Orthodoxy in Riga, 1921

The following report provides a detailed picture of Orthodoxy’s position in the Latvian capital immediately following Janis (Pommers’) accession as archbishop of Riga and all Latvia in 1921. It was written by Archpriest Nikolai Tikhomirov, dean of Riga and Jelgava, for the new bishop. Tikhomirov (1863-1932) graduated from the Riga ecclesiastical seminary in 1883 and served as the dean of the Riga churches from 1909: before this, he had considerable experience as a priest and religious teacher for both the Illukste and Riga convents.

Report of Archpriest N. Tikhomirov, 24 July 1921

To His Grace JĀNIS, Archbishop of Riga and All Latvia

From Archpriest Nikolai Tikhomirov, dean of Riga and Jelgava

Report

I have the honour to report to YOUR GRACE brief evidence about the condition of the deanery entrusted to me. By the resolution of the Synod of the Latvian Orthodox Church from 28 and 29 December 1920, the Riga and Jelgava deanery was formed from the former Riga city deanery, with some parishes attached to it from the former deaneries of Jelgava, the Riga district, and Cēsis. According to instruction no. 171 of the Synod from 26 January this year, the following parishes and churches are part of the deanery:

1) The cathedral and its parish; 2) the Aleksandro-Nevskii parish; 3) the Alekseevskii parish; 4) the Pokrovskii parish; 5) the Voznesenskii parish; 6) the Preobrazhenskii parish; 7) the Blagoveshchenskii parish; 8) the Vsekhsviatskii parish; 9) the Ioannovskii parish; 10) the Troitse-Zadvinskii parish; 11) the Jūrmala parish; 12) the Jelgava parish; 13) the Bauska parish; 14) the Tukums parish; 15) the Henzelhof parish; 16) the Lēdurga-Straupe parish; 17) the Ikšķile parish; 18) the Lielvārde parish; 19) the Koknese parish; and 20) the Jaunjelgava parish. In the Orthodox anthology published by the Synod, it is stated that the Sviato-Troitse-Sergiev convent, the Nikolaevskaia prison church, the home churches and chapels of all Riga, and all the churches of the Riga coastline are part of the deanery: the cathedral has been transferred to the Synod [1].

The administration of the deanery consists of the deanery council and representatives authorised by the clergy and laity at the Riga-Jelgava deanery assembly, last held on 30 June 1921.

The deanery council is made up of: the dean (archpriest Nikolai Tikhomirov, head priest of the Riga Pokrovskaia church); assistant dean and council secretary (priest Aleksandr Lisman, head priest of the Tukum church); and members of the council (protodeacon Konstantin Andreevich Dorin of the cathedral, the Riga merchant and elder of the cathedral Aleksei Ivanovich Trofimov, and the representative of the Blagoveshchenskii parish and member of the Riga circuit court Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Liutov).

Brief Information about the Position of the Churches and Parishes

1. During the occupation of Riga by the Germans, the cathedral was taken from the Orthodox and turned into a Lutheran church: all the iconostases and icons were taken away, and the crosses on the cupolas were turned from eight-pointed ones into four-pointed ones. On the German retreat, under the Bolsheviks, the church was given to the Orthodox: one of the iconostases was put back in and the liturgy was renewed. In February 1920, by order of the government the cathedral was taken from the parish (which was not recognised by the government) and sealed. Only after a special petition was the seal removed and Orthodox liturgies permitted on major holidays for both Latvian and Russian nationalities. In May 1920, the cathedral was transferred to the Synod: the seal was removed and liturgies regularly occur, alternating between Latvians and Russians.

The cathedral particularly suffered during the siege of Riga in November 1919 by Bermont [2]. During the bombardment, a few shells fell into the cathedral. Some of the destruction was patched up by the parish council through private donations and furnaces were created to remove the damp: but the cathedral was sealed. Water seeped in through the ruined roof: the dampness increased and the insides of the cupolas suffered very heavily. The cathedral sacristy also suffered from damp.

The cathedral clergy consist of: acting head priest Ruppert, a graduate of the Riga Ecclesiastical Seminary [3] elected in September 1919 by a general parish assembly of the cathedral’s parishioners, and protodeacon Konstantin Andreevich Dorin, a graduate of the Riga Ecclesiastical Seminary.

The church’s elder is the Riga merchant Aleksei Alekseevich Trofimov.

The chair of the parish council is the retired general Nikolai Dmitrievich Faleev. The cathedral parish is not recognised by the government: the parochial houses in the citadel and on Ulitsa Pauluchi [today Elizabetes iela] have been taken away. The parish council has raised the matter of the recognition of the parish and the property belonging to the cathedral and has submitted documents [to this effect].

2. The Aleksandro-Nevskii parish. The church suffered little from military activities: thanks to the efforts of the parish council, at the current time it looks appropriate. Located on one of the main streets in the city and in a district where many Orthodox Russians live, as well as emigres from Russia, the Aleksandro-Nevskaia church is constantly filled with worshippers: this was especially noted when the cathedral was closed and the Alekseevskii monastery was given to the Catholics. To satisfy the religious needs of the local Orthodox population, daily liturgies in the Aleksandro-Nevskaia church were organised by the monastics driven out of the Alekseevskii monastery: these are still being performed. The local parish council has taken all measures to furnish both the church and the performed liturgies with all possible majesty: especially great efforts were made to form a wonderful choir. Besides this, the parish council has undertaken the publication of books and religious-moral brochures.

The clergy consists of archpriest Nikolai Andreevich Perekhval’skii, a candidate of the Kazan Ecclesiastical Academy [4], and psalmist Aleksandr Andreevich Lokman, a graduate of the Baltic Teacher’s Seminary [5].

Together with the clergy, hieromonk Sergii and hierodeacon Serafim perform the liturgy and live in the church’s buildings.

The chair of the parish council is head priest Nikolai Perekhval’skii, while the elder is Riga merchant Vasilii Petrovich Chelukhin.

3. The Alekseevskii parish was organised in 1919 from the former parishioners of the Alekseevskii church before its transformation into a male monastery. It is best to consider this parish as [purely] nominal, since the government does not recognise it and the church, temporarily given to the Catholics by the Germans, has now been conclusively given to them by the government [6].

4. The Pokrovskii parish. The church did not suffer from the war: it requires only large-scale repair works, which were suggested in 1914 but were put aside at the beginning of war. Parish life is gradually improving. The parish council has opened a free library and a ‘parochial house’ in the building of the former parish school. Parishioner assemblies are held here on Sundays for mutual discussion and religious-moral readings.

The clergy consists of the head priest Nikolai Tikhomirov, a graduate of the Riga ecclesiastical seminary, deacon Iosif Razumovich, who holds the right to the rank of psalmist, and psalmist Venedikt Nikol’skii, from the middle grade of the seminary.

The chair of the parish council is archpriest Nikolai Tikhomirov, while the elder is the Riga citizen Mikhail Georgievich Matveev.

5. The Voznesenskii parish. The church did not suffer from military activities. The parish is one of the most populous, since it serves the needs of all the Orthodox Latvians living in Riga and places close by. At the current time the liturgy is performed in Latvian (as in the cathedral) by the local priest and others who know the Latvian language [7].

The clergy consist only of the priest Ioann Borman. There is no psalmist. The chair of the parish council is Ivan Ivanovich Davis while the elder is Ivan Mellin.

6. The Preobrazhenskii parish. The church somewhat suffered from military activities. Due to a lack of means, the parish council does not have the possibility to conclusively re-open it, all the more so since the building is generally dilapidated: before the war, money was collected to build a new church. The parochial home particularly suffered: it is almost completely uninhabitable, although the building itself is comparatively new and firm.

There are no clergy. In the autumn and winter, the liturgy was performed by the priest Petr Grinval’d, but after Easter he left Riga and organised a place for himself somewhere else as a priest.

The chair of the parish council is Al. Ia. Lapin, the elder is Lapin.

7. The Blagoveshchenskii parish. The church is dilapidated and requires great rectification. It did not suffer from military activities. The parish council has been active in the beautification and improvement of the parish church and parish life.

The clergy are: Archpriest Georgii Aleksandrovich Vakhromeev (a candidate of the St Petersburg Ecclesiastical Academy); priest Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Makedonskii (graduate of the Riga Ecclesiastical Seminary); psalmist Barzorin (with primary education). Deacon Savva Trubitsyn, an auditor of a seminary course and the former treasurer of the Riga Ecclesiastical Seminary, is temporarily performing the duties of deacon in the church.

The Riga merchant Ser. S. Klimov is the chair of the parish council: the elder is the Riga citizen Andrei Mikhailovich Kuzubov.

8. The Vsekhsviatskii parish. The church did not suffer from military activities. With friendly cooperation between the head priest and the parish council, parish life is on the right path. The head priest, as a former director of the episcopal choir and an expert in church singing, takes a large part in organising a church choir and guides the singing of parishioners during the liturgy: such singing has been introduced only in one [other] of the Russian churches in the city of Riga (all services in the Voznesenskaia church are accompanied by congregational singing) [8].

The clergy are the head priest Arsenii Alekseevich Andreev. Ivan Kotovskii was elected as psalmist by the general assembly of the parishioners, but has still not been confirmed in the position by the Synod.

The chair of the parish council is Andrei Karpovich Tsybul’skii, the elder is Aleksandr Titovich Goncharov.

9. The Ioannovskii parish. The old church suffered from the war to a great extent and gained its present look. In view of the dilapidation of this church, before the war the construction of a new stone church had begun. The building already has a roof, but construction has not been completed. This church also suffered somewhat from bombardment. The church by the Kuznetsovskaia factory is in the same position: this building does not even have a roof. It is impossible to define when the construction of these churches will be finished, especially since part of the money gathered for the construction was made up of state loans. The parish council is developing its activities under the recently appointed head priest. The number of parishioners is constantly increasing through those returning from Russia.

The clergy consists of the head priest Nikolai Vasil’evich Shalfeev (a graduate of the Riga Ecclesiastical Seminary). There is no psalmist: his duties are performed at the invitation of parishioners. The chair of the parish council is the head priest, the elder is the Riga citizen V. Maksimov.

10. The Troitse-Zadvinskii parish. There are two church in the parish, one of which is the cemetery church (Toresenberg) named in honour of the Image of Edessa. Neither church suffered especially [during the war]. The recently elected parish council (it consists almost entirely of new members) has begun to energetically occupy itself with parish activities. In the place of the deceased head priest, the priest of the Azov cathedral Nikolai Aleksandrovich Smirnov was elected by a general meeting of the parish council: before the war, he was a psalmist at this church. Father Smirnov arrived in Riga and was allowed by the Synod to fulfil the duties of head priest, but his confirmation has been left to the scrutiny of Your Grace. The psalmist is Ivan Ivanovich Filippov, a former student at the Riga ecclesiastical school.

The chairman of the parish council is the Riga citizen Kliment Pavlovskii, the elder is the retired colonel Il’ia Andreevich Maleenko.

11. The Troitse-Sergiev convent. In the convent, there are two churches: the Sviato-Troitskii cathedral (stone with [an encaved] church in the name of the Assumption of the Mother of God) and a church in the name of St Sergii in one of the buildings of the convent corpus. The stone cathedral suffered from military activities (almost all the windows are without glass): besides this, the iconostasis was evacuated, so there are no liturgies there. Around 10 nuns live in the convent under the leadership of Abbess Evgeniia (Postovskaia) [9]. The liturgy is performed by hieromonk Gavriil from the brothers of the Valaam monastery [10], a former army chaplain who was taken prisoner by the Germans. Under the convent is the chapel near the train station, where monastics alternately hold vigil, selling candles [11]. Twice a week prayers are performed in the chapel with akathists. In the convent, the Russian Association in Latvia has opened a small shelter. By order of the government, in May of this year the convent’s immovable property and furniture were taken on the grounds that the convent was built on land belonging to the ecclesiastical seminary: this land was transferred to the ownership of the state [12]. On 27 June, it was declared that only the cathedral and the building with the church were left to the convent: all the rest was transferred to the Ministry of Education. The convent has sent a petition about rescinding the instruction. While the execution of this resolution has been suspended, it has not been rescinded. Under the convent there is the Preobrazhenskaia hermitage, close to Jelgava [13]. All the churches and other buildings [at the hermitage] very much suffered from military activity, and some were completely destroyed. With the labour of a few monastics, order has been introduced as far as possible; an iconostasis has already been restored in one of the churches. The hermitage is under the nun Olga (Baroness Nirod) [14]. The hermitage has no priest for the performance of the liturgy or the means to provide for one. Supposedly, it is performed occasionally by a priest from Jelgava.

12. The Jūrmala parish. The church suffered comparatively little, but it has no priest. Before the war, a parish was opened under the Jūrmala church, and Father Shalfeev was appointed as head priest.  During the war, he served as a chaplain and then was evacuated to Russia. Under the Bolsheviks, he returned to his place of service, was arrested, and was exiled to Moscow. Now he has returned from Russia, but not to his own parish: he made a declaration about his desire to serve in the Riga Ioannovskaia church, where he is now head priest. Services in the Jūrmala church are performed alternately by the Riga priests Aleksandr Makedonskii and Vasilii Ruppert: the former is the leader of the parish. In the summer, the liturgy is performed regularly on all Sundays and holy days. The chair of the parish council is Ivan Ivanovich Siriaev, the elder is A. Borozdin.

On the coastline there are also the following churches. The Brotherhood Sviato-Vladimirskaia church in Dubulti, which suffered a little, although the residential house [suffered] more: the courtyard buildings were completely destroyed. Due to the lack of free priests, the liturgy is almost not performed there: furthermore, almost all the holiday homes in the region of Dubulti were destroyed. On the holy day of the altar (15 July in the old style), an annual liturgy occurs. The church in Ķemeri suffered very much, and to restore it at the present time scarcely seems possible. The same must be said about the church in the episcopal summerhouse in Bullen.

In the Riga city deanery before the war, there was the edinoverie parish of the Mikhailo-Arkhangel’skaia church [15] and the Estonian parish of the Petropavlovskaia church, which was earlier the city cathedral [16]. Before the war, the edinoverie parish was very small. At the present time, the church is under the parish council of the Riga Ioannovskaia church. It partially suffered from the war. There are no liturgies there. The former parishioners have not made any declarations. The edinoverie priest Al. Znamenskii was evacuated to Russia. There is not any information about him. The Petropavlovskaia Estonian church was turned by the Germans into an Estonian Lutheran parish and church: some former Estonian parishioners have transferred to other parishes (if they know Russian or Latvian), but others are completely deprived of spiritual comfort. When Father I. Ioganson, the head priest of the Ioannovskii parish, was alive, he satisfied the religious needs of the Estonians: after his death, there is not a single priest in Riga who knows Estonian. Archpriest Al. Viarat, the former head priest of the Estonian church, was evacuated to Russia, and there has been no news about him for several years.

One of the Riga house churches has been kept unviolated, the one in the Sadovnikovskaia almshouse named in honour of the martyr Firs. The head priest was Archpriest Liberovskii, who died in 1920. Father N. Reingauzen, who was accepted among the residents of the almshouse, was temporarily fulfilling the duties of priest: in spring, he left to Latgale and found himself a place as a parish priest. Occasionally, unemployed priests in Riga perform the liturgy for those in the almhouse, who number around 100 people. The house church in the former Nikolaevskaia almshouse is closed, but it has been kept whole.

The government closed and dismantled the following churches: 1) the fortress church, 2) the seminary church, 3) the church of the religious school and gymnasium, 4) the Nikolaevskaia church, and 5) the Aleksandrovskaia church. Under the Germans, 6) the church in the military hospital was dismantled. 7) The stone regimental church of the Izborgsk regiment is intact, but is under the jurisdiction of the military administration; 8) the wooden regimental church of the Maloiaroslav regiment has been destroyed.

Women’s committees have been formed under almost the parish councils of Riga: these committees chiefly deal with charitable activities, which have developed rather widely in places [….]. The parishes of Riga and the coastline have joined into a union of parishes, but little has been done in putting this union behind church-social aims.

Riga has the Riga Petropavlovskoe Orthodox Brotherhood [17]. After the evacuation of almost all its members from Riga, its activities temporarily ceased. Under the Germans, there were attempts to close it: while these attempts were suspended, it was impossible to register [the brotherhood]. Under the Bolsheviks, the brotherhood did not have the right to be a charitable institution. Under the present government, the brotherhood was registered in 1920 and a provisional council was elected by a general assembly of brothers with the aims of changing the regulations and attracting the Orthodox to membership. At the moment, 100 people are ascribed as members of the brotherhood. Now awaits the calling of a general assembly to review the changed regulations and to elect a full council of the brotherhood.

There are also two prison churches in Riga. The liturgy is performed in one, the Nikolaevskaia church in the central prison, by the prison priest Ioann Petrovich Zhuravskii.

I will present a separate report on the parishes recently joined to the deanery together with the semi-annual account as soon as possible.

[…]

24 July 1921

Riga 

Notes

[1] The first ten churches in this list were/are located in Riga.

[2] During the Latvian War of Independence, a joint White Russian-German army under General Pavel Bermont-Avalov laid siege to Riga from 8 October to 11 November 1919, when it was beaten by the Latvian army (see the chronicle of Father Aleksei Kolosov: https://www.balticorthodoxy.com/occupation-in-ww1-2).

[3] The Riga Ecclesiastical Seminary was opened in 1852 on the basis of the former Russian-Latvian-Estonian school: it was evacuated from Riga in 1915 to Nizhnii Novgorod. Efforts were made to return it to Riga after peace was declared, but to no avail (see documents nos. 3 and 5: https://www.balticorthodoxy.com/founding-latvian-orthodox-church). 

[4] The Kazan Ecclesiastical Academy (1797-1921) was one of the Russian Orthodox Church’s premier educational institutions in the Russian Empire: equivalent to a university, it could issue degrees in theology. The KEA specialised particularly in teaching eastern languages.

[5] The Baltic Teachers Seminary operated between 1870 and 1915. A state school for preparing teachers, instruction was provided in Russian, German, and Latvian. It was evacuated to Chistopol in 1915.

[6] Founded in 1897, the Alekseevskii monastery operated out of a former parish church and some buildings of the episcopal palace. It had very few monks even before the war.

[7] In 1845, the mixed Russo-Latvian Pokrovskii parish was opened to accommodate Latvian converts to Orthodoxy. The parish possessed two churches as of 1867: the Pokrovskaia church and Voznesenskaia cemetery church. The former burnt down in 1875 and was rebuilt in stone in 1879: after this, the Russian part of the flock mostly went to the new Pokrovskaia church while the Latvians remained in the Voznesenskaia church.  

[8] Congregational singing, which is not typical in Orthodoxy but very common in Lutheranism, emerged following the conversion wave of the 1840s and was somewhat tolerated in the hope that it would help the converts to adapt to Orthodoxy. From the beginning of the twentieth century, it was often celebrated by Latvian and Estonian Orthodox churchmen as their distinctively national contribution to Orthodoxy. However, it remained controversial, especially in independent Latvia, where it gained the stigma of being an innovation.

[9] Evgeniia (Postovskaia) (1864-1948) was part of the Riga convent from its foundation in the late 1880s: she acted as its treasurer from 1894 to 1904. She was then made abbess of the Illukste convent, where she served until evacuation in 1915. When Abbess Sergiia (Mansurova) elected not to return to Russia, she recommended Evgeniia as her replacement: so, Evgeniia worked as abbess from 1921 to her death in 1948.

[10] The Valaam monastery was most likely founded at the end of the 14th century in Karelia. Following Finland’s independence from the Russian Empire in 1917, the monastery became one of the important sites of the Finnish Orthodox Church, which then fell under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Constantinople. The Valaam monastery had links with the Riga Alekseevskii monastery: several monks who served in Riga came from the Finnish monastery. 

[11] The Orthodox chapel at Riga train station existed from 1889 to 1925, when it was demolished by the Latvian government.

[12] This was not entirely true. While the land on which the Riga convent was initially earmarked for the seminary, it was never used: instead, it was given to the convent following the latter’s emergence in the 1890s.

[13] In 1894, the Mansurova sisters established a hermitage in Valgunde, a small town near Jelgava: it was intended both to serve as a retreat for nuns who preferred contemplative devotion and as a site of worship for Russian migrant workers. Although almost destroyed in World War One, it was gradually re-established

[14] Ol’ga (Nirod) (1876-?) was a lady of the imperial court before becoming a nun in 1912.  

[15] Edinoverie was a movement that allowed Old Believers to continue practising their old rituals whilst being within the Russian Orthodox Church. The Riga Mikhailo-Arkhangel’skaia edinoverie church was built in 1895-96 to replace the earlier wooden church. See our piece on edinoverie in Riga: https://www.balticorthodoxy.com/dorofei-emelianov

[16] The Riga Petropavlovskaia church was the main Orthodox church of Riga in the eighteenth century: the current stone building dates from 1786. Following the construction of the Khristorozhdestvenskii cathedral, it became a parish church.

[17] The Riga Petropavlovskoe Brotherhood was founded in 1867 under the then-cathedral: it organised laymen together in order to gather funds for supporting Orthodox initiatives.

Source

This document was taken from Istoriia v pis’makh: iz arkhiva sviashchennomuchenika arkhiepiskopa Rizhskogo Ioanna (Pommera) (Tver: Izdatel’stvo Bulat, 2015), vol. 1.

Translator

James M. White