SFI Joins in Annual Prayers of Remembrance
“October 30th, the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Repressions, is not our private affair, and not only the concern of certain individuals who preserve such memory; it is a nationwide affair for all of Russia. We know that today such prayers are being offered all throughout our country. Today it is important for us not simply to name the innocently killed and those who suffered, but to remember each person prayerfully. Among those who perished in the repressions were also those who themselves had been involved in repressing others; this tragedy touched our entire country, and our prayer today must be a profound spiritual act — at once an act of remembrance and of repentance,” noted SFI Rector, Alexander Kopirovsky, in opening the prayers.
The prayerful reading of the names of those repressed began with the lists of new martyrs and confessors, members of Orthodox communities and brotherhoods who suffered during the Soviet persecutions. “These were people who preserved our church tradition in the difficult years of trial,” emphasized Svetlana Chukavina, a Senior Lecturer at SFI.
On this day, we also prayerfully remembered the philosophers, theologians, and thinkers expelled from Russia in 1922 on the “Philosophers’ Ship”: Nikolai Berdyaev, Fr Sergei Bulgakov, Nikolai Lossky, Lev Karsavin, Ivan Ilyin, Pitirim Sorokin, Fyodor Stepun, and others. The memorial lists also included the names of representatives of Moscow’s creative and technical intelligentsia: scientists, engineers, doctors, musicians, and artists.
Two large lists that we also read on this day contained the names of our neighbors — repressed people who lived in Tokmakov Lane and on Spartakovskaya Street, where the buildings of the St. Philaret’s Institute now stand.
Employees, faculty, students, and friends of the Institute also remembered their own relatives and loved ones who suffered during the years of persecution.
“Those for whom we prayed were not only deprived of life, slandered, and torn from their families. There has been an effort to try even to erase the very memory of these people - an effort which in many cases probably succeeded, given that entire families perished. Now, when we pray and commemorate these people, we are raising them from oblivion. This is very important both for us and for their posthumous memory. When I pray in the mornings, I always say: ‘Grant rest, O Lord, to all who perished in the terrible years of persecution — their number runs to many millions; Thou Thyself knowest their names, O Lord,’” said SFI Senior Lecturer Galina Muravnik. “I always come to the Prayer of Remembrance with the list of my own repressed relatives: my grandfather and grandmother were executed, as well as two of my grandfather’s brothers.”
“Today we remember the people who perished in the 20th century at the hands of Soviet power. It’s good that one can come here and bring friends, so that together we may recall the forgotten, voiceless sufferers,” shared Kirill Aleksin, head of “The Word of the New Martyrs" project, who attended the Prayers of Remembrance at SFI. “Today I remember my relatives from what is now the Bryansk Region: they were first declared ‘lishentsy’ (deprived of rights), and then one of them—a priest’s wife —was killed during the eviction from their home: they beat her to death. Another relative of mine, a priest, was executed in 1938 near Saint Petersburg. Yet another relative from Smolensk Region was accused of collaborating with the occupiers, even though he was simply working as a veterinarian and had nothing to do with any such thing. And I suspect there are many more relatives whom it is important to remember today, but I don’t yet know of them. If you dig deep enough, everyone has such relatives, be they close or distant. This is our common memory.”
“Eternal memory to all those whom we have remembered today. Heartfelt gratitude to those who found within themselves the strength and boldness for this remembrance, which is necessary so that our memory of the grief our country endured in the 20th century may be gathered together into one; so that life may regain its fullness and wholeness; so that our hearts may become more tested and strong in discerning good from evil; so that our life may regain its divine and human foundation. And no matter how modest our efforts may seem to us, each of us is called to live worthily of the gift we have received from the Lord. And regardless of any external or internal circumstances, we who are alive today must live according to God’s truth and human conscience,” said First Vice-Rector of SFI, Dmitry Gasak, as he concluded the Prayer of Remembrance at the SFI on October 30th.
The same day, Dmitry Gasak also opened the Prayer of Remembrance at Donskoy Cemetery. In Moscow, prayerful commemoration of the victims was also held at Vagankovo and Vvedenskoye Cemeteries, as well as at the A.F. Losev House.
At the Vysoko-Petrovsky Stavropegial Monastery, a memorial panikhida was served with the commemoration of the repressed members of the monastery’s secret community and other Orthodox communities and brotherhoods from the 20th century. On the same day, in the monastery’s Church of the Bogolyubskaya Icon of the Mother of God, an exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the repose of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin) was opened under the title “The Time of Saint Tikhon: ‘Form Spiritual Unions.’” The exhibition was organized by SFI and the Transfiguration Brotherhood with the support of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery. The opening ceremony was attended by Marina Naumova, Vice-Rector for Development at SFI.
In the coming days until November 7, when we mark especially profound days of Russian sorrow and remembrance, a candle of memory will be lit every day at 9:00 p.m., and a prayer for Russia will be offered in memory of all those innocently killed and who suffered.
