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The Last Case and Death of «Moscow Metropolitan» Boris (Rukin): to the Issue of His Suicide
DOI of the paper: 10.15382/sturII201457.90-97
Abstract
The author investigates circumstances of the last arrest and the death of bishop (in schism — «the Moscow metropolitan») Boris (Rukin) in detention in 1931 on the basis of his Case from the documents of the Central archive of FSB of the Russian Federation. The author studies the arrest’s reason (the attempt to bribe a soviet clerk), assorts in details the course of investigation and analyzes its result — death of bishop Boris in the hospital of the Butyrsky insulator. In the article the basic attention was occupied with checking of the official version of church-historical literature about suicide of the bishop. The author considers the death of the prisoner, «the metropolitan Moscow», has followed soon after accusing him of a counterrevolutionary propaganda. It was his words to «churchmen» about the possibility to bribe the Soviet power. Materials of the investigatory case do not contain any data to support the version of suicide. At the same time, they allow to assume the interest of the OGPU bodies in the distribution of this version with the purpose to justify the refusal to give out the body of late «metropolitan» Boris for his church burial. The materials have also indirectly testified to the interest in elimination of «the Moscow metropolitan» of some «churchmen» connecting with him. First of all, it was «metropolitan» Bessarion (Zorin) who headed the Gregorian split. He obtained a Boris’s apartment under the decision of VCIK. The article can be useful at drawing up of biographic directories, at writing of historical monographies about the Gregorian split, the Moscow diocese and the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole.
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