Vladyka Nestor as a spiritual mentor and educator of the Russian emigration in Manchuria

Skorokhodova Svetlana Igorevna Doctor of Philosophy Professor, Department of Philosophy, Moscow State Pedagogical University 119571, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Prospekt Vernadskogo str., 88, room 818 moscow.belgrad@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Vladyka Nestor (in the world Nikolai Alexandrovich Anisimov) is an outstanding archpastor whose life is inextricably linked with the fate of Russia. It is a truly majestic epic, fanned by tragedy and enlightenment at the same time. Vladyka proved himself as an educator of Kamchatka, as a frontline priest, as a confessor of the royal family, and as a teacher, but most importantly – as an exponent of truly Russian spiritual culture, setting a moral example of service to his Fatherland and people. Many works have been written about this ascetic as a missionary. The scope of its activities is truly grandiose. However, there are almost no publications about him as a religious philosopher. In this short article, an attempt is made to identify the most important topics of his creative heritage during the period of emigration. According to Margarita Pavlovna Tout, a former repatriate from Harbin, the granddaughter of a colonel in the White Army, Nestor was not only very respected, he was loved. His ideas, expressed in sermons and publications, had a great impact on Russian refugees.

The question immediately arises: is it appropriate to talk about the religious and philosophical ideas of the "apostle of Kamchatka"? Vladyka did not write philosophical treatises. But after all, Russian culture has long lacked a philosophy that requires strictly refined thinking. The philosophy of the heart formed the basis of the spiritual asceticism of Russian truth-seekers. The contemplation and artlessness of the Russian soul are an expression of its inner essence. Eastern Christian apophatic theology has become one of the factors that contributed to the formation of figurative and symbolic thinking - "speculation in colors", the fundamental form of our national identity. In Russian spiritual culture, the truth is not proved, but translated. P. A. Florensky expressed it with a succinct formula: "If there is a Rublev Trinity, then there is God" ^{[1, p. 48]}.

The language of Vladyka Nestor is distinguished by emotional expressiveness. There is no doubt that the preacher of Orthodoxy possessed an amazing gift of speech, in the iridescent breath of which the freedom of his inner life was expressed. His speech is characterized by semantic and artistic richness. According to the apt expression of I. V. Kireevsky, "a word ossified in school formulas cannot express the spirit, just as a corpse does not express life" ^{[2, p. 333]}. Rational-logical thinking is blind, it is closed to the comprehension of eternity. Nestor seemed to be painting with a word, filling his appeals with visual associations, through which he also conveyed a vision of the events taking place. The fullness and wholeness of the inner life of the master made it possible to mystically comprehend the innermost secrets of existence. This is evidenced by his prophetic dreams and his visions. The entire reality surrounding a person appeared in his work as a reflection of mysterious worlds. At the same time, the archpastor was certainly far from occultism. He firmly believed that the basis of existence is the Supreme Wisdom of God.

The themes of the resurrection and rebirth of the Motherland through the suffering and death of her sons were especially significant for Vladyka. In particular, in the magazine "Ray of Asia" [see: 3], he published mainly his Easter greetings. It should also be added that the purpose of this publication was a philosophical analysis of "all phenomena of the life of society" ^{[4, p. 2]}.

Nestor often wrote his appeals to his native land in the genre of crying, lamentation, which was inherent in Russian ritual poetry. For example: "I kiss my native land and pour tears of deep sorrow and orphanhood" ^{[5, p. 481]}. Here one involuntarily remembers the Lame Woman from the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky "Demons", who, making a bow to the ground at prayer, kissed the Ground every time. From the writer's point of view, the Russian land is the holy land. Vladyka was well aware of the legacy of the miner of human souls [see: 6, p. 237]. He was close to the aspirations of the spiritualization of nature and the world. In addition, the image of Mother Earth from Nestor's "Letter to the Motherland" also refers to Slavic mythology, in which a person is not the king of the earth, but her "baby": "I kiss your footprints, and I consider your tears precious diamonds. Accept, my poor motherland, my own mother – Russia, with all your forced sufferers – Russian people, my Easter greetings: – Christ is Risen!" ^{[5, p. 481]}.

The theme of Holy Russia, indeed, was a key one in the legacy of Vladyka. In his work, this image is saturated with sacred allusions to the Mother of God as the guardian of Russia, to the Mother of Cheese-the Earth, to the ideal of cosmic Sophia, eternal virginity and incorruptibility. The origins of such an understanding of the blessed land can be found in ancient Russian spiritual verses that were recorded from the XVII century. [see: 7] Russia-Rus appears in the works of the bishop as a person chosen by God. The symbolic image is always polysemantic, polysemantic, it makes it possible to feel the world as a living whole, going beyond the limited space-time frame into eternity.

In the 1920s, Vladyka published the magazine "Holy Russia", which contained a call for the soldiers of the White Army and the "slaves of the Red Troops" to reconcile and unite into a People's Militia in order to go liberate Holy Russia [see: 8]. During this period of his work, the image of Holy Russia is colored by the national idea, revealing the deep meaning of its existence as a spiritual center for the transformation of the world.

Russian Russian Orthodox Church Synod of Bishops held on October 25 – November 7, 1933, at which Nestor delivered a memorandum on the creation of the Brotherhood of Holy Russia, pointing out that this idea has long matured among Russian emigration.

The Synod decided to recognize the idea of Vladyka about the creation of the Brotherhood of Holy Russia named after Prince Vladimir for the whole abroad as timely. It should protect and protect the Russian Orthodox Church, develop and spread the idea of the church-moral ideal of "Holy Russia" and unite people on the basis of conciliarity.

The celebration of the Baptism of Rus became the main holiday during the period of emigration between the two World wars. Vladyka took an active part in the organization of this celebration in Harbin. This holiday was especially solemnly celebrated on the day of the 950th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. In 1938, the "Vladimir Jubilee Diploma" was published [see: 9], telling about the life of the Red Sun. As an educator, Nestor understood the importance of such events for the preservation of cultural and national identity, for the unification and maintenance of a disparate mass of refugees.

Interestingly, the idea of "Holy Russia" as a center of spiritual enlightenment was warmly supported by another educator of the Russian diaspora – St. John of Shanghai (Maximovich). The representatives of Holy Russia may be, in his opinion, and not Russians by blood. You can be Russian by blood, but alien to Holy Russia. "As far as the Russian people will be imbued with faith and piety and follow him in life (highlighted by me – S.S.), so he will become Holy Russia" ^{[10, p. 439]}. A Russian person who wants to save Russia must first of all save himself. Only through spiritual renewal will the "palms of Russian glory" grow ^{[10, p. 439]}.

In 1937, Vladyka Nestor returned to the idea of the Brotherhood of Holy Russia in an almost eponymous work – "On the establishment of the Brotherhood of Christ's Russia named after Holy Prince Vladimir" [see: 11, pp. 37-38]. During this period, he bitterly stated that the Russian world, having found itself outside of Russia, is disconnected and needs spiritual renewal. This is necessary, in his opinion, to unite all Orthodox Christians in the fight against godlessness, since "the time has come to fight the father of lies" ^{[5, p. 494]} (1937).

In the article by John of Shanghai "The 950th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus", the Christian theme also sounds: "Rise up, rise up, rise up, Russia!.. When your sufferings are over, your righteousness will go with you and the glory of the Lord will accompany you. The nations will come to your light and the kings to the radiance rising above you" ^{[10, p. 453]}. John of Shanghai repeated in many of his works that "the salvation of Russia is the salvation of the whole world", "the whole world needs a restored Russia", "the Russian people have acquired the name of the God–bearing people" [ibid.].

In the work "Letter to the Motherland" (1936), Vladyka Nestor, addressing the people, wrote: "You are Russian. You are a noble knight, you are a God-bearer!" ^{[5, p. 481]}. The views of the two foreign pastors were in tune on the issues of education and Russian historical vocation.

The Harbin theme occupies a special place in the spiritual heritage of His Eminence. He loved Harbin very much, because he believed that nowhere does a Russian person feel like the heir to the entire culture and life of his fatherland as in this place. He filled with capacious images the description of the temple-the refuge of Russian exiles. For example, the epic image of Russia-a bird protecting its native land: "Harbin is not a foreign land. There is a Russian spirit, there Russia breathes its spiritual wings" ^{[5, p. 244]}. Harbin, according to Nestor, where there are five times more Russian universities, colleges and schools than in all foreign countries, is the sacred and educational center of the Far East during the period of emigration [see: 5, p. 239]. "And that invisible, but spiritually tangible incense of prayers (highlighted by me – S.S.), which flows over Harbin like a strong unbreakable wall, protects this blessed city from the anxieties and unrest of our time of many years (highlighted by me – S.S.)" ^{[5, p. 244]}. In this fragment, saturated with symbolic images, one can guess the outlines of a New Jerusalem, a renewed world. The city from the Apocalypse of John is also surrounded by a thick wall (Rev. 21:17-18.). Based on the analysis of the biblical text, Archpriest Sergiy Bulgakov came to the conclusion that the New Jerusalem is an island "in the ocean of the sinful world" ^{[12, p. 231]}. According to the philosopher, the walls symbolize certain boundaries separating the holy city from the unjust and cruel world [see: 12, p. 236]. In Kireevsky's novel "The Island", the idea is carried out that the external is a mirror of the internal, so each person, like a group of people, has its own island, protected by stone walls. Thus, the passage from Nestor's work is deep, has many semantic layers and references.

According to His Eminence, the idea of creating the Brotherhood of Holy Russia matured simultaneously both in Yugoslavia and in Harbin [see: 13, p. 264]. It is noteworthy that Harbin is equal to Yugoslavia, the geopolitical center of Russian emigration. There was no ice age on the territory of Manchuria, so all living beings found salvation in this blessed place [see: 5, p. 217]. In these representations of Nestor, a reference to a Russian fairy tale is caught. So, the essence of Harbin is multidimensional. Other layers of reality are hidden behind its external, visible manifestation. This is an indestructible fortress, Noah's Ark, and the promised land for Russian wanderers who found themselves scattered in the East, and "the fulcrum of their native land for the liberation of Russia" [see: 5, p. 244].

Finally, in the legacy of the archpastor Harbin is a concrete historical embodiment of Kitezh. And even if the visible city finally disappears under the yoke of time, its metaphysical side will remain unaffected. The eschatology of salvation and life dominated Vladyka's work over the eschatology of death. According to folk mythology, Kitezh went under the water, but remained unharmed, hid only for a while, and, according to legend, someday it will certainly reveal itself to all people in the dazzling splendor of the City of God. The guards tell about the messengers who sometimes come from Kitezh to our world, asking: "How are things in Russia? Isn't it time for Kitezh to rise up?" ^{[14, p. 25]}. Harbin is Kitezh, not Atlantis, in the understanding of the archpastor. He is not destined to sink into oblivion, he is doomed to eternal life.

The problem of power is one of the most acute topics in Vladyka's political philosophy. Nestor did not accept the revolution, because he believed that the new government was anti-national [see: 15]. He perceived everything that was happening apocalyptically: a dark, evil force plunged his native land into chaos. Nestor conveys the national tragedy through piercing and vivid images of the destruction of Russian spiritual culture: "I saw the Kremlin, even when hot wounds were oozing blood" ^{[15, p. 27]}, I saw "the broken head of the great cathedral" ^{[15, p. 16]}, "the Kremlin looked out of the smoke of the Civil War, gaping with wounds, broken, defiled, disgraced" ^{[15, p. 15]}, etc. From the work "Manchuria-Harbin" (1933): "The whole face of the Earth was littered with fragments of the Russian element" ^{[5, p. 217]}. The images of destruction are opposed by the image of the Kingdom of God, "brought to earth on the holy Christmas Night" ^{[17, p. 106]}. It represents "the kingdom of Light and Truth, peace and love" ^{[17, p. 106]}, which "will expand to the end of the earth" ^{[17, p. 106]}. Vladyka's reflections before and after the revolution on the fate of Russia and the world are warmed by faith and hope that the resurrection of the Fatherland is possible through acceptance of the cross and repentance.

The peculiarity of Nestor's position was that during a period of extreme hostility and discord, he called for the unification and reconciliation of all those people who had "boundless and ardent love for our great Motherland" ^{[5, pp. 482-483]}. We can say that he aspired to the gathering of the Russian world.

Even before the beginning of the military actions of the USSR against Japan, Vladyka openly commemorated the name of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia at the divine service [see: 18, p. 186]. And during the Great Patriotic War, every morning I received reports from the front from K.A. Karaulov, who had an unregistered radio receiver. It is known that Japanese militarists were severely punished for such actions in the laboratory-prison No. 731. Nestor, according to Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky, had the right to "worthily wear all [his] military orders" ^{[19, p. 105]}, which he received as a frontline priest during the First World War. What is the most acceptable form of state power for Russia, according to the spiritual pastor, who happened to be in battles and under a hail of bullets "to alleviate the suffering of people" ^{[19, p. 105]}?

It is known that in Ancient Russia the state power itself was understood above (or below) the human world: either the White Tsar as an exponent of the idea of transformed power, which no longer becomes the power of the sword, but the power of love; or the Grand Inquisitor, the Antichrist, whose power excludes Christian freedom of choice. Under the White Tsar, the people will reverently honor the holy laws. In this case, the split between complete obedience and freedom, between law and grace, may disappear.

The power that destroys shrines cannot be true, according to Nestor. In the pamphlet "St. Prince Vladimir Equal to the Apostles", published in Harbin, it was said that St. Prince Vladimir made the ideal of holiness his state program, that he created a new Russia, a new people, a new spirit, a new culture [see: 20, p. 88]. The power of Prince Vladimir is a prototype of the power of the White Tsar, while the "godless power" of the Bolsheviks is a manifestation of dark forces, "the satanic rebellion of people against the light" ^{[5, p. 494]}. Vladyka Nestor called on the latter to defend the Church and the Fatherland, since this power is foreign in nature [see: 15, p. 17]. We believe that the archpastor's ideal was a theocratic form of government, in which, according to his ideas, the realization of the historical mission of Russia as a center of spiritual renewal of the world is only possible.

The national question occupies an important place in Nestor's legacy. Before the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the spiritual mentor of the Russian emigration in Manchuria called for unification into a People's Militia led by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. At the same time, he ridiculed the imperial self-admiration of some part of the Russian emigration. Like the Slavophiles, Vladyka believed that no artificial means could replace for a person the need for internal creation of spiritual forces, and made every effort to prepare young people for future service to their Fatherland, to unite all repatriates around the Orthodox Church. The idea of national unity, formulated by Yu. F. Samarin, acquires a contemporary sound in Nestor's political ontology.

In his Essays on Yugoslavia [see: 21], the archpastor showed that he was close to the idea of Slavic brotherhood, but exclusively on an Orthodox basis. In his opinion, there are no large or small nations, because everyone is equal before God. However, he especially carefully studied the eastern countries and ethnic groups, among which he happened to live and work for a long time.

The Eurasian theme is one of the defining themes in Vladyka's work, especially in the late period. It is no coincidence that Nestor made many publications about the East: he began his journey as a young Kamchatka missionary. In particular – "Easter in the East", "Baptism in the Indian Ocean", "Essays of the Far East", "Manchuria – Harbin", "Journey to Jerusalem and Palestine". The Archpastor was close to thoughts about the special geographical position of Russia as an intermediary between the countries of Asia and Europe. Its historical role has, in his opinion, a global, universal significance. The meaning of the "Russian idea" is in spiritual enlightenment, in pacification and harmonious coexistence of the peoples of the West and the East.

After the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, Vladyka, as is known, became the patriarchal Exarch of East Asia. In the 1930s he published his small articles in the magazine "Ray of Asia", on the cover of some issues there was a portrait of Genghis Khan. After the war, Vladyka took part in the publication of the Bulletin of the East Asian Exarchate. The magazine "Ray of Asia" had many publications about the Russian El Dorado - Siberia, which needs to be protected from annoying Western suitors; about Shambhala, where the globe came into contact with higher consciousness; about events in Russia. It should be noted that the same magazine presented reviews of political news in Western countries, responses to events in Yugoslavia and Russia. V. F. Odoevsky, a lover of the XIX century, rightly wrote about the "comprehensive versatility of the Russian spirit", about its "universality" or "comprehensibility" [See 22]. These ideas, as is known, were further developed by Dostoevsky [see: 23, p. 13].

The theme of national-patriotic upbringing and education is another powerful layer in the work of Vladyka. Nestor relied on the deep tradition of religious and moral enlightenment that existed in Russia. In the Russian pre-revolutionary educational tradition, the "knowledge of faith" was brought to the fore. The archpastor believed that it is necessary first of all to strive for the development of a sense of faith and morality, primarily before knowledge. In his opinion, young people need to be educated in the religious national spirit so that they can take part in the construction of the future Russia. The knowledge of one's kind, the deeds of ancestors who were heroic defenders of the Motherland, the formation of a sense of one's own spiritual dignity, conscientiousness and responsibility is the main thing in the legacy of Russian pedagogical thought, taken by Nestor as the basis of educational practice during emigration. Ignorance of a kind, its purpose leads to the disintegration of the personality, which becomes weak and vulnerable, because a person without a kind is a tree without roots. A person becomes indestructible only by looking at photos of long-gone ancestors, learning about their lives. One of the main criteria of progress, according to the majority of Russian religious philosophers, should be the moral level of development of society. Nestor (Kamchatsky) became the chairman of the Iver Brotherhood, which held educational events, including folk readings on moral and historical topics. The lectures were most often delivered by Vladyka himself [see: 24, p. 189].

The theme of guilt and repentance occupies an important place in the legacy of Nestor in the period between the two world wars. From the newspaper "Ray of Asia": "The terrible hammer of communism finishes off the rest of the Russian people who have not stained their honor with treason to the Motherland" ^{[5, p. 481]} (1937). Interestingly, the image of the "hammer", strongly associated with Soviet symbols, is found four times in the Bible. In one sense, the hammer is a people that God uses as an instrument of his will to punish: "You are with Me a hammer, a weapon of war; with you I have smitten nations and with you I have destroyed kingdoms" (Jer. 51:20.). In the "Word to the archpastor" he refers to the reflections of A. S. Khomyakov on national guilt, which can be "overcome by repentance, contrition, correction" ^{[5, p. 482]}. But the thought of the founder of Slavophilism is deeper: in the past is the secret of the future.

This idea is developed by V. S. Solovyov in the essay "The Secret of Progress". "Modern man in the hunt for [...] volatile fantasies has lost the right path in life. Before him [...] is darkness and doom. Instead of idly looking out for ghostly fairies, let him take the trouble to carry the sacred burden of the past through the actual flow of history. After all, this is the only way out of his wanderings for him – the only one [...] And our shrine is more powerful than the Trojan One, and our path with it is further than Italy or the whole earthly world. The rescuer will be saved" ^{[25, p. 621]}. If a person thinks about the future, then he should not forget the "native gods" [Ibid.]. It is necessary to take on all the burden of antiquity, even when there is no faith in the future of such a burden; then the decrepit old woman who personifies it will certainly turn into a Tsar maiden.

Nestor found an expressive image in A. K. Tolstoy, showing the need for a new generation to accept and atone for the iniquities of their ancestors. Russian Russian hero, who rides through the forest, sits on the saddle "Russian historical "mountain", historical sins committed by our ancestors" ^{[5, p. 482]}. However, the brave warrior is burdened by uninvited "fellow travelers" and refuses to recognize them as "his own". He is trying to get rid of a heavy burden so that there is an "opportunity " to ride in the open "to bright and joyful days" [Ibid.]. In this passage, the image of Russia-troika pops up. And it depends on the hero-people where she will rush: to salvation or destruction.

In the article "Chapel-monument to the memory of the Crowned Martyrs in Harbin" [see: 5, p. 402; 412], Vladyka Nestor, as well as John of Shanghai, saw the reason that Russian refugees lost bread, shelter, prosperity, glory, and the Fatherland itself in "grave sin treason and regicide" ^{[10, p. 466]}.

But, unlike St. John, Vladyka Nestor also spoke of a new terrible guilt – "homicide, of which we are all guilty – Russian people in our collective, organic unity" ^{[5, p. 483]}. Self-justification, in his opinion, will not help.

Vladyka called for repentance of both whites and reds, for conciliar repentance in order to be healed from "a grave ulcer that still painfully torments our heart" ^{[5, p. 483]}. I think that this spiritual testament is addressed to us, people living in the XXI century. Its fulfillment is one of the important conditions for the revival of Russia. The religious and philosophical heritage of the outstanding educator is deeply symbolic, growing from the depths of Russian spiritual culture and his own observations.

With well-aimed artistic images, he seems to draw a living visual picture that conveys the depth of the idea and has an impact on the mind, heart and will at the same time. One of the main sources of his creativity, as shown in the article, is the Russian religious philosophy of the XIX century, in which genuine knowledge about the world is available only to an internally whole person. In particular, D. V. Venevitinov wrote that in the first person all feelings were thoughts, that he felt everything, therefore, he knew everything [see: 26].

The main themes of Nestor's work are: Holy Russia as a world under the sign of true faith; national patriotic enlightenment; Harbin theme associated with the key ideological symbol of our spiritual culture - the legend of the city of Kitezh; the problem of power and society; the national question; guilt and national repentance as a way to save the Russian world and the Fatherland; Eurasian theme. Vladyka's views are also in demand at the present turbulent time, which urgently requires awareness and unity, as well as the ascetic's hope that Russia will fulfill its great spiritual mission on Earth. This aspiration has been deeply suffered and reinforced by the activity of a selfless pastor, who sets an example not only with his word, but also with his whole life.