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Returning home. The remains of General Denikin and philosopher Ilyin reburied in Moscow

The remains of the ‘White’ General Anton Denikin and Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin were reburied on October 3 at the necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery. This significant event is a testimony to the revival of historical memory in Russia, demanding respect for events of the past to warn against errors in the future.

Today’s Russia is healing the wounds inflicted on her by the 1917 Revolution and the Civil War. The rigid psychological barriers between Russian people in Russia and abroad begin to fall off opening for them an opportunity to come out of the narrow bounds dividing them into ‘the reds’ and ‘the whites’.

The Russian general and the Russian philosopher are reburied in their homeland as negations on unity are held between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Church Outside Russia. As is always in Russian history, church pastors urge for unity, exposing the malignancy of egoistic ambitions.

This year marks the 625th anniversary of the Kulikovo Battle. At that time as today there was alienation between Russian Orthodox people, but one great goal united the brothers by birth and faith.

Perhaps the unification of two parts of one Russian Church will initiate the restoration of unity of all Russian people who equally suffered from the civil war be they on the ‘red’ or the ‘white’ side.

In the 20th century, our country scattered many stones. Those were stones on which she stood. The return of Ilyin’s and Denikin’s remains is first of all an act of reconciliation with our past, which cannot be changed but should be remembered.

General Denikin died of broken heart and never finished his memoirs The Way of a Russian Officer stopping short at the Chapter entitled ‘The Year 1916. At the Fronts of War’. In a certain sense, both of these men gave their lives at the fronts of an invisible war for their Russia.


Viktor SUSHIN

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• Putin meets with daughter, grandson of Civil War general Denikin 06 October 2005, 12:59
• Denikin reburied at Donskoi Monastery in Moscow 03 October 2005, 15:56
• Reburial of Denikin’s and Ilyin’s remains means reunification of the Russian people - the Patriarch 03 October 2005, 14:52
• Donskoi Monastery Square bomb claim appears to be false 03 October 2005, 14:11
• Bomb threat reported in Moscow close to the place where Denikin and Ilyin are reburied 03 October 2005, 13:20
• Remains of Denikin and Ilyin buried in Moscow 03 October 2005, 13:19
• General Denikin’s remains brought to Paris from New York 30 September 2005, 13:46
• Denikin, Ilyin to be reburied in Moscow at the Donskoy monastery 05 September 2005, 15:37

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