Why the Slavophile Khomyakov was kicked out of the church, and where little Sasha Pushkin took communion

Before the revolution, the famous Arbat was unofficially called St. Nicholas Street. Of course, it is no coincidence: once upon a time there were as many as three churches in honor of St. Nicholas - on Peski, in Plotniki and St. Nicholas the Revealed. In the 1930s they were all destroyed. Let's remember the amazing stories associated with them.

Nikola the Revealed: Gogol’s father prayed here
The temple, named after the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas, which “appeared” by itself, was considered the parish church of the Streltsy and was located in the center of their settlement. Nearby was the regimental hut - the headquarters where the treasury and banners were kept. It was here that the Streltsy authorities met and the royal charters were read out.

Mikhail Germashev. Arbat Street (photo from 1912–1913) The gate bell tower of the Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed, demolished in 1931, and the Obolensky-Trubetzkoy empire-style mansion, destroyed by a German bomb in 1941, are clearly visible

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna loved to come here. She presented the parish with a copy of the icon of the Mother of God of Akhtyrskaya. Today this icon is located in the Church of the Resurrection of the Word (Apostle Philip) in Filippovsky Lane. During the reign of Catherine II, this church became a place of public repentance for criminals who committed the most cruel and savage atrocities. When the French captured Moscow in 1812, Marshal Murat stopped his cavalry right here, near the temple, and waited for reports from the spies who ran to the Kremlin. This place is mentioned in his novel “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy. Knowing that Napoleon would enter Moscow along the Arbat, Pierre Bezukhov developed a plan to assassinate the “adversary”, stopping at the porch of the temple.

Parishioners of St. Nicholas the Revealed were Nikolai Gogol's father, the writer Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky († 1825) and the Slavophile philosopher Alexei Khomyakov. Khomyakov was such a passionate and passionate debater that sometimes he could not resist discussing theological problems during services, for which the priest kicked him out onto the porch. But even there he continued to argue with his friends about the difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, as well as on other philosophical topics.

The bell tower of the temple was considered one of the most beautiful in Moscow. Architectural historian Ivan Mashkov called it “the height of grace and taste,” with “an amazing, sculptural tent top, ... a royal cap of a large outfit.” In 1931 the temple was blown up. All that remains of the bell tower is the foundation of the early 17th century (now it is the lower part of the wall).

Where stood: The gate bell tower of the temple overlooked the Arbat. It was located between the unpreserved house on property No. 14 and house No. 16.

Nikola in Plotniki: vaults of the Mu-mu cafe
In documents from 1625 this church is mentioned as having been in existence for a long time. Decorated with classical columns, the elegant bell tower was reminiscent of the belfries of St. Petersburg cathedrals. Not far away, in Krivoarbatsky Lane, the Pushkin family lived. Little Alexander Sergeevich visited this temple with his parents, confessed here and received communion. Entries with his name have been preserved in church confessional books. In the same temple, Nikolai Gogol baptized the son of the philosopher Alexei Khomyakov, little Nikolai. Another parishioner of this temple is the artist Mikhail Nesterov, who presented a “Crucifix” specially painted for Nikola in Plotniki.

The last rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in Plotniki is known - Archpriest Joseph Fudel. For many years he published at his own expense a religious and philosophical magazine, which was called very simply: “Parish Leaflet”. It published both practical instructions on church life and very serious discussions of a theological nature.

In 1932, the temple was demolished, and in its place a prestigious residential building with a Diet store rose. NKVD employees and writers were settled here. The vaults of the temple have been preserved. Today we can see them in the basement of the Mu-mu cafe.

Where stood: On the site of the current residential building No. 45/24.

Nikola on Sands: where did the penny candle come from?

One of the most ancient Moscow churches. Moscow expert I.K. Kondratiev wrote: “The architecture of the temple is distinguished by its antiquity and originality.” For a long time it was believed that it was in this church that a fire started in 1493, which burned the whole of Moscow. Since then, a proverb has appeared: “Moscow burned down from a penny candle.” When telling about this terrible event, chroniclers first mentioned the toponym Arbat.

The funeral service for composer Andrei Scriabin, who lived opposite in the 11th house, was held in this church. In the 1920s, priest Nikolai Bruni, an artist, poet, musician, famous athlete, and aviator during the First World War, served here.

After the revolution, the church site, along with the old cemetery, was transferred to the Energetik cooperative for development. When the church was demolished, the walls of the first stone building in 1657, hidden by later alterations, were discovered. However, this did not stop the destroyers, and in 1932 the temple was destroyed.

Where did you stand? : On the site of the modern 6th building on Maly Nikolopeskovsky Lane

By the way!
MIKOLINA STREET
Andrei Bely was one of the first to sing the praises of Arbat. In the second volume of his memoirs, “The Beginning of the Century,” he devoted an entire chapter to the street. Essentially, this is a nostalgic lyrical hymn - to almost every house and church, its inhabitants and guests: “Arbat itself - what if it’s not Mikolin Street?” “Mikola is a patron because he saw the Arbat.”

Anastasia Chernova
Published: May, 2017

This street is one of the main attractions of Moscow. It is believed that it is one of the few that has preserved its historical appearance. But few people know how many temples were destroyed here.

On the site of the church - "Leninka"

We will begin our journey almost from the walls of the Moscow Kremlin. At the intersection of Mokhovaya Street and Vozdvizhenka (which was once considered part of Arbat), where the complex of buildings of the Russian State Library now stands, there stood an amazingly beautiful tented church, consecrated in honor of the Great Martyr Irina. This was the home temple of boyar Streshnev, known since 1629. After the Napoleonic invasion it was abolished, and the building was converted into apartments for rent. Later, all the estate buildings were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and after the scientific restoration of the ancient temple, divine services resumed there. Soon after the Bolsheviks came to power, the church was closed again, and in the early 1930s it was demolished due to the start of construction of the library.

Saltykov-Shchedrin got married here

Let's walk a little further along Vozdvizhenka towards Arbat Square and stop at the underground passage next to Voentorg. Pay attention to the small vacant lot among the historical buildings - once there was an entrance to one of the oldest monasteries in the capital - Krestovozdvizhensky, which gave the name to this part of the street. According to legend, it was founded by Prince Khovrin at his court in the 15th–16th centuries. The main Holy Cross Church has been known since the time of Ivan the Terrible (at that time it was still made of wood). Under Peter I, the monastery was decorated with a new stone cathedral in the Baroque style. After the French invasion, the plundered monastery was never revived, and its main church became a parish church. Within these holy walls M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin married Elizaveta Boldina. In 1934, the majestic temple was destroyed by the atheistic authorities. Until 1979, the monastery gates were still preserved, but they were soon lost due to the construction of an underground passage.

Where did Ivan the Terrible pray?

Coming out onto Arbat Square, go to the small memorial sign to the chapel. It was installed in 1995 in memory of the destroyed Boris and Gleb Church, which previously stood in the place where the underground passage is now located next to the Khudozhestvenny cinema. The first stone church appeared here in 1527. Ivan the Terrible loved this church very much and often prayed in it. When the building fell into disrepair, a new church with chapels of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and the Resurrection of the Word was erected in its place, according to the design of the architect Karl Blank. It lasted until 1930...

In 1997, the Moscow government decided to restore the church, but not on the historical site and according to a different project. On August 6 of the same year, the solemn consecration of the chapel was performed by Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II.

Initially, Arbat Street was called the current Vozdvizhenka, but then Arbat began to be called the part of the Smolensk road between the Smolensk and Arbat gates.

At the Arbat Gate

Very close to the previous church, on the site of the ground vestibule of the Arbatskaya metro station on the Filyovskaya line, until 1934 there stood the Tikhonovskaya Church, at the Arbat Gate. The first temple appeared here in 1689. It had two chapels - Tikhon of Amafuntsky and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In the middle of the next century, the temple was expanded and a chapel was built in its new part in honor of the Resurrection of the Word. During the Napoleonic invasion, the temple was plundered. However, the following year the Tikhonovskaya Church was consecrated again, and it acquired a three-tier bell tower (its exact copy was preserved at the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Shchepnoy Dvor, in First Smolensky Lane).

Your pedestrians -
small people
heels are clicking -
they are in a hurry about business.

Nikola Yavlenny

Having examined Arbat Square, we head to the old Arbat and between houses 14 and 16 we again see an interruption in the historical development of the street. The fact is that until 1931, one of the most beautiful churches in Moscow was located here - the Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed, on the Arbat. Its foundation is attributed to Boris Godunov himself. It was erected in 1593 and became the first stone church on the Arbat. They called it “New Forgiveness” or “Revealed”. Nearby was the Church of the Intercession, on the site of which a chapel later appeared, which later became the chapel of St. Nicholas Church (during the next reconstruction). After some time, the temple acquired the chapel of the Akhtyrka Icon of the Mother of God. Empress Elizabeth donated this icon to the parish. In the 19th century, a new refectory was built in the church, and then the chapel of St. Mitrophanius of Voronezh was consecrated. After the demolition, they planned to build a clinic for the People's Commissariat of Defense on the site of the temple, but the holy place remains empty to this day. Relatively recently, the priest of the St. Nicholas Church, Vasily Sokolov, was canonized; his memory is celebrated on May 13.

In Plotnitskaya Sloboda

Next, our path lies to a five-story gray building at number 45. In its place, until 1932, there was another St. Nicholas Church. The first wooden church appeared here in 1625, when the Plotnitskaya Tsar's Settlement was located in this corner of the capital. Later a stone one-domed temple was built. Among the parishioners were the Pushkin and Khomyakov families. During the years of the October Revolution, the rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in Plotniki was Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov, the grandfather of the current rector of the Orthodox St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov.

You flow like a river.
Strange name!
And the asphalt is transparent,
like water in a river.
Ah, Arbat, my Arbat,
you are my calling.
You are my joy,
and my problem.

The fate of this temple under Soviet rule was also tragic. In 1929, it was closed and later demolished in order to build a residential building in its place - many Muscovites are familiar with this building from the Diet store.

Among the parishioners are Pushkin and Andrei Bely

The series of Arbat shrines was closed by the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, which stood on the corner of Arbat and Denezhny Lane. The church was erected by the masters of the mint and the archers who lived in this part of the street. In 1650, the first wooden church was replaced by a stone one, erected through the efforts of Colonel Leontyev’s archers. Already in the first half of the next century, according to the project of I.F. Michurin built a new building, which in turn went through more than one reconstruction. Among its parishioners were the family of Alexander Pushkin, Andrei Bely and Sergei Rachmaninov.

From your love
you won't be cured at all
forty thousand others
loving the pavements.

The Trinity Church shared the fate of other Arbat churches and was demolished in 1931. In its place, the house of the Society of Proletarian Tourism and Excursions grew, which was later built into the northern wing of the high-rise building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Daniil Silenko

Arbat is one of those Moscow streets that are especially unlucky. In the early 1930s he lost all of his churches. All of them, down to one... But there were quite a few of them on the street. The disappearance of Arbat churches changed both the architectural appearance of the street and its style of life, not to mention the spiritual component. It was an irreparable loss.

Mikhail Germashev. Arbat Street (1912-1913). A bygone nature - the gate bell tower of the Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed, demolished in 1931, and the Obolensky-Trubetsky Empire mansion, destroyed by a German bomb in 1941, are clearly visible.

Arbat was once called St. Nicholas Street - there were three churches dedicated to St. Nicholas - St. Nicholas the Revealed, St. Nicholas in Plotniki, St. Nicholas on Peski... The old Arbat residents considered this saint the patron saint of their small homeland. The emigrant writer Boris Zaitsev, a former Arbat resident, spoke about this, representing St. Nicholas in the image of a gray-bearded old cab driver driving along Arbat; Andrei Bely also wrote about this: “Mikola is the Arbat patron; Arbat itself - what if it’s not Mikolin Street ?"

Boris Zaitsev at the beginning of the twentieth century lived on Arbat in house No. 38, which was owned by the merchant A.F. Chulkov. Initially, the house was small, two-story, then Chulkov expanded his possessions by building a large brick house of “ingenuous architecture” (as defined by Lev Kolodny) along Spasopeskovsky Lane and connecting it with Arbat house No. 38, which was built to 4 floors. The facades of the two combined buildings were distinguished by simple uniformity - undecorated red brickwork. Over time, the old brick darkened, giving the house an increasingly gloomy appearance. The brick facade was preserved until the reconstruction of Arbat in the 1980s, during which the house was painted in pink tones, which completely transformed it.


The house where Boris Zaitsev lived

Boris Zaitsev, a Russian writer, lived for more than 50 years in Paris and at a venerable age died in Paris, on Fremicourt Street, a little shy of ninety-one years old... But throughout his long life he yearned for the Arbat and constantly returned to it - in his works , in memories, in thoughts and conversations with loved ones and friends. He continued to be a famous Russian writer abroad, but his works returned to his homeland only at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, too late, when his contemporaries were almost no longer alive, and his name meant almost nothing to his descendants . Few have rediscovered this writer.
“The image of youth gone by, life noisy and free, affectionate bustle, love, hopes, successes and melancholies, fun and aspiration - this is you, Arbat,” - this is how the essay “St. Nicholas Street” begins. , published in the West after Zaitsev left to emigrate,one of the most poignant and important works of the writer. Arbat remembered Zaitsev as a young student, then as a young writer of bohemian appearance.
Andrei Bely, a friend and neighbor on Arbat, recalled: “Boris Konstantinovich Zaitsev was both gentle and kind: in his first stories I saw a gift; student Borya, who had grown a Chekhov beard, at the end of the course put on a wide-brimmed hat, wrinkled his eyebrows and had a hooked walked along the Arbat with a stick in his hand and everyone began to ask:
- Who?
- Boris Zaitsev, writer..."
Zaitsev’s fame could rival such “fiction writers” as Bunin or Kuprin... Muscovites loved their “budding genius”.

Boris Zaitsev

“Petersburg is not my city,” Zaitsev wrote to friends in 1913, “I love Mother Moscow, I am always faithful to her, faithful to my Arbat.” Boris Zaitsev retained this loyalty forever.
Boris Zaitsev and his Arbat friend Konstanin Balmont in Parisian emigration will be mortally homesick for Moscow. While walking around a foreign capital, they will look for places that are at least somewhat similar to their beloved Arbat. Balmont will begin to assure Zaitsev that Rue de Passy is the Parisian Arbat.“In essence, this Passy is like a cemetery for us,” Zaitsev will gloomily note in the essay “Return from the Vigil.”
If he managed to talk with people who came from Soviet Russia, Zaitsev began to eagerly ask them about Moscow, about Arbat. “Boris Konstantinovich mentally walked along Arbat, remembering house after house from “Prague” to the end of the street. At the same time, he asked if this or that building had been demolished and what was in it now. He especially grieved that churches were blown up and destroyed.” (Evgenia Deitch. “From the memories of Boris Zaitsev”).
It was not for nothing that he wrote in exile: “Remembering my life in Moscow, you see that it began and ended near Arbat. (...) I see him now, many years later, with an indifferent gaze.”

Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, 1881

Saint Nicholas is one of the most revered saints in Rus'. St. Nicholas Day was celebrated twice a year - in May and December. These holidays were called Nikola summer and Nikola winter; on Arbat they took place with special solemnity. Believers often went to the image of St. Nicholas the Saint for help - it was believed that he could help out anyone who was in trouble.

Nikolai Ugodnik

Sagittarius from the time of Ivan the Terrible

Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, here was the center of the Streltsy settlement - the parish church of the Streltsy, the Church of St. Nicholas the Appeared, and a kind of regimental headquarters - a hut where the regimental treasury and banners were kept, the Streltsy authorities met and the royal letters were read out.
In 1593 the building was replaced with a stone one. Visited Moscow at the end of X VI V. Bishop Arseny of Elasson mentioned that Boris Godunov erected a stone church of St. Nicholas on Arbat.Godunov developed stone construction in every possible way; St. Nicholas Church, erected on his orders, was one of the most significant Moscow buildings of that period.
The main church buildings stood in the depths of the site, however, from the Arbat the white, majestic church towering above the low-rise buildings was clearly visible.
The gate bell tower that adorned the Arbat (it was located between the unpreserved house No. 14 and house No. 16) was built later in 1639, at a time when Moscow was recovering from the consequences of the Time of Troubles. And it turned out to be one of the best images of hipped church buildings of the 17th century.

Empress Elizabeth

This church was especially revered by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. When she came to Moscow, she always visited this temple and made rich donations to its treasury. According to legend, a holy fool who lived near the church prophesied a royal crown for Peter’s daughter at a time when nothing had foreshadowed such changes in her fate. Having achieved the imperial crown, the empress donated the miraculous image of the Akhtyrskaya Mother of God to the church in gratitude. In 1761, the guards captain Durnovo equipped a special chapel at his own expense, where the precious icon was placed.

One of the lists of the icon of the Akhtyrskaya Mother of God

During the reign of Catherine II The Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed was a place of public repentance for criminals who committed the most cruel and savage crimes. M.I. Pylyaev in his book “Old Moscow” describes a similar case: “Of such examples, another one was known in 1766, when through the Moscow streets, in front of a huge crowd of people, a detachment of soldiers with loaded guns, with a priest with a cross, escorted a barefoot, shackled man and woman in shrouded, with loose hair falling over their eyes; these were the Zhukovs, the murderers of their mother and sister.
They stopped in front of the doors of the Assumption Cathedral, in front of the churches of St. Peter and Paul in Basmannaya, Praskeva Pyatnitsa on Pyatnitskaya, at St. Nicholas the Revealed on Arbat... The manifesto was read to them there. The criminals, on their knees, had to read a prayer composed for this occasion and repeatedly repeat repentance before the people.”
Pylyaev also cites the testimony of Professor P.I. Strakhov, who died in 1813, that in X VIII V. The Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed was surrounded by a high fence with turrets, which is why the church buildings looked like a fortified monastery.

Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed from the courtyard

This church was mentioned by Leo Tolstoy in the novel “War and Peace” when describing the events of 1812 in Moscow. Knowing that Napoleon would enter Moscow along the Arbat (here was the end of the Smolensk road leading from the west, along which the French were advancing), Pierre Bezukhov decided to arrange an assassination attempt on the French emperor there. “Pierre’s path lay through the alleys to Povarskaya and from there to the Arbat, to St. Nicholas the Apparition, with whom he had long ago determined in his imagination the place where his deed should be carried out.” Having stopped at Povarskaya, Pierre saves a child from the fire, then enters into a battle with marauding soldiers who were robbing a family of Moscow Armenians, and instead of the Arbat church he ends up on Zubovsky Val (now the boulevard), where the French set up a guardhouse for those arrested...

Scene of the Moscow fire of 1812 from the film "War and Peace"

When a terrible fire raged on Arbat in 1812, practically destroying the street, the brick buildings of the church were burned, but survived. They were restored, refinished and decorated. Parishioners of St. Nicholas the Revealed did not skimp on donations. In watercolor by V.N. Nechaev “View of Arbat” (1830s) from the exhibition of the memorial museum-apartment of A.S. Pushkin's Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed in the foreground is presented in all its splendor.

V.N. Nechaev. View of Arbat

In 1830 - 1840, the St. Nicholas Church was one of the most “fashionable” in Moscow. M.E. wrote about this. Saltykov-Shchedrin in “Poshekhon Antiquity,” a book based on the writer’s own childhood impressions. “The rector of St. Nicholas the Revealed was an archpriest who became famous for his sermons. They said that he competed in this regard with Metropolitan Philaret, that the latter was jealous of him...”
Here, according to Saltykov-Shchedrin, young ladies who arrived with their parents from provincial estates in Moscow for the “bride fair” were brought “for the bride’s viewing.” During a church service, potential suitors looked for a suitable girl, then sent a matchmaker to her house to arrange a personal visit for the applicant. Having praised the groom, his income and fortune, the matchmaker asked the bride's parents for an invitation for the groom ("They are very keen to marry Nadezhda Vasilievna. They saw them in church, at St. Nicholas the Revealed. They liked them so much, they liked them so much!"). If the candidate was considered suitable, he was invited to pay a visit and get to know him better. The bride was preparing for this meeting with excitement (“The sister had thought about her dressing in advance. She would be dressed simply, as if no one had warned her about anything, and shehe always walks like this at home. A pink tartalan dress with a high bodice, tied at the waist with a crimson ribbon - that's all. There is a string of pearls woven into her hair, and a brooch with diamonds on her chest; The ribbon is pinned with a buckle, also with diamonds. The main thing is to keep it simple.".)

Parents, servants and all the household were also fussing before the groom’s visit (“By seven o’clock they cleaned the hall and living room, wiped off the dust from the furniture, lit sconces with wax candles on the walls; in the living room they placed a girandole on the table in front of the sofa... Finally, they opened it in the hall piano, put notes on the music stand and lit candles on both sides, as if they were playing"). Mother had already managed to make inquiries about the groom from her Moscow relatives. The long-awaited guest is engaged in conversation, which revolves more and more around the Arbat church, so as not to search for common topics for a long time.
“The guest is seated on the sofa next to the hostess.
“It seems that we are somewhat familiar from St. Nicholas the Revealed,” mother kindly begins the conversation.
- I live close to this church, so, to be honest, I go there for mass on holidays.
- And what sermons the archpriest speaks! Oh, what sermons these are!
- How can I tell you, madam... I don’t like them... “Watch” and “remember” - and without it everyone knows! And sometimes he talks freely!”

View from a house in Serebryany Lane to the Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed and Arbat (early 20th century)

The Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed was considered one of the most beautiful in Moscow. The architecture of the church buildings and especially the gate bell tower, which overlooked the Arbat building line, delighted many. In 1913, architectural historian Ivan Pavlovich Mashkov, compiling an architectural guide “Across Moscow” for a congress of architects, mentioned the Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed One among the main Moscow attractions. He draws attention to the “most luxurious forms... of the gate hipped bell towers” ​​of Moscow churches and points out that “the most outstanding of them belongs to the Church of St. Nicholas the Appeared on the Arbat...” A bell tower with an “amazing, sculptural hipped top,... the royal cap of a large outfit" Mashkov calls "the height of grace and taste." It must be said that not every Moscow architectural structure was awarded such a detailed description. The guide was addressed to architects who are able to independently evaluate all the uniqueness of buildings. Mashkov often limited himself to only mentioning objects worthy of the attention of a specialist. And if he began to describe something in detail, then it was a masterpiece of masterpieces and truly “the height of grace and taste.”

The Temple of St. Nicholas the Revealed was known for its extensive charity. Until 1917, the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas existed at the church, which cared for the poorest students of theological seminaries and diocesan schools, and also looked after the orphaned children of clergy. In honor of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, the Brotherhood founded a charitable Religious and Educational Center with a school and a free library. In order to raise funds for charity, the clergy had to conduct economic activities on behalf of the church.
The Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed was one of the richest in Moscow. She owned several buildings on Arbat, surrounding church buildings - residential buildings and shops that gave a good profit. For example, the building of Karpov’s flower shop, which has been trading here since 1909. The Flowers store remained on this site until the 90s, when a cafeteria was opened in the building rebuilt along the façade. Later, several cafes and eateries changed there.
The church also owned both buildings on opposite corners of Arbat and Serebryany Lane. The nondescript two-story house (No. 16) in the photograph of 1881 appears as a one-story mansion built after the fire, preserving details of the Empire design. It housed a church almshouse. After alterations and additions at the beginning of the twentieth century, which turned it into a two-story shop (the second floor was residential), the house clearly began to generate income, and the godmakers were moved to a more convenient building in the depths of the alley. The neighboring house, also owned by the church, was also profitable (No. 18, built in 1909, now completely rebuilt).
Long before the houses surrounding the church became its property, on the site adjacent to the temple there was, as already mentioned, a hut for a rifle regiment. After Peter abolished the Streltsy army, the spacious stone structure of the “hut” turned into a residential estate. Having changed several owners, the thoroughly rebuilt “hut”-estate ended up in the ownership of Landrichter (judge) F. Manukov, grandfather of the famous commander A.V. Suvorov. After the name of a prominent homeowner, Serebryany Lane was even called Manukov at one time. The judge's daughter married an officer of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Lieutenant V.I. Suvorov, having received the Arbat estate as a dowry for the wedding.

Many researchers suggest that it was here that the great Generalissimo was born. Later, the Suvorov family moved to another mansion nearby, on Nikitskaya. But Arbat remained a beloved and native place for them. Over the years, the commander’s children and grandchildren lived on Arbat and in nearby alleys.

Unfortunately, after 1917, the fate of St. Nicholas the Revealed was as sad as that of other Arbat churches. In 1922, in the “case of resistance to the seizure of church valuables in Moscow,” the rector of the church, Archpriest Vasily Sokolov, was arrested among well-known priests. The church was closed and warehouses for the Book Chamber were installed in it.

In 1931, the Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed was destroyed. Arbat became a government highway. Bell towers that pretend to be “elegance and taste” should not have caught the eye of the country’s leadership. Among the demolished buildings was the quadrangle of the Godunov Church X VI V. In the depths of the church site, a standard school was built, facing Serebryany Lane. Classes began there in 1937. Later it turned out that the school in this quarter was not needed at all; it was disbanded, and the building was alternately occupied by various offices.

This is what the corner of Arbat and Serebryany Lane looked like after the demolition of the church. Only the former almshouse (no. 16) and the flower shop (on the right edge of the photo) were left. Photo from the 1970s

In the early 1990s, the press raised the question of restoring the Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed, or at least its bell tower in its original place, on partially preserved old foundations discovered during restoration work on Arbat. But this idea has not yet been implemented...

The building of a former church flower shop; behind the fence is the former garden of the Suvorov estate.

Almost simultaneously with St. Nicholas the Revealed, another Arbat church of St. Nicholas - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Plotniki (Arbat, house number 45, on the corner of Plotnikov Lane) perished.


St. Nicholas Church in Plotniki

To be continued.

The profession of a carpenter was one of the most in demand, since the wooden city often burned out and needed to be restored. New buildings were also built in wood. And carpenters cut down new houses, repaired dilapidated old ones, made interior decoration and wooden furnishings. Their responsibilities also included fighting fire, since in tight wooden buildings, neighbors’ houses were destroyed to extinguish the fire.

The center of the carpenter's settlement in 1625 became the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. It stood on the site of house No. 45 on Arbat. The church was built by the residents themselves, and in 1670-1677 the one-domed temple was rebuilt in stone. The three-tier bell tower appeared in 1771. But perestroika did not end there, and the church changed its appearance many more times.

Soviet times became the last chapter in the history of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Plotniki.

In 1925, the rector was arrested, but the church was not touched. In 1927, the artist Nesterov settled near Nikola in Plotniki. He presented the temple with a crucifix of his own making. But in 1929 the church was closed, and 3 years later it was demolished.

On the site of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Plotniki in 1935, a residential building was built according to the design of L.M. Polyakova. The descendants of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy were settled there, surrounded by special honor.

To get an enlarged image, click on the photo.

In 1917 her address was: Moscow, st. Arbat, 45; Nikolsky Lane, 24. The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, in Plotniki, stood on the corner of Arbat Street and Plotnikov Lane.

Known since 1625. And although the main altar was Trinity, the church was always named after the St. Nicholas chapel. Another chapel of the Balykino Mother of God.

According to one version, the wooden parish church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built in 1625 specifically for the palace carpenters. Their settlement appeared on Arbat after a time of troubles, when carpenters were needed after a fire that destroyed most of Moscow. It is believed that these carpenters first paved the Arbat at the expense of the Zemsky Prikaz as a state territory: copper pennies from the time of Alexei Mikhailovich, the same ones that led to the Copper Riot of 1662, were discovered in the wooden pavements.

Near the Church of St. Nicholas in Plotniki is the property of the boyar Vasily Ivanovich Streshnev, a relative of the second wife of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.

In 1670-1677, according to a charter from Patriarch Joachim, a stone church with the main Trinity throne appeared in place of the wooden one. The temple was listed “in Plotnicheskaya Sloboda.”

In 1812 the temple was completely plundered. In the first half of the 19th century, the iconostasis and decoration of the temple were updated. The refectory and bell tower were added in 1853. Romanyuk S.K. in the book “From the History of Moscow Lanes” he writes: “Back in the late 1880s. Arbat lanes witnessed idyllic village scenes. “Many people kept cows in their yards,” recalled a contemporary.

I remember one early spring morning. Just four hours; I wake up and hear an unusual sound. What's happened? It turns out that a shepherd is walking along Plotnikov Lane and playing the horn. The cows come out of the gate, and the shepherd drives them to graze on the Maiden Field.” Among the parishioners of the temple one should name A.S. Pushkin. At the beginning of 1807, the family of A.S. Pushkina lived in Krivoarbatsky Lane, in the parish of the St. Nicholas Church in Plotniki, and little Pushkin was his parishioner, which remains in the records of confession books.

In 1907, the famous priest Joseph Fudel was appointed to the Church of St. Nicholas in Plotniki, who was ordained with the blessing of Elder Ambrose of Optina. Priest Pavel Florensky, Konstantin Leontyev, Lev Tikhomirov were friends with him.

The church was destroyed in the early 1930s.

In its place, in 1933-1935, house No. 45/24 on Arbat was built (architect Leonid Mikhailovich Polyakov, 1906-1965).

Illustration source:
Naydenov N.A. Moscow. Cathedrals, monasteries and churches. Part III, Dept. 1: Part of Zemlyanoy City on the left side of the Moscow River. M., 1882, No. 10