Gleb Pavlovich Yakunin (; 4 March 1936 – 25 December 2014) was a Russian priest and

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

, who fought for the principle of

freedom of conscience Freedom of conscience is the freedom of an individual to act upon their moral beliefs. In particular, it often refers to the freedom to ''not do'' something one is normally obliged, ordered or expected to do. An individual exercising this freedom m ...

in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He was a member of the

Moscow Helsinki Group The Moscow Helsinki Group (also known as the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, ) was one of Russia's leading human rights organisations. It was originally set up in 1976 to monitor Soviet compliance with the Helsinki Accords and to report to the West ...

, and was elected member of the

Supreme Soviet of Russia The Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, later the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, was the supreme government institution of the Russian SFSR from 1938 to 1990; between 1990 and 1993, it was ...

and

State Duma The State Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly of Russia, with the upper house being the Federation Council (Russia), Federation Council. It was established by the Constitution of Russia, Constitution of t ...

from 1990 to 1995.

Biography

Gleb Pavlovich Yakunin was born into a musical family. He studied

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

Agricultural Institute. He converted from atheism to

Eastern Orthodox Christianity Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

at the end of the 1950s, after coming into contact with Alexander Men, and graduated from the Moscow Theological

Seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

in 1959. In August 1962 he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and was appointed to the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in the city of

Dmitrov Dmitrov () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Dmitrovsky District, Moscow Oblast, Dmitrovsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located to the north of Moscow on the Yakhroma River and the Mosc ...

, near

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. Together with the priest Nikolai Eschliman, Yakunin wrote an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

in 1965 to the

Patriarch of Moscow The Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus (), also known as the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, is the title of the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It is often preceded by the honorific "His Holiness". As the ordinary of the diocese ...

, Alexius I, where he argued that the Church must be liberated from the total control of the Soviet state. The letter was published as a ''

samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

'' ("self-published", i.e.,

underground press The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rece ...

). In retaliation for this, he was forbidden to continue his priestly ministry in the parish in May 1966.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...

supported Gleb Yakunin and Nikolai Eschliman in his letter to Patriarch Alexius. In 1976 he created the Christian Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Believers in the USSR. He published several hundreds of articles about the suppression of religious freedom in the Soviet Union. These documents were used by dissidents of all

religious denomination A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name and tradition, among other activities. The term refers to the various Christian denominations (for example, Oriental Orthodox Churches, non-Chalcedonian, E ...

s. Yakunin was arrested and convicted for

anti-Soviet agitation Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (ASA) () was a criminal offence in the Soviet Union. Initially, the term was interchangeably used with counter-revolutionary agitation. The latter term was in use immediately after the October Revolution of 1917 ...

on 28 August 1980. He was kept in the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

Lefortovo prison until 1985, and then in a

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

known as "Perm 37". Later, he was punished by involuntary settlement in the

Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (; ), also known as Soviet Sakha, Soviet Yakutia or the Yakut ASSR (, ''Yakutskaya ASSR''), was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR within the Soviet Union. History The Yakut ASSR was formed ...

. Gleb Yakunin was given

amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

in March 1987 under

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

. He was allowed to return to Moscow and worked again as a priest until 1992. He was rehabilitated in 1991. In 1990 Yakunin was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and worked as deputy chairman the Parliamentary Committee for the Freedom of Conscience. He was co-author of the law concerning "freedom of all denominations" that was used for the opening of churches and monasteries throughout the country. Gleb Yakunin was a member of the committee created for the investigation of the

Soviet coup attempt of 1991 The 1991 Soviet coup attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was Soviet President and ...

and chaired by Lev Ponomaryov, and thereby gained the access to secret

archives. In March 1992 he published materials about the cooperation between the Moscow Patriarchate and the KGB. He published code names of several KGB agents who held high-rank positions in the

including Patriarch Alexius II, Metropolitans Filaret of

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Pitrim of Volokolamsk, and others. The Russian Orthodox Church

defrocked Defrocking, unfrocking, degradation, or laicization of clergy is the removal of their rights to exercise the functions of the ordained ministry. It may be grounded on criminal convictions, disciplinary problems, or disagreements over doctrine or ...

Yakunin in 1993. RIAN archive 749019 Opening of monument to victims of political repressions

Gleb Yakunin was one of the organizers of the

Democratic Choice of Russia The Democratic Choice of Russia (DCR), known before 1994 as the "Choice of Russia" Bloc (CR), was a Russian centre-right conservative-liberal political party. Later the party was self-disbanded and most members would merge into the Union of ...

political alliance in 1993, prior to the opening of the Constituent Assembly of Russia called by the

Russian president The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

. He became a

delegate representing the party "

Democratic Russia Democratic Russia (; abbreviation: ДемРоссия, ''DemRossiya'') was the generic name for several political entities that played a transformative role in Russia's transition from Communist rule. In 1991–1993, the Democratic Russia Move ...

" in 1996. He created the Committee for Defense of Freedom of Conscience in 1995. He criticized the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" adopted by the DumaDeclaration of the Committee for Defense of Freedom of Conscience regarding the Russian State Duma's adoption of the draft of the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations"
, 20-06-97Father Gleb Yakunin: Religion Law is a Step Backward for Russia
and made numerous statements in support of

human rights in Russia Russia has consistently been criticized by international organizations and independent domestic media outlets for human rights violations. Some of the most commonly cited violations include deaths in custody, the systemic and widespread use of ...

.Appeal of the Representatives of Russian Civil Society
, November 15, 2005 As is traditional for Orthodox parish priests, Gleb Yakunin was married, and had three children: Maria, Alexander and Anna. He died at the age of 78 after a long illness on 25 December 2014.

Writings

Books

* * * *

Articles and interviews

* * * *

References

External links

His writings

Biography and photo album of Gleb Yakunin

Portal-Credo.ru
Declaration on the church rights of Orthodox Communities and Eparchies

Russian Orthodox Church

Chapter 28, ''The Penetration and Persecution of the Soviet Churches'', 1999
''Russia: the Orthodox Church and the Kremlin's New Mission''
- by Victor Yasmann, RFE/RL, April 10, 2006.

RFE/RL, September 7, 2006

- by Vladimir Moss

by Vladimir Moss * - by Edmund W. Robb and Julia Robb, 1986 * ttp://www.cesnur.org/2002/russia_yd.htm ''The Yakunin vs. Dvorkin Trial and the Emerging Religious Pluralism in Russia''- by Marat S. Shterin and James T. Richardson
"U.S. Food Aid Through Patriarchate May Be Abused, Priest Says; Distributor Tied to Illegal Activity & Trafficking in Parts of Unborn Babies"
- by ''Russia Reform Monitor'' No. 584, February 11, 1999

Other

and hi

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yakunin, Gleb 1936 births 2014 deaths Clergy from Moscow People excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church Russian activists Russian Eastern Orthodox priests First convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Soviet dissidents Soviet rehabilitations Russian human rights activists Moscow Helsinki Group 21st-century Eastern Orthodox priests 20th-century Eastern Orthodox priests