The secret of the charm of the great commander
Our Suvorov is a great Russian hero, unique in everything, invariably and deeply popular; his name is the unquestioned name; His glory is an incontestable glory, and his moral image seems surprisingly clear and complete. With honor and pride, every son of our great Motherland can point at him. And, looking at him with a sense of national pride, we can and should say to ourselves and others: “Take care of his spiritual heritage!” He was a warrior, but in him the merits were combined, which are needed not only for one warrior, but for every servant of the Motherland. He is a folk hero in the full sense of the word. Everyone knows how he loved his people - he loved the Russian apt word, Russian songs and proverbs, Russian customs, even food, but this is more of an external one. The main thing in him is that he was kind of drunk by our national spirit in his inner world. And above all, our hero is the son and pet of the popular religious faith. He studied in her home from early childhood; he studied her and then, living in close and direct contact with the soldiers in their barracks and performing with them, in the first years of his service, the duties of a lower military rank. His simple, calm, deep and solid religiosity seemed to spill over into him from the depths of the spirit of our God-loving people. It is always the same in it and unchanged: on the battlefield, in the ecstasy of glory, and in home life, and on the choir or on the bell tower of the village church, in which he sang and read, served the censer and reigned as the sexton. . He does not theologize, does not philosophize in the cause of faith, does not seek to “correct” the Church anyway: he loves her with simple, heartfelt love, humbly, childishly, and without art, like a good, pious Christian in her, he sees the support and guidance of life.
“The soldier is a Christian, not a robber,” - this is his view of the warrior. “Do not run into houses, do not kill unarmed, do not fight women, ask for mercy, don’t touch minors,” is the conclusion from his religious outlook. “Die for the Church and for the King; if you remain - honor and glory, if you die - the Church of God prays, ”- this is the true popular teaching of its soldiers. He himself built, first of all, a church in New Ladoga, when he commanded the troops there, a feature once again purely popular; here he set up a school in which he himself taught the soldiers' children the Law of God, and in general the soldiers followed religious development with great attention. And his piety was purely folk. In the morning every day, wearing one of his orders, he prayed with singing; entering the room, was baptized in the image; always prayed before dinner; even yawning, was baptized; I did not pass by the church without praying; during the Divine service he himself sang in the choir, read the Apostle and knew our church life very well.
One should not forget that Suvorov retained such a deep and simple religiosity in the age of the flood of unbelief and craze for the frivolous and free-thinking philosophy of the encyclopaedists; faith with him, like all great people, lived with a great mind, with a high and solid for that time education, on which he worked his whole life. And this religiosity was not done, not artificial: in order to be convinced of this, it was enough to know his childhood years, in which he showed special piety, erudition in the Holy Scripture and love for Divine service; it is enough to know his mature years of activity, in which religion everywhere served him as a support and guide and determined his outlook; it is enough to know about his dying minutes, which he spent as a pious Christian, after partaking of the Mysteries of Christ and touchingly saying goodbye to everyone around him. On the other hand, never-done religiousness would not attract the hearts of the soldiers to him, who felt in him a close, dear person, understood him from half a word. Undoubtedly, the great commander spoke with our people the language of his faith, not rented, but from the heart and soul. Here is the secret of his influence, the secret of his All-Russian glory, of his nationality. Even in the famous jokes and strangeness of it, something resembling the old Russian holy fools, these hitherto unmasked and ridiculed teachers and educators of our national spirit, have an effect.
But when it was necessary, Suvorov was able to show that religion in him is not one ceremony, but the deepest and basic foundation of his life. Then he rose to inspirational eloquence and to an understanding of the most subtle manifestations of the moral ideal, the most subtle shades of moral feeling. “The hero,” he says, “dared without passion, quick without haste, active without rashness, subordinate without flexibility, a boss without arrogance, a winner without vanity, noble without pride, accessible without guile, modest without pretense, pleasant without levity, obligatory without self-interest, insightful without perfidy, sincere without oversight and sharpness, supportive without curls, helpful without self-interest; the enemy of envy, hatred and vengeance, he puts down his rivals with kindness, rules his friends with loyalty. He is the ruler of modesty and temperance. Morality is his religion; he is full of frankness and despises lies; right in character, he rejects deceit; in his affairs he weighs things, equalizes measures, and surrenders to Divine Providence. ”
Such an idea of a morally balanced person was created by Suvorov himself at a time when, under the influence of the corrupting, fashionable, sensual philosophy of his century, there was a reign of licentiousness and moral indifference; he was able to carry out such an idea in the most difficult time of the reign of intrigues, sudden rises and falls. In an environment often infused with lies and false relations, sometimes in the conditions of subjection to some envious and capricious temporary worker, especially in the early stages of his activity, Suvorov always kept his integrity, veracity and devotion to duty, and story knows that he has not tainted himself with anything dishonest. In such devotion to duty, official and moral, the secret and his posthumous charm. This consciousness of duty was surprisingly deep in him. It is known that even in his early youth, when he was a simple soldier, he astonished the Empress with the execution of the law, when, standing on his watch, refused to accept her gift.
Consciousness of duty then passes by the most wonderful feature through his whole life: in war, in peaceful civilian activities, in command and submission, in glory and in difficult circumstances, disgraces and persecutions, in a noisy capital among the courtiers and in the solitude of the village, where he was sharpened by the envy of enemies and where he lived without complaint, without complaint and complaint, obedient to authority and duty of obedience in all circumstances of life. “Learn to obey before, you will command others; be a good soldier, if you want to be a good field marshal "- these are the words of Suvorov himself. But duty and obedience to him - this is not a simple serviceability, not the usual accuracy: these properties will be found in the bona fide mercenary. Debt and obedience cease to be an unresolved mystery and grow into immense moral force when imbued with love and comprehended by religion.
Such devotees of conscientious and beloved duty, like Patriarch Yermogen and Abraham Palitsyn, like Minin or Dolgoruky, like Suvorov or Nakhimov - such people will not be given simple accuracy and good condition, will not give the most conscientious mercenary, such people neither hire nor buy impossible! For this we need a love for the Motherland brought up on the soil of the people, sanctified by religion - that true and noble patriotism, which, without turning into narrow and intolerant zoological nationalism and selfish, fervent self-interest, loves the Homeland with selfless love, simplicity, clarity and hotness of soul, as simple, clear and hot as a child loves its mother, just as freely and naturally as an even, calm and abundant river of our North flows, as the sun naturally shines and warms, as naturally our breasts breathe air ... And Suvorov breathed with such love for the Motherland and comprehended his duty and inspired him with it. Is it necessary to add that with such people exactly every public organization is alive and strong and everlasting? “To begin any business with the blessing of God, to be breathless to be faithful to the Sovereign and Fatherland,” these are his words, which can be called a testament to future generations. No matter how majestic the monument is erected to him now from granite or metal, the eternal memory of him in grateful hearts and following his covenants will be the best and most reliable monument to him.
Remembering him now - on the day of prayers for our King and Fatherland, we wish with all our hearts and before the King of Kings we will prayerfully ask our dear Motherland not to become depleted by such carriers of spirit that the image of Suvorov - this great warrior and worthy citizen - be with us not only a glorious historical memory, but also repeated, and carried out, and thus continued life in the living reality surrounding us. Amen.
Martyr
John VOSTORGOV
Speech on the centenary day
since the death of the great Russian
commander A.V. Suvorov.
Said in Tiflis
Alexander Nevskomonny Cathedral 6 May 1900 of the year
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