T’IEN-T’AI SEE TIANTAI
TIKHON (born Vasilii Ivanovich Belavin; 1865–1925),
patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church. Prior to becom-
ing metropolitan of Moscow (1917), Tikhon served as arch-
bishop of Vilna and archbishop of Yaroslavl. Before that he
was bishop and archbishop of the Aleutians and North
America (1898–1907), laying the foundations of the Ortho-
dox church in America. The Alaskan mission, founded in
1794, was extended and coordinated, so that it was able to
grow into an autocephalous church in 1970. Tikhon’s plan
was to permit the Orthodox of various nations to form a sin-
gle church, initially dependent on the Russian church, but
eventually becoming autocephalous. The goal of a single
church in the United States remains to be achieved, its delay
being one of the consequences of the Russian Revolution.
Patriarch Tikhon was elected twelve days after the Bol-
shevik coup by the Great Sobor, or Pomestnyi Sobor (1917–
1918), the first assembly of magnitude in the Russian church
since the Great Sobor of 1666–1667. His election signaled
the successful outcome of a nearly two-hundred-year struggle
by the church to emancipate itself from control by the Rus-
sian state. Yet, Tikhon and the sobor delegates were aware
of the danger in the demise of the provisional government
that left the Orthodox church as the only pan-Russian insti-
tution to which the masses could turn. The contest that en-
sued between the church and the Bolsheviks developed into
the most extensive persecution experienced by Christians
since the days of the Roman emperor Diocletian.
Tikhon’s first months as patriarch witnessed the first
onslaught of Bolshevik violence when monasteries, cathe-
drals, and churches were bombarded and desecrated, and
priests, bishops, and lay defenders of the church murdered.
Tikhon countered through an encyclical urging the Bolshe-
viks to cease the massacres and telling them that they were
doing the work of Satan; he also excommunicated all collab-
orators in the terror. The encyclical, combined with the reac-
tion to persecution, produced a major groundswell of sup-
port for the church. The Bolshevik regime reacted by
depriving the church of its legal status, confiscating all its
properties and revenues, and launching a holocaust designed
to devastate the church and eliminate its legacy in Russian
history and culture.
During the persecution the regime pursued two meth-
ods of weakening and discrediting the patriarch. First, it sup-
ported dissident schismatics who splintered the ecclesiastical
administration, and second, it tried to compromise Tikhon
with the public in a dispute over the disposition of church
values during the famine of 1921–1922. The Living Church,
composed of those opposed to restoring traditional canonical
authority to the patriarchal office, was created as a result of
the schism. Its leaders were allowed to seize the patriarchal
palace, the patriarchal administrative offices, and the offices
of the metropolitanate of Moscow in May 1922. By this time
Tikhon was already under arrest, and leading Moscow clergy
had either been tried and condemned to death for inciting
the masses “to engage in civil war” or were under indictment
for that offense. In the resulting paralysis, the Living Church
takeover was accomplished under the guise of providing
leadership in unusual circumstances and with the assistance
of the secret police. Clergy and bishops who refused to ac-
knowlege the takeover were immediately declared unfrocked
by the Living Church administration and arrested, tried,
and, in many cases, executed by the secret police.
The takeover coincided with vitriolic attacks upon
Tikhon, the hierarchy, and the clergy for refusing to hand
over eucharistic vessels for famine relief. Tikhon had already
agreed to strip the churches, monasteries, and cathedrals of
precious metals and jewels except for the eucharistic vessels.
The regime accused the church of hoarding its valuables and
launched a massive propaganda attack. Churches were plun-
dered anew, and their defenders arrested and indicted for an-
tistate activities. The Living Church administration went
through the motions of deposing Tikhon, and the Soviet
government prepared to put him on trial for treason.
A major part of the government’s indictment consisted
in the accusation that Tikhon was working to overthrow the
regime. That accusation was based upon a resolution passed
by émigré hierarchs and lay leaders at Karlovci, Yugoslavia,
in November 1921, demanding the restoration of the Roma-
nov dynasty. Tikhon had already ordered his faithful and
clergy to desist from antistate activities in September 1919
and repudiated the Karlovci statement. He also formally dis-
solved the émigré church administration in May 1922.
The Soviet regime soon realized that the Living Church
did not have the support of the majority of Orthodox believ-
ers. Moreover, a general intensification of persecution of the
Orthodox church in 1922, during which the popular metro-
politan of Petrograd, Benjamin Kazanskii, was tried and exe-
cuted, produced a deepening of dissatisfaction with Bolshe-
vik rule among the masses. The regime also had put on trial
Ioann Cieplak, acting Roman Catholic archbishop in Russia,
together with Konstantin Budkiewicz, pastor of the chief
Roman Catholic church in Petrograd. The execution of Bud-
kiewicz had raised such an international outcry that the Bol-
sheviks faltered in their determination to execute the patri-
arch.
The circumstances led to a compromise. Tikhon wished
to meet the Living Church challenge head-on, while the re-
gime was concerned to avoid creating a martyr. Tikhon
agreed to issue an encyclical in which he stated his personal
loyalty to the Soviet government. He implied that the Living
Church, rather than the regime, was the key danger to the
Orthodox church. The regime slackened its support for the
Living Church and Tikhon was released from prison. How-
ever, he was required to live in seclusion in the Donskoi
Monastery, where he remained, except for brief hospitaliza-
tion, until his death on April 7, 1925. While Tikhon con-TIKHON 9193