Tikhon Nikolayevich Shalamov (5 August 1868 â 3 March 1933, Vologda), was a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, a missionary, an activist in the Living Church movement, and a publicist. He was the father of the well-known Soviet writer and Gulag survivor Varlam Shalamov.
Shalamov was born on August 5, 1868 in the village of Votcha, Ust-Sysolsky district. His father was the priest of the Votcha parish, Nikolai Ioannovich Shalamov (1827âÂÂ1910), his mother was Tatyana Andreyevna Musnikova, the daughter of a sexton from the city of Veliky Ustyug.
After graduating from the Vologda Theological Seminary in 1890, he was a teacher at a church parish school.
He was sent to Alaska at the recommendation of Bishop Nikolai (Ziorov) of Alaska and the Aleutians, who had previously served as inspector of the Vologda Theological Seminary. From 1893 to 1904, he was an Orthodox missionary in Kodiak Island.
Upon arrival in America, he was ordained a priest and appointed to a position at the Holy Resurrection Church on Kodiak Island by the Russian Orthodox Church, in the North American Diocese. He is the author of several articles in the Russian American Orthodox Messenger. In 1902, he opened the St. Tikhon and St. Mary of Egypt Temperance Society in Alaska and became its chairman. He was a caretaker and religious teacher at the St. Ioasaf and St. Herman orphanages, and was the leader of the St. Innocent Brotherhood of Mutual Aid. In 1904 he was awarded a pectoral gold cross âÂÂfor steadfast service to the benefit of Orthodoxy among non-Orthodox peoplesâ and the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree.
In 1904 he returned to Vologda, where he served as a priest in the Alexander Nevsky Church next to the St. Sophia Cathedral (according to other sources, in the Ascension Church). He was a teacher of religion at the Kolesnikovsky parish school and the 2nd girlsâ gymnasium. In 1906 he was transferred to the position of a full-time priest at the St. Sophia Cathedral. Varlam Shalamov recalls in The Fourth Vologda:
True, the locals were shocked by Father TikhonâÂÂs behavior. The new priest of the cityâÂÂs main church liked to dress in the latest fashion, was an avid hunter and fisherman. He masterfully made fishing boats, and did it right in the yard of his house. Whole crowds of onlookers gathered to watch the âÂÂpriest with a plane.âÂÂ
But the main thing was his active participation in the public life of the city: Tikhon Shalamov was a caretaker and teacher in childrenâÂÂs shelters, and chairman of the temperance society. When a wave of Jewish pogroms swept across Russia, and on July 14, 1906, Mikhail Herzenstein was killed, Father Tikhon gave a speech in the cathedral in his defense and held a memorial service for him. This brought upon him the wrath of the Vologda church authorities, but he did not change his views. He communicated with the lawyer A. M. Vinogradov.
After the revolution, he joined the âÂÂLiving Churchâ movement and took an active part in the activities of the Renovationists.
In 1918, difficult times came for the Shalamov family. After the revolution, it became almost impossible to find work for a priest, and the Shalamovs suffered financial difficulties. In 1917âÂÂ1918, he served in the church of the Sokol factory. In 1920, Tikhon Nikolaevich went blind and could no longer conduct church services, but he actively attended public debates between atheist Communist party members and priests. Varlam Shalamov led his father to all the debates as a guide.
In the 1920s, the Soviet authorities allowed such verbal battles for educational purposes. Thanks to this, the Pastoral Theological School could still exist, where, as evidenced by the photograph found, Father Shalamov taught. At one time, he worked in a bookstore. Father Tikhon died on March 3, 1933, presumably from pneumonia. He was buried in Vologda at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery (the grave has not survived). A cenotaph was erected for him in the 2010s.