children, and now you are participating in a lie, think about it - what will you teach your children?” And for the first time, the commission unanimously voted against recounting the ballots, and the second time there were already two abstentions. They couldn't be against it because they would most likely be in big trouble, but the fact that two people responded to the word "lie" by walking away from that lie gives some hope. Although the PEC chairman did not allow the votes to be recounted.

Priests of a big city. Father Dmitry Sverdlov