Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov (1892-1982), Orthodox spiritual writer, professor, doctor of chemical sciences.

Born on August 4, 1892 in Nizhny Novgorod. His father came from the middle class, his mother - from a merchant family. In 1911, he entered the Chemistry Department of the Imperial Moscow Higher Technical School (now Bauman Moscow State Technical University), where he studied from 1911 to 1914 and from 1922 to 1924. The First World War found him in his 4th year. Nikolai voluntarily entered the army. Then he wrote in his diary: "... many years later, I see in this the Providence of God, which led me out of the walls of the school for 8 years in order to return me to it again, but already a completely different person. Saul left, Paul returned .. ."

After graduating from a military school, Nikolai Pestov was promoted to warrant officer with an appointment in an infantry reserve battalion. In mid-August 1915, he was transferred to Riga to an artillery regiment to organize anti-chemical protection. At the front, he received an auditory concussion, the consequences of which remained for life. He was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus III degree and the Order of St. Anna III degree. In the documents of the regiment, Pestov was certified as an "outstanding officer."

After the February Revolution, Pestov was elected a member of the Regimental Committee, and then to the executive committee as chairman of the regiment and at the same time a member of the Regimental Court; in August 1917 he was appointed regimental adjutant. On November 16, 1917, having issued a vacation, he left for his homeland in Nizhny Novgorod, where, after the change of power, he worked in the civil service. In August 1918, together with other former officers, nobles and representatives of the bourgeoisie, he was arrested "in view of the possible action of counter-revolutionary White Guard elements" (forty people were shot). In November, when it became clear that Nizhny Novgorod would not be captured by the Whites, he was released. All specialists of the old army were required to register and serve in those posts to which the Soviet government put them. Pestov was sent to work in the organs of Vsevobuch. Having no Christian faith, in December 1918 he joined the Communist Party. After a successful report on the state of affairs in Nizhny Novgorod Vsevobuch, he was left in Moscow to work in the Vsevobuch Administration at the All-Russian Headquarters. At the same time, he was enrolled as a cadet at the Central Higher Courses of Vsevobuch, after which he was awarded the rank of military commissar. In the spring of 1919, Nikolai Evgrafovich ended up on the Eastern Front in the Northern Group of Forces. In September 1919, he was awarded the rank of district military commissar and the post of Head of the Vsevobuch Administration of the Priuralsky Military District.

In July 1921, Nikolai Evgrafovich retired from the ranks of the Red Army. The reason for leaving the military service was the enormous spiritual shock that happened to him at that time. The gradual stabilization of the situation in Russia allowed him to demobilize and return to Moscow to complete his education.

In the late autumn of 1921, he attended a lecture by Martsinkovsky "Did Christ Live?" for students of Moscow Higher Technical School and other universities. “For the first time I heard such deep and meaningful words about Christ and the Gospel. A feeling of deep remorse for what I had done was born in my soul. Suddenly, as if a veil fell from my eyes, in the simple words of the Gospel that the lecturer read, I heard the answer to the questions that tormented me. This evening became a turning point... I left the lecture as a Christian. My new enlightened life began. New forces, unknown sensations burst into my soul. It was no longer sorrow and anguish, but indescribable joy filled my soul, giving strength to live, work, study," wrote he is in his diary. - The path of the Gospel and the implementation of the commandments of Christ in life - now this is my path, my life! ".

New convictions did not allow to remain in the party; he destroyed the party card, did not pass the next registration and was expelled from the ranks of the RCP (b). In Moscow, Nikolai Pestov met the organizers of the Christian Circle at Moscow Higher Technical School and began to help organize lectures on spiritual topics. Martsinkovsky soon noticed Pestov and contributed to his activities in the Christian Student Circle. In 1921, Pestov took part in the fight against famine and a typhus epidemic in Saratov, where he also visited communities of Christian students. By the end of the summer of 1922, Pestov returned to Moscow, recovered at Moscow Higher Technical School and continued his studies, attending meetings of the Christian Student Circle in his spare time. In 1923, Martsinkovsky was informed by the GPU that he was being sent abroad for his religious preaching among students.

In 1923, the wedding of Nikolai Evgrafovich and Zoya Veniaminovna took place, whom he met in a Christian circle. In 1925, Pestov joined the Moscow Higher Technical School as a researcher at the Department of Mineral Fertilizer Technology.

After Lenin's death, the attitude of the authorities towards Christian students changed dramatically. It was forbidden to hold religious and philosophical meetings, religious circles and societies were closed. The Christian Student Circle in Moscow was also liquidated by the authorities, the house was taken away, the members of the circle were subjected to all kinds of repressions, searches, arrests, exiles took place. Pestov went to prison, first to Lubyanka, then to Butyrka. Within two days, the entire membership of the Christian Student Circle was arrested. They slept on the bunk together with the criminals. Members of the student circle of theosophists also sat there. There was information that the circle members were saved from expulsion by N.K. Krupskaya. Instead of deportation, they were sentenced to 40 days of arrest, separated from the criminals in a special cell, where they held debates with Theosophists on religious and philosophical topics. In prison, Pestov met a parishioner of the church of St. Nicholas on Maroseyka (the church of St. Nicholas in Klenniki). The rector of this church was the elder father Alexy Mechev, at that time already an old and sick man. Spiritual leadership in the parish after his death passed to his son, Fr. Sergiy Mechev.

Returning from prison, Pestov stopped attending renovation churches, became a regular parishioner of the Maroseya Church and the spiritual son of Fr. Sergei Mechev. With the blessing of his spiritual father, Pestov in 1926 made a trip to Sarov and Diveevo, where monasteries still operated.

Two sons and a daughter grew up in the Pestov family, Nikolai Evgrafovich paid much attention to their upbringing, fighting for their souls, as well as for his own. He never punished children strictly: "Where love works, there is no need for strictness."

Pestov led a large scientific and pedagogical activity: he taught at universities, lectured at enterprises, supervised graduate students; he owns about 160 research papers, monographs and articles. In 1937, at a meeting of the department at the Mendeleev Institute, prof. Pestov N.E. opposed the condemnation as an "enemy of the people" of a talented scientist, who was then arrested by the GPU, and was expelled from the state.

“Almost daily, rather nightly, I expected to be arrested. I believe that it was only through the prayers of my children, wife and spiritual father that I was not arrested at that time and remained alive,” he wrote later.

In the summer of 1939 he was invited to work at the Moscow Institute of Economics named after Ordzhonikidze, enrolled in a competition for the position of head of the department of chemical technology; from October 1943 he was deputy. director for scientific and educational work. After defending his doctoral dissertation in 1941 at the USSR Academy of Sciences, by order of the Higher Attestation Commission, he was approved for the degree of Doctor of Chemical Sciences.

During the war, the Pestov family did not leave Moscow for evacuation. Due to bronchial asthma, Pestov was exempted from conscription into the army. Son Kolya was 17 years old, he was called up only in September 1942. And in October 1943, a message was received that he had been killed in action. Nikolai Evgrafovich poured out his grief by writing the book "In the Blessed Memory of Kolyusha" or "Monument over the grave of his son." Later, he renamed his work, calling it "Life for eternity."

The war years were for N.E. Pestov years of intensive scientific and pedagogical activity. His works have been published both in our country and abroad. Some aspects of his scientific work were directly related to the defense industry. Awards: in 1944 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor; in 1946 - the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War"; in 1953 for long service and impeccable work among the scientific workers of higher educational institutions in Moscow - the Order of Lenin. By the end of the war years, Nikolai Evgrafovich stopped hiding his beliefs, again went to church, no longer afraid to meet his colleagues or students there.

The first works on theology were written by Pestov in the late 1950s. These were excerpts and quotations from the holy fathers and teachers of the Church on various issues of the Christian life, united in two volumes entitled: "The Paths to Perfect Joy." In the same years, the first edition of the book about the son who died at the front was written, as well as the first edition of the book Over the Apocalypse.

In the last years of his official activity, Pestov said: "I ask the Lord to show me His Holy will. Isn't it time for me to put aside chemistry and physics, and devote the rest of my days to the Lord?" The Lord indicated His will by the following set of circumstances. During these times (60s) Pestov served as deputy. director of the Engineering and Economic Institute for the scientific part. An order came to carry out anti-religious work in all departments, to order all professors and teachers to insert atheistic propaganda into all subjects and to provide an appropriate plan. Because Pestov refused to do all this, he was summoned to the office of the director of the institute and, in the presence of the secretary of the party bureau of the MIEI, he was offered to retire. When, after a vacation, Pestov came to the institute in the fall to apply for retirement, he was told that he had already been expelled by order. There were no formal farewells.

The last year has been agonizing. Nikolai Evgrafovich was aware that he would soon die and was preparing for this great moment. In the summer of 1981, he asked him to consecrate. During the Sacrament he fervently prayed; after the unction, the disease visibly receded. In the last months before his death, he hardly got up, communed the Holy Mysteries weekly and remained in unceasing prayer. After Christmas 1982, the forces finally left him. On the morning of January 11, he fell into unconsciousness and, without regaining consciousness, died on the night of January 14, 1982, on the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and St. Basil the Great, whom he greatly honored. Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov was buried in the cemetery at the Smolensk-Nikolsky Church in the village of Grebnevo, Moscow Region.

A book of his memoirs and about him.

About him in the memoirs of his daughter, especially in 3 hours.

On the influence of Pestov on Me, Zorin,.

Valery Lyubartovich

Orthodox ascetics on Staraya Basmannaya Street in Moscow

Source: http://www.stphilaret.ru/favor/dnev36.htm, 1998.

According to church tradition, the ancient Basmannaya Sloboda was the very place where St. Basil, a fool for Christ, revered in Moscow, labored. He was born near these places, in the village of Yelokhovo , but he also performed his feat in the parish of the church in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, built in 1519. "dependency of the Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich" on Pokrovskaya road (now called the church of St. Nikita the Martyr on Staraya Basmannaya) . Before the fire that occurred on July 18, 1905, in the refectory part of the temple, the image of St. Basil the Blessed of the 17th century was preserved, which was especially revered by the parishioners and placed in this temple, apparently in remembrance of the life and deed of the famous Moscow miracle worker near its walls .

But our contemporaries were amazing people, whose life is now almost a legend, who preserved the traditions of ardent asceticism in Christ during the years of cruel church persecution of the 20th century. Among them are three Nicholas from Staraya Basmannaya Street: Pestov, Varentsov, Poniatowski. Only now can we appreciate the contribution of these humble workers to the treasury of religious thought, to the preservation of Orthodox spiritual and moral values ​​and Christian ideals.

Until the mid-1970s, in the courtyard of house number 20 on Karl Marx Street (namely, that was the name of Staraya Basmannaya Street then) there was a small two-story house - an outbuilding that had existed here since the 18th century. estates.

For half a century of post-revolutionary time, everyone who considered himself a friend, like-minded person or student of a deep religious thinker, zealous Orthodox Christian, prominent scientist and teacher, Professor Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov, who lived in apartment No. 13 since 1926, sought to get into this house. The biography of N.E. Pestov not only amazes everyone who gets acquainted with it with the events and life situations that fill it and, at times, seem deeply contradictory, but also captivates with the presentation of practical spiritual experience on the way to the Christian worldview

Nikolai Pestov was born on August 17 (N.S.) 1892 in Nizhny Novgorod, in a family of hardworking people with a small income. The boy lost his father early and was raised by his mother and nanny. The family did not differ in particular religiosity; children were not accustomed to prayer. From 11 to 18 years old, Nikolai studied at a real school, where he got acquainted not only with Russian classical literature, but also with the works of Marxist figures, the book "The Life of Jesus" by E. Renan and other philosophical works that sowed the seeds of atheism in his soul. In 1910 Nikolai Pestov enters the Imperial Technical School in Moscow at the Faculty of Chemistry. He failed to complete the full course of study, since with the outbreak of the First World War, student Pestov considered it his duty to take a place in the ranks of the defenders of the fatherland, and he was enrolled as a volunteer of the 1st category junker of the Alekseevsky military school. After completing an accelerated course at the school, Lieutenant Pestov enters the 56th Reserve Infantry Regiment, stationed in the Pokrovsky barracks in Moscow, by August 1917. he served in thelieutenant adjutant of the regiment at the front.

February 1918 finds N.E. Pestov in Nizhny Novgorod, where he serves as a clerk in the Cheka, in the city food committee. After registering as a military specialist of the old army, he was sent to work in the bodies of Vsevobuch, and in December 1918 he joined the party. Nikolai Evgrafovich fought on the Eastern Front on the side of the "Reds", after which he was awarded the rank of district military commissar of the Urals military district. He wrote about the years of the commission in his diary: "Remembering all this evil that I committed in those years is the hardest thing for me ... This whole nightmare .... All this was in my absence of the Christian faith ..."

The gradual stabilization of the situation in Russia allowed Nikolai Evgrafovich to be demobilized and in 1921 to return to Moscow to continue his education. At the same time, he met student Zoya Bezdetnova, whom they married in May 1923 in the Church of the Ascension on the Gorokhove Pole. Zoya Veniaminovna, having completed the course of the Moscow Higher Technical School, worked at the Moscow alkaloid plant, from which she received a three-room apartment on Staraya Basmannaya.

N.E. Pestov, after graduating from Moscow Higher Technical School, made a brilliant scientific career. He becomes a prominent scientist in the field of mineral fertilizer technology, teaches at many major metropolitan universities. In January 1941 defends his doctoral dissertation, writes a number of books, some of them still have not lost their scientific and methodological significance and are not stale on the shelves of scientific and university libraries. In the 1940s, Nikolai Evgrafovich was elected dean, and then appointed deputy director for academic and scientific work of the Engineering and Economic Institute in Moscow, where he worked until his retirement in 1960.

Such was the side of his life that was in full view of all those who listened to his lectures, worked with him in research laboratories, met at scientific conferences, academic councils, and publishing houses. However, there was another thing that filled his life with deep meaning, determined the essence of his actions and became a spiritual stronghold - the Orthodox dogma.

For the commissar, party member Nikolai Pestov, there was no religious worldview, but then March 1, 1921 came, and he saw Christ in a dream. Then Pestov wrote in his diary: “That night the Lord entered my heart, and since then, no matter what I do or feel, I know that Christ has always been with me, always stays with me and never leaves me."

Having entered the Moscow Higher Technical School in the same year, he became a member of a Christian student circle, led by an outstanding figure in the Russian Christian student movementV.F. Martsinkovsky . Acquaintance with Vladimir Filimonovich, soon expelled from the country for religious preaching among young people, was a turning point in the life of Nikolai Pestov, which he built from now on according to the commandments of Christ. In 1922 he left the party.

Until 1924 The RCSD and its individual circles were registered and enjoyed all the rights of legal public organizations. In 1924 all activities of circles dedicated to preaching the Gospel among young students were banned, but some of the circle members continued to work illegally, held classes and even congresses of members of the movement in private apartments. About the time of repressions, arrests and exiles of members of the circles, evidence has been preserved relating to the biography of the head of the Christian student circle (CSC) Vladimir Ambartsumov (1892-1937): “Following the ban, repressions, arrests, exiles fell upon the circle. Ambartsumov - V. L.] miraculously escaped arrest. Once he spent the night in the house of Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov, an active member of the KhSK, later a well-known spiritual writer in Russia. Chekists came at night. The investigator who conducted the search did not know that Vladimir Ambartsumovich was the chairman of the KhSK and, having kept him up all night while the search was going on, having arrested Nikolai Evgrafovich in the morning, he released Vladimir Ambartsumovich. Early in the morning, Vladimir Ambartsumovich went around Moscow from one friend to another, but at that early hour the lights were on for everyone - searches were going on ... "

For participation in the circle, Nikolai Evgrafovich was arrested and spent 40 days in Butyrki. In prison, he met a parishioner of the Church of St. Nicholas on Maroseyka and after some time became the spiritual son of its rector, Father Sergius Mechev. Pestov stopped attending renovationist churches and became an active member of the community of St. Nicholas Church, a spiritual family created by the wise and pious pastor Fr. Alexy Mechev.

With the blessing of Father Sergius, he was in the church something like a headman - he sold candles, walked with a plate, and participated in church meetings. Approximately at the same time, accustoming oneself to the creation of the "Jesus Prayer" also applies: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." Then Nikolai Pestov realized that his first confession in the Church, at the beginning of his spiritual awakening, was not complete and deep enough. He recalled: "Then I decided to bring so called the "general confession" of the sins of the entire life lived. After listening to me and saying a permissive prayer, the priest said: "Never remember your former sins again. They have departed from you forever!" What joy I felt then ... "

By the end of the 1920s, the persecution of believers and the clergy began, monasteries and churches began to close. The daughter of Nikolai Evgrafovich, Natalya Nikolaevna, recalls the life of the Pestov family at that time: “Mom constantly collected and packed parcels, sent them to camps and prisons, raised the orphan Tanya for three years, the children of the arrested often spent holidays with us. In our Nun Evnikia from the Suzdal Monastery lived in the family for twenty-seven years, and the sister of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, nun Magdalena, constantly visited us... where are we went to work" .

In 1929 Father Sergiy Mechev was arrested and exiled, two years later the Church of St. Nicholas on Maroseyka was closed and destroyed. But the spiritual communion of part of the "Mechevites" continued in a secret house church, consecrated in one of the rooms of N.E. Pestov's apartment by Father Sergius. The icons were hidden in a cupboard behind a curtain, and the table that served as an altar was covered with a veil. Relatives and friends, as well as clergymen who remained faithful to the "patriarchal" church, gathered for divine services performed by the priests of closed churches in deep secrecy.

Natalya Pestova recalled these services in the following way: “It was solemn and mysterious. On the eve they cleaned up, discussed dinner, cooked. We were warned, asked to be serious and not tell anyone. orphaned spiritual children.In the dark narrow corridor, at the door of the study, weeping old women crowded, and mother cautiously unlocked the door herself, letting in only those who were expected. In the morning they served a liturgy, during which they sang, like mosquitoes buzzing. They spoke to each other only in whispers, exchanging meaningful glances, sobbing and sighing deeply. We children looked at it all with astonishment .

In the autumn of 1943 N.E. Pestov's son Nikolai died at the front, to whom his father dedicated one of his books - Life for Eternity. By the end of the war years, he ceased to hide his convictions, went to temples, not being afraid to meet colleagues there, and began to work on philosophical works. Deep reflections on the meaning of life, the desire to make his spiritual experience available to others led Nikolai Evgrafovich to write the first works on theology, combined in two volumes called "Paths to Perfect Joy", as well as the first edition of the book "Over the Apocalypse".

Since the mid-1950s, N.E. Pestov began to work on the main religious and philosophical work of his life - a multi-volume dissertation "Modern Practice of Orthodox Piety (Experience in Building a Christian Worldview)". Many people quickly learned about his works, especially young people, who found spiritual and moral support in them. Many visitors came to Staraya Basmannaya, to the Pestovs' house, who received here not only the necessary books from the richest home library, but also spiritual consolation, as well as the joy of meeting with the owner of the house. N.E. Pestov found time for everyone, whether it was his old friend from a student circle or a young seminarian. Many of his friends, admirers and students reprinted and distributed throughout the country the works of the scientist, which today began to appear in separate thousands of copies. One could recall dozens of names of modern church hierarchs, venerable clergymen, famous scientists-philosophers and historians, whose young years were spent in spiritual communion, common prayer and in conversations with Nikolai Evgrafovich. He greatly revered the Russian ascetics of piety and, in particular, spoke with reverence about his only meeting with the venerable martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna in 1916, which left a deep mark on his memory .

In their youth, Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechaev) of Volokolamsk and Yuryevsk and Archbishop Anatoly (Kuznetsov) of Kerch were frequent guests in the house of N.E. Pestov. The writer Leonid Borodin came from Irkutsk to buy books from his spiritual library and Pestov's "samizdat" writings. A young scientist, later a well-known historian Alexander Rogov, reprinted many of the works of Nikolai Evgrafovich and, in particular, having the subtitle "The dissertation for the degree of candidate of theological sciences G.B.R." These three letters had nothing to do with the author's initials and meant "God's sinful servant." In the study of the owner of the house, the walls of which were hung with icons with lit lamps, General of the Soviet Army Mikhail Konstantinovich Baranovsky prayed with concentration together with Nikolai Evgrafovich.

Among his soulmates was Nikolai Alexandrovich Varentsov (1862-1947), with whom Nikolai Evgrafovich, despite the difference in age of 30 years, had strong friendship and spiritual closeness. N.A. Varentsov was a prominent Russian businessman, businessman and philanthropist before the revolution. Under his leadership, such large enterprises of the country as the Moscow Commercial and Industrial Association, the Bolshaya Kineshma Manufactory, and cotton ginning plants in Central Asia worked. Varentsov was repeatedly arrested after the revolution, although he did not oppose the nationalization of his factories and plants, did not seek asylum abroad, but tried to be useful to his homeland under the new government. A man of deep religious convictions, in a Christian humility, he treated his fate as a destitute and persecuted member of society, whose knowledge and experience were not needed by anyone.

N.A. Varentsov lived nearby, in house No. 31 on Staraya Basmannaya, and N.E. Pestova’s wife Zoya Veniaminovna and daughter Natalya Nikolaevna sympathetically helped a sick old man during the war years, whose sons had been drafted into the army since the beginning of the war, shared food with him . Shortly before his death, Nikolai Alexandrovich presented Zoya Pestova with his talisman - an uncut semi-precious stone, bought by him during a trip to India. This relic is carefully kept together with the only photograph of N.A. Varentsov in the family of N.N. Pestova-Sokolova.

The writer A.A. Solodovnikov (1893-1974), who knew N.E. Pestov well, left the following memories of N.A. Varentsov: “The fate of this man is unusual and at the same time quite typical for the era of revolutionary elements ... Rich man, owner of 11 million fortune. Lucky and brave in business, he managed to defend the Russian Central Asian cotton industry from the attempts of American bankers to stifle it by dumping. After 1917, he lost everything and became a beggar in the full sense of the word. Having gone through such spiritual overload, he did not lose the clarity of his soul, he perceived everything with thanksgiving and died, repeating: “Glory to God.” To one woman who cared for him, he said: “Through you God vouchsafed me know his love for me. Thank God!" .

Perhaps this kind woman was Natalya Grigorievna Poniatovskaya, the daughter of Grigory Petrovich Georgievsky, an outstanding philologist, curator of the department of manuscripts of the Rumyantsev Museum, the wife of another close friend of Nikolai Evgrafovich, Nikolai Pavlovich Poniatovsky. A representative of an old Polish aristocratic family, N.P. Ponyatovsky served in the Red Army, and then studied at the Military Medical Academy. The authorities learned that the son of the deacon, Nikolai Poniatovsky, signed the protest of believers against the closure of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and he was expelled from the academy. A few years later, he managed to enter the medical faculty of Moscow State University and receive a medical degree. NP Ponyatovsky became famous in Moscow as an excellent homeopathic doctor. During the war years, he became head of a large military hospital, as well as the personal doctor of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I .

The Poniatowskis lived next door to the Pestovs, in house number 22 on Staraya Basmannaya, and led a truly Christian lifestyle, filled with participation and help to their neighbors. The well-known art critic, specialist in ancient Russian art Svetlana Vitalievna Gnutova, whose father, conductor and musician V.D. Gnutov, settled in 1971 with his family. in the former apartment of the Poniatowskis, told the writer of these lines that among the residents of the house the memory of those dozens of people is still alive,who daily came to the doctor N.P. Poniatovsky not only to receive help from physical suffering, but also for moral strengthening in difficult life situations. The son-in-law of N.P. Poniatovsky was a prominent Moscow priest, Archpriest Anatoly Serafimovich Kaznovetsky (1926-1995), who served in the Elohovsky Cathedral, the churches of St. John the Warrior and All Saints on the Falcon, in the patriarchal representations in Alexandria (Egypt) and in New York.

By the way, the grandchildren of Nikolai Evgrafovich also chose the church path in life, like their father, the husband of Natalia Pestova, Archpriest Vladimir Petrovich Sokolov (1920-1995). One of them, Seraphim (monastic Sergius), a candidate of theology, carried out an honorable and responsible obedience as a senior subdeacon of His Holiness Patriarch Pimen and was then an inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy. Called to high hierarchal service, Vladyka Sergiy is now Bishop of Novosibirsk and Berdsk. Two other grandchildren became Orthodox priests and rectors of Moscow churches: Fr. Nikolai - in the church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi (near the Tretyakov Gallery) and Fr. Fedor - in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Tushino.

In 1975 The Pestovs moved to a new apartment, their old house was demolished. However, every Sunday, Nikolai Evgrafovich came to the early liturgy at the church of Elijah the Ordinary and took communion of the Holy Mysteries. During a serious illness, Nikolai Evgrafovich was in unceasing prayer, he died on January 14, 1982. and was buried in the cemetery at the Smolensk-Nikolsky Church in the village of Grebnevo, Moscow Region.

The memory of Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov remains among the residents of Staraya Basmannaya Street, where he lived for almost 50 years, and among former students of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology, the IEI. Ordzhonikidze, who received extensive knowledge in the field of exact sciences from their professor. In those books that he wrote and left to posterity as a treasury of the practical spiritual experience of a modern Christian, readers find detailed advice on the organization of the Christian life, the rule of prayer, raising children, and many other aspects of Orthodox life.

Old Basmannaya Street in Moscow has become a "witness" to a difficult and long life, joint prayer and Orthodox work of three friends and associates, three Nikolaev - Pestov, Varentsov and Poniatovsky. They were not destined to find out that Karl Marx Street in 1990. will acquire its former, old Moscow name. They did not happen to hear the bell ringing of the revived "Basman" churches - the Great Martyr Nikita, Saints Peter and Paul, the Ascension of the Lord. They did not live until July 23, 1991, when, past their houses on Staraya Basmannaya Street, a procession of many thousands led by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II carried the holy relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov in a procession at the beginning of their journey to the Diveevo Monastery. But they believed in the revival of the country, worked for its good and participated to the best of their ability in enlightening and educating the people of God, as well as people who stand behind the fence of the Church and seek the truth of life...

Notes

1. G.P.Georgievsky. In the homeland of St. Basil the Blessed // ZhMP, 1947, $4. S. 33-37.

2. V.D. Tsvetkov.Old Basmannaya Sloboda in Moscow with a historical and archaeological description of the parish (Nikitsky) church. Manuscript. OPI GIM, F.104, Op.1, D. 6, L. 137-144.

3. Ibid. L. 192. 9. N.E. Pestov.From the memories of the founders of the Marfo-Mariinsky community in Moscow... // Ibid. pp.138-147.

10. Alexander Solodovnikov. Treasures of the Vvedensky mountains. Moscow magazine. 1992, $3. S. 55.

11. Serafim Chetverukhin. Interpreters. Memories of a father. M., 1992. P.37.

Found him in 4th grade. Nikolai voluntarily entered the army. Then he wrote in his diary: "... many years later, I see in this the Providence of God, which led me out of the walls of the school for 8 years in order to return me to it again, but already a completely different person. Saul left, Paul returned .. ."

After graduating from a military school, Nikolai Pestov was promoted to warrant officer with an appointment in an infantry reserve battalion. In mid-August, he was transferred to Riga to an artillery regiment to organize anti-chemical protection. At the front, he received an auditory concussion, the consequences of which remained for life. He was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus III degree and the Order of St. Anna III degree. In the documents of the regiment, Pestov was certified as an "outstanding officer."

From Pestov's diary:

"The spiritual life in Russia at that time was very complex and varied. The Orthodox Church was torn apart by schisms. There were several main groups in which it was difficult for me, a young Christian, to understand. Most of the churches in Moscow were in the hands of the Renovationists, headed by Alexander Vvedensky ( later the Renovationist Metropolitan.) At that time I still could not imagine the difference that existed between the Renovationists and the “Tikhon’s Church,” and I visited both churches.”

Returning from prison, Pestov stopped attending renovation churches, became a regular parishioner of the Maroseya Church and the spiritual son of Fr. Sergei Mechev. With the blessing of his spiritual father, Pestov made a trip to Sarov and Diveevo, where monasteries still operated.

Two sons and a daughter grew up in the Pestov family, Nikolai Evgrafovich paid much attention to their upbringing, fighting for their souls, as well as for his own. He never punished children strictly: "Where love works, there is no need for strictness."

Pestov led a large scientific and pedagogical activity: he taught at universities, lectured at enterprises, supervised graduate students; he owns about 160 research papers, monographs and articles. In the city, at a meeting of the department at the Mendeleev Institute, prof. Pestov N.E. opposed the condemnation as an "enemy of the people" of a talented scientist, who was then arrested by the GPU, and was expelled from the state.

"Almost daily, rather nightly, I expected to be arrested. I believe that it was only through the prayers of my children, wife and spiritual father that I was not arrested at that time and survived" he wrote later.

"Let no one think that all these positive reviews of people dear to me feed my pride and vanity,- wrote Pestov in the late 1970s. - I constantly remember those abysses of sin that I fell into during the last three years before converting to the Christian faith. I sincerely repented of them and I believe that the Lord, in His inexpressible goodness, forgave my sins, but the consciousness of my insignificance remained in me and will be with me until death ... "

From the memories of a grandson:

"... Prayer literally permeated his entire life. Nikolai Evgrafovich rigorously visited the temple of God. He especially loved the early Liturgies on Sundays, for which he carefully prepared for several days and at which he constantly communed the Holy Mysteries. This great Sacrament gave him a new impetus to life ", instilled in him extraordinary energy, made him a real ascetic. This was especially noticeable in the last years of his life. Vespers, akathists, the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, the services of Passion Week, he usually proofread in private. Slowly, touchingly and with deep concentration, the hours passed these prayers in his room. ... We, the grandchildren, also took part in these prayers, reading the trisagion, the six Psalms and quietly singing the familiar hymns behind grandfather. But, undoubtedly, grandfather performed most of the prayers alone. His prayer was fiery, he was completely immersed into it, so that sometimes, inadvertently entering the office, one could become a witness to this devoid of any external effect a lively conversation with God, at these moments usually grandfather did not notice those who entered, and we hurriedly left, carrying away an incomprehensible feeling of guilt.

The last year has been agonizing. Nikolai Evgrafovich was aware that he would soon die and was preparing for this great moment. In the summer of the year, he asked him to consecrate. During the Sacrament he fervently prayed; after the unction, the disease visibly receded. In the last months before his death, he almost did not get up, weekly communed the Holy Mysteries and remained in unceasing prayer. After Christmas, the forces finally left him. On the morning of January 11, he fell into unconsciousness and, without regaining consciousness, died on the night of January 14, on the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and St. Basil the Great, whom he greatly honored. Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov was buried in the cemetery at the Smolensk-Nikolsky Church in the village of Grebnevo, Moscow Region.

Proceedings

• Pestov N.E. Renewal of the human soul. (The transformation of the "external" and "spiritual" person into the "internal" and "spiritual"). M.: Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House, BLAGO Center, 1998. http://www.pagez.ru/olib/index.php?id=2569
• Pestov N.E. Fundamentals of the Orthodox Faith. M.: Eleon, 1999. http://www.pagez.ru/olib/index.php?id=7490
• Pestov N.E. What is the obedience of an Orthodox Christian. http://www.pagez.ru/olib/index.php?id=3718
• Pestov N.E. Christian marriage. The essence of the purpose of marriage. M.: Church of St. Nicholas. 1996. http://www.synergia.itn.ru/kerigma/brak/pestov/hr-brak/p1.htm
• Pestov N.E. Christian marriage. Choice of spouse. M.: Church of St. Nicholas. 1996. http://www.synergia.itn.ru/kerigma/brak/pestov/hr-brak/p2.htm
• Pestov N.E. Christian marriage. Marriage life. M.: Church of St. Nicholas. 1996. http://www.synergia.itn.ru/kerigma/brak/pestov/hr-brak/p3.htm
• Pestov N.E. Orthodox education of children. St. Petersburg: Satis, 1999. http://www.wco.ru/biblio/books/pestov1/main.htm
• Life for eternity or Monument to the grave of a son. Novosibirsk, 1997.

Used materials

• On the site "Berdsk Orthodox"

The Satis publishing house, with the consent of Nikolai Evgrafovich's relatives, gradually carried out the publication of this work in 4 volumes, titled it "Modern Practice of Orthodox Piety" .- St. Petersburg, 1994-96

Few people know that the old, long-closed cemetery in Grebnev near Moscow, not far from the famous estate, is the last refuge for a talented professor, doctor of chemical sciences, a famous historian of the Orthodox Church and an outstanding theologian Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov (1892 - January 14, 1982).

Not everyone knows how to get to his tombstone, crowned with a wonderful openwork canopy with domes: neighboring fences are located right next to each other. Dear fellow local historians who recently visited our region, it seems, did not succeed in this (see). On the morning of September 16, 2014, taking advantage of the beautiful sunny weather, we visited the cemetery and, not without obstacles on the way, reached the grave, having kindly commemorated this worthy man, whose unusual fate our today's story is dedicated to...

Providence endowed Nikolai Evgrafovich with a long life that lasted nine decades. The last four decades of his long life are directly connected with Grebnev.

Nikolai Pestov was born on August 4 (17), 1892 in Nizhny Novgorod and was the last, tenth, child in the family. In 1910, having completed the full course of a real school, he entered the Faculty of Chemistry of the Imperial Moscow Higher Technical School (now Moscow State Technical University named after Bauman), but, without completing the course, at the beginning of the First World War (in 1914), as a volunteer, he entered the Alekseevsky Military School. In February 1916, Nikolai Pestov married the daughter of a barrister, Rufina Dyachkova.

In October 1917, Lieutenant Pestov was in Luga at the headquarters of the regiment, but in December he was already in Nizhny Novgorod, where Soviet power had been established shortly before. From February to August 1918, N.E. Pestov worked as a clerk in the Nizhny Novgorod Emergency Committee, then in the City Food Committee. On August 13, 1918, N. Pestov was arrested, spent a month and a half in prison, but was acquitted and released on November 2. Already on November 26, 1918, Nikolai Pestov was sent to work in the bodies of the Nizhny Novgorod Vsevobuch. (general military training), where he worked until the end of January 1919, joining the Communist Party in December 1918.

NOT. Pestov during the Civil War.

In the spring of 1919, N. Pestov was sent to the Northern Group of the Eastern Front, in August he was called to Moscow to complete the Central Higher Courses of Vsevobuch, while working in the Office of Vsevobuch at the Vserosglavshtab, and, after being awarded the title of district military commissar, was appointed head of the Vsevobuch Office Priuralsky military district. Occupying this high position, in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) N.E. Pestov repeatedly met with such people as M.V. Frunze, I.I. Vatsetis, M.N. Tukhachevsky, V.I. Shorin, G.D. Guy, S.S. Kamenev and other major military and statesmen. The work of N.E. Pestov earned the approval of the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Republic, Lev Davidovich Trotsky. On one of the books donated to Pestov, Trotsky wrote: “To my friend and colleague N. Pestov as a keepsake. Leon Trotsky". According to N.E. Pestova, "Many years later, remembering those years, I come to the conclusion that it was a truly demonic person. And it is all the more bitter to realize that at that time I earned his approval with my actions and deeds."

Canopy over the tombstones of the Pestovs at the old Grebnevsky cemetery.

On the night of March 1, 1921, Nikolai Evgrafovich had a dream that dramatically changed his whole life. Subsequently, N.E. Pestov described what he saw in the following way: “Some kind of semi-dark vast dungeon with earthen walls and vaults. On the left side I see in the wall the entrance to the corridor leading somewhere down. walks, but rather, as if floating through the air... Passing by me, He turned and looked at me.There was an extraordinary seriousness, depth, penetratingness and severity in His gaze: not only the all-forgiving Power and Greatness, but the Fire of power, holiness and infinitely condescending love... I fall on my knees and bow to the ground... I woke up instantly... what happened? a fiery thought that burns the consciousness: “After all, I am a sinner, an unrepentant sinner, and all around me is dirt, vice and blood ... And the look of Christ ... "" And, in another place: "That night the Lord entered my heart, and since then, no matter what I do or feel, I know that Christ has always been near me, always stays near m with me and never left me "... In July 1921, Nikolai Evgrafovich resigned from the ranks of the Red Army, demobilized and left for Moscow to complete his education. In the same year, his wife, Rufina, left him. They didn't meet again.

An old tablet on a wooden cross.

In the autumn of 1921, N.E. Pestov attended a lecture by Vladimir Filimonovich Martsinkovsky (1884-1971), an outstanding figure in the Russian Student Christian Movement (RSKhD).

V.F. Martsinkovsky. Photo from here.

After some time, Nikolai Evgrafovich met a student at the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman, and the soul of the Christian student circle Zoya Veniaminovna Bezdetnova (1899 - 1974) and became her assistant in organizing Martsinkovsky's lectures on spiritual topics at Moscow Higher Technical School. On May 20, 1923, the wedding of Nikolai Evgrafovich and Zoya Veniaminovna took place in the Church of the Ascension on the Gorokhovo Field.

Z.V. Pestov (ur. Bezdetnov). Photo from here.

In the same 1923, after another arrest by V.F. Martsinkovsky was exiled to Germany. The next year, 1924all the activities of circles dedicated to preaching the Gospel among young students were banned, but some of the circle members continued to work illegally, held classes and even congresses of members of the movement in private apartments, in particular, this also happened at the apartment of Nikolai Evgrafovich and Zoya Veniaminovna Pestovs.
In November 1924, members of the Christian Student Circle were arrested. Nikolai Pestov spent 40 days in the Butyrka prison, having received a notice of release on the day of his angel, St. Nicholas. During the arrests of members of the circle, Zoya Veniaminovna, as a nursing mother, was released from arrest (on February 18, 1924, the first-born, named Nikolai, was born) [see. ].

The Pestov family. Pre-war photo. From here.

Returning from prison, N.E. Pestov stopped attending Renovationist churches, became a regular parishioner of St. Nicholas Church in Klenniki on Maroseyka, and became the spiritual son of Fr. Sergei (Mechev) (1892 - 1942), canonized in 2000 as a holy martyr. On September 8, 1925, a daughter, Natalia, was born in the Pestov family, and on October 8, 1927, a third child, son Sergei, was born in her.

Tombstone N.E. Pestov.

Nikolai Evgrafovich worked as an employee of the Scientific Institute for Fertilizers. Subsequently, after graduating from the course of the Moscow Higher Technical School, he worked as an assistant to academician E.V. K. E. Voroshilov, where in the position of head. worked as a chair of potassium salts until October 1933. From the autumn of 1933, Nikolai Pestov left the Military Chemical Academy and until the autumn of 1937 taught at the Moscow Chemical Technology Institute. Mendeleev, where he taught a course, supervised the diploma design and diploma works in the specialty "Technology of mineral fertilizers". In 1937, N. Pestov refused to speak at a meeting condemning the arrested head of the department, Professor Yushkevich, under whose direct supervision he worked. For this he was released from work at the Moscow Chemical Technology Institute. Mendeleev. The work remained at the Research Institute for Fertilizers (NIUIF).

Tombstone Z.V. Pestovoy.

In the summer of 1939, N. Pestov was elected head of the Department of Chemistry. MIEI technologies. In addition, from December 1942 to October 1943 he was the dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. From October 1943 he was deputy director for scientific and educational work. After the defense In January 1941, the defense of N.E. Pestov on the topic "Physical and chemical properties of powdered and granular products of the chemical industry". NOT. Pestov was approved for the degree of Doctor of Chemical Sciences.

The Great Patriotic War began. Due to bronchial asthma, N.E. Pestov was released from conscription into the army. Son Kolya was 17 years old. In September 1942 he was drafted into the army, and in October 1943 he died in battle.

Son N.E. Pestova, N.N. Pestov.

During the war, N.E. Pestov led an intensive scientific and pedagogical activity. On November 4, 1944, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and in 1946, the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War." During the war, the Pestov family did not leave Moscow for evacuation.

On February 8, 1948, the daughter of Nikolai Evgrafovich, a student of the Stroganov Institute, Natalia Nikolaevna (September 8, 1925 - January 23, 2014) married a psalmist of churches near Moscow in the village. Grebnevo, Vladimir Petrovich Sokolov (1920-1995), the son of Deacon Peter Vasilyevich (1886-1941) who served in this church and died in prison and Elizaveta Semyonovna Nikologorskaya (1883-1959) , - daughter of the priest of the temples of the village of Grebnevo Semyon Nikologorsky. On February 14 of the same year, Vladimir Sokolov was ordained a deacon in his native parish.
Since that time, Nikolai Evgrafovich, who continued to work at MIEI and part-time at NIUIF, began to visit Grebnev, visiting the family of his daughter and his grandchildren. Starting from approx. In 1960, together with Zoya Veniaminovna, the writer spent his summer holidays here, renting a dacha. According to the memoirs of the grandson N.E. Pestova: "My childhood passed in the village of Grebnev, Moscow Region. These are the fifties. Summer pictures were imprinted in my memory when grandfather and grandmother lived not far from us in the country. Grandfather regularly traveled to Moscow (perhaps he was still working then), and we my mother and I went to meet him in a birch grove.From the grove, far beyond the field, you could clearly see the Moscow road with cars going along it.Mom sat with us on a hillock near the "holy well", and we began to watch, not forgetting to jump and run on But then a bus stopped on the horizon, and we peered into the distance to the pain in our eyes: did grandfather arrive. Finally, someone, first alone, and then everyone sees a small white figure on the horizon, rather a point. This is grandfather, in summer always wore a white Panama hat and a white tunic, in his hands he carries heavy bags with groceries and gifts for his grandchildren.We race towards him along a narrow path.I still remember these joyful moments of the meeting. he is forced to stop, put the bags on the ground, otherwise it is impossible: alternately one or another naughty hangs around his neck. The distribution of sweets follows. In the side pocket of the sweatshirt, grandfather always kept a tin box with candies or other sweets. Grandfather takes it out, taps it with his fingers and solemnly opens it. Having treated all of us, he continues his way in a dense environment of those who meet us. We go with grandfather to my mother, who is still waiting for us at the "holy well". Both from mother and grandmother, grandfather often listened to reproaches for interrupting the children's appetite with sweets, etc., but, as I remember, the box of sweets in his pocket was invariably and always replenished regularly. Literally all the children whom grandfather met at the dacha, in the forest for a walk, or somewhere else were treated to sweets. "[see 3]...

Nikolai Evgrafovich and Zoya Veniaminovna Pestov. Photo from here.

After retiring, Nikolai Evgrafovich focused all his energy on working on his main theological work - the multi-volume dissertation "The Path to Perfect Joy", or, as he also called it: "The Experience of Building a Christian Worldview." All works of Pestov the theologian were published posthumously. The most famous of these was the two-volume Modern Practice of Christian Piety. His works soon began to enjoy great success and their reprints were distributed in many cities and villages of Russia.

NOT. Pestov at the Grebnevsky temples. Photograph 1975 from N.N. Sokolova "The Church of the village of Grebnevo during the years of persecution".

Old friends, young people, and former members of the Christian student circle came to Grebnevo from Moscow. According to the memoirs of the daughter M.E. Pestova, Natalia Nikolaevna Sokolova: "Around Nikolai Evgrafovich, who was resting on a bench [near the Grebnev churches], a crowd of guys often gathered, to whom the old man tirelessly told about the First World War, and about the revolution, and about the saints ... He discussed with the audience the characters and behavior of the heroes of classical and fiction literature known to everyone from school. Nikolai Evgrafovich was critical, for example, of Lermontov, was indignant at Pechorin’s behavior, calling him a scoundrel. Lermontov found something beautiful in the image of a demon, and Nikolai Evgrafovich argued that in Satan there is nothing attractive, but only lies, vileness and sinful filth ... These conversations lasted about two hours and left a deep impression on everyone "".

Orthodox youth in Grebnev. Photo taken in 1977. From here.

At a time when spiritual literature was not available to believers, many of them asked to read books from his home spiritual library. Many books from N.E. Pestov were often passed from hand to hand and returned only after many years, or even did not return at all. Soon, the latter circumstance prompted Nikolai Evgrafovich to copy spiritual literature and independently publish his works. For many years, individual, most popular editions. authors who were always asked and even ordered from their grandfather. Typists assisted in copying the text. Finished blocks N.E. Pestov did the binding himself. According to the recollections of relatives, in the year of N.E. Pestov published up to 100 copies of books of spiritual content, and this was in those years when such activities were strictly punished by the authorities [see. 3; 5].

Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov (sitting in the front row), Yuri Kochetkov (standing behind him). Top row from right to left: grandchildren of N.E. Pestova Serafim and Fyodor Sokolov, further - Alexander Kopirovsky. In front of Fyodor Sokolov, a little to the right, stands Evgenia Kuzminichna Kochetkova. 1970s. Photo from here.

In 1973, shortly after the celebration of the "golden" wedding, his wife Zoya Veniaminovna died. After spending the summer of 1981 in Grebnev, in the fall N.E. Pestov returned to Moscow, where he died on the night of January 14, 1982. On January 16, a funeral service was held in the Church of the Holy Martyrs Adrian and Natalia, after which his ashes were transferred to Grebnevo and buried near the grave of Zoya Veniaminovna. Subsequently, at the expense of admirers of Nikolai Evgrafovich, the current forged canopy was erected over the graves, decorated with bunches of grapes - a deep Christian symbol - the emblem of salvation and rebirth to eternal life.

On the tombstone of Nikolai Evgrafovich, one can read the gospel words: "May my joy be in you and your joy be perfect" (John 15, 11), - the words with which the author's well-known article "Perfect Joy" began [see. ; 9], and the path to which he devoted his work "The Way to Perfect Joy" [see. ]. 32 years have passed since the death of Nikolai Evgrafovich, but even now his theological works find fertile ground in the souls of wide circles of Orthodox readers, and grown-up children, whom the gray-haired old professor once treated with sweets, bring them to his grave in the old cemetery park .. .

Cm .
7. Sokolova N.N. Church of the village of Grebnevo during the years of persecution. M., 2006.
8. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1).
9. See: Pestov N.E. Modern practice of Orthodox piety. Book IV. St. Petersburg, 1996.

The work is called "Modern Practice of Orthodox Piety". It was created in the 1950s and 1960s and then, reprinted on hundreds of typewriters, distributed in samizdat. Who is he, his author?

He is a chemical scientist, a specialist in the production of mineral fertilizers, a professor, a lecturer at prestigious Soviet universities, the author of many scientific papers and inventions, and a holder of the Order of Lenin. Father of three children. However, his children and grandchildren need to be told separately. This is what I tried to do to the best of my ability in the journal Orthodoxy and Modernity, No. 20, 2011. I was lucky then to communicate with the daughter of Nikolai Evgrafovich, Natalya Nikolaevna, the widow of Archpriest Vladimir Sokolov, and with three of her five children. Two - Archpriest Feodor Sokolov and Bishop of Novosibirsk and Berdsk Sergius (Seraphim Sokolov) - were no longer on earth. The essay “Blessed Offspring” is easy to find on our diocesan website. And now - about the books of Nikolai Pestov.

The two-volume "Modern Practice of Orthodox Piety" is, in fact, a textbook of the Orthodox faith. The textbook is extremely sensible, clearly systematized, complete and concise at the same time. However, it is distinguished from school and university textbooks familiar to us by special warmth, love, penetrating every line. Love for God, for the Church, for the saints - and for readers. To readers from whose lives all Christian literature, beginning with the Holy Scriptures, has been completely excluded. What a revelation, what happiness these samizdat books were for them, containing everything necessary for a conscious choice: the foundations of Christian dogma, the Orthodox teaching about man, about the fall and sin, about repentance and salvation; clarification of such concepts as humility, meekness, obedience, patience, generosity. From Professor Pestov, the then inhabitants of the godless Soviet space learned what prayer is, what it can and should be, what a temple and church sacraments are for an Orthodox Christian. The reader received an idea about the Orthodox way of life, about the rules of piety, about virtues, began to understand why fasting is needed, why attention to oneself and sobriety are so important. Before the eyes of the reader, unaccustomed to such things, a whole world was revealed - the richest, most demanding, strict and at the same time joyful. The reader gradually moved deeper into this world, and the invisible pointer of Professor Pestov (remember, a highly experienced teacher of inorganic chemistry) pointed out to him in time what he was supposed to see. A man who until then knew practically nothing about the faith of his grandfathers and great-grandfathers received clear answers to difficult, but inevitably arising questions: if the Lord is good, why is there so much grief and evil in the world? Why don't people in the Church become sinless? How to relate to other religions and people who profess them? Should a Christian participate in the life of society, or is his destiny - detachment from the "worldly fuss"? It should be emphasized that atheistic propaganda actively speculated on most of these issues. Nikolai Pestov (almost always, however, anonymous to the reader) calmly sorted through the rubble of false ideas and ugly stereotypes. (And these stereotypes, meanwhile, and apart from propaganda, are formed in the mind of a person who has not learned to delve into the truth; and today they own many “advanced” minds. You read another young author, a liberal and an anti-clerical, as if he graduated from the institute of Marxism-Leninism, that’s all concepts about Christianity, about Orthodoxy - from there.)

Against. We journalists and publishers know that the more experienced a proofreader, the more tightly he clings to the dictionary. The Pestovsky two-volume book can be compared with a dictionary, with an encyclopedia, into which it is always useful to look, no matter what question arises. Why is it so difficult to deal with the sin of idle talk? What to do with an unbelieving friend, is it worth it to convince him? What to do if you feel lonely, misunderstood? Personally, I have never had it so that I opened Pestov and did not find an answer, support, did not feel that same warmth - love. Nikolai Evgrafovich was an amazingly kind, loving person, his daughter and granddaughters told me about this; but even if I did not know them, I think I would have guessed about it, reading his books.

In our church kiosks and shops of Orthodox literature you can also see Nikolai Pestov's book The Light of Revelation. It explains one of the most difficult books of the Bible to understand, the last of them is the Revelation of John the Theologian, or the Apocalypse. The text of the book "The Light of Revelation" is as clear, simple and intelligible as the text of a two-volume book.

And one more book by Nikolai Evgrafovich cannot be left out here. It is called "Life for Eternity" and draws us to the author's personal experience, a bitter, terrible and bright experience. The son of Professor Pestov, Nikolai Pestov, Jr., died at the age of nineteen, in 1943, during the liberation of Smolensk. He grew up in the era of the "storming of heaven", a total and fierce struggle against the Church. But, in spite of all this, he became a believer - such was the influence of the family. In the years when thousands of monks were shot, Kolya dreamed of becoming a Diveyevo monk (the Pestovs always considered St. Seraphim their patron). But God called him to a different sacrifice... After the funeral, the father collected into a book the letters received from his son - first from the military school, then from the front  - and spoke about his own spiritual experience of experiencing his death. Believe me, the letters of this Russian boy are impossible to forget, just like the words of his father.

According to Nikolai Evgrafovich's own testimony and according to the testimony of people close to him, he was driven by a great feeling - remorse. Repentance in the "red" youth. He was a member of the CPSU (b), a commissar. Until one day, in 1921, in a dream, he met the gaze of Christ... In the 1930s, the confessor of the Pestovs was the Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev, the son of the famous Moscow elder Alexei Mechev. After the execution of Father Sergius, they did not come for Nikolai and Zoya Pestov - well, except perhaps by a miracle, or by God's Providence. Nikolai Evgrafovich used his life and freedom for the benefit of Christ and the Church - as much as he could. His books will be read for a very long time.