Plot synopsis

A story about the Way of the Cross of the Russian Church during the years of Bolshevik persecution. Svanidze focuses this story on the example of the controversial figure of Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) of Krutets and Kolomna. Occupying the second place in the church hierarchy after the Patriarch, Metropolitan Nikolai was a key figure of the so-called "Sergianism", which implied the complete subordination of the Russian Orthodox Church to the godless regime and the use of the Church's authority by the regime for its own purposes, including very unseemly ones. And yet, it was Metropolitan Nikolai who found the courage to raise his voice against the destruction of churches and the defamation of the Church during the reign of N.S. Khrushchev. For this, Vladyko was removed from his post as head of the Department of External Church Relations and dismissed from the staff. During the funeral of Vladyka Nikolai on December 14, 1961, according to one of Svanidze's interlocutors, the authorities cancelled electric trains on the Yaroslavl railway - so that the people would not be able to say goodbye to the Metropolitan, who was buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

commentaries

Авторский проект историка Николая Сванидзе на Радио «Комсомольская правда»

Selected in the following festivals or events :

- Historical Chronicles with Nikolay Svanidze, (kinoglaz.fr), 2026

Images

Митрополит Николай / Metropolitan Nikolai 1892-1961