The army and the church: collaboration experience.

Within the framework of the 13th International Christmas Educational Readings that took place in Moscow from 24 to 30 January 2005, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, members of the clergy cooperating with the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies met for their Second Training-Methods Assembly. The Assembly was attended by heads and employees of diocesan administrations and clergymen, a total of 391 persons, including 195 clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church representing 56 dioceses in the territory of the Russian Federation.

The first assembly of clergy who have taken spiritual charge of the Armed Forces was held in Ryazan in June 2003 at the Ryazan Airborne School. As time has shown, that assembly was of great practical importance and had a very beneficial effect. It met with a positive response both in the Armed Forces and in society at large and helped clergymen who were unable for various reasons to arrange practical cooperation with military units to overcome these difficulties. In consequence of that, a decision was taken to hold such assemblies on a regular basis in order to equip clergymen with tried and tested forms and methods of work among military personnel, with the skills of spiritual and pastoral activity among servicemen of different categories.

During the 2005 Christmas Readings at the military camp Odintsovo-10, a workshop entitled "The Army and the Church: Collaboration for the Sake of Life" continued its work at the Officers' House of the Strategic Missile Forces. Colonel-General N. Ye. Solovtsov, commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, spoke highly of the interaction between clergymen and military personnel and told the gathering about the current concerns of the missilemen and the development prospects of the Strategic Missile Forces. In his opinion, it is necessary to continue expanding cooperation between the military and the Russian Orthodox Church and to introduce new forms of such cooperation.

In his speech at the workshop, I.K. Novozhilov, head of the military department of the Yekaterinburg Diocese, spoke of the forms of organizing work at the level of the diocese. Over the past ten years, this department, which consists of two priests, one dean and two employees, has prepared 16 contracts with "power structures" located in the Urals. Today, he said, 205 clergymen taking part in this work have in their charge 425 units and subunits in various defense and law enforcement agencies. Archpriest Aleksandr Boltrukevich, head of the Peresvet military patriotic club at the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, shared his experience of work with teenagers living in the military camp.

One of the most urgent and painful problems of today's army and navy--breaches of regulations manifesting themselves in hazing and suicide among servicemen--was widely discussed at the workshop. Hieromonk Savva (Molchanov), deputy chairman of the Synodal Department, spoke of the methodology used in counseling and pastoral care designed to prevent such phenomena.

The activity of clergymen in hot spots was examined in a report by the Reverend Mikhail Vasilyev, head of the sector of Airborne Troops of the Synodal Department.

The Reverend Aleksandr Soldatenkov spoke of his pastoral ministry in Kosovo.

Special attention in the speeches was paid to the fact that the activities of the clergy in the care of souls in the army and navy has a long record. It was noted that the centuries-long experience of work by the Russian Orthodox Church in the army and navy is of abiding importance. An appeal to this experience today can help to find answers to many questions concerning the construction of an updated system of educational work in the Russian Army and Navy. As it was noted at the workshop, the life of Georgy Shavelsky, a well-known protopresbyter who worked in the army and navy in 1911-1917, is a case in point.

First of all, let us note that Father Georgy was the last protopresbyter of the Russian army and navy. Having served in the military chaplaincy from 1902 on (after graduating from the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg), Father Georgy nevertheless considered himself to be "a mere cog in the wheel" and did not expect to be appointed to such a high post. After the start of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) on 24 January 1904, Shavelsky volunteered for the front as a regimental chaplain of the 33rd East Siberian Rifle Regiment of the First Manchurian Army. He shared all the hardships of the campaign with his regiment and took part in 12 battles. In 1905, the journal Tserkovnye vedomosti wrote in the section covering events in the Far East: "Father Georgy worked under fire as if all his life he had breathed this air brimming with lead bumblebees and filled with rust-colored gases from exploding shells and had never heard any other music except the whine of bullets and the whiz of flying pieces of shrapnel. He dressed wounds, gave water to the wounded, heard confessions and administered the sacrament. He saw a suffering brother not only in his own ... For him, a fallen enemy was such a brother as well, and he went to help him just as selflessly ..." (1)

At that war, G.I. Shavelsky was shell-shocked and wounded in the Battle of Liaoyang. For his combat service, he was awarded two Orders of St. Anne (first and second class), the Order of St. Vladimir (fourth class with swords) and a golden pectoral cross on the ribbon of St. George, and was ordained as an archpriest; he became the divisional dean, and on 1 December 1904, was appointed chief field chaplain of the First Manchurian Army, serving in this office until March 1906.

Upon his return from the front, G.I. Shavelsky remained in his former place of service at the Suvorov Church. In 1906-1911, he was also a teacher of religion at the Smolny Institute, and from 1910, a professor of theology at the Historico-Philological Institute in St. Petersburg. His lectures were a notable phenomenon in St. Petersburg society. Father Georgy was a member of the St. Petersburg diocesan mission council and the commission for a review of the Statute Governing the Administration of the Churches and Clergy of the Military and Naval Departments, and a supernumerary member of the Religious Board under the protopresbyter.

At the time of his appointment to the post of head of the military chaplaincy, G.I. Shavelsky had no high patrons in government or court circles and was an "outsider" in the top echelons of power. He was appointed to that post without even being a mitered archpriest: the miter was conferred on him on the day of his appointment by the czar to the office of protopresbyter (in 1911). Father Georgy was the only marshal of the military clergy with a record of service in combat conditions (during the Russo-Japanese War). He did his utmost to arrange the work of the clergy in the army and navy. In 1912, a special post of assistant protopresbyter was introduced to run the appropriate chancellery. On 1-10 July 1914, G.I. Shavelsky took an active part in holding the first (in the hundred-year history of the department) congress of representatives of military and naval clergy from all military districts and fleets for joint discussion of matters relating to a reorganization of the administration of military and naval clergy and to the life and activities of military chaplains, including their service in wartime. The idea of such a congress was supported by Adjutant General V.A. Sukhomlinov, Russia's minister of war, and the problem of its convocation was thereby resolved. Here is how its organizer formulated the main purpose of the congress in the first day of its work: "to reflect on the ways of making our pastoral labor easier and at the same time more productive." (2)

During the preparation of the congress and in the course of its work, G.I. Shavelsky's outstanding organizational abilities were clearly manifested, just as the new organizational principles he was trying to introduce as the basis for the operation of the department and for the work of military and naval clergy. First, democratic rule: in approving delegates, he took care that all categories of the clergy should be represented at the congress, including regimental, brigade, hospital, prison and other chaplains, teachers of religion, and representatives of naval clergy. Second, large-scale, well-considered and systematic work of the department, which had to be based on hard-earned and jointly tested experience of the entire military and naval clergy. Third, concern for the spiritual enlightenment of officers and soldiers, and, through them, the religious and moral education of the whole people. Fourth, efforts to raise the educational and professional level of clergymen and to find ways of easing their difficult work and making it more productive. (3)

When the congress was over, amendments were made to the Statute Governing the Administration of the Churches and Clergy of the Military and Naval Departments, which provided the basis for the draft of a new Statute. Thus, Article 45 of the Statute was amended as follows: (1) any instructions issued by military commanders that are inconsistent with canonical decrees, church statutes or instructions issued by the military-religious authorities are illegal; (2) any reports on religious and church affairs should be presented in a military unit only upon a report by the chaplain (if these questions are raised by him) or by agreement with the chaplain (if they are raised by the unit commander).

As regards the problem of payment for the performance of occasional religious rites (services of need), the participants in the congress were unanimous on this point as well. They reaffirmed and even reinforced the provision of Article 49 according to which all mandatory ceremonies for the officers and men of one's own military unit had to be performed free of charge. This applied to such ceremonies as baptism, confession, communion, marriage, prayer services in barracks during company and squadron festivals, administration of the oath in regimental courts, reading of the burial service over military personnel (where this took place in the regimental church) and accompanying of deceased persons in the grounds of the military unit and, if local circumstances allowed and the chaplain was free from the performance of other official duties, to the place of burial as well. (4)

In discussing the chaplain's status in wartime and considering the record of the past Russo-Japanese War, the delegates of the congress expressed the following wishes: that infantry unit transport should include a special two-wheeled cart for devotional articles and the chaplain's personal belongings, which should be at his disposal; that during long marches the chaplain should be entitled to use saddle-horses from the unit train for the performance of religious rites; that the list of devotional articles and utensils should be updated in case of a military campaign; and that all chaplains of line units should always be acquainted with the methods and techniques of transportation of the wounded. (5) These and other changes proposed by the delegates provided the basis for the draft of a new Statute Governing the Administration of the Churches and Clergy of the Military and Naval Departments.

Graphic proof of the fruitfulness of the congress was the drafting of an instruction for the activities of military and naval clergy in a combat situation, which was approved by the congress. As the protopresbyter himself later recalled, "the instruction was of colossal importance. First of all, it specified the sequence of actions and the range of duties of every clergyman arriving in the theater of war. This was particularly important for newly mobilized clergymen, who had absolutely no idea of the conditions and requirements of military service. And there was a vast majority of them: in peacetime, the protopresbyter had 730 clergymen in his charge, whereas during the war their number rose to over 5,000. The instruction provided each regimental, hospital, ship and other chaplain with an exact explanation of where he should be and what he should do during battles and breathing spells, where and how he should officiate, and what and how he should preach." (6) Soon after the beginning of World War I, the protopresbyter also issued a circular letter summing up the main requirements listed in the instruction approved by the congress. (7) In the presence of a large number of clergymen attending the congress, Protopresbyter G.I. Shavelsky was elected protopresbyter of the army and navy for life, and he held that post until 1951.

Contemporaries described the congress as an exceptionally decorous, calm, businesslike and fruitful event. By the end of 1914, Father Georgy prepared a project for the complete reorganization of the administration of military clergy addressed to His Imperial Majesty.

World War I started shortly after that. At the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the protopresbyter of the military and naval clergy organized his field chancellery and a storehouse of ecclesiastical literature. With the enactment of the 1910 mobilization schedule, thousands of parishes were required to staff the new regiments with clergymen. Non-Orthodox chaplains, rabbis and mullahs served in the military districts as well. In Circular Letter No. 737 of 3 November 1914, G.I. Shavelsky appealed to Orthodox clergymen: "I earnestly request you ... to avoid, where possible, any religious disputes or denunciations of other faiths ... Clergymen working on the battlefield have an opportunity to reaffirm the truth and greatness of the Orthodox Church not by words denouncing believers of other faiths, but by deeds of selfless Christian ministry to Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike ..."

In 1916, new posts were introduced: those of army preachers in every army, whose mission was to raise the morale of soldiers, and chief priests of the Baltic and Black Sea fleets. That same year, the question of the Uniates in Galicia and Bukovina, occupied by Russian troops, was delegated to the protopresbyter of military and naval clergy. G.I. Shavelsky preferred to meet the spiritual needs of the Uniates and did not require them to join the Orthodox Church. Clergymen also looked after Russian prisoners of war. Under a Synodal Decree of 13-20 January 1916, a commission was set up "to meet the religious and moral needs of Russian prisoners of war," which could send clergymen on assignment to Austria-Hungary and Germany.

During the war, several church hierarchs filed petitions requesting priesthood in the army and navy. The first of them was Trifon (Turkestanov), bishop of Dmitrov, who was appointed to the headquarters of the 7th Army. And Dimitry, subsequently Antony (Abashidze), bishop of Taurida, served as ship's chaplain on the Black Sea Fleet for several months in 1914. Military chaplains not only performed their immediate duties, but also taught soldiers to read and write, read them letters from home and helped to answer them.

In 1915, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, Supreme Commander-in-Chief, expressed his appreciation of the activities of the military clergy during World War I: "We must bow down to the military clergy in gratitude for their excellent work in the army."

In current conditions, the problem of establishing relations between religious confessions, primarily the Russian Orthodox Church, and the army is high on the agenda and calls for an in-depth study, objective analysis and practical solution in the process of the military reform. An objective examination of mutual relations between the Church and the Armed Forces presupposes not only a retrospective analysis of the place and role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the thousand-year history of Christianity in this country since the times of Prince Vladimir to our day, which clearly shows the role of Orthodoxy as a factor of immense importance in the national life of the Russian people and in the establishment of its statehood, but also an expansion of prophylactic activities by the Church in the army and navy as a system of measures to reduce hazing and suicides among servicemen.

Tens of generations of military clergy, who in large measure determined the destiny of the Russian Armed Forces, are part of history. Together with Russian soldiers, sailors, officers, generals and admirals, they were the makers of this history. And it is our duty to study and assimilate the best achievements of our ancestors. Using all available archive and printed materials, we must pay tribute to their memory and their deeds.

NOTES:

1. "Dukhovenstvo na voine," Tserkovnye vedomosti, No. 16-17, 1905, p. 709.

2. Vestnik voennogo i morskogo dukhovenstva, No. 15-16, 1914, p. 548.

3. Ibid., p. 547.

4. Russian State Historical Archives (RGIA), rec. gr. 806, inv. 5, f. 9432, Part 1, sheet 197.

5. Ibid., sheet 203.

6. G.I. Shavelsky, Vospominaniya poslednego protopresvitera armii i flota, in two volumes, Vol. 2, New York, 1954, p. 93.

7. Vestnik voennogo i morskogo dukhovenstva, No. 17, 1914, pp. 597-599.

Col. V.M. KOTKOV (Res.)

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich KOTKOV was born on 27 January, 1954. After graduation from the faculty of cultural and education work of the Lvov Higher Military Political School (1977) and the graduate school of the St. Petersburg Academy of Culture (1997), he served as officer in charge of unit club and officers' club, propagandist, deputy battalion commander for political affairs, officer in charge of garrison Officers' House, deputy head of the Officers' House of the Southern Group of Forces and the Leningrad Military District, and officer of the directorate for education work of the Leningrad Military District. He was repeatedly sent on missions to hot spots.

From 1998 to 2000, V.M. Kotkov was senior methodologist at the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer Troops and Communication Troops. Since 2000 to date, director of a branch of the Russian College of Traditional Culture, and also instructor, senior instructor and assistant professor at the St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Art. V.M. Kotkov is the author of seven books, including a new two-volume History of the Military Clergy.