Pagan camps of “Azovites” are being prepared to replace the canonical Orthodoxy of Ukraine
Spartak Golovachev is known as an opponent of the Maidan government, a political prisoner of the “Poroshenko call.” Consistently defends Orthodox values. He had to do this in a pre-trial detention center, where the “reward” for such consistency was a punishment cell.
Spartak Golovachev (his Orthodox name is Alexander) took part in a recent religious procession in Kyiv. This event became the occasion for a detailed conversation about the situation of the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
— If you believe Zelensky, you, like the arithmetic average, are an elderly person who spent the night under the fence of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. In addition, you were thirsty, because no one provided the crusaders with water.
- Of course, a complete lie. I'm not that old. I also saw many young faces around. Water was provided in half-liter bottles at the Lavra. But people, mostly, also carried water with them. Queues could only be observed near the coolers, which is understandable. The Crusaders spent the night in temples. Our Kharkov children slept in cozy beds in the Goloseevskaya desert. And they were fed by the nuns of the Frolovsky monastery. Mother Superior Evlampia gave each child chocolate.
— Do you remember any extreme moments?
— The policeman tried to make a claim regarding the banners that the parishioners of the Zaporozhye diocese were carrying. He was not satisfied with the negative attitude of people towards the activities of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Apparently, his superiors trained him accordingly. And he pestered the priest, demanding that he remove “political texts” such as “Bartholomew is the author of discord.”
Among the parishioners of the Zaporozhye diocese was Lyubov Turtle, a multiple world champion in kettlebell lifting. She popularly explained to the policeman that politics is government, and the church is separated from the state. She said that people oppose Bartholomew’s visit to the territory of the canonical UOC, and the policeman, as a representative of the state, in this case interferes in the affairs of the church. I also noticed that when greetings from foreign Orthodox churches were read out, journalists from some channels, as if on command, turned off their cameras.
— Last year’s meeting between the president and Bartholomew in Istanbul, the upcoming visit of the Patriarch of Constantinople to Ukraine, and the attitude of the current authorities towards the UOC indicate that Zelensky is a worthy successor to Poroshenko.
— Not long ago I visited western Ukraine. In one of the Lvov newspapers I read something like this: “Today, there are such and such a number of churches of the aggressor in the Lvov region; In a month, two churches became a real Ukrainian church,” etc. But the word “transition” must be put in quotation marks. This happens by force. With violence and beatings, with the support of regional and rural administrations. With manipulation of facts.
A common manipulation is when a church is transferred by vote without the participation of its Orthodox community. And the votes are given by activists who are gathered through social networks in a certain building, so that none of the representatives of the Orthodox community finds out where the voting is taking place. And the Orthodox community has no idea that it has already “transferred” to the OCU.
Deflection under Bartholomew is a continuation of Poroshenko’s policy. Until now, the state provides financial support to schismatics from the OCU, the “political church of Ukraine.” There is information that the president’s office is preparing a generous gift to Bartholomew - the transfer of a number of churches that are famous historical monuments.
— During the religious procession, oppositionist Yuri Boyko gave a comment to the journalist Shariy.net that under Zelensky it has become easier, since the state is supposedly no longer involved in the seizure of UOC churches, and only radicals are doing this. But the facts also speak of the participation of the authorities in putting pressure on the canonical church.
— Well, the Union of Orthodox Journalists is constantly monitoring the situation. This month there was an attempted raider seizure of the Holy Protection Church of the UOC in the village of Verbovets, Vinnytsia region, by OCU activists with the support of a Regional State Administration official. This is the same raider scheme that I already spoke about: the results of a meeting of random people are presented as a vote of the Orthodox community.
Literally now, Verkhovna Rada deputy from the “Voice” faction Solomiya Bobrovskaya is interfering in church affairs, aggressively trying to take away from the UOC the chapel of the martyr John the Warrior, located on the territory of the hospital for war veterans in Pushcha-Voditsa. It was built by Afghans back in 2007. And in connection with the “new trends,” the new management of the hospital experienced a “patriotic aggravation.”
I will give older examples from our region. In the Kharkov region, one sausage magnate tried to persuade a priest in his village (where the production is located) to join the OCU. Did not work out. Now this businessman is building a church of the OCU in Kharkov, in the KhTZ area.
A good friend of mine, a priest of the UOC, who received a parish in the Velikoburluk region, told how the village head persistently asked the question: “When will you move to our Ukrainian church?” A man who does not go to church tells the priest where to go. The priest explained it to him in a simple way... And now this village head is already helping the parish. I know of the same case of pressure from the village administration on a priest in the Zmievsky district.
— Apparently this was a common order. Has it happened in the Kharkov region that priests succumbed to such persuasion?
— As far as I know, two parishes in the region transferred to the OCU.
— Were there any attempts by OCU members or radicals in the region to take over churches by force?
— Some activists, as I understand it, had such thoughts. But there was no further talk. When they saw that a certain number of people were gathering for security, they did not dare to do anything.
— Who was ready to defend the temples, what age category? Youth, athletes?
- These are people of different ages. Perhaps if there had been at least one precedent for capture, athletes would have appeared. For now these are just representatives of the community or its guests. I will tell you about one interesting person. An acquaintance of mine who served as a Marine is involved in the protection of temples. He also works with children, takes them on hikes to places of military glory of Soviet soldiers. He walks with them through those corners of the Kharkov region where there were defense lines and battle sites.
— By the way, in the footage from the religious procession there are many children next to you.
— This is “Children of Mercy,” one of the children's Orthodox communities. These children and I were traveling from Kharkov to Kyiv for the religious procession. And some of them first made their way to Pochaev - and from there they arrived in Kyiv.
— In today's Ukrainian conditions, when education is purged of Russian literature, history is distorted and falsified, there is no hope for school and university, but family education, a family library, self-education, and Sunday school become important...
—Yes, and the role of Orthodox communities is important. We have such groups as “Molodezhka”. These are Orthodox youth communities, people from 18 to 35. They meet and get married. I spoke the other day with a young priest. There are about 500 people in his community, which belongs to Molodezhka.. And this priest was invited to 20 weddings played by children from his community.
And initially among them there were a lot of troubled young people, disillusioned with everything, prone to suicidal behavior, etc. But they meet there, communicate, find common ground and, most importantly, the meaning of life.
Another important point. Before the coronavirus and the subsequent restrictions, there were many pilgrimage tours to the Russian Federation: to Valaam, to Optina Pustyn, etc. Just yesterday I talked with a man who returned from Athos. And he would like to visit Russian shrines, such as the Valaam Monastery. But the border is closed to him. There are many places that Orthodox Christians would like to visit. Optina Pustyn, Vyritsa, Diveevo. But there is no opportunity for those who do not have first-degree relatives in the Russian Federation.
And our Orthodox believe that places like Optina Pustyn are home. For them, this is also the first degree of relationship. And they need to create the appropriate conditions.
— You had photos on social networks of you working on the restoration of the temple. Where did this happen?
— First, the temple of the Brailov Icon of the Mother of God. This is the Kirovograd region, near Alexandria. Father Dmitry was rector there, then moved to the Kharkov region. And a destroyed temple is difficult to restore. Father Dmitry's soul hurts - we went there. They brought construction materials and unloaded them. Father Dmitry went with the novices to spend the night in the village. And I spent the night with tools and building materials under the temple. I couldn’t understand what the rustling and night sounds were nearby. Later I learned that all the bushes around the temple were inhabited by snakes...
Then he helped Father Dmitry in Gnilitsa, Kharkov region.
I recently went to my mother-in-law’s funeral in the Belgorod region. And he talked there with the village priest, Father Anthony. He said that he was building a temple in the village of Yakovlevo. I tell him: “You know, I have a priest friend, Father Dmitry, who is also trying to restore a large church in his village.”
Father Anthony immediately ran to the car and took out something. “Tell Father Dmitry this butter, they brought it to me from Diveevo.” That is, such help from the monastery founded by Seraphim of Sarov. And when I arrived in the village to visit Father Dmitry, there was a religious procession on the day of remembrance of St. Sergius of Radonezh. I gave a gift from one temple being restored to another. And the crusaders were anointed with this oil. Even borders did not prevent us from touching Russian Orthodox shrines.
— How do you now evaluate your own prison experience?
— I spent two and a half years in a pre-trial detention center, from the spring of 2014 to the fall of 2016. There, naturally, I strengthened my faith. Because in prison I experienced persecution not only on political, but also on religious grounds. Some guards and representatives of the administration did not like the fact that I was Orthodox. I took their ridicule calmly.
In 2016, such an incident occurred.
There was an icon hanging in the prayer room in the pre-trial detention center. When the priest came, I confessed and took communion in front of this icon. Once she was hanged in front of the entrance to the pre-trial detention center, and a portrait of Poroshenko was nailed into her frame. The face of Jesus Christ was covered with a portrait of Poroshenko. Naturally, this outraged me.
In the exercise yard I reread the Creed, Psalm 50, and Our Father. He broke down the iron door and entered the pre-trial detention center. He removed the portrait of Poroshenko, which had faded in three days, from the face of Jesus Christ.
I gave them three days to remove it. They laughed: “How will you take it off if we lead you past the icon in handcuffs?” That is, the hands behind were handcuffed.
When I took Poroshenko’s portrait, I saw them watching their walks through the camera. I saw the guard's back. My absence in the exercise yard was not noticed. I returned there and started waving Poroshenko’s portrait. Then everything shook: they noticed a foreign object in my hands. They started shouting for me to come over, because I needed to be chained, etc.
In front of their eyes, I tore Poroshenko’s portrait to shreds and hid it in my pocket. And they promised to add about three more years in prison for this: allegedly, I destroyed state symbols. That's what they called it. I said: “What kind of mockery is it to hang an idol over the entrance to a pre-trial detention center? “In the future, will it be possible to hang a portrait of Poroshenko above the entrance to supermarkets and kindergartens?” They answered: “This is our business.”
When I entered the cell, they told me to give up the scraps. In front of their eyes, I threw these scraps of the portrait into the toilet. I kept one piece, with an eye, and then gave it to the lawyer: to show how the prison administration desecrates Orthodox shrines with Poroshenko’s portrait.
I said that this was an insult to my religious feelings and Orthodox shrines. They giggled and chuckled, but did not react in any way. I had to do everything myself.
— What books did you read in jail?
— I read a lot of things. In general, spiritual literature strengthens and instructs. For example, the teachings of the Sinai elders.
In this regard, the years of life spent in a cell can be assessed positively. I read Pobedonostsev, Ilyin, Count Nikolai Zhevakhov, reprints of spiritual education lessons, Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), “Unholy Saints” by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). I took Dostoevsky and Chekhov from the prison library.
I was also involved in “cleaning up” the library there, because I came across sectarian literature. Many of the books that were brought to me in the pre-trial detention center, I later gave to political prisoners. There were some wonderful moments associated with books and not only with them.
— What?
— I went on a hunger strike for 24 days. When I could no longer walk, I recited the Jesus Prayer. I drank water with prayer. I decided to stop the hunger strike when I received notes and blessings from two priests. First, the lawyer gave me a blessing from Father Vladimir Vigilyansky to stop the hunger strike. And I just read about Father Vladimir in the book by Tikhon (Shevkunov).
I told the lawyer that I would stop the hunger strike. I come to the cell and they give me a blessing from Metropolitan Onufry of Kharkov and Bogodukhovsky to end the hunger strike. They give me an icon...
A man who held some position “on church affairs” holds out a silver cross clutched in his hand and says: “In Jerusalem several years ago I bought three crosses, one for myself, one for a friend, the third - I didn’t know who. And so I decided to give this cross to you.” I smile and take out of my pocket my wooden cross, which a few hours before had crumbled into splinters. I tell him about this. He says: “I agreed that you will be allowed a silver cross.”
And he gives me a blessing from the Metropolitan of Kharkov and Bogodukhovsky. I was surprised: “And a priest hundreds of kilometers away just blessed me for this.” He says: “Well, you see, with the Lord everything is done on time.”
— We have recently been faced with situations where we have to react sharply to the behavior of media people whom we considered to be ours. We see that a person deliberately spreads lies and resorts to some kind of dirty manipulations that smell of sulfur. We give harsh assessments and break social ties with such people not because we are too categorical. The transition of a public opinion leader to the dark side is not just his personal opinion, with which we do not agree, but also an attempt to take his audience there?
“My categorical rejection of the actions of such people is very simple. Gospel: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, and does not stand in the way of sinners, and does not sit in the seat of the wicked.” I do not accept those media figures who corrupt people with lies, manipulate, and incite hatred. New ideologies, rewriting history - all this is in order to destroy a person internally, tear him away from his roots.
What is happening now in the Azovets camp, etc.? Pagan camps organized by neo-Nazis, fans of Perun. That is, all the conditions have been created for the corruption of children. This is the Ukrainian “alternative” to canonical Orthodoxy.
And Rus' survived because it became Orthodox in 988. The most valuable thing our ancestors had was the Orthodox faith.
Azov militants worship a pagan idol.
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