“The political officers are now in high honour”

A conversation with a priest from Russia - about those who turn the temple into a parade ground, envelopes with money and the stick system in the church

Priests with pacifist views who remained in Russia, under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, rarely speak openly about themselves. On condition of anonymity, we spoke with a priest who serves in one of the provincial Russian cities about how the internal church bureaucracy is structured, what is the degree of freedom of a priest in the system, and whether parishioners are afraid of denunciations.

“Considering yourself to be a scumbag is unbearable”

— Father N, how much has the position of the priest in Russia changed after 2022?

— The enslavement was gradual, but after 2022 it sharply worsened. The topic of the SVO became a trigger: they began to very sharply slap the hands of those who oppose it. The first to suffer was Father John Burdin, who served in the Kostroma diocese, and a parishioner reported him. Moreover, it is symbolic: she turned out to be the daughter of the head of the Stalinist camp. And she even spoke somewhere later, saying that yes, I did the right thing, I reported it because it was supposed to be, my dad was the head of the camp, I’m proud of it.

“She’s proud, but she’s a believing parishioner, doesn’t one interfere with the other?”

— In the soul of a Russian person, incompatible things are united. Love and war. Murder and goodness. A person is forced to justify himself. Even maniacs justified themselves with something: I don’t kill everyone, but only the bad ones, unworthy of life.

They are looking for justification for their bloodthirstiness and cruelty. A person needs to define himself by humiliating another.

But you have to justify yourself somehow. So they justify it. Considering yourself a scumbag is unbearable for the human psyche. Therefore, we must say: we are right. Those who think differently must be accused and declared enemies of the people.

— How selective are repressions in the church?

“Of those 300 who signed the clergy’s open letter against military action in March 2022, it seems to me that everyone has already suffered. And at first, in general, they didn’t touch it. And then they started abruptly. I have a friend who is also a signatory. He is smart, defending his doctorate, and the author of many books. Now they have banned me from serving. They found fault, I don’t understand why. But what really filled the boss’s patience was that he also signed a letter in support of Uminsky. This is also a trigger. Because Uminsky was supported by 99% of priests. Even those who disagreed with him on something were shocked when Uminsky was banned. It’s just that Tkachev ( who replaced him at the famous Moscow Trinity Church in Khokhly - Ed. ) is considered marginal in the church environment. There are, of course, honest, sincere people, but not very educated - they love Tkachev, but there are few of them. But for the most part, bishops and priests don’t treat him very well.

But in our episcopate now the main movement is the Naumovites. There was such an elder Naum in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. And his spiritual children are now practically the entire episcopate. They were even called behind their backs the “Nahum Senrikyo sect.” We must understand who Elder Nahum is. For example, a woman comes to him (she told me herself), the elder tells her: live with your husband like brother and sister. Don't sleep. I say: how is your husband? Well, I waited a year and left. Stop, stop, stop. What does the Apostle Paul say? “The body of the husband belongs to the wife, the body of the wife belongs to the husband. The husband has no power over his body, but the wife, and the wife has no power over her body, but the husband.” I say: you pushed your husband to sin. What will you answer to God: “The old man told me”?

There were cases when there was a crowd, Naum called: boy, come here, who are you? Seminarian? Vasya? Girl, come here. Who are you? Do you sing in the choir? Lena? Here, Vasya, marry Lena. My blessing. And they divorced a year later. That is, this Vasya will no longer be able to become a priest. A man's life was ruined. But it's effective.

Among psychopaths, the most common professions are security forces and priests. Psychopaths are trying to turn the church into an army. To the power structure.

— Well, a lot of security forces came to the church.

- This is a nightmare. I know a lot of military men who came to church, they have empathy, they are sincere believers, but professional deformation still affects them. It is difficult for them to accept that there is no army discipline here, that the temple is not a parade ground, but a family. That love comes first here, and then everything else.

- Why did so many of them come?

“Because they had nowhere to go.”

Do you know why children from orphanages often end up in monasteries? Because they don't know how to make decisions on their own. And here there is a hierarchy, everything will be decided for them.

“Now from the temple - a million a month”

— When did the enslavement of priests begin?

— Serfdom, when the priest in the parish lost his independence, began with the election of Patriarch Kirill - he abolished the independence of parishes. The property of the parish belonged to the community. In Ukraine, by the way, this is still the case. And so, let’s say, in the church of the UOC ( Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Ed * . ), the parishioners decided and voted at the parish meeting that the church would transfer to the OCU. And all the property of the temple now belongs to the OCU ( Orthodox Church of Ukraine* - Ed.**). And to prevent this from happening, Patriarch Kirill carried out a reform. So that all property belongs to the ruling bishop. The community got together, built a temple - and everything ultimately belongs to the patriarch. Strict vertical of power. It started with economic enslavement, and then little by little they began to tighten up. Before this, under Alexy, some kind of freedom was allowed. And under Kirill, bureaucratic control began. Reports. A huge number of reports. Every church and the smallest parish is required to have an accountant and clerk. And write reports.

- For what?

- Don't know. Just to keep people in line. Priests were prohibited from working. Now, however, the Patriarch has given permission again, when Moscow priests simply howled that they couldn’t live on a salary of 50–70 thousand.

Previously, there were requirements - to consecrate an apartment, a “chariot” - that is, a car. And get money. And now everything that needed to be consecrated has already been consecrated. “Chariots” are no longer bought that much.

The priests were left without a livelihood. And they asked, and the Patriarch allowed them to work. But how can a priest work? He must be 5 through 2 in the temple. Should I leave my family on weekends, go work as a taxi driver, or during a break between services?

Plus, there are now more bans and defrocking than there have ever been in history. It never happened. The last time was probably under Patriarch Methodius. This is when the heresy of iconoclasm existed. And he defrocked all the priests who had been ordained by the iconoclasts. After that it never happened again. But Patriarch Kirill is now defrocking so many people! Moreover, the bishops say: they are now demanding that they too be defrocked. They even ask: so, why haven’t you defrocked a single person in five years of service? Come on. And he obliged. Exercise and stick system. And everyone is just afraid. The church system copies the state one. The Church suffers from the diseases of society.

Since Soviet and even tsarist times, the bishop considered himself a high-ranking official. Governor's rank, something like that. And in Soviet times - as one of the secretaries of the regional committee. They drank vodka together and went to the bathhouse together. In the 90s - even more so. There are a lot of people in the church with strange backgrounds. Negative selection is at work. So that a person is vulnerable, dependent on his superiors. Very very obedient

There was such a case. One priest studied at the seminary, a former policeman, if I'm not mistaken. And he really got into trouble there - a relationship with a woman. The seminary found out. They reported it to the dean. How did the dean behave? “And now we’ll force this priest to prepare the temple for consecration!” They said: if you don’t consecrate the temple within a year, if you don’t make a new iconostasis, if you don’t find sponsors, you’ll fly out. And that’s it - he collected credits and prepared the temple.

— About financial dependence. Does everyone pay the diocesan tax now and how high is it?

- There should be a tax. Without it, it will be impossible to maintain seminaries, it is impossible to maintain the diocesan administration, all this bureaucracy, people need to be paid salaries. But if the metropolitan has his own sponsors, he can replace the tax with their donations.

- What amounts are these?

— In the Moscow region, it used to be, in my opinion, 25% of income.

But church income cannot be controlled. Well, they brought you 1000 rubles, and you indicated 50. Therefore, as a rule, they did fixed taxes. In a poor church near Moscow it will be 3-5 thousand a month, in a large one - a million.

One rector of a large temple was caught violating his priestly vows. The dean said: that’s it, now from your temple a million every month to such and such a fund. Or I'm filming. He replied: good. No problem. A million more, a million less - no big deal.

Your income should grow by 3% every year. There was a case where the priest was so sincere, he showed real income and actually paid 25% of this income. He pays for a year, pays for two, then a crisis and incomes drop. He showed them, paid 25%, but the amount was less - and he was severely reprimanded.

“I wouldn’t let a priest into school”

— A priest often has a large family and often has a non-working wife. Is his allowance sufficient for the life of his family?

— It depends on the parish. Although I know bishops who support poor priests from their funds.

You know, there is a tradition that when a bishop comes to some church for a holiday, they should present him with an envelope. About 50 thousand, let's say. One priest, who needed to consecrate a church, took out a loan to receive the metropolitan.

I paid for several years afterwards. He had no money, this is a poor rural church.

One priest cried and said: we were told to collect a thousand rubles for Panagia for the Metropolitan. Give it to him for his anniversary. He says I don’t have a thousand rubles now. I don’t have gas to fill my car to get to the temple. And where can I get this money?

- Is it like this everywhere?

- No. This is the human factor. But I know bishops who use this money to pay the salaries of all priests with many children or all the poor. I know a bishop who bought an apartment for a poor parishioner. They can buy a car for a rural priest who doesn’t have enough. I know bishops who spend huge sums on this and live modestly themselves—there are also Christians among the episcopate. Secret Christians.

— Is the salary of a priest high?

— In the outback they pay 20 thousand, somewhere they can pay 10 thousand. In Moscow it’s 50–70.

- How do they survive?

— I have a lot of priest friends who work part-time. Teacher, driving instructor, master for an hour, taxi driver. But if he is a good priest, active, who cares about people, listens to everyone, helps everyone, people see this, and they will support him with money. It is even good when the priest depends on the parishioners. He will try, work hard, organize Bible courses, and begin to read more.

“But the priest still depends on his superiors: he can be placed in a rich parish, or he can be placed in a place where the holy water in the font freezes in winter.

“We say about such places: “If you don’t conceive, you won’t baptize, if you don’t kill, you won’t sing.”

This also happens. But I know parishes in the wilderness, where the church is full of people - they come from afar, with transfers, by train. We went to Father Alexander Menu in the wilderness, and also to Father Georgy Edelstein. And now people have become more mobile. They will go to a good priest.

— Do you notice that fewer and fewer people are going to church?

— De-churching began in 2018. Before this, people went to the temple en masse - in the 90s, a little less in the 2000s. And since 2018, there has been an outflow of parishioners. There was no church pedagogy. A person comes - he is taught to fold his fingers - to cross himself, to fold his arms on his chest - to take communion. Pray, fast, listen to Radio Radonezh - and that’s it. So he walks and walks - he has hit the ceiling, there is no further movement. Ritual piety does not change a person's soul. Apathy and disappointment begin.

And then Covid happened, when we were allowed not to go to churches. Before this, the person was afraid: if I don’t read the canons, I won’t pray, I won’t come to church on Sunday, lightning will kill me. And then they said that there was no need to do anything about it, and she didn’t kill me. It turns out that nothing has changed. Let me try not to pray - and now I have free time to look through the pages.

After Covid, Patriarch Kirill himself said that a third of parishioners did not return to churches. And about half.

— But they probably came during the SVO?

- No, many left, on the contrary.

I thought military wives would come, but no, nothing like that. I have been to those places where humanitarian aid is collected for the Northern Military District. And there I met mostly pagans.

Moreover, they treated priests with hostility. They asked me to go there to bless the Easter cakes - they looked at me like I was an enemy.

— Why is the church not interested in parishioners not only observing rituals, but studying the Bible?

- Because it doesn't make money. Money brings needs. Prayers, candles, notes. Well, working with sponsors. The rest is not. Therefore, naturally, it fades into the background. No, there are such priests, burning ones, who really try to do something, they are sent to a remote village, they start delivering grandmothers there in a car, in some broken Zhiguli. Temples are restored with their own hands, they do everything. And they burn out quickly. Because for all this they also hit you on the cap.

Burnout occurs in people who try. The road is paved with flowers only for careerists and functionaries. 90% of a priest’s work that can be recorded in reports has nothing to do with missionary work. It’s just going to some authorities, to meetings, seminars. To schools. I wouldn't let a priest into school.

- Why?

— I went to schools myself. But I didn't talk about God there. I talked about what children might find interesting. Under no circumstances should faith be imposed. I told them about things that can lead them to God, but do not directly concern God. I told them about happiness, about love. What does a person want? What is his problem? The fact is that he lacks happiness. How to be happy? I didn’t say the word “God”. But if a person is interested in this, he himself will come to the Gospel. Because violence in matters of faith is unacceptable. How is preaching different from propaganda? The sermon offers. But propaganda imposes. "You must!" And this is how “priests-political officers” are raised. They are now in honor. Propaganda is our everything.

“We have no canons. We have the right of a boss"

— How common is denunciation against each other? Are you afraid?

- Not anymore. There have already been so many of these denunciations. One more, one less. I'm tired of being afraid. At each parish there is a former military man or a grandmother-hereditary guard. There are a lot of denunciations. “He who divided bread with me has raised up his heel against me.” Now everyone is intimidated. An extra complaint, denunciation, any mistake - there is an immediate danger that they will be removed or banned. There was a time when people were exiled to distant parishes as punishment. Now this is no longer practiced. Immediately prohibited.

You can still be exiled for a non-political violation, but not for politics, you will be banned. The Patriarch just freaked out and banned you.

— Many priests suffered for refusing to read the prayer “On Holy Rus'” written by the Patriarch. But it itself is not canonical?

- You understand that we have no canons. We have the right of a boss. The boss said so it will be. Orders are not discussed. This is an army. I know that there are many, especially in small parishes, who do not read this prayer, without saying anything. And the simplest thing is to read, but change the comma in the right place. But you still sell your conscience. This makes you burn out. How else? They will be defrocked. The problem is not leaving. The problem is leaving parishioners. It's not just one priest, it's people. Compromises, like Dovlatov's.

— I have a priest I know who, instead of praying “About Holy Rus',” began to read some kind of homemade prayer for Putin. And he says to me: “Listen to these words: “Let us pray for the softening of the heart of our ruler Vladimir.” And no one will report, but I prayed for Putin. And it’s not a shame - after all, for “softening the heart.”

- Yes, there are tricks to avoid making concessions to your conscience. Plus, if in a small church the priest whom the parishioners love does not read this prayer, they will not report it. Because they feel sorry that the priest will be defrocked.

- Why is the Patriarchate so focused on this prayer?

- Obedience. Strict division into “friend or foe”. Cleaning out all the unwanted, charismatic ones. By the way, in 2018, when the number of parishioners began to decrease, I thought: now the hierarchy will understand that there are churches where there are a lot of people, and there are churches where the number of parishioners is decreasing. And they will give freedom to missionaries, active, passionate people. They will understand that they need to look for priests who gather parishes. It turns out not. They simply went to bow to the oligarchs and the authorities. The patriarchy earns its income there. This is enough.

— Do you have hope for change?

- No, there is no hope. I think it will only get worse. We know that the church is indestructible, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. But what is meant by church? Legal entity of the Russian Orthodox Church MP?

We know how many churches simply died. Corinth, Ephesus, Colossian... I have many priests I know who are thinking of leaving, transferring. If there was any alternative, many would go there. And we have everything cleared. By the way, the OCU temple was in Noginsk; in 2022 it was demolished by bulldozers. Gathering in an apartment somewhere is also not an option. Any gathering outside the official walls of the temple will be persecuted. It's very easy to track. So I don't know what the solution is, really. If God doesn't intervene, then it's all over.