Life of the Martyr Evgeny Nikolaevich Pogozhev (Poselyanin)

The brilliant and prolific spiritual writer Evgeny Nikolaevich Pogozhev, who published under the pseudonym Poselyanin, who accepted death for his faith during the years of persecution of the Orthodox Church, was born on April 21 (May 3), 1870 in Moscow.

His father, Nikolai Aleksandrovich (died in 1902), earned personal nobility while working as a general practitioner. His mother, Lidiya Nikolaevna, was from a noble family; her godparents were Infantry General D. S. Levshin and Princess N. V. Obolenskaya.

Evgeny was brought up in the pious traditions of the Moscow church. In the essay “Christmas Days (from childhood memories)” he said: “When I still remember very little, Christmas seemed to me to be some special time of an influx of sweet things. Then I began to remember the solemn all-night vigil, loud singing, heavy chandeliers in flames, heavy golden vestments, clouds of incense spreading in the church, and above all this the thought of the Child, Who had just been born and Who is God. There was Christmas at the age of seven, which I will never forget…”. This event laid in his soul “a warm love for Russian churchliness”. At the same time, it taught him to venerate the saints, about whom he later wrote much and vividly: “Among the advertisements of illustrated publications sent out before Christmas, one sheet came into our house, on which Metropolitan Philip was depicted before Ivan the Terrible. To this day I still vividly remember this somewhat blurred black drawing: Philip, his stern gaze fixed on the face of the Savior, the Tsar standing angrily before him, and a crowd of oprichniks. I don’t know who explained the contents of the picture to me, but Philip’s feat aroused in me an extraordinary, albeit boyish, delight. I didn’t tell anyone about what I had experienced, but for several days I walked around thinking about Philip all the time”.

Evgeny Pogozhev studied at the 1st Moscow Gymnasium (1879–1888). In 1888, he entered the Law Faculty of Moscow University. His first published work, “Before the Anniversary of October 17 in Moscow” (Moscow, 1889), dates back to his student years. It was dedicated to the crash of the royal train in Borki, near Kharkov, and the miraculous rescue of Tsar Alexander III and his family.

In 1888, an event occurred in the life of Yevgeny Pogozhev that determined his entire future life. Reverend Barsanuphius of Optina tells about this: “Once he and his aunt were going to Crimea, and before this trip she wanted to visit Father Ambrose.

“You go, auntie, and I’ll wait for you in Kaluga,” he declared decisively.

- Why not? Let's go together, I'll be happier, and you don't have to go to the elder.

Evgeny Nikolaevich agreed. They arrived. His aunt begged him to go to Father Ambrose at least once, but the nephew resolutely declared: "No, don't ask me, I won't go to Father Ambrose for anything. He'll torture me with his texts."

He never went. His aunt told Father Ambrose about him.

“He needs to come to me,” said the priest, “tell him that the sinful Ambrose asks him to come to him for six to ten minutes.”

He left Father Ambrose a different person. From then on he began to visit Optina and asked to join the monastery, but the priest objected:

- No, first you need to finish university, and then I’ll tell you what to do.

After graduating from university, Evgeny Nikolaevich came to Father Ambrose and asked what to do now.

“And now,” said the priest, “write in defense of the faith, the Church and the people” 

Later he wrote with warmth of heart about his mentor and spiritual father: “What a miracle of the soul was experienced when you stand before this man, immediately warmed, enlightened by the rays of grace coming from him” . Evgeny Poselyanin dedicated a separate essay to the great elder: “The Righteous Man of Our Time, the Optina Elder Ambrose” (St. Petersburg, 1907). In the “Chronicle of the Optina Hermitage”, compiled in 1900 by the rassophore monk Pavel Plikhankov (the future Elder Barsanuphius), on June 5, an entry was made: “Today, a Trinity leaflet about Father Ambrose was sent to Father Hegumen Xenophon, compiled by one of the spiritual sons of the Elder, Evgeny Nikolaevich Pogozhev, who places his articles in various spiritual journals under the pseudonym of Poselyanin. E. Pogozhev has very accurately depicted the spiritual image of the Elder and his service to the Orthodox Russian people." An entry was also made about E. Poselyanin on July 16: "Today the famous spiritual writer Evgeny Nikolaevich Pogozhev visited Optina Pustyn... He visited the Head of the Skete and the rassophore monk Father Pavel... Evgeny Pogozhev was one of the most devoted spiritual sons of Elder Ambrose and published several articles about the life of the Elder in the Soul-Beneficial Reading for 1892-1895. In addition, Evgeny Pogozhev published a separate brochure in 1898, in which he described Optina Pustyn from the best side in relation to both its external and especially its internal improvement."

The creative work of E. Poselyanin, which began with the blessing of St. Ambrose, lasted for more than a quarter of a century and left a noticeable mark in church-educational literature. It is diverse in content, colorful in form, accessible to the reader (even when it touches on deep questions of a person’s secret prayerful life). The books and articles of Evgeny Poselyanin are imbued with a warm religious feeling. They testified to a person of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, pampered by the comforts of life, cooled in faith, carried away by the solution of social and political issues, about the high and true principles of life, to which the Divine Teacher calls.

Evgeny Poselyanin devoted most of his works to the biographies of holy saints and ascetics of piety: “The Desert. Essays on the Lives of Ancient Ascetics” (St. Petersburg, 1907; reprint: St. Petersburg, 1995); “The Council of Moscow Miracle Workers” (Moscow, 1912); “The Russian Church and Russian Ascetics of the 18th Century” (St. Petersburg, 1905; reprint: Sergiev Posad, 1990); “Shrines of the Russian Land. With a Description of the Lives and Deeds of the Saints and the Signs That Came from Miracle-Working Icons” (St. Petersburg, 1899); “The Venerable Seraphim of Sarov the Miracle Worker (with New Information about the Elder)” (St. Petersburg, 1903; reprint: Moscow, 1990); "Russian Righteous Men of the Last Times" (Pg., 1917, books 1-8); "Holy Youth. Stories about Holy Children and the Childhood and Adolescence of Saints" (Moscow, 1994); "Joasaf Tsarevich" (Moscow, 1895, 2nd ed., Moscow, 1904); "Under the Blessed Sky. One for All (about St. Sergius of Radonezh)" (St. Petersburg, 1994); "Spiritual Authority and Secular Authority" (Moscow, 1996) [About Metropolitan Arseny Matseevich], etc.

Evgeny Poselyanin was able to show his contemporaries the imperishable beauty of the feat of the saints: “Whoever had to experience that extraordinary impression that you experience when suddenly, to the soul, exhausted by everyday anxiety, from afar, quiet, dispassionate, joyful and happily calm, like eternity, sounds of church singing reach, he will understand that a similar impression is experienced when, after a long oblivion of the highest interests of the soul, a long period during which the lips from the fullness of the heart did not whisper prayers, - suddenly before the eyes true tales of the feats of the former people of Christianity unfold, those free martyrs who with such consistency strove to take and took from life only one of its spiritual sides. No matter how great the abyss may be between our lawless life and their bright “lives,” but since we call forth within ourselves those treasures, that best content of our soul, which is partly stolen, partly trampled by the oppression of life, but the shoots of which do not perish completely in a person as long as he breathes – how can we understand these distant and strange people with this best side of our being… They are beautiful in the integrity of their powerful characters, in that great concentration with which they spent their earthly life, not leaving the feet of Christ the Teacher, listening to His Word” .

In 1919, the book by Evgeny Poselyanin “The Mother of God. A Complete Illustrated Description of Her Earthly Life and the Miraculous Icons Dedicated to Her Life” was published (St. Petersburg, 1914; Moscow, 2002), which became the best among all works dedicated to this topic dear to the heart of the Orthodox person.

This work was the fruit of reverent veneration of the Most Holy Theotokos. "Eighteen centuries since the day when the Virgin Mary was raised to the great Throne in the arms of Her Son and after a life of unspeakable sorrow, torment and humiliation was crowned in the wondrous Kingdom of Heaven - these eighteen centuries were powerless to diminish the delight of mankind before the quiet sanctity of the Virgin Mary. In the few reviews of Her contemporaries that have come down to us, one can hear the boundless admiration of the heart, one can hear feelings that exceed all words, unable to find sufficient expressions". The book by Evgeny Poselyanin about the icons of the Most Holy Theotokos stands out for its remarkable completeness and wealth of testimonies about the miracles revealed by the Mother of God through the images dedicated to Her.

Most of the works of E. Poselyanin have been republished in our time and serve the cause of spiritual enlightenment of our people.

In 1904, Evgeny Poselyanin married Natalia Yakovlevna Grot, the daughter of a famous philologist. The marriage was fragile and broke up after six months: there were serious differences of opinion between the spouses. Evgeny Nikolaevich painfully experienced what happened many years later. On October 22, 1911, St. Barsanuphius said to his children: “No, earthly happiness is fragile, and blessed is the man who does not pursue it, but places all his hope in Christ the Savior. He will not be put to shame. Today, I have a man who was greatly deceived by fortune - this is Evgeny Nikolaevich Pogozhev ... " Elder Barsanuphius saw great spiritual gifts in him: “You are an idealist, Evgeny Nikolaevich,” I told him, “there is no place for you in the world, go to a monastery, any monastery, even ours, of course, where the covenants of the elders are kept. You would spend five years as a novice, ten years as a monk, five years as a hierodeacon...

- Well, and then?

“Then you would be an elder, like Father Ambrose. You are now an external artist, and then you will become an internal one”.

Evgeny Poselyanin did not take monastic vows: “You can be useful in the world too,” he replied”.

His subsequent life showed that his rich inner powers did not remain unclaimed. At the age of 61, he was awarded a martyr's crown.

E. Poselyanin combined his spiritual and writing activities with government service. In 1893, he moved to Tsarskoye Selo (later to St. Petersburg) and joined the chancery of the 2nd (peasant) department of the Senate. Five years later, he transferred to the Press Committee, being listed as part of the Ministry of Justice. In 1903-1904, he worked in the Chancellery of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences. He received the rank of state councilor. As a state councilor, Yevgeny Poselyanin was called up for military service in 1904 as a reserve ensign, but did not participate in military operations. In 1913, he was an official on special assignments in the Main Directorate of Land Management and Agriculture. In the same year, Yevgeny Nikolayevich was awarded hereditary nobility. During the world war, he served in the War Ministry (member of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission investigating German crimes). From the front he sent reports on the exploits of Russian soldiers, which were compiled into the book From the Life of Our Heroic Warriors (Pg., 1916). Despite the fact that he devoted a lot of time and energy to work in government agencies, spiritual and creative work was the most important thing in his life. He actively contributed to the magazines: Russian Pilgrim, Wanderer, Missionary Review, Soul-Beneficial Reading, Light, etc., as well as to the newspapers: Church News, New Time, and Moscow News. The following books were published separately: Heart-to-Heart Conversations (SPb., 1901; 2nd ed.: Pg., 1915), Heroes and Devotees of the Hard Times of the 17th Century (Moscow, 1912), From Heart to Heart. From the Secret of the Spiritual Life of a Layman" (St. Petersburg, 1914), etc. After 1917, he published only a few articles in the magazine "Bozhya Niva": "A Ray of Heavenly Light (Father John of Kronstadt)" (1918, No. 1-2) and "Holy Russia - as Depicted by Russian Artists" (1918, No. 6-7). In the future, opportunities for Yevgeny Poselyanin as a church writer practically disappeared. In his investigative file from 1924-1926, there is a statement to the authorized representatives of the Yenisei department of the GPU, where he speaks about his literary activities before his arrest: "In recent years, I have turned to research into Pushkin's biography, and my response, entitled "The Poisoned Pushkin," has earned a flattering review from Academician Koni and other famous Pushkin scholars".

From April 1918 to December of the same year, E. Poselyanin worked in the Insurance Company; then he collaborated in the Department of Protection and Registration of Monuments of Art and Antiquity (December 1918 – April 1922). Having lost his job, from the spring of 1922 he gave private lessons.

On the night of April 11-12, 1924, he was arrested on charges of belonging to a counter-revolutionary organization. On July 25, 1924, by a resolution of a special meeting of the OGPU board under Article 68, Yevgeny Poselyanin (in the case - E. N. Pogozhev) was exiled for 2 years to the village of Goltavino in the Priangarsky district. The Investigative file contains a "Characteristic of the administrative exile Yevgeny Nikolaevich Pogozhev" compiled by the authorized representative for exile Shestakov: "following into exile with a stage, the latter was constantly engaged in malicious anti-Soviet agitation among the exiles both along the way and in the transit prisons... Pogozhev's malicious agitation was carried out not only among the prisoners, but there were also attempts to corrupt the convoy accompanying the stage with his agitation. While serving his exile in the village of Goltavino, Pogozhev maintained close ties and friendships with the local priest and the population of anti-Soviet sentiments... At one time, i.e. upon arrival in exile in the Kansk district, he was left to serve his term of exile in the city of Kansk, living in the city of Kansk. Pogozhev's behavior immediately began to reveal his activity, expressed in hidden anti-Soviet agitation, as well as in his communication with a group of local Tikhonites".

After his exile, which ended in July 1926, Yevgeny Poselyanin returned to the city on the Neva and lived on Mokhovaya Street not far from the Transfiguration Cathedral, of which he was a parishioner.

From December 25 to 26, 1930, 13 people were arrested in Leningrad, whom OGPU officers united as members of N. M. Runkevich's circle. The indictment stated: "Under the guise of a church service in her apartment, after the closure of the former Preobrazhensky Cathedral, N. M. Runkevich organized meetings at which current political events of the day were discussed in a counterrevolutionary context, counterrevolutionary literature was read, etc.". Among the 13 arrested was Yevgeny Poselyanin.

What the OGPU investigators called a counter-revolutionary organization was in fact a regular gathering of people with the same faith and beliefs. After the closure of the Transfiguration Cathedral, the rector of the church, Archpriest Mikhail Tikhomirov, regularly held services at the apartment of Natalia Mikhailovna Rynkevich, who was a member of the twenty. During interrogation, N. M. Rynkevich named E. Poselyanin among those who were close to her in spirit and who visited her apartment. Yevgeny Nikolayevich himself was interrogated on December 29, 1930. He said that he had known N. M. Rynkevich since childhood. Regarding the charges brought against him, Poselyanin stated: "Regarding my political views, I must note: the persecutions of the Soviet government could not please me as a believer. Hence the hostile attitude towards it that I sometimes expressed. Without being specifically involved in developing political and economic disciplines, I refracted my political sympathies through the prism of religious feelings. I must note that I am a great admirer of Metropolitan Filaret, and the latter said that the Tsar is the messenger of God on earth. Perhaps this statement is enough to define my political credo" . The villager expressed his positive attitude to communism as an idea, and called Marx's teaching utopian.

On February 10, the Special Department of the OGPU, applying Article 58-11 to the arrested persons, sent their case “for extrajudicial consideration” and petitioned: to citizen Evgeny Nikolaevich Pogozhev. “to apply the highest measure of social protection – to shoot”. On the same day, the OGPU PP troika approved the sentence, which was carried out on February 13.

Thus, Evgeny Pogozhev, who was a spiritual child of the Venerable Ambrose of Optina and, with the blessing of the elder, dedicated his life to the spiritual enlightenment of the people, was awarded the holy martyr's crown.

In the “Memoirs” of the Diveyevo nun Seraphima (Bulgakova), the posthumous appearance of the martyr Evgeny is described: “Evgeny Poselyanin, who wrote “Ascetics of Piety,” lived with an unbelieving sister in Petrograd before his death. He had a dream about someone calling on the phone, then they came at night and took him away. He woke up in the morning and went to his spiritual father, Father Boris, confessed, and received the Holy Mysteries. That same night, the dream he had seen literally came true: they called on the phone, then broke in, searched, took him away and drove him away. After some time, his sister learned that he had been shot. She was an unbeliever and did not perform the funeral service for him, and did not tell any of the priests about it. After some time, his spiritual father Boris serves in the church, goes out to cense, and suddenly sees Poselyanin standing in the choir. When the priest comes closer, he opens his jacket, and Father Boris sees a bullet wound on his chest. Father Boris asks: "When did this happen?" In response, Yevgeny Poselyanin points to the icon of the Three Saints. The priest says: "I need to cense; wait, I'll be right back," and goes into the altar. When he returned, there was no one in the choir anymore" 

Priest Afanasy Gumerov