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The first time I was in the office, I was asked to speak about the Russian-Ukrainian relations. I was asked to speak about the Russian-Ukrainian relations. I was asked to speak about the Russian-Ukrainian relations. I was asked to speak about the Russian-Ukrainian relations.

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Every time, we and I hope our interlocutors, we were enriched by the fact that we recognized each other's positions, we found out each other's points of view, we broke all kinds of prejudices. We prayed together, we ate together,

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we did very interesting events to familiarize ourselves with the Church, the guests we were, or when we received these guests, they recognized the life of our Church well. Not to mention that we also recognized or got acquainted with the life of those peoples

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whom we represented, the guests we were. All this is a very valuable phenomenon in inter-church life. And those people who are malicious and say that they saw something bad in it, that it was a betrayal, that it was a betrayal of Orthodoxy,

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although it can be said that it was a betrayal of their literary faith, that they entered into the same dialogue with us, it can also be said that it was a betrayal of Orthodoxy, I don't even want to answer this nonsense,

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because its inconsistency is clear to everyone who knows the Gospel, who knows that Christ came to save all people and came to know the truth. These are the words of the Apostle Paul in 1-2 Timothy.

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Vadyka, I wanted to ask, I'm sorry, I've never been interested in the details of your biography, I wanted to ask, are you from a family of a priest? No, I'm from a family of an official.

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My father was an accountant, he was an official before the Revolution, and after the Revolution he was an accountant, he worked in various Soviet institutions, including the so-called Helping the Starving,

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which was in 1922-1923, there was such an organization. It was transformed into the Committee on the Fight against the Consequences of Hunger, and there and there my father worked as an accountant. Then he worked as an accountant in the House of the Peasants.

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All these three organizations were located not somewhere, but in Smolny. And so, as a child, I had the opportunity to visit my father in this very prestigious house, in this very prestigious building. But apart from the fact that I worked in this building and my visit,

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we had nothing to do with what was happening in this building. Why didn't we? Well, because my father was not a member of the party. Therefore, of course, he was not supposed to go beyond his accounting activities. I see. Vladik, tell me, how did it happen that you,

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at the age you are, come to the church for the most recent years of persecution? How did it happen that you came from a family of a servant? Well, I was just at the church since childhood. I have been serving and reading since I was 9.

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There was a church, Nikolaevich-Unatvortsev, at the corner of 2 Sovetskaya and Bydnitskaya streets. The Bakunin Avenue and Poltava Street immediately joined. All these streets form a kind of a node in this place.

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There was a church there. Unfortunately, it is no longer there. The church was wonderful, ancient. It was built in the old-fashioned way. In fact, it was not at all ancient,

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because the year of its construction was, I think, 1912. It was not long before the revolution. Later, when my mother suspected that the clergy of this church was inclined to the church-life, to the modernism,

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we moved to the Athos Courtyard. It is the courtyard of St. Andrew's Mosque. This courtyard was located, and it is now located, at the corner of Degtyary Street and 5 Sovetskaya.

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I was brought there until the age of 13. Only at the age of 13 I entered the school. Before that, I studied at home. I took the school program, but I took the exams at home every year.

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At the age of 13, when I started going to school, I had the opportunity to visit the church every day, to serve there and to read. I could do it only on holidays.

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I continued to do it for a very long time. So, I had all the necessary conditions, both externally and in terms of the fact that I had the opportunity to visit the church, so that I would grow up as a believer,

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an Orthodox believer. At the same time, I read literature, literature of the Holy Father, and, of course, reading the Holy Scriptures. My grandmother, who raised me more than my parents,

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always considered it to be the most important thing for me. Thanks to her, I was able to eat the Holy Scriptures since childhood. Thank God for that. Did you go to the seminary or the academy yourself?

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No, I didn't go to any spiritual institution after that. I studied at school, then at the Institute of Foreign Languages, and at the same time I worked in the chemical laboratory. After that, I graduated from the Institute of Metals,

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a post-graduate institute, and at the same time I worked in the design bureau. I had to go to the Urals for a while, and there were difficulties with obtaining a passport there.

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This was somewhat connected with my church activities. After that, when I was a teacher in the Urals, I returned to Leningrad, and then I went on the line of finishing the technical school,

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and worked as an engineer, and then as a candidate for the technical sciences. It was only in 1956 that I took advantage of the opportunity to take the spiritual class,

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which was my dream since childhood. You said that the Urals were connected with your church activities. I told you that I took part in church activities, and I visited churches, and mostly church activities.

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I tried to teach people the Word of God, but it was a crime, a criminal offense. Article 122 of the Criminal Code prohibited the teaching of minors in educational institutions.

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There were no educational institutions, but I taught minors, so I had to be held accountable for that. Only after that I began to face some difficulties,

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particularly with the exile. When was that? I was in prison in 1930. So you created a group of catechists?

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One group studied the history of the church, and the other group studied the Word of God. Did you take the spiritual class in 1956? No, I didn't take the spiritual class.

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I just passed the exam for the course of the seminary in the Volgogod and Cherepovetsky schools. I passed the exam, and I was accepted into the church.

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I was a priest, and I served in the Volgog diocese. I was subjected to some problems by the authorities, and the local archbishop,

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Vladislav Gavrila, accused me of being too active. It was very undesirable. I was removed from the Volgog diocese,

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and I was simply fired. I studied in the academic school, and I finished it successfully. I was left to teach the church

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as a teacher of Latin and Western religions. That's how I started working in the academic school. It led to some very big and unexpected results. In 1966, I was appointed a metropolitan,

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and George Durn was appointed a patriarch. I was appointed a rector of the academy and seminary. Soon after that, my wife died in 1963.

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I was 66 years old. Three years before that, I became a monk and a bishop, and later a vicar of the late Metropolitan Nicodemus,

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Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod. I served as an archbishop in 1968. I was an archbishop in Astrakhan in 1977. I was an archbishop in Volgog and Velikoustyusha

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since 1980. I've been like that ever since. I'm not a layman, but I work as a professor of the Academy.

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I'm not a layman, but I work as a professor of the Academy. I'm finishing. As far as I know,

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despite the fact that Metropolitan Nicodemus was a liberal person... A broad-minded person. You're a free person.

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But your relationship with Metropolitan Nicodemus wasn't easy. I'm grateful to him for leading my work.

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But I was surprised that he agreed to my transfer to Astrakhan. It was a promotion, because I became the Archbishop of Vicaria. I left my home town, Leningrad.

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It was a natural step in my development. Vladyka Kirill was the rector of the Leningrad seminary and was transferred to the Smolensk Diocese. He wasn't happy about it.

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Even if it was a promotion, it was still a matter of emotional shock. Vladyka, how did your ex-wife, who was a lutheran,

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become Orthodox when she married you? No, I was Orthodox. But I was married a bit late compared to when she was engaged.

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Secondly, her transfer was because she was very ill. She had been ill for a few years. She was very ill and she had to confess and be baptized.

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There were no priests in the Lutheran Church at that time. Neither in Leningrad, nor in the surrounding areas. So I had the opportunity to confess and be baptized at the Orthodox church.

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I had a wonderful priest, Father Alexei Verzin, who the Leningrad elders remember well. I went to him, at his request, and asked him if he had forgotten to take the Holy Mir.

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I told him that my wife was a lutheran, and that in order to confess and be baptized, she had to take the Holy Mir. Father Alexei smiled and said,

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I am a very experienced priest, and I will be baptized. He confessed to my wife and baptized her. It was a wonderful moment,

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and I am very happy that I can tell people about it. This priest knelt down, and she was very ill. She had a pialate and a cholestate.

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Despite the fact that she was sentenced to death, he knelt down, and we all knelt down, my wife and my daughter. He prayed for her healing.

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I was struck by his great faith, because it is not easy to pray for a person sentenced to death. He prayed for a miracle. He baptized her,

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and she did not eat for many days. She ate something, and we got the medicine, streptomycin.

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She began to recover intensively. I see it as a miracle of God, as His mercy, and it is through the prayer of Father Alexei,

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through his great faith in the Almighty God. After that she became Orthodox, right? Yes, she became Orthodox. She was a very active believer.

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She and her sister, my relative, also became Orthodox. They became very religious people. Vadyka, I would like to ask you one last question.

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At one of the recent conferences, Father Vitaly Borovoy was accused of talking to one of the women Protestants, who did a lot, she is a Lutheran,

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who did a lot to revive the Russian Orthodox Church, who herself loves the Russian Orthodox Church and often comes here to visit. I think I know who it is.

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Yes, at the same time, she is a seriously ill person, and Father Vitaly did not advise her to convert to Orthodoxy before her death. There was a situation

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where she asked him if she needed to do it or not. She said she loved Orthodoxy, but she was a Lutheran herself.

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He said, I think you should stay in the faith in which you were born. Now, on the basis of this statement, you are accusing her of betraying the Russian Orthodox Church.

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Since there is an idea that a person can only be saved by Orthodoxy. This is a false idea. How do you feel about this?

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Elisaveta Friedberg. She is dying. She is dying of cancer. Father Vitaly told her not to do it.

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This is a matter of the clergyman. Every clergyman is a pastor. He has his own point of view. It is his business.

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It is not right to judge him and make it a subject of public discussion. We should wait for his opinion. As for salvation, it is possible in any Christian church.

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People receive the Holy Baptism. Our church recognizes the Christian's baptism if it is performed correctly. It is performed by a Christian priest

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or even by a mirenim, a baptized person. If the baptism is performed in a Lutheran church and the person is converted to Orthodoxy, he is not baptized.

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Our church recognizes the baptism as a real, effective and salvative one, as well as many other Christian churches. Even more, if a person is converted from a Catholic church

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to an Orthodox one, he is not baptized. Why? Because all the baptisms of the Roman Catholic Church are recognized as real and salvative.

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Therefore, the baptism in a Catholic church is as good as the one in our church. Therefore, the baptism is not performed in a second-rate church.

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It is performed in the true sense, in the sense of the Catholic church. In the case of Lutheranism, the baptism is performed in the true sense.

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But the baptism is one. We believe in the one baptism of the rest of the sinners. It is one for all the Christians who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Holy Trinity,

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in the Catholic Church, in the Lutheran Church, in the Anglican Church. All these churches are blessed in the sense

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that they are all salvative. I would like to ask you, have you remembered anything special in the last year? I would like to ask you,

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