the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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the other hand, visits to the 'reformed' lasted for fifteen minutes, and one
could even give things right into the hands of the prisoners. Under these
circumstances I had to speak with and give things to Metropolitan Cyril many
times. When the Metropolitan was in exile we were able to help him not only
with parcels but also by furnishing church service books."
On December 24, 1921 Metropolitan Cyril was released, and on January 18,
1922 he arrived in Kazan. He was met at the station by Bishops Joasaph and
Athanasius and a crowd of joyful Christians. In April the Bolsheviks carried
out their requisitioning of the valuables of the Kazan churches supposedly
"for the benefit of the starving". However, on August 15 (or 1 or 21) Vladyka
Cyril was arrested (he had already been arrested in April) for his involvement
with the American Relief Organization which supplied food to the starving.
After a spell in prison in Moscow, in January, 1923 he was exiled first to the
province of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, then to Ust-Sysolsk (Syktyvkar), then to
Ust-Kul (Komi SSR) and finally to Kotelnich (Vyatka province).
During this period Patriarch Tikhon, too, was imprisoned, which gave the
renovationist heretics the opportunity to seize control of the central
administration of the Church. Even after the Patriarch was released from
prison in 1923, the GPU tried to persuade the Patriarch to enter into
negotiations with the renovationists, promising that if he did many hierarchs
languishing in prison and exile would be freed. So in May, 1924, the
renovationist leader Krasnitsky was admitted briefly into the Patriarch's
Higher Ecclesiastical Council.
In the same month, however, Metropolitan Cyril was summoned to
Moscow for negotiations with the GPU agent Tuchkov. Since he refused to
recognize the renovationists, Tuchkov threatened to let him rot in prison. But
Vladyka Cyril did not give in.
Vladyka then went to the Patriarch, who asked him his opinion about
admitting Krasnitsky into the Council. He replied:
"Your Holiness, don't think about us hierarchs. There's no need to take pity
on them, they are strengthening the Church. But you must not compromise
with Krasnitsky."
Strengthened by Metropolitan Cyril, the Patriarch struck Krasnitsky's
name off the list of the Council members. As a result of this, in July
Metropolitan Cyril was again exiled, first to Yelsk and then to Perevolok. On
January 7, 1925, Patriarch Tikhon appointed Metropolitan Cyril first locum
tenens of the patriarchal throne although he was still in exile.
In the spring of 1925 he was in exile in Zyryansk region. As Protopresbyter
Michael Polsky writes, he came "to some dense forest at which he arrived
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