Monastery of Saint Euthymius was found in 1352 by Suzdal Prince Boris Konstantinovich. It was originally called Spasky Abbey or Savior's Monastery. It was later renamed after a former head of the monastic community. The first structures were made of wood. In the 16th century it was replaced by brick buildings. After the Russian Revolution The monastery was turned into a prison. One of the most famous prisoners incarcerated here was Nazi German field marshal Friedrich Paulus. He was kept here after his 6th Army was destroyed in Stalingrad.
Initially, the monastery was the Spaso-Preobrazhensky, later it
became known as the Spaso-Evfimiev in honor of the first abbot of the
monastery - St. Euthymius of Suzdal.
The original wooden
buildings of the monastery have not been preserved; the current
appearance of the ensemble took shape in the 16th-17th centuries. The
erection of the grandiose buildings of the monastery was made possible
thanks to large donations from the princely-boyar nobility. Large
contributions were granted by the Grand Duke Vasily III, his son Ivan,
the princes Pozharsky and others.
Near the walls of the monastery
on July 7, 1445, a battle took place between the Russian troops under
the command of Vasily II and the Kazan army under the command of the
Kazan princes - Mahmud and Yakub (sons of Khan Ulu-Mohammed). Basil
suffered a severe defeat and was taken prisoner.
In 1511, the
archimandrite of the Spaso-Evfimiev monastery was Kirill, who later
became the archbishop of Rostov, Yaroslavl and Belozersky.
Mentioned in the Correspondence of Ivan the Terrible with Andrei
Kurbsky. The émigré prince writes to the tsar: “What is the Savior
Monastery outside the city of Suzdal, where the monks are very
money-loving and drunkenly.”
The main temple of the monastery -
the Transfiguration Cathedral (end of the 16th century) - was built in
the traditions of the ancient white stone architecture of Suzdal, it is
monumental and austere. The pride of the cathedral is the frescoes of
the 16th century, opened by restorers on the facades, and the paintings
by the famous masters Gury Nikitin and Sila Savin (17th century).
In 1837, Tsarevich Alexander Nikolayevich visited the monastery, and
on May 16, 1913, in connection with the celebration of the 300th
anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, Emperor Nicholas II with Grand
Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.
monastery prison
By order of Catherine II in 1766, a prison for "crazy convicts" was
established in the monastery. It was closed in 1905 under the influence
of revolutionary events. The bulk of the prisoners were violators of the
foundations of church law, considered by the Synod as sectarians.
In 1826, according to the Highest order, the soothsayer Abel
(Vasiliev) was imprisoned in the monastery. He died here on November 29,
1841, and was buried behind the altar of the monastery's St. Nicholas
Church.
From 1820 to 1832, the leader of the sect of eunuchs,
Kondraty Selivanov, was kept in the monastery prison, and he died here.
In 1829, the Decembrist Fyodor Shakhovskoy died here.
Here,
since 1869, the leader of the sect of jumpers Maxim Rudometkin, who in
1857 declared himself the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, was serving a
sentence. In the prison of the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, he compiled 14
prophetic books that were included in the sacred scripture of the
jumpers "The Book of the Sun", and died in 1877.
In the "Suzdal
fortress" in the 19th century, Old Believer clergy were kept. Some, like
Alimpiy (Veprintsev), died in solitary confinement without waiting for
their release[6]; others, like Arkady (Dorofeev) (who had been in
solitary confinement for 25 years), Konon (Durakov) and Gennady
(Belyaev), were released in 1881. Leo Tolstoy played a significant role
in their release.
From 1892 to 1903, Vasily Podgorny, the founder
of the Podgornovtsy sect, was kept in the prison.
From 1894 to
1902, the Arkhangelsk philanthropist Vasily Rakhov was kept in the
prison.
From 1898 to 1904, the Old Believer Fyodor Kovalev was
kept in prison, who buried 25 people alive in connection with the 1897
census.
From 1898 to 1901, the Orthodox priest Alexei
Zerchaninov, who converted to Catholicism, was kept in the prison.
In 1900, Ivan Churikov, the founder of the Churikov movement, spent
four months in the monastery prison.
Soviet period
In
1923-1939, a political isolator (since 1935 - a special-purpose prison)
worked in the premises of the former monastery prison. It contained, in
particular, Metropolitan Peter Krutitsky, Bishop Alexander Boyarsky,
economists Nikolai Kondratiev, Leonid Yurovsky, communist and Komsomol
leaders Vladimir Nevsky, Martemyan Ryutin, Lazar Shatskin, Ivan Smirnov.
In 1940, interned servicemen of the Czech Legion of the Polish Army,
led by Ludwik Svoboda, were kept in the monastery, who were taken into
custody after the Polish campaign of the Red Army. In 1941, after the
start of the Great Patriotic War, a check-filtration camp was organized
in the monastery, in which soldiers and officers of the Red Army were
tested after being captured and surrounded by the enemy. 8232 people
passed through it. On January 1, 1943, the monastery became a prisoner
of war camp, which contained officers and generals of the Wehrmacht,
Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Spanish (Blue Division) armies. In
particular, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus was kept here.
From
1946 to 1967, an educational and labor colony for juvenile delinquents
(first boys, and after the 1947 riot - girls) was located on the
territory of the monastery. In 1968 the monastery became a museum.