25 years ago, on the night when the whole country celebrated the Resurrection of Christ, a terrible murder occurred. Three clergymen died at the hands of an unknown person. Much later it becomes clear the name of the killer - Nikolai Averin. In 1993, the details and true goals of this act shocked everyone who participated in the investigation. Today you will find out why this cruel man dealt with the monks and monks, and what sentence the court passed.
Monastery
Easter is a celebration of the victory of love over death. It was he who gathered all the local believers in Optina Monastery. At different times, tens of thousands of people from all over the country came here. Here Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky sought spiritual advice and consolation. It was 1993, and the people at that time desperately needed a sympathetic and kind word. Among those attending the service, more than ever, many young people. But the difficult situation in the country hit the monastery badly. Rising prices threatened to destroy the entire economy - there was nothing to feed the chickens, cows and other animals. The parishioners sacrificed, but they were pennies, because they themselves literally hungry.
The modest life of the monks did not require large expenses, but 20 families lived at the monastery, who had nowhere to go, they needed to be fed. The ministers of the church did not ask the afflicted who they were and where they came from. They helped everyone, without demanding anything in return. At the expense of themselves, but saved dozens of lives.
But back to that day. With an icon in his hands, hieromonk Vasily meets all parishioners. He will be killed in 5 hours - at 6 in the morning. But first, two other ministers of the church will die at the hands of the killer. The first monk Ferapont will die when he rings the bell, announcing to everyone the joy of Christ the Resurrected. The monk Trofim will die the second. He will be killed here, at the belfry, at the moment when he convened the people in the morning. He will not hear the dying cry of Ferapont. The ringing of bells will drown out all other sounds. Hieromonk Vasily will be attacked when he leaves the cell and goes to the monastery to profess pilgrims. The killer mortally wounds him, overtaking him from behind. An hour later, the holy father will die from his injuries. It is hard to believe that on the great church day three monks, servants of the risen God, perished at the hand of man. 25 years have passed, and today few people even remember from the photo of Nikolai Averin. In Optina, the murdered monks are remembered to this day, and the path does not overgrow to their graves.
Mystic
Pilgrims gave curious testimonies. Several dozen people said that at the time of the murder, the sky above Optina turned a maroon color. Witnesses, all as one, claimed that earlier such phenomena had not been noticed in history. In his youth, Father Vasily was asked the question: what is the worst thing in life? The answer was prophetic: "A knife in the back." For him, it was a sign of betrayal, a symbol of Judah. Much later, it turned out that the criminal himself did everything in order to externally not differ from the pilgrims.
The beginning of the investigation
In the Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Kaluga, the crime became known within 20 minutes after the murder. After half an hour, the investigators had already left for the scene. 8 experienced operatives took up the matter. Since this crime shocked even seasoned prosecutors. The search for the killer began almost immediately. The roads leading to the monastery were blocked, suspicious persons were checked, witnesses were questioned. By noon on April 18, an interdepartmental investigation team was working in the monastery. The hot pursuit of the search yielded no results, but it became obvious that the killings had been planned in advance.
Almost immediately, the passport and the work book of the monastery stoker were discovered, tossing which the killer tried to send operatives on the wrong track. Valorous policemen hastened to take into custody the homeless who drowned the monastery furnaces. A frightened man in 4 hours gave a confession. They did not believe in his involvement in the crime. The investigators realized that they simply framed the homeless. The picture of the crime was clarified, but his motive remained incomprehensible.
Crime scene
The Optina Desert Monastery is located 75 kilometers from Kaluga and very close to the ancient city of Kozelsky. It was founded in the fifteenth century and closed in 1917. In 1987, returned to the Orthodox Church. One of the main spiritual centers of Russia. In the monk Ferapontās notebook was the last entry: āSilence is the secret of the future.ā The places where the atrocious crimes were committed remained silent. Field investigators found a military-style overcoat near the monastery cross. She hung on the fence and had no insignia. On the label, instead of the familiar name of the soldier, ā666ā was written. A dagger-like knife was found in a pocket. This find interested everyone - three sixes were knocked out near the handle on the metal. Apparently, the knife was homemade. Remains of brown matter were found on the blade. It was not possible to determine immediately whether this is blood or earth. Melee weapons sent for examination.
Five meters from the greatcoat near the wall, another knife was discovered, which can be called a sword or cleaver. It was with these weapons that a terrible sacrifice was made. Eyewitnesses claimed that the criminal took advantage of a large mountain of construction debris to climb over the wall, where he threw his knife, which he committed murder. Having overcome the fence, an unknown fled to the forest. He moved very quickly and skillfully walked away from his pursuers. And the military units raised by the alarm were hunting him. Any information received from people was analyzed. The search ring gradually shrank.
Random witness
On the second day after the murder, information was received that an old forester and his wife lived in one of the villages. An unknown man came to him. He was armed with firearms and behaved aggressively. But the veteran of the old school quickly understood how to find an approach to the intruder. He invited him to drink, eat and calm down. The overexcited man calmed down and peacefully asked for clothes. Having received everything he needed, he hastily left. He spent only 30 minutes in the house, but that was enough for the forester to examine the stranger and be able to accurately describe him to the police. The photobot turned out to be so good that a woman who accidentally appeared at that moment in the police department immediately recognized the man.
First evidence
She immediately called his name and surname. It turned out that they live in the same village. All that was left was to find out where Nikolay Averin was now lying at the bottom. Investigators had already had the fingerprint of the killer by that time. It was extremely difficult to get it - the criminal erased all the marks on the arms, but did not take into account one factor. The handle of the sword was wrapped in several layers of insulating black tape. The police began to unwind it and soon found a single trace of the thumb. He was photographed and compared with the prints of Nikolai Averin. All doubts disappeared - it was he, the murderer from the monastery. His prints have long been kept in the file cabinet of law enforcement bodies.
Sword
The murder weapon was made at home. The sword was discovered at the scene and was a sharpened metal plate. So that the hand does not slip, if blood gets on the handle, it was wrapped with electrical tape. The most interesting discovery awaited the operatives on the blade itself - the engraved word "Satan" and the number 666. The fingerprint found on the hilt of the sword was compared with the fingerprint of the previously convicted Nikolai Averin, born in 1961, a resident of the village of Volkonsk, Kozelsky district. The circle is closed.
Who is that?
In 1993, this personality was already familiar to operatives. The first time he got to the police on charges of rape. In 1990, an elderly woman wrote a statement, but the case did not reach the court. She believed the sincere tears of Averin and his friend. He stated that he had taken violent acts only because he was drunk. Now this is considered an aggravating circumstance, but the pensioner chose to forgive and not send the young man to jail. Even then, the investigators knew that this was not the first attempt at rape by this person. He was saved by the fact that he did not injure the woman. Then Nikolai Averin did not suffer punishment.
In 1991, justice overtook the rapist. This time he brutally beat his victim. It didnāt come to rape. Tears and remorse did not help - a criminal case was opened. No one doubted that this time Averin would go to jail. The investigators for a month did their job and sent the case to the court, which decided to check the defendant for sanity. A psychiatric examination revealed that he has schizophrenia. Instead of prison, he went to the Gannushkin Psychiatric Hospital. After a year of āsuccessfulā treatment, he was released with the certificate of a disabled person of the third group.
Doubt
Despite all the evidence, the investigation still had reason to believe that it was not Nikolai Averin who committed the killings. A photo of this man and a description of his neighbor made it clear that he is a puny and short man. Several women fought off him, but he was able to kill three men? And two almost instantly. How could this happen? Doubts had a basis. To understand them, you need to know the biography of the clergy and the criminal himself.
Hieromonk Vasily
The murder of his father was seen by one of the parishioners - a 13-year-old girl. She told investigators that an unknown man had caught up with a monk when he was already approaching the monastery. At first he started a short conversation with him, and then he pretended to leave. When his father turned away, in a matter of seconds he attacked him from behind and thrust his sword into his back. Then he ran to the wall in great leaps and was like that. The girl told the rest of the pilgrims that after the murder, the unknown person was transformed and looked like a beast. Surprisingly, for almost an hour the hieromonk was still alive and in clear consciousness, but flatly refused to give the signs of his killer.
When the girl called for help, the bloodied body was transferred to the holy relics. The place where the monk caught the killerās sword was soaked in blood. Later, the spiritual children of Father Basil gathered it together with the earth. Life did not leave his body for another 40 minutes, although his kidney, lung, and diaphragm were pierced with a sword. The monk prayed until his last breath and did not begin to talk about what he was talking with the killer a minute before his attack. Perhaps this would expedite the investigation.
In the past, Hieromonk Vasily was a member of the USSR national water polo team and bore the name of Roslyakov Igor Ivanovich. He had the title of European champion in this sport. A strong and athletic young man graduated from Moscow State University and could become a journalist, but chose a different path. He was one of the first to come to Optina Desert to revive the monastery. More than once he visited high security colonies and carried out missionary work with prisoners. In his cell there were a lot of books, reproductions of the icons of Andrei Rublev and the untouched Easter cake. Father Vasily did not have time to talk.
Inok Trofim
Tatarnikov Alexey Ivanovich was a sailor on a fishing vessel. Everyone who knew this man spoke of him as a workaholic with golden hands. Before tonsure, he managed to master several professions: photographer, fireman, shepherd. He undertook any work: he plowed the monastery land on the tractor, which served as a vegetable garden. Possessed incredible physical strength. There were witnesses who personally saw how he twisted the poker in a knot and bent large nails with his fingers. Such a hero could easily break the killer of Nikolai Averin, who attacked him, and it was this discrepancy that confused the investigators.
One of the pilgrims recalled how the monk Trofim talked in it in the summer of 1992 and said that it was necessary to enjoy life, because only one year remained to live. He said to one of the local residents that he felt the approach of death, but he would definitely live for another six months. A sign brought him to the monastery: once he saw a bright light from the icon and heard an unearthly voice.
He took it as a blessing from above and hastened to the priest, so that he would sooner tonsure him as a monk. He made such a request several times, which angered the clergyman, and he forbade him to live in the monastery for 2 months. But Alexey didnāt give up so easily: he found a dugout nearby and visited the service every day. A year later he was tonsured, and he immediately became the darling of all the inhabitants. Kind, sympathetic and always cordial, he gave his love to everyone and considered everyone to be his close friends.
Monk Ferapont
Pushkarev Vladimir Leonidovich was also an extremely strong man. Behind his shoulders before the tonsure was a five-year service in the troops of the Soviet Army. Moreover, as part of special forces. In the monastery, he worked in a carpentry workshop. The taciturn and unsociable monk unexpectedly quickly found an approach to local youth. Children from all over the district flocked to his carpentry, and he gladly taught them wood carvings. There is a known case when three drug addicts who sought refuge in the walls of the monastery attacked him. Right on the threshold of the pilgrimage canteen, where these addicted people came to dine. Father Ferapont scattered and disarmed the attackers so quickly that the witnesses did not only have time to come to the rescue, but even to understand what had happened. In general, he was a quiet and inconspicuous person. After his death, not all monks were even able to understand who they were talking about, so he did not like to draw attention to his person. Most likely, he had the gift of foresight or felt that he would die soon. A few days before the incident, he gave all his tools to the other inhabitants of the monastery and announced that he would no longer need them.
Biography of Nikolai Averin
Date of birth - June 13, 1961. Mental disorder in this person was observed from an early age. He was constantly tormented by unreasonable fears, he was afraid to remain alone in the dark. Over time, such deviations could simply disappear, but he was not lucky to be in Afghanistan. Moreover, to undergo military service at the very height of the war - from 1982 to 1983. During the service, he not only avoided serious injuries, but also did not receive a single scratch. But for mental health it was a terrible blow, and he returned a completely different person.
Parents said that after the war he suddenly became a regular guest in the temple. Then it did not cause any concern - everyone thought that the guy was trying to find solace in the house of God. But soon the first alarming calls appeared: after the next post the guy said that he hears voices in his head. It soon came to the point that he believed that he was Jesus Christ. He did not stay in this state for long - voices in his head began to bring him inhuman torment. They mocked him and made him do terrible things: eat paper, smash his head against walls, jump out of windows. To get rid of their influence forever, he tried several times to commit suicide by opening his veins. All attempts ended in hospitalization, eventually Averinās inflamed brain gave the following - God wants to harm him, therefore, you need to ask for protection from Satan.
Others did not see him as a threat: just a man with strangeness, but it was completely harmless and even polite. He had no problems with any of his circle of friends, everyone remembered him as a person of extremely calm and reasonable. Where is Optina, Nikolai Averin knew from an early age. But until 1987, the temple was an abandoned place and opened only after major repairs and reconstruction. Nikolai Averin often visited deserts in Optina. He talked for a long time with the priest, who persuaded him to go for treatment. The man was hindered by his pride and megalomania. Later, some parishioners recalled that shortly before the killings, a person shouted during the service that he could become a monk if he killed three monks. With high probability we can say that it was crazy Nikolai Averin.
Training
According to the stories of the inhabitants and pilgrims, this man prepared for the murder for a long time and carefully. Soon, the investigation found confirmation of this. He was seen several times near the belfry. He sat quietly and watched the actions of the monks. At that time, it never occurred to anyone that this quiet parishioner remembers all the details and builds a plan of massacre. Not far from the place where he was often seen, they found a log of wood. He neatly folded it in the form of steps, so that he could make his way upstairs without too much noise. Nobody would allow him to go the usual way, although in the early morning the church and the courtyard were almost empty. And he knew this, and therefore he calculated all possible options.
Before Easter and the trip to Optina Desert, Nikolai Averin looked into the collective farm workshop. There he sharpened his homemade knife. The peasants, chuckling, asked him who he was sharpening his teeth on. And he said quite seriously that he would go to cut the monks. Nobody attached any importance to this - a man joked with whom he does not happen. They were not embarrassed by this recognition, because such orders were not uncommon for them. At this time, there was a flowering of all occult and satanic sects. Young people often went to the workshop and asked for a similar engraving. There was a simple explanation for this - people had seen enough of a foreign film called āOmenā, and the number ā666ā, or, in other words, āMark of the Devilā, became very popular. But no crimes related to religious or satanic rites took place in the district. Therefore, no one was apprehensive about the explanation of Nikolai Nikolaevich Averin.
In Optina, the monks, meanwhile, received threatening letters. One said that he received a message with a photograph of the coffin, and the other with the words that he would be killed soon. It was not possible to prove that these were messages from Averin.
The murders of monks
It soon became clear why two very strong monks could not repulse the feeble criminal. Like Father Basil, he attacked them from behind. Here the position of the fathers of Ferapont and Trofim played a role. They stood with their backs to each other and could not see what was happening. The killer of the Monks Nikolai Averin was also helped by the loud ringing of bells - the people below did not hear the screams of the wounded.
A little later, two parishioners said that they had seen everything that had happened, but did not realize that it was a murder. A man appeared out of nowhere and at the same instant both monks fell. Unknown quickly went downstairs and rushed to run. Witnesses thought he was in a hurry to call for medical help. Fasting was just over, and weakened monks could fall from a lack of strength and a sleepless night. When the blood began to drip to the ground, and the witnesses finally understood what had happened, the killer managed to go far. Another interesting point: when two women guessed what was the matter, then a couple of standing men threatened them that if they even told anyone about this, they would face the same fate. The investigation did not take this fact into account and refused to look for accomplices of the killer.
The escape
Further actions of Averin only proved his insanity. Through forests and fields, he reached the Tula region. He did not want to stay in a foreign land and, having stolen at one of the dachas, he decided to go home. This is common to all schizophrenics - they feel safe only among familiar objects and people. In a foreign place, they quickly get lost and stop performing logical actions. I got to Kaluga by bus, and from there I got to Kozelsk and stopped at my aunt's house. Apparently, being in a familiar place favorably affected his perception, so he still did not dare to go to his native village.
Any normal person would have guessed that after such a long time they had already opened him, and now they are watching intensively any place where he can appear. But the silence and peace of his auntās house completely deprived him of a sense of self-preservation, and he even made a call to his neighbors. I asked them to inform their parents that he was in perfect order and would not wait for them in Kozelsk. After going to bed with a calm soul.
Detention and Recognition
The task force did not break into the house immediately after the appearance of the offender. They decided to postpone the arrest of Nikolai Averin until dark. At this time, while watching his actions. The policemen entered already in the cover of the night and twisted the sleeping killer Nikolai Averin. He could understand what was happening only at the moment when he saw handcuffs on his hands. He was taken to the department, where he immediately began to confess. At that moment, no one doubted that this man was in his right mind, because he clearly and logically answered all the questions and spoke in detail about the reasons for his terrible act. The investigator was sure that he was composing fables in order to avoid capital punishment. A moratorium on the death penalty will be adopted only in 1996, and the killer had every chance of being shot. But the court decided otherwise.
Nikolay Averin spoke eagerly about the killings. He said that he could not get God, so he decided to kill his faithful servants. Moreover, he repeated more than once that the monks died a worthy death, but he did not like that the last two were screaming like women. Not manly gone. However, he argued that he did not hold any evil on them and there was no selfish motive. There is a war between God and Satan, and he is one of his best students. Therefore, he opposed the Lord. But at the same time, he is very glad that he is with Satan, because he was for good and never committed bad deeds and helped everyone. Repented Nikolai Averin? Not. And will never repent. He is sorry for the monks, but he is sure that they are now in paradise, because he knows the afterlife.
By the verdict of the court, he was recognized insane and sent to a psychiatric hospital for life treatment, where Nikolai Averin is still living his years. The place where this clinic is located was not disclosed. He will never leave this institution, but for several more years there were many rumors and conjectures around this matter. The Church Committee found witnesses who claimed that the Satanist Nikolai Averin did not act alone. He had at least two accomplices, and several people can confirm this. They are not only seen, but can be recognized. But the case was closed, the police were re-conducting the investigation and the prosecutor's office refused.
Echoes
A major shock to all church ministers was articles in the press. Eager for hot news, the journalists first exposed Averin as a homosexual who committed murders on the basis of passion, and then completely christened him a war hero. The print media shouted that the young man had been broken by the war, and there was no fault in him that politicians threw him into the heat of Afghanistan.
Society did not at all respond to this incident. There were no outrages or any protests. As if this was the most ordinary event. It is hard to say why this happened. At that time, people did not understand how to live further and what their new president would lead to. The country was painfully experiencing the collapse of the USSR, and everyone thought only of their well-being. But the new martyrs and Nikolai Averin did not care. On television they talked only about the situation in Chechnya and discussed the World Hockey Championship. In addition, a referendum was soon to be held and political parties sought to gain a leading position, and for this they took the lion's share of airtime. The authorities did not bring official condolences to the monastery, the Orthodox Church and its believers. Only Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia sent a telegram with words of condolences and grief.