Abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, confessor of the Putin family.

Archimandrite Tikhon, aka Georgy Alexandrovich Shevkunov, was born in 1958. Graduated from the screenwriting department of the All-Union Institute of Cinematography. Soon after graduating from VGIK, he went to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, where he was a novice for nine years, and then took monastic vows. He returned to Moscow and worked in the publishing department of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Ten years ago, Shevkunov first appeared in print as one of the ideologists of the fundamentalist direction of the Russian Orthodox Church, publishing the article “Church and State,” in which he openly expressed his attitude towards democracy. “A democratic state,” quotes Father Tikhon from Free Lapse Breau, “will inevitably try to weaken the most influential Church in the country, bringing into play the ancient principle of “divide and conquer.” This statement seems important due to the fact that the Russian media call Father Tikhon the confessor of President Putin, that is, a person who influences the worldview of the leader of the state.

In church circles, Tikhon is spoken of as a well-known intriguer and careerist. The certified film screenwriter took the first step in his brilliant church career shortly after his return to Moscow from the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery in 1991. Then he initiated a scandal around a fire in the Donskoy Monastery, where he lived. According to investigators, the cause of the fire was a drunken monastery watchman who fell asleep with a lit cigarette. Shevkunov accused Western intelligence agents sent to us under the guise of believers of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad of “malicious arson.” (By the way, now “foreigners,” despite the long-standing scandal, support Father Tikhon. According to rumors, they see him as the main candidate for the post of the next Patriarch of All Rus'.) They say that the certified screenwriter himself is not averse to taking the highest church post in Russia.

There is also information about Tikhon’s father’s connection with the KGB. Perhaps these connections subsequently helped him get to know Vladimir Putin better. One of the parishioners of the Sretensky Monastery is a close friend of Father Tikhon, Lieutenant General Nikolai Leonov. He served in the KGB from 1958 to 1991. In the 60-70s he worked in the First Main Directorate (PGU) of the KGB of the USSR, and was deputy head of the department. (In the 70s, Putin also served at PSU.) Tikhon (Shevkunov) and Nikolai Leonov are on the editorial board of the Russian House magazine, which is published at the Sretensky Monastery publishing house. Leonov is a political commentator on the program of the same name, which airs on the Moscovia channel, and Shevkunov is also the confessor of both projects - the magazine and the television show. Among the frequent guests of the Russia House are representatives of Russian National Unity (RNU) and the Black Hundred.

Father Tikhon is also known for more global projects. He was one of the activists in the movement for the canonization of the royal family. He led a “crusade” against the tour of magician David Copperfield in Russia, informing the congregation that “the magic tricks of this vulgar American Woland” make the audience “dependent on the darkest and most destructive forces.” And his most famous project is the fight against “satanic” barcodes and individual taxpayer numbers (TIN). In the barcodes and tax identification number, according to Father Tikhon, the “number of the beast” is hidden - 666. In addition, the universal accounting system subjects the Orthodox to total control by the secular, anti-Orthodox, from Tikhon’s point of view, state. His article “Schengen Zone”, dedicated to this “global problem”, was published in the RNU publication “Russian Order”. Despite the fact that Father Tikhon denies his connection with the Russian Nazis, their views are very, very close.

Here are the holy father's thoughts on censorship. “Censorship is a normal tool in a normal society, which should cut off everything extreme. Personally, of course, I am for it - both in the religious area and in the secular area. As for state censorship, sooner or later society will come to a sober understanding of the need for this institution. Let us remember how Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in his youth scolded censorship and did not rhyme it except with the word “fool”. And later he advocated censorship.” Tikhon’s last phrase, however, has baffled researchers of A.S.’s work. Pushkin. Well, Pushkin didn’t write something like that!

Tikhon was one of the first to congratulate Putin on his “ascension” and then publicly rejoiced at Yeltsin’s timely departure, condemning the “era of Yeltsinism.”

Father Tikhon hides the story of his acquaintance with Putin. But he advertises his closeness to the first person in every possible way. There is talk in church circles that the rumor that Tikhon is the president’s confessor was started by Tikhon himself. The certified screenwriter himself does not confirm this rumor, but does not refute it either - he flirts: “What are you trying to make of me as some kind of Richelieu?” Nevertheless, journalists from Moscow publications confidently wrote from Tikhon’s words that “Vladimir Putin constantly confesses to him. It is he who instructs the president in spiritual life.”

In any case, certified screenwriter Tikhon actively takes advantage of his real (or imaginary) closeness to the president. As they say, now even the Patriarch himself is afraid of him.

On November 15, the Dozhd TV channel released a documentary film “Spiritual” about Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov. He is considered the confessor of President Vladimir Putin and a contender for the role of patriarch. Ministers are lining up to see Shevkunov for confession, and he is also called the mastermind behind the persecution of director Kirill Serebrennikov.

Unholy Saints

The boy from Chertanovo, Gosha, was supposed to become a doctor - his mother wanted him to enter medical school. But a friend asked to support him in the entrance examinations at VGIK. Ironically, my friend failed his exams, and Gosha was accepted into the screenwriting department.

After defending his diploma, Gosha goes to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, from where he returns as Tikhon. In the monastery, he finds use for the knowledge acquired at VGIK - he films newsreels of the monastery.

Sketches from the life of the monastery formed the basis of Shevkunov’s stories “Unholy Saints” - tales about priests and miraculous healings. “All the heroes of Shevkunov’s stories are positive. Even when they cheat and collaborate with the authorities,” the authors of the film “The Confessor” give an example.

He took the name Tikhon in honor of Patriarch Tikhon, and became a monk at the Donskoy Monastery, where the famous saint is buried. On the anniversary of Tikhon's accession to the patriarchal throne, the monastery was set on fire. Shevkunov recalled in an interview that shortly before the fire he received a telegram: “You will meet Tikhon soon.”

He called the fire a sabotage and blamed all the parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, calling them “agents of foreign intelligence.” After the fire, Shevkunov found the relics of St. Tikhon in the monastery: “When they lifted the lid of the coffin, I boldly, God forgive me, put my hand in there, with a blessing, and simply grabbed the man by the hand, by the shoulder, the living shoulder.”

In the 1990s, a purge of “neo-renovationists” began in the church - if translated into the language of modern realities - “liberals”. The neo-renovationists wanted to serve in Russian, which was prohibited in Soviet times. Among them was Father Georgy Kochetkov. It was Shevkunov who was responsible for his expulsion from the church with the help of an army of “Cossacks and Black Hundreds”.

One of the participants in these provocations, Cossack ataman Vyacheslav Demin, in the film calls Shevkunov a member of the “Chekist church.” And the exiled Kochetkov himself answers the filmmakers’ question about whether Shevkunov believes in God: “He believes in some kind, of course, but I don’t know which one. It is very difficult for me to say for sure that this is Christ, that we have one God, that we have one faith. It would be very difficult for me, say, to take communion with him.”

Lubyansky Father

Back in the nineties, Tikhon Shevkunov received the nickname “Lubyansky priest” - for the spiritual accompaniment of the security officers. Officers from Lubyanka - both active and retired - can often be found in the Sretensky Monastery, where Shevkunov now serves as governor.

Shevkunov was introduced to Vladimir Putin in 1996 by businessman Sergei Pugachev. He brought Putin to the service at the Sretensky Monastery, and then began to take Shevkunov to the president’s dacha. Lyudmila Putina, the then wife of the president, became a parishioner of the Sretensky Monastery. Pugachev introduced Shevkunov into Putin’s inner circle: in one of the photographs from the banker’s wife’s birthday, Sechin, Patrushev and Shevkunov are sitting at the same table.

According to Pugachev, Putin does not have a confessor: “In my opinion, Putin is an unbeliever.” However, Shevkunov himself does not directly answer journalists’ questions about Putin’s spiritual mentorship.

The businessman says that many ministers dream of getting an appointment with Shevkunov. In one of the telephone conversations, Tikhon admitted to a friend: “Medinsky has been sitting in the waiting room, waiting for two hours.” Local residents of the village of Krasnoye, Ryazan region, also talk about high-ranking guests - Shevkunov’s residence is located there.

According to them, Putin, Poltavchenko, and Rogozin visited there. Around the monastery, its own golden mile immediately formed - cottages of retired security officials, the film says.

Against Serebrennikov and Matilda

“All those who loudly applauded Pussy are loudly applauding Leviathan,” Shevkunov once said. Now he is a member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture and often speaks out about the work of Russian directors. Anonymous interlocutors of Dozhd said that the bishop spoke unflatteringly about Kirill Serebrennikov during meetings with Putin.

Sources close to the FSB say that surveillance of the director was established at the beginning of the year - the bishop’s dissatisfaction could have influenced the decision to initiate a criminal case. The director’s acquaintances also consider Bishop Tikhon a possible mastermind of the persecution.

In September, during a visit to Yekaterinburg, Shevkunov spoke out against the film. That same night, Orthodox activist Denis Murashov rammed a minibus into the cinema where the premiere was to take place. The day before, he participated in the liturgy conducted by Shevkunov.

Back in 2005, the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery helped with the examination of the exhibition “Beware of Religion!” It was he who gave the expert opinion on the basis of which the verdict was passed on the curators of the exhibition, Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Erofeev.

The icon - the same one with which Natalya Poklonskaya went to the “Immortal Regiment” rally - first “streamed myrrh” in the Sretensky Monastery precisely during the service of Father Tikhon.

He is also called the screenwriter of the opening of the monument to Vladimir in Moscow - a symbolic response to Ukraine. “Now there are three Vladimirs in Russia - one lies in the Mausoleum, the second sits in the Kremlin, and the third stands right opposite,” the authors of the film note.

The Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church on Bolshaya Lubyanka - the territory of the Sretensky Monastery - was opened by the “Chekist priest” in May of this year together with Vladimir Putin. The patterns on the facade of the temple were printed on a 3D printer, and the architect was 32-year-old Dmitry Smirnov, who had not built a single church before. His portfolio includes decorations for the “Star Factory” and country houses of Russian officials.

Sergei Pugachev, who introduced Tikhon to Putin, recalls the Vladyka’s past at VGIK: “He is, in fact, a failed director, therefore... or rather, an accomplished one, even to a greater extent than Nikita Mikhalkov. Mikhalkov never dreamed of such fame; he never became such a pillar of power. And Father Tikhon is such a pillar of power.”

An archival interview with Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) that is relevant today about where faith goes, where the need for worship, prayer and joy disappears.

Sretensky Monastery gets up early: Father Tikhon schedules the interview for 8.30 (!). By this time, part of the day in Sretenskoye had already passed: the fraternal prayer service had ended, the seminarians had finished breakfast, before the start of classes they were at obedience, some, for example, were sweeping the yard in front of the church.

I am standing in the monastery garden, well-groomed no worse than a botanical garden, waiting to be taken to the Father Superior, and looking into the faces of the seminarians and parishioners of the church, who, on an ordinary weekday - not a holiday, are rushing to the Liturgy so early... In the reception chambers of Father Tikhon - a spacious room with huge bookcases, Emperor Alexander looks at us from one portrait, and from the other...

– Look, really, a good portrait of Metropolitan Laurus, the facial expression is very accurately conveyed?

Yes, this is Metropolitan Laurus, who came to Russia from distant America many times under the guise of a simple monk - to travel around monasteries, to breathe in the faith.

Where does our faith go? This is what our conversation with Father Tikhon is about today:

– Father Tikhon, where does faith go, where does the need for worship, prayer and joy disappear?

– Once I talked with Archimandrite Seraphim (Rosenberg). This was shortly before his death. From the German barons, after graduating from the University of Tartu in the thirties of the last century, he went to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, where he spent sixty years. During that conversation, Father Seraphim started talking about monasticism. He said that the biggest problem with modern monasticism is the lack of determination. This can probably be said not only about monks, but also about many of our Christian contemporaries.

Determination, courage and the spiritual nobility associated with them are noticeably depleted. But if people throughout their lives understand that the most important thing is to go to God, to be faithful to Him, despite any obstacles and temptations, then they do not waver in faith so much as to lose it.

The crisis of faith that you are talking about is especially clear in our teenagers. At 8-9 years old, children go to church, sing in the choir, amaze and touch everyone around them, and at 14-16 years old, many, if not most, stop going to church.

- Why is this happening?

– The children were not introduced to God. No, of course, they were introduced to rituals, the Church Slavonic language, the order in the temple, the lives of saints, sacred stories translated for children. But we were not introduced to God himself. The meeting did not happen. And it turned out that both parents, and Sunday school and, sadly enough, the priests built a house of children's faith " on the sand"(Matthew 7:26), and not on the stone - Christ.

How does it happen that children do not notice God despite all the most sincere attempts of adults to instill faith in them? How is it that a child never finds the strength to discern Christ the Savior in his childhood life, in the Gospel? By answering this question, we raise another adult problem, which is reflected in children as in a mirror. This is when both parents and priests teach one thing, but live differently. This is the most terrible blow to the tender powers of children's faith, an unbearable drama for their sensitive consciousness.

But there are other examples. I could cite another, but this one especially stuck in my mind: in 1990, during my first trip to Germany, to my great surprise, I received a good lesson from a priest. Catholic. I was amazed by his flock - very pure young people of 16-20 years old, sincerely trying to live a Christian life. I asked this priest how he manages to protect these teenagers from the aggressive pressure of temptations and pleasures so familiar to their peers in the West? He then looked at me in complete bewilderment. And he said words that, with their simplicity and clarity, simply crushed me then (I really regret that I didn’t hear this from an Orthodox priest): “They simply love Christ more than all these pleasures!”

– Is our situation different?

- Of course not! We also have many bright examples, thank God. In our Sretensky Seminary I see amazingly pure and sincere guys, although of course there are all sorts of temptations, life is life.

– But these are teenagers, and what about people who came to the temple as adults?

- What's the difference? Something similar happens to adults. We also tempt each other (in this case, “these little ones” of whom the Savior speaks - not necessarily children in age) with our lukewarmness, deliberate violations of the Gospel commandments, and unclean lives. Gradually, people develop the idea that a Christian can generally live as he pleases. And, if this happens, people who came to faith in adulthood gradually lose interest in spiritual life, they become bored with everything. There is no real communication with God, which means there is no life of the spirit. For the first three years, faith, Orthodoxy is interesting, the new life is exciting and brings a lot of new impressions, and then everyday life begins.

You know, there is a great danger in the fact that we willingly stick out and inflate such painful moments and with these examples we begin to unconsciously defend our negligence and lukewarmness. And in general, in the church environment, such evil and generally incorrect stereotypes began to circulate more and more: if women are churchgoers, then they are evil witches; if young people, then they are complex; if adults, then they are losers; monks, then money-grubbers and wicked people.

– But this really happens sometimes...

- Who can argue? This is not to say that there is no such thing at all, that it is not true. But why, with a tenacity worthy of better use, convince yourself and others that this state of affairs is a feature of our Church.

I once traveled through Orthodox forums, and I simply felt uneasy with what cynical anger Orthodox people, who consider themselves very church-educated, treat not only the clergy, whom they do not value at all, but also the most pious laity .

– They say: “Orthodox” and “Orthodoxy of the brain”...

– These terms, I’m afraid, did not come from anywhere, but from the Orthodox environment. Because only “our own people” can inject in such a sophisticated way. However, be that as it may, they were picked up in our midst with enthusiasm. But this is a truly alarming phenomenon in our Christian community. In addition, we gradually begin to look at ourselves and those around us precisely through the prism of such derogatory ideas.

– Acting in accordance with traditional piety has become... uncomme il faut?

– Remember how Tolstoy in “Childhood, Adolescence, Youth” wonderfully talked about comme il faut, how comme il faut mercilessly influenced his life. Now (fortunately only in parachurch circles, because it is simply impossible to call such people churchgoers), an Orthodox comme il faut is being developed, and if a person does not fit into it, he is an outcast, a completely despicable person.

This is how we come to cynicism, and in fact to the origins of that very disease of lukewarmness that has infected Christians since the time of the Laodicean church. The enemy force, which is beginning to be intensified by spiritually cooled Christians from within the Church, is infinitely more dangerous than any external force, than persecution.

We teach our students not to become “Orthodox comme il faut” under any circumstances, because they themselves will not notice how they will lose their faith, how they will become careerists, how all the values ​​in their lives will completely change.

When people of the older generation gather, they often say: “How great it was in the 60s and 70s, what faith there was!” We say this not only because we are starting to grow old and grumble, but because it really is so. Then there was external opposition to the Church from the state, but we were together and valued everyone. “Orthodox” - it would probably be something from the enemy’s camp. Only Emelyan Yaroslavsky could speak about the Orthodoxy of the brain. An Orthodox person would never use or repeat such words, such expressions. And now this is heard in the church environment, they flaunt it, they are proud!

– Why does this attitude arise?

- What's happening? People came to the Church, but only partially loved it. And gradually, over the years, in the secret of their souls, they realized a terrible truth: they treat Orthodoxy with the deepest contempt. With them begins a terrible disease of treacherous cynicism, akin to the act of Ham. And people around are infected with this one way or another. But we really are a single organism - the Church, so this disease must somehow be resisted.

When the Orthodox encountered this kind of thing in the Soviet years, they understood that it was “from our enemies,” “from adversaries.” Nowadays, lessons of contempt and arrogance are increasingly taught by church people. And we know the sad fruits of these lessons.

- Gloomy forecast...

It remains only to remember the words of Saint Ignatius, who said that “The retreat was allowed by God: do not try to stop it with your weak hand.” But then he writes: “Stay away, protect yourself from him.” Don't be cynical.

- Why? After all, cynical judgments are sometimes accurate...

- Sobriety and witty barbs, when a fool or an insolent person is put in his place, when someone wants to be protected from excessive enthusiasm - this is quite acceptable. But cynicism and Christianity are incompatible. At the heart of cynicism, no matter how it justifies itself, there is only one thing - disbelief.

Once I had the opportunity to ask the same question to two ascetics - Father John (Krestyankin) and Father Nikolai Guryanov: “What is the main disease of today’s church life?” Father John answered immediately - “Unbelief!” "How so? – I was amazed. “What about the priests?” And he answered again: “And the priests have unbelief!” And then I came to Father Nikolai Guryanov - and he told me completely independently of Fr. John said the same thing - unbelief.

– And disbelief becomes cynicism?

People stop noticing that they have lost faith. Cynics have entered the Church, live in it, are used to it, and don’t really want to leave it, because everything is already familiar. And how will they look at it from the outside? Very often, cynicism is a disease of professional Orthodoxy.

– But sometimes cynicism is a defensive reaction of a very vulnerable, insecure person who has been offended or deeply hurt...

– How, for example, does the exhibition of “forbidden art” differ from Perov’s painting “Tea Party in Mytishchi”? There is disgusting cynicism in forbidden art, and in Perov there is denunciation. Pain and conviction for which we should only be grateful.

And the ascetics could say things very harshly, for example, the Venerable Schieromonk Leo of Optina. And even today we have a wonderful archpriest in Moscow who can make such a witty joke that it won’t seem too much. But it would never occur to anyone to say that he is a cynic, because there is no malice in his jokes.

– Reading the memoirs of M. Nesterov, I always caught myself thinking that he would certainly be ridiculed today. For example: “Mother was at Iverskaya’s. They stole a bag with money, but she kissed it” - everyone will immediately say, look, he’s Orthodox...

“Twenty years ago we would have said about such a person: “Lord, what faith, how good!” And today, the prosperity of the Orthodox faith has turned out to be a considerable test for Christians. Remember, in the Apocalypse: “For you say: “I am rich, I have become rich, and I have need of nothing”; but you do not know that you are miserable, and pitiful, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). We have become impoverished in faith, and therefore many people, looking at us, are tired of being Orthodox. They still follow by inertia, by first love, they still remember how much they received in the Church and hope to still receive grace.

– How to correctly orient your spiritual life?

The most joyful thing in spiritual life is discovering new things. Remember with what joy you woke up on Sunday morning for the Liturgy, how you avidly read the holy fathers and constantly discovered new things for yourself. If the Gospel does not reveal anything to us, it only means that we have closed ourselves to discovering something new. Remember the words of Christ to the Church of Ephesus: “Remember your first love.”

Photo by Anatoly Danilov. Text preparation: A. Danilova, O. Utkina

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Stoned insensibility, or spiritual dryness
Remedies against it and reasons for its manifestation

I thought you were constantly cold... or dry and numb. But you don’t have this, but there is something that happens to everyone from time to time. Almost everyone who has written about spiritual life remembers this. Saint Mark, the ascetic, exposes three such enemies: ignorance with oblivion, laziness with negligence, and petrified insensibility.

“Some kind of paralysis of all mental strength.” Saint Chrysostom did not forget them in his short prayers: “Deliver me from ignorance, oblivion, despondency (this is laziness with negligence) and petrified insensibility.”

The remedies indicated are not complex - endure and pray.

Tolerate. It is possible that God Himself sends this to teach us not to rely on ourselves. Sometimes we take on a lot and expect a lot from our efforts, techniques and labors. So the Lord takes grace and leaves one, as if saying, try as much as you have the strength. The more natural talents there are, the more necessary such training is. Having realized this, we will endure. This is also sent as punishment - for outbursts of passions that were allowed and not condemned, and not covered by repentance. These outbreaks are the same for the soul as bad food is for the body, which aggravates or weakens, or dulls... It turns out that it is necessary, when there is dryness, to look around to see if there is anything like this in the soul, and to repent before the Lord, and put forward to beware.

This happens most of all for anger, untruth, annoyance, condemnation, arrogance and the like. Healing is the return of a state of grace again. As grace in the will of God, we can only pray... for deliverance from this very dryness... and from petrified insensibility. There are such lessons: do not abandon the usual prayer rule, but follow it exactly, trying in every possible way so that the thought accompanies the words of the prayer, straining and stirring the feeling... Let the feeling be a stone, but the thought will be - even if it is half a prayer, there will still be a prayer ; for there must be complete prayer with thought and feeling. When you are cold and insensible, it will be difficult to hold your thoughts while saying the words of prayer, but it is still possible. You have to do it in spite of yourself... This overexertion of yourself will be the means to bend the Lord to mercy and return grace. But you shouldn’t give up prayer. Saint Macarius says: the Lord will see how sincerely we wish for the good of this... and he will send it. Send a prayer against cooling in your word before the rule and after the rule... and in continuation of it cry out to the Lord, as if presenting a dead soul before His face: see, Lord, what it is like! But the word will heal. With this word, throughout the day, often turn to the Lord. (Issue 1, pas. 190, pp. 230-231)

Leo Tolstoy "Youth"

By dividing people into comme il faut and not comme il faut, they obviously belonged to the second category and, as a result, aroused in me not only a feeling of contempt, but also a certain personal hatred that I felt towards them for the fact that, without being comme il faut, they seemed to consider me not only their equal, but even good-naturedly patronized me. This feeling was aroused in me by their legs and dirty hands with bitten nails, and one long nail from Operov’s fifth finger, and pink shirts, and bibs, and the curses that they affectionately addressed to each other, and the dirty room, and Zukhin’s habit. constantly blowing their nose a little, pressing one nostril with a finger, and especially their manner of speaking, using and intonating certain words. For example, they used the words: fool instead of a fool, as if instead of exactly fabulous instead of great, moving etc., which seemed bookish and disgustingly dishonest to me. But what aroused this comme il faut hatred in me even more was the intonation that they made to some Russian and especially foreign words: they said m A tire instead of mash And on, de I activity instead of d e activity, n A urgently instead of bunks O right, in the fireplace e instead of in cam And no, Sh e xpir instead of shakesp And r, etc., etc.

In contact with

Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) is 60 years old. NEZYGAR tells how it all began.

From the biography:

"Metropolitan Tikhon (in the world - Georgy Aleksandrovich Shevkunov). Born in Moscow on July 2, 1958. From a single-parent family. In 1975 he graduated from school in Moscow. In 1982 he graduated from the screenwriting department of VGIK with a degree in literary work on the course of playwright Evgeny Grigoriev.

From VGIK he is friends with Mikhalkov, Chavchavadze, and many other intellectuals. During my final years at VGIK I became interested in Russian Orthodoxy. On the advice of the Lavra confessor Onufry (now a permanent member of the Synod and head of the UOC), he went in 1982 as a novice to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, where he periodically lived and worked until 1986.”

The opinions of people who know Father Tikhon or have come into contact with him will be heard here.

The early part of the biography of Father Tikhon can be called the search stage. Unlike many clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, his family was not a church member. Gosha Shevkunova was raised by her mother, a microbiologist by profession.

Coming to Orthodoxy, as people who know Shevkunov say, was an internal rebellion, an attempt to find a new world, endowed with meaning and mysticism; a world that for the artist Shevkunov was supposed to become the antithesis of the gray and insipid Soviet world.

“Gosha Shevkunov has gone through a lot in life. You can probably say that he is a keen man. He was looking for himself. And if we speak now from the position of the Church, he experienced many sins that stuck in him. But he always fought against it, broke himself , and he is a very strong person."

“He loved and he killed the love in himself. At some point he became afraid of himself and decided to suppress his personal self. Orthodoxy became the ideal basis.”

“I don’t know whether it was the awareness of his own otherness or the fear that in real life, he, a simple boy, would not be able to compete with the golden youth. Of course, many classmates and acquaintances perceived this as capitulation, as weakness. But it turned out that Gosha Shevkunov turned out to be smarter, he left the world and stood above it."

Father Tikhon, and this must be remembered, comes from the “diaspora of the Moscow intelligentsia.” It may seem surprising, but Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov has no theological education at all - he did not graduate from either a theological school or a theological academy.

“The entire spiritual basis of Father Tikhon is a mass of intellectual myths about Orthodoxy and Orthodox Russia.”

The capital boy Grisha initially did not understand and did not know big Russia. However, he did not even know what the Church was.

"For him, at first it was some kind of fairy tale, and then it captivated him. Orthodoxy, which was actually prohibited for young people, was a challenge for Gosha (Shevkunov), it was a front, it was a rebellion. Against the background of the wretched Soviet leaders, the young guy recognized absolutely incredible people - novices, with tragic stories, and with a very strong moral core. The truth for them was only the truth."

Father Tikhon was lucky in that his teacher was Father John (Krestyankin), who imbued him with some meanings and meanings. But in general, Shevkunov’s Orthodoxy is completely home-grown, invented, superficial and cinematic.

“Please note, Shevkunov does not join the Zagorsk Lavra, he does not go to study at the theological academy. No, he does not openly conflict with the system. He leaves for a monastery in Pskov to understand himself, but at the same time leaving a path of retreat. Understand - he always leaves himself an escape route."

They say that Father Tikhon is similar to his opponent Patriarch Kirill. Both of them put on an external effect, acting as a form of communication with the world. It is always important to follow the agenda, adapt to the atmosphere, and artistically manipulate listeners and interlocutors.

For Volodya Gundyaev, the path to the Church was predetermined. His father was a rector, his elder brother was considered one of the best students of the Leningrad Academy and the favorite of Metropolitan Nikodim.

It is no coincidence that it was noticed that both Father Tikhon and Patriarch Kirill know Orthodox dogmas very poorly, I do not understand the works of the holy fathers: they read little spiritual literature - they simply do not have enough time for all this.

But all this is not important to them. Orthodoxy for them is of a purely applied nature.

From the biography of Father Tikhon:

"In 1986, Metropolitan Pitirim takes him to Moscow to the Publishing Department. Georgy Shevkunov, in Pitirim’s team, is preparing anniversary celebrations associated with the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus'. He writes scripts, prepares films, primarily for foreign audiences. In Moscow he becomes a resident of the Donskoy Monastery ". According to Shevkunov, during this period his contacts with KGB officers began. In 1988, he was offered to become a seksot, he refused. In 1990, Metropolitan Alexy (Roediger) was elected patriarch. The new patriarchal team included many of Shevkunov’s acquaintances. In 1991, "He was tonsured a hieromonk at the Donskoy Monastery. In 1993, he was appointed rector of the Moscow metochion of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery."

In 1992, Hieromonk Tikhon, during construction work, “discovered” the relics of Patriarch Tikhon in the Donskoy Monastery. From this moment on, he becomes a recognizable person. Thanks to Krestyankin, he enters the patriarch’s social circle, becomes his de facto assistant. He meets and makes friends with the patriarch’s assistant, Andrei Kuraev, and the owner of Mezhprombank, Pugachev.

Patriarch Alexy II will introduce Tikhon to Pugachev.

“Pugachev was always considered as a kind of backup and a possible alternative to Abramovich in the Administration; he was close to the patriarch and decided many of his affairs.”

“It is a big mistake to believe that supposedly since the 90s Tikhon has become some kind of leader of conservative and right-wing forces. Father Tikhon was extremely loyal to Patriarch Alexy, he was an absolute authority for him, like Krestyankin. In those years, the Church was going through a very serious breakdown, the reactionary part "The church united around Metropolitan John of St. Petersburg. Patriarch Alexy was looking for an alternative to this. The young, intelligent and perceptive Father Tikhon was an excellent option for a moderate conservative in Moscow."

“Patriarch Alexy II loved Father Tikhon for his energy, passion and captivating sincerity.”

“After Father Tikhon actually “expelled” the renovationist community of Kochetkov from the Vladimir Cathedral - and the patriarch did not like Kochetkov, was jealous of him for the love of the intelligentsia, Alexy II significantly strengthened the position of Father Tikhon. He receives the blessing to create the Sretensky Monastery and the patriarchal appointment as abbot.”

“Everything happened by itself - young Tikhon in Moscow literally intercepted the agenda of the old clergy. Before the elderly Metropolitan John in St. Petersburg had time to give any speech, Father Tikhon was already gushing: he was for the restoration of the monarchy, and against the INN, and for the Russian idea, and for the Russian world. Tikhon was global in his speeches, but all this globality was rather soft and virtually disappeared."

“It is known that the patriarch did not like KGB officers and did not want to have anything to do with them. For this, he had his father Tikhon - such a liaison officer with the Lubyanka. Shevkunov then became friends with many officers, most of them were from the Foreign Intelligence Service, such as for example General Leonov."

Father Tikhon tried to make the most of any media resources. “Of course, he was a professional. The director did not die at heart. He understood what television was and how to work with the camera and the viewer. He became close friends with the former Soviet television star Alexander Krutov and created the Russian World publishing house with Pugachev’s money, which he created with Zhelonkin and Tolstoy TV channel Moscovia".

Somewhere in 1997 or 1998, Father Tikhon met Vladimir Putin. There are several versions of how this happened. According to one, Tikhon was introduced to the future president by General Leonov; according to another, the acquaintance took place thanks to the banker Pugachev.

In August 1999, Putin's father dies in St. Petersburg. Vladimir Spiridonovich suffered from cancer and died seriously. “Pugachev and Father Tikhon came to my father’s funeral. Putin was very touched by this.”

It was from this moment that journalists began to call Tikhon “Putin’s confessor.”

“In fact, Tikhon has never been the President’s confessor. He confesses either to the monks of the Valaam Monastery, or on occasion while visiting churches. No one has information about the President’s sins except God.” Most often the President is professed by the governor of the Valaam Monastery, Pankratiy, an ardent reactionary and mystic. “Father Pankratiy has a very difficult relationship with both Tikhon and Patriarch Kirill.”

After Putin becomes President, Father Tikhon will have a global project to unite the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. “With this plan in 2000, Tikhon captivated everyone - the young President, the old Patriarch, patriots, and liberals. Few believed that Shevkunov would succeed. But he succeeded and Tikhon entered the President’s inner circle.”

The unification of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad was a powerful reputational project. The Moscow Patriarchate dreamed about this, but did not know how to approach the solution of the issue.

The idea was old, and Patriarch Alexy the First and Pimen were involved in it. But the conflicts were very strong.

The ROCOR, in fact, was much more conservative than the ROC both in its views and in its interpretation of Orthodox dogmas.

“It was a clot of anti-Sovietism, anti-communism, anti-ecuminism, the fight against Freemasons and Jews, faith in the Holy Emperor Nicholas. They accused the official patriarchy of the sin of symphony with the communist state, in cooperation with the special services. It was very difficult to build a dialogue.”

Many people were involved in the unification project - there were structures of the Russian Orthodox Church, and emigrants, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Foreign Intelligence Service (the new director Sergei Lebedev, a friend of the President in Germany, worked for 2 years as a representative of the Foreign Intelligence Service in the USA before his appointment and had an idea of ​​​​the problem).

But the main driver of the unification was Father Tikhon.

Firstly, there were unofficial contacts with the Russian diaspora in the USA and Europe. Father Tikhon was seriously helped by his friendship with Zurab Chavchavadze, the representative of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich in Russia, a relative of Patriarch Ilia II.

Chavchavadze was also a relative of Prince David Pavlovich Chavchavadze, grandson of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, who was killed in 1919 in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Through him, Tikhon met the princes Golitsyn, Boris Jordan, and Sergei Palen. Sergei Kurginyan would later call all of them descendants of Abwehr and Wehrmacht officers. And all of them will form the basis of the Konstantin Malofeev Foundation, who will become the son-in-law of Zurab Chavchanadze.

"Connections were found with the Nikolaevich (Romanov) branch and Michael of Kent."

All of them participated in the unification process in one way or another.

But Father Tikhon’s main idea was brilliant. He came up with the idea of ​​“intercepting” all the control nodes of the ROCOR.

It was about both financial and managerial issues.

The first ones were helped by connections with Archpriest Pyotr Kholodny. Since 1993, he has been treasurer of the ROCOR Synod of Bishops. He held this position until 2005.

“Kholodny was an interesting investor. He came to manage the finances of the ROCOR at the most critical moment. In fact, he saved the ROCOR from bankruptcy. He built interesting connections with Moscow. It is known that Kholodny invested almost the entire capital of the ROCOR in shares of Norilsk Nickel. It was somewhere $75 million."

“Since 2000, Peter worked as a sales consultant for Norilsk Nickel, then, from 2001, as the general director of the Norimet holding, the exclusive distributor of Norilsk Nickel in international markets.”

Peter Kholodny is the grandson of Protopresbyter Alexander Kiselev, confessor of General Vlasov and the ROA.

“In fact, the Synod of the ROCOR at some point was faced with a fact - all the money was transferred to Russia.”

“Later, Pyotr Kholodny left the ROCOR, they say that there was some kind of conflict. He returned to Norilsk Nickel. He worked together with Movchan in the Third World company.

In July 2001, there was a revolt among the leadership of the ROCOR. Metropolitan Vitaly, who had led the ROCOR since 1986, was retired. It was he who took a tough position against unification with the Russian Orthodox Church MP.

In addition, Metropolitan Vitaly accused the members of the Synod, Mark and Alypius, of collaboration and collusion with Moscow.
“You must understand who Father Tikhon is. He is a good strategist. He calculates everything and builds complex schemes. It would be difficult for him to conflict with Metropolitan Clement, but with Kirill there was a whole program of behavior.”

“Patriarch Kirill appointed him head of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, President Medvedev - a member of the Presidential Council for Culture. Under Medvedev, Father Tikhon knocked out the idea of ​​​​implementing the “My History” project. Do not forget that under Kirill, Father Shevkunov became a bishop.”

“Many people around the patriarch said that Father Tikhon was the initiator of the conflict between the patriarch and Yuri Shevchenko (the story of nanodust). The rumors about cohabitation with Lydia Leonova, the story with the clock, the story of Pussy and the campaign against the blue lobby in the Russian Orthodox Church are all supposedly the work of Father Tikhon"

But not everyone agrees that Pussy’s story is connected with Father Tikhon. “This is not his idea. But Father Tikhon criticized the patriarch and asked to commute Tolokonnikova’s punishment.”

According to the source, “Father Tikhon tried to minimize contacts with the security forces. In 2009, his friend Pugachev received citizenship in France and left Russia. Shevkunov has two partners - the Rotenberg brothers - through the massage therapist Goloshchapov and Malofeev.”

MOSCOW, May 18 - RIA Novosti, Sergey Stefanov. Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), appointed head of the Pskov Metropolis, on Sunday, before leaving for Pskov, will say goodbye to the inhabitants and parishioners of the Sretensky Monastery on the territory of the monastery, the monastery reported.

“On May 20, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, before leaving for the Pskov Metropolis, Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) will celebrate the Divine Liturgy and say goodbye to the brethren, students of the Sretensky Theological Seminary, employees and parishioners of the Sretensky Monastery,” the monastery noted.

The service will begin at 10:00.

"Leaves to come back again"

“There is such sadness in his eyes... Apparently, it is very difficult for him to part with his native Sretensky Monastery,” Olga wrote in the comments to a photo report dedicated to the meeting of Bishop Tikhon in the Sretensky Monastery after his elevation to the rank of metropolitan on May 17.

“And I have a feeling that you will still return to Sretensky one day. As they say, leave only to return again,” user Marina wrote in turn.

The reader, signed Eugene, noted that Metropolitan Tikhon “the time has come to return to his native land - to strengthen the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery,” and wished the bishop “God’s help” in his labors. It was in Pechory that the future metropolitan began his monastic path in the 1980s.

“Both joyful and sad. Father Tikhon was one of those few shepherds, thanks to whom living and going to church seems much easier, especially in today’s increasingly cosmopolitan and commercial Moscow,” wrote Igor Pisarev.

And the “reader from the Moscow region” probably expressed the general wish of the parishioners: “I would like the future vicar to be from the brethren of the Sretensky Monastery and to preserve in him the spirit that was under Bishop Tikhon.”

From Pechory to Moscow - and back

The press secretary of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', priest Alexander Volkov, previously told RIA Novosti that Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov), appointed ruling bishop of the Pskov Metropolis, will no longer be able to fulfill the duties of abbot of the Sretensky Monastery and rector of the Sretensky Theological Seminary. The decision on a new governor and a new rector has not yet been made; the candidacy will have to be approved by the Holy Synod. At the same time, Shevkunov will retain the position of head of the Patriarchal Council for Culture.

On Thursday, during the festive liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the occasion of the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, Patriarch Kirill elevated Bishop Tikhon of Pskov and Porkhov to the rank of Metropolitan in connection with his appointment by the Synod as the ruling bishop of the Pskov Metropolis.

Shevkunov began his monastic path in the Pskov diocese - in 1982, after graduating from the screenwriting department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), he entered the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery as a laborer and then as a novice. Subsequently, Tikhon (Shevkunov) became abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, the Moscow metochion of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery.

Vladyka Tikhon is known as a writer. In just one year, the circulation of his book “Unholy Saints,” published in 2011, exceeded 1 million copies. In 2012, the collection was shortlisted for the Big Book Award and won the reader vote. Metropolitan Tikhon is also a film director, among his works are “Pskov-Pechersk Monastery” and “Death of the Empire”.