Did Patriarch Tikhon say: “By relics and fir trees” - about the breakthrough of the sewage system in the Lenin mausoleum?

There is an opinion on the popular science literature and the Internet that the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' reacted to the news about the breakthrough of the sewer pipe in the Lenin mausoleum extremely hostile to the leader. We checked how justified such publications are.

In different sources, the version of the appearance of this phrase vary a little, but the essence remains the same: supposedly during the construction of the first wooden mausoleum Lenin, the sewer pipe was damaged, due to which the fetid slide (either immediately, or a few weeks later, when the frozen soil thawed) began to fill the lead tomb. The story ends in all versions the same way: "Having learned about this, Patriarch Tikhon said:" By relics and fir trees. " This story is possible Meet V social networks, publications Media, on entertainment And local history sites, c collections of quotesas well as in Scientific and popular books. The bike even fell into the biography of the architect of the mausoleum Alexei Schusev, published In 2023 in the series "Life of wonderful people."

Vladimir Lenin He died January 21, 1924. The decision that the body of the leader must be preserved and subsequently available to the public was made shortly after his death. Already on the night of January 24, Shchusev received a task in the shortest possible time (the funeral was scheduled for January 27) to develop a project of a publicly accessible crypt (so far of temporary) for Lenin. The public learned about this decision on January 25, when the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted Resolution:

“Walking towards the desire declared by numerous delegations, and appeals to the CEC of the USSR Union and in order to provide everyone who will not have time to arrive in Moscow on the day of the funeral, the opportunity to say goodbye to the beloved leader, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the USSR decides:

1. Save the coffin with the body of Vladimir Ilyich in the crypt, making the latter accessible to the visit;

2. Build a crypt at the Kremlin wall, on Red Square, among the mass graves of the wrestlers of the October Revolution. " 

On the same day Shchusev told About its project on the pages of the newspaper "Evening Moscow": “The basis for the built -up mausoleum is a cube - a symbol of eternity. The mausoleum represents a crypt intended for wide communication with the masses of the people. The design of the Mausoleum crypt provides for a number of amenities for the intake and release of a large number of people from it. From above, the inner side will be mirror with two ventilation lumenes and special lighting at night. The color of the mausoleum inside is red and black. At the direction of doctors for better preservation of the body, the temperature inside the crypt in zero degrees will be maintained, which will be achieved by a special supporting in the lower part of the crypt. The mausoleum in its type will be the first in the world. ”

There was little time for construction - all the work was needed finish By 18:00 January 26. At the same time, it turned out that due to the frosts that stood in that winter, the soil of the industry to a depth of 2.5 arshin (about 178 cm). Also, the task was complicated by the discovered remains of the stone wall of Alevizov’s moat, surrounding the Kremlin in the XIV - XVII centuries. It was decided to call sapers to the aid. They were led by military engineer I.E. Korostashevsky, who then headed all the subversive works of Moscow. Member of the Lenin funeral commission, Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich, wrote in memoirs: “With difficulty, this specialist agreed to take up this risky and responsible work: he was afraid of the closeness of the Kremlin wall, on which the allegorical image of freedom was in this place. Immediately, very close, the figure of the worker stood, and behind the alleged mausoleum and the wall was the grave [chairman of the All -Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR] Ya. M. Sverdlova. Thus, subversive work had to be carried out surrounded and near the monuments and places that in no case should have been damaged. ” January 25 "Evening Moscow" reported: “About 40 explosions were produced until one day. At least 25 explosions are ahead. The strength of the latter is so significant that the bricks, flying into the air, fall at the GUM building [on the opposite side of Red Square]. ”

No documentary evidence that explosive work damaged the sewer, in the sources of those years could not be found. The press discussed only possible problems regarding the spring flood. “The strength of the structure, according to competent persons, during the spring warming of the Earth does not threaten danger. The soil here is completely dry, and groundwater is much lower than the foundation of the mausoleum ” - I wrote "Evening Moscow." 

Lenin's funeral took place, as planned, on January 27, 1924. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the coffin with the body Book In the mausoleum. At the end of January (the exact date was not preserved), the former director of the first St. Petersburg Cadet Corps, Fedor Grigoryev, wrote down in diary: “Now they are gossiping that Lenin’s grave is flooded with uncleances: the grave was arranged during severe frosts (up to –25 ° C), and therefore it had to be exposed, these explosions destroyed the fan pipes. I think it's gossip. ” This is the first known mention of rumors of such problems in the construction of a mausoleum. 

By the end of February, the bike diverged so widely that about her wrote “Evening Moscow”: “In the city, in recent days, rumors are transmitted to some persons about what happened allegedly under the foundation of the Mausoleum of V. I. Lenin, the rupture of the pipes, as a result, as of the same rumors, water penetrated the inside of the mausoleum. Without giving these ridiculous rumors the slightest meaning, the editors from an absolutely competent and informed source reports that rumors are deprived of any reason and are completely unsuitable for reality. ” On March 6, engineer A. Izmailovsky, who worked at the construction of the Mausoleum declared: “The sewer pipes are laid away from the crypt at a depth of seven fathoms (almost 15 m. - approx. Ed.), Meanwhile, since the foundation of the crypt is laid at a depth of only one fathom. B sewer pipes falling to the Moscow River, the liquid goes by self-stroke, without any pressure. Therefore, no rise in its contents can occur. Another thing is if it were a water pipe where the water is undergoing large pressure. But there are absolutely no such pipes near the mausoleum. ” 

Izmailovsky’s words are indirectly confirmed by the fact that immediately before the mausoleum building at that time functioned A tram line - if sewer pipes were here, problems with them would have arisen during its laying. Most likely, the sewage system passed closer to the GUM building and in this case it was unlikely that it could be threatened in any way. In addition, Bonch-Bruevich in 1919 was The chairman of the Special Committee for the restoration of the water supply and sewage system of Moscow, which means, had the full information about the sewer networks of the city and could take this data into account during the work on the construction of the mausoleum.

Nevertheless, the spread of rumors continued. March 3, he recorded a similar story in diary The artist Alexander Benois (he, like Grigoryev, lived in Leningrad): “Schusev was arrested (according to Troinitsky). He was ordered to carry out work at the grave of Lenin, and he came across a pipe, the contents of which flooded the coffin with a deceased. The wits find that Ilyich in the "gold" bathes. In general, there is a mass of evil sharpness, jokes in which all kinds of people compensate for their annoyance on a pump that hides the death of the "leader of the proletariat". " March 18 Muscovite Nikita Okunev He wrote: “Due to the proximity of sewer pipes, they hastened to figure out that this crypt has turned for a week, due to the malfunction of the pipe, into something obscene. Indeed, there was no admission for a whole month, but this was probably explained by the need to make convenience in this dungeon both for maintaining a corpse in an ostentatious form, and for the entry and exit of visitors. ”

The temporary closure of the Mausoleum for the general public was actually announced on January 29. At the same time It was clarifiedthat access to the grave of Lenin is still allowed “delayed to his funerals to nonresident organizations” (which would hardly be possible in the event of a sewer accident).

February 11 "Evening Moscow" informed Readers that the entrance to the Mausoleum for the public is still closed: “Work to bring Lenin’s grave with the Mausoleum grave in the finished type of grave and end no earlier than two weeks later. In the past two days, it has been launched by the entire external structure with cork insulation to protect the internal atmosphere of the crypt from heating in the warm season. Below the base of the walls, trenches filled with clay erupt in order to avoid penetration to the base of the underground waters. ”

No data on Schusev’s arrest during this period was also “verified” in accessible sources. It is known that the whole of February 1924 the architect continued to work to improve the design of the temporary mausoleum and gave the press Comments On this occasion, and February 29 He made a report on the reconstruction of Moscow at a meeting in the Moscow communal economy.

On March 28, a record of gossip around the mausoleum appears in diary Vice President of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Sergey Efremov:

“From Moscow, rumors claim that the sewer pipe cracked in the Lenin mausoleum and flooded it. Poems go on this occasion.

First version:
Our Russian Messiah faded,
And grateful Russia
To the sounds of guns and mortar
She lowered his corpse into the toilet.

Second edition:
An unrecognized Messiah was buried here,
He wanted to conquer the whole world.
Ungrateful R Russia
I arranged a toilet to him.

And finally, one more:
Nikolai rested -
In Bose,
And our Lenin -
In manure. "

In other words, already in the first weeks after the temporary mausoleum of Lenin began to erect on Red Square, rumors about the problems arising during the construction of the sewage were spread not only in Moscow, but also beyond its borders. However, the first mention of Patriarch Tikhon in connection with this and the phrase attributed to him by the whip is recorded only a few months later. August 27, 1924 in diary Philologist Nikolai Mendelssohn appears an entry: “An anecdote related to recent conversations (probably a shackle) that sewer pipes passing there burst in Lenin’s crypt. I learned as if the patriarch about it and, after a moment, said: "On the relics and fir trees!"

There is no earlier use of this expression in the national corps of the Russian language or in other sources. It was most likely really invented in 1924, but the question of its authorship remains open. The expression is not found in a two -volume "Contemporaries about Patriarch Tikhona", Where many conversations with the Patriarch on different topics are reproduced, not in the book"The investigative case of Patriarch Tikhon. Collection of documents on materials from the Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation"(Although a sharp statement about the leader could well become the reason for the next denunciation), nor in the work of the Protopresbyter Vasily Vinogradov"About some of the most important moments of the last period in the life and activities of Patriarch Tikhon (1923–1925)". In some publications ApprovedWhat Bonch-Bruevich wrote about the words of the Patriarch, but there are no such episode in any of his published books. There are no information that somewhere in the archives was preserved an unpublished diary or memoirs of a prominent Bolshevik in open sources. In the work of political scientists, Dora Sturman and Sergey Titkin "Soviet Union in the mirror of a political joke»This story is recorded in a slightly different form, without the mention of Patriarch Tikhon:“ Under the mausoleum of Lenin, the sewage leakage flowed. Experts could not find damage in any way. We decided to ask one omniscient elder, what to do. The elder thought and said: "By relics and fir trees." 

Thus, although this winged phrase actually appeared during the life of Patriarch Tikhon, there is no evidence that the church hierarch pronounced it. Apparently, contemporaries added his name and the alleged statement to the bike, which appeared shortly after the start of the construction of the temporary mausoleum of Lenin. Although the sources of 1924 recorded rumors about the problems with sewage during construction, documentary evidence was also not preserved.

Photo on the cover: PASTVU

Most likely not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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