Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov): Cynicism is a disease of professional Orthodoxy. Who is Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov)

The following story is going around Moscow: “One of the officials is hired for a high position. Putin's personnel adviser Viktor Ivanov casually asks: what is your attitude towards Orthodoxy? The candidate was savvy and answered correctly. “Why don’t you get baptized?” – Ivanov asked sincerely and immediately called the fashionable priest, the rector of the Lubyanka monastery, Father Tikhon. And together they accepted a new worker - both into the bosom of the church and into the ranks of the administration.”

Many of the current elite can say to themselves: “We all came from the same font.” And the pectoral cross has become as important as the party card used to be. Whether we will live to see the day when thieving officials will be forcibly tonsured as monks - only God knows. Well, maybe even Father Tikhon. Rumor and sources (which cannot be specified) persistently call him the personal confessor of President Putin.

- What am I to you, what Richelieu? – Father Tikhon himself responds to such suspicions, not without coquetry.

Faith slowly

In New York, at a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Putin almost became embarrassed. In the line of handsome elders, he needed to recognize the most important thing - Metropolitan Laurus. VVP hesitated a little, then confidently walked towards the priest with the longest beard. The next frame was captured by all the television cameras. A puny, short monk jumped up to Putin and turned him in the right direction. The “nun” who directed the president on the right path was Archimandrite Tikhon.

Soon the priest himself gave an interview to the Greek newspaper “Strana”, after which he was firmly included in “Putin’s confessors” - the priest knows too many of the president’s spiritual secrets.

“The President of Russia,” Father Tikhon told the journalist, “is truly an Orthodox person who confesses, takes communion and is aware of his responsibility before God...

Of course, no one held a candle during the president’s confession. But many would like to know: what and to whom does Vladimir Putin repent?

The human soul is darkness. And what is going on in the soul of the president of the country is completely unknown to mere mortals. A person who has trodden a path there cannot be ordinary. There are polar assessments about Father Tikhon - from enthusiastic to sharply abusive. For a humble Orthodox monk, they are even too polar. It is difficult for us, former Soviet people, to imagine the relationship between the head of state and his “spiritual father.” After all, he doesn’t ask him for his blessing to sign laws? Therefore, Father Tikhon is not compared with anyone - with Grigory Rasputin, Grishka Otrepyev and other monks who influenced the kings and the destinies of the country.

Life of Georgy Shevkunov

Father Tikhon is 6 years younger than his “spiritual son” Putin, but they say they even have similar characters - both are very energetic. What brings them together, apparently, is the fact that Father Tikhon is interested in politics.

Before becoming a monk, Tikhon had an ordinary Soviet life, and in his youth he even experienced a “bohemian period.”

Tikhon is a monastic name; in childhood the future archimandrite was called George. Neighbors remember him as Gosha.

– Gosha was very sick since childhood. Asthma, pneumonia, lameness - physically weak, to be sure, but he always had a fire in his temperament, recalls one of Shevkunov’s student friends.

“I remember him very well,” says Roza Tavlikhanova, a janitor from the apartment next to the Shevkunovs on the southern outskirts of Moscow on Red Lighthouse Street. “His mother still lives next door to me.” Gosha comes to see her, but not often. I know that my mother did not accept his decision to go to the monastery for a long time. But now I seem to have calmed down. Gosha is doing well and travels abroad. He recently made European-quality renovations in this apartment for his mother. He was very responsive since childhood. If I was sick, I always ran in: Can’t I buy you some medicine? Gosha had two bosom friends, and misfortunes happened to both of them. One has gone crazy and is now being treated in a mental hospital. And the second one became ill with his heart on the subway and died.

– I came for the entrance exam to VGIK, and there were applicants sitting there - grown-up guys, bearded. And ahead, I saw a boy who looked about 12 years old at most,” recalls classmate Vladimir Shcherbinin. – It was Gosha Shevkunov. We both did. And we became friends. As a student, he was both the darling of the course and, one might say, a bully. Just don’t ask for details - I won’t tell you anyway.

Shevkunov’s classmates still remember how he got into a fight with a future famous journalist. By the way, he has not forgotten this and still writes critical nasty things about his long-time offender. (And some words and actions of the controversial priest Tikhon actually give rise to this.)

“We had a teacher at VGIK on ancient Russian art,” Shcherbinin continues his memoirs. – He was an Orthodox man even in those Soviet times. And not only did he not hide this, but he also told the students things that there was nowhere else to learn. We even got together after classes... Gosha got his own Bible - then it was difficult to get it, but he was always smart with us.

After graduating from the institute, the graduate cinematographer’s interest in religion continued. Georgy Shevkunov went to the Pskov-Pechora Monastery, one of the main Orthodox centers in Soviet times. The famous old seer of the 20th century, John Krestyankin, lived here - he became the spiritual father of the future archimandrite.

“George lived in the monastery on and off for about 8 years,” recalled Vladimir Shcherbinin. - Worked in the barnyard. When he decided to become a monk, his mother did not bless him for a long time. She is a scientist and has been involved in microbiology all her life. It was Soviet times, and it was difficult for her to understand her son’s passion for religion. She reconciled herself only after 8 years.

Georgy-Tikhon made the right decision. A life more interesting than any movie awaited him.

My own director

Tikhon became an atypical monk. Too many scandalous stories arose around the newly minted novice - with him, Tikhon, in the leading role. Detractors called it “self-promotion,” and friends called it a consequence of his too lively character.

Having taken monastic vows, Tikhon moved to the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow. One night the monastery burned down, and Tikhon publicly blamed some “foreign agents” for everything.

Soon another “Hollywood” story played out within the church walls. The Patriarch recalled the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, Georgy Kochetkov, and in his place appointed “his own man” - the young and devoted Tikhon Shevkunov. Sretensky Monastery is located in the city center, on Lubyanka. The church and the state then began to rapidly move closer, and it was imprudent to leave the “uncontrollable” Georgy Kochetkov and his supporters in such an important place. The expelled monks did not want to leave, because on their own they restored the building, which was destroyed during the Soviet years.

– We will come once, hold a service in the yard, then a second time. And for the third time we will come here with the Cossacks,” said the new abbot of the monastery on Lubyanka in a quiet voice.

“We did just that,” said Vladimir Shcherbinin, who eventually became an icon painter and witnessed the division of the monastery. “It was winter, and after serving in the cold, Tikhon caught a bad cold. But he didn’t back down.

The next time he appeared on the territory of the monastery with the “Black Hundred” - a combat Cossack unit under Orthodox banners. Supporters of Georgy Kochetkov surrendered the monastery without a fight.

After this story they began to say about Tikhon: he has a “bulldog grip.”

From the vicegerent's chair, the windows of Vladimir Putin's office were already visible, where the immortal soul of the future president at that time worked as director of the FSB.

Road to the temple

There are different versions about how the two Lubyanka bosses met.

One says that Putin himself came to the temple because it was close to his work.

Another version: Shevkunov and Putin were introduced by the KGB general, now State Duma deputy Nikolai Leonov. Putin was just beginning to “go into reconnaissance” when Nikolai Leonov had already become the second man in the First Directorate of the KGB and, as they say, personally supervised Fidel Castro and all our Jamesbonds on the American continent.

“I did not participate in this process,” Leonov immediately debunked this version. “And I didn’t see the president himself in Sretensky Church. I heard he has his own church on Valaam. I think in Moscow he has a place to celebrate personal, non-political rituals. But in the Sretensky Church, among the parishioners, I often see former Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev, presidential representative for the Central Federal District Georgy Poltavchenko, deputy Sergei Glazyev...

Tikhon's entourage insists on the most casual of all versions of acquaintance.

– Father Tikhon carried out restoration work in the monastery - built, rebuilt... But in order to transport goods around Lubyanka, and even more so to dig, a special permit was needed - there are a variety of wires underground there... For such permission you had to go to to the first person of the FSB - Putin, that is,” said Vladimir Shcherbinin. “That’s how they met.”

Court Monk

Tikhon loudly welcomed Putin’s assumption of the presidency and rejoiced aloud at “the end of the era of Yeltsinism.” At the beginning of his church career, the fiery monk loved to make loud statements on various occasions. He either condemned the introduction of the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), or opposed the arrival of David Copperfield to Russia.

And Tikhon began to be called the “gray eminence” after he began accompanying Putin on various important trips. In 2001, under the leadership of Father Tikhon, the first “truly” Orthodox president of Russia made a trip (in church circles it is called a pilgrimage) to the northern monasteries of Russia and the holy places of Greece.

Before the death of the elder wonderworker John Krestyankin, Father Tikhon took the president to him. They talked face to face for an hour, and, as they say, the leader of a large country came out shocked and a little confused and allegedly even said:

- Very little time left...

Finally, in New York, at a meeting on the unification of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Vladimir Putin was again accompanied by Father Tikhon. Such closeness to the first secular figure even causes legitimate jealousy in the ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is no coincidence that one of Shevkunov’s former “subordinates” at the Sretensky Monastery has already risen to the rank of bishop, and Tikhon is still an archimandrite.

Democrats whisper about Tikhon's illiberal influence on Putin.

– We never have any lousy democrats, only patriots! – one of the frequent visitors to the church on Lubyanka boasted to me about the “cleanliness of the ranks” of the parishioners.

“Tikhon has always professed conservative and patriotic views,” says Alexander Verkhovsky, general director of the SOVA information and analytical center. – In short: Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality. He is one of the statesmen in robes. But he is unlikely to be the president’s confessor; rather, he is simply one of his advisers on church issues.

About the priest and his workers

Under Tikhon, the Sretensky Monastery became rich. The monk choir performs in the Kremlin and even tours abroad. The Lubyanka Metochion, as I was convinced, produces and sells more Orthodox literature than the entire Moscow Patriarchate. Father is a good business executive. But for some things, only his and God’s will is not enough. We also need a presidential one.

In 2000, at the request of the Patriarch, the government transferred ownership of a monument of federal significance to the Sretensky Monastery - the former estate of General Yermolov’s nephew in the Ryazan region with a luxurious mansion, courtyard buildings and a large English park. Where a relative of the legendary conqueror of the Caucasus lived several centuries ago, a monastery will be founded - something like a country residence of the Sretensky Monastery. Multi-million dollar restoration work is being carried out by a government agency – the Directorate for Construction, Reconstruction and Restoration.

I wanted to stop by and see how monastic life would be organized in the former mansions. But no one is allowed there:

- What are you talking about! This is a monastery!

And you won’t find fault.

Next to the estate there was a lagging collective farm. It was given to the monastery as a payload for the estate.

“They brought us under the monastery,” the collective farmers laugh. But they don’t complain much. For them, an average salary of 3,400 rubles per month is already an unearthly blessing. This didn’t happen before either. Investors in cassocks have already invested 17 million monastery money in pigs and cows, and instead of collective farm junk they bought new tractors. The workers on the farm are hired, and the financial director is a monastic one; Father Hermogenes knows accounting like the Lord’s Prayer. Although he calls himself in the old way - an economist.

In Moscow, Father Tikhon also clearly claims to expand his territory - the monastery has long insisted on the resettlement of “inconvenient neighbors” - the French school. Some time ago, two charitable institutions openly conflicted. But the “crusade” against the school failed - students, parents, and the press rose up. The clerics had to retreat.

- Now they even help us - with cleaning the territory, for example. But we are afraid that this is just the calm before the storm, and we are not giving any interviews, the school administration told me. And they hung up.

Who else is vying for the president's soul?

The president has a broad soul. They say that recently new candidates from the church have appeared to take their place in it. One of the main ones on this list is Elder Kirill, confessor of the last three Russian patriarchs, including Alexy II. He entered a monastery after the Great Patriotic War. Father Kirill lives in the residence of Patriarch Alexy, and, as they say, there is still a queue of people who suffer for advice, blessing or healing.

The other is the abbot of the Valaam Monastery, Hegumen Pankratiy. The mere fact that Putin gave Valaam a yacht worth $1.5 million is enough to believe in the president’s special affinity for the northern monastery. Officials and businessmen also give gifts to the Valaam Monastery: they recently received the Winter Hotel and were presented with a mobile diesel power station.

This list also includes one of Putin’s classmates, who became a monk and priest in one of the capital’s large churches. At the word “Putin” he hangs up. And in person he carries himself with that special self-confidence that comes from being close not only to God, but also to the president.

A few words about the meeting of the Synodal Theological Commission (STC) on February 19-20, 2001 and the events that unfolded around it, for we are not the only living witnesses to all this. We think that remembering some details of this action will be important and useful for everyone.

Paradoxically, the preparation for this meeting was very similar to the preparation for the defeat of the anti-globalization movement in Russia, in any case, an attempt to once and for all knock out the spiritual foundation from under it, to “squeeze” it beyond the borders of the Church. Hysterical company - “Split!”, “Split!” as if by order, it covered many church and secular media... In the publications, all the classic techniques of modern PR technologies were visible to the naked eye: “Both then and now people went into the catacombs... secretly performed divine services,” “the conversation is about a serious schism because of the Taxpayer Identification Number.”

“Newsmakers” have long fueled passions around the topic of “schism” - the latest weapon in the hands of church supporters of globalization and digital coding of the population. The fact is that they no longer have any reasonable and not yet refuted arguments “in defense of the TIN.” It was clear to all sensible people that the Church had no reason to “bless” the universal “INN-ezation”, much less oppress her faithful children who do not accept digital nicknames-anti-names. However, a whole army of “theologians” tried diligently to prove the “harmlessness” of adopting the INN, as well as to brand as “schismatics”, “marginalists” and “sectarians” those who dared to look at this problem not from the point of view of their nomenklatura “theology”, but was guided by the Holy Scriptures, the works of the Holy Fathers, the dictates of his Christian conscience and his - still living - Orthodox feeling of what was happening.

We can talk a lot about how the terrifying danger of a “schism” was exaggerated, how labels were attached to opponents who could not be defeated in a fair debate. It was in such, to put it mildly, unconstructive conditions that preparations for the SBK plenum took place...

And shortly before the start of the meetings, an unprecedented action took place to influence the opinions of both the Commission members and the general public, which was carried out with the help of a professional director. Metropolitan Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), having stocked up with letters signed by the Patriarch, drawn up accordingly (it is very likely that the archimandrite himself prepared them), made a lightning-fast “voyage to the elders.” Moreover, he persistently, at any cost, tried to achieve confirmation of pre-prepared assessments and conclusions that “TIN is not terrible,” “there are no sixes there,” “a split is terrible,” and the like. At the same time, Father Tikhon relied on the authority and indisputable opinion of the highest clergy. Here is just a small example of “questioning the revelation of truth and the will of God” at Father Nikolai Guryanov's. Radonezh radio listeners could hear this on air on January 29, 2001, then in a somewhat “edited” form this dialogue was posted on the Internet:

Archimandrite Tikhon (about INN): “This is the tax number that is given to every person now.”(precisely in this crafty formulation: they are not “forced to write an application for assignment of a number, they are not forced to accept”, but this number is “given” as if by itself; however, the person is also “given” a name)

Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov: “Oh, that’s how it is?..”

Archimandrite Tikhon: “Which His Holiness writes about... Some say that this is the seal of the Antichrist... So His Holiness wrote to you... His Holiness says that this is not the seal of the Antichrist... If there were 666, then His Holiness wrote to you about this. He won’t deceive you!?”

After such, as they now say, “attack,” what kind of “revelation” can one expect from the elder?

The archimandrite arrived on the island of Talabsk to film a story about how Father Nikolai blesses the acceptance of numbers. After several unsuccessful takes, during which the archimandrite read out to the elder the “secret package” brought from Moscow, Father Nikolai, not without a sense of humor, began to act like a fool in front of the camera, and in the end covered it with his hand. At the same time, his cell attendant, mother John, loudly exclaimed: “Father! You don’t give your blessing to take numbers!”

After this, an audio recording of the “speech” of Archpriest Nicholas was played on the air of Radio Radonezh, to whom the inventive archimandrite commented: “Father Nikolai has no opinion about the TIN.” But excuse me, the priest on the island had thousands of people with this question - both before the archimandrite’s visit and after it. By the ineffable grace of God, many of our comrades were able to communicate with this chosen one of God. Everyone knew that Father Nikolai does not bless the acceptance of numbers. This is the story...

The next elder whose opinion Archimandrite Tikhon wanted to convey to the people was Father John (Krestyankin). The video, in which Father John reads a previously prepared (naturally, “with the help” of the mentioned archimandrite) address, for maximum impact on the thoughts and feelings of believers, was replicated many times, played on television and radio throughout Russia, not to mention shown (as the main argument) on a wide screen at the SBC meeting.

It was clear from everything that Father John has absolutely no knowledge of questions relating to spiritual, technical and social aspects digital coding of people; not informed about the violence that secular authorities inflict on people; about the church bans that believers were subjected to for refusing to accept the number; about the incredible lies spread by the media of disinformation; that digital personal identification is worldwide.

But Father John had clearly excessive information about non-existent problems: about a schism in the Church that had allegedly already taken place regarding the INN; someone’s failure to recognize the grace of the Church; about the departure of entire communities “to forests, swamps and ravines.”

As sad as it is, we also heard from him talk about how one could escape in a concentration camp, but we just didn’t understand: why do we need to build this concentration camp with our own hands?..

Finally, Archimandrite Tikhon wanted to film Father Kirill (Pavlov), but the universally revered confessor of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra and the Patriarch himself shrewdly refused to film. After this, he was suspended from participation in the work of the SBC.. However, after the end of the plenum, he was long and persistently persuaded to sign the Final Document, which stated that “the adoption of numbers is not a matter of confession of faith or a sinful act” and “has no religious significance.”

Father Kirill, despite enormous administrative pressure, refused to do this. Moreover, he courageously expressed his special opinion in an interview with the editor of the Orthodox Internet portal “Russian Resurrection”: “Assigning numbers to people is an atheistic, sinful thing. Because when God created man, He gave him a name. Naming a person is God's Will. All the millennia that have passed since that time, people have used names. And now, instead of a name, a person is assigned a number. How and why this is done leaves no doubt about the sinfulness and atheistic nature of this matter. Therefore, there is no need to participate in this matter, but to resist it as much as possible.” From these words of the elder it clearly followed: if assigning a number to a person is an atheistic and sinful thing, then the acceptance and use of a number by a person is no less atheistic and sinful!

There is no doubt that the people of God believe Father Kirill, and not the ideologists of globalism “from theology,” who serve not God, but time and justify the “mystery of lawlessness.”

Now is the time to give the text of the letter brought by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) on behalf of the Patriarch to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery to Archimandrite John (Krestyankin). This letter, probably due to some oversight, was published in the Pskov-Pechersk List and became available to a wide audience. This was the reason for the video speech of Father John, presented to members of the SBK and widely broadcast on radio and television.

PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW
AND ALL Rus' ALEXIY

His High Reverence Archimandrite John,
Pskov-Pechersk Dormition Monastery

Your Reverence, dear Father Archimandrite John!
I cordially congratulate you on the great Feast of the Epiphany
and prayerfully wish you many of God’s mercies, physical and mental strength.

I was prompted to contact you by a question that, as you know, worries many now - this is the attitude towards the TIN - a tax number introduced by the state in order to streamline the collection of taxes, and subsequently to determine the amount of pension accrual.

Today this issue is taking on extremely painful forms. Anti-Church forces are attempting to split the Church, taking advantage of rumors that the TIN allegedly contains the number 666. This is not true: the TIN is an ordinary number, is not an apocalyptic omen, and certainly not the seal of the Antichrist. Meanwhile, anti-church forces, at the instigation of the enemy, are whipping up real panic associated with the acceptance or non-acceptance of the Taxpayer Identification Number. Your letter, published in many newspapers and read from the pulpits of churches, largely pacified the situation, but people immediately appeared claiming that this letter was forged. There are already cases of people leaving work and their homes, calls for disobedience to the hierarchy of the Church, calls for a split and leaving almost for the forests. All this is reminiscent of the situation with splits in the 27th century and post-revolutionary events.

Dear Father Archimandrite! To reassure the people of God, I ask you to express your opinion on all these issues. I ask that your words be recorded on a video camera in order to deprive slanderers of a reason to say that your opinion is forged. This is very important, because due to irresponsible shouters and dissenters, the disease can go too far. I hope for your support at this serious moment. In turn, We will do everything to pacify the division that has arisen, so that members of the Church who do not want to accept a tax number for one reason or another are under no circumstances forced to do so, and no negative consequences are caused for them as a result. We received assurances of this from the Minister of Taxes and Duties of the Russian Federation G.I. Bukaev, an Orthodox man who supports Us.

I ask for your holy prayers, in which I always trust.

With love in the Lord, Alexy, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.

It must be said that the video speech of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) made an impression on many, including members of the SBK. We recall how the abbot of the Valaam Monastery, Archimandrite Pankratiy (now Bishop of Trinity), who had previously firmly opposed godless global projects, said: “Brothers! But Father John is a confessor. He went through prisons and camps. How can we not believe him?

We heard similar words from other members of the Commission, including bishops. At the same time, during the preparation of the Final Document, the report of the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary, professor of dogmatic theology, His Eminence Konstantin, Bishop of Tikhvin and a number of others like him, prepared at a high theological and scientific-technical level, was left out of the discussion. Vladyka Constantine was simply not allowed to speak. "There wasn't enough time."

A very convenient technique: if it is impossible to refute your opponent in an honest way, then you can pretend that his arguments did not exist at all. We had a serious conversation with Bishop Constantine on this matter. Vladyka was sincerely worried, for his report would have left no stone unturned against the arguments of Archimandrite John. The Commission also ignored the well-founded scientific and technical conclusions of authoritative scientists with degrees of candidates and doctors of science and academician titles, who completely refuted the conclusions of the Commission.

The Commission’s opinion was formed by such “theologians” and “well-known specialists” in the field of computer technology as the mentioned Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) and Deacon Andrey Kuraev, which led to very disastrous results. Their judge is One God!

It can only be unequivocally stated that if the Church had said a firm “NO” to digital personal identification then, today there would be no problems associated with the introduction of electronic “passports” and other means of electronic control and management, including those inseparable from the human body ; there would be no problems associated with discrimination against hundreds of thousands of Orthodox citizens who do not want to be part of the “new identification system” for religious reasons. It is very sad that to this day many clergy and officials use the words of Father John (Krestyankin), which have long been refuted by life itself.

“You must know, beloved, that in every action you need to look for truth and falsehood, and the goal of the actor - whether it is good or bad,”- our reverend father John of Damascus teaches us.

P.S. Now the newly installed bishop (Shevkunov) is trying to make his “modest” contribution to organizing the earliest possible meeting of the Patriarch with the Pope and the “unification of the Churches.”

"Axios!" (from headlines in patriotic media regarding his consecration).

Anaxios!!! (three times)

the entire editorial board of "Orthodox Apologist" fully joins the opinion of the editorial board "For the right to live without TIN and microchips" and also expresses its word regarding the consecration of Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, who misled so many people from the hierarchy and ordinary believers, pushing Archimandrite to a terrible speech. Ioanna (Krestyankina), Anaxios! Anaxios! Anaxios!

Archimandrite Tikhon (in the world Georgy Alexandrovich Shevkunov; July 2, 1958, Moscow) - clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church, archimandrite. Abbot of the Moscow Sretensky stauropegial monastery. Rector of Sretensky Theological Seminary. Executive Secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture. Co-chairman of the Church and Public Council for Protection from the Alcohol Threat. Church writer. He directs the publishing house of the Sretensky Monastery and is the editor-in-chief of the Internet portal Pravoslavie.Ru.

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)
Birth name: Georgy Alexandrovich Shevkunov - Executive Secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture
from March 5, 2010

Abbot of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery since June 1995
Church: Russian Orthodox Church
Birth: July 2, 1958
Moscow, RSFSR, USSR
Ordination: 1991
Acceptance of monasticism: 1991

In 1982 Tikhon Shevkunov Graduated from the screenwriting department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography with a degree in literary work. After graduating from high school, he entered the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery as a novice. Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) became his confessor.
Since August 1986 Tikhon Shevkunov worked on the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church under the leadership of Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechaev).
In July 1991, in the Donskoy Monastery of Moscow, the hero of our story was tonsured into monasticism with the name Tikhon, in honor of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow. In the same year he was ordained as hierodeacon and hieromonk. During his service at the Donskoy Monastery, he participated in the discovery of the relics of St. Tikhon.

In 1993 Tikhon Shevkunov appointed rector of the Moscow metochion of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, which was located in the Sretensky Monastery.
In 1995 Tikhon Shevkunov elevated to the rank of abbot and appointed abbot of the revived Sretensky Monastery.
In 1998 Tikhon Shevkunov elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
In 1999, he became the rector of the newly formed Sretensky Higher Orthodox Monastic School, transformed in 2002 into the Moscow Sretensky Theological Seminary.

Church and social activities of Tikhon Shevkunov

In November 2002 Tikhon Shevkunov was one of the four co-chairs of the II conference “History of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century”, held in the Synodal Library of St. Andrew’s Monastery in Moscow.
Since March 5, 2010 - Executive Secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture.
Since May 31, 2010 Tikhon Shevkunov- Head of the Commission for Interaction of the Russian Orthodox Church with the museum community.
Since March 22, 2011 Tikhon Shevkunov- Member of the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Social activities of Tikhon Shevkunov

Member of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for Culture and Art.
In the period from 1998 to 2001, with the brethren of the Sretensky Monastery, he repeatedly traveled to Chechnya with humanitarian aid.
He has a reputation as a person close to the Kremlin and the confessor of V.V. Putin, with whom, according to published evidence[, he was introduced by retired Lieutenant General of the KGB of the USSR N.S. Leonov.

Accompanied Vladimir Putin on a private trip to the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery in August 2000, and also accompanied the President of the Russian Federation to the USA in September 2003, where Vladimir Putin conveyed the invitation of Patriarch Alexy II to the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Lavra, to visit Russia.

He took an active part in the process of reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church with the ROCOR. He was a member of the Moscow Patriarchate Commission for Dialogue with the Russian Church Abroad (the commission worked from December 2003 to November 2006 and prepared, among other things, the Act on Canonical Communion).
In 2007, he took part in the trip of the Russian Orthodox Church delegation to the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
In October 2009 Tikhon Shevkunov participated in the consecration of the restored Assumption Church on the territory of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Beijing.
Tikhon Shevkunov-Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

Since March 2001, he has been the chairman of the monastery farm - the agricultural production cooperative "Resurrection" in the village of Slobodka, Mikhailovsky district, Ryazan region.
Archimandrite Tikhon and writer V. G. Rasputin are co-chairs of the Church-Public Council for Protection against the Alcohol Threat. Author of the social anti-alcohol project “Common Cause”.
Member of the Board of Trustees of the St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation.

Activities of Tikhon Shevkunov in the field of culture

While working in the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, he took part in preparing the celebration of the millennium of the Baptism of Rus'. He was a consultant and script writer for the first films about the spiritual history of Russia.
Member of the editorial board of the Russian House magazine.

Author of the film “Tales of Mother Frosya about the Diveevsky Monastery” (1989), which tells about the history of the Diveevsky Monastery in the Soviet years.
Author of the film “Pskov-Pechersk Monastery”, which received the Grand Prix at the XII International Festival of Orthodox Film and Television Programs “Radonezh” (Yaroslavl) in November 2007.
Tikhon Shevkunov-author of the film “The Death of an Empire” shown on January 30, 2008 on the Rossiya channel. The Byzantine Lesson”, which received the Golden Eagle award in 2008 and caused a strong public response and wide discussion.
Author of Unholy Saints and Other Stories(2011), which is a collection of real stories from the lives of monks and many famous people whom he knew personally. The book became a bestseller, with a circulation of more than a million copies.

Inter-Council presence of Tikhon Shevkunov

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) is a member of the following commissions of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church:
Commission on Ecclesiastical Law (Secretary)
Commission on Divine Worship and Church Art
Commission on the organization of church missions
Commission on the organization of the life of monasteries and monasticism.

Awards of Tikhon Shevkunov

Tikhon Shevkunov was awarded more than once or twice for the results of his activities:

Church awards of Tikhon Shevkunov

Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, II degree (2008) - in recognition of diligent service and in connection with the 50th anniversary of his birth
Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, III degree (2008) - in recognition of work in restoring unity with the Russian Church Abroad
Order of St. Nestor the Chronicler (UOC MP, 2010) - for services to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the development of the Orthodox information space, the implementation of joint church information and publishing projects

Secular awards of Tikhon Shevkunov

Order of Friendship (2007) - for services in preserving spiritual and cultural traditions, great contribution to the development of agriculture
National Prize named after P. A. Stolypin “Agrarian Elite of Russia” in the category “Effective Land Owner” and a special sign “For the Spiritual Revival of the Village” (2003)
Award “Best Books and Publishing Houses of the Year” (2006) - for publishing religious literature
Izvestia newspaper Izvestia Award (2008)
Winner of the national award “Person of the Year” for 2007, 2008 and 2013
Literary awards 2012:
“Book of the Year” in the “Prose” category
“Runet Book Award” in the categories “Best Runet Book” (user choice) and “Ozon.ru Bestseller” (as the best-selling author)
Finalist of the “Big Book” literary award, took first place according to the results of reader voting

Awards of Tikhon Shevkunov

"Father Seraphim." Life of St. Seraphim of Sarov for children. Retold by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov. Publication of the Sretensky Moscow Monastery. 2002
"The Death of an Empire. Byzantine lesson" by Archimandrite Tikhon, "Eksmo", 2008
"Unholy Saints" and other stories. M.: Sretensky Monastery, OLMA Media Group, 2011. Collection of short stories from the life of Father Tikhon. The book was published on November 21, 2011, and by 2014, 8 reprints had been published. In total, about 1.3 million copies were sold during the year of sales.
“With God's help, everything is possible! About Faith and Fatherland." (“Collection of the Izborsk Club”). - M.: Book World, 2014. - 368 p.

Filmography of Tikhon Shevkunov

1989 - Tales of Mother Frosya about the Diveyevo Monastery (documentary)
2007 - Pskov-Pechersk monastery (documentary)
2008 - Death of the empire. Byzantine lesson (documentary)
2009 - “Chizhik-fawn, where have you been? A film about the adult problems of our children.” Project "Common Cause".
2010 - “Take care of yourself.” Short films of anti-alcohol advertising. Project "Common Cause".
2010 - “Let's have a drink!” Project "Common Cause".
2013 - “Women’s Day”. Project "Common Cause".

ARCHIMANDRITE TIKHON (SHEVKUNOV) - CONFESSOR OF PRESIDENT PUTIN?

The mysterious person of the new president is becoming closer and closer to the people. He has already introduced himself as “son”, “student”, “intelligence officer”, “democrat” and “family man”. But the only source from which one can glean meager information about the president’s preferences, habits and views is the collection of his interviews “In the First Person. Conversations with Vladimir Putin,” recently released by Vagrius, has a significant gap. Until now, no one has spoken about the relationship of the former security officer with the church and its hierarchs. This important and completely unknown side of Putin’s life is revealed to us thanks to the fact that a clergyman has been found who is his... spiritual father. Let us remember: the tsar’s confessor often determined the fate of the Russian empire.

So, Putin’s confessor is a certain Archimandrite Tikhon, abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, located in the center of Moscow - on Lubyanka, half a kilometer from the building of the FSB of the Russian Federation, which in itself is symbolic. Let's start with a short interview conducted by an FLB correspondent:

- Yes, for the first time in my life. I have never voted: neither for Brezhnev, nor for Yeltsin. I voted for Vladimir Putin because I know him personally. Putin is a believer, an Orthodox man. And for a shepherd, casting a vote is the same as making a guarantee. I really like one quality about him - he does not strive for power at all. In any case, the policy that he pursued as prime minister is absolutely acceptable to me.

- Don’t you think that Russia has chosen a person whom it does not know at all?

-Who does she know? Yavlinsky? Zhirinovsky? Dzhabrailova? Putin just had time to show himself and prove himself - he did things for six months.

- Putin is a career KGB officer, an atheist by definition. How did you find a common language with him?

- I will not give any details about the circumstances of our acquaintance. I will say one thing: Putin is a sincere believer and knows God. He himself understood very deep questions of existence, as Dostoevsky wrote: “Maybe for some it looks funny - his faith.”

Archimandrite Tikhon, in the world Georgy Aleksandrovich Shevkunov, was born in 1958, graduated from the screenwriting department of VGIK. He was a novice of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, worked in the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate... In 1991, one of the buildings of the Donskoy Monastery, where Shevkunov lived, burned down. According to investigators, the cause of the fire was a drunken monastery watchman who fell asleep with a lit cigarette. It seemed like an ordinary everyday incident, but Father Tikhon decided to show “political vigilance.” In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, he accused Western intelligence agents represented by believers of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad of “malicious arson.” True, he refused to name them: “There is such a word,” he reminded, “comfortable silence.”

What Father Tikhon meant by “comfort in silence” - one can only guess. Perhaps it was this, as well as “vigilance,” that helped him make a brilliant career in the Moscow Patriarchate - first to head a large Moscow monastery, and then to take into his care the soul of the President of Russia.

It was not without reason that Shevkunov refused to tell our correspondent the circumstances of his acquaintance with Putin. For any clergyman, mention of his informal relations with the intelligence services is an indelible stain on his cassock. The archimandrite walked through the steps of his career side by side with former KGB generals, who, obviously, “led” him to the future president of the country.

One of them, Lieutenant General Nikolai Leonov, is together with Shevkunov on the editorial board of the Russian House magazine. Leonov was born on August 22, 1928 in the Ryazan region. From 1958 to 1991 he served in the KGB system of the USSR, at one time he was known as the “curator” of Fidel Castro and the ideological inspirer of the entire “revolutionary fire” that raged for a long time in Latin America in the 60-70s, was the deputy head of the First Main Directorate (in which Putin also served in those years), head of the Analytical Directorate of the KGB of the USSR. Immediately after the events of August 1991, he submitted his resignation. In recent years, he worked together with Leonid Shebarshin (the last head of the PGU KGB of the USSR) in the so-called Department of Economic Security - an office that initially played the role of a kind of generalized security service for many large Russian banks (Promstroibank, Inkombank, etc.), during the reign of Primakov in The White House prepared for him draft government regulations and concepts for economic programs...

Under the mask of “the furious father Avvakum,” a fanatical fighter against new heresies, which Shevkunov put on himself, hides a completely ordinary person with his inherent weaknesses. Knowledgeable people talk about his penchant for abusing strong alcoholic drinks (a vestige of his bohemian youth?). The abbot drives around in a government-class armored Audi-8 and likes to waste money in expensive restaurants...

An archival interview with Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) that is relevant today about where faith goes, where the need for worship, prayer and joy disappears.

Sretensky Monastery gets up early: Father Tikhon schedules the interview for 8.30 (!). By this time, part of the day in Sretenskoye had already passed: the fraternal prayer service had ended, the seminarians had finished breakfast, before the start of classes they were at obedience, some, for example, were sweeping the yard in front of the church.

I am standing in the monastery garden, well-groomed no worse than a botanical garden, waiting to be taken to the Father Superior, and looking into the faces of the seminarians and parishioners of the church, who, on an ordinary weekday - not a holiday, are rushing to the Liturgy so early... In the reception chambers of Father Tikhon - a spacious room with huge bookcases, Emperor Alexander looks at us from one portrait, and from the other...

– Look, really, a good portrait of Metropolitan Laurus, the facial expression is very accurately conveyed?

Yes, this is Metropolitan Laurus, who came to Russia from distant America many times under the guise of a simple monk - to travel around monasteries, to breathe in the faith.

Where does our faith go? This is what our conversation with Father Tikhon is about today:

– Father Tikhon, where does faith go, where does the need for worship, prayer and joy disappear?

– Once I talked with Archimandrite Seraphim (Rosenberg). This was shortly before his death. From the German barons, after graduating from the University of Tartu in the thirties of the last century, he went to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, where he spent sixty years. During that conversation, Father Seraphim started talking about monasticism. He said that The biggest problem of modern monasticism is the lack of determination. This can probably be said not only about monks, but also about many of our Christian contemporaries.

Determination, courage and the spiritual nobility associated with them are noticeably depleted. But if people throughout their lives understand that the most important thing is to go to God, to be faithful to Him, despite any obstacles and temptations, then they do not waver in faith so much as to lose it.

The crisis of faith that you are talking about is especially clear in our teenagers. At 8-9 years old, children go to church, sing in the choir, amaze and touch everyone around them, and at 14-16 years old, many, if not most, stop going to church.

- Why is this happening?

– The children were not introduced to God. No, of course, they were introduced to rituals, the Church Slavonic language, the order in the temple, the lives of saints, sacred stories translated for children. But we were not introduced to God himself. The meeting did not happen. And it turned out that both parents, and Sunday school and, sadly enough, the priests built a house of children's faith " on the sand"(Matthew 7:26), and not on the stone - Christ.

How does it happen that children do not notice God despite all the most sincere attempts of adults to instill faith in them? How is it that a child never finds the strength to discern Christ the Savior in his childhood life, in the Gospel? By answering this question, we raise another adult problem, which is reflected in children as in a mirror. This is when both parents and priests teach one thing, but live differently. This is the most terrible blow to the tender powers of children's faith, an unbearable drama for their sensitive consciousness.

But there are other examples. I could cite another, but this one especially stuck in my mind: in 1990, during my first trip to Germany, to my great surprise, I received a good lesson from a priest. Catholic. I was amazed by his flock - very pure young people of 16-20 years old, sincerely trying to live a Christian life. I asked this priest how he manages to protect these teenagers from the aggressive pressure of temptations and pleasures so familiar to their peers in the West? He then looked at me in complete bewilderment. And he said words that, with their simplicity and clarity, simply crushed me then (I really regret that I didn’t hear this from an Orthodox priest): “They simply love Christ more than all these pleasures!”

– Is our situation different?

- Of course not! We also have many bright examples, thank God. In our Sretensky Seminary I see amazingly pure and sincere guys, although of course there are all sorts of temptations, life is life.

– But these are teenagers, and what about people who came to the temple as adults?

- What's the difference? Something similar happens to adults. We also tempt each other (in this case, “these little ones” of whom the Savior speaks - not necessarily children in age) with our lukewarmness, deliberate violations of the Gospel commandments, and unclean lives. Gradually, people develop the idea that a Christian can generally live as he pleases. And, if this happens, people who came to faith in adulthood gradually lose interest in spiritual life, they become bored with everything. There is no real communication with God, which means there is no life of the spirit. For the first three years, faith, Orthodoxy is interesting, the new life is exciting and brings a lot of new impressions, and then everyday life begins.

You know, there is a great danger in the fact that we willingly stick out and inflate such painful moments and with these examples we begin to unconsciously defend our negligence and lukewarmness. And in general, in the church environment, such evil and generally incorrect stereotypes began to circulate more and more: if women are churchgoers, then they are evil witches; if young people, then they are complex; if adults, then they are losers; monks, then money-grubbers and wicked people.

– But this really happens sometimes...

- Who can argue? This is not to say that there is no such thing at all, that it is not true. But why, with a tenacity worthy of better use, convince yourself and others that this state of affairs is a feature of our Church.

I once traveled through Orthodox forums, and I simply felt uneasy with what cynical anger Orthodox people, who consider themselves very church-educated, treat not only the clergy, whom they do not value at all, but also the most pious laity .

– They say: “Orthodox” and “Orthodoxy of the brain”...

– These terms, I’m afraid, did not come from anywhere, but from the Orthodox environment. Because only “our own people” can inject in such a sophisticated way. However, be that as it may, they were picked up in our midst with enthusiasm. But this is a truly alarming phenomenon in our Christian community. In addition, we gradually begin to look at ourselves and those around us precisely through the prism of such derogatory ideas.

– Acting in accordance with traditional piety has become... uncomme il faut?

– Remember how Tolstoy in “Childhood, Adolescence, Youth” wonderfully talked about comme il faut, how comme il faut mercilessly influenced his life. Now (fortunately only in parachurch circles, because it is simply impossible to call such people churchgoers), an Orthodox comme il faut is being developed, and if a person does not fit into it, he is an outcast, a completely despicable person.

This is how we come to cynicism, and in fact to the origins of that very disease of lukewarmness that has infected Christians since the time of the Laodicean church. The enemy force, which is beginning to be intensified by spiritually cooled Christians from within the Church, is infinitely more dangerous than any external force, than persecution.

We teach our students not to become “Orthodox comme il faut” under any circumstances, because they themselves will not notice how they will lose their faith, how they will become careerists, how all the values ​​in their lives will completely change.

When people of the older generation gather, they often say: “How great it was in the 60s and 70s, what faith there was!” We say this not only because we are starting to grow old and grumble, but because it really is so. Then there was external opposition to the Church from the state, but we were together and valued everyone. “Orthodox” - it would probably be something from the enemy’s camp. Only Emelyan Yaroslavsky could speak about the Orthodoxy of the brain. An Orthodox person would never use or repeat such words, such expressions. And now this is heard in the church environment, they flaunt it, they are proud!

– Why does this attitude arise?

- What's happening? People came to the Church, but only partially loved it. And gradually, over the years, in the secret of their souls, they realized a terrible truth: they treat Orthodoxy with the deepest contempt. With them begins a terrible disease of treacherous cynicism, akin to the act of Ham. And people around are infected with this one way or another. But we really are a single organism - the Church, so this disease must somehow be resisted.

When the Orthodox encountered this kind of thing in the Soviet years, they understood that it was “from our enemies,” “from adversaries.” Nowadays, lessons of contempt and arrogance are increasingly taught by church people. And we know the sad fruits of these lessons.

- Gloomy forecast...

It remains only to remember the words of Saint Ignatius, who said that “The retreat was allowed by God: do not try to stop it with your weak hand.” But then he writes: “Stay away, protect yourself from him.” Don't be cynical.

- Why? After all, cynical judgments are sometimes accurate...

- Sobriety and witty barbs, when a fool or an insolent person is put in his place, when someone wants to be protected from excessive enthusiasm - this is quite acceptable. But cynicism and Christianity are incompatible. At the heart of cynicism, no matter how it justifies itself, there is only one thing - disbelief.

Once I had the opportunity to ask the same question to two ascetics - Father John (Krestyankin) and Father Nikolai Guryanov: “What is the main disease of today’s church life?” Father John answered immediately - “Unbelief!” "How so? – I was amazed. “What about the priests?” And he answered again: “And the priests have unbelief!” And then I came to Father Nikolai Guryanov - and he told me completely independently of Fr. John said the same thing - unbelief.

– And disbelief becomes cynicism?

People stop noticing that they have lost faith. Cynics have entered the Church, live in it, are used to it, and don’t really want to leave it, because everything is already familiar. And how will they look at it from the outside? Very often cynicism is a disease professional Orthodoxy.

– But sometimes cynicism is a defensive reaction of a very vulnerable, insecure person who has been offended or deeply hurt...

– How, for example, does the exhibition of “forbidden art” differ from Perov’s painting “Tea Party in Mytishchi”? There is disgusting cynicism in forbidden art, and in Perov there is denunciation. Pain and conviction for which we should only be grateful.

And the ascetics could say things very harshly, for example, the Venerable Schieromonk Leo of Optina. And even today we have a wonderful archpriest in Moscow who can make such a witty joke that it won’t seem too much. But it would never occur to anyone to say that he is a cynic, because there is no malice in his jokes.

– Reading the memoirs of M. Nesterov, I always caught myself thinking that he would certainly be ridiculed today. For example: “Mother was at Iverskaya’s. They stole a bag with money, but she kissed it” - everyone will immediately say, look, he’s Orthodox...

“Twenty years ago we would have said about such a person: “Lord, what faith, how good!” And today, the prosperity of the Orthodox faith has turned out to be a considerable test for Christians. Remember, in the Apocalypse: “For you say: “I am rich, I have become rich, and I have need of nothing”; but you do not know that you are miserable, and pitiful, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). We have become impoverished in faith, and therefore many people, looking at us, are tired of being Orthodox. They still follow by inertia, by first love, they still remember how much they received in the Church and hope to still receive grace.

– How to correctly orient your spiritual life?

The most joyful thing in spiritual life is discovering new things. Remember with what joy you woke up on Sunday morning for the Liturgy, how you avidly read the holy fathers and constantly discovered new things for yourself. If the Gospel does not reveal anything to us, it only means that we have closed ourselves to discovering something new. Remember the words of Christ to the Church of Ephesus: “ Remember your first love».

Photo by Anatoly Danilov. Text preparation: A. Danilova, O. Utkina

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Stoned insensibility, or spiritual dryness
Remedies against it and reasons for its manifestation

I thought you were constantly cold... or dry and numb. But you don’t have this, but there is something that happens to everyone from time to time. Almost everyone who has written about spiritual life remembers this. Saint Mark, the ascetic, exposes three enemies of this kind: ignorance with oblivion, laziness with negligence, and petrified insensibility.

“Some kind of paralysis of all mental strength.” Saint Chrysostom did not forget them in his short prayers: “Deliver me from ignorance, oblivion, despondency (this is laziness with negligence) and petrified insensibility.”

The remedies indicated are not complex - endure and pray.

Tolerate. It is possible that God Himself sends this to teach us not to rely on ourselves. Sometimes we take on a lot and expect a lot from our efforts, techniques and labors. So the Lord takes grace and leaves one, as if saying, try as much as you have the strength. The more natural talents there are, the more necessary such training is. Having realized this, we will endure. This is also sent as punishment - for outbursts of passions that were allowed and not condemned, and not covered by repentance. These outbreaks are the same for the soul as bad food is for the body, which aggravates or weakens, or dulls... It turns out that it is necessary, when there is dryness, to look around to see if there is anything like this in the soul, and to repent before the Lord, and put forward to beware.

This happens most of all for anger, untruth, annoyance, condemnation, arrogance and the like. Healing is the return of a state of grace again. As grace in the will of God, we can only pray... for deliverance from this very dryness... and from petrified insensibility. There are such lessons: do not abandon the usual prayer rule, but follow it exactly, trying in every possible way so that the thought accompanies the words of the prayer, straining and stirring the feeling... Let the feeling be a stone, but the thought will be - even if it is half a prayer, there will still be a prayer ; for there must be complete prayer with thought and feeling. When you are cold and insensible, it will be difficult to hold your thoughts while saying the words of prayer, but it is still possible. You have to do it in spite of yourself... This overexertion of yourself will be the means to bend the Lord to mercy and return grace. But you shouldn’t give up prayer. Saint Macarius says: the Lord will see how sincerely we wish for the good of this... and he will send it. Send a prayer against cooling in your word before the rule and after the rule... and in continuation of it cry out to the Lord, as if presenting a dead soul before His face: see, Lord, what it is like! But the word will heal. With this word, throughout the day, often turn to the Lord. (Issue 1, pas. 190, pp. 230-231)

Leo Tolstoy "Youth"

By dividing people into comme il faut and not comme il faut, they obviously belonged to the second category and, as a result, aroused in me not only a feeling of contempt, but also a certain personal hatred that I felt towards them for the fact that, without being comme il faut, they seemed to consider me not only their equal, but even good-naturedly patronized me. This feeling was aroused in me by their legs and dirty hands with bitten nails, and one long nail from Operov’s fifth finger, and pink shirts, and bibs, and the curses that they affectionately addressed to each other, and the dirty room, and Zukhin’s habit. constantly blowing their nose a little, pressing one nostril with a finger, and especially their manner of speaking, using and intonating certain words. For example, they used the words: fool instead of a fool, as if instead of exactly fabulous instead of great, moving etc., which seemed bookish and disgustingly dishonest to me. But what aroused this comme il faut hatred in me even more was the intonation that they made to some Russian and especially foreign words: they said m A tire instead of mash And on, de I activity instead of d e activity, n A urgently instead of bunks O right, in the fireplace e instead of in cam And no, Sh e xpir instead of shakesp And r, etc., etc.

In contact with