WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th August, 2021) Renowned Russian Orthodox Bishop Basil Rodzianko found himself in the Kremlin during the 1991 attempted coup, but did not fear for his personal safety, the bishop's longtime assistant Marylin Swezey told Sputnik.
The coup started the morning of August 19, when the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) attempted to remove then-Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev from power while he was vacationing in the Crimea. The attempted coup ended unsuccessfully on August 22 but it is widely believed that it significantly contributed to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Bishop Basil was in the Kremlin on the day of the coup attempt because he was one of many emigres invited back to Moscow for the Congress of Russian compatriots. On August 19, when the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, he participated in the first historical liturgy in many decades in the Kremlin's cathedral.
"Bishop Basil had been a prisoner of the Soviets several years in Yugoslavia in 1940s, so, he was not afraid," Swezey said. "In August 1991, Bishop Basil essentially saw that the church was affected by this coup, and he, of course, was most concerned about the church regaining its gradual road to freedom, which is what had been started with Gorbachev's perestroika."
The bishop was the grandson of Mikhail Rodzianko, the Russian State Duma president during the reign of Emperor Nicholas II. He became a prominent teacher of Orthodox Christianity in the Soviet Union, the United States and in other countries through his ministry via the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The BBC had broadcast Rodzianko's sermons from the United Kingdom and later from the United States to audiences throughout the world.
"Bishop Basil was at the altar and described the atmosphere. He heard the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Alexey II, say that he was careful and thus commemorated the country and the people, but avoided commemorating leaders, so it did not interfere with what the GKChP was trying to do," Swezey said.
Christians attending the mass did not know what was happening outside and surrounded the bishop asking him spiritual questions while tanks and police cordons besieged the Kremlin, she said.
Swezey said a friend who saw the bishop, expressed concern the authorities would arrest him and assisted in trying to prevent such an outcome.
"She explained to the police that Bishop Basil is a very important person from the United States who had to go to the Patriarch's reception," Swezey said.
Speaking about the bishop's attitude toward Gorbachev's policy of perestroika, Swezey said he was prayerfully supportive of the continuation of what Gorbachev was doing to loosen the remains of control on the church that the Soviets had imposed for many years.
