Many have heard about the Russian prophet monk Abel. True, the sources that provided details of his biography and prophecies were usually very dubious: either exalted court maids of honor, or mystic writers … Rarely did anyone read the original documents from the archives of the Secret Expedition or the office of prosecutors general of the era of Catherine II, Paul I and Alexander I, associated with the fate of a mysterious seer monk. Meanwhile, they have survived and cover a fairly long time period from the first interrogation in the Secret Expedition in March 1796 to March 1826.
Holy serf?
The entire archival part fits into a very plump (67 sheets) "The case of the peasant of the estate of Lev Andreevich Naryshkin, who lived in the Babaevsky monastery in the Kostroma province under the name of Hieromonk Abel and who wrote books." Closed on March 17, 1796 by the decision of the Prosecutor General Count Samoilov on the basis of the protocol of interrogation conducted on the Secret Expedition on March 5, 1796 by the collegiate assessor Alexander Makarov. It is clear from the interrogation protocol that monk Abel was born in 1757 in the village of Akulovo, Aleksinsky district, Tula province, and took tonsure at the Valaam monastery. At the age of 17, at the behest of his father, he was married, by the time of his departure from the family he had three children. He wandered, visited the cities: Moscow, Tula, Oryol, Sumy, Kharkov, Poltava, Kremenchug and Kherson. In Kherson he learned to be a ship carpenter and famot. Visited Constantinople. He returned to Russia and began to write books of prophecy in the Babaevsky monastery on the Volga. I showed the notes to my spiritual brother, the monk Arkady. He rushed to the bishop, Vladyka ordered to send the author to the governor-general Zaborovsky. From Kostroma, Abel in chains, like a madman and a villain, with his book was escorted under the command of Ensign Maslennikov to Petersburg, to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Money was found with him 1 ruble 18 kopecks. Everyone was outraged most of all by the monk's prophecy that Catherine II had to reign “how long the mother had to bear the baby,” that is, 9 months, and that she would be punished “for killing her husband”.as a madman and a villain, with his book they were escorted under the command of Ensign Maslennikov to St. Petersburg, to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Money was found with him 1 ruble 18 kopecks. Everyone was outraged most of all by the monk's prophecy that Catherine II had to reign “how long the mother had to bear the baby,” that is, 9 months, and that she would be punished “for killing her husband”.as a madman and a villain, with his book they were escorted under the command of Ensign Maslennikov to St. Petersburg, to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Money was found with him 1 ruble 18 kopecks. Everyone was outraged most of all by the monk's prophecy that Catherine II had to reign “how long the mother had to bear the baby,” that is, 9 months, and that she would be punished “for killing her husband”.
“The interrogation of the hieromonk showed that among his accomplices there was a merchant from Oryol, Fyodor Krikov, of the Jewish faith, whom Abel considered the second messiah. He wrote notebooks in the house of the landowner Isakov. Say, in the Valaam monastery, Abel as the holy Apostle Paul ascended to heaven and after that he began to write down the visions that were revealed to him in his notebooks. " The protocol did not specify how the person under investigation "ascended" - by means of levitation or who helped? Apparently, they considered his story nonsense and did not specify the details. The interrogators were more interested in how a simple monk from a remote province learned about the circumstances of the death of Tsar Peter III? Who told him about it and when? And it turned out that Abel knew the details of what he could not know in principle. And then the defendant asked Alexander Makarov, who was taking the testimony:Is he a Christian himself and does he understand the essence of God and the devil? This greatly embarrassed the previously imperturbable collegiate assessor of the Secret Expedition.
Nicholas I ordered to assign him for permanent residence in the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, again under the name of Vasily Vasiliev. In the photo: the title page of the case of Abel's imprisonment in the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery.
Following the interrogation of Abel, a secular court sentenced him to death as a "thief and a villain", and the Bishop of Kostroma took off his monastic robe. Before the verdict was pronounced, Abel was taken to Prosecutor General Samoilov, after the conversation, he personally slapped him “for daring speeches in the face” and ordered him to issue the death sentence faster. But the queen ordered the monk to preserve his life and put him in the Shlisselburg fortress. All notebooks were taken away, sealed with Samoilov's personal seal and handed over to the Senate archives.
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Russian "iron mask"
The mask was not put on Abel. But they put him in cell No. 22 in Shlisselburg under the name Vasily Vasilyev, allocated food for 10 kopecks a day, put them in iron and categorically forbade the prisoner to talk to anyone, let alone write. On December 12, 1796, the new Prosecutor General Prince Alexei Kurakin personally arrived for the prisoner in order to release and present him to Paul I. In January 1797, the monk met with the emperor one-on-one. After that, Abel returned to the Valaam monastery again, having received 10 rubles for the journey from the king.
The abbot of the monastery wrote to the Holy Synod that the monk Abel had silver Turkish money with him (where on Valaam?), As well as books and handwritten sheets in an unknown language. He categorically refused to explain what the book and the sheets were about and in what language. On May 21, 1800 the monk was again brought to St. Petersburg. into the chamber of Petropavlovka. A second meeting with the emperor took place, after which the legend of the casket was born, allegedly with prophecies until 1918, which Paul I personally sealed with instructions to open the Russian tsar in May 1900.
And on May 27, 1800, Abel stunned Bishop Ambrose with a written wish: "I now have a desire to define myself in the Jewish faith, in order to teach their Jewish people the knowledge of Christ, and I ask you to report this to His Imperial Majesty." They reported. And the "new Christ" went to the cell of the monastery prison Solovki. Not so much for the desire to change the faith, as for the prophecy of the reign of Paul I.
On October 17, 1801, by order of the new Tsar Alexander I, Abel was released from his cell. But for a very short time. For on Solovki, he wrote another book of prophecy, where he described "the imminent capture of Mother Moscow by a foreign enemy." In the Winter Palace, Abel's manuscript was read and an order was written to the governor of Arkhangelsk: to send the author back to Solovki. In December 1812, when the enemy was driven out of Moscow, they remembered Abel. Prince Golitsyn personally arrived at Solovki: to free the rehabilitated prophet and escort the hero to St. Petersburg. Alexander I received him in the Winter Palace, but after a conversation with the prisoner he was returned to his "native" Solovki. And how not to return, if this monk stunned the king with the prophecy "about the rebellious system of the nobles under the hooves of the horse of Peter the Great" ?! Well crazy, what can you take from him?
After December 14, 1825, when the line of the Decembrists-nobles in front of the monument to Peter I on Senate Square was demolished with canister shot, in St. Petersburg those close to the new tsar, Nicholas I, again remembered the very perspicacious Solovetsky prisoner. They reported to the new autocrat. But Nicholas I did not want to meet with Abel. He ordered him to be assigned permanent residence in the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, again under the name Vasily Vasilyev, with the strictest prohibition to communicate with anyone. And once again the prisoner was deprived of a pencil, pen and paper. However, the monk Abel was already 69 years old, and he did not know his glasses. He died in that monastery in 1841, having lived to be 84 years old.
Truth and fiction
In the protocol of interrogation in March 1796, the secular name of the monk-monk Abel was not entered: serfs in Russia until 1861 had no surnames. But the monk always ended up in prison under the name Vasily Vasiliev. It is possible that before his tonsure he was called Vasily Vasilyevich. But the main thing is that such a person existed in reality, lived and wrote during the reign of Catherine I! and three emperors: the facts of Abel's imprisonment in prisons and the exact dates of their release from them are documented. It is difficult to determine what he meant when he talked about his “ascension to heaven,” often the elder spoke and wrote allegorically. And undoubtedly, he had the gift of providence, otherwise he would not have been released three times for precisely predicted events: the death of Catherine II, the reign and death of Paul I, the Patriotic War of 1812 and the capture of Moscow by the French, the revolt on December 14, 1825 …
Many knowledge many sorrows
Nicholas I did not return the disgraced seer to the capital after the execution of “nobles under the hooves of Peter the Great's horse”. And personally get to know him too. Perhaps he thought that it ended badly for his grandmother, father and older brother. We are all mortal, and mere mortals, even autocrats, do not need to know what is not supposed to be from above. Well, he would have learned from Abel about the fall of Sevastopol, about the murder in 1881 of his beloved son Alexander … And what could he change? After all, the future of each individual person and the state is a combination of such a multitude of factors and events that cannot be foreseen, let alone prevented by a mortal person. So is it worth knowing about the future then? Paul I knew for sure. And this did not save him … And so that the mysterious monk would not confuse the minds that had not grown in faith, Nicholas I wisely isolated the old man,commanding him to ensure his departure until his death.
Magazine: All the mysteries of the world №10, Alexander Smirnov