Zhenya Balagin’s house was wrung out by papas. That’s what he himself says. To be more exact, he says: “Masha and me – we just put two and two together – the State will take the house anyway. We outwitted it a little – we gave the house away to papas”.

— It’s like a fist. — Zhenya Balagin raises a heavy massive working palm, folds his fingers. — Rosimushchestvo, militia, city administration. And popes are in the same fist.

 

 ***

Now we may say, that Zhenya Balagin’s story is a typical one. It resembles the plot of the movie “Leviathan”, what would happen, if the characters are alive.

In 2003 the resident of Pskov, the former boxer, civil engineering college graduate, the architect Evgeny Balagin undertook to restore the half-ruined theological school Gatekeeper’s house in the center of Pskov. To be more exact, the remains of the house. We are in the kitchen, and Zhenya spreads pictures on the table. The pictures show single-storeyed roofless tumble-down house, with boarded up windows and fallen off plaster, inside are scorched beams and crushed bricks.

Legally the Pskov Teacher’s institute was in charge of the hut, but it did not have money to maintain it. The Pskov theological school, which owned the building some time ago, did not have claims for it either. The status of the architectural monument of the beginning of the XX century prevented the demolition of half-ruined gate-house.

The city was making preparations for the celebration of its 1100 anniversary, the administration was getting rid of ruins and, as Zhenya recalls, the Center for Monuments Preservation (Scientific and Research Center) was offering the rent of the building to everyone.

— This is a small house, gate-house. I wouldn’t have budget for a sky scraper, — Zhenya speaks, as if he tries to justify himself.

— And it was possible to open up a café here.

Finally, he accepted the house.

In August 2003 the Pskov Property Management Committee and the Scientific and Research Center signed with Zhenya the agreement No. 1510 for 30-year rent of the Gatekeeper’s house. The agreements specified, that the rental payment would be made by the Tenant in the form of  repair and refurbishment activities of the monument”. The city will get beautiful and renovated building, taxes, and Zhenya’s family will get work for the next 30-year period.

Balagin spent the next five years in the construction site.

— It took me half a year to reassemble the masonry only, brick by brick, — he says. He explains, that it is called anastylosis in architecture – monument restoration using its own authentic materials and practices, specific for the period of the monument construction. This technique was used to restore Pantheon in Rome, the Acropolis in Athens — and the gate-house in Pskov as well.

Zhenya took the remains of the ruined wall apart and, like a puzzle, put them back using the same bricks. He rummaged flea markets, looking for vintage handles, doors, latches and stove tiles. When he found the fragment of the Middle city fortification wall, going back to the middle of the XIV century, he rebuilt it, preserved and displayed to tourists.

At the same time Zhenya on his own account obtained the Passport of the Monument for the Gatekeeper/s house, paid for the refurbishment project and added the kitchen extension for the future café.

During all this time Zhenya was making money by keeping tiny snack bar “Zhuk”, where he worked together with his wife Masha. They invested all the money their family had in the construction: Masha’s Grandfather sold his house in Samara, Zhenya’s parents set aside some amount from their retirement pensions. 

“This is my debt of honor.” — says Zhenya now. Totally he spent 7.5 million rubles for the Gatekeepr’s house. 

 

Beginning of the state-operated wringing up

The problems started when the house refurbishment came to an end.

In the thick pack of documents, which Balagin flips through, sitting in a kitchen, the year 2007 is labelled with a sticker: “Beginning of the state-operated wringing up”. It is followed by the pile of letters from Rosimushchestvo. First saying, that the Gatekeeper’s house is transferred to the Treasury of the Russian Federation (the specified house space included the extension, built up by Zhenya), then saying, that Balagin has to renew the agreement with Rosimushchestvo (when the house was rebuilt, the rental payment “in the form of refurbishment” was suddenly terminated) and to pay the debt on rent.

After that it was obvious: privatization, which was a separate item of the agreement, was denied to Zhenya (it is not allowed to privatize the monuments of architecture), rental debt kept piling up, a series of checks by the range of inspection bodies from sanitary service to fire inspectors was performed in the Gatekeeper’s house and Zhenya’s snack bar. They had to sell out “Zhuk”. It was raided by bandits several times, they threatened the guests and Masha, smashed the furniture. Zhenya recalls, that once he could seize the bandit and called police. When he arrived to the police department, Masha’s abuser had been already released.

— The wife is everything for me, this is the limit, — Zhenya says. — Let them beat me up, but leave by wifie alone, this is sacred. Had I beaten up anybody or, God forbid, hurt, I would be jailed. It would work great for them to get me jailed. Balagin is a criminal, and the house is taken away … I had to suffer this shame.

 

“You have to give the house away”

It seems, that Zhenya follows the code of conduct of the XIX century. He uses old-fashioned epic language (“I went through many court sessions during my life. I was always right, but not always successful”). He has an appearance of a peasant from Repin’s painting, and he behaves in such a way, that after ten minutes you have a feeling, that you know him all your life.   

Something important need to be clarified: Zhenya and Masha are Orthodox Christians. They are insomuch religious, that after two days of acquaintance they went to seek vital guidance from starets Nikolay (Guryanov). The starets said: “Get married” instead of the advice. Masha and Zhenya were surprised at first. And then they got married in a church wedding ceremony.  

Prior to renting the Gatekeeper’s house, Zhenya again went to seek Father Nikolay’s advice, if that was the right thing to do, but this time he went to his grave. “It’s difficult to understand, whether it is your destiny or not”. When the Scientific and Research Center offered to make the agreement on the next day, he thought it was a good sign.

After he lost his business, profit and facing the possibility of losing the house in a little while, Zhenya took the job in the construction site of Archpriest Oleg Teor, Alexander Nevsky church rector, who was spiritual guide for him and Masha. Masha also joined him: she was keen to “deal with medicine”, but Father Oleg said, that they lacked people in the church store.

...Masha was expecting a baby, there was a continuous chain of court hearings about the house. And the most horrible thing occurred. The baby was diagnosed with Down syndrome.  

 ...It is especially hard, when it comes to kids.

We are sitting in the kitchen of the apartment, which the Balagins bought with their “maternity capital”. It smells of pies, the elder 9-year old Sasha has just come back from the dancing classes, she seems to fly around the room, so slender and light she is. The younger cheerful Serafima is trustfully sitting on my laps, joyfully smiling from ear to ear.   

... — Serafima nearly knocked us down, — Zhenya says, looking down. — Perhaps, the doctors spared Masha, but to me they immediately said: Down syndrome, awful heart, not even a heart, but some sachet, intestinal tract needs stitching…

It was so horrible: damn, the person is born, but will they save her? I immediately told the doctors: be sure, we’re not going to abandon the child, we’re not sending her to orphanage, if there’s a chance, do everything properly … So they did! God helped us, he sent nice people to us.

Masha could hardly survive the labor because of her congenital heart disease. Zhenya was tearing apart between the dying wife, the baby, who had two surgeries during the very first days of her life, lawsuit with Rosimushchestvo (frankly speaking, I was expecting OMON) and the church, where he worked.

At that particular moment Zhenya was approached by Father Oleg, who said: “God revealed it to me, you need to give away (the house)”. 

 

“This is our State. We trust it”

Father Oleg took Zhenya to the Pskov metropolitan Evsevy himself. Balagin still keeps the draft copy of the “Report” (precise title of the application), addressed to “His Eminence Eminent Evsevy”: something like, I’m ready to donate the Gatekeeper’s house.

For the second time Zhenya visited the Diocese alone — he had to sign the documents for the house transfer. This time, besides popes, he encountered Rosimushchestvo officials  — those, who were involved in court proceedings during all these years.

Realizing that he had lost, Zhenya asked just to be sure: “Are you not scared to be cheated as well?”

— We won’t be cheated, — the Metropolitan grinned. — This is our state. We trust it.

Zhenya called Father Oleg, asking for his advice.

— Do  like His Grace said, — was the answer.

…Zhenya realized, that it’s impossible to get the Gatekeeper’s house back. All he had to do is to fight for Serafima’s life and the health of Masha, who became disabled. And for the faith.

I’m trying to translate the feelings, experienced by the Balagins, into the language of emotions, clear to non-clerical people. The easiest thing is to compare it with the betrayal by your father. It’s possible to handle deception. But the whole world broke to pieces for Zhenya and Masha.  

— I kept thinking: what did I do wrong? Father Oleg has been with us for ten years. He wedded us, we confessed to him, he knew everything about us, — Masha says, and it’s not clear, whether she sounds surprised or offended. — I crept to him with a dying baby, I’m devastated, I’m wiped out. But Serafima was annoying him! She exposed: we were robbed, and still she was born. We already got over this house — well, the house — got over it. But betrayal  — it... it’s beyond everything.

— Oh, Mashen’ka… — Zhenya breathes out. He keeps silent.

— Clergymen have jobs, like doctors, — Masha thinks out loud. — If they do their job well, why do we look on them as on Men of God?

— Father Oleg conducts huge work, huge, — Zhenya stands up for him. — He almost does not sleep, the light is always on during the night. He thinks, he confronts demon spirits, he honestly thinks so … Father is ambiguous, but I recognize his merits, don’t flagellate him… What does he say? “Whatever belongs to the church shall be returned to the church”. Clerical is above human, well above it. And we are like a chip during wood cutting … Still, — Zhenya suddenly loses control: — Why did he do that to us?  Now they tell me, that I idolized him, I need to repent. It appears, that I’m a sinner now …

— When Serafima was born I was in the depth of despair, — Masha says. She stands in the center of the kitchen — slender, very beautiful, with a strict and sad image of the Byzantine icon. — I did not want to live at all. I went for confession in the hospital. Father told me: you are in the state of spiritual suicide. I was prepared to jump off somewhere. I was… that was it.

I retell the plot of the movie “Leviathan” to the Balagins. Zhenya nods: he sees nothing unusual in this story. Except that the wife cheated on her husband: “When the family breaks up, there’s no hope. The family makes the person to hold on”.

— Actually, we had a plan — to open up a café and then leave for the country, formalize Grandfather’s share to produce own foodstuff, — Zhenya speaks suddenly. — The café would be consuming it. The land plot is abandoned, it lays fallow, it would give good harvest … We can grow it — and where shall we sell it?

Zhenya worked three more years at Father Oleg’s and left: “As the house was taken away, Father Oleg became tough. At the end I had a feeling, that they simply try to squeeze me out. When he fired me, he cheated with the salary for one and a half months, didn’t give it to me”. 

 

“Let them repent”

During the first days after birth Serafima had the heart surgery and her intestinal tract was stitched. Masha was also given an appointment card for surgery; she was warned, that otherwise she wouldn’t make it even to 40.

— I was still creeping, dying, — Masha recalls. — Every day I’m terrified, that Serafima will die, every day I creep to the church in tears to give communion to her… Which is the closest church here? Vasily on the hill. Father Andrey serves there. Once Zhenya’s mom approached him and said: “You know, the house was taken away from them …» And Father Andrey says: “You were lucky to keep your apartment. I don’t know, who has their house now, but they have to repent, they were in a sect”, — that’s how he called Father Oleg’s ward. … Mom comes and says: you need to repent.

— Do I have to repent! — Zhenya breaks up.

— I say: stop. Father Andrey and Father Oleg greet each other by kissing. Why does he say such things about him? Well, some time passed. We receive the notice, that we owe 170 thousand rubles to Rosimushchestvo as a rental payment for the land under the house (even after the house was transferred to the Diocese, the Balagins continued to receive payment bills. — Е. R.). And it was also said, that the house was transferred to Father Andrey for his use – the same person I was going to.

— It’s enough, Masha— Zhenya interrupts her. — This is filth. The place, which should be sacred and pure, is filthy. No need to pour this dirt out.

The family does not attend Father Oleg any longer, they take communion in a church near their house. Zhenya does not make confessions, explaining, that he does not want to say nasty things to one clergyman about others.   

After the article about the Balagins was published in the newspaper “Pskovskaya Guberniya” Zhenya read feedback about “popes – rascals” and was even more upset about that, than because of the house: “Do not soil the Patriarchate, it will avert the people from the faith. There are very few of us, religious people”. Zhenya asked me to write nothing about “papas”. I’m trying to convince him, that church does not mean faith, and during the recent years the Patriarchate itself alienate the people from Orthodoxy. I feel guilty and still I won’t fulfill Zhenya’s request. I think, faith shall not be blind, and Zhenya’s firmness, honesty and depth of belief have more in favor of Orthodoxy, than sermons of Pskov “papas”, which failed to stand the test by life. 

 

“Much to do in the church”

I couldn’t find Father Oleg in Pskov: the Rector of Alexander Nevsky church, the pastor of the Pskov diocese warriors and nuclear submarine “Pskov”, the chaplain, served in Yugoslavia and Chechnya, posing in the picture with a dozen of medals across his chest, Father Oleg was away on a business trip.

I got him on the phone later. The clergyman immediately recalls the Gatekeeper’s house: “It was the church property in the XX century. I told Evgeny long time ago: whatever the occupants grabbed will be returned. The Germans, who made mischief here during the Second World War, also came to repent, and now they compensate the damages to our people”.

I ask, why Evgeny was not compensated for 7.5 million, which he spent for refurbishment.

“I’m not aware of that, — Father Oleg answers slowly. — I’m incompetent in legal issues”

According to Father Oleg, Zhenya himself did not collect his salary for one and a half months: “Let him come — we’ll reimburse everything”.

— Does it mean, you parted amicably with Evgeny?

— I offered job to him — we had to set up tanks, — he didn’t come, — Father Oleg says with offence. Obviously, not forgiven.

I listen to his soft and drawling voice. He says, that the Teacher’s Institute building with the gate house previously accommodated the Pskov theological school, Patriarch Tikhon studied there, Alenxy I  Simansky taught there... His voice is soothing, the names inspire respect… I ask him again and again, what about Balagin, who lost his house, money and job, which might feed his family. It seems, Father Oleg sincerely does not understand me:

 — I told him right away not to deal with it, it belongs to the church. It is better to do something else. As for month and a half – we lost him somehow. Let him come to me and clarify everything. There’s too much to do in the church.

 

“Leviathan”

In September 2014 Zhenya had an appointment with the governor Andrey Turchak. 

— I just came in and said “Hello”, — he immediately started bla-bla-bla: “I remember about you, I know you...” — Zhenya recalls. —   I wanted to say: as long as we were not paid as owners, let them pay to us like to workers against the cost estimate. But nobody likes to give the money away.

Finally the governor recommended Zhenya to apply to the Pskov office of the “Association of Russian Lawyers”. They reviewed Zhenya’s documents and suggested to initiate a claim against the Pskov diocese — in fact, the claim against Father Andrey. Zhenya does not want it: “He has nothing to do with it”.

…We arrive to the Gatekeeper’s house, in Sovetskaya street, on Sunday. It is cloudy, dirty, the crack crawls up the façade, the sign with a cross next to the locked door: “Pskov State University. Spiritual and Moral development Center in the name of Holy Tikhon the Patriarch of Moscow”— the Patriarchate accommodated the department of the Theological School (it was founded in 2013).

Zhenya jumps out of the car and runs to the gate house.

 — Look, everything is genuine! This wall here — it is older, the XVIII century. And this is the XIV century. Fire-arms did not exist at that time, do you see the stones are just piled up? The grass is spreading, and I had it all cleared. Here is the pavement. It was buried, I brought it up and cleared. Look, even the stones are genuine, beaten with feet…

We make circles round the locked door, Zhenya, obsessed with a historian’s exuberance, points to the lamp, purchased in the antique store, vintage door handle from the abandoned house, a fragment of old masonry, which was intentionally kept bare.  

I listen to him and think: if a new “Leviathan” is done about Balagin, that other movie will lack the beauty of polar landscapes and the sea with its heavily lapping waves. It will have neither strong men, gritting their teeth, nor the absolute evil of the popes. The Balagins’ apartment in the falling apart Stalin-era building, bumpy icy road, making Zhenya’s ancient Lada car jump and squeak Dumps of dirty snow, frozen kiosks in the market, fat ducks in the brown Pskova thaw patches … Vigorous apple-cheeked Turchak instead of chronically drunk mayor, Father with a cunning look instead of the adamant religious hierarch …

—Look, it is scuffed already, cracks are everywhere ... badly battered. Nobody needs it, this house, — Zhenya says.

Greenish mold spread up the gate house façade, yellow plaster is cracked … In this world no one will jump off the cliff and grab the gun. They live a plain life, like everyone here.

P.S. “Novaya Gazeta” editorial office will submit the materials about Evgeny Balagin to the Holiness Kirill Patriarch of  Moscow and All Russia.