Russia is a unique country. People of different faiths quietly get along in it, but despite this it is necessary to recognize the unconditional truth - Russia was created by Orthodoxy. The famous preachers Cyril and Methodius gave the Slavic peoples a common written language. Orthodox traditions have firmly entered the culture of the inhabitants of Russia, organically merging with pagan traditions. The spread of the Orthodox faith was facilitated by numerous sketes, monasteries, deserts, which have always been the havens of believers. At the same time, some monasteries began to perform the functions of places of imprisonment of people unwanted by the authorities …
Throughout the history of Russia, many monasteries have had prison premises. The prisoners were not only those whom the church considered its ideological enemies, but also those who opposed the autocracy and for the abolition of serfdom. The keeping of the guilty in monasteries was the most severe punishment that the Orthodox Church applied to its opponents. It is known from the Nikon Chronicle that as early as the 11th century, opponents of the faith were punished by being in the basements of the bishops' houses. The most cruel were the earthen prisons, which were deep pits, closed by a frame, in which they made small windows for communication with the outside world. In some monasteries, stone sacks were used as prisons. These were buildings of stone in the form of cabinets, several tens of meters high, located inside the monastery walls. These very small rooms were isolated from each other and had only a small window in solid masonry. In such a bag, a person could only sit bent over. From these prisons, rarely anyone was released, more often the prisoners quickly went crazy.
The monks served as overseers over the prisoners. They conducted searches, made sure that the prisoners did not communicate and did not correspond. The prisoners were poorly fed, mainly with water and stale bread. However, sometimes high-ranking prisoners also ended up in monastic prisons. Here they ate well, thanks to the help of their wealthy relatives.
The rules for the monastery jailers were established by the instructions of the Synod. This document indicates the parameters of the premises for prisoners, the regime of their detention, lists the penalties that could be applied to the unfortunate prisoners: solitary confinement, deprivation of food, physical punishment. Those who were guilty of actions against the church were especially cruel. For example, in 1826, in the Solovetsky Monastery, out of 30 prisoners, 29 were prisoners of the faith. A significant number of prisoners, in monastic dungeons, were the instigators of popular uprisings against the government. For example, participants in the Pugachev uprising became prisoners in the dungeons of the Kazan Cathedral in Ufa. The period of detention of people in the monastic prison was not regulated by any document. Most often, the decrees sounded the sentence - "hopeless, forever."
Naturally, such an attitude towards prisoners aroused hatred of the churchmen. Although the clergy themselves often ended up in the dungeons of monasteries. For example, from 1855 to 1859 about 5 thousand church ministers were exiled to monasteries.
But we must admit that despite the inhuman conditions for the prisoners of the monastic prisons, the women exiled to the Goritsky convent were given good conditions and they were surrounded by the attention, sympathy and benevolence of the nuns. This attitude has led to the preservation of the health and lives of innocent women.
The ancient monastery in the village of Goritsy (Volgograd region) became a prison for many crowned and noble women who won the wrath of monarchs.
Violence as a monk by force, as a punishment for opponents of power, acquired a massive character in Russia in the 14th century. This saved the person who fell out of favor and did not deprive him of hope for future release. Especially often Ivan the Terrible resorted to this punishment. And not only boyars and noble people fell into disgrace and were sent to monastic dungeons, rejected by the tsar's wives, they were also forcibly taken to monasteries and they were forced to take tonsure.
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The Goritsky Convent is located in a beautiful place. But it is unlikely that this fact could calm the unbearable melancholy and pain of Princess Efrosinya Staritskaya, who was considered his benefactor. Efrosinya lived in perfect harmony with her husband, Ivan III. In 1537 Ivan III revolted against the rule of Elena Glinskaya. The rebels were brutally dealt with, and the prince was tortured in dungeons. For a long time, Euphrosyne and her son spent in custody, but was released and sent into exile. Among the entourage of Ivan the Terrible were boyars who wanted the throne to be occupied by the son of Ivan III and Efrosinya - Vladimir Staritsky. The Tsar knew about this and decided to get rid of the Staritsky family once and for all. While Efrosinya was sent to the Goritsky monastery, her son, by order of the monarch, was poisoned.
At the beginning of his imprisonment, Ivan the Terrible allowed his aunt Efrosinya to keep with him a small retinue and servants. The former queen did not sit idly by in the monastery - she organized a gold embroidery workshop. The products of the monastery craftswomen of that time are still valuable museum exhibits.
But Euphrosinya did not live alone for long outside the walls of the monastery. Ivan the Terrible did not stop persecuting the nobility who did not support his power. Soon, another noble prisoner appeared at the monastery - Juliania Paletskaya, the widow of the monarch's brother. It is not known what the woman was guilty of, but Ivan the Terrible broke the oath he had given to his brother Yuri before his death, and sent his wife into exile.
Despite the fact that the noble exiles lived quietly and unnoticed, the king was irritated by their very existence. He set his guardsmen against the women, who broke into the monastery, seized the royal hermits, as well as several nuns, and mercilessly drowned them in the Sheksna River. When the "sovereign's dogs" left the walls of the monastery, the nuns buried the bodies of the unfortunate women near the monastery.
On a winter morning, a detachment of guardsmen unexpectedly arrived at the monastery, under the command of Malyuta Skuratov. A bound woman was pulled out of a covered wagon. She tried to talk to the nuns, but Malyuta did not allow the beauty to do this. She was urgently tonsured into a nun, giving a new name - Daria. This prisoner turned out to be the fourth wife of Ivan the Terrible - Anna Koltovskaya. The same fate befell another wife of the king - Maria Nagoya. The poor woman lost her only son, Tsarevich Dmitry. But her misfortune did not end there: by order of the new Tsar Boris Godunov, she was sent to the Goritsky Monastery. The Tsar ordered that no honors be given to her at the monastery, as the former queen. But the nuns pitied her, sympathizing with the loss of their beloved son. The royal hermit was released only after False Dmitry I came to power. Mary, in gratitude to the sisters of the monastery,for their kind attitude towards her, she built at her own expense a new chapel to the church on the territory of the monastery, dedicating it to her son.
After some time, the next royal hermit appeared in the monastery - Ksenia Godunova, who received a new name - nun Olga. Soon she was transferred to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra at the request of Vasily Shuisky.
During the Time of Troubles (1598-1613), the Goritsky Monastery suffered greatly from the raids of the Polish punishers. The monastery was plundered and stables were built on its territory, and the nuns were beaten and starved to death. The situation of the monastery did not improve after the coming to power of a young tsar from the house of Romanovs. The funds allocated from the royal treasury were not enough to restore the monastery. A terrible fire in 1693 destroyed most of the buildings belonging to the monastery. But the black streak for the nuns did not end there. Tsar Peter I took most of the land from the monastery and refused to provide financial support.
Time passed. The monastery unexpectedly received financial support from new high-born prisoners. After the exile of the tsar's favorite Alexander Menshikov, his sister, Varvara Arsenyev, was exiled to the Goritsky monastery. But the new Russian ruler, Anna Ioanovna, pardoned the entire Menshikov family, including Varvara. The exiled nun received a generous allowance from the empress. Soon, another noble prisoner was brought to the Goritsky monastery, she was the favorite of Peter II - Princess Dolgorukova. She managed to escape the forced tonsure of a nun, but she lived in a convent for about two years. The princess was released only after the death of Empress Anna Ioanovna in 1741.
The financial situation of the Goritsky Monastery improved significantly after it was headed by the Abbess of Mauritius in 1811. During her reign, new workshops and a small brick factory began operating in the monastery. On the rented land, the nuns grew vegetables and grazed cattle. The monastery began to receive a good income. They learned about the enterprising abbess in the imperial family - gifts and donations were sent to the monastery. Great changes have taken place in the very appearance of the monastery; in addition, a beautiful Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was erected. With the personal funds of Princess Khovanskaya, the Intercession Church was built.
Immediately after the revolution, the Kolos agricultural cartel was organized in the monastery. In the terrible year of 1937, a detachment of Chekists raided the monastery. The abbess and several nuns were immediately shot. Some of the sisters were accused of espionage and sent to the camps. The sick and old nuns were loaded onto an old barge and sunk in the White Lake. The monastery ceased to exist, only the Intercession Church remained in operation for several more years.
After the war, a house for the disabled was opened within the walls of the former Goritsky monastery. In the 70s, the cathedral of the monastery was given under the House of Culture, and the administration of the state farm was located in the Pokrovsky Church. All the buildings of the ancient monastery were destroyed, including the magnificent Resurrection Church, built at the expense of Efrosinya Staritskaya.
The revival of the monastery began after 1999, when the monastery was transferred to the Church. Workshops have been restored where novices sew clothes for church employees and restore icons. The nuns grow vegetables and are engaged in cattle breeding, there is a bakery and workshops for the production of cheese and butter. Numerous pilgrims visit these holy places to worship miraculous icons and drink water from the holy spring. The ancient monastery received a new full life.