During the reign of Catherine II, German-Protestant, even an atheist, the clergy was struck a blow financially, it was subordinated to mercy of parishioners. They took away the Church possessions, and Clergy became mendicant. Catherine II deliberately stroke a killing blow at the credibility of the Clergy and made it beggar.
Sources of Russian Communism are laid down in church politics of czars and czarinas of XVII century – they prepared fertile soil in Russia for the perception of communism.
And metropolitan-Ukrainian Arceniy Matsievich appeared as a great spiritual knight, confessor martyr in Orthodox Church of that time. He began a courageous struggle against the church communism propagated by the ruling elite in Russia. Metropolitan Arceniy Matsievich devoted his entire life to move lofty Ideals of Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Moscow Church. He wasn’t able to do this, because dark forces in Russia proved to be stronger …
And Metropolitan disappeared on his glorious way, being immured alive in prison. Czarina Catherine destroyed the Metropolitan and Confessor – and she was shouting with laughter. Her laugh is heard today in the laugh of Communists…
Reader will learn about it from my book.
Work of Ukrainian Hierarchs of the Russian Church is a great and hard work, it is not developed in Ukrainian literature. But we have to know it, and I want to show it in detail on the example of Metropolitan Arceniy.
GLOSSARY
Ataman (Kosh Otaman) – was a commander title of the Ukrainian People’s Army, Cossack, and Haidamak leaders, who were in essence the Cossacks. At the end of the sixteenth century, the commanders of the Zaporizhian Cossacks were called Koshovyi Otaman or Hetmans.
Cossack – a member of a national group of South Russia, famous as horsemen and cavalrymen. The descendants of Russian and Ukrainian serfs, the Cossacks settled on the steppes (16th c.), establishing the Ukraine as a separate state. The word Cossack means a free and independent man. Cossacks were first mentioned in writing in 1492. In the sixteenth century the Cossacks united in a single military organization. The first fortifications were built on Mala Khortytsia Island, in the lower reachers of the Dnieper, behind the rapids, where the rocky river bed made navigation hard and risky. Hence, the name “Zaporizhya” (“Beyond-the-Rapids”).
Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander (after the monarch) in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita.
“Hetman” was also the highest military office, and head of state, in Ukraine’s Cossack Hetmanate. The title was used by Ukraine’s Cossacks from the 16th century, and by the Czechs (hejtman) in Bohemia from the Hussite Wars (15th century) on. Hejtman is today the term for the elected governor of a Czech region (kraj).
In 1572, the hetman was a commander of the Registered Cossack Army of the Rzecz Pospolita too. From 1648, the start of Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s uprising, a hetman was the head of the whole Ukrainian State – Hetmanshchyna. Although they were elected, Ukrainian Hetmans had very broad powers and acted as heads of the Cossack state, their supreme military commanders, and top legislators (by issuing administrative decrees).
After the split of Ukraine along the Dnieper River by the 1667 Polish-Russian Treaty of Andrusovo, Ukrainian Cossacks (and Cossack Hetmans) became known as Left-bank Cossacks (of the Cossack Hetmanate) and Right-bank Cossacks.
In the Russian Empire, the office of Cossack Hetman was abolished by Catherine II of Russia in 1764. The last Hetman of the Zaporozhian Army (the formal title of the Hetman of Ukraine) was Kyrylo Rozumovsky who reigned from 1751 until 1764.
Metropolitan – is a head of an ecclesiastical province, ranking between archbishop and patriarch (Orthodox Eastern Church); an archbishop (Western Church).
Rzeczpospolita (disambiguation) is a traditional name of the Polish State, usually referred to as Rzeczpospolita Polska (Polish Rzeczpospolita). It comes from the words: “rzecz” (thing) and “pospolita” (common), literally, a “common thing”. It comes from latin word “respublica”, meaning simply “republic” (“res” – thing, “publica” – public, common). In terms of etymology and meaning, the closest English term is “commonwealth” (i.e. “common wealth”, “common good”), but a more modern translation is republic (a form of governance).
The term “Rzeczpospolita” has been used in Poland since beginning of the 16th century. Originally it was a generic term to denote a state or a commonness. The famous quote by Jan Zamoyski, the Lord Chancellor of the Crown, on the importance of education, is a great example of its use.
The meaning of Polish term “Rzeczpospolita” is well described by the term “Commonwealth”. As a result the literal meaning of “Rzeczpospolita Polska” is “Polish Commonwealth”, or “Republic of Poland”. However, the connotation with the term “republic” may be somewhat misleading in a context of Polish State within period from 16th to 18th century, because Poland in that time was an elective monarchy and the “Rzeczpospolita” was reflected in the official name, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Shlisselburg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated at the head of the Neva River on Lake Ladoga, 35 kilometers east of St. Petersburg. From 1944 to 1992, it was known as Petrokrepost. The first fortification was built in 1299 by Lord High Constable of Sweden Torgils Knutsson but was lost to the Novgorodians in 1301. A wooden fortress named Oreshek was built by Grand Prince Yury of Moscow in 1323. Twenty-five years later, King Magnus Eriksson attacked and briefly took the fortress during his crusade in the region (1348–1352). It was largely ruined by the time the Novgorodians retook the fortress in 1351. The fortress was rebuilt in stone in 1352 by Archbishop Vasilii Kalika of Novgorod (1330–1352). In 1702, during the Great Northern War, the fortress was taken by Russians under Peter the Great. During the times of Imperial Russia, the fortress was used as a notorious political prison; among its famous prisoners were Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Mikhail Bakunin and, for 38 years, Walerian Łukasiński. Ivan VI of Russia was murdered in the fortress in 1764, and Lenin’s brother, Aleksandr Ulyanov, was hanged there too.
Zaporizhian Sich – the appearance of the “Zaporizhian Sich” is inseparably bound up with the formation of Cossacks as a separate social stratum with its own traditions and way of life. This process was the direct result of a continuos struggle between settled farmers and the nomadic tribes ruled by the Crimean Khan and the Turkish Sultan. The word “sich” comes from the Ukrainian verb “sikty,” meaning to chop up, cut – and the Zaporizhian Cossacks made their fortifications of wood, falling trees and cutting branches in the nearby forest.
Малюнки, фото
3 ст. “Rostov metropolitan Arceniy Matsievich”
4 ст. “Stepan Sheshkovskiy, famous expert of secret affairs”
5 ст. “Alexander Glebov. Hold office of attorney-general in 1761-1764”
6 ст. “The Kiev Mohyla Academy”
7 ст. “View of Brotherhood Monastery till 1864”
10 ст. “Alexey Bestuzhev-Rumin”
11 ст. “Building of Synod in Petersburg”
14 ст. “Graph Alexey Orlov-Chesmenskiy”
15 ст. “Graph Orlov’s emblem”
16 ст. “Emperor Peter III”
18 ст. “Graph Alexey Bobrinskiy”
19 ст. “Stanislav-August Ponyatovskiy – the last Polish king”
20 ст. “Emperor Ivan Antonovich and governess Anna Leopoldovna”