Beasts in Cassocks: The Crimes of the Heads of the Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church in America/Chapter 25

by John Feoktist Dudikoff

CHAPTER XXV.

The Hetman's Gendarmes Assassinate My Two Children

When I spoke of Platon's malicious glance, at home, my wife's relatives, who were native Kievites, warned me: "Be careful, John,

Scene Seven.

Metropolitan Platon is now Skoropadsky's right hand and he can fo whatever he pleases." The rumor was current all over Kiev to the effect that Skoropadsky would soon convene a Church Assembly of the Ukraine whose function it would be to confirm the appointment of Metropolitan Platon as the Independent Ukrainian Patriarch. It is also rumored that all of the Ukraine, that is the part which had formerly been Russia and Galicia, is now united. This meant that Platon would be Patriarch of Great and Little Ukraine, as distinguished from Patriarch Tikhon of all the Russias.

Metropolitan Vladimir delivered to his assassins by Platon and
Vladimir’s servant.

When I remarked that the Russian Patriarch would not permit this, I was laughed at and told that I did not know how matters stood. Why, Platon was among those who went to Germany to ask that German troops be sent here. In case Tikhon makes a fuss Platon will join the entire Ukrainian Church to Rome, and will remain Patriarch just thes same. … Had I not heard that very day Platon’s sermon after the thanksgiving mass, I would have said, perhaps, that all this was the product of my relatives' imagination, but Platon's speech made such an indelible impression on my mind, that, as a Russian of the Orthodox Faith, I could not possibly forget it.

My relatives' misgivings soon materialized. I began to be followed and, in spite of the fact that I changed my quarters prac-

Metropolitan Platon, after stealing $80,000 from a monastery in Odessa.

tically every other day, I was trailed, and one night the Hetman's Gendarmes broke into my house … I hardly had time to put my wife out of the window. This almost cost her her life, because she fell from th second story and soon afterwards gave birth to a still child … and then … then … my heart throbs with such pain that I cannot think of what happened without weeping bitterly, without clenching my fists, without gnashing my teeth. … My lips, in spite of all my efforts for control, whisper curses to the assassins … before my eyes my two babies were slashed to death with swords—two infants, who as our Saviour said, are alone worthy of beholding the image of our Heavenly Father. … A number of people rushed into the room as if by miracle, and I was rescued from the Gendarmes and succeeded in making my escape and hiding myself. Late at night, I climbed in through the window, took my children’s bodies to the basement, put them both into one coffin, brought by my relatives, and buried them. … But I had been watched even more vigilantly than before. The very next night, my apartment was broken into, I was arrested and taken to jail. This was in May, and in September I was assisted to escape. In October, 1918, Kiev changed hands once more—this time the city was again captured by the Soviet Armies.

 

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