Father Arseny is a collection of literary eyewitness testimonies about the life of the modern saint, the confessor of their spiritual father, as well as their stories about their own life.

The authenticity of the events described (partly hidden by nominal names and titles) is beyond doubt. In addition to the confirmations of Father Arseny's still living students, there is also an internal guarantee of this authenticity: the heart of the reader joyfully believes in everything described, since it is impossible not to believe, before us the truth in its genuine beauty.

Even in samizdat typing, the wonderful book was widely distributed and made a strong impact on a large circle of readers. It revealed the image of a saint of our time, intrinsically identical with the Orthodox holiness of all times, but having the unique features of an ascetic of modern times. What is the peculiarity of this recent feat? First of all, in the spirit of the times. The first Christian martyrs expected the end of the world soon, but they were spiritually born into a young church, living a pure, spiritual life, which had not yet known the notorious sins of history. If then one out of twelve disciples became a traitor, then the persecutions of the twentieth century, figuratively speaking, often left only one out of twelve faithful. The terrible atmosphere of general renunciation, betrayal, betrayal, the unimaginable scale of the spiritual and historical catastrophe, the millions of people captivated by lies and drawn into the satanic reprisal against the Church of Christ, over their people and their country, all this plunged into despondency and despair, produced a feeling of doom, hopelessness, abandonment. Having lost faith in God, the formerly great, Orthodox Russia became a defenseless object for the implementation of Satan's plan of genocide unprecedented in history. The Civil War and the Patriotic War, tens of millions of victims of artificially created famine, tens of millions of innocents who were painfully exterminated in countless camps and prisons. Formerly, the Orthodox people become drunk, accustomed to deception, theft and lies as a way of life, to violence and robbery, to fornication and debauchery, to the systematic destruction of their own children. In the diabolical darkness, seeing each other as enemies and becoming enemies, people gave their strength and lives to an age-old senseless war, cruelly, mercilessly torturing each other. They became unable to organize their national life, forgot how to work, forgot how to love, live a family life, give birth to and raise children.

Evil in its essence cannot be defeated by evil, just as fire cannot be extinguished by fire. Only Christ's love on the cross, in its self-denial with faith and humility enduring any torment and even death, is capable of defeating evil and tearing away from it the already perishing, blinded and embittered human soul. There is no doubt that Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church live and pray, repent and are spiritually renewed only because the great host of holy martyrs, moved by love for Christ, for the Church, for the lost Russian people, resisted evil, giving themselves to the cross for the faith in Christ. If it were not for them, we would not have left one stone unturned long ago. But today the very life of the Russian Orthodox Church clearly reveals to us the miraculous fruits of the podvig of her new holy martyrs. Nevertheless, the spirit of this martyrdom very often remains misunderstood by both writers and readers. Probably because they had never met this spirit in their lives. Often those who now claim to be the successors and venerators of the holy martyrs are in fact shepherded by completely different pastors. Only a few witnesses left memories, when the ascetics themselves had long since moved to eternal homes.

In contrast to most of the camp literature, which makes a strong but heavy impression, Father Arseny introduces us to the victorious, bright spirit of Christ's love, which is not darkened by the surrounding hell, but shines even brighter, even more inextinguishable.

Anyone who was vouchsafed by the Lord to personally communicate with the confessors of that time will immediately recognize in Father Arsenius the image of a holy elder, full of love, humility, meekness, Christian sobriety and reasoning, abiding in prayer, having long ago entrusted himself entirely to the will of God, endowed with the grace-filled gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking. A small and secret, but nevertheless a whole host of such elders-confessors until recently manifested the fulfillment of ancient prophecies about the saints of the end times. It is through them that the spiritual succession was realized, uniting us today with the fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church, with her saints.

The manuscript is published essentially without editorial corrections in order to preserve its authenticity. We ask everyone who knows something about the heroes of this book or about other ascetics of the 20th century to share their information with us.

Brief information about the life of Fr. Arseny

Father Arseny was born in Moscow in 1894, and in 1911 he graduated from the gymnasium and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of the Moscow Imperial University. In 1916 he graduated from the university, suffered from endocarditis for more than eight months. At this time, he painted his first works on the art of ancient Russian architecture. At the beginning of 1917, after a period of spiritual searching, he left for the Optina Hermitage, where he was a novice of two elders, Anatoly and Nektarios. Here he took monastic vows, then he was ordained a hieromonk. In 1919, Father Arseny, with the blessing of the elders, returned to Moscow and was appointed the third priest in one of the Moscow churches. This required a special permission from St. Patriarch Tikhon, since the service of hieromonks in parishes was usually not allowed. At the beginning of 1921, Fr. Arseny became the second priest, and at the end of 1921, when the rector of the church, Father Pavel, was transferred and soon arrested, Father Arseny became the rector. Over the course of eight years of service, he gathered a significant community in his church, for which he became a beloved pastor and spiritual father. In 1927, at the end of December, Father Arseny was arrested for the first time and exiled to the Arkhangelsk region for two years. After the end of his term of exile, Father Arseny served in a church near Moscow (outside the hundred-kilometer zone). In 1931. he was again arrested and exiled to the Vologda region for five years. Now Father Arseny received permission to live in the Vologda, Arkhangelsk and Vladimir regions. It was impossible to serve in church, I served at home. Several times he secretly came to Moscow, met with Vladyka Athanasius (Sakharov), asked him to ordain several of his spiritual children to the priesthood, to which he received the consent of Vladyka Athanasius. He secretly ministered to his spiritual community. Then the third arrest in 1939, a new exile to Siberia, then to the Urals. Fr. Arseny spent about a year in exile in the village of Troitskoye, Arkhangelsk region. was arrested again and imprisoned in the Ural camp. In March 1941, he was transferred to a high-security camp, correspondence and visits of spiritual children almost stopped, and in 1942. to a special regime camp, where correspondence and visits were finally prohibited. Only in the spring of 1958, Father Arseny was released from the special regime camp and settled in the city of Rostov the Great with Nadezhda Petrovna. Father Arseny died in 1975 and was buried in the cemetery of Rostov. On his grave was laid a granite stone with the inscription:

Father Arseny

1894-1975

Then this stone disappeared; In what condition and where the grave is located is now unknown, because all those who took care of it have already died.

Part One. CAMP

In recent years, many memories have emerged of the lives of political prisoners during the cult of personality.