Thomas Orthodox magazine. Doubting does not mean not believing. Conversation with the editor-in-chief of the Foma magazine Vladimir Legoyda. "Thomas" - a magazine about Orthodoxy

Now, at the beginning of Great Lent, many church people begin one of the seven sacraments of the Church - the sacrament of the Blessing of Anointing, or Unction. However, the sacrament of Unction is not very well known to a wide circle of people. That is why the strangest prejudices and misconceptions are associated with it.

When will you shut up? - I thought about my three-year-old son. Luckily he didn't shut up

That day, immediately after my visit to the clinic, I was planning to take my family home, and then go on business alone, so that I could indulge in thoughts of my disappointment alone. However, my youngest three-year-old son tagged along with me. Here we have found such an extrovert in a family where everyone else is a pronounced introvert! He spent the entire trip babbling in the back seat, [...]

A pointed question: what do the Church Fathers think about male chauvinism?

“Baba is a fool not because she is a fool. But because she’s a woman.” There are quite a lot of such sayings that are humiliating for women in our linguistic culture. When justifying such male chauvinism, its supporters often refer to the traditional way of patriarchal society and even to the teachings of the Church. We decided to take three sayings of this kind and see what the holy fathers of the Church actually said according to what was voiced in...

“It was scary to know exactly what I would die from” - how life can turn upside down in one day

Let's go out. Katerina Borisovna, a therapist, big-eyed and smiling, was clearly upset. We left the room into the corridor. “But not in a small room,” I thought. It always seemed to me that the worst news was told in a small room. Katerina Borisovna pushed the door to the nurse's room. Eh-eh... Small room. - You have hepatitis, Nastya. “This is a gift for [...]

All people are equal, but men are more equal? Women's rights in the Church

In Germany there is an expression about the social role of women in a conservative society: “The Three Cs” - kinder, küche, church (German - children, kitchen, church). Let’s figure out whether there is such an analogy in Orthodoxy, only with the “Three Ds” - “Domostroy”, discrimination, housewife. Spoiler: no.

The Triumph of Orthodoxy: what do we believe?

On March 17 we celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy - and people are often annoyed by this very expression. A certain group of people declares that they are proclaiming the final and ultimately important truth about reality. And everyone who disagrees with her is in error. Isn't it too arrogant?

Venerable Martyr Antipas (Kirillov)

On February 27, 1938, the NKVD troika in the Moscow region sentenced Father Antipa to death. After his sentencing, he was transported to Taganskaya prison in Moscow, where a prison photographer took a photograph of him for the executioner. Hieromonk Antipas (Kirillov) was shot on March 7, 1938 and buried in an unknown mass grave at the Butovo training ground near Moscow.

When will you shut up? - I thought about my three-year-old son. Luckily he didn't shut up

A pointed question: what do the Church Fathers think about male chauvinism?

“It was scary to know exactly what I would die from” - how life can turn upside down in one day

All people are equal, but men are more equal? Women's rights in the Church

The Triumph of Orthodoxy: what do we believe?

Venerable Martyr Antipas (Kirillov)

Sunday, March 8, 2020: what will happen in the temple?

This year, the first Sunday of Lent not only falls on a day off, but it is located “within” secular holidays. Meanwhile, every Christian strives on this day, which ends the first strict week of fasting, to go to church for the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

There is a joke going around in Orthodox circles. A woman standing in a church near a candle box is asked: “Well, are they taking “Thomas”?” - “No, they don’t take it.” - "Why?" - “And they look - what kind of magazine is this?” - “For those who doubt.” - “I have no doubt” - and they move on.

Meanwhile, Thomas, an Orthodox magazine for doubters, as stated on the cover, has been read for 15 years. Moreover, they are passed from hand to hand. With a circulation of 36 thousand copies, the audience of one issue reaches 324 thousand people. These are most often highly educated, socially active, young and middle-aged people - scientists and cultural figures, teachers, doctors, officials, directors of enterprises, managers, specialists, workers, students (see graph).

Looking at the results of measurements of the Foma audience, I was personally surprised at how close it is - in composition and size - to the Expert audience. That is, we are mainly talking about the middle class, which formed in the second half of the 1990s - early 2000s and became the driving force in the construction of a new, non-communist Russia. It turns out that one important touch needs to be added to the portrait of this social stratum - interest in Orthodoxy. And doubts.

The editor-in-chief of the magazine talks about these doubts and the mission of “Foma” Vladimir Legoida*.

— A Truth, No whether V concept " Thomas" contradictions between loyalty audience And mission magazine? Or yours mission - supply doubts, A Not dispel?

“We talked a lot and seriously about this topic with my friend and colleague in creating the magazine, Vladimir Gurbolikov. Because a person without a doubt is like a dead person. After all, there are two types of doubts. One doubt is about which the Gospel says that the one who doubts is not firm in his ways: if you doubt every day whether you believe in God or not, whether to keep the commandments or not... And the other doubt is the doubt of Thomas. Thomas is not the pioneer from the famous poem, who did not believe that there were crocodiles in the river, and they ate him. Apostle Thomas is a man who was very devoted to Christ. It is He who says: let us go and die with Him. But then, when after the crucifixion the apostles told him that they had seen the Risen One, he suddenly did not believe. Not because I'm a skeptic. On the contrary, he really wants Christ to be resurrected. But the sight of the apostles does not convince him. And only when Christ says: “Give up your hand and place it in my side,” does Thomas answer him: “My Lord and my God.” He no longer doubts, he confesses Christ as God, in fact pronounces the creed. And I think that most of our audience of doubters over the 15 years of the magazine’s existence has already moved from behind the church fence to the temple. And because of this, we have to print more materials devoted to what in the church is called catechesis.

— You themselves To moment creation magazine in 1996 year Same passed this path - from doubts To faith?

— Like many of our generation, my coming to Orthodoxy occurred in the wake of the celebration of the millennium of the Baptism of Rus'. At first it was a rethinking of Russian literature, then - an acquaintance with Russian philosophy, which suddenly became accessible, you could read Solovyov, Berdyaev, Bulgakov, Frank... And then, already at the institute (I graduated from the Faculty of International Journalism of MGIMO), I became a go to church. During my studies, I spent a year in the USA, where I met an Orthodox community. I saw people who had maintained connections with pre-revolutionary Russia... Actually, the idea of “Thomas” was born in the States. American Orthodox monks made a magazine, Death to the World, for punks. The punk idea of “the death of the world” and the monastic idea of “dying to the world” were played out. The magazine was black and white, printed on a printer, and I helped the editors a little.

— First number " Thomas" Same black- white, But printed He was All same V printing houses. Who his financed?

— Actually, we made it back in 1995. Literally on the knee - the footers were glued by hand. And then they went and showed everyone the layout. Everyone said: oh, how great, why hasn’t this been published yet? We answered: why, there is no money. But no one has money, we were told. Almost a year passed like this. Then they showed it to one priest and he asked the same question. We gave the usual answer. He says: “How much do you need?” If I'm not mistaken, a million rubles or even more were needed to publish one issue. He turned around, took the money out of the safe, and not because he had nowhere to put it, but tore it away from his receipt and said: “If you can, give it back.” 999 copies were printed.

— IN That time Orthodox press V country Not was?

— There was the official journal of the Moscow Patriarchate and “Orthodox Conversation.” In 1994, the wonderful magazine “Alpha and Omega” began to be published, it was made by Marina Andreevna Zhurinskaya with the participation of Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev, but in a small circulation. And the need was huge. We felt this very well, because, having joined the church and being in a secular environment, we were forced to answer many questions from friends and acquaintances. And there came moments when I wanted to say: well, take it, read it. But there was nothing to give. Because not everyone will read the holy fathers, and even with the pre-revolutionary yats and eras. After all, at that time reprints of pre-revolutionary books reigned in Orthodox book publishing.

— A What You offered to his to the reader?

— We defined our credo as a conversation about God through a person. That is, this is a magazine for a person, not for an audience - this is the first thing. And the second is an understandable language, and not the language of the Orthodox subculture. This is important because a churchgoing person, like any member of any community, even motorcycle racers, strives to master its “professional jargon.” If a person instead of “thank you” says “save, Lord,” he is marked: you and I are of the same blood. And if you do not answer him “for the glory of God,” then he may doubt: is it the only one? Although “thank you” comes from “God save.” So, for many, belonging to a subculture is perceived as the most important part of faith. But this is not so. Because next comes, for example, clothes. In the nineties, you could always immediately see an Orthodox person: the girl had a long skirt, looked at the floor. Still, they read books about monasticism and transferred this to themselves. So, we started an extra-subcultural conversation, in an understandable language. And our task was not to teach, not to read sermons, but to conduct a dialogue. Although, of course, we have talked and continue to talk about the subculture - this is both important and simply interesting.

And we also had a motto that we have not abandoned even today: to show the beauty of Orthodoxy. This is the idea of Father Valentin Sventsitsky; there was such a confessor in the 20th century. We do not problematize, we do not examine the field of church life “under a magnifying glass.” But coming to God, the global questions of man: why, why, have always been important to us. That is, in a sense, we boldly wanted to liken our magazine to an icon. An icon is not a portrait; it does not depict wrinkles or convey facial expressions. The icon shows only God, take any image. The most important thing on the icon is the golden background, the Kingdom of Heaven. Although, of course, the comparison with the icon is very conditional, as a metaphor.

— You guessed it right whether You With concept? How developed project?

— The fact is that we understood something in journalism, but nothing in the media industry. We had no frequency, no business plan, no distribution. We could publish three issues a year. Only in 2005 did we decide that we needed to make a normal magazine: color, regular. Then our friends, who by that time had become successful businessmen, said that they would support us. And we published six issues in 2005, nine in 2006, and since 2007 we have been a monthly magazine. Since that time, our circulation began to grow.

— Means, V principle did you guess it?

— Yes, although the monthly publication made its own adjustments to the concept of the magazine. We began to think about how to offer this to the mass reader, and then, for example, the cover concept was revised. Before that, we forbade ourselves from using our faces on the cover. Because of the name, we thought that the person would be perceived as an apostle and that this would be unacceptable. That’s why we didn’t have anything on the cover: some baby elephants, lilies, and so on. We were looking for an image. But then we realized that we couldn’t come up with anything better than a famous face for the cover; this is the principle of all glossy magazines. And in our case, it should also come as a surprise. In the seventies, I think Esquire had a chief artist whose covers were considered the best, he said that every cover should have the effect of a kick in the ass. Of course, we never thought in such a style, but the effect of surprise was deliberately laid down. If a person walks and sees, for example, Dmitry Dyuzhev on the cover, he already stops. And then he looks: a cross, an Orthodox magazine, and something is written about faith, and not about personal life. For this, by the way, they began to call us Orthodox gloss and glamor. But this is where our similarity with gloss ends—attracting famous people. It is enough to take any glossy magazine and compare the texts to see that this is heaven and earth, even interviews with the same people.

— IN how exactly consists of difference?

— Many “celebrities” directly told me that glossy magazines mercilessly throw out ideological things and any attempts at reasoning from interviews. But with us it’s the other way around. The criterion for the “passability” of the material is what Dostoevsky wrote about in “The Teenager”: you need to be too vilely in love with yourself to write about yourself without shame. Our interlocutor is someone who is ready to talk about himself sincerely and seriously. And this is always with shame. When, for example, Mikhail Leontyev, who has the image of such a brutal information killer, says: “I’m a bad Orthodox Christian, I’m crying,” and so on, this cannot but hurt. He doesn't tell you how wonderful he is. Famous people reveal themselves in completely unexpected ways. Of course, there were misfires when such a conversation did not work out. But this, by the way, is also interesting, and we published such conversations anyway. Because a person, for example, is widely known as Orthodox, but the reader can himself conclude whether this is true or not, what Orthodoxy really is for him.

What else is the paradox of “Thomas”? The fact is that with our cover and photographs we appear in the niche of glossy magazines, but we actually work in the niche of weekly magazines. (By the way, there are no Orthodox weeklies.) If we published interviews with Valery Fadeev and Alexander Privalov from Expert, what kind of gloss is this? Or the historian Felix Razumovsky - he is unlikely to be published in glossy magazines. Or Mikhail Tarusin, who presented the “Real Russia” project of the Institute of Public Design at Foma. We did several materials with Radiy Ivanovich Ilkaev, scientific director of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center. Yuri Pivovarov, director of INION, often gives us comments.

But, on the other hand, we, of course, are a monthly magazine and practically do not respond to “topical issues”. We have a “letters” section, which is generally from the last century, not blogs, but letters to the editor. Before the crisis, we had quite large literary pages, but now we are forced to reduce the volume of the magazine and left only poetry, and then only one issue at a time.

— Orthodox poets Are you typing?

“We deal with poetry harshly.” In order to get rid of all the crazy poets (and this is the problem of any editorial office), we agreed with the New World. Our “Strophes” section is run by their editor of the poetry department, Pavel Kryuchkov. Therefore, we send all poets to the “New World”. One friend even asked me for his mother-in-law, I say: mother-in-law is sacred, but only through the “New World”.

— Cultural block at you, judging By everything very saturated

— Yes, because Christianity is also interesting as a culture-forming phenomenon. We write a lot about painting and cinema.

— Here about rock- music I recently saw article And surprised: really This Interesting With points vision culture or those more Orthodoxy?

- There are two points here. The first is the topic itself. It is certainly not of interest to everyone. For example, I'm not very interested. But the chosen way of conversation - through people and the basis of creativity - allows us to comprehend this topic in a Christian way. The second is the presentation of the topic and the authors. For example, texts by Zhurinskaya, a famous linguist. Read her article about Tsoi - enjoy it. And it’s not just about Tsoi. We had debates in the editorial office about whether it was possible to publish such a large text that was complex for many. I then said that, firstly, this is our answer to everyone who says that we are pop and glamor. Let them read to the end at least. And secondly, if we take the texts of real writers (as Dostoevsky said about himself: a writer), these are self-sufficient texts. Therefore, for me, Zhurinskaya’s text about Tsoi is interesting not only because of Tsoi, but because it is a high-level intellectual work, there are amazing allusions: she suddenly finds parallels with Akhmatova or with an ancient image of a musician... By the way, it was Marina Andreevna who formulated, that a magazine that calls itself Orthodox must be Christocentric. And it is not necessary to repeat the word “Christ” in every line. This is a conversation about the main things, about man’s path to God. And rock music can also be a reason for such a conversation.

— You they said What Not concentrate on problems church life. A Why, after all This Same, Maybe, worries of people doubters?

— Because this is a sensitive topic, and most often journalists interpret it incorrectly. Let's say about the shelter in Bogolyubovo - remember there was such a story? We didn't write anything about it. Why? Because I understand perfectly well that, firstly, a lot of untruths have been written and shown, and secondly, for one problematic shelter we have dozens of good ones, no one says anything about them, and we write about these shelters. Or today they write a lot about the supposed merging of the church and the state. But any more or less educated person understands that the Russian Church, throughout the history of its existence, has never been as free from the state as it is today. In addition, if you like, the nerve of church life is not in relations with the state. But in the relationship between the shepherd and his flock. What a person gains in church, whether he sees the connection between the sermon he heard and his life, whether he becomes different... This is what all the changes that have taken place in church life in recent years are aimed at today. The Church strives to become closer to people , therefore, new dioceses are created, new churches are built... If there are 300 or more churches in a diocese, firstly, only in a few years the bishop will be able to visit them once, and secondly, there seems to be no incentive to create new parishes. And how well can a bishop know the life of his own diocese in such a situation? There should also be more priests. People sometimes say: we come to the temple, but it is closed. Of course, if there is only one priest in a church, he cannot be there 24/7; after all, he also visits many parishioners at home, for example, giving communion to those who cannot go to church for health reasons. Or why in Moscow a person stands in line for confession for an hour, and then confesses for two minutes? There are not enough churches, not enough priests. That is why the patriarch insists on specific changes. Therefore, today mobile phones of abbots have begun to appear on the information boards of many churches. We even have bishops who share their mobile phones with church parishioners.

— About this- That You are you writing?

- Certainly.

— Eat whether y " Thomas" prospects further growth circulation, audience?

“With some effort and resources, I can easily see a circulation of 50 thousand.” That is, the content, as they say now, that we create may be in demand O a larger number of people. The problem is that we have practically no budget for development or advertising, and we release each issue at a deficit. Our benefactors help. The magazine is sold mainly in big cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, I mean secular retail. It is too expensive for the province - it costs 100 rubles. But I don’t see any radical increase in circulation. Unless you start printing answers to questions, for example, who to pray to in order to get married. Do you know what were two hits of Orthodox book publishing in the nineties? Books “How to behave in a cemetery” and “When children are sick.” Everything was swept away, one circulation after another. It is possible to follow this path, but what role will such a publication play?

— What managed achieve " Foma" behind these 15 years, How You do you think?

— There is a set of false stereotypes about the church, and some of them are going away, perhaps not without the participation of Thomas and other media. For example, that the church is old grandmothers, and Christianity is anti-intellectual. We brought this stereotype from the Soviet Union, and if real intellectuals always knew that this was not so, then the average person believed that this was superstition, lies. Then the stereotype about success and failure. Why did we publish entrepreneurs and economists? For them to speak out. Because in our country, Max Weber, interpreted in a specific way, still forces many to say that Orthodoxy hinders the development of the economy, which, of course, is nonsense.

Well, from the point of view of the magazine itself, what we have achieved for sure is recognition in certain environments. We have always understood that this is a magazine not for everyone, but primarily for educated people. But in principle, it is, of course, the most famous Orthodox print media today.

Today we are publishing Vladimir Romanovich’s answers to questions addressed to him as the editor-in-chief of the Foma magazine.

"Thomas" - a magazine about Orthodoxy

For several weeks on Pravmir I went online with Vladimir Legoyda, candidate of political sciences, professor at MGIMO, chairman of the Synodal Information Department of the Russian Orthodox Church. All readers could ask questions that concern them.

Why did Foma cease to be a magazine for doubters? Not a single discussion of acute events, not a single critical opinion about the division of dioceses, etc. Everything is varnished. Are you writing for those who have doubts? Vladimir V.V.

Dear Vladimir V.V.!

If you really see examples of publications that we had before and that we don’t have now, write to us. You will really help make the magazine better, and I thank you in advance.

Examples can be sent to the editor at [email protected], referring to my request. They will definitely show me your letter.

For my part, I don’t see any topics or publications that were in “Foma” before and then disappeared.

What I mean? After all, the apostle doubted not as a skeptic-critic, but as a person who really wanted to believe, but needed Divine assurance and received it.

There are, of course, other doubts as well. For example, those caused by the behavior of some priests and people of the Church. I would like to say that we also do not ignore such doubts. “Foma” wrote a lot about this.

For example:

About how far from ideal the family life of even the most Orthodox and religious people is.

A selection of materials about people living next to dying infirm relatives.

“The Haunting War” is a dispute about the Great Patriotic War and our attitude towards it today.

“The House Where Fate Breaks” is a very tough text by Alexander Gezalov about orphanages.

“The State and the Family” is the whole topic of the issue, which is more than a sensitive topic, as it seems to me.

It’s just that an acute and painful topic is not always a topic about politics and not even always a topic of a social nature. Sometimes the causes of an internal crisis become completely different problems, and we strive to talk specifically about inner human life. And we always strived only for this.

As for the issue of creating new dioceses, there is also no unnecessary silence here. I have repeatedly, as an official representative of the Church, personally expressed my position on this issue: the main goals of the changes are stated directly - to make the Church even closer to the people, to bring the bishops closer to the ordinary clergy and laity, so that the Right Reverends better understand the needs and problems of their flock and are in closer contact with them contact, and did not look away from her.

This is the position of a secular expert.

Here is my column on the same topic.

Here is a commentary from a Church historian.

But I agree - “Foma” did not focus attention on this problem. The fact is that this question (like a number of others), being very acute for internal church discussion, is of little interest and not very important for secular people, that is, for the main reader of “Thomas”.

I would also like to draw your attention to our website, since much of our work does not fit into the magazine - there is simply not enough volume. There are much more “Fomov’s” materials published on the Internet, and their topics are much broader.

Vladimir Romanovich!
Why doesn’t your magazine “Foma” write about politics? I understand that at another time this could have been justified by some lofty considerations, but today this topic overshadows all others in the public space. People want to know what the Church thinks about the political situation in the country. Is it really possible to remain silent in such a situation? Unregistered

Indeed, this is not our topic. Although I can’t say that we completely avoid it. Over the past month, “Foma” has published a whole series of publications on topics related to politics. For example, or a very interesting text by our columnist Yuri Pushchaev, candidate of philosophical sciences.

We are not trying to agitate either for or against. Our goal is to give people a tool with which they can make independent choices. I think this is very useful, especially now, when we all could use a little more sobriety in making decisions that are important for the whole country.

It's a pity that there is no literary page. Please return it. Unregistered

Dear unregistered user!

The crisis forced us to significantly reduce the volume of the magazine. We tried to somehow compensate for the disappearance of this section, for example, now the poetry section “Strophes” has become a monthly feature. Plus, we still periodically publish prose in the magazine and on the website.

At the same time, the editors are also constantly putting pressure on me - everyone wants the literary page to return in full, but for now - alas.

Is Foma magazine ready to become a magazine for the masses (a magazine with a large circulation)? Is this a strategic goal of the magazine? Will you be taking any steps in this direction? Unregistered

Dear unregistered user!

It all depends on what is meant by the masses. In a recent interview with Expert, I said that I see the maximum circulation of Foma in the range of 50-60 thousand. But this requires a budget for promotion and, again, the work of professionals.

Now the circulation of our magazine is 36 thousand, and this is quite a decent circulation for a publication that occupies virtually the same niche as serious secular weeklies, like the same “Expert”. By the way, “Foma” was included in the list of the most cited Russian media for the 1st quarter of 2011 according to TNS Media Intelligence.

This is due to our deliberately high (in terms of subject matter and complexity) level of publications. This does not mean that we divide people into “worthy” and “unworthy”, it’s just that there is always easier reading and more difficult reading for those who are ready and want to read serious publications.

I don’t think that the circulation of such a media outlet can exceed 100 thousand, and we never planned to change the format. After all, we initially conceived “Foma” as a magazine for educated people who read, and not just look at pictures.

Have you read the article "Foma" - a magazine for those who doubt?