Gleb Pavlovich Yakunin
Gleb Pawlowitsch Jakunin ( Russian Глеб Павлович Якунин ; born March 4, 1934 in Moscow , † December 25, 2014 ibid) was a Russian Orthodox priest. The radical democratic dissident campaigned for freedom of belief in the Soviet Union . From 1990 to 1999 he was a member of the Russian parliament.
Life
The son of a musician first graduated from the Agricultural Institute in Irkutsk with a degree in biology . In the late 1950s he turned to Christianity. From 1958 to 1959 he studied at the Theological Seminary of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. He was ordained a priest in August 1962. In 1963 he was appointed priest of the city of Dimitrov near Moscow.
In 1965 he and the priest Nikolai Esliman wrote an open letter to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexius I , in which he accused the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate of betraying the interests of the church and of cooperating with the state power in the persecution of the church . The writing was also published in samizdat . In May 1966, he was banned from serving as a priest until he repented.
In 1976 he founded the Christian Committee for the Protection of Believers in the USSR . He published several hundred writings documenting the massive suppression of religious freedom in the Soviet Union and campaigned for religious dissidents of all faiths, including Lithuanian Catholics.
Yakunin was arrested on November 1, 1979 and sentenced on August 28, 1980 under Paragraph 70, Paragraph 1 for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda". He was imprisoned until 1985, first in Lefortovo prison , then in Perm labor camp 37 . After his release he was exiled to Yakutia . There he had to live in a self-built hut at −50 degrees Celsius in winter. He was given an amnesty in March 1987 under Mikhail Gorbachev . He was allowed to return to Moscow and worked as a priest again until 1992. In October 1991 he was rehabilitated by order of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation.
In 1990 he became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on freedom of conscience. He was co-author of the law on freedom of denominations and campaigned for the opening of churches and monasteries. From 1991 to 1992 he was a member of the committee of inquiry investigating the anti-democratic coup in August 1991.
In March 1992 he published archival materials showing collaboration between the KGB and the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate. The press soon found out the real names of the KGB agents in the Orthodox Church: they were Patriarch Alexei II and the Metropolitan Filaret of Kiev and Pitrim of Volokolamsk . The church reciprocated in 1993 with the anathematization of Yakunin. He joined the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church .
In 1993 he became a member of parliament for the radical democratic alliance Election Russia and in 1996 for the Democratic Russia party (DR) again. He exposed the involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church in tobacco smuggling, with which it cheated the state out of taxes in the billions. In 1995 he founded the Social Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Conscience .
In September 2000 he founded the Orthodox Church of Rebirth together with the Metropolitans Stefan Linnizki and Kiriak Temerzidi . The aim of the church is to reform the Russian Orthodox Church. It should be freed from bureaucracy and empty rituals. Yakunin was secretary of the Synod of Bishops and high priest for Moscow.
Jakunin was married to Iraida Jakunina and had three children: Maria, Alexander and Anna.
Yakunin died in Moscow in December 2014.
Fonts
- Gleb Jakunin, Lev Regelson: Christians under communist rule call out, how do we answer ?: Appeal to d. 5th General Assembly d. World Council d. Churches . Faith in the 2nd World, Küsnacht 1978
- Gleb Yakunin, Lev Regelson: Letters from Moscow: Religion and human rights in the USSR . Keston College, Keston / San Francisco 1978
- Gleb Yakunin: O sovremennom polozhenii Russkoi Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi i Perspektiveakh religioznogo vozrozhdeniya Rossii: Doklad Khristianskomu Komitetu zashchitu prav veruyushchikh v SSSR . Posev, Frankfurt am Main 1979
- Sergei Pushkarev, Vladimir Rusak, Gleb Yakunin: Christianity and government in Russia and the Soviet Union: Reflections on the millennium . Westview Press, Boulder / London 1989, ISBN 0-8133-7524-X
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Soviet-Era Dissident Gleb Yakunin Dies After Long Illness , report on Radio Free Europe from December 25, 2014, accessed on December 25, 2014
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jakunin, Gleb Pavlovich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Якунин, Глеб Павлович (Russian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Russian Orthodox priest |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 4, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Moscow , Soviet Union |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 25, 2014 |
| Place of death | Moscow , Russia |