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changes of perestroika under Gorbachev, a period when Fr Men was able to
fulfil his gifts as a missionary and writer.
Fr Men had trained in the Institute of Fur in Siberia and developed a
lifelong love for the natural world and the sciences; his work on the
relationship between science and religion is of particular interest in the 21st
century. He also understood how vital it was for Russia to reconnect with its
cultural past and thus introduced many to Russia’s religious philosophers whose
work had been banned by the Soviet regime. He supported freedom for the
individual to develop and follow a personal spiritual quest; government and
society, he believed, must respect the dignity of the individual, otherwise
humanity was destined, in his words, “to suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs”.
He advocated a Russian Orthodoxy which was open to the secular world,
willing to communicate with other denominations and religions, tolerant,
humane and non-authoritarian, as opposed to a structure which was closed,
inward-looking, oppressive and frozen in its thinking. He condemned the close
alliance between church and state in the past, calling his church to repentance
for its collaboration with the Soviet authorities before perestroika. His
message is as relevant today for Russia with its increasing church-state
cooperation as it was during his lifetime.
Fr Men constantly preached against violence, calling his listeners to
Christian love and compassion and yet, tragically, his ministry drew hostility
from ultra-nationalist groups which burgeoned as the Communist system
disintegrated. Those who murdered him have never been identified, but it is
the conviction of many that this was the work of the KGB; it is chilling to
learn that an independent medical examiner of Fr Men’s head wound identified
the instrument used to kill him as having been a sapper’s spade, a weapon
common to KGB professionals. His death is a profound loss not only for Russia
but for us too.

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