A Kaliningrad historian spoke about the consequences of the transfer of the church to the Russian Orthodox Church

On January 15, 2015, Novye Izvestia published an interview with historian and chief archivist of the State Archives of the Kaliningrad Region Anatoly Bakhtin. He talked about what is happening with the buildings of the church, transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in 2010.

Recall that the Kaliningrad region became the first region where religious property was transferred to the church , including the church buildings that belonged to her earlier. The transfer of property here began even before adoption of the relevant federal law .

Cases of transmission to the Orthodox Lutheran churches, according to A. Bakhtin, took place even before the adoption of the law: “Initially it was like this: the church declares that there is a community, there is a priest, and asks to give them one church in the property. They are passed on. As needed, they took the church, restored them, and everything was great .

Difficulties began after the advent of the law, when officials “We decided to transfer everything at once.” A few years before that, the state “planned to help the church with the financing of restorations. In 2008 began economic crisis, and the money ran out, but the process of transferring objects to the church brought to an end." Today, churches and castles have become the property of the Russian Orthodox Church, and funds for their restoration "as it was not, and is not . "

The desire to transfer to the Orthodox never belonged the historian explains the buildings to them by the fears of officials that this property will be claim believers of other religions. However, he considers these concerns groundless: “There are practically no communities of other religions. Well, they would take 2-3 kirchs for themselves, they don’t need more. Another thing is that the Germans use their own money restored the Salzburg Church in Gusev, and the Arnau Church, and others. However, when they were handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church, they simply got away from it, ceasing finance recovery .

The same situation, according to A. Bakhtin, and with other objects transferred to the ROC. For example, in the church that became the Orthodox Church in In the village of Ushakovo, a priest comes once a month; there is no community in the village itself. Respectively, and there is no one to monitor the condition of the building.

The problem is not only the lack of funding for restoration works, but also in the absence in Russia of specialists in Gothic monuments and suitable building materials.

Novye Izvestia's interlocutor is not inclined to accuse of the deplorable state of affairs the church: “It makes no difference who owns these objects of cultural heritage" . After the state ceased to support monuments, their destruction, according to A. Bakhtin, is inevitable: “There are no prospects. Everything will fall apart yo in five . "

Sources

• “Everything will collapse in five years” // Novye Izvestia. 2015. January 15.