A church in the Khmelnytskyi region has The Last Judgment fresco depicting Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky in hell

21.06.2021, 13:26
Culture
A church in the Khmelnytskyi region has The Last Judgment fresco depicting Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky in hell - фото 1
The original Trinity Church (XVII century) stands in the Trinity Caves Monastery, on the outskirts of the village of Sataniv (Khmelnytskyi region).

Source: Glavkom

In Orthodox churches, the Last Judgment is traditionally depicted on the wall opposite the altar part. The plot is standard. The Lord judges people. At his right hand are the righteous, who have been granted eternal life. On the left are sinners who are thrown into the fiery hell.

The original fresco was lost when the temple and monastery were empty under the communists. Therefore, in 1992, the church was decorated from scratch.

Depicting the Last Judgment, the artist took as a basis the famous painting by Viktor Vasnetsov, and also referred to the traditions of Ukrainian iconography of the XVII-XVIII centuries, when absolutely real people were depicted among the characters of the Judgement.

A church in the Khmelnytskyi region has The Last Judgment fresco depicting Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky in hell_1

"In Orthodox churches, the Last Judgment is traditionally depicted on the wall opposite the altar part. The plot is standard. The Lord judges people. On the right hand are the righteous, who are given eternal life. On the left — sinners who are thrown into the hell of fire," — back in 2012, the readers of RISU learned about it from the article on the monastery in Sataniv by researcher Dmytro Polyukhovych.

"The artist used the traditions of Ukrainian iconography of the XVII-XVIII centuries when absolutely real people or personifications of real social and political groups were depicted among the characters of the Last Judgment. In particular, in the foreground among the righteous, we see a Cossack from Zaporizhzhia (in trousers, with a mustache and a topknot). But the infernal part of the Judgement looks the craftiest. In addition to traditional, ordinary sinners like avarice lovers, adulterers, drunkards, murderers and suicides, the walls of the Holy Trinity Church in Sataniv are also featuring the great sinners. More precisely, the sinners are Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler, Beria and the like. There is also Khrushchev (of course, with a shoe in his hand), on whose orders the monastery was closed at the time. Nikita Khrushchev also made it into history with his statement that soon "the last priest will be shown in the museum". There is also a curious snake, symbolizing the enemy of Man. If you look closely, his black, gloomy body is decorated with sinister red communist pentagrams."

"There is no Last Judgment of this kind anywhere else! So the monastery in Sataniv is worth visiting just for the sake of this unique fresco. But besides it, there are so many interesting things here!" the researchers believe.