Beasts in Cassocks: The Crimes of the Heads of the Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church in America/Chapter 21

by John Feoktist Dudikoff

CHAPTER XXI.

Platon Causes Husband's Death and Seduces Widow

On my arrival in Tiflis I looked up Father Slunin, and asked him to announce me to the Exarch Platon. Slunin answered that the Bishop could not receive me before the next day. On the way to my rooms, I imparted to Father Slunin my reason for coming to Tiflis. He tried to reassure me, stating that the Master was ready to return my money before he left Kishiniev. I gave Slunin my petition to Platon, in which I asked for the return of my money. I mentioned Slunin as a witness. However, as soon as Slunin saw his name, he asked that it be omitted, because, as he explained, a clergyman had no right to testify against his Chief. The next day I called for Father Slunin and together we went to Exarch Platon's residence. Slunin left me there in the company of an old monk, whom he told to announce me to Platon. While the monk was interrogating me, Mother Angelina, the well-built Mother Superior of the Staro-Cherkask Convent, appeared on the scene.

Here I must digress to tell her life story, which I had learned as Inspector-General with the Secret Service of the Holy Synod. Her husband, accused of a political offence, was confined in the Viborg Prison in Petrograd. Platon, who was then prison chaplain, fell head-over-ears in love with the prisoner's wife, who had not yet taken the veil. He then began to send letters with incriminating information against her husband, with the intention of causing his execution. He finally succeeded in his attempt. After the husband was executed, Platon seduced the widow, promising to marry her and to unfrock himself. All this was a falsehood, because he was married at the time. When his wife died, he failed to keep his promise to marry the widow of the man whose death he had caused.

She then entered the Vvedensky Convent in Moscow and assumed the name of Angelina. A few years later she was transferred

Monk Ilyodor, an Imposter and Bandit, who posed
as Patriarch of All Russia.

to the Novodyevichi Convent in Kiev and from there to the Don Territory, where she was appointed Mother Superior of the Staro-Cherkask Convent. In spite of her position, Platon continued to annoy her, and kept in touch with her through letters. Meanwhile he persecuted the Ostrovsky family, who were related to Captain Shuvalov, Angelina's executed husband, and who lived on Maryinsky-Blagoveshchensky Street in Kiev. He finally had hired assasins to kill the whole family of five. Only and old nurse remained alive. She claimed that among the assassins were Valeryan Graves, Alexander Nemelovsky of Volhynia and Ilyodor, the notorious "Mad Monk," who subsequently broke away from the Orthodox Church.

Mendel Beiliss

After all these events, Platon obtained the necessary documents from the Holy Synod and left for America, unbeknown to the Czar, who was the nominal head of the Russian Church. From America, for reasons best known to himself, he sent his agents to Russia, tothe well-known millionaire Buturlin, who was also related to the late Captain Shuvalov, and whom Platon was evidently anxious to remove from this world. Among these agents was Daniel Gilevitch, whom I have mentioned before this, and whom Platon later on "ordained" as a priest. Gilevitch, together with Dr. Panchenko, who was treating Buturlin for impotence, was instrumental in murdering the millionaire. The physician prescribed an overdose of some poison, and the old man died. Gitlevitch escaped to America, while Panchenko was tried and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia. The case was known as the Affair of De-La-Cey and Buturlin. The events described took place in the city of Wilno, in 1910 and 1911.

 

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