Here is a photo from the archive of the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Novosibirsk Diocese. It shows a group of people in the clothes of the late last and early present centuries, standing near an unusual railway car. The caption reads: "Church-wagon in the name of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga. Manufactured at the Putilovsky plant in St. Petersburg. Plied on the line of the West Siberian Railway to the station Krivoshchekovo. Since 1896-on the Sredne-Sibirskaya Railway line." The unusual feature of the car is that it has a church cross and a belfry with bells.

The archive photo didn't come into my hands by accident. The day before, I received an offer from the rector of the Church of the Intercession, Father Viktor, to take part in the mission of reviving the Orthodox train. The weekly route "churches on wheels" included a trip along the Trans-Siberian Railway with stops at several junctions. The content of the mission in many ways repeated the tasks of a century ago-services at railway stations and stations, the performance of tasks. In addition, the trip was attended by the Orthodox choir "Siberian Singers", created with the participation of artists of the song and Dance ensemble of the Siberian Military District and under the direction of Father Viktor, in the world - Viktor Viktorovich Smetannikov.

What did the army performers have to do with the church? And why does the choir perform in military uniforms?

Everything was explained simply. The Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos is not only the first holy monastery of Christians on Novonikolaevskaya, and now - Novosibirsk land. By its purpose, it protects the Russian army, the army. Services are regularly held here in memory of historical battles on our land, glory is paid to the warriors of the past and present, and the fallen are commemorated. That's why people in uniform, who know Father Victor well, call him a military priest and do not forget to invite him to the celebrations celebrated in the district. But there is another reason why the military considers him their man.

Have you ever, dear reader, seen a priest descending by parachute? Meanwhile, Father Victor has more than twenty jumps. He couldn't even talk his daughter out of it (or didn't want to?) from the desire to test yourself in parachuting.

Father Viktor confessed that he would like to write a piece of music of "historical scale" for the "Siberian Singers" together with his temple composers: something like a Russian song-singing epic. It was still difficult to pinpoint the genre, he said...

Understatement of the images of Father Viktor of a special warehouse. It creates in the mind the logical conclusion of the topic raised in the conversation and excites the imagination. For example, we were talking with Father Victor about the miracle, and suddenly I remembered that the image of the Virgin Mary always protected Russian soldiers in their fight against enemies. Ancient manuscripts contain descriptions of authentic miracles associated with the icon of the Mother of God...

Father Victor himself witnessed a miracle of this kind. Three years ago, when the Church of the Intercession was undergoing repair and restoration work, the district Air Force command invited him to Arkalyk. According to experts ' calculations, our cosmonauts were supposed to land there.

The meeting went well, but both during it and after it, Father Victor was constantly feeling a strange sense of anxiety, he was irresistibly drawn to the temple...

We went there together with the commander of the SibVO Air Force directly from the Novosibirsk airfield. "There's something there," the restorers said, pointing to the doors of the inner rooms of the temple that had been taken off their hinges. Along with the old upholstery, multi-layered paint had fallen off the boards, and in places something resembling iconography appeared under it. The paint was removed more carefully and accurately.

And the face of the Most Holy Theotokos was revealed...

Actually, the miracle can be treated in different ways. Such a phrase could have been born only where death is not an abstract concept, where there comes a sharpened understanding of the ordinariness and extraordinariness of miracles...

The last time Father Viktor was in Chechnya was a year ago, just before the New Year's holiday and his birthday. Perhaps he was guided by the "duty of a military priest". Father Victor himself does not like to explain himself on this topic. However, those who accompanied him on that Chechen business trip recall that in his sermons to the guys from the Berd special forces, the priest was specific: there is, he said, a belief in the sacred military duty defined by the oath. It justifies your presence in this war. But the weapons that you hold in your hands and are forced to use, Father Victor stressed, should not serve lawlessness.

It seemed to me that in this mission he was like the monk Peresvet, the first in the battle of Kulikovo field to take the enemy's blow. Only instead of a spear, eternal Christian truths about good and evil helped in the battle for the souls of soldiers. Wasn't that what the Special Forces needed most in places where not only the flesh perishes, but the soul becomes hardened and hardened?

...The queue of soldiers and officers in a specialized car equipped for a "military field parish" did not decrease. It was only thinned out from time to time - when it was time for radio contact with groups that had gone on a combat mission. But those who went to the point of contact returned again, telling their colleagues the news: "The guys ask for bread to send..." Bread? So, they are alive and well. And good. And thank God!

Before the departure of Viktor's father, the special forces gave him a camouflage suit...

By the way, at first I thought that the car in Chechnya, where the baptismal rite was held and the military personnel confessed, prompted Father Viktor to equip the car-church. That's when he showed me a photo from the archive. And he explained that the idea of reviving the "religious procession" along the Trans-Siberian Railway arose a long time ago, but its implementation was faced with financial and technical difficulties.

Still, it is not for nothing that they say that God does not abandon believers and helps them in their good intentions. Miracle or chance, but the current head of the West Siberian Railway V. Starostenko and the employees of the department suddenly liked the idea of Viktor's father. There were not only funds for organizing the trip, but also, let's say, the issue with the belfry was solved in an original way: its collapsible version was constructed. Later on, railway workers provided all possible assistance to the missionaries along the entire route of the Orthodox train. But this is a topic for a separate conversation.

On February 22, 1998, with the blessing of Vladyka Sergius, Bishop of Novosibirsk and Berdsk, an Orthodox train consisting of two docked cars, a club car and a restaurant car, set off in a "procession" through the Siberian hinterland...

Not only I, but everyone who rode in the same car with Father Victor immediately felt his commitment to strict army order. At seven in the morning, the "special forces" figure of the "paratrooper" father grew up in front of each compartment, and this meant that it would not be possible to lie on the shelf to your heart's content: you had to make the bed carefully in a military way, quickly clean yourself up and get ready for breakfast.

Then everything went according to the following schedule: unloading of the icon shop brought with them, installation of a belfry near the station, morning service, performance of trebs, concert.

...Our arrival at Tatarsk station coincided with the opening of a new waiting room here. Father Victor, who had been there before everyone else and had spoken to the local authorities, returned in a state of great excitement.

"It's like a temple," he said, appraising the new space. - We will work at the station, no clubs!

Entering the new hall, seeing the marble splendor of the vaulted ceiling, columns and arches, banners, burning candles, hearing the prayers of the priests, people really began to feel like in a temple: they took off their hats, crossed themselves, and began prayers.

The first section of the concert, where the choir performed spiritual songs, passed without applause. Those present probably considered them sacrilegious. And only when the "Siberian Singers" burst into loud Cossack tunes, the audience realized that they were artists and paid them tribute with an ovation.

I would like to make a special mention of the choir members. Among them were Alexey Donchenko, an artist of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater Choir, Pavel Bedarev, Andrey Ilyushnikov, and Dmitry Veselovsky, students of the Novosibirsk Conservatory. It seems that the only soloist who had a spiritual rank was Deacon Gennady.

Father Victor, by the way, is also a professional musician, playing various musical instruments. However, when one free evening the guys gathered in the compartment and began to sing songs to the guitar, he did not sing along to them. He stood for a while, listened, and then went back to his room. A priest is a priest.

And when we stopped at Kokoshino, after the morning service, before the concert began, apparently satisfied that there were a lot of people at the station and the "Akathist" and "Water Blessing" performed by the "Siberian Singers" made a huge impression on the audience, the priest suddenly got into conversation with two listeners who came up to him. They really liked the voices of the singers, and the women asked who they really are.

Father Victor answered in an allegorical way:

- Do you know how the deacon used to be chosen in the villages? Here are the men shouting to the ferryman at the ferry:

"Seme-o-n! Why are you stuck there? Come here-ah-ah!" And the local priest listens: who has a louder and more honorable voice. Not a day, not two listens. Then he chooses the best one and prepares them to become deacons... Or here, for example, how it was with bell ringers. After some Orthodox holiday, the bell tower was left open for a week , so that anyone could go up there and ring the bells. Most often, of course, the boys climbed the bell tower. The old bell-ringer looked to see which of them rang harder than the others, and who liked the job. I noticed it and reported it to my father. He was blessing the boy. Father Victor and his assistants are involved in charity work. Most of the Siberian Singers ' concerts are free of charge. During the "procession", the icon shop's literature was not only sold, but also simply distributed. The baptismal rite was also performed free of charge. During the mission, more than three hundred people were baptized.

Probably, the desire of many to accept Orthodoxy is explained precisely by the circumstances in which Russia found itself at the end of the century. People are tired of political disagreements, economic hassle, and they want something reliable and unshakable. Such spiritual peace and faith in the future are provided by eternal Orthodox truths. It was these words that Father Victor preached before every concert of the Siberian Singers at remote Siberian stations. At the same time, he reminded: "Whoever does not love his earthly Fatherland will not accept the heavenly Fatherland either."

The following performance of the choir with Russian spiritual, folk, Cossack and army songs made the audience think about the words of Father Viktor, feel involved in the history of their homeland, and take responsibility for its future.

Isn't that why the audience seemed to brighten up during the concert and after it, and tears glistened in the eyes of many. They thanked the priest and the artists simply and sincerely in Russian: "God save you!"

Stories about the military - patriotic work in the villages where we stayed, heard from employees of local military enlistment offices, chairmen of various public organizations, journalists of regional newspapers, employees of local history museums, deserve a separate conversation.

But my last conversation with a simple resident of Kokoshin was especially memorable. Anastasia Fyodorovna told me that in their village the people live hardworking, everyone has a household farm, there are animals. "In the city," the interlocutor remarked, "it's probably more difficult..." Well, as for the "benefits of civilization" of the same, say, water supply ... " See, we have, read, in every yard a log house with a crane. Kokoshinskys know who has what kind of water in the well - soft or hard. In my water, peas boil well, and the neighbors two houses away - for a seagull is good."

Abroad, people are perplexed about the mysterious Russian soul. To understand it, you have to be born here, in Russia. After all, this soul is like water in Kokoshin wells: each yard is different, but it has its own special shape.

Wells, of course, need to be protected and cleaned. And the soul also requires constant purification. The way to do this is through faith. For some, it is God, for others-the Supreme Mind, and others believe only in their own strength.

But even if you believe only in yourself, you can achieve success only by developing the best qualities in yourself, relying on them.

The mission activity of the Church of the Intercession, the daily service led by Father Victor, is aimed at awakening them in each of us. That is why people go to him for confession, believing in the healing of the soul, the quenching of the thirst for good. It turns out that they know what kind of water is in the well. But with those who try to stir it up, the divine forces that Father Victor serves are fighting.

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