Closed island

As the Valaam Monastery entered with its charter into someone else's life and evicts local residents from the island

Elena Mikhaleva lives in a small room at the museum. Together with their daughter, they share a small two -story bed. A rabbit lives on the nightstand, and on the floor two black kittens. At exactly five in the evening, Elena puts empty boxes in the cart and leaves the house. He passes across the road to his former house. The foreman of the builders opens the door to Elena. Elena has an hour to collect things and take them out on the same cart back. The museum in which she lives now belongs to the monastery. Like her former apartment, which builders now disassemble the bricks. This is the island of Valaam.

The brick building was previously called the Hotel "Winter". But the hotel was only by the name: after the Great Patriotic War there was a boarding house for the disabled. In 1984, the boarding house was closed, and scientists and researchers from all over the Union began to come to the island. Since the seventies, the Valaam was a museum-reserve, and many came there to work.

Elena arrived at Valaam in 1990 with a scientific expedition from Leningrad. She worked as an ornithologist in forestry and lived at a weather station. When the museum-reserve was closed, she went to work in a natural park and began to live in the “winter”.

The monks left the island with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and began to return only in 1989. People were very happy that they would finally restore the temple. When the coupons were introduced, shops, which were only two on the island, were empty. The islanders shared potatoes and milk with monks, taught how to heat the stoves. But in the early nineties of the Valaam Monastery, the Russian Orthodox Church was transferred, and soon local residents began to resettle to the mainland.

Here is God, but the threshold

A year ago, the monastery evicted Elena and deprived her of registration on the island. And in May they closed the only department for the protection of the environment of the Valaam Archipelago in Valaam. Elena and other employees were left without work. Instead of keeping records of birds, Elena analyzes things. In a week, the building should be empty.

Elena takes the remnants of her things from an apartment in a winter hotel photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD

In the seventies, there was still a village council on Valaam. The main Transfiguration Cathedral then stood closed and destroyed. The state decided to blow it up. People took the content of the cathedral for themselves and achieved to restore it.

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At that time, behind the walls of the cathedral, there was a monument to Lenin. Now in his place - granite Andrey the First -Called. Not far from the monument is a two -meter cross. The pedestal says: "In memory of the consecration of a complex of treatment facilities, July 10, 2003."

At the entrance to the cathedral, as in the former houses of Valaam, there is a guard. The domes shimmer in blue, new golden crosses shine. Brilliant Land Rover and Mercedes are parked under the walls of the cathedral. On them, the priests move from the monastery to the monastery. The islanders still live in the outer square. Outside, it is freshly painted in white. It smells of mold inside, something is dripping, peeling brick crunches underfoot.

My daughter once asked Elena: “Mom, why is our house so collapsing and terrible, and the cathedral has such beautiful flower beds? - The state has no money for repairs. - Well, let's give the state the money, let them repair our house! ” But the state did not hear the girl and in 2006 gave her house to the monastery. Previously, people also lived in the monastery. Now there is the office of the "pilgrimage service" of the monastery.

The monastery here is the master

The monastery began to build the first houses for immigrants in 1998. People moved to the mainland to the city of Sortaval, and their apartments departed to the monastery. In 2006, the islands of the Valaam archipelago became part of the municipal district of Sortavala. The buildings along with the inhabitants were handed over to the monastery. The disagreements began to be evicted in court. Now on the island of the monastery do not belong only to the weather station and forestry, in which one person remained.

Pilgrims photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD

The first to evict the family of Philip Muskevich. Philip arrived at Valaam in 1989 from Tallinn to work in the Museum-Reserve. Together with his family, he first lived in the Voskresensky monastery, and then in the "winter". In 2002, he received a claim for eviction and sued the monastery for six years. In 2008, Philip’s family was nevertheless evicted, but then there were a lot of people on the island, and before last year’s fire in the “winter” family lived with neighbors.

Locals see the main conflict in the fact that the monastery is directly subordinate to the patriarch, and the forestry and the natural park are regional organizations. “We interfered with the monastery only by seeing all the unfavorable changes on the island. We lived independently, and the monastery wanted everyone to live according to its charter. ” They evicted everyone: both believers of parishioners, and grandchildren of priests repressed in Soviet times.

The monastery is fundamentally important that no one lives on the island, and work on a rotational basis

Elena Philip's words confirms: “Economic services believe that they can do anything on the island. They drain clay into the lake: since the fish cannot be diluted there, you should not take care of it. The swimsuit is listed in the Red Book, but they tear it to the trinity and carry it to the temple: we decorate the icon! ”

The tractors rumble every ten minutes. They go to a landfill, which is located almost in the territory of the natural park. The garbage plant was built for a long time, but earned only last year. The plastic is rolled into the ground, some metal, tables, chairs are dumped above it in a heap. The seagulls curl and scream over the garbage. People are not visible.

Previously, the garbage was simply burned, and Elena and the Park team complained about the monastery in the Ministry of Natural Resources of Karelia. They also wrote about illegal monastery construction sites on the island. The ministry, as a rule, does not pay attention to these letters. But the monastery with the authorities is direct. Elena says that the monastery is fundamentally important that no one lives on the island, but work with a rotational basis, even foresters. Then there will be no one to be indignant.

Former Elena's apartment in a winter hotel photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD The corridor of the house in which local residents live. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD

You are suing God

On the way to the landfill is the Igumen cemetery. The pilgrims, which are always a lot of people on the island, take care of him. On a neat monastery cemetery granite and wooden meter crosses, well -groomed paths between graves and a twisted fence. Through the moat there is another cemetery - for local ones. Sometimes there are nameless signs of the dead in a boarding house for the disabled of the Second World War. Here the crosses are low, from a simple tree. The graves are overgrown with moss. Already almost nobody to follow this cemetery. Of the six hundred local residents on Valaam, sixty people are left.

Elena always went to church on the island, baptized children there. But for a year she has been leaving for praying for the mainland. “I know who said what about us, and I can’t perceive them detached. You go along the church, and the priests the eyes take away: “Well, you understand ...” By naivety, I always counted on the law earlier. But here the law does not work. ”

On the Internet they often write that local residents are not fighting not with the organization, but with the Orthodox faith and with the God himself

Two years ago, an announcement appeared on the island about the draw of apartments in the house on the mainland, which built the monastery. The inhabitants were surprised because no one was going to move. There is no central heating in the house, and the environmental examination has found a fungus dangerous for health. A few weeks later, the whole “winter” received the summons to the court - about eviction. Elena did not come to Elena, and she found out that she was evicted and deprived of registration, after the trial. The court took place in the winter when it is almost impossible to leave Valaam. The “pillow” - a winter boat - has its own “pillow” - only the lord has, and the main navigation ends in November.

There is no work in the Sortaval, especially for an ornithologist. There is not even a regular message with the island. The Valaam pilgrim, established by the Monastery of LLC, is a schedule, adjusting to tourists. Previously, locals could ride for free, now travel for everyone costs 1200 rubles one way.

At all trials, the plaintiff was a monastery. Therefore, on the Internet they often write that local residents are not fighting the organization, but with the Orthodox faith and with the God himself. "God forbid! We are no longer fighting for anything. We all lost. But we fought for our rights and the opportunity to just live, ”says Elena.

Elena takes her things from the building of the winter hotel. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD The coast of Lake Ladoga photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD

Right before the court, the premises of the “winter” were recognized as non -residential. The apartments in which there were light, water, in some - even their shower and washing machine. In the list of unsuitable for life were mainly apartments of employees of the natural park. The monastery hostel was not included in the list, although it was in the same building. It was also not possible to challenge the decision either.

Fire

May 1, 2016, on Easter, the “winter” caught fire. The fire occurred in the early morning, people were inside, many were sleeping. Firefighters a month before were also reduced, and only three people were extinguished by a huge building. In the morning, for some reason, the water was turned off, and I had to roll the hose to Ladoga several kilometers. The reinforcement was driving three hours on the ship. The refectory, school, most apartments burned.

Elena’s apartment almost did not suffer, but shortly after the fire, the “winter” was fenced with a high fence and did not let anyone inside, even for things. Disable the light, water. The issue of housing was resolved. Now they answered any complaints about eviction to people: and where to return to you - everything burned out.

The islanders say it was immediately clear that the building was set on fire. The apartment of Dmitry Sinitsa, whom the prosecutor's office accused of arson, burned out completely. While he was in a pre-trial detention center, the neighbors quietly collected him money for a lawyer.

Dmitry Sinitsa, together with Philip Muskevich, who was evicted back in 2008, wrote “An appeal about violation of the rights of indigenous people” by the monastery. A year later, the abbot of the Valaam Monastery, Bishop of Trinity Pankrati (Zherdev) decided that the statement “discloses the business reputation of the monastery”, and filed a lawsuit on a tit.

Monk is stroking linen photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD The apple garden of the monastery photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD

Despite the fact that the house burned down, the inhabitants from the island did not leave. We slept in a museum back room, in wood sheds and in a rural club. The club’s building also belongs to the monastery, the hegumen was very unhappy that someone was displaying the institution. The club director replied that she could not leave people to sleep on the street, and asked to send more mattresses. There was no money for mattresses.

When the news about the fire appeared on the monastery’s website, insulting comments rained down

The monastery provided housing only to its employees. Locals for some time could eat in the refectory for free. But there was no more at home. The Lutheran church of the city of Sortavala came to the rescue. From there, the Pogorelians sent humanitarian aid, and the abbot came to the island and lived with them for several days.

When the news about the fire appeared on the monastery’s website, insulting comments rained down: it was necessary to drive the locals for a long time, they were all drunkards. Comments in which Pogorelians sympathized were immediately removed. When the Valaams asked the site administrator why to do this, they answered: "Well, you understand that this is a war."

After the fire, the state allocated 322 million rubles to the Valaam non -profit organization. With this money, a spiritual and educational center will create on the site of burned apartments.

Many have not yet taken their things from the "winter", but the workers are already putting a new wooden floor there.

Pilgrims walk around the island photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD Poesters cover strawberries with a film photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD

The press secretary of the abbot of the Valaam Monastery Mikhail Shishkov immediately after the fire said “Lente.ru” that the winter hotel was not adapted for housing. “People themselves landscaped apartments. Previously, it was almost a hostel of the corridor type, without bathrooms in the apartment. The residents had a temporary residence permit, they made a constant one by incomprehensible on what basis in the perestroika years. The monastery’s employees really still live there, but they have no registration and rights to the premises. How construction work will begin - we will move to another place. ”

Closed island

Next to Elena, Vera lives in the museum. She works as a passporter at the monastery. Vera believes that the staff of the park themselves are to blame for everything. “It was necessary to agree with the monastery and find a compromise. After all, after all, this has been going on to this for a long time, for example, we have already reconciled. The park was closed, there is almost no forestry, the school was closed, the hospital too. There is work only in the monastery. The park always wanted to be independent. And in this life you need to be able to negotiate. The village has been bent for a long time. The island will be closed. "

All the locals who still stayed here are completely abnormal. Normal everyone has already left

In fact, the park tried to agree with the monastery, but, according to Philip and Elena, the monastery did not compromise. “We had to immediately contact the prosecutor’s office, but did not do this, because we wanted to live together peacefully. But I cannot completely forget about my duties. Although you are a monastery, you can’t wash the car in the lake. The monastery is not an enemy for us, before it helped the school and the club. But above is a very stringent policy: there should not be locals here. ”

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Elena’s guesses are confirmed by one of the employees of the monastery. Vladimir lives on the island for five years and works in the service of one of the priests. He has an unambiguous opinion about the islanders. “Valaam is a special place. Everything is based on love and freedom. All the locals who still stayed here are completely abnormal. Normal everyone has already left. The monastery is stauropigial and directly subordinates the patriarch. The patriarch blessed the eviction, and they were evicted. Soon only the monastery will remain here, because it should be so. And with these abnormal ones they acted as in Soviet times, ”Vladimir makes a gesture with his hand, as if slamming an annoying fly. He departs and carefully wipes the spot on the trunk of a black jeep.

Summer Patriarch

Lyudmila lives in an outer square at the monastery. She has a small clean apartment with high ceilings and a stove. She came to the island in the seventies to work as a nurse in a boarding house for the disabled of the Second World War.

She worked for five years, married, gave birth to her first child and went to the hospital. At some point, a man from the monastery came to the place of the head doctor. “They did not know how to help people, or did not want to help them. They started to close the medicines to the key. I then led pregnant women and wanted to take a tonometer, but they told me that nothing can be taken out. ”

Pilgrims on the way photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD Broken boat on the shore of the lake photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD

Lyudmila and I would like to leave, but it cannot-because of my son. He has epilepsy, and it is difficult for him to take root in a new place. The son works in the service of the economy - carries bags, cleans toilets. Most of all, Lyudmila is afraid that in the city he will sit idle for days. Therefore, it does not interfere in politics. “When evictions began, I told my son:“ If they come to us, we will immediately gather and leave. ”

When the Valaams talk about the monastery, they involuntarily lower their voice. Lyudmila, describing the economy of the monastery, says: "There is no God for a long time, only commerce."

On the territory of the reserve you can not build new monastery. However, not only mono, but also private residences are built

Tall officials and rich sponsors of the monastery often come to Valaam. Among the main donors are the Elena and Gennady Timchenko fund. Where the islanders used to bathe before, now there is a floating bathhouse. On the approaches to her it is written that the passage is not blessed. Spiritual and moral readings are now taking place on Valaam. Locals say that the beautiful yacht at the pier belongs to the lord. And if the white helicopter landed near the village, this is a sure sign that the lord is on the island. The abbot goes around his possessions to the silver Land Cruiser with the driver.

The Patriarch comes to the island every year and conseches new buildings. In July 2016, Vladimir Putin also arrived with the Patriarch on Valaam.

On the territory of the reserve you can not build new monastery. However, not only mono, but also private residences are built. Not far from the village there is a picturesque road leading to the shore. A painted roof is visible from afar. But it is impossible to drive - there are a guard several kilometers before the building, and it is written on the fence - the passage is only with blessing. The guard reluctantly explains that there is the residence of Patriarch Kirill. Moreover, the residence of the previous head of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexy II did not like his successor, and a new one was built on the island.

Workers collect the pavilion near the monastery photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD In the forest photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD

Former Patriarch Alexy II in the early nineties proposed to give the Valaam Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church. He wanted to be a village around the monastery, and the locals called the "flock."

Монастырь живет за счет туристов. В летний сезон они буквально заполняют весь остров. Раньше местные могли торговать сувенирами в палатках, но в прошлом году охрана монастыря перестала подпускать к ним туристов. Вскоре все палатки снесли. Всей торговлей на острове занимается монастырь. Сыр «Монастико», произведенный на валаамской ферме, стоит полторы тысячи рублей за килограмм. Единственным магазином владеет ООО «СЭНТ» (служба эксплуатации недвижимости и территорий). Эта служба и выселяет местных жителей с острова.

Сарай №6

Ирина Смирнова работает экскурсоводом. Она приехала на Валаам в 1986 году и тоже жила в «Зимней». Сначала сама водила экскурсии, потом монастырь начал расширяться, Ирине пришлось сотрудничать. Клиентов стало меньше, на туры приходилось спрашивать разрешения у паломнической службы. Несколько лет назад Ирину выселили из квартиры и лишили регистрации.

Неделю назад приезжали журналисты из Финляндии и сфотографировали Ирину на фоне разрушенного бывшего дома. На следующий день бригадир грубо не пустил ее в квартиру. Сказал, что именно ей проход запрещен. В «Зимней» остались вещи и микрофон, без которого Ирина не может водить экскурсии.

Начинается экскурсионный сезон. Ирине звонят клиенты по поводу экскурсий, но приходится отказывать — надо ехать на материк подавать заявление в полицию, чтобы вернули хотя бы часть вещей.

Она пробирается в свой сарай под номером шесть. Достает оттуда помятую куртку, кроссовки. У стены стоит раскладушка — гуманитарная помощь, которую после пожара прислала Лютеранская церковь Сортавалы. Если Ирину сегодня не возьмут на борт до материка, спать она будет в сарае.

Ирина Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД Валаамский монастырь Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД

Бывшие друзья к себе уже не пускают — боятся последствий. Ирина проходит в пяти метрах от знакомых девушек, но те не поднимают глаз: «Не узнают, ну ладно». Какой-то молодой человек радостно вскакивает при виде Ирины и говорит, что только что прочитал ее книгу — очень понравилась. Вместе с бывшим мужем, историком Олегом Яровым, Ирина написала несколько книг о Валааме.

Ирина говорит, что директор ООО «СЭНТ» Вера Скобелева, которая выступала истцом на суде, фактически придумала ей новую биографию. Семью Ирины выселяли за непроживание на острове, хотя практически каждый ее день на Валааме был задокументирован. Справки, печати, выписки, свидетели. На первом суде прокурор, увидев пачку документов, встал на сторону Ирины. Ее решили оставить, а всю семью — выселить. Следующие два суда она все-таки проиграла и после пожара оказалась на улице.

если хочешь бывать на острове, изменения придется принять

«На апелляционном суде в Петрозаводске у истца была справка о том, что у меня нет дровяного сарая. Значит, я не могу топить печку и не могу жить на острове зимой. Logics! Хотя у меня были и фотографии, и свидетели, и разрешение на пользование этим сараем. Потом оказалось, что в документах, которые истец дала суду, моим сараем пользовался другой человек, а наши документы не рассматривали».

Ирина уходит к причалу, откуда отправляются корабли до Сортавалы. Ирина не знает, куда ехать дальше, не знает, где будет ночевать. Вся жизнь осталась на острове, в городе ей делать нечего.

Дети Валаама

Наташа, Даша и Елисей гуляют по лесу с двумя огромными ньюфаундлендами. У Елисея на плече гитара, у Наташи под мышкой маленькая укулеле. «Детям Валаама», как все их здесь называют, сейчас чуть больше двадцати лет.

Наташа и Елисей с собаками Корой и Беллой на берегу озера Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД Маяк на одном из островов Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД

Они помнят тот Валаам, на который можно было просто приехать и жить, острова были открыты. Монастырь еще не имел такой силы. Все изменилось в начале 2000-х годов. Даша вспоминает, что на Валааме был вертолетчик. Зимой с ним можно было договориться и долететь за 700 рублей. Заслуженный летчик России «дядя Саша» в какой-то момент уехал, вертолеты теперь только частные, перелет стоит не меньше тридцати тысяч.

Даша выросла на острове и училась в местной школе. Сначала там было 120 человек, потом 60, а несколько лет назад выпускалась уже одна девушка. Дети взрослели и уезжали. Вот и Даша уехала в Петербург. Она понимает, что если хочешь бывать на острове, изменения придется принять. В конце мая Даша приедет на Валаам и останется до ноября. Вечером пойдет на исповедь, а летом будет послушаться на монастырской ферме.

Елисей родился и вырос на Валааме. До пожара они вместе с отцом, Дмитрием Синицей, жили в «Зимней». Но квартира сгорела, отца обвинили в поджоге и полгода держали в СИЗО. За это время ему не предъявили обвинений, а потом выпустили. Год назад Елисей переехал в Петербург. Вместе с Дашей они создали группу Judy Rain и несколько песен посвятили валаамским событиям. В одной из песен есть такие слова: «У нас на Валааме была война. Но она ни к чему не привела. Куда же мы попали?»

борьба за права Валаам православие рпц собственность