Do you remember Mr. Tsereteli? Spineless mediocrity, which, like water, will find its way under any power. A man disfigured Moscow under Luzhkov, a man does not sit idly by and now. What time - such and heroes. When not talent is valued, but loyalty, when a warm language in the right place is more important than quality. In such an environment, Tsereteli sculpts the Alley of Rulers for the Russian Military Historical Society. It is solemnly opened by the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky and the Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva.
Now 33 busts have been installed in the Alley, from Rurik to Kerensky, and by the end of the year 8 more should appear - from Lenin to Boris Yeltsin.
Vladimir Medinsky:
"For the first time in our history, we will be able to see successively the rulers of Rus' - from Rurik to the head of the Provisional Government - to consider how they looked, to read when they lived. We do not interrupt historical continuity on this, our history is one and indivisible. "
In what - in what, and in this Vladimir Rostislavovich is absolutely right! The historical continuity is truly uninterrupted. And all thanks to Zurab Tsereteli, who simply stole and copied his bronze rulers from the works of sculptors of the 19th century.
01. Peter I looks like the head of the Bronze Horseman by Marie-Anne Collot (Falconet's student and assistant) only remotely. But that's because this bust is a copy of a copy. 
02. It turns out that Tseretelli borrowed a significant part of his works from Felix Chopin, who in the second half of the 19th century created a series of table busts of Russian sovereigns in his own bronze foundry in St. Petersburg. 
03. Bronze Peter Chopin cast just from the head of the work of Collot. 
04. Ivan the Terrible. Here, not only is the bust copied one to one, but also the signature is made immediately with two spelling errors. The name of the king, in theory, should be written as "Ioann", but not "Noan". And if the second "n" in some historical texts, suppose, could be thrown out, then the capital N is the letter "our", that is, the same "H". It turned out "Noan". More like pseudo-Russian inscriptions in Hollywood action movies. How is this even possible? 
05. Ivan III was correctly written for some reason. 
06. Boris Godunov is very authentically copied) 
07. It didn't work out so well with Mikhail Romanov. Hack. 
08. They put on Paul I a toga from the shoulders of Peter, so as not to bother with the uniform. 
09. Peter III, performed by Tsereteli, acquired a somewhat Georgian look with expressive eyebrows and nose. Well, this is not surprising. 
10. Why is the king king naked? Yes, because he is naked in the original, a-ha-ha! It turned out to be difficult to cast a uniform. 
11. Again, this is a copy of a copy. Chopin cast his desktop Nicholas based on the bust by Christian Rauch (1841). Well, Tsereteli borrowed the image already from Chopin. 
12. There was not enough space for an inscription on the bust of Catherine I. It turned out some kind of man Catherine. Like Lizaveth Sparrow in Gogol's Dead Souls.
UPD: A-A-A-A!! With this bust, everything is cooler than you can imagine! It turns out that Tsereteli copied the bust of Catherine II from the bust of Catherine I! Behind the corner of the pedestal the inscription continues: "... on II". Just hell. 
13. Due to the somewhat African facial features and the enlightened look, someone may decide that this is the author's vision of Haile Selassie. But no, this is a completely different monarch. 
14. Alexander III lost a lot of weight. Either this is a portrait of the king after the collapse of the imperial train, or stupidly bronze was not enough. 
15. Alexander Nevsky. Also unsigned. 
16. Vsevolod the Big Nest 
17. Yaroslav the Wise 
18. Something went wrong with Princess Olga at Zurab Konstantinovich. Maybe just tired. I am silent about the face and other details, but pay attention to how the chain lies on the magnificent chest. In the original, it hangs, as it should. 
19. Ivan Kalita 
20. Vasily II the Dark 
Failure and disgrace ... well, what did you want? From the aspen, oranges will not be born ... Degradation is not only in power, but also in creativity. The lack of competition brings to the surface all the shit that disfigures our cities. In the court painters, sculptors and architects got out mediocrity, who know how to be friends. They erect monuments not to the rulers of Russia, they erect monuments to their theft, greed and mediocrity.
MONUMENTS TO THE TSARS IN ST. PETERSBURG: FROM NICHOLAS I TO NICHOLAS II.
Petersburg is a city not only of three revolutions, but also of a dozen emperors. Royal statues mark the historical center, as well as rivers and canals, and this is a purely Petersburg phenomenon - figured monuments to monarchs first appeared in Russia here. It would never have occurred to a respectable Muscovite tsar to honor his bearded predecessor with a full-length statue. And on the banks of the Neva, an almost complete Romanov line gathered: three Alexanders, two Nicholas, Catherine, Pavel. And the culprit of all this is Peter.
to St. Isaac's Cathedral in front, a royal horseman in uniform flaunts
horse guard. The statue was created by Nikolai's favorite sculptor - the great horseman
Peter Klodt, and the horse plays the main role here. It is often repeated that horse
a statue with two points of support on its hind legs - a unique design; but this
an exaggeration, there are similar monuments in the country and the world.
The uniqueness of the bronze Nicholas in another - he became and rhyme, and complete
The cultural capital of Russia attracts tourists not only with its museums, bridges and canals. It was here that the first monuments in the entire country dedicated to the most famous monarchs in history appeared. And, having walked along the shady alleys, appreciating the monuments in the summer garden in St. Petersburg, each guest will surely want to plunge deeper into the great history of the northern capital.
The most famous monuments to the tsars in St. Petersburg
On the majestic banks of the Neva, almost the entire line of the Romanovs is immortalized: Peter I, three Alexanders, Pavel, two Nicholas and Catherine. Their sculptures, immortalized in stone, are priceless monuments of the history of St. Petersburg, and every day they remind of its great past. Unfortunately, not even every Petersburger today will be able to accurately answer whose sculpture is in front of him. Therefore, before walking along the St. Petersburg streets and avenues, it is better to read in advance about the royal monuments of St. Petersburg, a photo with a description and an excursion into the history of which are presented below.
Despite the fact that Finland declared independence from Russia in 1917, the monuments to Alexander I and Alexander II are still standing in the country, and the name of the first (Aleksanterinkatu) is called not only one of the central streets of Helsinki, but also the largest city of Tampere, as well as Oulu, Lahti and Porvoo.
The preservation of the attributes of the past is explained not only by the respect of the Finns for history, but also by the contribution of the kings to the development of local statehood. Even the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 could not spoil the good attitude towards the Russian emperors.
Under Swedish rule
The expansion of the Swedes into the Finnish lands began as early as the 12th century, as a result of which they became an integral part of the Swedish kingdom until 1809, without having any special status.
The local dialect was the language of the peasant common people, while the educated townspeople and the nobility used Swedish. It is worth noting that it has the status of a state one to this day, and street names in Finland are still duplicated in two languages.
The Swedes also gave the Finns a religion: first Catholicism, and after the Reformation spread in the kingdom in the 16th century, Lutheranism, thanks to which the school system developed. The local level of education was quite high, and in 1640 a university even appeared in the provincial capital of Abo (Turku).
Nevertheless, the Finnish lands remained the backyards of the Swedish kingdom, which Russia began to actively encroach on since the time of Peter I: part of Karelia and Vyborg became Russian at the beginning of the 18th century. The proximity to St. Petersburg played its role already in the middle of the century, when some Finnish nobles began to focus on the eastern neighbor, entering the Russian service.
War for Finland
The Treaty of Tilsit concluded in 1807 between Alexander I and Napoleon allowed Russia to focus on Sweden, a long-time geopolitical adversary. A participant in the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809, Thaddeus Bulgarin, who later became a prominent journalist and publisher, wrote that the border was only a few military crossings from the capital, and this could not but worry. "Without Finland, Russia was incomplete, as if unfinished," he summed up.
Initially, the war was fairly easy for the Russian army: southern Finland quickly fell, and the well-fortified fortress of Svaeborg (Suomenlinna) near Helsinki surrendered without a fight. However, military operations soon stalled, while the Finnish partisans became more active.
One way or another, the Russian troops managed to turn the tide of the campaign, leaving in 1809 on the frozen ice of the Gulf of Bothnia to the territory of Sweden. A coup d'etat took place in the country, as a result of which the military overthrew the current king, and the new authorities hurried to make peace with Russia.
Wide autonomy
As a result of the peace treaty concluded in Friedrichsgam (Hamina), Sweden lost 40% of its land territory, ceding Finland to Russia. Back in 1808, Alexander I promised the country broad autonomy, and shortly before the official end of the war, a representation of the estates was convened near the Russian border in the city of Borgo (Porvoo), to which the tsar gave guarantees to preserve the constitution and laws.
The Russian government hesitated about the degree of autonomy of the new territories, but the associate of Alexander I Mikhail Speransky insisted on the significant independence of the region, stating that "Finland is a state, not a province."
In 1810, the emperor wrote to the local governor-general that he wanted to give "this people a political existence, so that they would be considered not enslaved by Russia, but tied to it by their own obvious benefits, for this, not only civil, but its political laws were preserved for him."
The capital of Finland was moved closer to Russia: from Abo (Turku) to Helsingfors (Helsinki). In 1811, the Vyborg province was transferred to the autonomous region, which historically was part of the Finnish lands occupied before the Russian-Swedish war. In addition, the Grand Duchy of Finland was exempted from all-Russian military service and received broad economic independence.
After passing under the protectorate of Russia, Finland gained a much greater degree of autonomy than under the Swedes. This is partly due to the fact that Alexander I strategically believed that a loyal buffer territory on the border with a long-standing geopolitical enemy was essential for the empire.
Convocation of the Sejm
The state of affairs in Finland did not change with the accession of Nicholas I, whom many researchers consider a conservative. When the emperor was asked to reduce the autonomy of the region, he replied: "Leave the Finns alone. This is the only province that has not caused me any anxiety and displeasure."
The era of the reign of Alexander II, which changed the Russian Empire, seriously influenced Finland. In 1863, in Helsingfors (Helsinki), after a long break, the Diet was convened, which began to meet regularly. In memory of the restoration of parliamentarism, the Finns in 1894 erected a monument to Alexander II on the main square of the capital.
During his reign, his own monetary system and schooling in his native language were introduced. In addition, the teaching of Finnish was resumed at the universities, which gradually became the state language from the 1860s. All this led to the emergence of a movement for the revival of national culture.
Attempts to limit autonomy
Idyllic relations between the Russian Empire and the Grand Duchy of Finland lasted until the 1880s, when the government of Alexander III began to gradually restrict local rights.
A similar line was continued under Nicholas II: the Finns began to be drafted into the imperial army, and the Russian language began to be introduced into office work. In the end, the tsar's manifesto allowed the legislative initiatives of St. Petersburg to be implemented in Finland without the approval of the local diet.
This led to tension in the region and outbreaks of terror. In particular, in 1904, the Finnish nationalist killed the Governor-General of Finland, Nikolai Bobrikov. Along with this, centrifugal tendencies were growing throughout the Russian Empire, which also affected Finland: the revolution of 1905-1907 spread to the country.
... should be restored in Samara
In the very heart of Samara - on Alekseevskaya Square on the pedestal of the monument to the Emperor Alexander II the Liberator from 1927 to this day there is a monument to Lenin.
Since there are still some kind of idols everywhere in Russia - statues of Ilyich, and while he himself lies in the mausoleum on the Red Square of the capital, Russia will not rise - this was repeated to me several times at our meeting at the beginning of this year by a well-known Orthodox American, a companion of Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose ) Hegumen German (Podmoshensky - see Blagovest, No. 5, 2003). But isn't this a too simple recipe: one has only to remove monuments to the Bolsheviks from our streets - and society will be freed from the Bolshevik past? I know firsthand with what selflessness Samarans at one time sought to return to the city its original name (instead of Kuibyshev). It was a joyful throwing off of the fetters of 70 years of Bolshevik captivity, it was an act of repentance. But something, apparently, was not completed, they became fussy, cooled off. And there are still Soviet idols in our city, and the main one is the monument to Lenin on the square, which half bears two names: the original Alekseevskaya, in honor of St. Alexis, the patron saint of the city, and the Revolution. In Samara, the worship of the idol of the revolution continues. They bring flowers to the monument, take children from kindergartens for walks in the square near the monument and tell them about “grandfather Lenin”, excursion groups from other cities lead here. And Samarans calmly walk by, thereby silently recognizing the legitimacy of the unauthorized seizure of the Tsar's pedestal by the self-proclaimed Ilyich. But the little bronze Lenin, and the townspeople know this, like a thief, brazenly took someone else's place, throwing down from the pedestal the majestic monument to the Tsar-Liberator Alexander II, which our ancestors erected to the Tsar with public donations. Immediately after the villainous murder of the Emperor on March 1, 1881 in Samara, they decided to erect a monument to the Tsar-Liberator. The commission created by the City Duma settled on the project of Academician V. O. Sherwood, where the Sovereign was depicted on a pedestal in a uniform coat and cap, and at the foot were four emblematic figures, personifying the four greatest events of his reign: the liberation of the peasants from serfdom, the conquest of the Caucasus , liberation from the Turkish yoke of the Slavic brothers, conquests in Central Asia. The deeds of the great Tsar-reformer were written in gold on two shields: the annexation of the Amur Territory, the abolition of corporal punishment, the creation of zemstvo institutions, open legal proceedings, all-class military service. All figures of the monument were made of chased bronze, the pedestal was made of Finnish granite. Alekseevskaya Square by that time became the main square of the city. On July 8, 1888, on the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, after the Liturgy in the Ascension Cathedral on Alekseevskaya Square, a monument was laid, it was opened on August 29, 1889. And on November 7, 1927, a bronze figure of Lenin by sculptor M.G. was erected on the pedestal of the monument to Alexander II. Manizer.
Bolshevism, like any totalitarian regime, loved monumental propaganda. Before the revolution, there were few monumental buildings, they were erected to glorify the kings, prominent statesmen and significant events in the history of Russia. The erection of sculpture has always been a political matter. The Bolsheviks began with the fact that in Moscow, from the obelisk in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, they tore off the monarchist emblems and wrote the names of Marx, Engels, Plekhanov. They destroyed the old monuments and shamelessly put their own in their place. 
Is the monument to Lenin purely historical, as some claim, or is it a political symbol? Is he legally standing in this place and what to do with him next? With these questions, we turned to famous people of the city.
Leader of the Samara nobility Alexander Yuryevich Chukhonkin:
- On October 21, 2002, the Samara Provincial Nobility Assembly adopted an appeal to the Head of the city of Samara G.S. Limansky and deputies of the Samara Provincial Duma with a request to remove the monument to Lenin from the former Alekseevskaya Square. So far, we have not received an official response to our letter. But the symbol of the godless Soviet power, legally recognized as illegal, cannot stand in the center of the city. I mean the law “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions” adopted on October 18, 1991, which declares Soviet power to be a form of a totalitarian state, the victims of which were millions of people. There can be no references to the fact that Lenin is “an integral part of our history” - in Russia they did not erect monuments to Batu Khan and False Dmitry and did not worship their ashes. This is not just a monument, but a symbol of the destruction of Russia. For example, I constantly remember him, internally disagree with his presence on one of the main squares of the city: it interferes with both living and doing some good deeds. We are reviving Orthodoxy, but this is hindered by the symbol of godless power. Recently, for the next birthday of Lenin, communists, grandfathers, grandmothers, mostly Russian people, gathered at this monument. So sorry for them, they themselves do not understand that they come to bow to the monument to the destroyer of their state, their faith. After all, not those in leather jackets who erected this monument came. The October Revolution was, above all, anti-Christian. The country was in ruins and was starving, and at that time - on April 12, 1918, Lenin signed the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On monuments to the revolution" - on the removal of monuments in honor of the kings and the establishment of revolutionary monuments. The first monument to Lenin was opened ... by Lenin himself in 1918 in the Moscow region. Most of the monuments to Lenin in Russia were erected in 1919-1920 during his lifetime and on his initiative. By his order, four monuments to Judas the Betrayer were erected, one not far from Samara - in Sviyazhsk. Imagine what people experienced in the field, when the train arrived, they removed from the car a monument to Judas, boarded up with boards, with an order to install it. All monuments were cast in Moscow centrally and transported to places, no one asked the opinion of the people. And before the revolution, monuments in the provinces were usually erected on local initiative and with public donations. The monument to Lenin is a justification for the anti-Christian revolution, the extermination of Russian people, the destruction of churches, the execution of the Royal Family. By removing this monument, we thereby declare that Soviet power was illegal.
Hegumen Veniamin (Labutin), First Vice-Rector of the Samara Theological Seminary:
- I think that it is necessary to restore historical justice. We have five monuments to Lenin in Samara: in front of the Metallurg plant, in the Kuibyshev region and other places. The statue of Lenin occupies this place illegally, because a monument to Alexander II stood on this pedestal. The Tsar-Liberator did a lot for Russia, under him the country became a great power. It must be remembered that the Russian state did not begin in October 1917, as we were told for a long time, but more than a thousand years ago. We need to remember our Kings - the eminent rulers of the past. The change of monuments had a purely ideological significance. The memory of the great Orthodox Russia was uprooted in the minds of the people, and its very history was regarded as a revolutionary movement. Now we see what the socialist experiment on our country has led to. We need to rethink our past, and the removal of the monument to Lenin would be a very correct step. This will not hurt anyone's feelings. We are not talking about destroying this monument. I think it should be installed on an ordinary pedestal in some square or park. It is necessary to restore both buildings and monuments in their original form, such is the tradition in all countries of the world. And different eras will be presented in Samara: both the era of the Tsar-Liberator and the era of the Bolsheviks.
Ivan Ivanovich Melnikov, sculptor, author of monuments to St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and St. Sergius of Radonezh in Samara, on Alekseevskaya embankment:
- The monument to the Tsar-Liberator Alexander II was put on the people's money. As far as I know, no one collected money for the monument to Lenin. The essence of the matter is that the monument to Lenin was put in a strange place. The monument to the Tsar was removed because he was associated with Orthodox Russia. But history cannot be rewritten.
The monument to Alexander II is a good sculptural work, everything in it was concise and harmonious, it fit perfectly into the building. And he was the only one of his kind, was the face of Samara. The monument to Lenin is the work of Manizer, a famous sculptor of the Soviet era, I know many of his students. It cannot be denied - Manizer is a good master, there are no complaints about the sculpture itself. But exactly the same monuments to Lenin, like ours, were erected throughout the country. In addition, this monument does not correspond to the pedestal and does not fit into the square. The sculpture of Lenin could be placed in a modest square on a low pedestal - it would look much better.
There are examples when monuments are being restored. In St. Petersburg, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the city, a bust of Peter I was restored from old photographs. Photos of the monument to the Tsar Liberator have also been preserved, so this is possible. This is an expensive job - casting in bronze, I think, about 10 million rubles. But our city, if there is the political will of its leaders and the support of the townspeople, will be able to master this amount. If it is true that, as they say, the monument is located at the bottom of the Volga, it is worth looking for it - the bronze is preserved in the water. Judging by its size, it must have weighed about two tons, and it could not have been carried too far.
Alexander Nikiforovich Zavalny, chief bibliographer of the Samara Regional Scientific Library:
- A lot is connected with Alexander II in Samara. In August 1871, he laid the foundation stone here for the construction of the Resurrection Cathedral. In 1873, a vocational school was founded in Samara, named after him Aleksandrovsky. Since 1882, the Samara Public Library became known as the Alexander Library, it had a hall of Alexander II, which later grew into the Museum of Local Lore. The largest bridge across the Volga at Syzran was named Aleksandrovsky. The monument to the Tsar-Liberator must be returned to its rightful place or restored to its original form. And there is no need to destroy the monument to Lenin. It would be possible to arrange an exhibition of monumental Soviet sculpture in the Zagorodny Park, transferring monuments to Lenin, Kuibyshev and others from the streets of the city.
The Samara Gubernskiye Vedomosti reported that in 2002 in Saratov a group of residents took the initiative to restore the monument to Alexander II, which stood on the square. The monument to the Emperor will be restored. Saratov will become the second city after Moscow where the monument to the Tsar Liberator will be erected again. The monument to the Tsar-Liberator, thrown off the pedestal by the Bolsheviks and drowned in a pond, is being restored in Yuzhno-Kamsk. A monument to Alexander III is being restored in Irkutsk.
Has the monument to the Tsar-Liberator survived in Samara? They say that the emblematic figures were in the building on the street. Kuibyshevskaya, 131, where the museum of the city used to be. A. N. Zavalny was told by old-timers that certain parts of the monument were kept in different institutions, in particular, the head of the monument to the Emperor - at the military medical faculty of the Kuibyshev Medical Institute. Local historian Galina Rassokhina adheres to the version that the monument was dragged along Zavodskaya Street (now Vencek Street) to the Volga. There will be no answer to this and other questions until we have the courage to change our lives. Until we want to live in Holy Rus'.
At the time when this publication was being prepared, we received several letters to the editorial office on this topic.
I want to tell you about a dream I had in 1970. I was neither a Komsomol member nor a party member, but I respected Lenin and even began to pray for his soul. I really wanted to visit the Mausoleum and see Lenin there. And now I see this dream. Lenin lies in the Mausoleum in a glass coffin, there is no top glass, and he is all wrapped in bloody bandages, pale, rushing about, groaning, throwing his hands from side to side. I look at him and think how to help him. Suddenly he opens his eyes and says to me: "How tired I am, you can't even imagine how tired I am." He closed his eyes and again began to toss and turn in delirium. Now, having read the Blagovest, all this has become clearer to me. Indeed, why is it not removed from the Mausoleum? He is an atheist, renounced God, took off his cross, killed so many innocent people with his henchmen, orphaned children. Before the revolution, there were not so many orphans, beggars and hungry. My grandfather had land and cattle, everything was taken away, left poor, they didn’t take it to the collective farm - “you are the middle peasant”, they put him in prison, he returned sick. So let's all write together to the Government and the Duma to remove Lenin from the Mausoleum and his monuments from the central squares, maybe we will stop being under the curse. I'm ready to collect signatures.
L. Kurdina, Astrakhan
It was especially shocking that Abbot German began and ended the conversation with the fact that Russia will not rise until, according to Igor Talkov, “the main atheist lies on Red Square”, while monuments to Lenin stand in the center of Russian cities. On the eve of the celebration of the 1100th anniversary of the mention of the city of Pskov in the annals, the issue of installing monuments to Princess Olga was discussed (there are two of them - Klykova and Tsereteli, and both are a gift for the anniversary). All expert opinions and responses were published in the Pskovskaya Pravda newspaper. In his letter "Olga - to the central square!" in this newspaper on February 23 this year. I wrote: “The Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga is for centuries, she is for centuries. She saw a sign from Heaven above the present Pskov Kremlin. What did the historical figure, whose monument now occupies the center of the square, see, besides police supervision and the Iskra newspaper? The history of the founding of the city - in the vision of Olga. Do we want our children and grandchildren to imitate the leader of the revolution? Olga is not only the Equal-to-the-Apostles Enlightener of Rus' through Baptism through her grandson, Prince Vladimir. She has long been a symbol of the Pskov land, the Russian Woman, the Beauty of Heaven and earth for many generations of Russian people. Beauty must be protected. And remember your kinship, and honor such great ancestors. Otherwise, our children and grandchildren will pay dearly for our laziness, for our cowardice!”
Our authorities have not yet decided to remove the monument to Lenin, or at least move it to another place. Through the prayers of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga and all the saints, may the Lord grant to see His light! I ask for the prayers of all who are not indifferent to the fate of Holy Rus'.
Larisa Ivanova, Pskov
The ghost of communism
We have written more than once about Nikifor Abakumov, a 94-year-old prayer book from Samara. The editors are friends with this elderly man, who has lived all his life in the world, but carried deep faith through all life's hardships and trials. Now grandfather Nikifor, as the Orthodox call him colloquially, lives in a wooden house in the center of Samara, where believers of different generations often come to him for advice and with requests to pray.
“Seven years ago,” grandfather Nikifor tells our collaborator, artist Irina Evstigneeva, “Ilyich appeared to me in a dream. With booming footsteps, he announced his presence to me. It seemed that all this was happening not in a dream, but in reality. His appearance was depressing. The face is black, all darker than the night, not a single bright spot ...
“Did you find out? ..” Ilyich asked him. “I found out,” Nikifor Abakumov replied. - Volodya? “Remember me,” Lenin asked. “And then everyone rustles papers, but I don’t have anything for it.” After these words, the dream ended.
Irina in a conversation suggested that the words about “papers” could mean memorial notes in the temple, in which, for obvious reasons, the name of Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin, the destroyer of the Orthodox Empire, is not entered. But grandfather Nikifor explained these words differently: everything written by Ilyich, all these multi-volume collections of his works are still read by people, but do not give relief to their author ... Probably, both explanations are possible.
Since then, Grandpa Nikifor began to commemorate his historical visitor in his cell prayer. And at the same time, I felt a kind of spiritual heaviness. But soon he stopped praying for Ilyich. It turned out that Ilyich did not appear to him alone ... A familiar church old woman, already lying on her deathbed, told him that in her vision Ulyanov-Lenin asked for prayers. "At least give me some water!" he said furiously to her. According to Russian compassion, she wanted to give him a mug of water, but she could not do this, as she was already bedridden by a fatal illness. She saw with horror how Ilyich began to drink greedily from the garbage pail ... Then she, feeling pity for him, decided to pray for him in the short time that she had left to live. But, having prayed to God, she suddenly saw a terrible hellish tartare and heard the cries of suffering sinners, and realized that, daring to pray for Lenin, she herself could end up in the same place ...
- Having learned about this, I also stopped praying for Ilyich, - grandfather Nikifor summed up the conversation. “It’s beyond our power to pray him away ... And as for the monument to Lenin in Samara, there’s nothing to think about: we need to remove it,” and the ninety-year-old old man made a characteristic jerking movement with his foot ... There, they say, him, there, away from our eyes...
From the editor: By publishing these letters and memoirs, we do not want to hurt those Russian people who sincerely believed and continue to believe in the false ideas of Leninism. We would not reopen old wounds if behind these obsolete ideas there was not the blood of hundreds of thousands of tortured Orthodox Christians. That is why Lenin in our country is not just a historical figure, but a certain symbol that divides people of one nation, one language, one culture - into people of different faiths.
