OPEN LETTER

Patriarch of All Rus', His Holiness Kirill
from Russian families traditionally vacationing in the village of Divnomorskoye municipality Gelendzhik.

Hello Your Holiness.

Most of us are Orthodox Christians and parishioners of churches of the Russian Orthodox Church. We come to churches with our joys and troubles and invariably receive love, support and comfort here.

However, life sometimes tests us and puts before us questions that can only be solved on your own difficult. This is what prompted our families to turn to you personally, Your Holiness, and ask for your personal indifferent participation in an issue that directly affects our safety and the safety of our children.

The history of the village of Divnomorskoye, where we have been resting for many decades, has always been and remains connected with the resort business, with the rest and health improvement of millions of our compatriots. For more than a century and a half of its existence, the village has gained a well-deserved fame and reputation as a national resort with unique recreational, historical and cultural sites.

The most famous of them are the world's largest Dzhankhotsky forest of relic Pitsunda pine and the Old Dzhankhotskaya (Shcherbinovskaya) road passing through its territory, laid by Fyodor Andreyevich Shcherbina, a native of a priest's family and an outstanding public figure of pre-revolutionary Russia - the founder of domestic statistical science, a corresponding member of St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences, founder of the Kuban Polytechnic Institute, deputy of the 2nd State Duma from the Kuban region, political and spiritual leader of the Kuban Cossacks, author of the fundamental works "History of the Kuban Cossack Host", "Kuban Cossacks and its chieftains" and many others.

This road, which connected Divnomorskoye with the village of Dzhankhot and was entirely built with the money of Fyodor Andreevich, was originally conceived by him as publicly accessible and remained so for over one hundred and thirty years. Its dual purpose - both as a transport artery and as a unique sightseeing and tourist route - remained until the 70s of the last century, when the Gelendzhik-Praskoveevka parallel highway was built. Since then, the Shcherbinovskaya road has been used as a health path, and its fame as a truly paradise for tourists and vacationers has only increased.

So, according to the Gelendzhik Bureau of Tourism and Excursions, from the mid-70s until the collapse of the USSR, at least 100 thousand official sightseers passed through it every year, while the number of “unofficial”, according to local historians, exceeded a million. Similar data, in particular, are given in her book “Gelendzhik with Love” by the famous local architect and historian Maya Makarovna Osicheva, who worked as a guide on this route for many years. For entire generations of our citizens, rest in the Big Gelendzhik has long been firmly associated with the opportunity to visit the Old Dzhankhotskaya (Shcherbinovskaya) road and once again admire its unique beauty.

Realizing its role as the most important recreational zone of the resort city, the authorities of Gelendzhik and the administration of the Golubaya Dal sanatorium, back in the 60s, equipped a stone staircase and an alley that allowed vacationers and the local population to freely get on the Old Dzhankhotskaya road directly from the embankment of the Divnomorskoye village. And people, of course, took advantage of this opportunity: vacationers, especially families, gladly alternated visiting beaches and noisy embankments with calm walks along shady serpentines filled with the air of a pine forest. As for the population of Divnomorsky, for him the road was also the shortest route to the village cemetery, where relatives and friends are buried.

The events of the 90s, which led to the collapse of the former system of mass tourism and recreation, also affected Divnomorskoye. But even in the most difficult times for the village, there were enough Russian families for whom its unique nature was still beyond competition. They put up with the problems encountered at every turn, but at the same time again and again returned to the bays, forests and hiking trails they loved and traveled since childhood. It was thanks to them that the village survived in the 90s and developed in the 2000s, it was they who, annually leaving a significant part of their family budgets here, sincerely hoped for its cultural and competitive future.

Unfortunately, these hopes have not yet materialized. Moreover, everyone who loves Divnomorskoye is now experiencing the deepest shock, the main reason for which was the deprivation of vacationers of traditional access to historically established recreational facilities - and above all to the Dzhankhotsky forest of relic Pitsunda pine and the Old Dzhankhotskaya (Shcherbinovskaya) road. Its key plot, directly adjacent to the village, was arbitrarily appropriated and partitioned off by the owner of a private mansion built on Golubodalskaya Street, 14.

In connection with this, the indigenous inhabitants of Divnomorskoye are no less shocked. After all, this section of the road served them as the only convenient and safe way out into the forest and to the village cemetery (the bypass road, along the narrow Praskoveevsky highway, oversaturated with vehicles, is many times longer and is associated with a significant risk to life).

Both we and the residents of the village are non-conflict people. Knowing that the Law is on our side, we, nevertheless, were in no hurry to embark on litigation and completely relied on the conscience of this homeowner and his (albeit belated) understanding that it was impossible to base our own on the lawless violation of the interests of compatriots and exposing their lives to danger well-being and comfort.

Our even greater hopes were associated with the speedy completion of the construction of the Spiritual and Cultural Center of the Russian Orthodox Church, adjacent to the mansion at Golubodalskaya, 14. We were convinced that the Church, being aware of the cultural and historical significance of the Old Dzhankhotskaya (Shcherbinovskaya) road and its extreme importance for the local population and vacationers, will act as a reliable guarantor of its traditional integrity and accessibility.

However, in Lately we are increasingly confronted with facts that fill our hearts with bewilderment and anxiety. So, this autumn, a three-meter concrete fence was erected in the vicinity of the Spiritual and Cultural Center, which, following the same concrete fence of the mansion at Golubodalskaya, 14 (and, in fact, being its continuation), tightly blocked the section of Staraya Dzhankhotskaya (Shcherbinovskaya) from both sides ) roads up to the village cemetery.

We, Your Holiness, consider this blocking completely unacceptable. And there are a number of reasons for this: both legal, legal, and economic, spiritual and moral.

1.
This section of the road is located within the administrative boundaries of the village of Divnomorskoye and, since the century before last, has served its population as the only convenient and safe way out into the forest and to the village cemetery, that is, according to the Law (clauses 9,10,12, article 85 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation), it is land of common use of the municipality and is not subject to any alienation and partitioning in principle. At the same time, it, passing along the upper border of the coastal gorges, actually represents that part of the sea coastline, which the Law (clauses 1,2,6,8 of Article 6 of the Water Code of the Russian Federation) considers exclusively as a territory for the common use of all citizens Russian Federation and intends for their free and safe stay and movement.

2.
Installing a fence in this place not only grossly violates the Law, but also forces the population of the village and vacationers to get to the forest and the cemetery bypassing, overcoming on foot a two-kilometer stretch of the busy Praskoveevsky highway and every second risking being under the wheels of oncoming vehicles. Considering that already next summer the entire flow of thousands of tourists and vacationers, traditionally rushing from Divnomorsky towards Dzhankhotsky pine forest, will move exactly through the highway, the probability of accidents (especially with children!) will increase many times here. It is also obvious that each such case will receive the widest publicity and public outcry, and a significant share of the moral responsibility for what happened will be assigned to the Church and its representatives. Since the concern for children, their well-being and safety is proclaimed in the recent message of the President priority goals of the entire Russian society – you must agree, Your Holiness, that we have no right to allow such a thing.

3.
Without extensive and easily accessible recreational areas, a modern resort does not exist. This is a commonly known truth. It has long been learned by our neighbors and competitors: Türkiye, Bulgaria, Romania. They develop their resorts, carefully preserving the old ones and equipping new public forest and park areas. They fight for every tourist (including Russian), attracting him with the opportunity to fully communicate with the richest nature of the Black Sea coast. The Dzhankhotsky forest of relic Pitsunda pine and the village of Divnomorskoye are parts of a single resort organism that has evolved over the centuries. Cutting the artery that naturally connects them means, in fact, destroying this single living organism, inflicting a mortal blow on the resort and its well-deserved reputation. After all, people come here from all over the country not at all to look at someone's fences and put their own lives at risk. They need clean sea, air and uniquely beautiful pine forest - true business card the entire Gelendzhik region. To deprive them of convenient and safe access to these natural blessings means to deprive them of a good rest, to which they are accustomed in Divnomorskoye. We are already seeing the attitude towards what is happening on the part of our friends from St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, and many other Russian cities - and, believe me, it is extremely, extremely negative. Agree, Your Holiness, that the reaction of people to the appearance here of the Spiritual and Cultural Center of the Russian Orthodox Church should and can be completely different.

4.
You, Your Holiness, constantly urge Russians “not to be Ivans who do not remember kinship”, speak about the importance for the people of their historical memory and examples of moral behavior stored in it. The clearest example of such behavior, of course, is the life of Fyodor Andreyevich Shcherbina, a true patriot of Russia and the Kuban land. Right now, in our days, his long-awaited return to his homeland is taking place: on the initiative and with the participation of the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, with the active support of the Cossacks, the Church and the entire population of Kuban, the ashes of Fedor Andreevich were brought from Prague and reburied in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Krasnodar, in mass editions his books are published, conferences dedicated to his scientific and spiritual heritage are held, a resolution of the Head of the regional administration on perpetuating his memory is adopted. In the coming years, the reconstruction and museumification of his estate in Dzhanhot will begin - the place where from 1910 to 1913 the main work of his life, the two-volume History of the Kuban Cossack Army, was created. It is obvious that the Old Dzhankhotskaya (Shcherbinovskaya) road, built by Fyodor Andreyevich Shcherbina and serving people faithfully for over 130 years, will become an important part of the future memorial complex. She is the same monument to the great son and patriot of Russia as his books and journalism, a living symbol of the continuity of our spiritual traditions.

Believe me, Your Holiness: the fate of the Shcherbinovskaya road, its appearance and integrity will become for many of our fellow citizens evidence of how sincere the Church is in her calls and sermons. Agree that a deaf fence blocking it is not the best remedy from historical oblivion. And not the most successful way to establish truly good and trusting relations between the Church and society.

We, Your Holiness, are convinced that the current situation around the Shcherbinovskaya road is just a misunderstanding that needs to be corrected as soon as possible. The Church has all the possibilities for this. All that is required is good will and the strength of moral example.

We also look forward to the fact that the Spiritual and Cultural Center of the Russian Orthodox Church, justifying its high mission, will come up with a noble initiative to preserve and restore the Shcherbinovskaya road in its historical form, as well as to give it the official status of a monument of history and culture of regional significance. And then, perhaps, our children and grandchildren will call her not only "Shcherbinovskaya", but also "patriarch".

Thank you, Your Holiness, for reading our Message. May God give you health and strength in your tireless service for the good of the Fatherland.

(This letter was handed over to the Patriarch 2 months ago. There is still no answer.)

Few people know, but the legendary weapons designer - Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, nine months before his death, wrote a letter of repentance to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill.

In a letter of repentance, Kalashnikov shares his thoughts on the fate of the country and humanity, and also shares his emotional experiences and doubts about his responsibility for the deaths of people killed with a machine gun that he created.

For those who no longer remember, Kalashnikov invented his machine gun specifically to protect his country, and not to be used by terrorists. So, a letter from Mikhail Kalashnikov to Patriarch Kirill:

Holy
Patriarch of Moscow
and All Rus'
Your Holiness!

I have devoted many years to the design business. I have more than one hundred and fifty types of small arms on my account, which were created with the sole purpose of providing reliable protection of the Fatherland from encroachments of the enemy.

No one can convince me folk wisdom“keep the gunpowder dry” and “the sleigh is ready in the summer”, for I know very well what our gunpowder was and what the sleigh was like in the twenties, thirties, and then on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. I am a soldier whom fate tested in 1941, in the very first months of that terrible and fatal war for our people. Thank God, I survived, although I received a shell shock and a wound that has been making itself felt for seventy years.

Yes, the body brings pain, but bodily pain is nothing compared to the spiritual wounds that we receive in life. My spiritual wound of 1941 does not give me rest either at night or during the day. How is it that such a power, such a powerful defense industry, such a strong design school, so many wonderful weapons were in reserve, and once on the battlefield, I and my front-line comrades-in-arms could not defend themselves. We did not have machine guns and machine guns, and the legendary Mosin rifle and that one for three. And fate decreed that yesterday's Altai boy, the son of the dispossessed and exiled to taiga Siberia, a tanker and a senior sergeant, becomes a weapons designer who, in four difficult years, managed to realize his dream in a miracle weapon, an AK-47 assault rifle.

Then, after the war and until very recently, I worked hard and painfully, I could not stop day or night, I did not leave the machine until I created a model with improved characteristics. We always kept pace with the times, we were ahead of our main rival, the Americans, in some ways, and at the same time we were friends on a human level, although we served different social systems that were irreconcilable in those years.

And the world before 1991 was what it was - unsteady, embittered, contradictory. But he was, despite the wars and conflicts in which there was a shootout, people died, which is also my machine gun ...

My heartache is unbearable, the same insoluble question: if my machine gun took people's lives, then I, Mikhailo Kalashnikov, ninety-three years old, the son of a peasant woman, a Christian and Orthodox in my faith, is guilty of the death of people, let even an enemy?

The more I live, the more often this question drills into my brain, the deeper I get into my reflections and conjectures about why the Almighty allowed the devilish desires of a person - envy, greed, aggression, why he allowed thoughts of fratricide and villainy to break out of human nature and become self-sufficient, erected by someone and somewhere into a moral and political standard? Why did the Lord God and his son Jesus Christ, who came into the world and suffered, perished from the earthly “world”, leave everything as it was and leave it as it is? Everything around is changing, there is no change only to a person and his thinking: he is just as envious, evil, heartless, restless as before!

The Russian Orthodox Church brings to the world the holy values ​​of kindness and mercy. During the harsh years of the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet people needed spiritual fortitude more than ever, the godless state changed its attitude towards the Orthodox faith: churches were opened in the villages and cities, the air was filled with alarm bells, a prayer was heard from the lips of the atheist people ...

For twenty years we have been living in another country. It was as if something inside was torn, some kind of emptiness in the soul, an irretrievable loss in the heart ... And also anxiety for the future of children and grandchildren ... And again, as in the years of military hard times, the people reached out to God, to comprehend their place on Earth in the Universe. Church and faith are strengthened in Russian society. And this is very encouraging! But here's what can't help but worry. Yes, the number of temples and monasteries on our land is increasing, but evil still does not decrease! Evil takes on other, more sophisticated forms. Evil sometimes appears under the flag of mercy and in the guise of goodness, sneaking like a night thief into our house, into our families and corrupting their spiritual and moral foundations. Good and evil live, coexist, fight, and, what is most terrible, reconcile with each other in the souls of people - this is what I came to at the end of my earthly life.

It turns out some kind of perpetual motion machine, which I so wanted to invent in my younger years. Light and shadow, good and evil - two opposites of one whole, unable to exist without each other? And did the Almighty arrange everything like that? And humanity to vegetate forever in this ratio?

I rely on you in my sinful thoughts, on your pastoral word and your perspicacious wisdom. I watch and listen to your sermons and answers to the letters of the laity, whose souls are in worldly turmoil. You help many with the Word of God, people are in great need of spiritual support.

Your Holiness, all my life I have dealt with pieces of iron, I have rubbed them together, made their proximity more tolerant, giving a new quality. Of course, people always and at all times require grinding, require their own designer, who could set it up, help them communicate with each other.

And such good mediators, in my opinion, are the ministers of the Russian and Orthodox Church. On our Udmurt land there is a Temple, which is located in the center of Izhevsk and bears the name of the Archangel Michael, which is especially close to my heart, my soul, in which beautiful and bright priests pray for us sinners.

When, at the age of 91, I crossed the threshold of the Temple, there was excitement and a feeling in my soul ... it was as if I had already been here ... Such a feeling is given, probably, only to a baptized person, but I was christened in 1919 in a rural church in the village of Kurya Kurinsky district of the Altai Territory. Thank God, my baptismal Church in my native village is now being restored, and I am grateful to fate that I have the opportunity to support this holy cause. Many years have passed, but the soul remembers, once it responded to the priest’s voice, to prayer, it rose from the flickering of candles and the smell of incense ... How good, then the thought flashed through my head that I refused to build a museum of my name on this place where it stands now St. Michael's Church, blown up in the 30s. But it has more than two centuries of history.

Especially dear is the circumstance that last year in the spring I was given the opportunity to plant Siberian cedar near the Temple, delivered from my beloved Motherland, from the village of Kurya in the Altai Territory. God willing, a worthy tree will grow from a sapling, beautify the spiritual life of my countrymen. People will look at the Temple and the Tree and think about this neighborhood of two eternal symbols of Good and Life. And my soul will rejoice, watching from the heights of heaven for this beauty and grace.

I understand how difficult it is for you now, in the time of unrighteous attacks on the Orthodox Church, undermining faith in people and corrupting their morality. I would like to believe that the forces of Light and Reason will win the final victory.

Please accept my best wishes. Your Holiness, may the Almighty help you in your labors for the sake of humanity and for the benefit of the citizens of Russia.

Servant of God
Designer Mikhail Kalashnikov.

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Patriarch - the highest rank of the church hierarchy, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, referring to it, both orally and in writing, one should follow the generally accepted dogmatic rules.

Instruction

Before writing a letter Patriarch, you need to clearly imagine the subject of your appeal to him. You must understand that the church's first hierarch daily has many concerns about the fate of the church, so the subject of your letter should be really important. Make sure you can't go to lower clergy with your question, like your local bishop or metropolitan.

Begin letter follows from the next call to Patriarch(indicated above the text of the letter in the upper right corner):
His Holiness
Patriarch Moscow
and All Rus' [name of the Patriarch]
from [your submission].
For every believing Orthodox Christian, it is important to receive a pastoral blessing, so you can directly begin the story with the words: “Lord, bless.” Or: "Your Eminence, bless." The following appeal will also be true: “Your Holiness, His Holiness, Vladyka Patriarch, Gracious Archpastor and Father!”

The text of your message must be correct and grammatically correct, it must not contain threats, insults and profanity. During the course of the story, refer to Patriarch followed by "Your Holiness" or "Most Holy Master". State your thoughts in a coherent, simple and plain language, without the use of jargon and dialects. Be respectful.
Be sincere and open, don't write anything you can't be sure of. It is not good to turn to the Most Holy Master with conjectures and doubts.
Titles and titles His Holiness Patriarch should be capitalized.

Address your letter to the press service of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', located at the address: 119034, Moscow, Chisty Lane, 5. Your letter will not reach the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church immediately - first it will be studied by responsible employees of the Patriarchate.

Helpful advice

An example of an appeal to the Patriarch:

His Holiness
His Holiness Patriarch
Moscow and All Rus'
Kirill

YOUR HOLINESS,
MY HOLY PATRIARCH,
GRACIOUS ARCHPASTOR AND FATHER!

Patriarch - the highest rank of the church hierarchy, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, referring to it, both orally and in writing, one should follow the generally accepted dogmatic rules.

Instruction

Before writing a letter Patriarch, you need to clearly imagine the subject of your appeal to him. You must understand that the church's first hierarch daily has many concerns about the fate of the church, so the subject of your letter should be really important. Make sure you can't go to lower clergy with your question, like your local bishop or metropolitan.

Begin letter follows from the next call to Patriarch(indicated above the text of the letter in the upper right corner):
His Holiness
Patriarch Moscow
and All Rus' [name of the Patriarch]
from [your submission].
For every believing Orthodox Christian, it is important to receive a pastoral blessing, so you can directly begin the story with the words: “Lord, bless.” Or: "Your Eminence, bless." The following appeal will also be true: “Your Holiness, His Holiness, Vladyka Patriarch, Gracious Archpastor and Father!”

The text of your message must be correct and grammatically correct, it must not contain threats, insults and profanity. During the course of the story, refer to Patriarch followed by "Your Holiness" or "Most Holy Master". Express your thoughts consistently, in simple and understandable language, without the use of jargon and dialects. Be respectful.
Be sincere and open, don't write anything you can't be sure of. It is not good to turn to the Most Holy Master with conjectures and doubts.
Titles and titles of His Holiness Patriarch should be capitalized.

Address your letter to the press service of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', located at the address: 119034, Moscow, Chisty Lane, 5. Your letter will not reach the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church immediately - first it will be studied by responsible employees of the Patriarchate.

Helpful advice

An example of an appeal to the Patriarch:

His Holiness
His Holiness Patriarch
Moscow and All Rus'
Kirill

YOUR HOLINESS,
MY HOLY PATRIARCH,
GRACIOUS ARCHPASTOR AND FATHER!

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Your Holiness!