In 1963, in Yugoslavia, the Serbian art historian Zdravko Kaimanovic, while taking inventory of Serbian cultural monuments Orthodox Church, in the village of Purachin, near Tuzla, discovered an icon, on the reverse side of which there was an inscription in Russian: “This icon was painted in the Samara province, Buzuluk district, Uteevskaya volost, the same village, with the teeth of the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev, armless and legless, 1885 , July 2." A request was made to the State Archive of the USSR, and it confirmed it.
In a semi-dark hut, illuminated by the flickering fire of a torch, Marya Zhuravleva’s relatives were sitting at the table. Her husband was drafted into the army at the Dormition and served in the distant and dangerous Caucasus, where he participated in pacifying the rebellious Dagestan and Chechnya. Marya herself, taken to the village of Utevki from a rich peasant family, lay on clean, crisp straw laid on the floor in a well-heated bathhouse, and suffered through her third birth. The bathhouse was lit by three oil smokers, and the birth was attended by the midwife Avdotyushka, and there was also a married sister-in-law Dasha, who heated the water and laid out clean rags and diapers on the bench. Although there was a third birth, it was moving slowly, and the grandmother was already using soap, luring the baby for sugar, and even sent the girl to Father Vasily to open the Royal Doors in the church and perform a prayer service with the blessing of water Reverend Melania A Roman woman who prospers in childbirth. Either the soap, or the opening of the Royal Doors, but something helped, and the bathhouse was soon filled with the piercing cry of a baby. But after this cry came the desperate cry of Avdotyushka. The sister-in-law grabbed the smoker, brought it closer to the newborn and also squealed. The child was born without arms and legs.
The doors of the hut opened and Dashka ran in, out of breath. The relatives sitting at the table all turned to her with a question:
Well, what's there? Dasha clasped her hands and started screaming. Everyone was alarmed.
What, Manka died?!
No.
Well, don’t howl, you fool, finally speak properly!
The child was born a freak!
How so ugly?
And so, there are no arms, no legs, just a body and a head. Everything is smooth.
Kind of like an egg.
Everyone jumped up from the table and rushed into the bathhouse to look. Father Deacon came to the hut from church to receive the required money. Having learned such a thing, he opened his mouth in surprise and stood there for two minutes, making the sign of the cross. And then he ran to the bathhouse, picking up the edges of his cassock.
Let Father Deacon through, let him through,” Dashka shouted, pushing her relatives aside with her elbows. The deacon wrapped up his robe, took out a tortoiseshell spectacle, sedately put on his glasses and carefully examined the child.
Father Deacon, how could this happen? And our girl, Manka, is healthy and strong as a turnip. And her man was like a stallion, but the child turned out to be defective? - Manka’s relatives asked in bewilderment.
Hmmm, Orthodox Christians, this is a complicated question. Here only doctoral science is able to answer it. But as for my opinion, as a clergyman I can say that Satan himself worked here. Without him, the damned one, things couldn’t have happened here. Apparently, the Lord saw a great man in this baby. Maybe he was appointed by the Lord to be a general, or maybe even a bishop. But the devil, out of evil intent, took it and took away the baby’s arms and legs. So much for the bishop.
However, maybe I’m wrong, so forgive me for Christ’s sake. But we refuse the required money, and in such sorrowful circumstances we do not take it.
The mother and child were brought from the bathhouse to the hut and placed in a corner, fenced off with a chintz curtain. Relatives crowded around the bed and gave advice:
“You, Manka, don’t give him a tit,” said Uncle Yakim, “he’ll scream for two days, grunt, and end up dead.” And he will untie you, and he himself in the Kingdom of Heaven will thank you. There is no place for him in this life, such a cripple. Just think about it yourself: after all, he is an eternal backbone, no arms, no legs. Only one mouth for food, and a belly. Where would it be good for, except to give it to the gypsies so that they could show it at fairs for money?
But still, eight days later the baby was brought to church.
Servant of God Gregory is baptized. In the name of the Father. Amen. And the Son. Amen. And the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Eck, it’s so smooth,” grumbled Father Vasily, “there’s nothing to grab onto.” Almost drowned in the font.
Uncle Yakim was the successor. Taking the baptized Grisha into dry diapers, he grumbled:
And what kind of little baby is this, with only one mouth?
Father Vasily, looking reproachfully at the recipient, said:
We, Yakimushka, do not yet know what God’s providence is for this child. And as for the mouth, with this mouth he can do even greater things. After all, the mouth serves not only for eating food, but the Scripture says: “In the beginning was the Word.” Wait, wait, it’s not you yet, but he will feed you. My mother had an interesting providential dream about this child.
Although it’s a dream, you, Father Vasily, you’re not interpreting this right, you’re not interpreting this right. Well, how will such a cripple provide food for me, a healthy man? No, there cannot be such a possibility.
What is impossible for man is possible for God,” said Father Vasily, approaching the child with the holy world.
Little Grisha would have had a bad time if it weren’t for his older brother and sister. Especially my sister. His godfather, Uncle Yakim, made a special low stroller for Grisha, which he brought into the yard with the words: “For my future breadwinner.” And wherever the brother and sister went, they took Grisha with them everywhere; who grew up as a smart boy and looked at the world of God with clear, thoughtful eyes. Father Deacon himself came to teach him literacy and the law of God. Grisha, sitting on a bench, leaning his chest on the table and holding a pencil in his teeth, carefully wrote down the letters on paper: az, beeches, lead, verb, dobro. The whole village pitied him, and everyone tried to do something for him, to serve him in some way. Children, usually merciless towards holy fools, fools and cripples, never offended or teased Grisha. Grisha's father never returned from the Caucasus. Apparently somewhere he was hit by a dashing Chechen bullet. But there was no need for a family, because the world took care of it. He plowed and sowed the land, harvested the crops and helped with community money. The rector of the temple, Father Vasily, also helped, and the master, leader of the district nobility, retired general Prince Tuchkov, also helped.
Grisha's drawing abilities showed up early. And it seemed that through his suffering he saw many things that others did not see. With his childish mind, he penetrated into the very essence of things and events, and sometimes his reasoning surprised even old people. At the master’s suggestion, Grisha was taken every day in a stroller to the estate, where teachers who taught the general’s children taught him. But the church was especially attractive to Grisha. The village of Utevki was vast, and many people lived in it, but the church was small and cramped and always filled with parishioners. Grisha constantly asked to go to the temple of God, and his patient brother and sister, without arguing, always took him to the all-night vigil, to Sunday mass, and also to all holidays.
Pushing the carriage through the people, they brought Grisha to each icon, lifted him up, and he kissed the image and widely with open eyes peered at him, whispering something, smiling, nodding his head Mother of God, and often tears rolled down his cheeks. He and his stroller were placed on the choir behind the large icon of Demetrius of Thessalonica, and he sang along with the choir by ear throughout the entire service in a clear, sonorous alto. The master, Prince Tuchkov, did not leave Grisha with his mercy and, with the consent of his mother, sent him to study at the Samara gymnasium. His brother and sister went with him. Before that, the prince visited the Samara governor and arranged everything.
The city board of trustees rented an apartment for all three of them not far from the gymnasium, paid tuition fees, and the master left money for living expenses and for a cab driver. The brother took Grisha to the gymnasium and stayed with him in class, and the sister took care of the house, went to the market, and prepared simple food. To everyone's surprise, Grisha studied well. At first, his classmates were shy and avoided him as the governor’s protégé and a terrible cripple, but over time they got used to it, took a closer look and even fell in love with him for his cheerful disposition, remarkable intelligence and abilities, but especially for the folk songs that he sang in a strong, beautiful voice.
Wow, a person never loses heart! - they said. - It’s not that we are boring and sour.
In addition to the gymnasium, Grisha was taken to the city Cathedral for divine services and also to the icon-painting workshop of Alexei Ivanovich Seksyaev.
When Grisha found himself in the workshop, he was simply not himself. Inhaling the smell of drying oil, turpentine and varnishes, he experienced a joyful festive feeling. One day he showed the owner of the workshop his drawings on paper in pencil and watercolor. The drawings passed from hand to hand, the masters shook their heads and, clicking their tongues approvingly, patted Grisha on the back. Soon they, without being lazy, began to teach him their cunning skill of fine icon painting, from the very beginning.
Although he is offended by fate, the Lord will not abandon this boy and, with our help, will create a master out of him, they said.
The owner, Alexey Ivanovich, put a separate table by the window especially for him, attached a belt to it to fasten Grisha to the table, gave him a three-wick kerosene lamp and hung a glass ball of water from the ceiling on a cord, which cast a bright beam onto the table from the lamp Sveta. And Grisha’s brother was taught what Grisha could not do: making wooden blanks for icons, priming and gluing pavolok, applying gesso and polishing with a cow’s tooth, as well as gluing gold leaf and preparing special paints. Grisha himself was taught to apply the contours of an image on gesso with a thin steel needle - “count”, to write “dolichnoe”, that is, the entire surroundings, except for the face and hands, as well as the faces themselves, palms and fingers. His brother put a brush in his mouth and he began. It was difficult at first, oh how difficult it was. The board had to lie flat on the table, evenly, so that the paint did not flow down. The brush had to be held vertically in relation to the board. The better this was done, the finer the drawing came out. Being too close hurt my eyes and my neck hurt from tension. After two or three hours of such work, a spasm of the jaw muscles occurred, so that Grisha could not remove the brush from his mouth. He was able to open his mouth only after wet hot towels were placed on his cheekbones. But there were successes. The drawing on the icon came out solid and correct. No one else can do it with his hand like Grisha does with his teeth. The young master, looking at Grisha’s table, shouted to the others: “Eh, Grishka the scoundrel, he did such a clever job with the crow! Look, brothers, how alive, really, he’s flying to Elijah the Prophet!” In icon subjects, Grisha was guided by the “Front Script” - a collection of canonical icon images. He started with simple icons, where there was one figure of a saint, but then little by little he moved on to more complex subjects and compositions. The owner, Alexei Ivanovich, taught him:
Grisha, paint the icon with the Jesus Prayer. You are a clean person, unsullied in everyday affairs, like a true monk: Write earnestly, in our own way - in Russian. We would like to write like this, but it doesn’t work. We’ve already become dirty, and we indulge in vodka, and the women in our lives are somehow confused. Where can we paint a truly holy image! We do not have a monastic monastery, where monks-isographers fast, pray, remain silent before painting an image, and rub the paints with holy water and a piece of holy relics. Wow! Holy obedience is fulfilled. And we just have a workshop, with worldly sinful masters. It helps us that after our hands the icons in the churches of God are consecrated with a special rite. Then the image becomes pure, holy. Well, you are a completely different matter. Yours is completely different - it turns out gracefully. But just don’t forget to follow the canon, don’t get carried away. The demon will tempt you, incite you to add some gag, but stick to the canonical. Because canonical means ecclesiastical, and ecclesiastical means conciliar, and conciliar means pan-human. God forbid you allow lies in the icon. Falsity in icon painting can cause irreparable harm to many Christian souls, but spiritual truthfulness will help some and strengthen others.
Years passed, and Grisha learned a lot in the workshop of Alexei Seksyaev. At twenty-two, he graduated from the Samara gymnasium and returned to his native village of Utevka, where he began painting icons to order. The images he painted sold in great demand among the people. Not only were the icons good and blessed, but people especially appreciated and noted that they were not ordinary icons, but not made by hands. That the Holy Spirit Himself helps Gregory the icon painter, that a man without arms and without legs cannot work like that. This is a holy deed, this is a feat according to Christ. The queue of customers was even years in advance. Grisha began to earn good money, built himself a spacious workshop, trained more assistants for himself, and even took on his uncle Yakim, who by that time was widowed and old, as his dependent.
By 1885, during the reign of the pious Sovereign Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich, in the rich and grain-producing village of Utevki they began to build a cathedral church in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, and Grisha was invited to paint the walls. For him, according to his drawing, special scaffolding was made, where the cradle on blocks could move in different directions. It was necessary to paint on wet plaster quickly, within one hour, and Grisha, fearing for the quality of the image, decided to paint on a primed canvas pasted on the walls. His brother and another assistant were near him all the time, moving him around, handing him over and changing brushes and paints. It was terribly difficult to paint the dome of the temple. Only a prayerful cry to Christ and the Mother of God poured into him strength and perseverance for this feat. He had to lie on his back, on a special lift with screws, suffer from fatigue and pain, and yet he managed to complete the painting of the dome. From this work, painful bleeding ulcers formed on the shoulder blades, sacrum and back of the head. Working with the walls became easier. First of all, Gregory began to paint the magnificent appearance of the Holy Trinity to Patriarch Abraham at the Oak of Mamre, trying to make everything turn out like the reverend iconographer Andrei Rublev.
Having heard about such an extraordinary painter, journalists and a photographer arrived from St. Petersburg. Standing near the cathedral, they asked the working plasterers: “How does Gregory paint the cathedral without any limbs?” Pskov plasterers grinned, rolled thick cigarettes from shag and fumigate curious journalists with acrid thick smoke.
How does he paint? It is known how - with his teeth, - the men said, puffing on rolled-up cigarettes, - he takes the brush in his teeth and went to play. The head moves back and forth, and two accomplices hold it by the body and move it little by little.
Miracles! - the journalists were surprised. - Only in Rus' can this happen. Will he let us film?
How he won't let me in. He will let you in, without hesitation. Let the Orthodox people, even if not in nature, still look at your photos. Gregory’s icons are very good, very kind to the soul and heart. In a word - not made by hands.
For several years in a row, Gregory painted the temple. From hard work and constant looking at the drawing, his eyesight almost deteriorated. I had to go to Samara to order glasses. My mouth was very bothersome. My lips were constantly cracking and bleeding, my front incisors were thoroughly worn away, and very painful ulcers appeared on my tongue. When he, sitting at the table after work, could not eat because of the pain in his mouth, his sister, wiping her tears with her palm and sobbing, said:
You are a martyr, Grishenka, you are our martyr.
Finally, the temple was fully decorated, and the diocesan bishop himself, the Samara governor, eminent merchant benefactors, officials of the provincial government and the spiritual consistory arrived for its consecration. Dressed up people gathered from the surrounding villages. When the authorities entered the temple and looked at the painting, everyone gasped, amazed at the beauty of the images. Here all the Old Ones shone in colors and New Testament. There was a fresco “The Joy of the Righteous in the Lord,” where the righteous, rejoicing, enter Paradise. There was the “Vision of John Climacus,” where sinners from a ladder erected in the air from earth to heaven fall headlong into the fiery pit of the underworld. The image was so impressive that two merchant women rolled out of fear into the arms of their husbands and were dragged out onto the grass without memory. There was here “Let every breath praise the Lord,” and “Every creature rejoices in You,” where all kinds of cattle, every creature under heaven, were depicted, wild animals and a handsome peacock, as well as the sea itself with reptiles and fish playing in the foamy waves.
The consecration was solemn. The bishop's choir brought from Samara sang. The litany was pronounced in a thunderous voice by the cathedral protodeacon, to the joy and delight of his fans, the Samara money-bag merchants.
And Grisha was sick at that time and was lying on his bed at home. In front of him on the floor sat the holy fool Afonya, his chains jingling, and like a dog, he grabbed pieces of beef from a bowl of cabbage soup with his teeth, crossed himself and hiccupped in the womb, piteously asking to warm his soul with vodka.
About a month after the consecration of the cathedral, an official on special assignments under the governor arrived from Samara to Utevka in a smart carriage drawn by a pair of sleek bay horses with a thick large envelope sealed with official wax seals. The envelope contained a Letter from the Minister of the Court of His Imperial Majesty inviting Grigory Nikolaevich Zhuravlev to St. Petersburg and enclosing five hundred rubles in banknotes for the trip.
The whole village escorted Grisha to the Tsar in St. Petersburg. We served a farewell prayer and baked plantain pies. On a bright autumn day of Indian summer, when triangular flocks of birds stretched to the south, and light cobwebs flew in the clean air, smelling of withered leaves, the cathedral deacon sang the litany: “On the hedgehog, send them an Angel of peace, a companion and mentor, preserving, protecting, interceding and observing unharmed from every evil situation, let us pray to the Lord."
Gregory was accompanied by his brother and sister. From Samara we first sailed on the steamer "St. Bartholomew", and then traveled in cast iron in second class. Idle onlookers peered into the compartment to gawk at the extraordinary monster, whom they believed was being taken to the fair for display.
Petersburg greeted them with a sharp westerly wind and cold rain. At the station, people with a carriage were met by people sent from Count Stroganov. Gregory knew that the count was a great connoisseur of Russian antiquity and the owner of the largest collection of ancient Russian icons. The carriage drove up to the Stroganov Palace on Nevsky Prospekt, and the visitors were placed in the guest wing. They settled down in three rooms. In addition, an icon-painting workshop with a full set of brushes and paints was prepared for Gregory. Literally from the first day, visitors began to come to Gregory. The first to appear was the eminent first guild merchant Labutin, an antiquarian and owner of a large, albeit unsystematic, collection of icons. He examined Grisha with his unblinking owlish gaze, the light/lean man sat down in a chair, rubbed his dry palms and offered Grisha a contract for the production of fifty icons for a good price. He immediately laid out a large amount of deposit on the table.
“And if I die,” said Grisha, “what will happen then?”
Labutin rubbed his hands again and wished him many years to come, but if such is the Lord’s will, he will not demand a penalty, but will simply suffer losses. This was followed by an endless stream of visitors.
There were students of the Academy of Arts here, there were curious ladies of high society, there were newspapermen and journalists, there were scientists - professors of medicine Bekhterev, Grekov, Vreden and even one famous academician of anatomy. A fellow countryman who came from the Volga region, the famous icon painter Nikita Savvateev, who painted images for the Royal Family, also visited him. He gave Grisha an icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh feeding a bear with bread in the forest. Grisha accepted the icon with pleasure and looked at the gift for a long time, marveling at the subtle Stroganov letter. At the same time, he recalled that blessed Afonya, the holy fool from his village of Utevki, once told him that animals without fear, with love, go to the saint, because they smell in him the stench that emanated from our Forefather Adam before his fall.
Once Count Stroganov himself came to Grisha and warned that a high visit was expected from the Sovereign Emperor Alexander III and his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna. That they would like to meet Grisha and watch him at work.
And so, one fine sunny winter day, the Tsar’s carriage drove into the courtyard of the Stroganov Palace, accompanied by a Cossack escort. The Cossack centurion and the cornet were the first to enter the room and carefully examined it. Grisha sat on the sofa waiting for distinguished guests and looked at front door. And so, the door opened, and the Emperor and the Empress entered.
The Emperor looked like a real hero. His friendly, broad face was adorned with a thick, bushy beard. He was dressed in a military uniform with an aiguette under the right shoulder strap and a white cross on his neck, wide trousers tucked into Russian boots with accordion tops. The Emperor sat down next to Grisha. On the contrary, the Empress sat down in a chair. Looking at Grisha, she said to the Emperor in French: “What a pleasant soldier’s face he has.” Indeed, it was pleasant to look at Grisha: his eyes were large, clear and gentle, his face was clean, framed by a dark short beard. The hair on the head is short and combed back.
The people surrounding Grisha began to fuss and began to show icons of his writing. The icons were immaculately beautiful and the August couple liked them. The Empress especially liked the image of the Mother of God - "Mammal", which was immediately presented to her.
Well, now let’s see how you work,” said the Emperor, getting up from the sofa. Grisha was carried into the workshop, sat on a stool and strapped to the table. His brother gave him a brush in his teeth. Grisha looked at his unfinished icon, dipped his brush into the paint, pressed it a little on the edge and began to quickly paint the face of the saint. Soon his brush created a miracle, and the blessed image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker looked out from the icon.
Sharman, Sharman,” said the Empress, looking through the lorgnette.
Well, thank you, brother, I respected you,” said the Emperor and, unfastening his gold pocket watch with a rehearsal, he put it on the table next to Grisha. Then he hugged him and kissed his head.
The next day, from the Office of His Majesty's Court they brought a decree granting Grisha a pension - for life, in the amount of 25 rubles in gold monthly. And also another decree to the Samara governor about providing Grigory Zhuravlev with a fast pacer with summer and winter travel.
Having stayed in St. Petersburg until spring, when the snow melted from the fields and ice passed along the Neva, Grisha and his entourage returned back to their native Utevki. And there life went on as before. In the morning the bell rang in the cathedral, and the isographer was taken on a pacer on a summer trip to an early place and sat in a chair on the choir, where he sang the entire routine of the mass with all his heart. As an honorary person and benefactor, at the end of the service the deacon presented him with an antidor and, in a ladle, a sweet wine drink on a silver saucer. After the service, they rode home on a pacer the same way, where he ate breakfast, depending on the day, whether it was fast or fast. After praying in the Cross Room, he moved to the workshop and plunged headlong into a completely different world, where there were no taverns, drunken men with accordions, thieving gypsies, scolding red-cheeked women and shrunken gossipy old women. And there was a world of amazing colors with which he literally worked miracles on linden and cypress boards. On the surface of these boards, with his God-given talent, the Holy Gospel was born in colors. There was joyful crying, tenderness, frantic crying, and inconsolable sorrow.
When he got tired, he asked to call Blessed Afonya, who did not always - “shalam-balam” - talk all sorts of incomprehensible nonsense, but could also speak amazing speeches. He usually sat on the floor and, having wet a large beef bone brought from the kitchen and knocking the fat out of it, began a conversation about the fact that there is a righteous and unrighteous world. The world - sinful, universal and adulterous - belongs to people and demons and is written through the decimal "and" - MIRЪ, and the righteous world of God, called SHALOM in Hebrew, is written through the letter "like" - MIR. So, Grishunya, don’t make mistakes when writing titles on images.
Grisha was surprised: where did blessed Afonya manage to gain such wisdom?
Grisha often thought about the iconographic canon. Sometimes he was tempted to add something of his own, but his conscience and religious feeling kept him from doing so. He knew that the iconographic canon is created, firstly, by saints, through mystical visions and through their spiritual experience, secondly, through revelations of God to people in miracles by the influx of the Holy Spirit, and, thirdly, it is drawn from the treasury of the Holy Scriptures and Legends. Icon painters were only zealous performers, but at the same time they had to be people of righteous life. As for the last condition, it was precisely this that was observed rather weakly, unless, of course, you count the God-fearing monastery isographers. One could also vouch for the Old Believer icon-painting workshops, from which tobacco, vodka were expelled, and in general everything was strictly and according to order.
Grisha had an icon painter he knew in Samara - a cross of Moses. He had more than enough talent. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, receiving a scholarship from millionaire manufacturer Ryabushinsky. But Moses was a man of indomitable flesh, in strength and stature he resembled Samson, the son of Manoah, and he lived, as they say, “foot by foot.” Either he would lock himself in his studio like a man possessed and paint icons, or for a whole month he would binge in taverns with lewd girls until he was completely drunk. His icons were distributed more among the nobility, Russophile intellectuals, as well as among rich taverns and hotels. So, everything is more for the surroundings, or, as they say now, the interior. The Orthodox people did not take them, and not because the price for them was high, but because they were graceless, devoid of the high spirit of holiness. Undoubtedly, they were beautiful and impressive, but somehow mundane, portrait-like. And all because Moses was a fornicator and a drunkard. Grisha reproached him many times for these vices, but Moiseyka, grinning, objected:
It’s easy for you, Grisha, to be a righteous man: you have no arms, no legs, nothing to hug a girl with, but what does it feel like for me?! If there are two fierce demons inside me - a drunken demon and a prodigal one? They beat me up (overwhelm me), and I can’t help myself.
And when, as usual, he got drunk in Utevki and got into a fight with the innkeeper, Grisha ordered him to be tied up and taken to the Vladyka in Samara, so that he would put him in a monastery for correction and repentance.
Of course, isographers were only executors of the will of the saints. Thus, the Rev. Andrei Rublev would never have written his famous “Trinity” if he had not been instructed Venerable Sergius Radonezh. In relatively recent times, in late XIX centuries, to the venerable elder Ambrose of Optina saw the appearance of the Mother of God in the air, blessing the grain field. And so, on this occasion, they began to paint a new image of the Mother of God - “The Spreader of the Loaves.” True, this icon is not yet widely distributed, but later, thanks to its gracious idea of feeding all those who labor and are burdened with spiritual bread and rye bread, by the grace of God it will spread throughout Great Rus'.
So, minute after minute the pendulum of the ancient clock in Grisha’s cell tapped, day after day the measured bell ringing was heard from the Cathedral of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity. Year after year, the ice flowed noisily down the river, foreshadowing the arrival of Easter and carrying times and dates into Eternity. And now, a new, twentieth century has come, a century in which humanity has disgraced itself with unheard-of bloody wars, monstrous atrocities, arrogant and proud fight against God, a mocking and proud breakthrough into space - this modern analogue of the Tower of Babel.
Although Gregory had the means, he did not start an icon-painting workshop, but still painted the images himself. People came for his icons not only from the distant outskirts of Russia, but even from other Orthodox countries. Grisha was always in an even, peaceful mood, nothing shook or darkened his soul. Always cheerful, witty, cheerful, he shone like a light to people, supporting them as best he could in difficult times. He loved to go fishing, where he would sit for hours on the river bank with a light fishing rod in his teeth. But in 1916, when there was a difficult, bloody war with Germany, he became bored and began to get sick often. During one difficult illness, he had a revelation in a dream vision: that hard times would soon come when he and his icons would not be needed by anyone. Churches will begin to be closed, and the Utevsky Cathedral in the name of the Holy Trinity will be closed, they will desecrate and pollute it, as they say in the Revelation of John the Theologian, and turn it into a vegetable warehouse. And three years later it happened. And thank God that Grisha did not see this, Because he was already lying in the grave.
He lay there like a small, short stump, having completed this measure of his deeds in life. His face was calm and expressed some kind of soldier’s readiness, as Empress Maria Feodorovna once noted. Probably, there, in another dimension, in areas unknown to us, he began some new unearthly duties. The nun in black measuredly read the Psalter, commemorating the deceased in the Glory. The candles burned with steady yellow flames. Blessed Afonya sat and wept at the head of the floor, hugging the table leg. People came to say goodbye, crossing themselves at the icons and at the deceased. He was buried solemnly. A lot of people gathered, they came from neighboring villages and even from Samara. His Eminence Vladyka ordered that Grisha be buried in the church fence, at the altar. The coffin was small, short, like a shrine in which the relics of saints rest. They sang "Eternal Memory". Singing “Holy God, Holy Mighty One,” they carried him to the grave.
The times were harsh, the difficult First World War was going on, in which Russia was defeated. There were many killed, wounded, and gassed. Legless cripples crawled through the bazaars begging for alms in leather bags. But even more terrible and terrible times were approaching...
When in Once again the customer came for his “Fragrant Flower” icon, it turned out to be finished, and was even covered with linseed oil. It is unknown who completed the icon.
And on Grisha’s grave a simple Orthodox Cross was placed with the inscription: “Behold, Man.”
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The name of Grigory Zhuravlev became widely known in Russia and abroad after in 1963 in Yugoslavia, the art historian Zdravko Kaimanovich, while taking inventory of the cultural monuments of the Serbian Orthodox Church, discovered an icon in the village of Purachin, on which was written in Russian: “This icon written in the Samara province, Buzuluk district, Utevskaya volost of the same village with the teeth of the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev, armless and legless, 1885, July 2." The State Archive later confirmed this information: there was such an icon painter.
Grigory Zhuravlev was born into a large peasant family in the wealthy village of Utevka, near Samara in 1858. The parents experienced a deep shock when they saw that the baby was crippled. He had no arms or legs. The mother was crying, the father was looking gloomy, the neighbors were whispering: “I’m offended by God.” According to recollections, Gregory’s mother wanted to commit suicide (drown herself) out of great grief, killing the baby along with herself, but his grandfather, Pyotr Vasilyevich Traikin, prevented this, “proving the harmfulness of his daughter’s plan.” He said that he would raise Grisha himself.
Time passed, and the boy, despite his injury, grew up cheerful and inquisitive. “God has looked upon His servant,” this was the judgment expressed by the residents of Utevka. The crippled child evoked not so much pity as surprise: crawling around the yard, he took a twig in his teeth and spent a long time drawing people, houses, and animals in the sand. Yes, he did it so cleverly - it’s a sight to behold.
It turned out that Grisha was not offended by God, but was especially noted for his talent. When the boy grew up, his grandfather began taking him to school. In winter on a sled, and in summer on a cart. After the death of Pyotr Vasilyevich, the school had to be left, but with smart child The teacher of the Zemstvo school, Troitsky, studied at home.
The boy learned to write by holding a pen in his teeth. And his handwriting was very good. Fellow villagers flocked to Gregory’s house asking them to write a letter to their relatives or a petition to an official. Natural abilities allowed the disabled person to graduate (externally and with honors) from the Samara Men's Gymnasium at the age of 22. God helped him in his studies, and in everyday life - his elder brother Athanasius. After the death of his mother, he became his nanny, or rather, his arms and legs: he carried him, fed him, washed him. Gregory loved to visit the temple, where his brother brought him to services. The artist had stumps instead of legs just below the knees, and he could still walk on his knees. He tied leather stilts to his knees with straps and moved, according to the Samara Vedomosti newspaper in 1880: the arms were atrophied from the hand to the shoulder and the legs from the foot to the knee, but he could still walk on his knees. So they either carried it, or it slowly moved on its own.
Returning home, Gregory began to independently study drawing, human anatomy, painting, and iconography. And later he began to paint icons. In 1885, the newspaper Samara Provincial Gazette wrote: “Zhuravlev decided to learn to paint “real images” with oil paints at all costs.” And at the age of 15, he, who had never left his native village, arrived in the provincial town and applied to the painter Travkin, who lives here, with a request to show him how to paint images. He kindly received the unusual student, left him in his apartment for several days and introduced him to the first techniques of painting. This was enough for Zhuravlev. Having purchased paints, brushes and other things in Samara, he returned to his native Utevka and, having ordered himself a table with special devices, began to study painting."
After 5 years, the young icon painter decided to donate several icons high-ranking officials Samara. People paid attention to his “living” icons and orders began to arrive. And soon the Provincial Zemstvo Assembly, taking into account the plight of the Zhuravlev family, assigned him an annual pension of 60 rubles.
The whole family helped Gregory in his work. Brother Afanasy made wooden blanks for icons, prepared paints, grandmother selected brushes, and father delivered icons to Samara. Later, Zhuravlev had students - Mikhail Khmelev and Vasily Popov.
Grigory loved to study, read a lot, fortunately, there was a big library.
In 1884, Zhuravlev turned to the Samara governor, who had always taken part in his life, with a request to present the painted icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to Tsarevich Nicholas, the future Emperor.
In the personal archive of Governor General A. D. Sverbeev, a letter addressed to Tsarevich Zhuravlev was preserved: “To His Imperial Highness the Sovereign Heir Tsarevich. Your Imperial Highness, I humbly and earnestly ask Your Imperial Highness that I, a peasant of the Samara province of Buzuluk district, village of Utevka Gregory Zhuravlev, with all my heart I wish to present to Your Imperial Highness the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which I painted with my mouth and not with my hands for the reason that by my nature I have no strength or movement in my arms and legs. Your Imperial Highness, yours truly I ask Your Highest Name to accept this icon, which I present to Your Imperial Highness with all my soul and love. Your Imperial Highness! I humbly ask you to allow this icon to be transferred to Your Highest Name because I do not have arms and legs. And I wrote this icon at the admonition of Almighty God, who allowed me into the Light of God and gave me the gift. Then the movement of my mouth opened, with which I control my skill at the command of God." The Tsarevich graciously accepted the icon. Soon the Emperor Alexander III invited Zhuravlev to the palace. Here a peasant painter painted a portrait of the Romanov family.
There is a legend that on the way back, Gregory, against his will, ended up in a traveling circus on wheels. They took it around Russia for six months and showed it to the public as a curiosity. It was with great difficulty that I managed to return to my homeland.
There is also this version of the story: at the beginning of the 20th century, rumors about the peasant god reached Tsar Nicholas II. The Tsar summoned Gregory and commissioned him to paint a portrait of the whole royal family. The Utev icon painter lived in St. Petersburg for a whole year. He completed the work, and the king was pleased. Although the portrait has not been found, it is reliably known that the sovereign granted the Samara peasant a lifetime monthly pension of 25 rubles in gold. At that time it was a lot of money. And the Samara governor was ordered to “give Zhuravlev a pacer with summer and winter travel.”
In memory of the miraculous rescue Imperial family During a train crash from a terrorist bomb in October 1888, Samara nobles ordered an icon from Grigory Zhuravlev to present to Alexander III, as evidenced by documents stored in the State Archives of the Samara Region.
The image of the patron saint of Samara, Saint Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow, Samara Governor A.D. Sverbeev also commissioned Zhuravlev to paint.
According to the surviving memories of the residents of Utevka, Grigory was of a cheerful disposition, very approachable, and loved to make vigorous, peasant jokes. He was very energetic, loved fishing, and sang ditties fervently. To amuse the children, he took a shepherd's whip in his teeth, waved and slammed it with a deafening whistle.
In 1885, construction of a new stone church began in Utevka. The church in honor of the Holy Trinity was built according to the drawings and under the direct supervision of Grigory Zhuravlev (thus we can say that he also had architectural talent!). All the frescoes were painted according to his sketches. And his church turned out to be squat, spreading wide, as if holding tightly to the ground. As the artist’s fellow countrymen say, it is somewhat similar to Gregory himself. And the artist painted the ten-meter-diameter dome of the temple himself. He lay down in a special cradle and worked while lying down. After two or three hours of such work, a spasm of the jaw muscles occurred so that Grisha could not remove his hand from his mouth. He was able to open his mouth only after wet hot towels were placed on his cheekbones. And so day after day, month after month, year after year. As a result of this work, bleeding ulcers formed on the artist’s shoulder blades and the back of his head. The leather straps dug into his body... Constantly looking at the drawing almost completely ruined his vision. Her lips were cracked and bleeding, her front teeth were worn away. Finally, in 1892, the work was completed. It was a feat...
These images have been preserved to this day: the Holy Trinity and the seven Archangels are depicted on the dome. On the frescoes are the apostles John the Theologian and Andrew the First-Called, Metropolitans of Moscow Peter and Alexy. Quite recently the face of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye.
The temple has excellent acoustics; the builders built special pots (voices) into the walls. The church was consecrated in 1892. She had a school and a small library.
In 1934, Soviet authorities began to destroy the bell tower. Fires were lit under wooden supports. Icons were torn off the walls with hooks. The most valuable ones were sent to Samara, the rest were brought at night to the collective farm apiary - for the manufacture of beehives. But beekeeper Dmitry Lobachev secretly distributed the icons to the village residents. In exchange, they brought him the required number of boards.
The authorities began to destroy the temple itself more than once. But unexpected circumstances forced the God-fighters to postpone their plans every now and then. So by Providence Church of God has survived to this day.
It was returned to believers in 1989. Two years later the temple was consecrated. The administration of the Neftegorsky district allocated 100 thousand rubles for the construction of the destroyed bell tower. 8 bells were brought from Voronezh. On the largest of them, in honor of the Utev artist, the inscription “Gregory” was made.
In 2006, a new carved iconostasis was installed in the church. An unquenchable lamp glows in the temple...
And miraculous images of Zhuravlev were found in almost every Utevsk hut and in neighboring villages. The peasants were unable to buy a cheap icon, so the artist painted images for them on wood and without gilding. But after a trip to St. Petersburg, when wealth appeared in the family, he increasingly painted images on gold and signed with his own hand on the back side: “This icon was painted with his teeth by the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev of the village of Utevka, Samara province, armless and legless.”
…IN last years local residents returned to the temple icons of Zhuravlev’s letters “Lord of Hosts”, “Myrrh-Bearing Women”, “Blessing Savior”, “King David”, “Baptism of the Lord”, “Resurrection of Christ”. The icon “Saints Cyril and Methodius” was brought from Kazakhstan. A message came from Moscow that Zhuravlev’s image “St. Leo – Pope of Rome” is in the church-historical office of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra along with works by Viktor Vasnetsov, Vasily Surikov and Mikhail Nesterov. Another Zhuravlev icon was recently discovered in the Urals.
The Samara diocese, together with the provincial authorities, is doing a lot to revive the memory of the amazing icon painter. In the Diocesan Church History Museum and in the Samara Regional Museum of History and Local Lore named after P.V. Alabin, his miraculous images have been on display for several years...
“Thank God that in our time historical justice is being restored and tribute is paid to such talents as the painter Grigory Zhuravlev,” said Archbishop Sergius of Samara and Syzran. – Born with an illness, but having deep faith and fortitude, he worked in the name of God and for people. His icons bring Divine light and help people.
Grigory Zhuravlev died on February 15 (new style) 1916. With the blessing of the ruling bishop, he was buried in the fence of the village church. After the revolution, the grave was razed to the ground, and for many years no one even remembered the self-taught artist, who amazed the Tsar with his talent. It was possible to determine the burial place of Zhuravlev, in the fence of the Utevsky temple, indicated by a resident of the village, Maria Emelyanovna Pestimenina, the granddaughter of the trustee of the temple, Ion Timofeevich Bogomolov. At the resting place of the icon painter, with the blessing of Archbishop Sergius of Samara and Syzran, an Orthodox cross was installed - this is how his grave was marked. The house of the master icon painter has been preserved.
It is unknown how many icons Grigory Zhuravlev painted. We hope that the fates of many of them will be revealed to us over time.
One work by Zhuravlev especially stands out - “The Utev Madonna.” This is not a canonical icon. It depicts a simple peasant woman. The work was kept for many years in the house of a Utev resident. And when she died in the late 90s, her nephews refused to return the icon to the temple. According to the rector of the temple, Father Anatoly, they decided to sell the valuable relic and sent it to Samara. After that, the fate of the Utev Madonna is unknown. In his book, Professor Alexander Malinovsky, who closely studied the work and life of Zhuravlev, writes: “The small format icon depicts a peasant woman in white a scarf with a baby in his arms, writes Malinovsky in his book “Joyful Meeting,” dedicated to the artist. – The face is simple, typical of the Volga region. Large dark eyes. There was a faint smile on his lips. There is not a shadow of churchliness. But still she is perceived as an icon. As far as I understand, in Rus' icons were not invented by icon painters. They appeared to the world. This icon appeared to Grigory Zhuravlev, you can feel it.”
There is a legend that Zhuravlev painted his beloved, neighbor Ekaterina Gracheva with a child in her arms.
The painter's fellow countrymen - Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, Alexander Malinovsky and local history teacher, member of the Union of Writers of Russia, Kuzma Danilov, collected a lot of historical material about the genius artist. In those schools in the Samara region where the “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” are taught, teachers also tell children about the peasant icon painter Grigory Zhuravlev.
The icons he painted were valued by the people because they emanated special grace and purity; they were considered not made by hands: without the help of the Lord, a person without arms and without legs, holding a brush in his teeth, cannot do this work. More than half of the icons made by Gregory were in gold and many were signed by him on the back with his own hand.
In our time, one artist painted his portrait from a photograph of Grigory Zhuravlev.
There are even people who would like to canonize Grigory Zhuravlev. But for canonization, miracles are needed through prayers to the ascetic. Or miracles from Zhuravlev’s icons. Not many such facts are known, but they exist.
In addition to the icons, a pencil portrait has been preserved young man the work of Grigory Zhuravlev, it is kept in the Utev Museum. According to the former owner of the portrait, it depicts Ivan Solovyov, who arrived in the village of Kryazh with his wife from the village of Kinel-Cherkassy. It is known that Zhuravlev painted two more portraits. But we have not yet been able to find them.
Four icons are in the Samara Church and Historical Diocesan Museum. These are the icons of the Mother of God "Mammal", Smolenskaya, Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Myrrh-Bearing Women. The last icon is not signed by Zhuravlev, so it cannot be said that it is his work, but it is attributed to him. There is also a sketch of the head of a child in Zhuravlev’s letter. The icon "St. Leo - Pope of Rome" is located in the church-archaeological office of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. The icon of the Savior, known to many, is kept in the Utevsky Holy Trinity Church. There are also icons of “Jesus Christ with Those Who Come”, “Beheading of John the Baptist”, “Recovery of the Lost”, “Quick to Hear” and others. There is also an icon of “St. George the Victorious” in the Pukhtitsa Monastery (Estonia).
He proved that in order to create pictorial masterpieces, passionate Faith, soul and talent are more necessary than hands. He proved it with his personal example, creating truly miraculous icons - since from birth he had not only no arms, but also no legs. I painted with my teeth. He rose to the level of the most famous artists of his time. His icons were exhibited in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in the Kazan Church along with the works of great artists V. Surikov, V. Vasnetsov, V. Polenov and others.
"Small in body, but great in soul"
...In 1858 (day and month unknown) in the village of Utevka, Buzuluk district, Samara province, a son was born into the family of Nikolai Zhuravlev. His parents were shocked when they saw his atrophied limbs: his arms from the hands to the shoulder, and his legs from the foot to the knee. The mother cried and even wanted to drown herself with her son. Her father Pyotr Traikin assured that he would raise his granddaughter himself.
Despite his physical disabilities, the boy grew up cheerful, intelligent and inquisitive. He learned to walk on his knees, to which leather stilts were tied to him. On fine days, Grigory crawled on his stumps into the yard, took a twig in his teeth and drew in the sand. The villagers looked and marveled at how skillfully he drew people, houses, and animals.
From the age of nine, Pyotr Vasilyevich drove his grandson to school and back: in the summer on a cart, and in the winter on a sled. Gregory learned to write while holding a pencil in his teeth. He developed calligraphic handwriting.
The village priest, Father Vasily, spiritually cared for him and taught him to read and write. At the age of 13 I gave him oil paints. The boy took a brush in his teeth, dipped it into paint bowls and drew strange pictures on paper. He showed unprecedented persistence: all day long, until his gums hurt, rubbing his lips until they bled, he put stroke after stroke on the paper, achieving a combination of colors known only to him.
At the age of 15, the young man went to Samara, where he studied for some time with the local painters Travkin and Alexei Seksyaev. This was quite enough for Gregory. Then he bought everything he needed for work and returned to his native village, where he began to make a living by painting icons and frescoes to order. The whole family helped him.
It is unknown exactly how many icons the brilliant master created. Among all of them, one stands out, unique in its writing and design. It depicts a simple peasant woman, Ekaterina Gracheva, for whom the artist clearly had strong feeling. He immortalized Catherine along with her little son in the image of the Mother of God. He worked for eight years, melting away from others. You can guess how many feelings, hopes, efforts and even the soul itself is invested in this creation!
Gregory gave the icon to Catherine. The villagers called her the “Utev Madonna.” According to people's reviews, she turned out to be bewitchingly beautiful and made an indelible impression. Later, the woman gave the icon to her friend Alexandra Podusova and left the village. After the revolution, for many decades it was kept in the house of a local resident, and after her death the icon was taken to Samara and sold to someone...
The Artist and the Emperor
In the personal archive of Samara Governor-General A.D. Sverbeev (1878–1891), a letter from G. Zhuravlev was preserved, in which the artist asked to donate the icon to Tsarevich Nicholas:
“...Your Imperial Highness, most humbly and diligently... I wish to present to you the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which I painted with my mouth and not with my hands, for the reason that by nature I do not have the strength of movement in my arms and legs. I painted this icon at the admonition of Almighty God, who allowed me into the light of God. And he gave me a gift. Then the movement of my mouth opened, with which I control my mastery at the command of God.”
The icon reached the recipient and Emperor Alexander III the Peacemaker invited Zhuravlev to St. Petersburg, where he painted a group portrait of the Romanov family. The Emperor was pleased with the work, gave him an album and assigned him a lifetime monthly pension of 25 gold rubles (a lot of money at that time), and the Governor-General of Samara was ordered to “give Zhuravlev a pacer with summer and winter travel.”
Unique Temple
In 1885, construction began in Utevka of a new stone church in honor of St. Life-Giving Trinity according to drawings and under the direct supervision of Gregory. High building with a large blue dome and a shining golden cross, it makes an impressive impression, seems majestic and powerful. There was not a single column in the building, although it has high arches: the entire service is clearly visible from any place.
The huge church dome, 10 meters in diameter, was painted by the artist himself. The assistants put him in a special cradle, lifted him to the very ceiling, and he wrote biblical scenes, lying on his back: brush in his teeth, eyes at the distance of the brush from the board, drops of paint falling on his face. This and to a normal person incredibly difficult, especially for someone like that!.. After two or three hours of such incredibly hard work, when the leather straps dug into the body, a spasm of the jaw muscles occurred, and they could not always remove the painter’s brush from the mouth. To help open his mouth, towels soaked in hot water. And so day after day, month after month, year after year. The lips were cracked and bleeding, the front incisors were chipped. Bleeding ulcers formed on the artist’s shoulder blades and the back of his head. From constant stress, my vision deteriorated catastrophically.
"Cursed Days"
Started World War. In 1916, Gregory began to get sick more often. During one particularly serious illness, he had a revelation: dark times would soon come when he and his icons would no longer be needed by anyone.
Grigory Nikolaevich Zhuravlev died of a transient fever on February 15 (new style) 1916 in his home. He was buried in the church fence. After the revolution, the cross was demolished, the grave was razed to the ground, and for many decades no one even remembered the self-taught artist, who amazed everyone who saw him with his talent.
More than once the authorities intended to demolish the church, but each time something thwarted their plans. In 1934 the church was closed, and they even began to destroy the bell tower. For a long time The church was used for household needs: grain was stored in it.
Mysterious discovery in Bosnia
In 1963, in distant Bosnia, the historian and restorer Z. Kajmakovic found an icon that somehow got here. He was struck not only by the highest skill of the artist, but also by the inscription made in Russian: “This icon was painted in the Samara province, Buzuluk district, Utevskaya volost of the same village with the teeth of the peasant Grigory Zhuravlev, armless and legless, 1885, July 2.”
An incredulous mind refused to believe in the reality of such an artist. And he wrote to the address indicated on the icon...
The State Archives of the USSR were forced to officially confirm the existence in the past of an armless and legless icon painter. After which the art critic wrote a number of works about him. Publications in the Yugoslav, American and Italian press created a sensation and made G. Zhuravlev world famous. The USSR was forced to become interested in the sensation. Archivists, art historians, museum workers got involved...
Second birth
The unique church in Utevka has survived to this day. In 1989 it was returned to believers. The restoration was carried out according to Zhuravlev’s sketches. The restored church preserves icons painted by Grigory Zhuravlev, fragments of wall paintings and domes. After services in the church were resumed, the face of Saint Simeon of Verkhoturye began to appear on the icon.
Local residents saved many miraculous images and brought them to the temple. Icons of the peasant nugget are available in the Samara local history and diocesan museums, the Peter and Paul Church of Samara, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow, the St. Petersburg Kazan Cathedral, the Pyukhtitsa Monastery in Estonia...
Preserved native home the amazing Russian genius Grigory Nikolaevich Zhuravlev, a local villager will point him out: this is a five-walled house on Samarskaya Street, No. 10. His grave has been restored in the church fence.
“...God created him that way”
The life of the artist G. Zhuravlev is an everyday feat. He not only created great masterpieces and holy images, but also showed through his life an example of life optimism, Faith, and love for loved ones. Looking at him - crippled by nature - it was shameful and sinful healthy people to be despondent and complain about fate, circumstances, obstacles.
The legendary story of the Samara documentarian V. Myasnikov “Return”, the story of the Leningrad writer V. Lyalin “Isograph”, the novel “The Gift over the Abyss of Despair” by S. Zhigalov, the prototype of which was G. Zhuravlev, were written about the phenomenal artist. Singer Svetlana Kopylova, having learned about him, wrote a parable song about a crippled artist who from birth “had neither arms nor legs, he himself could not eat or drink, he was a piece of a man, that’s how God created him...”
The penetrating gaze of wise eyes, a traditional peasant beard, lips ready to smile - this is how we see the Russian icon painter Grigory Zhuravlev in his rare portrait. Nearby is brother Afanasy, to whom Gregory only reaches to the waist: the fact is that the boy was born with legs up to his knees and hands up to his elbows...
The future icon painter was born in 1860. in the Samara province, the village of Utyovka, in a peasant family. Thanks to his grandfather, Grisha began attending a rural school, where he learned to read. When his grandfather died, the boy had to study at home - with the help of the zemstvo teacher Troitsky. Having understood how a pencil works, Grisha began to learn to write and draw, holding it between his teeth...
At the age of 15, Gregory and his brother Afanasy went to Samara with the dream of learning to become an icon painter. The local artist Travkin, to whom the armless young man turned with a request to teach him the techniques of painting, was so amazed that he settled the extraordinary student with him and taught him the basics of icon painting. Having mastered them, Gregory acquired brushes, paints, a table with the necessary equipment and returned to his native village, where he began to develop his own skills and hone his skills.
The young icon painter was helped by his grandmother: she prepared the paints, cleaned the brushes, and seated Gregory in a special way. Afanasy made wooden blanks for icons. Over five years of persistent and continuous work, the talented self-taught man reached such a level that he decided to give several of his icons to high-ranking officials of Samara...
The Samara authorities liked these icons so much that Zhuravlev began to receive good orders. In addition, the provincial zemstvo assembly assigned Gregory an annual 60-ruble pension - in view of the plight of the family and for personal work on self-improvement in painting.
So the legless and armless icon painter became the breadwinner of the family, since they paid a lot of money for his work. For example, Zhuravlev could receive 50 rubles for an image (for comparison, the salary of zemstvo doctors and teachers at that time was 10-15 rubles).
Grigory Nikolaevich also met the governor of Samara A.D. Sverbeev himself and corresponded with him. In 1884 Zhuravlev asked his patron to give Tsarevich Nicholas, the future Russian emperor, the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, written especially for him. Having graciously accepted the icon, the Tsarevich granted the peasant Zhuravlev a one-time allowance of 100 rubles from his own money.
Amazing icons of Grigory Zhuravlev
Samara local historian and writer Alexander Malinovsky has been collecting materials about the life and work of Zhuravlev for several decades. In 2013 The fifth edition of his documentary story “A Joyful Meeting” about the amazing Utyov icon painter was published. The book contains chapters about new found Zhuravlev icons.
It is not yet known how many images the armless icon painter painted. Currently, Alexander Stanislavovich, who has been collecting information about Zhuravlev since the 60s of the last century, has found out the location of 100 of his works. In particular, the icon of St. Nicholas that we mentioned, once a gift to Nikolai Romanov, is kept today in the Hermitage. The inscription on the back reads: “From the archives of the Tsarevich.”
In general, the geography of distribution of Zhuravlev’s icons is very wide. For example, one of his works was discovered in 1963. in Serbia, which was then part of Yugoslavia.
But the icon painter has one very unusual painting, to which Alexander Malinovsky gave the name “Utevskaya Madonna.” A small format, it depicts a peasant woman wearing a white scarf on her head, holding a baby in her arms. The woman has a typical Volga region, simple face with large dark eyes and a barely visible smile on her lips... There is no touch of churchliness, but the picture is perceived as an icon.
Utyovka resident Alexandra Podusova was the last known owner of this unique painting. The woman said that she loved the icon painting very much and treated it like a family heirloom. Unfortunately, she did not save the “Utevskaya Madonna”, and where this painting is now stored is unknown.
The greatest spiritual feat of an icon painter
In Utyovka there is the Holy Trinity Church, built in 1892. Over the course of seven years, it was built “with the diligence of the parishioners.” This temple was painted according to the sketches of Grigory Zhuravlev. Old-timers said that the icon painter was lifted under the dome in a special cradle with leather straps, and he, lying in it, painted frescoes. At the same time, Grigory Nikolaevich clenched his brush in his teeth so tightly that his cheekbones cramped. To loosen them, warm wet towels were applied to the face...
Grigory Zhuravlev died on February 15, 1916. from transient consumption. With the blessing of the Samara bishop, the icon painter was buried in the fence of the temple he painted.
In 1934 The Holy Trinity Church was closed and a granary was built there. In 1989 it was returned to the church. Now this temple houses nine icons by Zhuravlev. As rector Anatoly Kopach says, they are mainly brought by the descendants of those who kept the holy images all their lives and thus saved them after the destruction of the temple.
Father Anatoly says about Grigory Zhuravlev himself: this amazing person gives people hope. Doomed, it would seem, to complete helplessness and inaction, he accomplished a spiritual feat and with his whole life showed that it is possible to create even when it seems unthinkable...
Grigory Zhuravlev with his brother Afanasy
He was born in 1858 in the village of Utevka, Samara province. This was an unusual child: Gregory was born without arms and legs. WITH early childhood The boy began to show talent as a painter. Neighbors remember how surprised they were when they saw a crippled baby crawling around the yard with a piece of coal in his mouth. With this charcoal, the kid drew on the fence everything he saw around him.
A few years later, Grisha was sent to study at a men's gymnasium in Samara. In addition, the parents constantly took their son to the cathedral in the city and to the workshop where icons were painted. One day the boy showed his drawings to the icon painters. The works impressed the masters, and they invited Grisha to study icon painting.
After studying at the gymnasium, Grisha Zhuravlev returned to his native village, where he began to study icon painting. They constantly ordered icons from him, so the young man did not sit for a single day without work.
In 1885, construction began on the large Trinity Cathedral in Utevka. Zhuravlev was offered to paint the walls of the cathedral. Especially for him, a stage was built in the building, on which he spent almost whole days at work. It was especially difficult for the painter, who was deprived of arms and legs, to design the dome of the cathedral. He had to constantly lie on his back, which is why he developed ulcers on his shoulder blades, the back of his head and his sacrum. Despite the pain, Gregory completed the painting of the temple. The frescoes he painted glorified the Trinity Cathedral throughout the area.
Temple of the village of Utevka today
Tsar Nicholas II soon learned about the talented master. Zhuravlev was invited to work in the capital, where the master lived for 3 years. He painted a group portrait of the reigning family. Returning to his homeland, Zhuravlev began to receive a pension of 25 rubles, which, by royal decree, was assigned to him immediately after the master left the capital.
Despite the fact that Gregory had enough money for his own maintenance, he continued to paint icons with inspiration, for which buyers from the most remote corners of Russia came to the famous icon painter. At that time, Zhuravlev already had students who mainly helped him prepare boards for icons, prime them and mix paints.
Contemporaries recall that Gregory had a very cheerful disposition, he almost never lost heart, did not become despondent, and accepted all events in life calmly and calmly. Many people loved him very much and never felt pity for him, since Grigory Zhuravlev was distinguished by his gigantic fortitude, which could be the envy of many healthy and beautiful-looking people.
After the death of the icon painter in 1916, his body was buried near the church, as clergy are buried.
The revolution of 1917 greatly changed life in Russia. The temple, painted by Grigory Zhuravlev, was closed for 70 years. People were able to enter its doors again only in the 90s. The icon painter's frescoes were restored. And those parishioners, in whose house the icons by Grigory Zhuravlev were kept, donated these wonderful images to the temple.