Women of the Catacombs: Memoirs of the Underground Orthodox Church in Stalin's Russia

Description

The memoirs presented in Women of the Catacombs offer a rare close-up account of the underground Orthodox community and its priests during some of the most difficult years in Russian history. The catacomb church in the Soviet Union came into existence in the 1920s and played a significant part in Russian national life for nearly fifty years. Adherents to the Orthodox faith often referred to the catacomb church as the "light shining in the dark." Women of the Catacombs provides a first-hand portrait of lived religion in its social, familial, and cultural setting during this tragic period. Until now, scholars have had only brief, scattered fragments of information about Russia's illegal church organization that claimed to protect the purity of the Orthodox tradition. Vera Iakovlevna Vasilevskaia and Elena Semenovna Men, who joined the church as young women, offer evidence on how Russian Orthodoxy remained a viable, alternative presence in Soviet society, when all political, educational, and cultural institutions attempted to indoctrinate Soviet citizens with an atheistic perspective. Wallace L. Daniel's translation not only sheds light on Russia's religious and political history, but also shows how two educated women maintained their personal integrity in times when prevailing political and social headwinds moved in an opposite direction. WOMEN OF THE CATACOMBS Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration and Translation Foreword Editor’s Introduction Original Preface to Katakomby XX veka: Vospominaniia I. Fr. Serafim Ante Lucem One Must Take up the Cross White Chrysanthemums The Grace of the Holy Spirit Holding on to Christ’s Garments Go to Sarov In Ravaged Sarov It Will Be More Difficult The War The Last Days and the End II. Fr. Pyotr Shipkov In Zagorsk during the War On the End of the War. The Rebirth of the Church Fr. Pyotr in Exile (Letters) Return from Exile Illness and the Final Days in the Life of Fr. Pyotr From the Letters of V. Ia. Vasilevskaia to N. V. Trapani III. My Journey Appendix: My Childhood and Youth Notes Index