In the village stood a church
Great spruces, cedars all surrounding,
Brush and white, great gleaming birch,
‘Midst nature’s beauty there abounding.
Festive bells the Resurrection ringing,
In triumphant waves across the vale
Silent now, they leave instead of singing
A heavy, long, and empty wail.
Why did they take away our church?
They stole its vessels, grabbed their loot,
Put it to fire, fist, and market
And carried off the logs to boot.
The church was gone, but not forgotten
By its Guardian Angel through the years.
Now a cross stands there, through prayers begotten
By its Angel, whom God surely hears.
The cross tells all: This place is sacred!
It stands, a lesson to descendants.
The Lord forgives, loves His creation,
And accepts our true repentance.
Tamara Sukhareva, 2019
(Translation by OrthoChristian.com)
***
The Church of the Protection in Barkhatovo, a village founded in around 1740 on the banks of the Esaulovka River in wild and beautiful Siberia, was first built as a prayer house in 1898–1899. Peasants with the fortitude to relocate to Siberia from central Russia often made their small fortunes in the new lands, and this place of worship was first built mainly through the means of one such peasant, Constantine, Prokhorovich Karandina.
The early twentieth century geographer and local historian Ivan Fedorovich Besprozvanny called the area “extremely beautiful”. “Our church” he wrote, “stood in the center of the village, on the square, on a hill, surrounded by a beautiful fence, with greenery all around, and fir trees, birches, and shrubs grew nearby. The church building itself had an attractive appearance, and the interior decor and furnishings were even more captivating.” In the early soviet period, the church interior became even richer, when furnishings, including antimensions, from other churches that had been closed were transferred to Barkhatovo.
“In the bell tower,” Besprozvanny continues, “there were bells with a melodious sound, audible in the neighboring villages.”
“From 1931,” Besprozvanny concludes his account, “the church ceased to exist, the church utensils, especially the icons, of which there were many and were very valuable, were looted.” In fact, the church was still used for worship for a few more years. The parish’s last priest, Fr. Pavel Grozov, was arrested and executed in 1937. The old church was destroyed in 1972.
After several decades of atheist propaganda in the Soviet Union, new life came to the Orthodox parish in the village of Barkhatovo. People were finally able to return to churches and openly practice their faith.
In 1999, the Barkhatovo villagers had a meeting in which they discussed reopening the church. They asked Fr. Andrei from Sosnovoborsk to help them. He then headed another local meeting attended by twenty-four people—only, sixteen of them were Baptists. Fr. Andrei told them, “You know, I’m also a Baptist”. Everyone voted to open the church. At the end of the meeting he explained that he baptizes people, and so, he’s a true Baptist.
Today, in place of the old church stands a memorial cross, and the life of the Orthodox community takes place within the walls of the new Protection church, with the support of the current management of the Barkhatovo poultry farm, which at one time allocated a space for the church. The church is an example of how prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ are now being offered in buildings that the soviet authorities had used to store potatoes, or other for mundane purposes.
In the early 2000s, with the appointment of a permanent rector to the Protection Church, services became more frequent and regular.
Pravoslavie.ru photographer Dmitry Kiriukhin spent most of the year 2019 in Barkhatovo, where he shot these photos of one patronal feast of the Protection Church.
