New information about the Arkhangelsk period of life and activity of the surgeon and Bishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky)

Our predecessors (V.A. Lisichkin, Yu.L. Shevchenko, S.P. Glossiev) either had no information about the letters of the surgeon and Bishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) in 1932-1933 or had partial information about their contents (Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea Lazar (Shvets). The introduction of these rarities into scientific circulation for the first time allowed establishing the terms of treatment of the surgeon and Bishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) at the Leningrad Cancer Institute (March-April 1932), as well as the call to the Central apparatus of the United main political Directorate (Moscow, OGPU, September-October 1932) during the Arkhangelsk exile (1931-1933). At the same time, there was revealed the relationship between these events, which were the first and second stages of the so-called “review of the investigative case” of the exiled surgeon and Bishop. Offering early release from the Arkhangelsk exile, employees of the Central office of the OGPU persuaded him to renounce the dignity of an Orthodox Bishop. The refusal of a surgeon and a Bishop to remove an Orthodox Bishop from office in exchange for early release from exile and prospects for further employment in the medical profession has been documented. There are quoted original archival documents, including letters from the surgeon and Bishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), and answers to them of historical significance are selectively provided.

Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), Archangel exile, letters 1932-1933, refusal to remove the dignity of Bishop