This lazy mother of ours, who was born before us, is the one who will bury us in the end.

Interviewer: Do you think a new, Fourth, Rome is possible, if the fall of Moscow as the Third Rome is final?

А.К.: "Rome" in church language is a state that is not just headed by Orthodox rulers. "Rome" is where these rulers are aware of their most important duty to defend Orthodoxy throughout the world. If this people feels its universal calling, feels its responsibility for the fate of world Orthodoxy, well, Rome can be where such a people lives. If such a consciousness is born among the Georgians and their rulers, then Tbilisi will be the Fourth Rome. If it is formed in Ukraine, Kyiv will become the Fourth Rome. If the Serbs have Belgrade, if the Romanians have Bucharest. Theoretically, such a turn of events cannot be denied. But will it be accomplished? This is already the realm of prophecy, and you understand that here I prefer to be silent.

Interviewer: But the period of empires seems to be over. A nation-state cannot be a "Rome."

А.К.: That's right, only an empire can be Rome. But the time of empires has not yet passed. Before our eyes, America is becoming a world empire – although not quite in its classical form. However, in the Roman Empire, the appearance of independent governments and kingdoms was also preserved. But no matter how great Herod seemed to his Jerusalem flatterers, he was still only a vassal of Rome. So there are empires even now, but there is no Orthodox empire today... Perhaps the forces of the traditionally Orthodox peoples are broken. In this case, the word is up to the missionaries. Just as Cyril and Methodius once saved Orthodoxy by going from dying Byzantium to the barbarian Slavic tribes, so perhaps tomorrow it will be our turn to send our missions to other countries (although, in my opinion, our turn came "the day before yesterday", but we slept through it).

And perhaps the world American empire will one day become Orthodox. In any case, in the second century, the hope for the Christianization of the Roman Empire seemed no less insane. Or maybe the churches that we are now building in Siberia will contribute to the fact that over time the Chinese (to whom – almost without a doubt – the Siberian lands will go in the next century) will become Orthodox. Then the diligence and discipline of the Chinese will enrich the universal history of Orthodoxy with what we have not been able to enrich it. Remember the words of St. Nicholas of Japan, said about the Chinese a hundred years ago: "This is the people of the future, the greatest of all destinies that have befallen other peoples. A great people, even now capable of crushing the whole world – and how peaceful it is! He had nowhere to live, and had he thought of conquering Cochinchina, Siam, and Burma? What other people in the world would have survived? None of the European ones can even imagine this."867

I even ask sensible Orthodox young men to seriously think: is it worth going to the seminary right away? Maybe you should first get a university education in Oriental Studies? After all, in the next century we will no longer meet with the West, but with the East. There must be people in the Church who are prepared for this in advance. However, this is not only about China and the Chinese. Eastern religious ideas are already fermenting in the minds of many Russian philistines. And therefore, for missionary work in the Russian environment, it is already necessary to know the history and philosophy of Eastern religions.

Twenty years ago, people were amazed if they met a believing physicist: "Why, are you a physicist and a Christian at the same time? How can this be combined? In the same way, today they are amazed when they meet with Orthodox Orientalists: "How? Do you know Sanskrit (Chinese, Japanese...), do you read the primary sources of ancient Eastern teachings, do you know Eastern wisdom and at the same time you are not a Buddhist, but an Orthodox? Is there anything interesting in Orthodoxy? Tell me!"

So I sometimes ask those young men whose heads are in the right place, and whose hearts burn with a desire to serve the Church, to make this heavy sacrifice: to consciously immerse themselves in the world of Eastern magic, occultism, and paganism in order to protect Russia from this darkness later. No "missionary seminaries" will help here. It is necessary first to get a serious and specifically Oriental education – without this, in the Russia of the next generation, missionaries will not be able to reach out to people brought up on horoscopes, "mantras" and "koans". The missionaries of the next century should know much more than I do, because their opponents will be more well-read in Eastern occult wisdom than today's dilettantes like the Roerichs. And I already feel that neither Moscow State University nor the Academy is enough for me: the stock of knowledge should be greater than what I have (I have a religious education, but no special Oriental studies).

If any of the priests understood my concern and shared it, I ask them to keep in mind not only the addresses of seminaries, but also the addresses of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, the Diplomatic University (MGIMO) and the Linguistic University...

However, in order to make my pain and my concern more understandable, I will say in the words of St. Nicholas, who preached Orthodoxy in Japan at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: "And so far I am the only missionary here, and that is private. And when will this Russia, spread over half the world, seventy million people find a few thousand rubles and several dozen people in order to fulfill one of the most essential commandments of the Savior? Catholicism and Protestantism have spread around the world. Is it possible that Orthodoxy will not do anything here either? No, it can't be, God willing. With this 'God willing' I went to Japan, with him I go to bed every day and wake up, for him I struggled for seven years over the Japanese language" (Hieromonk Nikolai (Kasatkin), Letter to Metropolitan Innocent of Moscow).868 Years passed, the hieromonk became a bishop. But still - lonely. "Oh, how painful, how bitter it is sometimes for the soul for our dear Orthodoxy! I went to Russia to invite people to the feast of life and work, to the most direct work of serving Orthodoxy. He was in all four academies, calling the flower of Russian youth – for their intellectual development and, it would seem, for their piety and desire to devote their energies to the cause of the faith, in which they were brought up from infancy. And what happened? Of all of them, one, only one, responded to my call, and even that one did not give a very firm and decisive word, and he might betray it. All the rest, all positively, either did not want to hear, or asked about the benefits and privileges of the service. Such is the mood of the Orthodox clergy in Russia regarding the interests of Orthodoxy! Isn't it sad? They would look at what is happening abroad, in non-Orthodox countries. How zealous society has to serve as means! How many people, the best people, without long thought and regret, leave their homeland forever to carry the name of Christ to the most remote corners of the world! God, what is it? Did our unfortunate history kill us? Or is our character forever so immobile, sluggish, apathetic, incapable of being imbued with the Spirit of Christ, and Protestantism or Catholicism will take possession of the world, and with them the world will end its existence?" (St. Nicholas of Japan, diary entry from 4.3.1871) 869. "I was sad and sad that up to now there are no workers for the Mission from the Lavra and Moscow, and, venerating the relics of St. Sergius, I could not refrain mentally from complaining: 'I will sue you before the Lord – why do you not give a missionary to Japan'" (St. Nicholas of Japan. Diary entry from 30.5.1880) 870. In the end, St. Nicholas realizes that he will not wait for understanding and help from the Russian clergy, that during his lifetime he will not be given the opportunity to see the growth of the mission he created. "To know, so I will die without waiting for an assistant and successor. Orthodoxy is so poor in missionaries! And of the heterodox, – O God, what an boundless multitude of them!" (St. Nicholas of Japan, diary entry of 7.10.1903) 871. "The Protestant world at the beginning of the twentieth century stands fully armed with four hundred and forty-nine missionary societies, with behind them a wall of great Churches and inexhaustible springs... By the way, I ask: what do we have against the pagans abroad? Here's what. In China, Father Innokenty, and even he will not return from Russia, where he was demanded by the Synod; in Korea – Father Chrysanthos; yes, in Japan, poor people, together with Father Benjamin, which is now in Nagasaki and is more suitable for Russians than for Japanese. In total: four missionaries. Lord, will Thou ever look upon the Orthodox Church (take away the reproach from Her?(" 872. "You can't turn around with them missionaries: wherever you want, and as much as you want, in abundance! It is likely that in another thousand years there will appear in the Orthodox Church some such vivacity. And now it is a bird with one wing" (St. Nicholas of Japan, diary entry of 14.1.1904). 873. A thousand years have not yet passed. But a hundred years later, missionaries had to be sent not to India and Japan, but to Russia. However, for this case, too, there were a little more than four of them874...

Today, you don't need to go to China to convert the Chinese to Christianity! They themselves seep into our Siberia "in small groups of one hundred thousand people." And this is our chance. After all, the Chinese, cut off from their native communist or Confucian environment, may be more receptive to the adoption of Christianity. Today, in every diocese there are already priests who work with prisoners, as well as priests who work with universities. So why not raise missionary priests in those dioceses where there are already large Chinese colonies (these are Moscow and Siberia) who would know the Chinese language, know Chinese culture, history, philosophy, and preach specifically in Chinese dormitories? Is there really not enough foresight or money to send several young men to study in Moscow or hire tutors for them right on their place?

What if these are not only "colonies"? Suddenly, about Khabarovsk or Krasnoyarsk, one day we will have to say those terrible words that the Russian émigré poet Arseny Nesmelov (who died after 1945 in a Soviet transit prison) said about the now Chinese Harbin:

Sweet city, proud and slender,