E.N. What authors could we read who would help us understand the problems of the Church before the Revolution?

V.E. The best representatives for this come from the emigre circles. I strongly recommend the essay by Archbishop Ioann (Shahovskii) “White church.” Even sectarians have their own organic interpretations of the Holy Scriptures and take it to those who hold their same views. Glance through the essays of Prishvin. The views of the sectarians have just entered into his collection “Svetloe Ozero” [Light Lake]. Clearly, of course, so much of it was limited, ignorant, but nonetheless the living breath is felt. Then there was the book “Father Arsenii” (they attempted to attribute this Arsenii to Zhadanovskii, to the hierarch Pavel (Trotskii), and to others), but I would like to pay attention to the third part under the name of “Children.” In there was a nice series of the essays “Korsun’-Ershi” about life in the Archangel exile. There is a peasant woman in the threshold of death, who is just beginning to understand the life in Christ, clasping her hands and asking, “And why when we did have a church the priest never recounted anything to us? Or why in the time of the Tsars it was forbidden?” Not that it was completely forbidden, but we can say it was not encouraged. In this respect, there is a serious and useful book of the Metropolitan Verniamin (Fedchenkov) “In the border of two eras.” Of course, he is a pupil of the synodal system and in no circumstances will attempt to discredit it, and is against in every way possible to try to vindicate it, and tries to smooth over its pointed corners, but he nevertheless reveals to everyone the internal reasons of the well-known passivity of the clergy and strong subjection or consistory conventionalism in it [synodal system].