Alpha and Omega Marina Zhurinskaya. Essays, articles, interviews
Marina Andreevna Zhurinskaya

Anna Alexandrovna Danilova

The book by M. A. Zhurinskaya (1941–2013), the permanent editor of the Orthodox magazine Alpha and Omega, was being prepared for the anniversary of the author’s death. This collection includes articles, essays, interviews from different years. Marina Andreevna, a sincere and open person, talks in them about everything in the world: about the Orthodox faith, about social and family life, about art and nature. The views of the author are often original. The book will be of interest to all thinking people.

Marina Zhurinskaya

Alpha and omega Marina Zhurinskaya. Essays, articles, interviews

Approved for distribution by the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church

IS R14-416-1466

© Testelets Ya.G., text, 2015

© Danilova A.A., compiler, 2015

© PRAVMIR.RU, Internet portal "Orthodoxy and the World", 2015

© DAR Publishing House, 2015

Letters from Diotima

As you know, Herzen was awakened by the Decembrists. Untimely awakened, he looked around inquisitively and began to wake up the commoners, of whom there were many, and no one undertook to predict how many sleeping people the violently conscious youth would stir up. We, the Orthodox youth of the nineties, had our own alarm clocks and inspirers, Herzens and Decembrists. In the Church we were savages, but our eyes had not yet lost their fire, and our hearts were able to beat passionately and excitedly from unexpected meetings and mysterious news. Russia then was before the Second Coming, and prayer in church ruins inspired more cathedral splendor.

Then Kuraev appeared, Osipov's lectures, from the loudly boiling goblet of Moscow came vague rumors either about a theological institute that had opened, or about an unusually informative journal or posthumous broadcasts of the elders. From the capital to us, in the provinces, dusty couriers hurried, or, as they were then called, “scribes,” messengers of church publishing houses, and we greedily pounced on fragments of the capital’s splendor, on scattered issues of magazines, on individual volumes of books. I felt Moscow with my hands - they simply broke off from countless bags fraught with books, and so after each trip. Both I and my new church comrades, most of them, of those who now teach, write books, head episcopal departments and monasteries, have traveled the same path, the starting point of which was subdeaconhood - the obedience to serve the bishop during divine services.

Among us were schoolchildren, students, sometimes young scientists. Simply - young people who have nailed to the Church. Nothing serious or exciting. I met only one person who looked at this youth with inspiring hope, a look that encourages life and creativity. Marina Andreevna Zhurinskaya. A person who knew how to wake up. You ask, and quite rightly: how did she “wake up”, many then didn’t even know her name? They didn't know the name, that's right. But her legendary magazine Alpha and Omega was read by all my friends, read at times cruelly and ruthlessly, read it, copied it, forgot to return it. Once Marina Andreevna admitted that she publishes this magazine for subdeacons, who will later become bishops, priests and theologians, and what they read in her magazine will grow whether they want it or not. She looked so far, seeing in us, in the boys, the future face and voice of the Church. Then I did not pay attention to these words (how many words I did not pay attention to then!), and only now I understand how few people are able to look and see like that.

Once I asked Marina Andreevna:

“May I call you Diotima?” You won't be offended?

“Ah, father, you are not the first to call me that.

Socrates had Diotima. Plato's "Feast" tells about this amazing woman. Socrates was lucky - he met a man who taught him not only to look, but to see. It happens that someone gifted to be Socrates never meets his Diotima. And sometimes, on the contrary, Diotima has no luck with the Socrates. Marina Andreevna had Socrates, but I'm not afraid that I'm not one of them. But I saw the real Diotima. She taught to see and had an amazing gift of sobering thought.

It was a miracle that we met at all. What were the chances of this meeting? Marina Andreevna is a brilliant scientist, author of scientific papers, editor of a serious journal, moreover, she lives in Moscow and is much older than me. And in the Belarusian city of Gomel, an indecently young monk in a newly opened monastery accidentally obtained several issues of Alpha and Omega, left by regular visiting "scribes" at the bottom of empty boxes. Opened the magazine and - in awe! Averintsev, Florovsky, Meyendor, Lossky - and nothing superfluous and empty. It was an event!

I have not yet come across such literature, and I decided to learn more about this amazing publication. Found a phone number. Phoned. And they started talking to me! At the other end of the line in distant Moscow, the wisest woman in the world spoke to me cheerfully and kindly, for a long time and thoughtfully. This was in 1995. And we began to talk regularly, and I found out that we are not so strangers: the legendary magazine is the same age as our monastery, and Marina Andreevna's mother comes from Gomel. It was very exciting for me to meet in person. Our rector, Archimandrite Anthony (Kuznetsov), kept the letters of Vladyka Bartholomew (Remov), and we proposed that they be published in our native journal. I had the honor to take them to Moscow. I, as usual, got the wrong apartment, but in the end I got to the address. Two elderly, but very attentive and kind women, some kind of old computer, bookcases. I would like to describe this first meeting in detail, but I was too young then and terribly worried. It was the old apartment of Marina Andreevna, and I was there again, and the wonderful, now legendary cat Mishka allowed himself to be stroked.

And then, somehow unexpectedly, we began a correspondence that lasted almost ten years. What did we correspond with, whisper in a letter? Now it's only important to me. She had some kind of innate sanity and the gift of sobriety, which she shared generously, with one phrase, a glance, a gesture, clarifying a seemingly hopelessly confusing issue. Marina Andreevna, through letters, knew well our life and the good (and even thin) half of the brethren, having never seen any of them. She also had the gift of persuasion. For a long time she tried to persuade me to write something for the magazine, and I succumbed to persuasion. I haven't been able to stop since.

Just do not think that we sent philosophical treatises to each other. Everything was simple, humane, cordial. Marina Andreevna had a unique sense of humor, and she knew how to turn even her health problems into an elegant joke. Here she writes:

“I am no prayer book, but should I not know what legs are! When reading fiction (sinful!) I pay attention to the fact that the characters walk, go somewhere on foot, take a walk - and what a bliss it is. One consolation: even if I wanted to, I could not go to the advice of the wicked.” People who knew Marina Andreevna closely, her health problems know the price of this smile, how hard this wonderful humor was given to her, this charming mischief.

For many years, Marina Andreevna wanted to write a text about the Christian reading of Levkonoi. This is the famous poem by Horace, which few people read in its entirety, but many remember the famous carpe diem - “seize the moment”, “seize the moment”. She had a gift for enjoying life, its simple gifts, its childish secrets and comforts. She loved people, cats, flowers, music, just living - she really liked it, and so you hope that on Easter you will again receive a “bouquet of delights” from her:

“And how my cacti grow! And how many of them and what are the unexpected! And what violets bloom unprecedented! And how splendidly my collection of cats on the piano is growing! The same glass crocodile has joined your dragon, and how good it is for them! And what an Easter I made!” And at the end there will certainly be some kind of holy and foolish signature:

“I remain, the kindest and most penetrating father ...

Loving Your Reverence from the bottom of my heart...

Now giving vent to her inextinguishable desire for unceasing joy and daring to consider herself close to you in the mindset and spiritual disposition of a servant of God, Anna.

One day she wrote: “Now the holiday has come. Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations, and rejoice endlessly, because God and His Blessed Mother are with us. And we can't take that away." My dear Diotima is now in the arms of God. She loved to live, and now she is more alive than we are, and no one can take that away from her. And why is it so sad? Separation, of course. But all this will pass. As Marina Andreevna used to say, “we’ll already hang out there.”

Archimandrite Savva (Mazhuko)

Instead of a preface

Without Moscow swearing

Testify

Marina Zhurinskaya: Mass media should have one property: it should be environment-forming. Like-minded people should gather around him.

Of course, the media can achieve temporary success if it looks for an audience that will please it, but this is a doomed business in the long run, especially when we are talking about Christian journalism. Christian journalism is not propaganda, it is evidence.

No one promised us success, we were told: in the world you will have sorrow. And then it says, but take heart, I conquered the world. It is not said: I will give you victory over the world, no. I conquered the world. We live in a saved world.

Before there was political correctness, in America in the 19th century, when they advertised for a job, they wrote in an insulting way, “Irish people, please do not worry.” If we abstract from political correctness, then the conditional Irish are asked not to worry - there is no need to save the world, it is saved. And we must testify that he is saved.

We must live it ourselves, we must experience joy in the Lord and bear witness to the joy. This, of course, is very difficult, but the ideal Orthodox media will be guided by the thesis of the Apostle Paul: Pray without ceasing, always rejoice, give thanks in everything. Do you often see this in the Orthodox media? And “thank God for everything” of St. John Chrysostom - often?

Anna Danilova: Evidence is an unusual concept for journalism. Religious journalism is spoken of in a variety of words – preaching, PR, analytics…

M. Zh.: A normal Orthodox publishing house is run, forgive me, by the laity (with all due respect to the holders of the holy order, they must be present in this matter, but the laity work). Therefore, this is a special case of the apostolate of the laity.

What is an apostolate of the laity?

June 26, 1941 was born Marina Zhurinskaya, linguist, founder and editor of the Orthodox-intellectual journal Alpha and Omega.

Private bussiness

Marina Andreevna Zhurinskaya (1941-2013)(last name after her first husband - Alfred Zhurinsky, maiden name unknown) graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, defended a diploma in Hittology (probably under the influence of V.V. Ivanov). As an intern, she was assigned to the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where her field of study was linguistic typology. In the mid-1970s, Marina Zhurinskaya was appointed coordinator of the "Languages ​​of the World" project of the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and led the project until 1986. The aim of the project was to create general theoretical principles for describing any language and to publish an encyclopedia "Languages ​​of the World". PhD in Philology, has more than 100 publications on linguistic topics. Translator from German (linguistic works, theological texts, as well as Gadamer and Schweitzer). Since 1994 he has been the publisher and editor of the Alpha and Omega magazine. Member of the editorial board of the collection "Theological Works".

In 1975, under the influence of S. S. Averintseva's lectures, she was baptized by Father Alexander Men under the name Anna. After 1986, she left editing linguistic works and switched completely to Orthodox journalism. In 1994, under the influence of Averintsev's circle, she founded the Orthodox educational magazine Alpha and Omega, of which she was editor-in-chief until her death. The journal is not an official organ of the Russian Orthodox Church, however, it received high marks from the Patriarchs of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II and Kirill, who noted that the journal "has become one of the most popular publications among domestic Christian periodicals."

What is famous

She edited the "Languages ​​of the World" series, led sections on structural typology in several collections. She founded the Orthodox intellectual and educational magazine "Alpha and Omega", dedicated to the popularization of biblical studies, patristics, Church history, theology. Member of the editorial board of the collection of the Russian Orthodox Church MP "Theological Works".

What you need to know

Marina Zhurinskaya

There was no Hittology at Moscow State University, it was planted by comparative linguists led by V.V. Ivanov. M.A.’s diploma was not, in the strict sense, a scientific work, nor were her encyclopedic articles written in the 1970s. for various collections. They popularized the ideas developed in those years by the theorists V. Zvegintsev and I. Melchuk. Structural typology proper was founded in the USA by Grinberg in the 1960s, in Russia it flourished already in the 1980s (Nedyalkov, Khrakovsky, Kibrik, etc.). Therefore, Zhurinskaya's scientific activity in linguistics was more popularizing, and her departure from the Institute of Linguistics was a transition to the popularization of Orthodoxy.

In the 1990s in the wake of perestroika, several magazines about the Bible and the Church were created (“World of the Bible”, “Church and Time”, etc.), designed to intellectually feed the near-church intelligentsia, focused primarily on S. S. Averintsev and Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (Bloom) . The journal Alpha and Omega published mainly articles on the topics of the Bible, patristics, theology and hagiology, as well as translations of biblical and patristic texts.

Direct speech

“The problem of translating the Holy Scriptures is relevant now for almost all Christian Churches and peoples: translations that are quite adequate for their time need to be updated, revised, since the language is constantly changing, and therefore the texts become outdated, become archaic. However, this problem, which is common to all, has to be solved in each specific case individually, since the translation or revision of existing texts of Scripture in national languages ​​should be carried out in line with the relevant traditions - linguistic, philological, cultural. Marina Zhurinskaya.

“Even if the Russian Orthodox Church disappears somewhere – which is impossible, but even if it disappears somewhere and only one priest remains in it – a bitter drunkard and a notorious informer – I will remain his last parishioner and we will mourn our sins together.” "Marina Zhurinskaya: No Moscow Swearing". Orthodoxy and the world 12.05.2011 .

7 facts about Marina Zhurinskaya

• Zhurinskaya's diploma was devoted to the language of the ancient Hittites; she did not defend her dissertation.
• Both of Zhurinsky's husbands were prominent linguists - Alfred Zhurinsky and Yakov Testelets.
• The Alpha and Omega magazine was founded in 1994 as the Scientific Notes of the Interfaith Society for the Dissemination of the Holy Scriptures in Russia (ORSPR), and it received the blessing of the ROC MP only in 1996.
• The first publications of articles by A. Dvorkin, A. Kuraev and E. Homogorov appeared on the pages of the journal.
• Marina Zhurinskaya's book "Mishka and some other cats and cats: a strictly documentary narrative", dedicated to her cat Mishka, went through two reprints (2006, 2007, 2009).
• At the age of 70, Zhurinskaya turned to the topic of rock culture and wrote an article about Viktor Tsoi. After that, at the invitation of Vyacheslav Butusov, who liked the article, she visited a rock concert for the first time in her life.
• Condolences in connection with the death of Marina Zhurinskaya were expressed by Patriarch Kirill.

Marina Andreevna Zhurinskaya(born) - Soviet and Russian journalist, publicist, linguist, editor of the Orthodox magazine Alpha and Omega. Candidate of Philology.

Biography

Marina Zhurinskaya is a graduate of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, she defended her diploma in Hittology. As an intern, she was distributed to, where she immediately got linguistic typology - an area that is usually dealt with by employees with long service. She worked at the institute for almost 20 years. Author of over a hundred scientific papers. In the mid-1970s, Marina Zhurinskaya was appointed coordinator of the IRL project of the USSR Academy of Sciences "Languages ​​of the World", led the project until 1986.

In 1975 she received Orthodox baptism. Since 1994 he has been the publisher and editor of the Alpha and Omega magazine. Member of the editorial board of the collection "Theological Works".

Marina Zhurinskaya has a cat called Mishka, her book "Mishka and some other cats and cats: a strictly documentary narrative" was published in Nizhny Novgorod and went through two reprints (2006, 2007, 2009).

Surely there will be someone who will exclaim indignantly: “Well, is this a Christian point of view! We know well that death is followed by resurrection, so it's okay, and besides, tragedy is generally from the theater and thus unworthy of Christians.
However, the experience of humanity, including humanity enlightened by the light of the Gospel, including us and our neighbors living today, shows that death is very serious and scary. And death torment is serious; it is a pain that cannot be endured by remaining alive. And it is difficult for the soul to part with the body. And fearful to fall into the hands of the living God(Heb 10 :31), which still needs to be said. Perhaps it is more difficult for a Christian who is deprived of firm faith and hope (alas, this often happens) to die than for an atheist who adheres to his views. Is it true that we know about the last minutes and even seconds of human life?

Those who happened to be present at the exit of the soul from the body know that some secret hides the very moment of the transition - so much so that one should not talk about it guessingly.
We don't pray in vain about the Christian death, painless, shameless, peaceful, and it is not for nothing that we note that the righteous are honored with such. If we thought about the hour of death (there are, after all, prayerful words about the granting of the memory of death), we would pray more fervently.

And as for the fact that the tragedy is from the theater, it is not from scratch. People watch tragedies, empathize, cry - for the sake of consolation, for the sake of softening the feeling of the tragedy of life. At one time, Aristotle created the concept catharsis, the cleansing that people experience when they see a correctly written tragedy. And the right one is the one that causes catharsis; in this sense, modern fighters with seas of blood and mountains of corpses are nothing more than a profanation of the theme of death, which can only dull, drown out, distort its human experience. Yes, we have been granted consolation in prayer, but it is also undeniable that we need consolation. And even if we take into account that for the deceased, death means a new, better life, for loved ones it is nevertheless a loss. And for the cause that the deceased served, his death can be disastrous.

The theme of the tragedy of life sounds with particular force in the Gospel of Luke. Consider the relevant passage (chapters 12-13). After a series of parables ending with the parable that to whom much is entrusted, from him more will be exacted(OK 12 :48), - collectively they can be defined as parables of responsibility - the Lord exclaims with power (v. 49-50): I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! Baptism must I be baptized; and how I long for this to be done! The fire is here -
the forgiving grace of the New Testament - but the fire frightens, and this resonates elsewhere in the New Testament Scripture: It is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God!(Heb 10 :31). The very verb to fall carries in itself an idea of ​​danger: one falls into sin, into temptation, into perdition - and into the hands of the Lord.

But Christ, saying that He wants a fire to kindle, that He languishes until His baptism is done (and it will be done on the Cross), shows the fullness of courage. However, the terrible power of death torments is such that the Lord Himself, a perfect God - but also a perfect man - prays that this cup, if possible, be turned away from Him; and prays in mortal horror, to the point of bloody sweat, approaching this prayer three times (it is said about this threefold prayer three times - see Matt. 26 :38-44; Mk 14 :33-41; OK 22 :41-44). So I'm afraid that the "optimistic" attitude towards death is an attempt to belittle the feat that He took upon Himself the sins of the world - our salvation.

And at the beginning of the 13th chapter, the Savior is told about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices. In response, He recalls those people who died when the tower of Siloam collapsed (there were 18 of them), and claims that they were not at all more sinful than others in Jerusalem, but such a sudden death (it is customary to call it a tragic death) can befall anyone who did not repent.
Let's consider: Does Christ promise those who repent the guarantee of earthly immortality? It seems that rather He warns against death without repentance, since it can most tragically affect the posthumous fate, from what is called in the high poetry of Orthodox prayer fall asleep in death.

In Christian culture, it is customary to distinguish whether a person repented before death (this was called the Christian death) or did not have time; for such it is necessary to pray especially. In the "Divine Comedy", built extremely skillfully, so that the circles of hell have some parallels in the circles of purgatory and even paradise, two mercenaries-condottieri are contrasted. Both led a rather unrighteous, to put it mildly, way of life and both found death in battle, but one of them was in hell, and the other, who exclaimed at the moment of death
"Lord, have mercy" - in purgatory. But what about condottieres, when an example of the beneficence of near-death repentance is shown to us by a prudent robber (see Luke 23 :40-43). And since his repentance was complete, he went to heaven. And in Russian everyday life, one of the most terrible oaths was: “Yes, so that I die without repentance!”. What now? And now, sudden death (Church-glory. impudent) is extremely valued - precisely because it makes it possible to avoid repentant thoughts.

Yes, even if not sudden ... I know a terrible case when an old doctor was dying of an incurable disease, and he knew perfectly well that he was dying, and asked to call the priest. His daughter, an elderly woman and also a doctor, refused to call the priest, arguing that the patient would lose the incentive to fight for life and die sooner. What do people not invent to evade the contemplation of the truth! And the truth is not only that the Lord created the world and governs it, but also that every person on the way to Him must face death. And do it courageously. But courage is given by God, whom one must meet in the last
Sacraments on earth - with the hope of meeting Him in Heaven. He does not cancel the terrible transition (I dare to suggest that because he desires the final growth of the soul) - He strengthens a person in faith and hope.

Just as He Himself was strengthened by the Angel in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Lk 22 :43).

Deacon Pavel Serzhantov recalls, who worked for 15 years in the editorial office of the journal Alpha and Omega she created.

For nine days we came to the grave of Marina Andreevna Zhurinskaya to serve a memorial service. Under the wooden cross were flowers - from the funeral. So fresh, like it all happened yesterday. Life remained in cut flowers. Wasn't in a hurry to leave.

I remember Marina Andreevna as an amazingly lively person. I met her fifteen years ago. She had very little health. But how much life shone in her eyes at the same time, in her ability to immediately find suitable words to characterize some dry scientific fact or tell a curious incident from life.

She was a member of the treasury of the Russian language. At first glance, for a linguist, candidate of science, this is not surprising ... The editor of the journal "Alpha and Omega" Marina Andreevna had a literary talent - open her "Bear" and see. She is an interesting read as an author. True, I personally was more interested in just talking to her.

With her there was always something to talk about, and something to be silent about. She did not tire her interlocutor with a stream of professional eloquence. The conversations went on slowly, in this space of thought a place was prepared for all the participants in the conversation. You can express your opinion, and just think silently with concentration. It was good to think in her presence. She specifically created favorable conditions for this.

And yet Marina Andreevna could suddenly go beyond the limits of linguistic possibilities. What am I talking about? You see, this happens with poets. The speech of the poet in the middle of the poem suddenly becomes simple, simple, extremely simple, and at the same time does not lose any content. On the contrary, poetic speech acquires some convincing depth. It is amazing to feel the depth of simple words, which was not obtained due to deliberate complications of speech, layers of meanings and not due to special sound effects. With Marina Andreevna, the simplicity of communication did without annoying simplifications of thought.

Keeping the simplicity of speech and its depth - for this you need an extraordinary sense of the Russian language, a kind of absolute pitch. It seems to me that it is much easier to find absolute pitch in music than an absolute sense of language. With such a sense of language, Marina Andreevna spoke with people, wrote magazine articles. And edited.

She knew how to transfer her experience, and not every experienced person is able to transfer his experience to others. Marina Andreevna conscientiously taught the editorial craft to the journal's staff, sparing no time and effort for this. Who is now engaged in this training of young editors? Not many people who. It's a long, hard, and complicated business. So we often read somehow published magazines and books ...

Once Pasternak spoke paradoxically about the texts. I will try to recall his idea more precisely: after the author puts the last point in the text, work on the text begins. Begins. It doesn't end or even continue. Yes, the author's editing requires a lot of effort, the exhausting alteration of many pages, and even rewriting the entire “finished” text anew. And this is not the end again. The editorial work begins.

Marina Andreevna, the editor, was characterized by respect for the author and at the same time respect for the reader. Here is her recipe! Therefore, her magazine "Alpha and Omega" always turned out surprisingly good.

You can remember a lot about Marina Andreevna. I would like to say about one more rare and valuable character trait that is inherent in different people - Marina Andreevna also had it. She was also with Father John (Krestyankin). He once admitted: "I like to rejoice and please." Marina Andreevna also looked for any reason in our difficult life to rejoice, to see something good, to rejoice in the goodness of God. She loved to please and support others: with a comforting word and a good deed. And I tried to ensure that the words were necessarily backed up by deeds.

Empty words, behind which there is nothing, did not interest her. She has always been inspired by literature and - by the very real life that is on the other side of words. Such a life, which, alone, convincingly, without falsehood, is capable of sounding in words.

It all has to do with personal communication with her and her professional activities. It is clear to everyone that the editor's task largely consists of finding and correcting author's mistakes, shortcomings of the text. This is the "negative" side of the editorial business. But there is also a “positive” one: to find talented authors and help them with publications, edit the text so that it becomes clean and sparkling, so that the reader admires it gratefully, and the author is also pleased.

The trouble is if the editor does not see the "positive" and is completely focused on the "negative" side of his work. Such an editor will inevitably lose professionalism, he will not experience real joy in doing his job (gloating does not count). And now let’s generalize: it’s a disaster if a person is focused on the “negative” side of his work and life in general and does not notice anything “positive” in our life. Such a disaster has many names, one of them is despondency.

Marina Andreevna loved to notice the good, she knew how to find something worthwhile, positive, joyful in work and life. And she willingly shared her discovery with her neighbors. Eternal memory to her, may the Lord inspire her in the abode of heavenly joy!