Beasts in Cassocks: The Crimes of the Heads of the Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church in America/Chapter 9

by John Feoktist Dudikoff

CHAPTER IX.

The Bishop Amuses Himself

I went to the entrance door which was only half shut, closed it and returned to the dining room. An animated conversation was going on between Father Slunin and Gorokhov. Madam Snegirev had retired to the bedroom. The Bishop, on noticing me said: "Ah, Johnnie, how stupid you are. Please do not leave the door unguarded." I went out to the hall, then to my room where I lay down on the bed.

From the dining room the loud voices of Father Slunin and Gorokhov reached me. I could not fall asleep or concentrate on anything. Bishop Alexander's voice was not heard,—apparently he was not participating in the conversation. About fifteen minutes elapsed. Behind the partition separating my room from the bedroom into which Madam Snegirey went in, I heard voices. I was not drunk because of my role rather of waiter than guest I was not supposed to participate in the orgy, although Bishop Alexander himself had often expressed his passicnate desire to see me drunk: "Oh, I would have the order of St. Stanislaus conferred on you, Johnnie, if you would only get dead drunk!"

After a while I realized that the voices behind the partition were those of Bishop Alexander and Madam Snegirey. I began to suspect something and the meaning of the Bishop's sentence "I told you so" became clear to me. I understood why the Bishop sent Father Snegirev to the telephone and why Archbishop Platon gave him an important errand, in spite of Sunday. This was arranged, of course, in order to remove all obstacles.

A Smolensk Polka

Meanwhile something was happening m the bedroom because I heard a noise. Finally a sound was heard of something falling. Believing that a brawl was taking place, I jumped off the bed and ran to the dining room. There, Father Slunin hardly able to stand on his feet, was attempting to rise. Gorokhov, sitting in an arm-chair held him by a sleeve and pulled him back to the chair, and Father Slunin fell into it. Gorokhoy admonished him: "Johnnie, sit down, sit. … What's the use of showing your drunken mug to the negroes in the street? Let's have another drink. …" Finally Father Slunin succeeded in releasing his sleeve from Gorokhov's hand. He overcame his intoxication, got up, and leaned against the bedroom door. It flew open and at the same time a rapping was heard at the entrance door which | had closed after the captain left.

I could not take my eyes off the picture I saw in the bedroom.

The "Twist"

Through the open door I beheld Madam Snegirev, lying on the bed on her back, with her head towards the door. Bishop Alexander, the lower part of his body bare, his trousers down on his feet, was rolling up Madam Snegirev's skirt with one hand, and holding his penis "fully attuned" with the other. He was trying to climb on the bed and lay down on the woman who was waiting. His trousers were in his way and he was wriggling his feet to shake them off. Alexander either did not notice or did not care that the door was open and that I was watching him. Intoxicated not alone with the great quantity of liquor he had imbibed but also with passion, he kept climbing into the bed. Finally he succeeded and fell on Madam Snegirev.

Bishop Raphael

Gorokhov, without rising from the arm-chair, was calling to Slunin: "Johnnie, don't go there, it's none of your business, sit down here you bald-headed devil, you sit down." And then, just at the instant when Bishop Alexander succeeded in falling on Madam Snegirev, Raphael, the Bishop of Brooklyn, entered the room. I must have closed the door without snapping the lock.

At the sight of such a "motion" picture, Bishop Raphael without exchanging greetings with anyone, rushed over to Bishop Alexander, caught him by the collar, dragged him off the bed, and exclaimed: "Don't you fear God, you fool you? What are you doing, you drunkard, you, in a strange house and in every one's presence. …"

Alexander Nemolovsky, lying on the floor, shouted: "Get out, you Arab you, get out you accursed monk, with your abstinence!" Released from under Bishop Alexander, Madam Snegirev first began to cry and then became hysterical. It was a hard job to quiet her. Her lingerie and skirt were in shreds. I hurried to Pasha, took her skirt and brought it into the bedroom. I, myself, put it on the

Rests In Peace

woman. All shaking, she buttoned the skirt, drank some water, and sat down on the bed with her head in her hands. Bishop Raphael told me to take her home, but Alexander, ordering Raphael out of the house, kept imploring her to stay, but Raphael himself took her by the hand, led her out of the room, and bid me to escort her home.

On my return, Alexander sent me for Lina Vassilyevna Geres, a native of the town of Loubchi, District of Novogrudsk, Government to her and conveyed, in a whisper, Alexander's request to come to his apartment, she asked me aloud, in spite of her friends' presence: of Minsk, who resided in New York at 16 Avenue A. When I came "And is Platosha (dimunitive for Platon) also there?" I asked her not to give him away, but she declared, once more in everyone's hearing, that there was nothing to hide because her friends knew everything and were frequenters of that place. "All right," she added, "we'll come, there will be work for all of us. …"

I took these women to Bishop Alexander and having received an order to guard the door, took my post in the hall. During this evening, Bishop Alexander "amused" himself with all the girls I brought,

The Dreams of Prohibition

in turn. Late at night I put the girls into a taxi, brought him to his apartment, and handed him over to his servant. He was so drunk that he could hardly know why and where he was being taken. When under the influence of liquor, he is violent—he fights, curses and shouts. From Gorokhov's apartment on 94th Street, to 97th Street, where the Consistory and the apartments of both Bishops are located, is a short distance, but I received a number of blows from Alexander on the way. He asked to be given (here he mentioned an unprintable name for female sexual organs). The next day, when I met him at the Consistory, I felt ashamed to face him, but he was not at all abashed, gave me his blessing and issued orders.

 

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