Father Dmitry Dudko was arrested on 15 January 1980 (CCE 56.9).
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Dmitry Dudko (1922-2004)
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His “statement of repentance” was broadcast on Soviet television on 20 June 1980.
On 21 June, a similar statement was published in the Moscow evening issue of Izvestiya:
“… At first, I denied my guilt. I had never spoken out against the Soviet system, I stated, but as a priest I have struggled against godlessness. I realized afterwards that I had been arrested not for believing in God, but for a crime.
“I continued further and further in my reflections: I recalled what I had written and published abroad. I was especially distressed by the contents of my books and articles. I felt embarrassed when I remembered the anti-Soviet expressions and slander, they contained. I blushed, I was upset, I felt guilty…. Repent, then!
“I went further and further, recalling step by step what I had done.
“Finally, I said to myself: Look and see which of your works the West is most keen to print, which does it attempt to broadcast over the radio? Take your pastoral newspaper In the Light of the Transfiguration. Every time it’s the passages that defames our country. And the newspaper also contains unchecked material.
“I had succumbed, I realised, to those voices of propaganda whose aim was to undermine our system and I had not seen what is in fact being done for the welfare of the People in our country.
“Considering myself a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, moreover, I refused to walk in step with Her, forgetting that our Church is doing precisely what she needs to.
“I renounce what I have done. I consider my so-called struggle against godlessness to have been a struggle against the Soviet system.
“My activities assumed an even more anti-Soviet character because they were at first fomented, then in essence also directed, from abroad.
“I received slanderous materials from the New York Times correspondent C[hristopher S.] Wren, the American Professor A. R. Nebolsine, Archbishop Vasily of Brussels & Belgium and other foreign citizens to be used in hostile propaganda against our State.
“I was never an admirer of foreign countries. I am now convinced that foreigners who interfere in our internal affairs bring us nothing but harm.
“I wish to state also that I renounce the slanderous books and articles I have produced. As their author I forbid their future publication.”
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On 21 June 1980, Father Dmitry [1] was released from Lefortovo, the KGB Investigations Prison in Moscow; however, the investigation of his case continues.
On 24 June Dudko issued
“A Statement for the Western Press”
“I have been made into a political figure, I have been used as a pawn, I can see that clearly … Now I have given up everything reminiscent of politics.
“As I stated to the Soviet press, I want to engage only in religious work, as a faithful son of the Church and the Fatherland. Leave me alone, stop dragging me into any politics of any kind! I am just an Orthodox priest, in the land of Russia, moreover, for which — let me stress — I must show my concern …
“I have not betrayed my faith at all.
“I remain faithful to God and to the Church. I love my poor Russian People, against whom such a spiteful campaign has arisen all over the world. I do not close my eyes to shortcomings, but I must grieve over them, not exaggerate them.
“I repeat: Dudko is not a political activist. He is an Orthodox priest in the Land of Russia …”
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At the same time Dudko informed his Western publishers that he was not renouncing his books: he requested them to publish the manuscripts still in their possession.
The investigators asked Dudko to leave Moscow immediately; he went to a village in the Tula Region.
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On 7 July Marina Lepeshinskaya [2] sent a letter to the KGB:
“To all concerned with the case of Father D. Dudko.
“I, Marina Yuryevna Lepeshinskaya, charge the State Security agencies with the murder of my spiritual father, Dmitry Sergeyevich DUDKO.
“After keeping an elderly man, exhausted by suffering, in a cell for half a year, you violated his will with despicable cunning and forced him to sign a false testimony.”
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The same day Lepeshinskaya issued “A Statement for the Press”:
“The day after the televised humiliation our dear Father, wearing a suit specially tailored for that masquerade, he was led out of Lefortovo Prison …
“I ask everyone not to believe a single word!
“Remember that anything said under threat of prison, camp or even — they will not shrink from this! — execution by shooting, has no legal validity, not to mention moral validity.
“Any shameful farce to which they are willing to subject my unfortunate spiritual father can only inspire disgust against those aggressors: who spare nothing for the sake of a momentary political victory, who force a priest to make a hideous recantation and to issue statements which do not contain a shadow, or the slightest trace, of truth.”
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On 27 July 1980, Father Dmitry Dudko issued the following statement:
“To all my Spiritual Children
“My dear spiritual children …
“I cannot forgive myself for being so faint-hearted. My heart is torn with grief at the sight of your confusion, amazement and division, and on hearing all these false rumours.
I cannot help shuddering when I envisage how I appeared in front of the whole world, and what temptation I imposed on people, and how I disarmed the hearts I had previously armed. I prostrate myself before you and ask you to forgive me …
“Now more than ever, we must unite in the face of danger. lt is not only your spiritual father who is being tried by the KGB or anyone else — it is the Russian Orthodox Church that is on trial …”
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At the same time, Dudko wrote to Archbishop Vasily of Brussels [3]:
“… It would have given me the greatest joy to have withstood the attack of the enemies of the Church, but I was reduced by them to ashes. What was worse, I besmirched your holy name. I have no excuse to give you; but then there is no excuse at all for me.
“If anyone had told me that I would behave in such a way, I would have considered it slander.
“But now it is clear that I overestimated my strength; I have fallen lower than anyone else.
I have never before experienced such torment as I feel now. I understand from my own experience what Hell is. Now I am prepared to do anything to make amends, but I have not yet thought of a way.”
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NOTES
- On Dudko, see CCE 38.17, CCE 39.7; CCE 43.9 and Name Index.
↩︎ - Marina Lepeshinskaya was //
↩︎ - Archbishop Vasily of Brussels and Belgium (1900-1985) was a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad.
According to a notice of his death in the New York Times he took monastic vows in 1924 and until 1959 was a monk at the Panteleimon Monastery in the USSR (or on Mount Athos?) That year he was made a bishop and soon transferred to Belgium.
He died in September 1985 on a pilgrimage to Leningrad.
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