faith under fire: Russia, 5 decades ago

This is a story from Russia under Soviet government, it occurred around 1960.

Nikita Khrushchev was the Prime Minister at that time and he tried to finally put an end to the Church and faith in Soviet Union. The efforts were made at all levels of the social life, and there was a play written to that extent and staged in one of the Moscow’s theatres. The stage was decorated as a dark and dirty low profile bar with barrels of wine. By the script, visitors crowded in that place were monks, priests along with prostitutes and other “low life” characters and criminals. They would drink heavily, sing blasphemous songs and do all kinds of dirty things. From time to time, one of the characters would make a few shaky steps struggling not to fall down, pour more wine from the barrel into the mug and shout something like “here’s where I found the meaning of life and complete truth!” Everybody would laugh and keep drinking and dancing dirty among litter and empty bottles scattered on the floor. There was even the cross on top of decorations, to mimic the cross on top of a church, made out of bottles.

And into this crowd comes “Christ”. He looks at the monks behaving insane and shouts at them: “Hey you! Listen up, I’m going to read now! Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the mourners...” – and so on, he read the first three Beatitudes. But, seeing that not a single person is paying attention, he yawns and throws Bible on the floor saying: “Oh, I’m so tired of this stuff... Hey, anyone, give me wine! and make it a big mug!” Someone gives him wine from the same barrel, “Christ” drinks all of it in one shot and joins the bacchanalia.

For the opening performance many highly-ranked government and party officials were expected to attend, including the P.M. – Khrushchev. According to his desire, the role of “Christ” was supposed to be played by a young actor, Khrushchev’s protégé. The actor, being an atheist just like all around him, was very glad to receive an invitation to play that role. Such performance suggested a great monetary reward from the government and a great push for his career. Someone found Bible in Russian for this occasion (Bibles were destroyed and not allowed to possess in the country at that time) and everyone started to work on the play.

So, here comes the scheduled day for the first performance, the audience is full of V.I.P.s, the expectations and importance of the event are high. The curtains part and the audience sees the scene as described – monks and priests with prostitutes, barrels of wine and the cross made of the bottles. The festivities are going full speed, and there enters “Christ”. He stops in front of the audience, says “people, listen!” and starts reading the Beatitudes. He reads the first one, and the second one, and the third one... and goes on with the fourth one, and the fifth one, and so on. By the script, the Book should be already on the floor and “Christ” should have already joined others in drinking, but he keeps reading – all of the Beatitudes. And then the complete 5th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. And then the 6th chapter. People in the audience understand that probably the reading was supposed to be shorter and something’s gone wrong. Even the other actors on the stage stopped “drinking” and shouting and moving around. Everyone was silent, listening. The actor finished reading the Sermon on the Mount, turned to the cross made of bottles, crossed himself and, saying “Remember me, o Lord, when You come into Your kingdom!”, left the stage.

The scandal was huge. But the state was very efficient and powerful at controlling the information, so the story was suppressed and known only to select people in Russia until decades later. There is a rumor though that there was an article about it printed in Argentinean newspaper whose international reporter witnessed the event, but I don’t have any reference to that. The young actor was, without a doubt, imprisoned for life and/or killed. We do not know his name, but we can still ask the martyr to pray for us.