Olga Anatolievna Reneva,
Kungur Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, Kungur, Russia, e‑mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Monks of the White Mountain: The Way to the East
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-3-9
The article traces the history of the Belogorsky Monastery on Belaya Gora (Osinsk District, Perm’ Province) and its monks during the period of 1918–1924, both perished during the Civil War and emigrated eastward to Siberia and China. The author suggests that the Ural monastery aroused strong hatred among the Bolsheviks because of its close ties to the imperial family. The first victim of the red terror on Belaya Gora was the abbot, Archimandrite Varlaam (Konoplev). In 2000 he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint, as were a number of monks who were brutally murdered in the monastery in the fall of 1918. Particular attention is paid to the fate of Hegumen Seraphim (Kuznetsov), who saved the bodies of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and her companions from desecration, as well as Hegumen Yuvenaly (Kilin), who later served in churches in Harbin, Shanghai and Beijing. The first, having fulfilled his sorrowful mission, remained in the Holy Land, in Jerusalem; the second, in 1947, returned to the Soviet Union, where he successively led the dioceses: Chelyabinsk and Zlatoust, Irkutsk and Chita, Omsk and Tyumen, and Izhevsk and Udmurtia. For the first time documents about the closure of the monastery in 1924, which are stored in the Archive of the Kungur municipal district, are introduced into scientific circulation. Thanks to these materials we can appreciate the sacrifice of the monks who, under threat of imprisonment and death, remained on the White Mountain and tried their best to preserve the monastery.
Publishing: 28/06/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 31/01/2023
How to cite: Reneva O.A. Monks of the White Mountain: The Way to the East // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 3 (29), pp. 115–123. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-3-09.pdf]
Links: Issue 3 2023
Keywords: Belogorsky Monastery; Belaya Gora; emigration; Hegumen Seraphim (Kuznetsov); Hegumen Yuvenaly (Kilin); Harbin; Shanghai