Patriarch Tikhon has of His Own Accord Temporarily Resigned. May 17, 1922

Original Source: Izvestiia, 17 May 1922.

On May 12th a group of clergymen, consisting of the priests Vvedenskii, Krasnitskii, Kalinovskii, Belkov, and Stadnik, visited Patriarch Tikhon at his residence, and had a lengthy interview with him. In the course of the interview they called the attention of the Patriarch to the trial which had just been brought to an end at the Moscow Governorship Tribunal, and in which eleven sentences of death had been passed for resistance to the confiscation of church valuables. The above clergymen held Patriarch Tikhon responsible for such bloodshed, because of his proclamation of February 28th. In the opinion of the above mentioned clergymen the spreading of that proclamation in the provincial churches gave the signal for a new outbreak of civil war waged by the Church hierarchy against the Soviet regime.

The priest Krasnitskii pointed out that the name of the Patriarch had been generally connected with a counter-revolutionary church policy, which had materialized in the following concrete instances: (a) in an anathema demonstratively pronounced by the Patriarch on the Bolsheviks on January 19,1918; (b) in a proclamation issued by the Patriarch on February 15/28 1918, enjoining believers to hide the church valuables, to ring alarm bells, and to organize the laity for the purpose of resisting the Soviet power (according to Krasnitskii this proclamation had caused 1,414 sanguinary excesses and conflicts); (c) in that the Patriarch's sending through the medium of Bishop Germogen, his blessing and a wafer to Nikolai Romanov at Ekaterinburg; (d) in his ordaining to the priesthood, and raising to high places in the Church hierarchy, persons who had clearly shown themselves to be adherents of the old monarchist regime; (e) in his generally converting the Church into a political organization which under priestly robes and in its parish councils gave refuge to irresponsible elements which in the name of the Church, and under the flag of the Church, endeavor to subvert the Soviet power.

Pointing out that under the guidance of Patriarch Tikhon the Church has fallen into a state of complete anarchy, that by its counter-revolutionary policy in general, and its opposition to the confiscation of valuables in particular, the Church has forfeited its authority, and lost every influence on the masses at large - the group of clergymen demanded that the Patriarch call immediately a Church Council for regulating the affairs of the Church, and that pending the decision of the Church Council the Patriarch should withdraw from all Church affairs.

As a result of this interview, and after some consideration, the Patriarch tendered his resignation, appointing as his substitute, pending convocation of the Church Council, one of the higher Church dignitaries.

Source: Boleslaw B. Szczesniak, ed. and tr., Russian Revolution and Religion; a collection of documents concerning the suppression of religion by the Communists, 1917-1925 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1959).