Items

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  Forensic handwriting examination in the criminal case against Pentecostal Bishop Viktor Belykh

  The photographs originate from a criminal case file initiated on 16 October 1958 by the KGB against the Pentecostal bishop Viktor Belykh and were used during the investigation as material evidence, in particular for a forensic handwriting examination, the results of which formed the basis of the charge of “anti-Soviet activity” brought against him. Photographs 2–3 contain Christian poems and psalms (“Abel,” “As the Deer Longs for the Spring” (an allusion to Psalm 42:1), “How Wonderfully Saved by Christ I Am”), as well as a fragment of Belykh’s autobiography. The investigation interpreted these texts as allegories of the suffering of a believer persecuted by the authorities and “sent to distant lands” (an allusion to arrest and exile). Photograph 4 contains a letter intercepted by the KGB, in which the author, using allegorical language, sought to inform fellow believers of the arrest of the leaders of the Pentecostal underground headed by Afanasy Bidash and of his own illegal status. Photograph 5 includes fragments of dogmatic texts of Pentecostal doctrine, regarded as extremist in the USSR, bearing handwritten annotations. All these materials were obtained by the secret police in the course of operational–investigative measures and were incorporated into the case as material evidence. The handwriting examination, conducted at the initiative of the KGB, established that the handwriting in all the documents belonged to one and the same person – Viktor Belykh. Thus, agent-operational materials, the results of intercepted correspondence, and forensic examinations were integrated into a single evidentiary framework, enabling investigators to comply formally with the requirements of “socialist legality” while simultaneously securing a conviction. The resort to combinations of investigative methods such as this can be explained by the transformation of the Soviet security system in the post-Stalin era, when punitive practices gradually took on the appearance of “legal legitimacy” instead of overt violence. In the late Stalin years (up to 1953), investigations against individuals accused of anti-Soviet crimes were largely formal – the required “confessions” were obtained through physical or psychological coercion. Due to the poor quality of investigations, in August 1954 alone, regional and district courts of the Ukrainian SSR returned 216 cases to the KGB for additional investigation. The decree of the CPSU Central Committee dated January 19, 1955, “On Measures for the Further Strengthening of Socialist Legality and the Enhancement of Prosecutorial Supervision,” abolished the extrajudicial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, which had previously possessed the authority to issue sentences even in absentia. The “principle of socialist legality” was reinstated, declaring that no one could be found guilty without a court verdict, whilst prosecutorial supervision over KGB operations was reinforced. By decree of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee dated May 24, 1955, special departments were created within the offices of the Prosecutor General of the USSR and the union republics to oversee legality within the KGB system. KGB anti-religious divisions were instructed to gather indisputable evidence of the “criminal activity” of monitored individuals through intelligence and operational measures. In such operations, a wide range of special means was employed: – wiretapping of telephone conversations (code “N”), – external surveillance (code “NN”), – censorship of correspondence (code “PK”), and others. Investigative departments, in turn, were required to legalize materials obtained by such means – that is, to present them as formal evidence admissible in criminal proceedings. On the basis of these documents, investigators were expected to “substantiatedly” prove the guilt of the accused while adhering to the official ban on physical or psychological coercion. After the investigation was completed, criminal cases against organizers of “anti-Soviet sectarian groups” and their closest associates were to be submitted to court, while for ordinary believers – in the absence of serious offenses – “preventive measures” such as warnings or surveillance were recommended. In summary, the case of Bishop Viktor Belykh became a revealing example of the new model of Soviet repression in the late 1950s – a shift from overt violence and fabricated confessions to “legally formalized” methods of control. It reflects the transition of the KGB from Stalinist terror to a system of “legalized persecution” of religious leaders, where the document and expert signature replaced the instruments of torture and forced confession.
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  Material evidence from the criminal case of Pentecostal Bishop Viktor Belykh (Pentecostals in Ukraine)

  These photographs are taken from the criminal case file opened on October 16, 1958, by the KGB against the Pentecostal bishop Viktor Belykh (Photos 1, 2). Holding a high spiritual position, Belykh was a member of the episcopal collegium that oversaw the life and activities of all Pentecostal congregations in the USSR. By virtue of his pastoral work, he personally knew the entire leadership of the Pentecostal movement, which made him a valuable source of information for the state security organs. Since the Pentecostal movement at that time operated deeply underground and was carefully concealed, information about its structure and leadership was of particular interest to the KGB. During one of the first interrogations, investigators asked Belykh to provide details about the highest leadership of the Pentecostal movement and to identify them from a photograph seized from him during the investigation. Having previously worked for the KGB as a covert agent and, likely, hoping to mitigate his potential punishment, Belykh agreed to cooperate with the investigation. Photo 3 is of the official identification protocol carried out by Belykh, with the attached photograph depicting leading figures of the Pentecostal movement in the USSR. On the right in the center sits the closest associate of the first chairman of the Union of Pentecostals of the USSR, Ivan Voronaev – the secretary of the Union’s board, Mikhail Luchinets. On the left in the center is the bishop of the Piatykhatky diocese and the head of all underground Pentecostal congregations in the country, Afanasy Bidash. To his left is the bishop of the Pentecostals of Belarus, A. Kasperovich, and behind him stands the bishop of the Pentecostals of Ukraine, Ivan Levchuk, among others. In addition to information about the leadership, Belykh also provided the KGB with data on underground Pentecostal communities in the Cherkasy region. He identified believers from the village of Ruska Polyana in the Cherkasy district (Photo 4), among whom were those he had personally baptized in water. These photographs, once given to him as tokens of gratitude, were confiscated by the KGB and later used for operational purposes. The story of Viktor Belykh reveals how deeply the KGB penetrated the religious underground, exploiting human weaknesses and using photographic materials to compromise members of the community and to establish control. This episode reflects the tragedy of an era when faith and devotion often collided with the pressure of a repressive system, forcing spiritual leaders to become instruments of the state apparatus.
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  Postcard from Vladimireşti Convent, Romania

  This photo-montage, printed on a piece of light cardboard the size of a postcard, was produced in 1952 as a souvenir for visitors and pilgrims to the Vladimireşti Convent of the Mother of God. The six photographs were commissioned and arranged by Father Iovan, an important monk living at the convent, and were taken by a photographer known only as “I.R.”, who served ten years in prison for his part in producing them (Hanganu 2004). By 1952 the convent had become a focal point for pilgrims in western Moldavia, with people travelling long distances to hear the charismatic preaching of Father Iovan and to take part in collective confession, as well as to witness the prophecies and healings of the convent’s founder and mother superior (stareţă), Mother Veronica. Iovan and Veronica actively cultivated the convent’s popularity, and produced the photo-montage as part of a religious marketing strategy. Blessed by the Saviour and the Mother of God, and sitting alongside a Bible and a chalice, the photos are arranged in a Latin cross bottony common in Eastern Orthodoxy. Three of the photos feature Mother Veronica; in front of the convent, surrounded by priests, and speaking to a crowd of pilgrims. Another shows the interior of the church, but the first three tell the miraculous story of the convent’s beginnings. In October 1937, when she was still only seventeen years old, Mother Veronica – then known as Vasilica Barbu – had a vision. She said, “I saw a young man of unusual beauty, dressed as a shepherd (mocan). He said to me, ‘Vasilica, go to the priests and the mayor in your village and tell the villagers to erect a cross with the image of the Savior, Jesus Christ, on it, for the forgiveness of sins’" (Barbu 1940). The young man later introduced himself as St. Symeon the Stylite, and appeared to her again a week later together with Jesus himself, when she was working in the corn fields with her sister. The photograph at the top of the montage shows the cross that she erected on in the field where she first met Jesus, evoking both her rural roots and reminding pilgrims that Vasilica had obeyed God’s commands. Vasilica continued having visions, and travelled around the area recruiting other pious young women and raising the money necessary to start a convent. Despite receiving no financial support from the Church, the women pooled their dowries and donations and began building in September 1939. Meanwhile, they lived in a dugout house, where they worshipped, farmed, and faced a number of dangers as a group of young women living in an isolated part of the countryside. The second photo, featuring their first house, stands in sharp contrast to the third, which is of the completed oratory – a testament both to their dedication and to God’s blessing of their work. Taken in order, the images tell a story of continuous growth emerging out of obedience to God’s initiative in revealing himself to a teenage girl. Beyond its function as a souvenir for visitors, the photo-montage also served as evidence against Mother Veronica and Father Iovan when the Securitate arrested them and closed the monastery in 1956. Secret police reports accused them of harbouring fugitive fascists and of spreading anti-Communist propaganda. Several important theologians helped the Communists’ cause by writing denunciations of Mother Veronica as a visionary and condemning Father Iovan’s practice of collective confession as heretical. Although in itself the photo-montage appears quite harmless, in the context of the Securitate’s investigation it ‘proved’ that Mother Veronica was encouraging a personality cult around herself as a seer and a visionary, and spreading ‘unhealthy’ mystical currents to a credulous and easily misled community. A number of the convent’s leading figures spent years in prison following the forced closure of the convent, and alongside many others, Mother Veronica was terrorized into becoming an informant for the secret police. ReferencesȘ Gabriel Hanganu, “«Photo-Cross»: The Political and Devotional Lives of a Romanian Orthodox Photograph,” in Photographs, Objects, Histories: On the Materiality of Images, eds. Elizabeth Edwards and Janice Hart (London: Routledge, 2004), 156–74. Vasilica Barbu, Minunile din comuna Tudor Vladimirescu, Jud. Tecuci, 2nd Edition (Galaţi: Tipografia “Cultura Poporului”, 1940), 24.