Women and War. Television programme, 10 May 2008
Television series Orthodox Encyclopaedia
Lead-in:
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Hi! This is the Orthodox Encyclopaedia coming straight to you over the airways. Myrrhbearers…. This Evangelical word is nuanced, and many-faceted in its meaning. This word is not only used to describe the women who bore fragrant spices and ointments to anoint the body of Our Saviour for burial after his death on the cross. We also call all women who, by their life, carry out God’s Commandment to bear comfort and peace “myrrhbearers”. They existed not only in the old days, but, they are still amongst us today, helping those in hospital, all those who are pain, and those who find themselves in desperate situations in their lives. This year, we observed the special holiday of wives, the day of the Holy Myrrhbearers, after we celebrated Victory Day. In war, men take the main role. On the other hand, in our history, women did not stand idly on the sidelines. Today, our guest is a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Schema-nun Amvrosiya Yemelyanova. However, we shall begin, as usual, with current Orthodox news.
Item: Molieben in the Epiphany Cathedral of the Kremlin
In the Epiphany Cathedral of the Kremlin, a molieben was served on the occasion of the inauguration of President Dmitri Medvedev. His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei celebrated the service after the completion of the inauguration ceremony for the new president. Patriarch Aleksei blessed Dmitri Anatolyevich so that he could carry out his future duties as president and His Holiness presented to him an icon of the Mother of God “of Vladimir”.
His Holiness Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia:
On this solemn occasion, dear Dmitri Anatolyevich, I wish that you receive strength from sincere and true vigour, patience, and inspiration, and I wish you blessed success in your future service to our Motherland and people as our president.
President Dmitri Medvedev:
I want you to know, on my word, that the cordial relationship now existing between the church and the state shall continue and be further developed, for the good of our country, and for the good of each individual person.
Item: “A Cross-Procession Around Russia”
An unprecedented procession started out recently from Pushkin, near Moscow. Over eight months, the three participants in the undertaking “A Cross-Procession Around Russia” intend to travel around the entire country. They are going to go through northern waters from the Barents Sea to the Chukchi Sea, and then sail to Vladivostok, and return on land along the southern borders of Russia back home. The most difficult stage of the journey is the route in the Arctic. Their boat shall pass through five different northern seas without an engine; they are going to row or proceed under sail. In October, they plan to switch from a boat to a cross-country vehicle, and that is how they are going to complete the southern route.
Georgi Karpenko, polar adventurer, participant in the undertaking:
Where we are going along the Russian border, there are no parishes or priests. The people of the Arctic region are starving spiritually. A priest, Fr Dmitri, is coming with us, and he shall hear confessions, give communion, and baptise people.
Fr Dmitri Lukyanov, priest, participant in the undertaking:
Wherever we are on Sunday… if we are in the tundra, we shall serve Divine Liturgy in the tundra! We have prepared everything we need for this; in fact, we have vacuum-packed communion breads that can last for months if the seal isn’t broken.
***
Local schoolchildren prayed together with the participants in the procession. The kids thought it a holiday; they all felt that they were participants in this great adventure, too.
The wayfarers sent their boat ahead of them from Pushkin to Arkhangelsk. From there, they are going to start the water-borne portion of their cross-procession around Russia in a few days.
Item: Children’s Easter Festival
Almost fifty vocal groups gathered in Moscow for the first Children’s Easter Festival. They ranged from Sunday School and children’s choruses to soloists and formal vocal ensembles, with participants as young as five-years-old. Our children sang in the open air on the central square of the Andronikov Monastery. Each of the choirs was required to present a large and varied programme.
Marina Mizandrontseva, director of the choir of the Moscow Musical Cadet Corps:
Usually, at competitions for children the age of our members, 10 to 11-years-old, we prepare three works for performance, but, here the task was harder for we had to rehearse five songs.
***
The idea for this festival was born only two months ago, and that is why the majority of its participants are schoolchildren from Moscow. However, the organisers intend for the event to draw competitors from all over Russia, including the most distant parts.
Yelena Romskaya, General Director of the festival:
We have two tasks… to introduce children to choral singing and to God through the means of spiritual music.
***
There are many winners at this festival, but, there are no losers.
Magdalena Glushchenko, Executive Director of the festival:
Every competitor shall receive a certificate for their successful performance… because all of our kids are victors.
***
There is an old Russian tradition that during the Easter days anyone who wishes to can ring the church bells. On the closing day of the festival, the belfry of the Andronikov Monastery did not fall silent until all of the kids had a chance to ring in the Easter holiday.
———–
Three years ago, when we celebrated the 60th anniversary of our great victory over Nazi Germany, one of our programmes was entitled, “They Withstood it with Faith”. Today, we would like to repeat one of the parts of this show for it is devoted to women at war.
From “They Withstood it with Faith”, Aleksandra Gavrilovna and Fyodor Grigorevich Milyukov:
In the summer, Aleksandra Gavrilovna and Fyodor Grigorevich Milyukov live in a dacha in a settlement near Moscow set aside for war veterans. When you look at their house with beautiful flowers and a lovingly-cultivated garden, it would never occur to you that all of this is the result of the hard work of two very elderly folk. The head of the family laughs. He says that, between the two of them, they are 180-years-old. She is 87, and he is 93. Both are veterans of the Great Patriotic War. He was a platoon commander in the combat engineers and she was a regimental doctor and the commander of a hospital company. A shell fragment buried in his head to this day reminds Fyodor Grigorevich of the pains of the war. When we asked her what time in the war was the worst, Aleksandra Gavrilovna said the following.
A. G. Milyukova:
Stalingrad and Kursk. We always turned to God. “O Lord, help us! Mother of God, protect us!” If you were to ask any combat veteran, they would say to you, “All of us turned to God”. Yes, we prayed… we all prayed. If a Fascist airplane flew over you, you prayed, “Lord, don’t let the bombs fall on me!” We crossed ourselves… even the communists crossed themselves. Yes, all of us turned to God.
***
Throughout the entire war, she carried an icon of the Mother of God her parents gave her as a blessing. In the fighting around Stalingrad, Shura (a diminutive for Aleksandra) was captured by the enemy. Together with two other POWs, she resolved to escape. It was a miracle! They succeeded.
A. G. Milyukova:
The Aramvir River was in the hills. Here were our lines, there were the Germans. In between there was dead ground not occupied by either side. We swam across the river. We flew away!
***
After fleeing the enemy, she was confined again, this time by the Soviets!
A. G. Milyukova:
They sent us to Baku in goods wagons on the railway, and they wrote on the sides of the wagons, “Traitors to the Motherland”.
***
After a short period in detention, she was sent back to the front, first to Novorossiysk, then to Kursk. She fought all the way to the West through the Carpathians. She and Fyodor, her future husband, did not cross paths and meet until 1944.
F. G. Milyukov:
She was so beautiful, so very, very pretty. We met each other, we thought, and we dreamed. We were together for one day, and they sent her to Brest. Our love endured this. Then, I wrote her, proposed, and she answered me.
***
They were never apart after that time. Today, sitting on their cosy porch in the settlement of war veterans near Moscow, they love to remember the past and to build plans for the future.
———-
Lead-in:
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Today, the guest of our programme is Schema-nun Amvrosiya. I had a nice chat with her.
***
Item: Schema-nun Amvrosiya
Mother Amvrosiya is 85-years-old. Her name in the world was Yekaterina Timofeyevna Yemelyanova, her childhood nickname was Larina. She was born into a deeply religious family in Tambov guberniya. Her parents went frequently on pilgrimage, and, before the revolution, they drove their cart to the celebrations of the glorification of both Righteous St Seraphim of Sarov and Patriarch St Germogen. During the Soviet years, the six-year-old girl together with her family attended the anniversary celebrations in Zadonsk in honour of St Tikhon. In the ‘30s, her father was arrested as “an enemy of the people”. His fate is still unknown today. The Reds took away everything they had, and the poor little girl Larina almost perished from hunger. Their neighbours, who were as poor as they were, took pity on them and saved them from death.
When the war broke out, Larina was in Voronezh. Yekaterina volunteered to serve in the forces as a medic, and for four years she helped to save the lives of the wounded. She married one of the men she treated, Grigory Stepanovich Yemelyanov. When the war ended, the young couple returned to Voronezh. They had four children, three daughters, Vera, Nadezhda, and Lyubov (in English: Faith, Hope, and Love: editor’s note), and a son, Leonid, who all grew up to be believers. Vera married a priest, Lyubov became a teacher, and Nadezhda took monastic vows, she is now Nun Mitrofaniya and paints icons at the Pyukhtitsa Convent in Estonia (where the great contemporary eldress Mother Varvara is the superior: editor’s note). Her son Leonid also took a monastic path and he is now Archbishop Tikhon of Novosibirsk and Berdsk in Siberia. Mother Amvrosiya lives in Moscow, but, she visits her children frequently. She also visits her childhood home in the Lipetsk oblast, and, through her efforts, two churches were restored. The former family home of the Yemelyanovs has become a house church, and it is dedicated to the heavenly patron of the Russian forces, Great Martyr St George the all-Victorious.
***
Mother Amvrosiya
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Hello, Mother! Christ is risen!
Mother Amvrosiya:
Indeed, He is risen!
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
We are celebrating the great secular holiday of Victory Day, one that unites us all, during the Easter season. We are devoting our programme today to the veterans of the Great Patriotic War. You were one of the participants in that war. Mother, how old were you when you went to the battle-front?
Mother Amvrosiya:
I was 17-years-old.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
They took someone as young as you were into the army?
Mother Amvrosiya:
A field hospital came to our village. We were in the fields looking for something to gather to bring to Mum so that she would have something to eat. Well, I walked right into the hospital, and said, “I volunteer to help, I shall do anything”. They said that there was something I could do, so, they took me on. The chairman of the kolkhoz came barging in and he said that he wanted to deport me to the Urals because I was the daughter of a kulak. This frightened me a lot, so, I went to hide in the garret, but, then, I pretended to be someone else and asked at the hospital if I could volunteer for service again. They not only took me on, they also enrolled me in the Komsomol so that I would not be sent to the Urals. When we were serving at the Battle of the Kursk Salient, a captain said to me, “I saved you!”
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Mother, did they send you to the battle-front immediately, after you were accepted as a female medical orderly?
Mother Amvrosiya:
From our village, we moved to the Kursk salient soon after the battle. There were many wounded and many sick with typhus. We cared for all of them; we carried them on stretchers because this was the only way we could do it. We had to do it all. God gave me the strength to carry on.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Were you ever in combat?
Mother Amvrosiya:
We were in the thick of things in battle for our hospital was right on the front-lines. Of course, it was terrible, we were bombed often. One time, they woke us up and said that they had bombed one of the bridges in Kiev and that we had to leave immediately. We arrived in the pitch-dark night, and we could hear the wounded crying in pain under the bridge. We pulled them out of the ruins and carried them to a village. Some of the men we rescued died, and that was sad.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Mother, you grew up in a traditional Russian Orthodox family and you received belief in God along with your mother’s milk. However, at the front, when all you heard were slogans like “For the Motherland”, “For Stalin”, were there not many who did not believe?
Mother Amvrosiya:
I can’t speak for others, but, as for me, my Mum tied around my neck the prayers “Under Thy Mercy” and “Let God Arise”, and she said that nothing would harm or touch me. Why, there were times when we were bombed, and we were forced to jump into the shelters undressed… well, I had no fear, I didn’t fear anything, and I didn’t get excited.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Were there many believers who served with you?
Mother Amvrosiya:
Oh, at the front, everybody was a believer!
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Mother, most of the people who served in the war with you were much the same as you were, they were all young volunteers. Do you still keep in touch with some of your wartime friends?
Mother Amvrosiya:
Oh, I had many friends. In my unit, many of the men did not know how to shoot, so, I took over guard duty because I’m a good shot. I taught all of ‘em to shoot, so, then, we could take turns doing guard duty. We didn’t have an assigned cook; there was no one to prepare the meals. So, I went ahead and cooked the meal, and our commander, after he ate, said, “Not only do you know how to shoot; you do know how to cook as well!” He made me the cook then and there. It was very hard, living in the field, there were no amenities whatsoever, but, we all managed somehow.
Let me tell you about a bunch of tank cadets, kids, really. They came to the clothing store and began taking out clothes we were going to distribute to homeless civilians. I yelled at them, “Folks are going to come here and find out that you took all the clothes to wipe off your tanks. You can’t do it!” That learned ‘em.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Where were you at the end of the war?
Mother Amvrosiya:
I finished the war in the outskirts of Berlin. I made it to the end.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
In Russia after the war there was an intensive atheistic campaign, and it wasn’t easy to bring up kids in the faith. However, you managed to bring up all of your children in a strict Orthodox manner. What did you do to succeed in this?
Mother Amvrosiya:
It is because I followed my Mum’s path. You see, when my dad was arrested and taken to prison, she went there and asked about him. They told her that he was not shot. However, some of the folks said that they took him out on the third day of his arrest with some others and shot them. Well, Mum put on a black dress, and she never wore anything different after that. Mum always walked to church, and we always helped her to walk there, so, when the grandkids came, they supported her too.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
What influenced you to become a nun?
Mother Amvrosiya:
God wished it so.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
How many years have you been a nun?
Mother Amvrosiya:
It is now more than forty years. God loves me, he always saves me, so, why shouldn’t I love Him?!
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Tomorrow is the feast day of wives, the feast of the Holy Myrrhbearers. For Orthodox people it is a special day, our “Orthodox Women’s Day”. In your opinion, what is a Christian woman? What qualities should she have?
Mother Amvrosiya:
First of all, she must care for her children, teach them well, read to them, help them to learn the right things, and bring them to the church for communion. One Easter, I brought my daughter to church, but, the cops wouldn’t let her in. I could go in, but, she couldn’t. The cops said that she should go to the cinema instead. She reached for my cross and said, “The cross lives in me because I’m baptised”. She was 12-years-old then.
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
And already she was a Confessor of the Faith for Christ!
Many thanks, Mother, for agreeing to be on our programme and talking with us. I give you my good wishes on Victory Day, the Feast of the Holy Myrrhbearers, and the Holy Easter of Christ. Christ is risen!
Mother Amvrosiya:
Indeed, He is risen!
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Mother Amvrosiya, I thank you being on our programme. I want to greet you and all the other veterans of the Great Patriotic War with all the joy of the holiday!
———-
Lead-in:
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
There was another Great Patriotic War in Russian history, the one in which our people conquered the army of Napoleon. The victory on the field of Borodino is inseparably connected with the name of a remarkable woman, Margarita Tuchkova.
The Borodino Convent of the Saviour
Item: Margarita Tuchkova
The famous Convent of the Saviour was founded on the Borodino field as a monument of both military valour and love. It was built on the place where thousands of brave Russian soldiers fell in 1812. Its founder was Margarita Tuchkova, the widow of General Aleksandr Tuchkov, a great hero. She amazed her contemporaries, and continues to astonish us today. A beauty and a universal favourite, she had a deep mind and a wide heart.
For her wedding, she wore a dress that she sewed personally. There is a legend that when the wedding party was leaving the church, the carriage with the newlyweds was stopped by a poor and stooped old man. “Maria, take this small token”, he said. “You made a mistake, father, my name is entirely different”, Margarita answered. However, the old man insisted, and the newlywed accepted from his hands his strange gift.
During the Russo-Swedish War of 1807, Margarita, as if sensing that her family happiness would be fleeting, received permission from the tsar to accompany her husband on active service.
Abbess Phialreta, superior of the Borodino Convent of the Saviour
Abbess Philareta, superior of the Borodino-Saviour Convent:
She could not part with her husband after her marriage. She rode in the convoy during the marches and she helped take care of the soldiers’ chapel. She shared all of her husband’s burdens. The soldiers called her their angel-protector. One night, she awoke in tears, repeating, “Borodino! They shall kill you at Borodino…” General Tuchkov took out an old military map and found a place-name similar to the mysterious “Borodino” in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. Neither knew of the existence of the small village in the Moscow guberniya with that name yet…
General Aleksandr Tuchkov
In June 1812, the army of Napoleon invaded Russia. The place of decisive battle was a place hitherto unknown… Borodino. Near the village of Semyonovsk, General Tuchkov personally led his troops into the attack and was killed by French cannon fire at Ognika Creek. However, the regiment shouted “Ura!” and drove the enemy from their positions on the heights. Margarita arrived on the Borodino field and searched about the Semyonovsk redoubt, where tens of thousands of the slain lay unburied, she walked some 9 versts, but, she could not find the body of her beloved spouse. She then turned to Tsar Aleksandr I with the request that she be allowed to build a memorial church on the spot where her husband was slain.
Soon after selling off her treasures, Margarita built a church dedicated to the Icon of Christ Not-Made-By-Hands. Above the symbolic grave of her husband, Margarita placed a white marble cross with the icon of the Revel Regiment, which was the Icon of Christ Not-Made-By-Hands. Very soon, this icon became known in local parts as wonder-working. Now, Margarita dedicated her life to the raising of her son, Nikolenki. However, new trials awaited her. Spitting up blood, he died, without having reached the age of fifteen. Then, the entire focus of her life shifted to the Borodino field. Other women who had lost their husbands in the war joined her. This was the beginning of the Borodino Convent of the Saviour, and Margarita Tuchkova became the superior after embracing the monastic life with the name of Maria.
Igumena Maria Tuchkova
She did not immediately take monastic vows, but, she prepared for them over a long period. One of her teachers was Metropolitan Philaret Drozdov of Moscow. He knew how to pour into others the good qualities of his soul, and he took eight years to prepare Maria for taking her vows. Having such a teacher, she matured into a striking personality. Over the next twenty years, Igumena Maria built another church, a belfry, and housing for her nuns. She gathered together a splendid and famous chorus. They baked the famous Borodinsky bread here.
The Borodino Convent of the Saviour was closed in the Soviet times, but, it reopened in 1992. Once a week, the monastic quiet is broken by the arrival of newlyweds, who view the convent as a symbol of eternal love.
Borodino Convent of the Saviour. Photo taken in 1911 by S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky, the pioneer of colour photography
———-
Lead-in:
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Archpriest Vasili Yermakov
One of the most respected clergymen in Russia, Archpriest Vasili Yermakov from St Petersburg, spoke on how our contemporaries can become modern myrrhbearers. “If every daughter of Orthodoxy and if each daughter of Russia would follow Christ with a solid confession of Orthodoxy, a bright word of truth would be spoken (and you do know how to speak, my Russian sisters) that would dispel all evil and lies. From the bastion of your prayers, the Word of the Truth of God must proceed from your mouths, from your heart, and from your mind. You must spread good under all conditions, in every possible sphere of activity. Specifically, you must stand at the threshold of the holy temple to protect Holy Mother Russia with the Word of Truth. My Russian sisters, it is necessary to carry on so that the lies of the world are fended off by the solid armour of Orthodoxy, Faith, Strength, and Patience. This is the meaning of Easter that we so joyfully announce to the world during the glorious days of the resurrection when we affirm, ‘Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!’ Therefore, let every one of our Russian women proclaim with great commitment and feeling the Power of the Truth of God”.
———-
Lead-in:
Fr Aleksei Uminsky:
Our programme is drawing to an end. We thank all of you who shared this half-hour with us. Next Saturday, we shall meet again. On that day, it shall be exactly one year from the day of the reunification of the two parts of the Russian Orthodox Church. We shall dedicate the whole of the programme to this event. Our guest shall be Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, who took part in the events surrounding the reunification of the church. For now, I say goodbye to you and wish you well. May the Lord protect you!
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