THIS DAY - July 2, 1901 - Alexej Glagolev the Righteous Among the Nations was born

02.07.2021

Alexej Glagolev, clergyman, Righteous Among the Nations, was born in Kyiv in the family of Aleksandr Glagolev, an Orthodox priest, theologian, and professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy. Excellent knowledge of the Old Testament, Hebrew and the ancient Aramaic language, Jewish tradition, and the history of early Christianity determined the philosemitic sentiments of Father Alexander and his family.

Alexej spent his childhood in ancient Podol. He received a spiritual and secular education: he graduated from the Kyiv Theological Academy and the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Institute of Public Education. In the conditions of atheism of Soviet society, after the persecution of his father (Father Alexander was first arrested in 1930 and died during torture in Lukyanovka prison in 1937), in the spirit of those times, Alexei Glagolev and his family (in January 1926 he married Tatiana Bulashevich) was evicted from the priest's house; a young family with young children had to huddle in a damp basement.

Alexej Glagolev had to be ordained in 1941 during the Nazi occupation, when the Germans, trying to gain the support of the Church, allowed the opening of churches, and themselves prepared for the mass extermination of people. Oleksiy Glagolev was ordained a priest in Kamianets-Podilskyi and began his service in the Church of the Intercession in his native Kyiv’s Podil. When orders were issued throughout Kyiv that all Jews in the city and its environs should appear on Monday, September 29, at the corner of Degtyarivska and Melnikova streets, the Glagolev family realized what would happen next. They decided to save people. At the time of the fall of the Christian civilization, Glagoleva (Father Alexei, Mother Tatiana, and even children Magdalena and Nicholas) rescued Jews who were in the greatest danger of being executed in Babyn Yar. They hid the persecuted in the bell tower, in the basement of the church; Father Alexei issued them certificates of deacons, palamars, singers. Tatiana Glagoleva even dared to give her passport and metrics about the baptism of Isabel Mirkina, which allowed the persecuted to stay in the village for eight months.

After the war, Father Alexej continued to serve in the Church of the Intercession until its closure during another anti-religious campaign in 1960.

In 1992, the Yad Vashem Institute recognized Alexej Glagolev as the Righteous Among the Nations and members of his family - his wife Tatiana, daughter Magdalena, and later (in 2001) his son Mykola. In their honor, trees were planted on the Alley of the Righteous in Jerusalem in the Memorial Complex of Catastrophe and Heroism of Yad Vashem.

We offer you to watch a video-lecture (in Ukrainian) by researcher Dr. Olena Ishchenko, dedicated to Alexej Glagolev.

Sceintific literature on this topic in the Library of Museum "Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine":