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Foma Magazine · Aug 19 View source View full article on hyper.nooz.ai

Как астроном с мировым именем стала православной монахиней - Православный журнал «Фома»

🌐 Quote shown in the original Russian — English translation below

… солнечный день. Высокий холм в огромном парке. До горизонта простираются необозримые зеленые дали. Купола высоких деревьев, блеск чистого озера… На вершине холма виднеется хрупкая фигура девушки. Это Елена. Она взволнована. Нет, не романтические любовные переживания тревожат её — девушка мучается вопросом о смысле земного бытия. Да-да, в шестнадцать лет! В смятении она обращает вопрос в небеса:

— Есть ли Бог? Слышит ли Он меня? Во имя чего дана мне жизнь?

«…И вдруг... несказанно преобразилось все вокруг: деревья, кусты, цветы, вода в озере, облака на небе. Раздвинулись границы сознания, родилось новое “зрение духа”, позволяющее как будто в космическом калейдоскопе узреть в один миг проносившиеся события всей жизни — от детских лет до настоящего момента; уразуметь во всей глубине смысл всех пережитых страданий, трудностей и радостей, постигнуть смысл …
🇬🇧 English translation

How a World-Renowned Astronomer Became an Orthodox Nun - Orthodox Magazine 'Foma'

A planet and an asteroid belt are named in her honor. An astronomer whose discoveries left a mark on world science, she lived ninety years and endured so many hardships, tragedies, losses, and betrayals that it seemed enough for ten lifetimes. Elena Ivanovna Kazimirchak-Polonskaya. Mother Elena. A person who always reached for the sky—and found Heaven.

Five soldiers raised their rifles. One more moment, and they would fire. At home—a five-year-old son. Alone. Without her, he would perish. Somewhere in captivity—her mother and husband. There was no one else to save them but her. Elena was not afraid for herself; she simply understood: she could not die right now. Her eyes rested on the soldiers' buckles. There, in German, it was written: "Gott mit uns" — "God is with us." To a Nazi, it looked grotesque, but Elena clung to the inscription and prayed silently: "Lord, help!" The words came instantly:

— But you are Christians! Does God want the death of a defenseless woman? At home, children, mothers, wives, and sisters are waiting for you. Think of them!

How many women before her, how many after, pleaded with the SS to spare them, to let them go, and how many gave their lives seconds later. But that time, a miracle occurred. Something in the tone, in the voice of the exhausted and deathly tired curfew violator, caught the attention of the night patrol commander—and he suddenly signaled the others, briefly saying: "Run..." She ran, repeating to herself: "Thank You, Lord! Thank You!..."

This living sense of God's presence, the faith that one can call upon Him from the very abyss of doubt or pain, and that He will not leave a person without an answer—all of this had been in her since childhood...

**Revelation**

She was born on November 21, 1902, in Volhynia. The town of Selets, Vladimir-Volynsky district. Her parents were Russian nobles, owners of a small estate. Ivan Mikhailovich Polonsky graduated from the Faculty of Law at Saint Petersburg University; Evgenia Nikolaevna Zhitinskaya was a graduate of the Institute for Noble Maidens.

On the day Elena was born, the Feast of the Concatination of the Archangel Michael and other Incorporeal Celestial Powers was celebrated. On this occasion, the Bishop of Vladimir-Volynsky and the Abbess of the Zimne Monastery were in Selets. They blessed the newborn and her mother. The Bishop gave the girl an icon of Saint Great Martyr Catherine—her first guidance in life. Saint Catherine was an incredibly intelligent woman who triumphed in theological disputes against renowned philosophers. It was as if the Lord had predestined Elena's entire earthly path from the first days of her life. And 16 years later, an amazing event occurred in which this path was revealed to her herself.

...A bright sunny day. A high hill in a vast park. Unbounded green vistas stretch to the horizon. The domes of tall trees, the shimmer of a clear lake... At the top of the hill, a fragile figure of a girl is visible. It is Elena. She is agitated. No, it is not romantic love that troubles her—the girl is tormented by the question of the meaning of earthly existence. Yes, at sixteen! In turmoil, she directs her question to the heavens:

— Does God exist? Does He hear me? For what purpose has life been given to me?

"...And suddenly... everything around was unspeakably transformed: the trees, the bushes, the flowers, the water in the lake, the clouds in the sky. The boundaries of consciousness expanded, a new 'vision of the spirit' was born, allowing one to see in a cosmic kaleidoscope the events of an entire life passing by in a single moment—from childhood to the present; to understand in all its depth the meaning of all experienced sufferings, difficulties, and joys, to grasp the meaning of personal life, to realize one's true spiritual calling..."

This is how Elena later described her most vivid youthful experience. An extraordinary surge of strength, unspeakable happiness, the understanding that an answer had been received from above. This incident largely determined the main direction of her subsequent scientific pursuits: the proof of God's existence through the wise arrangement of the world.

**The Science of the Sky**

Besides Elena, there were two other children in the Polonsky family. Lenochka stood out from the rest: to avoid being afraid of the dark, she would walk into the garden alone at night. Learning 'silent self-control,' she would jump from a tower into a pond and practice gymnastics. She easily mastered languages (her mother taught her Polish and German), exact sciences (her father knew mathematics well), and had an excellent understanding of music, literature, and painting...

At sixteen, Lena entered the Best Women's Gymnasium. By this time, she already spoke French, English, German, and Polish fluently. In the spring of 1919, she graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal, and by 1920, she had externally passed all the exams necessary for university admission.

In 1921, under the Riga Peace Treaty, Volhynia passed to the Polish Republic. Elena involuntarily found herself abroad. To enter the Polish university in Lviv, she had to retake all her exams, including Polish literature and Polish history. For a girl of her extraordinary abilities, this was no hardship. Having received her Polish high school diploma, in 1922, Polonskaya became a student in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv. This did not seem enough to her—she simultaneously attended classes at the department of her beloved astronomy. Money was scarce, so she worked as a clerk in a judicial office. And she read, read, and read...

During her university years, Elena had her first serious encounter with the Christian community: in 1923, the first congress of the Russian Student Christian Movement (RSCM) was held in the Czechoslovak town of Přerov. Elena actively participated in it (later she would even become the RSCM representative for Poland). There, she met Archpriest Sergius Bulgakov. The philosopher, theologian, and sage would later play an important role in her life.

Despite showing excellent results at the university, she was unable to finish her studies. In 1927, it became clear that her parents' ancestral estate in Volhynia was on the verge of ruin and being sold to pay debts. The huge, beautiful park where she loved to walk and where she received that very revelation was threatened with destruction; the garden with relic plant varieties, the pristine lake with valuable fish species—everything could disappear. The girl left the university and rushed to save the estate. By a miracle, she very quickly restored the completely neglected farm, organized the paperwork, and settled the promissory notes. The estate was saved!

Later, when the new authorities established themselves in Volhynia, the local peasants remembered the merits of the young mistress. No one would touch Polonskaya. On the contrary, they would urge her not to leave and to take the residents under her wing.

Having settled the household affairs, Elena returned to scientific work. At the invitation of the famous Professor Mikhail Kaminsky, she moved to Warsaw. Initially, she was an adjunct assistant in the astronomical laboratory, and two years later, in 1934, she defended her dissertation.

Polonskaya's main scientific works were dedicated to studying the movement of small bodies in the Solar System, specifically the evolution of comet orbits.

The subject is very complex, as calculations and models must account not only for gravity but also, for example, the evaporation of comet substances under the influence of the Sun, which affects the direction of the celestial body's flight.

Despite her serious scientific work, Elena still found time to attend apologetic courses founded in Paris by Father Sergius and to attend classes at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute.

**Happiness and Misfortune**

Elena was already thirty-four. Beautiful and graceful, she attracted the attention of men, but she had no intention of starting a family, especially since Archpriest Sergius Bulgakov, who had become her spiritual father, saw her path as one of monasticism in the world. And yet, one cannot escape fate—a hydrobiologist named Leon (Lev) Kazimirchak worked at the University of Warsaw. Elena and Leon developed an affection that turned into a close relationship. In 1936, they married. A year later, their beloved son Seryozha was born. She named him after her spiritual father. In matters of faith, no one was more authoritative to her than Bulgakov, even though she had probably seen him for no more than forty hours in her entire life.

Everything seemed fine. A beloved husband, a beloved son, a beloved job... The family dreamed of moving to Selets; Elena thought about building an observation station for celestial bodies—a branch of the Warsaw Observatory. Leon wanted to research the rivers of Volhynia.

But 1939 arrived, and World War II began. By the end of September, the Germans were already marching through Warsaw...

**Get out of Warsaw!**

The Kazimirchak-Polonskys move to Lviv. But by 1941, Lviv is also occupied. Pogroms, arrests, looting, mass executions of Jews... The university professor issues certificates to interns at the Lviv Observatory one after another. There are an astonishing number of interns. And their ages don't quite match that of typical interns... However, with these certificates, they gain the ability to pass through German checkpoints and legally leave the city. In reality, in this way, Elena Ivanovna, risking her life, saves Polish officers.

Soon, Elena's family returns to Warsaw. It is no easier there. To survive somehow, Elena gives private mathematics lessons, makes toys, and sells them at the market.

It is the second half of June 1944. Morning. Elena is at home, praying before icons, and suddenly she winces: a distinct, silent command resonates through her entire body: "Get out of Warsaw!". Just like many years ago on that green hill, she realizes she has received an answer to her torments and questions about the future. She warns no one. She takes her son, some money, and quickly leaves the city for the nearest forest. There she seeks shelter. By evening, she makes an arrangement with a summer resident to rent a small room in a modest house on the edge of the forest. She pays for two months in advance. She returns to the city, quickly settles her accounts at work, packs the essentials into a backpack, leaves most of the money with her husband and mother, and begs them to gather the rest of their things as soon as possible to join her and Seryozha.

Alas, to Leon, his wife's arguments that the Lord had warned her—that something terrible was being prepared in Warsaw—did not seem convincing. He is in no hurry to pack. And he shouldn't have. An anti-fascist uprising breaks out in the city. It lasts sixty-three days. The city is surrounded; Warsaw is closed off; Elena Ivanovna's husband and mother find themselves trapped.

Elena and her son try to make their way through the forests to Żyrardów, where her mother-in-law lives. On the way, they stop in a village. There they learn that Warsaw has surrendered.

After the suppression of the uprising, the Germans drive all surviving residents into three concentration camps outside the city.

Elena rushes to find her loved ones. She has no warm clothes—only what she managed to carry out on that first day of her urgent escape. She even has to sell some of her clothes to feed her son. But there is nothing else to do: Leon and Evgenia Nikolaevna are in mortal danger in the camp barracks, and there is no one else to save them but her.

Elena walks almost a hundred kilometers through Poland on foot. Sometimes she walks barefoot. Autumn arrives, the first frosts come, the ground is frozen with ice, and Elena is in a summer dress with a rubber raincoat thrown over it. There are fascists on the roads. Five-year-old Seryozha has to be left alone for one, two, or even five days. Her heart aches: will he be alive when she returns? And will she return?...

**Run!**

The gates of a concentration camp. A frozen, thin woman approaches a guard with an automatic rifle. She speaks in German:

— I am Russian. I need to go inside.

The German smirks: what a crazy woman! Everyone is trying to get out from behind the barbed wire, and this one is walking straight into a trap!

— Go. But without a pass!

Elena understands what this means. Without a pass, no one will let her back out. But Seryozha is waiting at home. Yet, there in the camp, perhaps, her mother and husband are...

She prays silently. She enters.

All day she wanders through the smelly, dirty barracks, calling out for her loved ones... No, they are not here. She must get out. But how? There is no way to know. Again—only to pray... And suddenly, as if in a fairy tale, a camp doctor appears. A Russian! Elena rushes to him:

— I came here of my own free will. I was looking for my mother. I didn't find her. I absolutely must leave—a child is waiting for me at home!

— I can help you, — the doctor replies. — But to leave, you will have to do the impossible. You will have to climb the wall...

— I will climb it!

— Wait. There is broken glass up there. You must walk over it and then jump down...

She did it. She was badly injured and struggled to reach home, but her son was waiting for her.

...In the winter of '44, Seryozha was freezing in a tiny house on the edge of the forest near Warsaw. There were still no warm clothes, and the question was now one of life and death. Elena decided: near nightfall, she crept toward the city. The risk was deadly—violating the curfew meant being shot on the spot. The bodies of those shot were displayed at the city entrance as a deterrent. Signs were even placed: "This is the fate of those who dared to enter Warsaw without a pass or a guide." Where could Elena get a pass? Where could she find a guide?

And once again—Divine Providence: she saw a cart passing by with a Red Cross group. She called out to them. They stopped! It turned out they had been sent to Warsaw to evacuate remaining medical equipment. Fortunately for Elena, one person was missing from the group. The chief doctor allowed her to climb into the cart.

Elena slipped into the apartment where they had previously lived as a family, took warm clothes for Seryozha, and rushed back to leave the city with the same Red Cross group. But at Plac Zbawiciela—the Savior's Square—her path was blocked by a German patrol!

— Ausweis! Documents!... What?! A Russian?! A spy?! Shoot her.

Five patrolmen immediately raised their rifles. The bolts clicked. It was then that she managed to notice those very buckles on the soldiers' belts and the German inscriptions: "God is with us." And, whispering a prayer, she found those very words, after which the patrol leader said to her unexpectedly:

— Run...

**Returning People from Godlessness to Higher Goals**

After a long search, Elena finally found her sick mother—in a shelter of a Polish "committee for the elderly." She learned from her that the fascists had sent her husband, along with other healthy men, to blow up rocks near Vienna to delay the Soviet army's advance. By a miracle, she managed to send a package to Leon. A letter came from him: he was ill, his condition was serious. And then, communication was lost...

Trying to earn even a few pennies for bread, Elena and her son again made and sold children's toys.

In April 1945, they managed to get to Prague. News arrived: a Soviet military consulate had opened, and the voluntary relocation of Russians to the USSR was permitted. Once again, every hour counted: it was the first and last voluntary transport to the Union, one chance to return.

And once again, Elena prayed and asked God for help in making the decision. She decided. We are going! She did not wait for her husband. She still believed they would soon be reunited as a family. She and Leon had long ago agreed that if Elena left without him, she would settle near Odessa and leave her address at the Odessa Observatory.

Two days later, Elena, her mother, and her son left for the USSR. The train crossed the country's border exactly on Victory Day, May 9, 1945. In Kyiv, Elena even managed to run from the train and receive communion during the liturgy. Finally, confession and communion in the Lavra on her native land: her soul trembled with the most radiant hopes!

Why did Elena rush off? Perhaps she asked herself this question many times later. Perhaps she often pushed away the thought that if she had stayed in Warsaw or gone to Paris, as many Russians cast abroad by the war did, perhaps life would have turned out differently, more happily. Perhaps she could have reunited with her husband, her son would have lived, her mother would have lived longer. Her scientific career might have been more successful, she might have preserved her health...

But she could not not go. She was returning to the Union not just as a refugee, a "repatriate," or an important specialist for the country. Elena was going as a messenger of faith, as a missionary, albeit a secret one. Here are her words: "I wanted to return people from godlessness to higher goals, to define the path of the spiritual person, leading toward progress, change, and development." "I want to go to the USSR to devote my whole life to the service of the Orthodox Church, the motherland, Russian science, and Russian youth."

Recall: it was 1945. "Orthodoxy," "science," and "youth"—words that, at that moment, did not go together in the Soviet Union in any historical, political, or any other context. But Elena Ivanovna had received the blessing of Father Sergius Bulgakov for "underground religious work" and burned with the desire to turn her young compatriots from an atheistic worldview toward God. Therefore, she did not wish to notice the obstacles.

**A Cold Reception**

Elena, her mother, and Seryozha arrived in southern Ukraine, in Kherson. They were promised support, good work, and decent housing, just like everyone else returning to the Union, but... they were given nothing. They had to live in a hotel. Her Polish scientific qualifications were not recognized—Kazimirchak-Polonskaya had not taken exams in Party history or the ideas of Marxism-Leninism in Poland. Well, Elena found work as a teacher of mathematical analysis and astronomy at a pedagogical institute. The institute provided an apartment. If it could even be called an apartment. Stone-and-earth floors, drafts, dampness... Total ruin. Neighbors, having learned of Kazimirchak-Polonskaya's noble roots, disliked the new settler. They openly called her a "bourgeoisie." When Seryozha fell ill—and his health was weak—they would say, "Serves you right!"

No one sympathized with the class-unfriendly newcomer when she was attacked by robbers. And this happened more than once or twice—after the war, there were plenty of bandits in the ruined, recovering cities. In broad daylight, food was snatched from Elena's hands, her things and documents were taken, and her food cards were stolen. Polonskaya's apartment was also robbed. And once, the dwelling burned down entirely, and the family had to live under the open sky for eight months. Meanwhile, the neighbors had no intention of helping the "bourgeoisie."

The workload at the pedagogical institute was unbearable. From the management came constant nitpicking and suspicion due to her "unproletarian origin."

At home, she could neither rest nor settle her life: she had to leave early in the morning and return almost at night. Her mother was ill and constantly grumbled about the discomfort and hardships. Ten-year-old Seryozha was sick but endured, stayed strong, loved deeply, and always waited for his mother at home.

Elena would have been happy to quit her disliked job, but she couldn't—she could not afford to lose her continuous service record, and finding a new place in her position was practically impossible.

In addition, no matter how hard she tried, Elena could not go to a church to even catch her breath and lift the weight from her soul—she was categorically forbidden from doing so. And furthermore, no matter how much she tried, Elena could not achieve the relocation of her husband to the Soviet Union to reunite with the family: a Pole was not allowed into the Soviet Union. It was as if insurmountable walls were being erected around the unfortunate woman in all directions. There was no respite, no way out of the endless stream of misfortunes. The only thing Elena could do was turn to the Lord in prayer and, maintaining a spiritual kinship with Father Sergius, mentally ask him for help. According to her memoirs, "...only faith and love for Christ, devotion to God's will, and His wonderful help, along with the spiritual fortitude and courage developed over the years, saved me."

She did not yet know that the greatest trouble lay ahead...

**Seryozha**

A thin woman, looking like a beggar, whom for some reason was called a "bourgeoisie," peered through the window of the pediatric hospital reception:

— I beg you, let me see my son!

— It is not permitted.

— I feel he is unwell! Please!...

— Stop making noise, citizen. Leave the premises immediately!

The woman could only press against the hospital windows and cry...

Seryozha fell ill while at a sanatorium. He was immediately sent to an infectious disease hospital. Alas, in those years, diagnostics were imperfect, and as it turned out, Seryozha was being treated for the wrong disease. Perhaps if Elena had been allowed to see him, she might have recognized the error, drawn the doctors' attention to the wrong symptoms, but mother and son were not allowed to meet. Seryozha lost a lot of weight, suffered greatly, and longed for his mother. From the pain, he became completely blind. Then he fell into unconsciousness.

Only after realizing the little patient was dying was Elena allowed to say goodbye to her son. He did not recognize her. And she could only cry and pray. As she received his last breath, she repeated to herself with her last strength: "Not my will, but Thine be done! And if You take him, I will not renounce You."

Her son died on July 7, 1948, on the feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.

The inconsolable mother still had the right to bury Seryozha according to Christian rites. But no, she was deprived of even that. The management of the pedagogical institute categorically forbade a Christian funeral. Everything had to be according to the circular: teachers and their family members must be accompanied to the cemetery by representatives of the directorate, colleagues, and several students. There could be no mention of priests.

The only thing Elena managed to insist on was that her son be buried in silence. Without any hypocritical funeral speeches.

At night, Elena Ivanovna went to an acquaintance, a priest. Seryozha's body remained in the morgue. The priest performed a posthumous service and a panikhida (memorial service) in the church.

On the day of the funeral, at the grave, the mother nearly went mad with grief. It suddenly seemed to her that Seryozha had been buried alive. After waiting for the burial to end, she went to the cemetery again, dug up the grave, and opened the coffin... The child lay motionless. But to say that Elena felt relieved would be untrue: her soul was black and empty.

**Without Love, I Do Not Know How to Work**

After the funeral, Elena prayed for three days by her son's grave on the banks of the Dnieper. Then, for many days, instead of lunch, she ran from work to the cemetery.

The grief was so great that Elena could no longer remain in the city that was now unbearable to her. She announced at work that she was moving to Leningrad. They urged her to stay, but pain and resentment prevailed:

— The directorate of the pedagogical institute acted with extreme ruthlessness at the hour of my son's death and killed my love for the institute. And without love, I do not know how to work. Farewell.

Finding work in Leningrad was not easy. However, Elena Ivanovna managed to find a position as a researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Her sick mother remained in Kherson. There was no housing in Leningrad to which she could be moved. Elena had to live between cities: immersing herself in work in Leningrad, and using her meager earnings to feed and treat her mother, to care for her... And every time Elena came to Kherson, she immediately hurried to Seryozha's grave.

In 1950, Kazimirchak-Polonskaya defended her dissertation on the topic "Close Encounters of Comets with Planets and the Planetocentric Motion of Comets" and became a Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Concurrently, she was appointed as a full-time lecturer at the M. N. Pokrovsky Leningrad Pedagogical Institute.

Alas, she was unable to hold a permanent official position for long: in 1951, "purges" began in the academic community, a struggle against "enemies of the people." Elena Ivanovna was "laid off." And soon, while she was returning from Kherson to Leningrad from her mother, she was arrested right on the train.

**In Prison**

The arrested Kazimirchak-Polonskaya was brought to the Butyrka prison in Moscow on January 25, 1952.

The conditions in prison were terrible. In the cell, they did not allow her to sit or lie down. Elena was tortured—they did not let her sleep, forcing her to stand for days, which resulted in a lifelong leg ailment. She was interrogated at night for eight to twelve hours. Twelve investigators participated in cross-examinations! They demanded names, places, topics of conversation... Eight months of the most difficult, undeserved trials seriously undermined Elena Ivanovna's health. Her vision deteriorated sharply. Her medical record listed thirteen chronic diseases! It was so hard for Elena that she repeatedly felt like cutting her veins. But she was held back by the thought: the Lord will not forgive suicide.

What was she being accused of? The standard charge—espionage, connections with Poland, anti-Soviet activity... Article 58 based on a false denunciation, as happened to many at that time. But in Kazimirchak-Polonskaya's case, there was a nuance: the author of the denunciation turned out to be... a local priest. He had violated the secrecy of confession.

Elena had indeed not lost her connection with Poland: her husband lived somewhere there, and her friends and loved ones remained there. Whenever possible, she sent news there.

Her religious convictions were also cited as a fault. Here, the arrested woman not only did not deny her faith or try to hide it, but on the

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