Politburo And The Church, Kremlin Archives

N. Petrovsky, S.G. Petrov

Letter from the People's Commissariat of Finance of the Ukrainian SSR to the Currency Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR on the secondment of a commissioner to negotiate the implementation of the values found in the KievPechersk Lavra. February 2, 1925

No. 23-51 ⁴⁶ February 2, 1925

By urgent mail.

Top secret.

Personally.

EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT OF THE NARKOMFIN OF THE USSR

Comrade KARKLIN.

The Politburo of the Center [al] Committee of the CP (6) U made a decision to transfer the values of the Central Committee of Aid to the Children of Ukraine discovered in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. As a result, we ask you to order MYuT to send its authorized representative to Kiev to negotiate their implementation.

Narkomfin U.S..S.R. (Kuznetsov)

Head of the Foreign Exchange Office (Kapitanovsky) - L. 78. Certified typewritten copy made on February 7, 1925. In the upper left corner, the typewritten form of the Secret Department of the People's Commissariat for Finance of the Ukrainian SSR with the date "2 / 11-1925" is reproduced. In the upper right corner there is a stamp stating that the document belongs to the proceedings of the Politburo meeting, minutes No. 48, item 12 of February 12, 1925 (No. 23-53). On the left is a mailing stamp with handwritten date "11/10/1925" (the number "10" has been corrected from the previously written number "7") and the outgoing number. Below is a stamp of the Bureau of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) with a handwritten date "11/13/25" and an incoming number.

Notes and Comments:

⁴⁶O. Yu. Vasilieva and PN Knyshevsky, relying on the publication in the émigré newspaper Dni (Berlin) of January 6, 1925, interpret the “repeated 'cleaning' of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra" as follows. in its basements, several pounds of gold and 110 pounds of silver artwork were found, sheltered from the evil eyes of property managers in 1922. Church jewelry with 360 diamonds, several bags of old interest-bearing papers worth several million rubles and "counterrevolutionary" correspondence of Tikhonov's persuasion were also found ". See: Vasilyeva O. Yu., Knyshevsky P. N. Red conquistadors. S. 191-192. Apparently, the source of information for the émigré newspaper was the Soviet press, which was quite actively discussing this story. So, for example, in the newspaper "Izvestia" (1925 January 6), a note was published, aimed at discrediting Patriarch Tikhon, who, in the opinion of its author, not only concealed the discovered values, but also sent "intelligence information" abroad through the "monastic agents". On this occasion, Patriarch Tikhon was forced to contact the editorial office of the newspaper on January 10, 1925, with a request to publish his refutation (Izvestia. 1925, January 18). In his letter, the head of the Russian Church announced that he took over the management of the monastery at the beginning of 1924 after the Soviet regime deprived the Ukrainian archpastors of the “actual opportunity to govern”. Therefore, he could not make an order to conceal valuables in the Lavra, and even more so to communicate through monks with "foreign counter-revolution" and with "counter-revolutionary groups within the USSR." (See: Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon ... p. 350). in the opinion of its author, he not only concealed the discovered values, but also sent “intelligence information” abroad through the “monastic agents”. On this occasion, Patriarch Tikhon was forced to contact the editorial office of the newspaper on January 10, 1925, with a request to publish his refutation

(Izvestia. 1925, January 18). In his letter, the head of the Russian Church announced that he took over the management of the monastery at the beginning of 1924 after the Soviet regime deprived the Ukrainian archpastors of the “actual opportunity to govern”. Therefore, he could not make an order to conceal valuables in the Lavra, and even more so to communicate through monks with "foreign counter-revolution" and with "counter-revolutionary groups within the USSR." (See: Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon ... p. 350). in the opinion of its author, he not only concealed the discovered values, but also sent “intelligence information” abroad through the “monastic agents”. On this occasion, Patriarch Tikhon was forced to contact the editorial office of the newspaper on January 10, 1925, with a request to publish his refutation (Izvestia. 1925, January 18). In his letter, the head of the Russian Church announced that he took over the management of the monastery at the beginning of 1924 after the Soviet regime deprived the Ukrainian archpastors of the “actual opportunity to govern”. Therefore, he could not make an order to conceal valuables in the Lavra, and even more so to communicate through monks with "foreign counter-revolution" and with "counter-revolutionary groups within the USSR." (See: Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon ... p. 350). On this occasion, Patriarch Tikhon was forced to contact the editorial office of the newspaper on January 10, 1925, with a request to publish his refutation (Izvestia. 1925, January 18). In his letter, the head of the Russian Church announced that he took over the management of the monastery at the beginning of 1924 after the Soviet regime deprived the Ukrainian archpastors of the “actual opportunity to govern”. Therefore, he could not make an order to conceal valuables in the Lavra, and even more so to communicate through monks with "foreign counter-revolution" and with "counter-revolutionary groups within the USSR." (See: Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon ... p. 350). On this occasion, Patriarch Tikhon was forced to contact the editorial office of the newspaper on January 10, 1925, with a request to publish his refutation (Izvestia. 1925, January 18). In his letter, the head of the Russian Church announced that he took over the management of the monastery at the beginning of 1924 after the Soviet regime deprived the Ukrainian archpastors of the “actual opportunity to govern”. Therefore, he could not make an order to conceal valuables in the Lavra, and even more so to communicate through monks with "foreign counter-revolution" and with "counter-revolutionary groups within the USSR." (See: Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon ... p. 350). after the Soviet regime deprived the "de facto possibility of government" of the Ukrainian archpastors. Therefore, he could not make an order to conceal valuables in the Lavra, and even more so to communicate through monks with "foreign counterrevolution" and with "counter-revolutionary groups within the USSR." (See: Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon ... p. 350). after the Soviet regime deprived the "de facto possibility of government" of the Ukrainian archpastors. Therefore, he could not make an order to conceal valuables in the Lavra, and even more so to communicate through monks with "foreign counter-revolution" and with "counter-revolutionary groups within the USSR." (See: Acts of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon ... p. 350).