Memory of Three Generations: Evidence of the Ministry of St. Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky) in the Front-Line City of Tambov from the Grozdov Family Archive

Abstract

The article analyzes the evidence from the Grozdov family archive which allows one to trace the continuity between four generations of relatives who carefully preserved their spiritual traditions throughout the tragic and contradictory 20th century. Thanks to the photographs, drawings, letters, documents, diaries transferred by M. V. Ganeyeva (Grozdova) to the museum collections of Tambov, we can see a multicoloured epic picture conveying the entire spectrum of the spiritual world of the intelligentsia during the Great Patriotic War in the hospital city of Tambov. The most informative document of this collection, especially eloquently testifying to the Great Patriotic War, is the diary of Vyacheslav Tikhonovich Grozdov, the grandson of Archpriest Mitrofan Grozdov and the son of the famous surgeon Tikhon Mitrofanovich Grozdov who worked together with St. Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky) during the war. The pages of the diary depict the stories of the daily life of the front-line city of Tambov where Holy Hierarch-Surgeon Luke arrived on February 19, 1944. Vyacheslav Grozdov recorded the facts of communication between his father and Saint Luke, made notes about their joint operations and speeches at conferences. Vyacheslav himself was repeatedly present at the operations conducted by the Holy Hierarch and, being skilled in drawing, helped him by preparation of figures and tables for his reports at medical conferences. The diary entries reveal that it was Vyacheslav Grozdov who was the author of the pencil portrait of Professor, Doctor of Medicine Archbishop Luke (V. F. Voyno-Yasenetsky), which dates from March 25, 1944. Vyacheslav’s diary entries reveal the everyday self-sacrificial heroism (Russ.: podvig) of the doctors working in Tambov’s evacuation hospitals, and the enormous human pain he had to face. While helping his father in the hospital as an attendant, as well as making sketches of operations and hospital life, Vyacheslav captured pictures characterizing the events of the life of the Archbishop-Surgeon in the city of Tambov. In addition to directly indicating the facts of communication between the Grozdovs and Archbishop Luke, the diary provides the necessary context for understanding many situations throughout the Tambov period of St. Luke's ministry, as well as the wartime life of Tambov in general. Analyzing the evidence from the diary, one can reconstruct and characterize the spiritual and moral environment of the city of Tambov during the archpastoral labours of Saint Luke for the revival of the Tambov diocese during the Great Patriotic War.