In search of a shrine: where the relics of Yaroslav the Wise disappeared

For Ukraine, the acquisition of the relics of the Kiev prince would have a deep symbolic meaning. Traces of the lost shrine lead to America.

Yelena Ivanova, Natalia Seibil

In the 11th century, the Kiev prince Yaroslav the Wise united the scattered principalities of the Eastern Slavs from the Baltic to the Black Seas, published the first set of laws and formed state power throughout the territory, writes the Wall Street Journal. The prince was buried together with his second wife in the tomb of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. When the sarcophagus was opened in 2009, scientists found only a female skeleton. The remains of Yaroslav the Wise disappeared.

After the death of the Kiev prince in 1054, his remains were buried in a carved white marble sarcophagus weighing 6 tons.

In the 20th century, the sarcophagus was opened 3 times - in 1936, 1939 and 1964. In 1939, the famous Soviet anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov first got the opportunity to study the remains of the prince. In the tomb, two skeletons were found - a male and a female. They were brought to Leningrad for research and radiocarbon dating was carried out. Scientists have confirmed that both skeletons date back to the 11th century.

The remains were returned to Kiev before the war and they were going to put them up for public viewing, but these plans were not destined to come true. After the war, the crypt was opened in 1964, and since then there has been a sarcophagus.

In 2009, the director of the St. Sophia Cathedral Museum, Nelia Kukovalskaya, and her colleagues decided to conduct their own research. After two revolutions and aggravation of relations with Russia, in which Yaroslav the Wise is also considered the progenitor of Russian statehood, Ukrainian historians wanted to prove, first of all, the prince's connection with Europe. It is known that Yaroslav the Wise actively traded with Hungary, Norway and France, and his daughter Anna later became Queen of France. It was planned to conduct an extended DNA analysis and once again confirm the thesis that Yaroslav, and after him, Ukraine, are part of European history, and not only and not so much the "Russian world", a theory that is actively promoted by President Putin and the Russian authorities ...

Then the detective began.

On September 10, the team by the leadership of Nelia Kukovalskaya opened the two-ton lid of the sarcophagus. There was a wooden coffin under it. In the laboratory, scientists opened the box and found an almost completely preserved female skeleton. It was about the remains of the wife of Yaroslav the Wise Ingegerda, the description of which completely coincided with the scientific records of the survey in 1939 in Leningrad.

The remains of Prince Yaroslav the Wise disappeared.

“I was shocked,” Nelia Kukovalskaya told the Wall Street Journal . The historian promised herself that she would definitely get to the bottom of the truth and tell it to the Ukrainians.

After rummaging through German and Ukrainian archives and talking to Ukrainians living abroad, Kukovalskaya gradually reconstructed the story of the disappearance of the remains, which began during World War II, and which was whispered about in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainians who left after the liberation of Ukraine by the Red Army for Europe and the United States were involved in it.

When the Nazis occupied Kiev in 1941, priests who fled from Soviet power returned to Ukraine. Two years later, the Germans retreated, and with them the priests.

Nelia Kukolskaya discovered a message dated 1954. It was written by one of the primates of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Canada and a church historian. According to him, the relics of the prince, together with the 11th century icon of Nicholas the Wet, are in private ownership in New York. In the American newspaper of the Ukrainian diaspora, the scientist found an article from 1967, which points to the American linguist and historian Pyotr Odarchenko. Odarchenko said that one of the priests of the parish of St. Sophia Cathedral gave the relics of Yaroslav to a German major, who took them to Warsaw. He, in turn, gave the relic to another Ukrainian priest, who brought the relics to the United States.

Odarchenko wrote that at that time the remains of Yaroslav were in the possession of Archbishop Pallady.

Both of these authors had already died, and it was no longer possible to establish the sources of their information. However, the historian Kukolskaya did not give up. Through acquaintances she managed to find out the real name of the archbishop. His name was Palladiy Rudenko, a Ukrainian priest who emigrated to the United States after the war.

In 1961, Father Palladium bought a former courthouse and bank in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and handed it over to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Now the building houses the Trinity Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In the fall of 2010, decades after the death of Palladium, the Ukrainian historian Kukolskaya arrived in New York. On the wall of the temple, she saw an 11th century icon of Nicholas the Wet. To her question about the relics of Yaroslav the Wise, the primate of the temple did not answer anything. At that time, the president of Ukraine was Viktor Yanukovych, known for his proximity to Russia. Kukolskaya did not rule out that the priests feared that the Ukrainian relic might end up in Moscow because of this. Father Viktor Vronsky and the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church declined to comment.

Russian journalists tried to infiltrate the Trinity Church in Brooklyn, but the rector, Father Vladimir, expelled the film crew from the temple with a scandal, the Center TV channel quotes the blog of the Andrei Rublev Museum.

- What business do I have to do with the state? We private people. There is already a difference between us. In America we the owners of this temple. Nobody can take him away from us, - said Father Vladimir Vronsky by phone.

Much has changed since then in Ukraine itself and in Russia. President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country, the next President Petro Poroshenko supported the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in its desire to become subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Poroshenko himself really wanted to find the remains of Yaroslav the Wise, which was confirmed by the deputy head of his administration, Alexander Danilyuk.

The Ukrainian authorities have contacted the FBI and Interpol.

In 2016, Petro Poroshenko turned to the US Department of Justice for help. In his letter, he said that the Ukrainian authorities have evidence that the relics are in the church in Williamsburg. According to the Ukrainian president, it is necessary to act quickly so that the relics of the holy prince do not disappear again. The Ukrainian authorities' request was forwarded to the New York office of the Department of Homeland Security.

However, in the fall of 2017, special services came to another Church of the Holy Trinity of the Russian Orthodox Church in eastern New York. There, instead of the remains of Yaroslav, investigators discovered the relics of Herman of Alaska. After they found nothing, the case was closed.

It is difficult to say whether this was a mistake, or whether the American authorities did not want to give the relic to the Ukrainian authorities. The FBI and State Department declined to comment on the case.

The next Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, did not abandon the search and continues to contact the American authorities about the search and return of the relics of Yaroslav the Wise to Ukraine. But there is no answer yet.

Sergei Bychkov , Ph.D., a church historian, is highly suspicious of the theory that the prince's remains are in the United States:

- All claims that all powers are in the United States are very doubtful. There is not a single confirmation.

The Russian historian believes that the Nazis were not at all interested in the relics of Orthodox saints. In addition, the lid of the sarcophagus weighs two tons. Who could have lifted it? We need lifting devices, says Sergei Bychkov.

- But in connection with the aggravation of relations between Ukraine and Russia, someone just started another duck. And links to WSJ are not credible. They don't do that sort of thing at all, ”he says.

However, it is also impossible to believe that the relics are in place, if they have been looking for them all over the world for the second decade already.

The only thing left behind is to wait to see whether the 11th century Russian icon will lead to a relic, or whether this secret will remain unsolved.