Polozhenie tserkvi v sovetskoi Rossii: ocherk bezhavshogo iz Rossii sviashchennika [The situation of the church in Soviet Russia: essay of a priest who fled from Russia] by Mikhail Sviashchennik [Reverend Michael, pseud. of Mikhail A. Pol'skii, 1891-1960]

Ierusalim (Jerusalem): self-published, 1931. Octavo (23 × 16 cm). Original decorative wrappers; 122, [2] pp. About very good. First and only edition of this memoir by Mikhail A. Pols'kii (1891-1960), a Russian Orthodox priest (protopresviter) and theologian, who was imprisoned by the Soviet government for his religious service but later managed to flee from the notorious prison camp at Solovki. He had been a student of the illegal Moscow Theological Academy, which was forced underground after its closure in 1921; during his two prison terms he continued to serve the liturgy within what is called the "Catacomb Church," a movement that did not accept Patriarch Sergius' 1927 declaration of loyalty to the Soviet government. In 1930, he managed to cross the Soviet-Persian border and eventually reached Palestine, where he published the present work detailing his trials and flight from Russia. In 1934 he served in a parish in Beirut; in 1938 he was able to relocate to London, where he spent the next ten years, before settling in San Francisco. He is known for the extensive documentation about martyrs for the Orthodox cause published based on his archive (Novye mucheniki Rossiiskie). The present work, aside from information on the Soviet prison system and his escape, also contains many details about the fate of the church in the early years of Soviet rule and the controversy surrounding the renovationists (obnovlentsy). Savine 05335. Scarce in the trade.