REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

198
Remembrance in Time
refused to pay the bishop 10 thousand rubles ∗ so as to acquire a car and for not bringing
presents to the officials of the diocese 18 . Nectarie’s involvement in the economic sphere
became so intense that some county financial departments, in order to cash in their
income taxes from the clergymen, which were illegal, directly addressed the bishop so
that he should compel them. 19 . The bishop’s endeavour for the good of the nation was
appraised this way by the Soviet authorities: “During his stay in R.S.S.M., the archbishop
Nectarie positively recommended himself and testified loyalty and patriotic aspirations 20 .
For this special worth, the Russian Patriarchy, in February 1956, awarded him the rank of
archbishop of Chişinău and Moldavia 21 .
As reaction to the abuses from the bishop Nectarie and in the wish to stop them, a group
of priests, led by the archimandrite Macarie (Misail ChiriŃă), being encouraged by the
political changes from U.R.S.S., addressed, in the spring of 1956, a letter to the marshal
Jucov wherein he a asked the support for the Church in Moldova to the purpose of
reacquiring the status of Metropolitan Church and of obtaining the autonomy within the
Patriarchy of Moscow. Likewise, in this letter, the desire was expressed for the Prime of
the Church from Moldavia to be of Moldavian nationality and to speak Moldavian
because the Moldavian people “has some national and religious traditions completely
foreign to Russian spirituality...”. The archbishop Nectarie did not speak Romanian,
although he was shepherding this diocese for 7 years and “therefore he was not able to
fulfil the Moldavians’ religious requirements, which, in Moldavia, are 95%”. In the letter,
there is also specified the desire of the Orthodox Church from Moldavia to remain within
the Russian Patriarchy, however with status of “younger sister” 22 .
The separatist-character letter had bomb effect and raised rough reactions from the
Council for the issues of the Russian Orthodox Church within the Council of Ministers of
U.R.S.S. headquartered in Moscow. In an emergency informative note 23 G. Carpov, the
president of the Council, sends to P. Romenschii the letter of the archimandrite Macarie
(Misail ChiriŃă) addressed to marshal Jucov as regards the autonomy of the Orthodox
Church from Moldavia and asks him to draw the attention on Macarie’s actions, taking
measures for him not to succeed in popularizing his intentions and in informing the
Council on what P. Romenschii knows in this respect 24 . From this informative note, and
also from the characterization given to the Archbishop Nectarie by the attorney P.
Romenschii 25 , we deduce that the Soviet authorities were aware of the bishop’s flaws; but
for his serving the Soviet regime and to the purpose of discrediting the Church, they
tolerated and promoted him. To get the situation under control and to prevent the
dissemination of the separatist feelings among the Moldavian clergy, during the 12 th -17 th
of June 1956, in Chişinău, there inspected Ivan Ivanovici Ivanov and Medvedev, the
∗ For comparison, the rent of a single in Chişinău cost 100 rubles monthly, a worker, on average,
received 200 rubles monthly, and P. Romenschii, in 1956, had a monthly salary from 1200 to
1400 rubles (ANRM, F. 3046, i. 1, d. 64, f. 88).
18 ANRM, F. 3046, i 1, d. 56, f. 32.
19
ANRM, F. 3046, i 1, d. 56, f. 176.
20
ANRM, F. 3046, i. 1, d. 64, f. 62.
21
Ibidem.
22
Ibidem, ff. 106 şi 106a.
23
Notă informativă de urgenŃă, nr.1113, 19 aprilie 1956.
24
Ibidem, f. 105.
25
ANRM, F. 3046, i. 1, d. 64, ff. 60-62.