TEXTS FOR READING

Churches to Warriors

Текст Churches to Warriors о церквях русским воинам был отобран с учётом принципа социокультурной целесообразности. Иностранным гостям будет интересно узнать о том, что в России канонизировали воинов. Возможно, многие зарубежные гости уже знают об одном из первых воинов-христиан – святом Маврикии, казнённом римлянами за веру во Христа. Ознакомившись с предлагаемым материалом, учащиеся смогут рассказать на английском языке о том, что в России построены храмы в честь защитника православной веры преподобного Илии Муромца, святого воина князя Александра Невского, а также небесного покровителя военных моряков святого и праведного воина адмирала Федора Ушакова. Задания к тексту позволяют закрепить полученные знания и овладеть необходимыми лексическими навыками.

The St. Warrior Fyodor Ushakov’s Cathedral was built in 2006.

This cathedral church dedicated to the holy and righteous (праведный) warrior Fyodor Ushakov is located in the centre of Saransk, the capital of Mordovia, and is one of the best known newly-built churches. The life of Fyodor Ushakov, who was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, was closely linked with Mordovia. The great Russian naval commander and a founder of the Black Sea Navy spent the last years of his life in the village of Alexeyevka near the Sanaksar Monastery.

Fyodor Ushakov was an extraordinary person. As a naval commander he covered himself with glory in the second Russian-Turkish War of 1789-91 by inflicting several crushing defeats on the enemy fleet and almost annihilating it, thus putting an end to Turkey’s supremacy in the Black Sea and asserting Russia as a strong naval power. 

Ushakov fought a total of 40 battles and lost none – an unprecedented case in history. A devout Christian (благочестивый христианин), he firmly believed that all his victories were bestowed (дарованы) on him by God. “Human skills are nothing without God’s help”, the Admiral used to say. After each battle, he offered a thanksgiving prayer to God. Often his ships bore the names of saints - “Saint Peter”, “Saint Paul”, “The Nativity of the Mother of God” and other religious names. 

Ushakov’s tactical genius helped him pull off a victory in the hardest situations. The most glaring example (наиболее яркий пример) is the capture of Corfu. Within three months, the Russians drove the French out of the Ionian Islands (Ионические острова). Corfu, a fortress with a more than 3,000 strong garrison, was the last to fall. The Corfu battle went down in history as one of the most brilliantly fought naval battles. One little-known fact is that, during the storm of Corfu, French soldiers preferred to surrender to Russians rather than to Turks. They had clear reason to do so because Turks were paid for each dead Frenchman. The Russians were much more humane than their Turkish allies: they even bought out French prisoners-of-war (военнопленных) from Turks in order to save their lives. 

The population of the Ionian Islands hailed Ushakov as a liberator and defender of Christians. There the God-loving Admiral revealed another of his talents – the talents of a statesman. Apart from restoring calm and order, he took an active part in the creation of a democratic republic uniting seven islands and boasting one of the most progressive constitutions in Europe. 

When Ushakov was leaving the Ionians, the grateful islanders gave him a hearty farewell. They presented him with medals that bore the inscription: “Thou art unanimously proclaimed our ‘father’”. People named their children after him and said they would never forget him. 

Ushakov’s mission in the Mediterranean didn’t end with the liberation of the Ionian Islands. He received an order to support from the south the anti-French campaign waged (кампанию под предводительством) by his legendary compatriot, Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov in the northern Alps. The Ushakov-led expeditionary force disembarked (экспедиционные войска высадились) on the Italian coast and took Naples. Soon the political situation changed and the Admiral was summoned back (отозван) to Russia. As a result of his successful operations at sea, France lost its dominant positions in the Adriatic. The Corfu base, now controlled by the anti-Napoleon coalition had an important part to play in its later wars with France in 1805-1807. 

After retiring from the Navy, Ushakov settled down in his estate in central Russia. There he immersed himself (окунулся) in charity as fervently (страстно) as he had performed his military duties. The Admiral donated (жертвовал) large sums to veterans of the Russian-French War of 1812, to the homeless and the needy, and made generous contributions to the neighbouring Sanaksary Monastery where he often went to pray. Fyodor Ushakov died in 1817 at the age of 74.

In 2002, Fyodor Ushakov, a fighter and a Christian, was officially canonized and is particularly revered in the Saransk diocese (епархия). He is regarded as the heavenly patron (небесный покровитель) of the Russian Navy.

In 1998, Church Dedicated to Reverend Ilya Muromets and St. Great Martyr Barbara was built in Vlasikha, Odintsovski region. It is a garrison church of the Strategic Rocket Forces (Ракетные войска стратегического назначения), a major division of the Russian Armed Forces that controls Russia’s land-based missiles.

Ilya Muromets (Elijah of Murom, Russian: Илья Муромец) is a Russian mythical hero. He is celebrated in numerous byliny (folk epic poems). Along with Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich he is regarded as the greatest of all the legendary bogatyrs (i.e., medieval Russian knights).

Ilya Muromets (1914) by Viktor Vasnetsov

According to legends, Ilya, the son of a farmer, was born in the village of Karacharovo, near Murom. He suffered serious illness in his youth and was unable to walk until the age of 33, when he was miraculously healed by two pilgrims (каликами, т.е. странствующими богомольцами). He was then given super-human strength by a dying knight, Svyatogor, and set out to liberate the city of Kiev from Idolishche and to serve Prince Vladimir the Beautiful Sun (Vladimir Krasnoye Solnyshko). Along the way he single-handedly defended the city of Chernigov from invasion by the Tatars and was offered knighthood by the local ruler, but Ilya declined to stay. In the forests of Bryansk he then killed the forest-dwelling monster Solovey-Razboynik, (literally Nightingale the Robber), who could murder travellers with his powerful whistle.

In Kiev, Ilya was made chief bogatyr by Prince Vladimir and he defended Rus from numerous attacks by the steppe people, including Kalin, the mythical Tsar of Golden Horde. Generous and simple-minded but also temperamental, Ilya once went on a rampage (начал неистовствовать) and destroyed all the church steeples (колокольни) in Kiev after Prince Vladimir had failed to invite him to a celebration. He was soon appeased (успокоился) when Vladimir sent for him.

Reverend Ilya Muromets

Ilya Muromets’s name became a synonym of outstanding physical and spiritual power and integrity (честность), dedicated to the protection of the Homeland and People.

He became the only epic hero canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, has blessed a copy of the sword which belonged to St. Ilya Muromets and passed it as a present to President Putin. The ceremony took place in the Savior Transfiguration Monastery in the town of Murom. The remains of the saint (мощи святого) are kept in Kiev.

Alexander Nevsky Monastery was founded by Peter the Great in 1710 at the southern end of Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg to house the relics (чтобы поместить мощи) of Alexander Nevsky, patron saint (святого покровителя) of the newly-founded Russian capital. In 1797, it was raised to the rank of lavra.

The monastery premises contain two baroque churches and a majestic Neoclassical cathedral. It also contains the Lazarev and Tikhvin Cemeteries, where ornate tombs of Mikhail Lomonosov, Alexander Suvorov, Nikolay Karamzin, Modest Mussorgsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and other famous Russians are buried.

Saint Alexander Nevsky was the Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir during some of the most trying times (тяжелые времена) in the country’s history. Commonly regarded as the key figure of medieval Russia, Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military victories over the Western aggressors against the background of shrewd conciliatory policies (умная примирительная политика) towards the powerful Golden Horde.

Born in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Alexander was the fourth son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and seemed to have no chance of claiming the throne of Vladimir. In 1236, however, he was summoned by the Novgorodians to become kniaz’ (or prince) of Novgorod and, as their military leader, to defend their northwest lands from Swedish and German invaders. After the Swedish army had landed at the confluence of rivers Izhora and Neva, Alexander and his small army suddenly attacked the Swedes on July 15, 1240 and defeated them. The Neva battle of 1240 saved Russia from a full-scale enemy invasion from the North. As a result of this battle, 19-year-old Alexander was given the name of “Nevsky” (which means of Neva). This victory, coming just a year after the disastrous Mongol invasion of Russia, strengthened Nevsky’s political influence, but at the same time it worsened his relations with the boyars. He would soon have to leave Novgorod because of this conflict.

After Russia had been invaded by the crusading Teutonic Knights, the Novgorod authorities sent for Alexander. In spring of 1241 he returned from his exile (из ссылки), gathered an army, and drove out the invaders. Alexander and his men stood up against the Teutonic cavalry led by the Magister of the Order, Hermann, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden. Nevsky faced the enemy on the ice of Chudskoye Lake and crushed the Teutonic Knights during the Battle on Lake Peipus on April 5, 1242. German attempts to invade Russia were effectively stopped for many centuries to come.

Alexander’s victory was a significant event in the history of the Middle Ages. Russian foot (пешие) soldiers had surrounded and defeated an army of knights, mounted on horseback and clad in thick armor, long before they learned how foot soldiers could prevail over mounted knights in Western Europe.

Thanks to his friendship with the Grand Khan, Alexander was installed as the Grand Prince of Vladimir (i.e., the supreme Russian ruler) in 1252. A decade later, Alexander died in a town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga on his way back from Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde. He was buried in Vladimir and canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547.

In the late 13th century, a chronicle was compiled called Alexander Nevsky’s Life (Житие Александра Невского), in which he is depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and defender of Russia. By order of Peter the Great, Nevsky’s remains were transported to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg where they remain to this day. On May 21, 1725, the Empress Catherine I introduced the Order of Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest military decorations. During the Great Patriotic War (July 29, 1942) the Soviet Order of Alexander Nevsky was introduced to revive the memory of Alexander’s struggle with the Germans.

Sergei Eisenstein made one of his most acclaimed films, Alexander Nevsky, on Alexander’s victory over the Teutonic Knights. Music for the film was written by Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a concert cantata. Alexander’s phrase from the movie, “Whoever will come to us with a sword, from a sword will perish,” (a paraphrasing of the biblical phrase “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword”) has become a slogan of Russian patriots.

During the Nazi German invasion of the USSR in 1941, Alexander Nevsky was reestablished as a major symbol of Russian patriotism.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral may refer to various Eastern Orthodox cathedrals, all named after Russian saint Alexander Nevsky:

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Belgrade in Serbia

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Lodz in Poland

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Nizhny Novgorod in Russia

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Petrozavodsk in Russia

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia in Bulgaria

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn in Estonia

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Yalta in Ukraine

There are also Russian Orthodox Churches in the United States bearing the saint’s name, for example,
St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Howell, New Jersey, under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Mordovia Nikolai Merkushkin are followed by a Russian orthodox priest as they visit the St. Warrior Fyodor Ushakov’s Cathedral in Saransk August 10, 2006

Activity A. Complete the sentences by changing the form of the words in capitals. You can re-read the text.

1) A great Russian naval commander and a _______ (found) of the Black Sea Navy spent the last years of his life in the village of Alexeyevka near the Sanaksar Monastery.

2) As a ______ (navy) commander he covered himself with glory.

3) Crushing defeats of the enemy fleet put an end to Turkey’s __________ (supreme) in the Black Sea.

4) Ushakov’s tactical genius helped him pull off a victory in the ______ (hard) situations.

5) The population of the Ionian Islands hailed Ushakov as a ________ (liberate) and _______ (defend) of Christians.

6) Admiral Ushakov took an active part in the creation of a ________ (democracy) republic uniting seven Ionian Islands.

7) This republic had one of the most ________ (progress) constitutions in Europe.

8) The _______ (gratitude) islanders gave Ushakov a _______ (heart) farewell.

9) Ushakov’s mission in the Mediterranean didn’t end with the _________ (liberate) of the Ionian Islands.

10) The Admiral donated large sums to veterans of the Russian-French War of 1812, to the ________ (home) and the needy.

11) Ilya Muromets was unable to walk until the age of 33, when he was ________ (miracle) healed by two pilgrims.

12) Ilya defended the city of Chernigov from _____ (invade) by the Tatars and was offered _____ (knight) by the local ____ (rule).

13) Solovey-Razboynik could murder _________ (travel) with his _______ (power) whistle.

14) Ilya defended Rus from numerous attacks by the steppe people, including Kalin, the mythical tsar of the ____ (Gold) Horde.

15) Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to ____ (legend) status on account of his military victories.

16) This victory ________ (worse) Alexander’s relations with the boyars.

17) In 1941, Alexander Nevsky was __________ (established) as a major symbol of Russian patriotism.

Keys: 1) founder, 2) naval, 3) supremacy, 4) hardest, 5) liberator, defender, 6) democratic, 7) progressive, 8) grateful, hearty, 9) liberation, 10) homeless, 11) miraculously, 12) invasion, knighthood, ruler, 13) travellers, powerful, 14) Golden, 15) legendary, 16) worsened, 17) reestablished.

Activity B. Compound Adjectives

Match the words in columns A and B to form compound adjectives from the text.Give Russian equivalents.

Keys: 3-thousand-strong – численностью в три тысячи солдат, little-known – малоизвестный, God-loving – боголюбивый, Ushakov-led – под предводительством Ушакова, anti-Napoleon – действующий против Наполеона, land-based – наземного базирования, super-human – сверхчеловеческий, single-handed – единоличный, forest-dwelling – обитающий в лесу, simple-minded – простодушный, newly-founded – недавно основанный, full-scale – полномасштабный.

Submitted by Irina Ishkhneli, School No. 1738