Victor Sokolov
Encyclopedia
The Very Reverend Archpriest Victor Sokolov (February 21, 1947 – March 12, 2006) was a Russian-American former dissident
Soviet journalist
and an Eastern Orthodox priest
.
He wrote articles critical of the Soviet government that were clandestinely distributed throughout the Soviet Union
and abroad.
After moving to the United States
in 1975, he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship
by an ukase
of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
on September 7, 1976, for "activities discrediting the rank of a Soviet citizen", becoming only the fifth person around that time to be so penalized, among them Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1984.
(at the time named Kalinin), Sokolov served his obligatory stint in the Soviet Army
before graduating from the Moscow Literary Institute and working as prose writer and editor for a monthly literary magazine. He became involved as a dissident in 1968 when he copied out his first samizdat
, an appeal from five Soviet intellectuals objecting to the invasion of Czechoslovakia
.
In the early 1970s, as a writer then unknown to the KGB
, he was able to covertly report on the trial taking place in Leningrad
of a dissident writer, which was distributed via samizdat and eventually broadcast via Radio Liberty and Voice of America
.
As he became more active in the human rights movement, joining the Moscow
branch of Amnesty International
, he came to the notice of the authorities who kept a close eye on his activities.
in 1975, for the most part as a political statement. He married U.S. citizen Barbara Wrahtz, then employed by the U.S. Embassy
, in a church service that same year, but her visa
expired in August.
She was forced to return without him to the United States
, but he received permission from the Soviet government to join her in November.
In the United States
Sokolov accepted a post as an instructor in advanced Russian
at the University of California, Santa Cruz
, where he continued to write for international anti-Soviet journals.
In November 1976 he wrote to the Soviet consulate
to begin the process of obtaining permission for his parents to visit. Instead of a reply to his application, he received a letter informing him of an action taken by the Supreme Soviet two months earlier to strip him of his citizenship.
At the time he remarked that this action was "rash" since it placed him on the same level as "...Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Maximov, Valery Chalidze
and Zhores Medvedev
", but that he would strive to merit this "high honor".
with a Master of Divinity degree.
He served for a time in Canada
at Holy Resurrection Church, Vancouver
, British Columbia
, where he also occupied a post as Lecturer
in Slavonic Studies at the University of British Columbia
, and then as rector
at the Orthodox SS Peter and Paul Church in Buffalo, New York
starting in 1990.
In 1991 he was assigned as rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, California
, the oldest Orthodox Christian parish
in the continental United States, where he was "well-received" by the congregation. He served with distinction, and in June of 2000 was elevated to the rank of archpriest
by Bishop Tikhon of San Francisco.
of the lungs, which had already metastasized
. He succumbed to the disease on March 12, 2006, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, at age 59.
His wife Barbara succumbed to a similar disease two years later at age 56. (10/12/2008)
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
Soviet journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and an Eastern Orthodox priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
.
He wrote articles critical of the Soviet government that were clandestinely distributed throughout the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and abroad.
After moving to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1975, he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
by an ukase
Ukase
A ukase , in Imperial Russia, was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader that had the force of law...
of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was a Soviet governmental institution – a permanent body of the Supreme Soviets . This body was of the all-Union level , as well as in all Soviet republics and autonomous republics...
on September 7, 1976, for "activities discrediting the rank of a Soviet citizen", becoming only the fifth person around that time to be so penalized, among them Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1984.
Early life and dissident activity
Born in TverTver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...
(at the time named Kalinin), Sokolov served his obligatory stint in the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
before graduating from the Moscow Literary Institute and working as prose writer and editor for a monthly literary magazine. He became involved as a dissident in 1968 when he copied out his first samizdat
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
, an appeal from five Soviet intellectuals objecting to the invasion of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
In the early 1970s, as a writer then unknown to the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, he was able to covertly report on the trial taking place in Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
of a dissident writer, which was distributed via samizdat and eventually broadcast via Radio Liberty and Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
.
As he became more active in the human rights movement, joining the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
branch of Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, he came to the notice of the authorities who kept a close eye on his activities.
Marriage and emigration
Sokolov was baptized into the Russian Orthodox ChurchRussian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
in 1975, for the most part as a political statement. He married U.S. citizen Barbara Wrahtz, then employed by the U.S. Embassy
Diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
, in a church service that same year, but her visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
expired in August.
She was forced to return without him to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but he received permission from the Soviet government to join her in November.
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Sokolov accepted a post as an instructor in advanced Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
at the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
, where he continued to write for international anti-Soviet journals.
In November 1976 he wrote to the Soviet consulate
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
to begin the process of obtaining permission for his parents to visit. Instead of a reply to his application, he received a letter informing him of an action taken by the Supreme Soviet two months earlier to strip him of his citizenship.
At the time he remarked that this action was "rash" since it placed him on the same level as "...Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Maximov, Valery Chalidze
Valery Chalidze
Valery Chalidze is a Georgian-American author, publisher, and the former Soviet dissident and human rights activist.Chalidze was born in Moscow...
and Zhores Medvedev
Zhores Medvedev
Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev is a Russian biologist, historian and dissident. His twin brother is the historian Roy Medvedev.-Biography:Zhores Medvedev and his twin brother Roy Medvedev were born on 14 November 1925 in Tbilisi, Georgia, USSR....
", but that he would strive to merit this "high honor".
Church life
Over time, his church membership became more a matter of faith than politics. Sokolov was ordained to the priesthood in 1984, and in 1985 graduated from Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological SeminarySaint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary
Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary is an Orthodox Christian seminary in Crestwood, New York, in the United States. Although it is under the omophorion of the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America, it is a pan-Orthodox institution, providing theological education to students...
with a Master of Divinity degree.
He served for a time in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
at Holy Resurrection Church, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, where he also occupied a post as Lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
in Slavonic Studies at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, and then as rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
at the Orthodox SS Peter and Paul Church in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
starting in 1990.
In 1991 he was assigned as rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, the oldest Orthodox Christian parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
in the continental United States, where he was "well-received" by the congregation. He served with distinction, and in June of 2000 was elevated to the rank of archpriest
Archpriest
An archpriest is a priest with supervisory duties over a number of parishes. The term is most often used in Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholic Churches, although it may be used in the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church instead of dean or vicar forane.In the 16th and 17th centuries, during...
by Bishop Tikhon of San Francisco.
Death
Late in 2004, Father Victor was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinomaSquamous cell carcinoma
Squamous cell carcinoma , occasionally rendered as "squamous-cell carcinoma", is a histologically distinct form of cancer. It arises from the uncontrolled multiplication of malignant cells deriving from epithelium, or showing particular cytological or tissue architectural characteristics of...
of the lungs, which had already metastasized
Metastasis
Metastasis, or metastatic disease , is the spread of a disease from one organ or part to another non-adjacent organ or part. It was previously thought that only malignant tumor cells and infections have the capacity to metastasize; however, this is being reconsidered due to new research...
. He succumbed to the disease on March 12, 2006, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, at age 59.
His wife Barbara succumbed to a similar disease two years later at age 56. (10/12/2008)
Archived material
- Wedding announcement, San Francisco Chronicle
- Letter from Soviet consulate informing Sokolov of his loss of citizenship
- San Jose Mercury News article on loss of Soviet citizenship
- Buffalo News biography
- San Francisco Chronicle on assignment to Holy Trinity Cathedral
- Marina Times biography
- Elevation to archpriest
- Personal announcement from Fr. Victor of his diagnosis
Other
- Obituary from the Orthodox Church in America