In scientific articles, blogs and the media, an expression is often found that is attributed to the Soviet leader. These words illustrate stories about persecution of the Church in the 1950-1960s. We checked whether Khrushchev really made such a statement.

The phrase attributed to Khrushchev Can Meet on Pages Media, in numerous scientific publications And lecturesTrue, the authors are not quite sure when Khrushchev said it: in different texts they are called 1958, 1959, 1961 and other years. There is no consent and about when it was planned to show the "last priest" - there are options "in 1965","In 1975","In 1980"Or just"A few years later".

The time that Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev spent the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee is usually called a thaw. Following the condemnation of the repression and the cult of the personality of Stalin, the victims of great terror were rehabilitated and censorship was weakened, and the Soviet Union is more than ever before, Opened by the Western world. However, liberalization did not affect all spheres of life - in particular, for religion during this period, on the contrary, the time has come for another persecution. In 1954, a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU was adopted "About major drawbacks in scientific-atheistic propaganda and measures to improve it", And a few years later, a large -scale anti -religious campaign began.

Many sources They saythat the promise to show on TV of the latter Paul Khrushchev gave at the XXI Congress of the CPSU. It was an extraordinary congress that was convened in order to consider and approve the seven -year plan for the development of the national economy. It took place from January 27 to February 5, 1959 in the meeting room of the Greater Kremlin Palace in Moscow. The stenographic report of the congress in two volumes was published in the same year, it is available online. However, neither in The first volume (it includes transcript of the first ten meetings), nor in second (transcript from the 11th to the 17th meeting, as well as resolutions, decisions and applications) “verified” not only found the phrase attributed to Khrushchev about the priest, but also any discussions of the position of the church. The word “pop” is mentioned only in the speech of Alexander Twardowski, who criticized Soviet writers: “But as soon as we go to the stands of our writer's meetings and congresses, we go to another language, like the priests (let my brothers for this comparison) and generally speak my life in ordinary Russian, and from the amvon, Church Slavonic, compulsory, compulsory service.”

Issues of religion were discussed at the next, XXII Party Congress, held in 1961. Then the third was accepted The CPSU programIn which, among other things, it was indicated: “It is necessary to systematically conduct a wide scientific-atheistic propaganda, patiently explain the failure of religious beliefs that arose in the past on the basis of people's appropriation of natural forces and social oppression, due to ignorance of the true causes of natural and social phenomena. At the same time, one should rely on the achievements of modern science, which more fully reveals the picture of the world, increases human power over nature and leaves no place for the fantastic fiction of religion about the supernatural forces. ” During the discussion of the program at the congress, they talked about the need to be more strictly with religious prejudices, that one should not allow revival of religious beliefs and religious holidays. However, at the XXII Congress, the phrase about the latter did not sound - neither in Speech Khrushchev, nor in the speeches of other speakers (a stenographic report of this congress also Available online).

IN memories Translator Khrushchev Viktor Tudokrev MentionedThe general secretary spoke about his attitude to religion during an almost four -hour interview with American journalist William Hurseroe in 1957. In the archive of the Open Society Foundation Store The decryption of this interview, however, “verified” there did not discover the mention of the last priest.

Of course, it is impossible to verify absolutely all the statements of Nikita Khrushchev - an archive where all his speeches, articles and letters would not have been collected. In the article "Answer to my reader"Published in the newspaper" Soviet Culture "in 1988, the poet Andrei Voznesensky wrote about him:" In that era of flattery and anti -milesty, half of his words did not fall into the newspapers, as they did not get into the newspaper ... His monologues against artists and writers: "Get out of the country!" Only the cordiality of meetings was reported. " However, it can be assumed that a vivid figurative statement made, as claimed, during a public speech, nevertheless, at least some reflection, if not in the press, then in the diaries, memoirs or other sources of that time (as it was with the story of how Khrushchev promised to show the Americans Kuzkin's mother). Nevertheless, “verified” did not find a single expression about the last priest nor in the archive of Soviet newspapers and magazines available in digitized funds Libraries named after Nekrasovnor in the archives of the largest Western newspapers. And in the corps of diaries and memoirs published by the project “Life”, only one diary mention of the quote about the last priest, dated to the 1960s, was discovered. But his author, co -founder of the All -Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments of History and Culture Vladimir Tratnikov, is not clarifiesWhen and under what circumstances he heard this expression. Tennikov writes: “According to Khrushchev, the upcoming communism is possible only in an atheistic country. "The current generation of Soviet people will live under communism," he tirelessly proclaims and at the same time adds: “You will see, I will show you on television of the last priest.” Otherwise, until the 1990s, the phrase “The Last Pop” is found only as an excerpt from the quatrains “We will amuse good citizens / and at the shameful pillar / intestine of the last priest / the last king we will be strangled”, which for a long time for a long time attributed Pushkin and which was often quoted in anti-religious publications of the 1920-1930s.

In the scientific circulation, the so -called promise of Khrushchev, apparently, entered the works of a church historian Mikhail Kakarovsky. In the work "Russian Orthodox Church under Stalin and Khrushchev: state-church relations in the USSR in 1939-1964"Published in 1999, it says:" The notorious "famous" promise of N. Khrushchev is known as a museum rarity to show on television the "last Soviet priest". " As a source of this information, the author refers to his own text of 1995 - “Anti -Church persecution in the Leningrad diocese: 1958–1964”. Unfortunately, “verified” failed to find a copy of this text, however, in another article by Kakarovsky on the same topic (“”Anti -religious persecution of 1958-1964 in the Leningrad diocese and the confrontation of Metropolitan Nicodemus (Rotov)") The same phrase is just repeated-without any additional context or refinement. The earlier mentions of the quote attributed to Khrushchev were “verified” could not be found, with the exception of the already mentioned passage from the diary of Vladimir Netermatnikov.

In 2001, the phrase on the last Soviet pope appeared in an article by priest and journalist Vladimir Vigilyansky in the magazine "New World”, And after that, without it, in principle, any publication about the state policy of the USSR regarding religion in the 1960s is rarely circumvented.

Thus, there is not a single convincing evidence that Khrushchev really promised to show the last priest on TV. Different publishers indicate different dates and circumstances of pronouncing this promise. Quote began to be widely used only in the 1990s.

The idea of this text arose during the work “tested” on the fact of a factorykeing book by Ksenia Luchenko ”At the door of hell", Which should be released in 2025 with the support of the publishing program StraightForward Foundation.

Photo on the cover: Bundesarchiv, Bild Via Wikimedia Commons