Verkhneye Myachkovo is a village in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region, part of the Ostrovets rural settlement, located at the confluence of the Pakhra River with the Moscow River, at a distance of 16 km from the Moscow Ring Road. Here is the White Stone Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a refectory and a bell tower. Built in the spirit of Moscow architecture of the late 17th century.

In the second half of the 14th century, a relative of the Tevriz king Olbug (the south of the Golden Horde was called the Tevriz kingdom in Rus') came to Grand Duke Dmitry Ioannovich Donskoy in Moscow. He remained to live in Muscovy and at baptism received the name Eremiy. His grandson Ivan Yakovlevich, who lived approximately in the second half of the 14th century, received the nickname Myachka (from the word “ball” - mumble, speak drawn-out and unclear). He became the founder of the Myachkov family. Not far from the confluence of the Pakhra River with the Moscow River, Ivan Yakovlevich Myachka founded the village of Myachkovo. This place was famous for its deposits of white stone (limestone).

Subsequently, the white stone, which became famous, which was mined in large quantities at the quarries at the mouth of the Pakhra River near the village of Myachkovo, began to be called “Myachkovo marble.” Later, Ivan Yakovlevich sold the village of Myachkovo, Ostrovets camp, to Grand Duchess Sofya Vitovtovna; in 1453, the princess mentioned the village as a purchase in her will. The new owner was Yuri Vasilyevich, grandson of the Grand Duchess. The development of white stone in quarries brought good income, thanks to which the village of Myachkovo grew rapidly. Residential buildings appeared on the other side of the river, forming a new settlement. This is how Nizhneye Myachkovo arose; it was first mentioned in documents in 1472 as “another Myachkovo, which is across the river,” and the name Verkhnee Myachkovo was assigned to the old settlement. It is known that the New Jerusalem Temple (city of Istra) was built from the “Myachkovo stone”, which, according to Patriarch Nikon’s plan, was supposed to surpass the original. A description of the village has been preserved, set out in “Cosmography”, a Russian geographical publication of the 17th century, which says: “Near the reigning city of Moscow, in the village called Myachkovo, there is a great mountain, all white stone, great abundance... both for all kinds of house buildings and for chambers and for all kinds of stone work, that stone and for lime are needed. Near the pier they break down and transport countless quantities to other surrounding towns.”

According to information preserved in the salary books of the Patriarchal State Order, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was made of stone already in 1680. Until the end of the 19th century. In the church cemetery there was a chapel made of white stone with the inscription on the wall “built in 1624”. In 1731, a decree was issued to repair the dilapidated stone church and add a stone chapel to it in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Construction work was carried out from 1767 to 1772. Later a bell tower was built. In the chapel of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary there was a five-tiered pine iconostasis, gilded, with columns and carvings. The royal doors are carved in the shape of a grapevine. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the French occupied Myachkovo for several days. The church was plundered and desecrated: the thrones were moved from their places, the antimensions were stolen, precious vestments were removed from the icons, the mica covering the royal doors was broken. In 1840, the clergy and parishioners petitioned to add a chapel to the prophet Elijah to the temple. Construction was completed in 1847, and the temple was consecrated. At the same time, side-side iconostases were installed. The refectory with the Nikolsky and Ilyinsky chapels and the tented bell tower were built again in 1840-1847. By 1858, the walls and ceilings in the attached chapels of St. Nicholas and the Prophet Elijah were painted.

In Soviet times, the temple was not closed. In the Ilyinsky chapel there is one of the main shrines of the temple - the “Passionate” Icon of the Mother of God. At the beginning of the 19th century. it was moved here from the Strastnoy Monastery due to the pestilence that hit the surrounding villages. Processions of the cross were held around the villages with the icon, prayers were served in front of it, and through the intercession of the Most Pure One, people were delivered from trouble. Since the 18th century revered as the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "Three-Handed". The holy spring in honor of the “Passionate” Icon of the Mother of God was cleared and restored. Consecrated in 2000 by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Kolomna and Krutitsky. The spring complex includes: a decorative ball made of artificial and natural stone, inside which ferruginous water flows through a wooden tray, a bathhouse, a pool, a stele with the crucifixion of Christ, two wells with domes covered with wooden “scales”.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the village of Verkhne-Myachkovo has been built in stone since 1680, and was completely rebuilt in 1764-72. at the expense of parishioners and the clergy. The refectory with the chapels of Elijah the Prophet and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with a hipped bell tower was reconstructed V brick in 1840-1858 according to the project of the architect. I.P. Lutokhina. It represents a number of churches in the “Myachkovo district”, with their architecture going back to the forms of Moscow townsman architecture of the 2nd half. XVII century (Kolychevo, Green Sloboda). The temple did not close. Shrines of the church: images of the Mother of God “Passionate” and “Three-Handed”, a reliquary with particles of the relics of saints of God.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the village of Verkhneye Myachkovo is an object of cultural heritage of regional significance (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR dated August 30, 1960 No. 1327, Appendix No. 2).

Sources: catalog "Architectural Monuments of the Moscow Region", vol. 2, M., 1975. Directory "Moscow Region Monasteries Temples Sources" M, UKINO "Spiritual Transfiguration", 2008.

According to the salary books of the Patriarchal State Prikaz, the church in the beginning. XVII century was already stone. Until 1887, there was a small white stone chapel in the cemetery with the internal inscription "built 1624", indicating the early history of the temple. No written evidence has been preserved about the old stone church. It is possible that part of the building of that temple was used to build a new church, which has survived to this day.

In 1646, the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo belonged to the royal court of Alexei Mikhailovich: “a palace village, priest Ilya is near the church, and masons live in the village, they break the white sovereign stone and carry it to Moscow, they do not bear any taxes.” Throughout its history, the village of Myachkovo remained among the palace and then appanage estates and was the center of a special volost. In 1680, an entry was made in the salary books: “... July 25, Sovereign village Myachkovo, Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, priest Kirill Ivanov said: that church is stone, the sovereign’s building, old, Pekhryansk tithe of Ratuev’s camp.” In the beginning. XVIII century the village of Verkhneye Myachkovo passed from the palace department into the personal possession of A.D. Menshikov. After the death of Peter I, in 1728, the village returned to the treasury. In the notebook of the outgoing papers of the synodal treasury order for 1731 it appears: “... On September 22, the decree on the construction of the church was sealed, according to the petition of the Moscow District, the Pekhryansk tithe, the palace village of Myachkovo, the elders and peasants..., a stone church was ordered in the palace village of Myachkovo repair the dilapidated one in the name of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and build a stone chapel for the real church again in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker...". By decree of 1731, the main volume of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary with the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was renovated. The clergy records of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the village of Myachkovo name the year of construction as 1767. During the restructuring, the main volume of the church and the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker remained unshakable. On the northern façade of the temple there is a plaque, the text of which says: “This Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in the village of Myachkovo on the 5th day of July 1772 under the priest Stefan Ivanov through the efforts of the church elder of the same village of Myachkovo, peasant Efim Kharitonyav.”

The inconsistency in the data on the construction of the church building is explained by the different interpretations of church metrics that recorded and described the condition of the temple in different years of the 19th century. On the northern façade of the church, on the foundation white stone board of the temple, the date 1772 is carved. The authenticity of this board is beyond doubt; the spelling of the inscription emphasizes the nationality of the temple builders. The construction of the temple was carried out under the priest Stepan Ivanov. In 1781, after the death of priest Stepan Ivanov, priest Prokopiy Nikiforov was appointed to the temple. According to the Moscow Spiritual Consistory in 1782 in the village of Myachkovo at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary there were: prescribed priest Prokopiy Nikiforov, 42 years old; Deacon Yakov Petrov, 29 years old; sexton Nikita Alekseev, 30 years old. At the end of the eighteenth century. the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo, part of the Myachkovo volost, belonged directly to the royal family and, since the time of Paul I, was governed by a specially created Specific Department. The clergy register of churches and parishes for 1785 says: “In the Nikitsky district of the Pekhryansk tithe, the village of Myachkovo, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a stone building with a side chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, in the solid. There are 116 courtyards in the village. This is a palace village.” In 1812, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin was looted and desecrated by French soldiers. The thrones were moved from their places, the antimensions were stolen, precious vestments were removed from the icons, the canopy erected over the Holy Throne was broken, the mica covering the royal doors was broken.

According to the metrics for 1827, external construction work was carried out in the temple by a local peasant artel. The clergy report about the church and the parish of the village of Myachkovo provides the following information: "... the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, built in 1767, with the diligence of the parishioners, the building is stone with such a bell tower. There are two altars in it: in the real cold one - the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, in the cold chapel - in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker." In the mid-19th century, priest Theodore Sakharov was appointed rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, who served in the temple for 42 years. It was he who initiated the reconstruction of the refectory, turning with parishioners in 1840 to the Moscow Spiritual Consistory with a request for the construction of a new refectory with chapels of Elijah the Prophet and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In June 1843, reconstruction of the refectory began according to the design of the architect I.P. Lutokhina. According to the registry for 1847, during the construction two large restyles with columns were built, domes were made over the side chapels, and an oven heating chamber was built under the refectory to heat the temple. Side iconostases were installed. When rebuilding the temple, the Myachkovsky parishioners themselves dictated to the architect I.P. Lutokhin strictly follow the “model and likeness” of the external decoration of the temple.

The architectural feature of the church was the combination of ancient Russian pre-Petrine traditions and the traditions of Catherine and Nicholas eras. A distinctive feature of the external decor of the temple were the kokoshniks that completed the facade on each side. Kokoshniks were placed three on each side; this architectural decorative element symbolized the sun's rays. The construction was carried out by a team of high-level craftsmen. They later built the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary in Green Sloboda and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Kolychevo.

Booklet: "Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Verkhniy Myachkovo. History and Modernity." 2012

Before the revolution, there was a holy spring next to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo. In Soviet times, the source was desecrated, littered with garbage, and a landfill was built on the site of the source. Since 1999, the parish began the first work to clear the source of debris. The spring was cleared and restored by parishioners. His Eminence, Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna, solemnly consecrated the holy spring on August 26, 2001, on the day of the celebration of the “Passionate” Icon of the Mother of God. The spring was consecrated in honor of the “Passionate” Icon of the Mother of God and the Holy Prophet Elijah.

Cases of healing at this holy spring continue to this day, as evidenced by parishioners and pilgrims. The area around the source is very picturesque: log buildings, a gazebo, a grotto neatly laid out from gray stones, trees, bushes and flowers, as if in a fairy tale. It has always been believed in Rus' that the source at the temple is the special grace and mercy of God and the Queen of Heaven.

The holy water to which people fall is as blessed as the Word of God. Every year, pilgrimage to the holy spring near the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo is steadily growing. Every year a religious procession is held at the holy spring on the day of the celebration of the holy prophet Elijah, on the feast of the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Passionate”, on the feast of the Epiphany.

According to numerous testimonies of believers, after washing in the spring bath, healings from various diseases occurred.

The spring complex includes: a decorative ball made of artificial and natural stone, inside which ferruginous water flows through a wooden tray, a chapel-bath with a font, a stele with the crucifixion of Christ, two wells with domes covered with wooden “scales,” and a gazebo. Wells accumulate water, which flows through pipes into the ball tray. From the concrete road, through a gate, steps lined with paving slabs lead down to the spring. at the first well there is a rest area with a bench. A path made of artificial tiles goes down to the spring and the bathhouse. The entrance to the territory is locked, the keys are in the temple. The territory is fenced and landscaped thanks to the efforts of Archpriest Alexander Sheredekin and parishioners of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The source is located to the right of the temple (you need to go 200 meters down the road). The keys to the source are in the mailbox in the gate (on the left side of the temple).

How to get there:

by public transport from Moscow from the Kuzminki metro station by buses No. 348, 348e to the Lytkarino bus station, then by bus No. 3 to the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo.

by personal transport From Moscow we leave along the Novoryazanskoe highway (M5), the distance from the Moscow Ring Road is 22 km. In the village of Ostrovtsy, turn right onto Lytkarino, at the Turaevskaya industrial zone, make a left turn along the road past Lytkarino. From the turn at the base, 2 km to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in front of which we turn right onto the road made of concrete slabs to the country houses. Follow it 150 m down to the landscaped area of ​​the holy spring.

Coordinates:

N55° 32"43.80"
E37° 58"56.59"

Photo: Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Verkhniy Myachkovo

The name of the village came from the nickname of the first owner, Ivan Yakovlevich Myachko (mid-15th century) - the grandson of Olbuga, a noble man who left the Tevrizh state (Armenia) to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. Ivan Yakovlevich sold the village to Princess Sofya Vitovtovna (it is mentioned in her will). Then it passed to her grandson Yuri Vasilyevich.

Since the 14th century white stone was mined here. The village was always located in the Palace Department, except for 1709-1728, when it belonged to D. Menshikov.

The church in 1680 was already made of stone.

In 1731, a decree was given to repair the dilapidated church and add an extension to St. Nicholas.

The temple was rebuilt in 1767. In 1847, the refectory (in which the thrones of St. Nicholas and the Prophet Elijah were consecrated) and the bell tower were rebuilt. Iconostasis - first quarter of the 19th century. Since ancient times, there has been a stone but dilapidated chapel attached to the church in the parish cemetery.

Church clergy have long been: priest, deacon, sexton, sexton. In the middle of the 19th century. The rector of the temple was the priest Feodor Klimentovich Sakharov (born 1800), the son of a sexton. After graduating from the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1824, with the title of student (i.e., he was one of the best students of his graduating class), he was appointed teacher of both classes at the Perervinsky Theological School. Upon his dismissal from the school service, he was ordained a priest in the church of the village. Verkhnee Myachkovo. Later he was appointed dean and awarded a legguard and a skufia. Determined, at the invitation of the appanage authorities, with the approval of the spiritual authorities, to teach initial instructions in the faith to village children at the Myachkovsky rural Appanage School. He received permission from the Archpastor to teach free of charge the children of parishioners in a home church school (closed in 1843). Since taking office, Fr. Feodor Sakharov added 34 schismatics to the Holy Church and baptized 2 Jews.

In 1885, 1889 and 1891, in the family of Nikolai Petrovich Minevrin, a priest of the village church. Myachkovo, sons Peter, Vasily and Sergei were born, who graduated from the Don School in 1898, 1904 and 1906, respectively, and from the Moscow Seminary in 1904, 1910 and 1913.

In 1892 and 1895, in the family of a deacon of the village church. Kamenoye-Myachkovo Mikhail Vasilyevich Lyubimov had sons Vasily and Nikolai, who graduated from the Perervinsky School (1909) and the Moscow Seminary (in 191 and 1917).

On the patronal feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, a fair was held near the church. In 1912, the village had a two-class school, a zemstvo women's school (1885), a parish almshouse, a hospital, 3 teahouses, 6 shops, and a bakery.

The almshouse at the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Myachkom, Bronnitsy district, was built at the expense of the deceased peasant from Nizhny Myachkovo Pavel Toropov, wooden, 12 by 14, covered with iron. Elderly women live there and are supported at their own expense and through generous donations from parishioners.

The rector is priest Nikolai Minervin.

In the family of the deacon of the church with. Myachkoy Vladimir Georgievich Rozanov in 1885 had a son, Pavel, who graduated from the Zaikonospasskoe Theological School in 1901, and the Moscow Seminary in 1907.

In the 1890s. priest of the church Nizhny Myachkovo was Vasily Ivanovich Smirnov. In 1890, his son Vasily was born; he graduated from the Don Theological School in 1904, and from the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1910. In the village In Nizhny Myachkovo, in 1904, local priest Vasily Ivanovich Smirnov opened a parochial school. Father Vasily was its manager. The reason for the opening of the school was the overcrowding of the Verkhne-Myachkovskaya school, as a result of which not all children from the village. Nizhniy-Myachkova could get there, and the inconvenience of communication with Verkhniy-Myachkovo, separated from Nizhniy-Myachkovo by the Moscow River, is why those who entered the said school could not regularly attend it. The school was located in its own, very spacious building, built with funds from the church, a trustee and donations from parishioners. There were about 100 students purely. The school is two-unit. The school's trustee was a local peasant, I. T. Penkin.

On November 29, 1918, the rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, Fr. Vasily Smirnov was arrested. U o. A brochure from the Council of United Parishes of Moscow was found at Vasily’s home, and this served as sufficient grounds for the Bronnitsky Cheka to arrest him. Father Vasily was one of the first victims of the decree on the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church. Investigator Baryshnikov, 4 and a half months after the arrest of Fr. Vasily demanded a tribunal trial for him: “April 15, 1919. The investigation of this case established that priest Smirnov tried, on the basis of religious views, to restore the darkest masses of peasants against Soviet power, which is supported by a number of evidence available in the case in the form of correspondence and appeals to believers , so that they defend the church from all attacks that are currently befalling it. Priest Smirnov, of course, had in mind the decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the separation of church and state and incorrectly interpreted its contents... I will upload: that priest Smirnov is guilty of incorrectly interpreting to the peasants the decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the separation of church from the sovereign in order to restore them against Soviet power, and therefore I propose to transfer the case of priest Smirnov to the Moscow Provincial Revolutionary Tribunal...”

Interrogated by the investigative commission on June 30, 1919, the priest of Smirna testified that the report was given to him by the dean priest Tuzov for information that he, Smirnov, did not distribute this report, did not say anything about this report in his sermons, and also did not touch upon the topic of separation churches from the state. He doesn’t know the author of Polozov’s report... The case is against priest V.I. Smirnov, for lack of proof of the crime, the investigation should be stopped.”

The priest's arrest prompted petitions from parishioners and relatives.

Petition from V.V. Smirnov to the investigative commission at the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal to expedite the consideration of the case of his father, priest V.I. Smirnova: “June 19, 1919. Currently, my father Vasily Ivanovich Smirnov is imprisoned in Butyrka prison. He was arrested on November 29, 1918 on the orders of the Bronnitsky district emergency commission and was kept in Bronnitsky prison until May 6 of this year, when he was transferred to Tagansk prison and from there on May 16 of this year. to Butyrskaya. During his entire long stay in the Bronnitsy prison, the prisoner was never summoned for questioning, while Gr. village of Titovaya Korolev, after a month from the date of arrest, was interrogated and released from prison.

With repeated inquiries from the Bronnitsy District Extraordinary Commission about the reasons for the arrest and detention in prison of V.I. Smirnov was given one answer that he was being held in prison because he was a counter-revolutionary; and the question - where are the grounds for such a statement - always remained unanswered. Past V.I. Smirnova does not at all indicate that he is counter-revolutionary. He did not take part in any monarchist organizations.

Trying to protect the interests of the population from the kulaks, he was a constant champion of cooperation. On his initiative and thanks to his work in 1909 in the village. A consumer shop has been opened in Myachkovo; He also took an active part in the organization in the village. Myachkova dairy artel and credit partnership.

Considering it an abnormal phenomenon in the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic to keep a person in prison for more than 6 months whose guilt has not been established, I ask that the case be sorted out as soon as possible. My desire for the matter to be completed as soon as possible is determined by the following circumstance. Besides me, the prisoner has only one son - Ivan Vasilyevich Smirnov, who was taken into military service in October 1918 and is now at the front, being a red officer in the 6th company of the 220th Ivanovo-Voznesensky Regiment; I, being a teacher at the Konstantinovsky Soviet school near Myachkovo, had the opportunity to look after the house and farm, but in the near future I, too, may be called up for military service as a private in the old army, returning from German captivity, and then the house and farm will remain in the care of an incapacitated woman 65-year-old aunt of my gr. K.V. Grigorieva, which, of course, cannot but worry me.

In view of all of the above, I once again ask you to speed up the investigation into V.I.’s case. Smirnova. Citizen s. Myachkova V. Smirnov.”

A story about people who, in the most difficult years for the country, retained the strength of spirit and faith in God’s Providence

71 years ago the Great Patriotic War ended. Many did not return from the front. Those who returned from the war kept the memory of military events all their lives, passing on these precious memories to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Verkhneye Myachkovo is a beloved and dear village for many in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region. This ancient village has always been at the center of important historical events. In the 14th century, the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy began the construction of the white stone Moscow Kremlin using Myachkovo stone - white limestone. The events of the Patriotic War of 1812 are also associated with the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo. In the fall of 1812, the Russian army carried out the Tarutino maneuver, and the pursuing French army broke into the village of Verkhneye Myachkovo, devastated houses, plundered and robbed the church.
The first years of Soviet power were difficult for the village and for the church. But parishioners and villagers defended it, not allowing their beloved temple to be closed and desecrated.
During the Great Patriotic War, residents of the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo stood up to defend their Motherland from the enemy. All neighboring villages and hamlets united around Verkhniy Myachkovo, in which the only functioning Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained in the entire immediate area. It was a spiritual beacon that illuminated and guided the life paths of the villagers of Upper Myachkovo and neighboring villages: Nizhny Myachkovo, Shchegolevo, Orlovo, Yamchinikha, Kupriyanikha, Lukino, Zelenaya Sloboda, Eganovo. Believers flocked to the church for spiritual help, advice and support; here a conciliar prayer was offered for the faith, the Fatherland and the people.
The village of Verkhnee Myachkovo has always been famous for its hardworking, caring, persistent and loyal people. Matching men - workers and warriors - were women who were able to bear all the hardships of revolutionary and wartime on their shoulders. There are many famous families in the village - Pantyushins, Zimenkovs, Postnovs, Solenovs, Puzanovs, Smirnovs, Chechulins, Chugorins, Stulovs and others. All these families directly connected their lives with the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Chugorins

Claudia Vasilievna Chugorina with children, 1943

The large and friendly Chugorin family has long lived in Verkhny Myachkovo. One of its representatives, Alexey Ivanovich Chugorin, was born and raised in Verkhniy Myachkovo, baptized and married in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. His chosen one and faithful wife was Anna Petrovna Lyapunova, a native of the village of Zelenaya Sloboda, who was also born and raised in a believing family.

Alexey Ivanovich was a participant in the First World War, was wounded during the war and was discharged. After the revolution, Alexey Ivanovich was a tailor and lived for some time with his family in Moscow, in Sokolniki, there, on Korolenko Street, in 1910 his son Vladimir was born.
In 1925, the family moved from Moscow to Verkhnee Myachkovo. Alexey Ivanovich began to build a house in which he lived until his death.
Even before the war, his wife Anna Petrovna was elected chairman of the audit commission in the temple. A relative of Anna Petrovna, who had a camera, was able to film a historical moment in the fate of the temple and the village, when in 1936 the largest bell, which for a hundred years had been calling for services in the temple and village gatherings, notifying residents of fires, was barbarically thrown down from the church bell tower .

Vladimir Alekseevich Chugorin, 1942

Son Vladimir grew up as a believer, modest and smart boy. Immediately after graduating from school, I went to work in the quarries that had been open in Verkhny Myachkovo for a long time. In 1930, at the age of twenty, Vladimir joined the army and served as a sailor in the navy in Sevastopol. In 1935, he was demobilized and in the same year he met his future wife, Claudia Vasilievna Markacheva. The young people first saw each other in church at the wedding of their friends. In those years, it was completely unsafe not only to get married and be baptized, but even to attend services in the church, so Vladimir Alekseevich and Klavdiya Vasilievna always said that by the Providence of God they met each other.
Claudia Vasilievna Chugorina, nee Markacheva, was born in 1912 in the village of Shchegolevo, on the other bank of the Moscow River, beyond Nizhny Myachkovo. The family had 14 children, but only three girls survived; Claudia was the eldest. Mother Daria Dmitrievna was a believer, a woman of strict morals, and raised her daughters in faith and piety. Before her marriage, Klavdia Vasilievna worked in Meshcherino as a dairy foreman at M.I.’s dacha. Kalinina.
On January 19, 1936, on the feast of Epiphany, Klavdia Vasilievna and Vladimir Alekseevich got married, and in the same year their son Nikolai was born. Vladimir Alekseevich worked as a driver in the ZIL Children's Town. He was a caring and attentive father. In 1939, a daughter, Olga, was born into the family.
On June 22, 1940, exactly one year before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Vladimir Alekseevich’s mother Anna Petrovna, who connected her entire life in Myachkovo with serving in the church, died. She was buried in this church, and she was buried in the cemetery in Myachkovo.
In those years, Father Kalinnik was the priest. Under him, icons and utensils were brought to the church from all over the area. Father carefully accepted and kept all this.
On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. Vladimir Alekseevich was called to the front. In 1941, he went to serve in the Northern Fleet, in Murmansk. In 1945, he continued his combat path in the Far East in the war with fascist Japan.
At home in Verkhny Myachkovo, his wife Klavdiya Vasilievna and two children were waiting for him. During the war they lived on cards that were given to her at ZIL as the wife of a serviceman.

Their daughter Olga Vladimirovna Chugorina (Gostevskaya) recalls:
“In our house there were always icons and a lamp burning. Mom prayed to God every day for her husband, and always told us, the children, to also pray and ask the Lord to save their dad. We always repeated our prayers after her, and we survived the entire war. My father constantly wrote letters from the front and sent photographs, and my mother wrote letters to the front in response and sent photographs with the children.”

During the war, the village had its own photographer named Rozhkov, who took excellent photographs. They are still kept in family albums.

Rescue icons

Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God in the Holy Cross Jerusalem Convent

Another important event in the life of the temple is associated with Claudia Vasilievna Chugorina. On the eve of the war, her sister Lydia got married in the village of Lukino, next to which the Holy Cross Jerusalem Convent was located.
The fate of the monastery after the revolution is another tragic page in our history.
Monastic life continued in solitude, prayer and work until October 1917. After the revolution, the well-developed and organized economy of the monastery was nationalized, valuable utensils were confiscated, and the library was burned. Street children were placed within the walls of the monastery. The nuns themselves were identified as workers first in the agricultural commune, and then at the Lukino state farm. After some time, the state farm’s lands were transferred to the Ferein pharmaceutical plant. The exemplary monastery economy gradually fell into decay. In the early 20s, Rest House No. 10 of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions was organized in the monastery. At that time the orchard, maple park and apiary were still preserved. But the domes and crosses of the Ascension Cathedral, which were so disturbing to the new owners, had already been removed. On April 27, 1924 at 10 pm a meeting was held at which it was decided to close the temple. Inside they made ceilings for the second floor and opened a club.
The only consolation of believers in those years was the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, where the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God was transferred. Liturgical life still continued there.
In 1937, the priest of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Kozma Korotkikh, was shot at the Butovo training ground. The last candle of the monastery prayer went out. A warehouse for storing coal and peat was built in the church, and
The Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God was placed on the floor as a flooring.
From the memoirs of Zinaida Ilyinichna, a resident of the village of Lukino:
“The locally revered icon of the Mother of God of Jerusalem was in the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, which was turned into a warehouse where supplies of firewood, coal, and peat were stored.
And the icon, large in size, written on a cypress board, served as a pallet for storing firewood, coal and peat. They laid it face down, and placed material for the firebox on the back side.
In my youth, I worked as a stoker in the sanatorium of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, into which the monastery was converted. The senior stoker at that time was Baba Nastya - everyone called her that. One day she told me:
- Zinka, look at the board you’re walking on!
And I answered lightheartedly:
- Board and board. What's so special about it?
“This is not a board,” Baba Nastya said sternly. – This is an icon of the Mother of God.
When, during the clearing of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God was lifted from the floor and, on the orders of the commissar, carried into the fire, the senior stoker, Baba Nastya, stood in the way of the military with outstretched arms:
- And throw me there with her!
According to the laws of war, she could have been shot on the spot without trial, but she was not afraid to defend the shrine. And the courage of one woman, perhaps uneducated, perhaps not so physically strong, helped save the shrine.
The Commissioner said:
– Do what you want, but don’t let me see the icon again.
Baba Nastya immediately called her daughter-in-law and granddaughter. The three of them dragged the icon to the village of Lukino and hid it in a haystack, and at night they began to wash off the dirt from it, bringing water in buckets from the village well. At the same time, the boy was strictly forbidden to tell any of his comrades or adult fellow villagers about the location of the icon. They could not immediately find a priest who was ready to accept the shrine into his church, but then they found it, about fifty kilometers from the village of Lukino, across the Moscow River. Secretly at night they took the icon on a cart to Verkhneye Myachkovo. And she stayed there for fifty years.”

Here the monastic story about the further fate of the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God is interrupted and the story begins related to the transportation of the holy image to Verkhnee Myachkovo.
From the memoirs of Olga Gostevskaya, daughter of Klavdia Vasilievna Chugorina, chairman of the audit commission:
“At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the monastery in Lukino, Leninsky district, Moscow region, was closed and converted into a military hospital. Believers from Lukino began to come to our Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, since all the churches nearby were closed. Nun of the Holy Cross Monastery Anastasia and resident of Lukino Anastasia Mikhailovna Zakharova (mother-in-law of sister Klavdia Vasilievna Chugorina) came to services at the church in the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo, and after the service they went to Chugorina for tea and relaxation. One day they asked: “Is it possible to transfer the icon of the Jerusalem Mother of God to your church, since it was taken out of the monastery and is in a barn, where it is damp, dirty and cold.” Chugorina immediately, without hesitation, replied that they would take her.
A few days later, the head of the church, Maria Petrovna Puzanova, sexton Ivan Vasilyevich Smirnov and the chairman of the audit commission, Klavdiya Vasilievna Chugorina, took a two-wheeled cart, crossed the Moscow River in a boat and walked on foot to Lukino, where people were already waiting for them to hand over the icon. The icon was carefully placed on the cart, having previously been wrapped in a sheet and blanket. Residents of the village of Lukino escorted the icon, and residents of the village of Kuprianikha met it, escorting it outside the village. Then the residents of the village of Yamchinikha (now Grigorchikovo) met the icon and escorted it out of the village. Residents of the villages of Shchegolevo and Nizhnee Myachkovo did the same, and the believers of the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo and the parishioners of our church met the icon of the Mother of God of Jerusalem at the river crossing, escorting it to the church. The icon was wiped down, cleaned and brought into the temple, a prayer was performed and installed in the temple on the south side. Believers of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Verkhnee Myachkovo greeted the miraculous image with love and trepidation. For 50 years, prayers were performed before the image and akathists were sung. The holy image of the Mother of God “of Jerusalem” prayerfully supported all believers during the war years and in the post-war period.”

In 1991, the Holy Cross Monastery in Jerusalem was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. In the same year, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the image was transferred to the monastery. When the temple in honor of the Jerusalem Icon of the Mother of God was restored in the monastery, the returned icon was installed in its historical place.
This is the kind of spiritual feat our courageous and strong-willed parishioners accomplished during the Great Patriotic War. All relatives of Klavdia Vasilievna Chugorina came to Sunday and holiday services in our church. Parents Daria Dmitrievna and Vasily Evdokimovich Markachev walked to the church from Shchegolevo, sister Lydia, her mother-in-law Anastasia Mikhailovna Zakharova and nun Anastasia came on foot from Lukino. They prayed together in the church for the granting of Victory, confessed, and received communion.
In our church there is a revered image of the Mother of God of Bogolyubskaya, with which during the war they walked in religious processions throughout the village and, entering each house, performed a prayer service. The villagers opened the doors of their houses with joy and trepidation; everyone, and especially small children, waited for the priest, sexton and singers to enter the house and pray for the end of the war, for the return of their relatives from the front. That’s how they survived – with prayer and faith, surviving all the troubles and hardships.
During wartime, the memory and traditions of their fathers were faithfully preserved by ordinary women who were at the church all these years: they sang in the choir, helped at services. These are Ekaterina Grigorievna Zimenkova, Maria Vasilievna Postnova, Tatyana Ivanovna Solenova, Klavdiya Vakhraneva, Ksenia Eremicheva, Maria Nikolaevna Chechulina and others.

Memorial in the village of Kolyubakino, where Alexey Sergeevich Zimenkov is buried

The material was prepared by Olga GORSKINA. To be continued.
Photos provided by church parishioners