The Church of All Saints in Arkhangelsk is one of the oldest Orthodox churches in the city, located in the Vologda (Kuznechevskoye) Cemetery at 37 Suvorov Street. The church belongs to the Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and is a significant spiritual and historical monument of the region. Its history is closely connected with the development of Arkhangelsk, reflecting both religious and tragic events in the city. Below is a detailed description of the church, its history, architecture, interior decoration and significance.
Foundation and construction
The exact date of the church's
foundation is controversial among historians, as different sources
indicate different years. According to some sources, the church was
built in 1809, according to others - in 1864, as claimed by the
former churchwarden Kriskentia Antonovna Averkieva. However, the
most confirmed information indicates that construction began in 1839
with funds from the merchant Andrei Fedorovich Dolgoshein, who had
already died by that time. According to his will, the inheritance
passed to Alexandra Kochurova, and her brother, the merchant Alexei
Ivanovich Tsyvarev, fulfilled the will of the deceased and financed
the construction of a stone church in honor of Andrew of Crete and
All Saints.
In 1840, a place was allocated in the Vologda
cemetery, and on October 17, Bishop Georgy (Yashchurzhinsky) of
Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory laid the foundation of the church. The
construction was completed in 1843, and on October 17 of the same
year, Bishop Georgy consecrated the church. Among the donors to the
construction is also mentioned the merchant Pavla Mikhailovna
Shingareva (née Plotnikova), who in 1889 made a significant donation
for the eternal remembrance of her relatives.
The church was
erected in the Vologda Cemetery, which since 1723 became the main
burial site in Arkhangelsk after the decree prohibiting burials
inside the city. Two more churches previously existed in this
cemetery - in honor of the Beheading of John the Baptist (1778) and
Simeon the God-Receiver (1786), but they did not survive. Thus, the
Church of All Saints remained the only one to survive in this
cemetery.
The period of persecution
Like many churches in
Russia, the Church of All Saints survived hard times during the
Soviet period. In 1927, it was closed by the authorities, looted,
and its building was converted into a warehouse. The dome and bell
tower were demolished, the windows were walled up, the paintings
were plastered over, and the floors and stoves were dismantled. In
the 1930s, the church served as an NKVD GULAG transit point.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described a tragic incident related to this
place in his work "The Gulag Archipelago": eight-story bunks in the
transit point collapsed under the weight of prisoners, which led to
the death of many people, who were then hastily buried in the
Vologda Cemetery.
During the Great Patriotic War, the church
was used as a burial vault and fell into complete disrepair.
However, in 1946, after a petition from parishioners and with the
blessing of Bishop Leonty of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory, the church
was returned to the diocese. On November 1, 1946, Bishop Leonty,
together with the clergy, consecrated the restored church. The
venerated icons from the St. Elias Cathedral were transferred to the
church: the Mother of God of Tikhvin, the Joy of All Who Sorrow, and
the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which are in the church
to this day.
Restoration and modern times
After the return
of the diocese, the church was gradually restored. In the first
years, the iconostasis consisted of small icons donated by believers
in Arkhangelsk, which are still preserved in the church. In
subsequent years, improvement work was carried out, and modern
extensions were erected in the 21st century with the assistance of
the church rectors.
In 2001, the church celebrated the 55th
anniversary of its restoration. Today, the church has a Sunday
school for children of parishioners, services are held, and the
rector of the church is Metropolitan Daniil of Arkhangelsk and
Kholmogory. The church's patronal feast day, the Cathedral of All
Saints, is celebrated on the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday.
The Church of All Saints was built in the style of late classicism,
typical of many churches of the first half of the 19th century. It is a
one-story stone building with a dome, cruciform in plan, with a bell
tower above the porch. The bell tower, crowned with a spire with a large
lantern at the base, was designed based on the architecture of the
Solovetsky Monastery.
The temple is distinguished by its strict
and laconic architecture, typical of cemetery churches of that time. Its
appearance retains the features of classicism: symmetry, restrained
decor, proportional forms. Despite the destruction of the 20th century,
restoration work allowed the building to return to its historical
appearance, although some elements, such as the original bell tower,
were lost.
The interior decoration of the temple is modest, but imbued with
spiritual significance. The church's iconostasis was created according
to the design of priest Vladimir Zhokhov, and the icons for it were
painted by masters of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius in Moscow. Among
the most revered relics of the church:
The Icon of the Mother of
God "Tikhvin";