E.N. In an earlier conversation about renovation, you and I discussed if it could be manifested in modern conservatism.

V.E. We only wanted to characterize the movement itself. I should say that it is still awaiting some serious present day research. When some church abnormality appears, a schism, a heresy, or simply a church scandal, it always is a sign of a long-ripened trouble which finally breaks into a foreign catastrophe. I spoke about stiffness and a movement which livened up in 1905 and took shape in the vision of the Union of Church Renewal. It was a reaction to abnormal church organization when all church organization was called “department of Orthodox confession,” and was included in the government structure. With regard to reform and conservatism, there, there was everything. There were known conservatives, like Krasnitskii, and there were known reformists like Antonin (Granovskii). More than anything else, it [these movements] arose by sickness and by temptation. But sickness is manifested in various forms. It appeared in both the right schism, in the schism of “Iosifljanstvo,” and in the schism of “Pepominovenchestvo,” and in some sense it appeared in the schisms of the left understanding. All the hierarchical clergy, which took part in these schisms were condemned and afterwards they brought repentance to the schisms. The renovationists themselves, from the end of the 1920’s, very quickly absolutely refused to continue all their reforming efforts. Besides, the married clergy, “white”, strived to become bishops and strained to break the management. But all this was strained to the black color of a such an extremely offensive figure like Aleksander Ivanovich Vvedenskii. Now it is clear that it was all so, when the book came out of his admirer Anatolii Krasni-Levitin, who is still prospering today. It does not happen to talk about the Orthodox Christian patristic creed. Here everything was ìàíèõåéñòâî simply like heresy, he spoke about it only in a private order, here was Bergson, as was socialism, which was introduced to the circle of a creedful position; and such a person proved to be a first face [he was leader of this movement]. It was God’s punishment, God’s providence. It is that fruit which right away can be identified, the people who plunged into renovation, all are located on the false path, in the best instance, they wind up leading into in a blind alley, and if not there then in a swamp. But with regard to conservatism as a principle, it is so anti-church just like reformatism; at any time it is unwilling to listen to scorn, to hear, to search for the living instructions of God. It is that letter which kills.