“I Allow to Call the Dead Bishop…” On the Question of the Death of Bishop Pamphil (Lyaskovsky)

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of information relating to the period of Vladyka Pamfil's stay at the Krasnodar cathedra and the circumstances of his death, in the context of church-state relations of that time. On January 10, 1936, Bishop Pamfil was found hanged from a tree in the garden of the house where he had recently lived; there was a note in his pocket: “I ask you not to blame anyone for my death.” Admirers of the archpastor are convinced that in fact he was killed by the NKVD, the suicide was just a staging. The article shows the complexity of the position of the Orthodox episcopate in the USSR in the mid-1930s. —  during a period of severe anti-religious persecution, which soon ended in mass repressions against the clergy and active parishioners and the closure of the vast majority of existing Orthodox churches. A number of episodes related to the biography of Bishop Pamphilus have been clarified. Along with well-known publications, handwritten materials were used, as well as documents from the Archives of the Moscow Patriarchate, which are published here for the first time.