Alexander Ogorodnikov
and the Island of Hope for Moscow
Alexander Ogorodnikov
had long been known as a Christian prisoner of conscience and human
rights activist persecuted by the Soviet totalitarianism, until
the more recent Russian economic and moral collapse made him give
himself fully to saving young victims of poverty, drug-addiction,
violence and crime, neglected or abused by their parents and, ultimately,
by the Russian society as a whole. His own path of unprecedented
suffering and struggle lead him to taking on the responsibility
to save children suffering in the streets of Moscow today.
In 1971 Alexander Ogorodnikov,
then a student of Cinematography Institute in Moscow, became an
Orthodox Christian, eager to make his faith and understanding the
way of practical service to God and his fellow men. His attempt
in 1973 to shoot a film about spiritual search of the younger generation
in the USSR caused his expulsion from the Institute which meant
his career in cinematography, a very prestigious one in the Soviet
society, was forever ruined. In 1974-1978 he led an underground
seminar on Russian spiritual revival, becoming more and more involved
in the Christian and human rights activism, considered a very dangerous
subversive force by the authorities of the USSR. Pursued by KGB
agents, always on the move, hiding in friends apartments, he was
finally arrested after a press conference he dared to give in Moscow
in August 1978. Alexander Ogorodnikov was initially convicted for
1 year, but his term was afterwards being prolonged over and over
again, and he had remained imprisoned continuously until
he was surprisingly released by Gorbachov in 1987 due to personal
intercession by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. His years of
imprisonment he mostly spent in Perm-36 camp, the so called death-sentenced
zone, often in special punishment cells persecuted for his hunger-strikes
and activism for the rights of the incarcerated. While in prison,
Alexander Ogorodnikov was convicted anew for religious and anti-Soviet
propaganda in 1985 for 15 years. His sudden release in 1987 could
not have taken place if not for the end of the cold war and breakdown
of the Soviet regime.
What then followed were
dramatic political changes, economic turmoil and moral decline unseen
ever before throughout the history of Russia. More than anyone else,
teenagers of the 1990-ies fell prey to the new Russian social woes
overwhelming disillusionment, organized crime, drugs, alcoholism
and immorality. After 3 years of intense struggle, in 1995 Alexander
Ogorodnikov managed to set up the first private (not state-owned)
center and orphanage for girls in Moscow which was symbolically
named the Island of Hope and is a purely Orthodox Christian institution.
Since then 411 girls, victims of poverty, moral decay, crime, drug-addiction,
extreme abuse and parental neglect, found help, compassion, support
and accommodation on this tiny Island of Hope which for many of
them became a new warm and loving home, teaching them Orthodox Christian
spiritual practices, ethics and conduct, so diametrically opposite
to everything they had learnt and experienced before. 27 girls,
from 5 to 21 years old, currently (May 2001) live in the orphanage
and many more are in many ways taken care of by the center.
In August 2000 the first
issue of Alexander Ogorodnikovs newspaper called Community 21st
century. Orthodox Christian Review came out. This newspaper seeks
to show the depth of the ancient Russian Orthodox tradition to open-minded,
modern and educated intellectuals who are not impressed by the conventional,
mainstream clerical and Russian nationalist mass media wrought with
chauvinism, ritualism and superstition. Alexander Ogorodnikovs
selfless service these days remains similar to what he was doing
under the Soviet regime: it is a day-to-day struggle, misunderstood,
frowned upon and even slandered by the indifferent and cynical mediocrity.
Authorities still consider him a crazy dissident, a threat to their
corrupt power and well-being, and are fiercely campaigning through
mass media and in court to smear what Alexander Ogorodnikov and
his volunteers are doing and deprive the Island of Hope of the
premises in Moscow where it is now accommodated. This struggle being
long under way, Russian and German volunteers are currently constructing
a new house in the countryside (Buzharovo village, Istra region)
where the Island of Hope center and orphanage would move in if
the premises in Moscow are taken away (which now seems to be about
to happen).
A thorn in the side of the corrupt Moscow bureaucracy
who treat charitable organizations as their own domain and often
a source of income, irritating clerical conservatives wary of any
open-minded and independent initiative which may imply disobedience
and dissent, Alexander Ogorodnikovs Island of Hope center and
Community 21st century newspaper survive solely due
to selfless service of volunteers and to donations from those who
care.
Having no personal connection to any of Alexander
Ogorodnikovs projects, we feel and express deep appreciation of
the consciousness transforming work he and his volunteers are doing
healing wounds and saving lives of so many suffering and deluded
young people. We humbly ask you to consider supporting these projects
as a way of truly serving the Whole through serving our fellow human
beings who are in real need of help, love and support.
More information about Alexander Ogorodnikovs
Island of Hope center and Community 21st century
newspaper (in Russian and in German so far) can be found at his
web site http://www.21v.ru
and at the German web site http://www.kinderheimweb.de
You can contact Alexander Ogorodnikov and the Island of Hope center
by e-mail directly at main@21v.ru
for receiving more information in English.
