Michael Bleive

Michael Bleive

Michael Bleive (born October 29, 1873 in Olustvere in Suure-Jaani in the Viljandi district in Livonia's governorate , today Estonia ; † January 14, 1919 in Tartu ), also written Michael Bleiwe , actually Estonian Mihkel Bleive , also written Mihhail Bleive , Russian Михаил Иванович Блейве ( Mikhail Ivanovich Bleiwe , also transcribed Mikhail Bleive ), was an Orthodox priest and martyr .

The dates in this article are based on the Julian calendar for the period up to 1918 unless otherwise noted.

Life

Michael Bleive was the son of the choirmaster Ivan (Estonian Jaan) Bleive (1841-1892) and his wife Akilina (born 1844). His older sister was called Aleksandra Bleive (born 1870, married to Ivan Arak in 1890). His younger sister Veera Bleive (married to Ivan Pavel in 1899) was born in 1876.

Michael Bleive served as a lecturer in the Olustvere Church. From 1884 he attended the Riga church school and later the local seminary, which he completed on June 21, 1894. He initially stayed as a singer in the hierarchical choir in Riga and served from August 15, 1894 as a lecturer at the Church of St. John the Predecessor. From August 17, 1896, he was a lecturer at the Riga Convent Church. On November 12, 1899 he married the priest's daughter Любовь Луговская (Lyubow Lugowskaja, born 1875).

On January 1, 1900, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Agathangelus of Riga (real name Alexander Lavrentyevich Preobrazhensky, canonized). He served as a priest in Laanemäe from January 2, 1900 to February 27, 1908. His son Theodor Bleive (died 1979) was born on February 10, 1901, and his daughter Sonja Bleive (married to Jakob Saar, died 1996) on August 17, 1903. During the revolution of 1905 Michael Bleive protected parishioners from the violence of revolutionary groups. He was considered very committed, preaching, singing, teaching in school, helping the poor and defending innocent people sentenced to death.

Michael Bleive served in Nõo from February 27, 1908 to July 1, 1915 . There he collected donations to decorate the poor church. On November 17, 1909, his son Johannes Bleive (died 1991), who later became known as a composer, was born.

In 1910 Michael Bleive became dean of the Tartu district. At the beginning of the First World War he organized special services for the soldiers sent to the front and their families, and he also visited and comforted the soldiers' mothers and wives. On July 22, 1915 he became a priest of the Ringensaya Church in the Verroe Deanery.

On October 6, 1916, he moved to the Uspenski community in Tartu and became their third priest. (Uspensky refers to the Dormition of the Virgin.) On June 20, 1918 he was appointed dean. During the difficult war conditions, he took care of the community and community school. He was considered calm and modest, but also firm in his convictions. His sermons were found inspiring. He also preached openly against Bolshevism, calling the revolutionary events the separation of wheat from the chaff, unbelief from faith. He prophesied that the persecutions would not destroy the church, but rather strengthen and renew the faith.

During the Estonian War of Freedom , the Bolsheviks took control of Tartu on December 21, 1918.

On January 2, 1919, they arrested Bishop Platon Kulbusch . When Bleive heard of this, he went to the commandant despite protests from his family and offered himself up as a prisoner in place of the bishop. On Sunday, January 5, he and the priest Alexander Bryantsev were arrested during the service in the church for holding it without the permission of the communist administration. He was taken to the credit bank that served as a makeshift prison. A total of 230 people were held there, including Bishop Platon Kulbusch, his secretary Protodiacon Konstantin Dorin and the priests Nikolai Bezhanitsky and Alexander Bryanzew. The room was crowded and the conditions of detention harsh. Bleive now shared the needs and humiliations of the other prisoners. There were also 60 to 80 women among them.

On January 14, the Estonian and Finnish troops approached Tartu, whereupon the Bolsheviks began at 10:30 a.m. to shoot prisoners or to kill them with ax blows on the skull. The executions took place in the so-called murder cellar . The procedure was reconstructed in a later investigation:

The prisoners had to line up in a row. A commissioner came into the cell and the names of the victims were called. The detective led out the death row inmates. They were stripped of their clothes, shoes, and valuables and then taken to the basement. The first was the bishop, followed by the baker Lutsk. Michael Bleive, his brother Nikolai Bezhanitsky and the evangelical clergyman Traugott Hahn had to leave the cell together. Plato was the first to be shot, Michael Bleive, Nikolai Bezhanitsky, Traugott Hahn and the Protestant pastor Moritz Wilhelm Paul Schwartz as well as 14 other respected citizens of Tartus were killed a short time later. Bleive died from an ax blow that shattered the left side of his face.

Among the victims were also simple craftsmen such as the butcher Eugen Massal and the master potter Ado Luik. In addition to those detained in the credit bank, people detained in the police station were also executed in the basement. (A list of the names of all the victims can be found in the chapter “Afterlife”.) There were further killings with an anti-religious background at Peplerstrasse 32. A total of 300 people were killed by them in the 24 days of the occupation of Tartus by the Bolsheviks.

Afterlife

Detection situation

Due to the rapid advance of the Estonian and Finnish troops, the Bolsheviks had to withdraw before a second group of prisoners could be taken and executed. This made it possible for the doctor Dr. Wolfgang von Reyher to inspect the place of execution with the victims in the morning when the bodies were still warm. Based on his report and photographic recordings, some of which are printed in the book by Köhrer given below, some details about the shootings are known:

The place of the executions was reached through a dark, vaulted cellar that was about ten paces long. The actual place of execution was entered through a low arch on the left side, under which one had to bend down. The adjoining room, also dark and damp, was about eight paces long and five paces wide. The sight that met him there, Dr. by Reyher with Dante Alighieri's Inferno. The bodies, clad only in underwear, took up the entire room and lay one on top of the other, in the middle in three layers, so that entering the room was impossible without stepping on human bodies. Their positions appeared unnatural. The shots were apparently carried out at close range, so the injuries were correspondingly severe. The gunshot wounds mostly affected the head, in some cases to the point of complete destruction; in one case the head was almost completely severed from the body. Some of the victims had been killed by ax blows on the skull. The walls and floor of the room were heavily soiled with blood, brain matter and skull fragments, as was the bed that was in the room. Several victims had been shot several times. Dr. Von Reyher initially counted 23 bodies; a mistake could quickly arise, however, as it was difficult to identify individual bodies in the pile. No one in this room had survived. According to these observations, the executions are likely to have proceeded in such a way that after the victims had taken off their outer clothing in the execution room, they encountered the bodies of those who had already been killed and were shot immediately or with an ax blow from the passage. This assumption is supported by the fact that there were no signs of execution in the anteroom. The bodies were transferred to the anatomy and photographed there.

The following could be identified:

• Plato Kulbusch
• Michael Bleive
• Nikolai Stefanowitsch Beschanizki
• Traugott rooster
• Hermann von Samson-Himmelstjerna from Kawershof
• Heinrich von Krause, the owner of Rewold
• Banker Arnold von Tideboehl
• Herbert von Schrenck
• Baron Konstantin von Knorring
• Moritz Wilhelm Paul Schwartz
• City Councilor Gustav Tensmann
• City Councilor Gustav Seeland
• Merchant Susman Kaplan
• Ado Luik
• Merchant Harry Vogel
• Merchant Eugene Massal
• Friedrich Kärner, Postimees employee

The faces of Bleive and Beschanizki had been disfigured almost beyond recognition by the fatal blows of the ax.

Funeral service

The funeral service for Bleive, Bezhanitsky and Platon took place on January 18 in the Dormition Church in Tartu, with the participation of the priests A. Bezhanitsky, J. Paavel, A. Bryantsev, K. Savi, K. Kokla and G. Kiiman. Michael Bleive and Nikolai Bezhanitsky were buried in the church.

Tenth anniversary

The day of the conquest of Tartus by the Estonian and Finnish troops, which also marked the death of Bleive, Plato and their companions, has been declared an annual general day of remembrance by the Estonian democratic government. For many years, a triumphant pannikhida (commemorative mass) was held in the Dormition Cathedral on January 14th for the priests buried there in the presence of all Orthodox and Protestant clergy in the city. The 10th anniversary on January 14, 1929, on which the memorial in the basement of the credit bank was inaugurated, may serve as an example of the celebrations:

Start of the day and pageant

At 8 o'clock in the morning all the church bells in Tartu rang. Numerous flags were attached to the houses. The streets were filled with people. Thanksgiving services were held in the churches. In the schools the directors gave speeches and lectures.

A procession of clergymen of all denominations moved towards the basement of the credit bank and reached the meat market in front of the building at noon. Part of the procession, led by Bishop Kukk and Metropolitan Alexander, descended into the cellar, the rest, accompanied by a thousand people, stayed in front of the entrance, where there was a catheter. The cellar was neat and well lit. In the second basement room there was a black cross on the wall.

Plaque with the names of the victims

To the right and left of the cross were two plaques with the names of the victims. So it said on the right panel:

Bishop Plato,

Hermann von Samson-Himmelstjerna,

Herbert von Schrenck,

Pastor Wilhelm Schwartz,

Gustav Seeland,

Gustav Tensmann,

Arnold v. Tideboehl,

a stranger,

Harry Vogel.

Died as martyrs 1./14. 1919.

And on the other board:

High Priest Nikolai Beshanitzky,

High Priest Michail Bleive,

Karl Bentsen,

Pastor Prof. D. Traugott Hahn,

Susman Kaplan,

Konstantin von Knorring,

Heinrich von Krause,

Friedrich Kärner,

Ado Luik,

Eugene Massal.

In the room where these people died, a cross was set in the floor. The many bullet marks in the walls were still clearly visible. The tablets no longer exist today.

Interreligious, multilingual worship service

The metropolitan celebrated a soul mass in the cellar, the priest Kokla in front of the building. Those present took off their headgear and remained in silence. Then the service, for which trilingual song sheets had been distributed, began with a song. Then Bishop Kukk spoke, then Metropolitan Alexander. High Priest Ostroumov described in Russian the events that had happened here ten years earlier. Words of remembrance for the deceased followed: from Provost K. von Zur-Mühlen in German, from Rabbi Mostovsky in Yiddish and Hebrew, and from Prof. O. Seesemann in Latvian. The service ended with a word of thanks from the memorial committee, represented by Pastor Treumann, and the national anthem. A telegram from State Elder August Rei had also been received for the inauguration of the memorial .

parade

After the service, those present went to the parade on Rathausplatz. For this purpose, all units of the Tartu garrison had taken up, as well as the protective corps and other organizations such as student associations. The latter stood in a semicircle in front of the town hall, the military on the left side of the square, the protection corps and the other organizations on the right.

canonization

Michael Bleive was canonized by the Orthodox Church. His relics were collected on May 30, 2005. His feast day is January 1st in the Julian calendar and January 14th in the Orthodox calendar , which currently runs parallel to the Gregorian calendar .

Web links

• Article about Michael Bleive on the website of the Orthodox Church of Estonia
• Article by Jüri Poska about Platon Kulbusch on the website of the Orthodox Church of Estonia
• Vladimir Moss: The holy new martyrs of northern and western Russia, Belorussia and the Baltic
• Erich Köhrer: The true face of Bolshevism !, Berlin 1919, pp. 18-20

Individual evidence

1. ^ Burchard Lieberg: From the life of the Ev.-Luth. Church of Estonia in: Günther Schulz (editor): Church in the East , volumes 42-43, 1999-2000, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-525-56396-5 , p. 138
2. ↑ Twenty years ago. in Evangelium und Osten: Russian Evangelical Press Service , No. 5, May 1, 1939, online at Beshanitzky | issueType: P
3. ^ Bolshevism , Evening Post , Volume XCVII, Issue 147, June 24, 1919, p. 2
4. ↑ Canada. Dept. of Public Information: Bolshevism in Russia , Dept. of Public Information, Ottawa 1919, pp. 33f
5. ↑ 10-year celebration in Dorpat in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 14, January 7, 1929, online at Schwartz | issueType: P