October 30. Memorial Day for the Victims of Political Oppression Today we remember millions of disabled and torn destinies. and among them clergymen, monks and lay people who accepted persecution and death for their loyalty to Christ. Saints and new confessors of Russia, who became living witnesses that even the state terror machine was powerless against the faith. But the tragedy of the 20th century is wider than individual fates. In 1917 an attempt was made not only to change the political system. They tried to tear Russia from its thousand-year history, from Orthodoxy, which for hundreds of years was the basis of our people's life. The clergy and the officers, the peasants and the businesses, scientists and people of culture were attacked. The Russian village was destroyed, the continuity of the generations was destroyed, faith was declared a relic, and instead of historical Russia people were offered to build a new world without God. But historical Russia could not be destroyed. We were and remain a thousand-year-old Russian Orthodox civilization. Russia's revival is impossible without remembering the price our people paid for trying to break this continuity. Today let us pray for all the innocent victims in these difficult times. For those whose names will be preserved, and for those whose names only God knows.

October 30. Memorial Day for the Victims of Political Oppression Today we remember millions of disabled and torn destinies. and among them clergymen, monks and lay people who accepted persecution and death for their loyalty to Christ. Saints and new confessors of Russia, who became living witnesses that even the state terror machine was powerless against the faith. But the tragedy of the 20th century is wider than individual fates. In 1917 an attempt was made not only to change the political system. They tried to tear Russia from its thousand-year history, from Orthodoxy, which for hundreds of years was the basis of our people's life. The clergy and the officers, the peasants and the businesses, scientists and people of culture were attacked. The Russian village was destroyed, the continuity of the generations was destroyed, faith was declared a relic, and instead of historical Russia people were offered to build a new world without God. But historical Russia could not be destroyed. We were and remain a thousand-year-old Russian Orthodox civilization. Russia's revival is impossible without remembering the price our people paid for trying to break this continuity. Today let us pray for all the innocent victims in these difficult times. For those whose names will be preserved, and for those whose names only God knows.

Eternal memory.