Mother Adriana Malysheva is a nun from intelligence. Mother Adriana: how an atheist Soviet intelligence officer became a nun. Mother Adriana's front diary
Meet? Please! Write down your phone number,” said Mother Adriana, and as a souvenir, at 87 years old, she dictated her mobile number. We met her at the artist Shilov’s gallery, where recently you can see her portrait.
In the same way, intelligence officer Malysheva memorized German staff conversations during the Great Patriotic War, listened to them while lying on her stomach, in the snow or in the mud, through special equipment.
“The trouble with man is that he lives with an eye on others.”
She connected the equipment to a German cable that ran along the ground. Nobody, of course, considered how much valuable military information she conveyed to “her people” in this way.
After decades, the scout and the nun fit into one person. “Yes, these are two unusual hypostases in one person,” smiles Mother Adriana. In her cell, right next to the bed, hangs a simple carpet with a picture of Jesus Christ. It seems to come to life when, during our conversation, the Pukhtitsa nun laughs with an unexpectedly young, cheerful laugh or, on the contrary, freezes in thought. At one of these moments, we asked if she had asked anyone what the meaning of life was.
No,” Mother Adriana shrugged, “they ask me that question often.” In my opinion, we live in order to prepare ourselves for another life, according to the commandments of the Lord. Nobody demands that you fulfill them 100%. The very desire to be better is already welcomed. After all, the Gospel laws are also good for mutual communication. The trouble with a person is that he constantly looks around. I think it’s stupid, when you have God and the Bible at hand in your soul, to fuss all the time and focus on others.
These are the simple recipes for “not living by lies” that Mother Adriana gives to everyone whose confused souls have wandered to her Pyukhtitsa courtyard. A retired major in a black robe, she still seems to be at a combat post. She perceives every day, given from above, as a new task: she gets up early and, like an intellectual nun, communicates with people who come to the courtyard.
“I feel we have to choose: church or politics”
In fact, she has not two, but three destinies. Perhaps it is a talent to live them in such a way that any of them, to the envy of the exaggerated heroes, is unique, historical, and organically fits into the wide bed of the only river of life. It’s better to watch Mother Adriana’s personal “film” by rewinding it. You see how the triple spiral of her fate turns into a solid straight line, the code for which Mother Adriana knitted herself.
You ask what is common between the share of a nun and the share of a scout. Much in common! After all, both here and there have the same goal - you forget about yourself when you need to help someone else,” says the nun and rolls the film back 15 years.
It's 1993. Honored Moscow pensioner Natalya Vladimirovna Malysheva begins to help revive the Pyukhtitsa courtyard in Moscow. Almost at the same time, Yeltsin’s tanks are frightening the Supreme Council of Russia, of which she almost became a deputy at one time.
God save you! - I notice.
The nun nods her head in agreement. And he laughs. Above oneself. Today she recalls her nomination to “that same” Supreme Council with irony, but there was a time when this fact greatly pleased her ambitions. Nevertheless, she still gave up on the political field. Of course, Christian.
Imagine,” she says, “I’ve just started attending church, and they call me to some meetings, demand speeches in front of the public, and campaign promises. I even felt unwell at night. I feel we have to choose: church or politics. The spine began to hurt. Well, I came to the city committee and refused to run for health reasons. Nobody objected. The bench was wide.
“Soviet children still had someone to fight with!”
We will see an even more interesting picture if we go down to the very beginning of Khrushchev’s times. Imagine NII-88, headed by Isaev and Korolev. Girl who graduated aviation institute, poring over the now legendary drawings.
The Americans were terribly afraid of them! - Mother Adriana recalls about the first ballistic missiles, the engines for which she designed herself. And she was the only woman in state commission for testing missile systems. Well, and then space. A source of professional pride to this day is the low-thrust engines for the first spacecraft.
They are the most “jewelry”! - she exclaims. - Actually, those that help spaceships break away from orbit and return back to Earth.
At some point, Mother Adriana again turns into the leading designer of the main institute of the Defense Ministry. It seems that if you give her free rein, she will still contribute to the rearmament of the country. Only... It’s hardly an accident that she was drawn to church towards the end of the 80s, when “ cold war».
Does war change a woman's soul? - they once asked Mother Adriana.
It doesn’t change for the worse,” she said quietly.
Her monastic berth was predetermined by the Great Patriotic War - a terrible scream for four years that awakened a deep-sea spirituality in her soul. Even in the 7th grade, Natasha Malysheva was no different from all other Soviet children, except that she absorbed more deeply than others the state fairy tales about the enemy countries surrounding the USSR. Dreaming of exploits, the energetic girl learned to shoot, ride a horse, completed medical courses, and sang “and on enemy soil we will defeat the enemy with little bloodshed and a mighty blow.”
We didn't care who we fought with! - Mother Adriana laughs. “I’m ashamed to admit, but when they announced on the radio that Hitler had attacked the USSR, my mother turned pale, and I was terribly happy: “Oh, how good! Just what I need! We’ll defeat them in a week!”
“God saved that we didn’t have to kill anyone!”
When Moscow turned black from real bombings, when an endless line of cars went from west to east and the word “evacuation” appeared like a glow in the native sky... Then the state ideology poured out of her like bad water, and quickly ingrained itself into her young skin, like formic acid. primal fear, overcoming which, she made the first and main choice in her life.I was faced with a choice: leave or stay to defend Moscow. Everything physical in me was trembling. But an inner voice said: “No, your place is here. You dreamed of exploits - now, when the Motherland is in danger, go and protect!
“We have a lot of nurses. Maybe for reconnaissance?" - asked her commander when the 19-year-old fragile Komsomol member came to sign up for the front as a volunteer. “With pleasure,” the priest’s grown-up granddaughter answered quite sincerely.
Future mother Adriana went through the entire war. Anyone who fought knows what it is. Glass dreams of romantic exploits are shattered. Repeated forays behind enemy lines for information about the location, equipment, and branches of enemy troops. The basics of conspiracy, legends in case of a meeting with the Nazis, spending the night in the forest, sleeping on the move and at the same time the sacred opportunity to lend another shoulder, taking risks own life.
Die yourself, but save your friend. This is the principle in intelligence. I don't remember ever being scared. Wait... only once, when a German almost took him prisoner. I prayed at the last moment, he stood behind me with a gun and suddenly said: “I don’t fight with girls!” I went through the whole war as if under a hood, I felt that there was someone strong who was taking care of me. But the main thing is that God saved me, that I didn’t have to kill anyone myself!
In the Red Forties, she, a scout of the 16th Army, was given a farewell by Commander Konstantin Rokossovsky. “I personally sent almost all the tasks, asking them not to take unnecessary risks,” Mother Adriana smiles from the memories. Well, in last years Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', who had recently left us for another world, greeted her as a nun. Every year he sent her personal gifts for Victory Day. I asked how he was doing when he came to the Pyukhtitskoe courtyard in Moscow.
The circle I walked around brought me here. And no one will convince me that my path could have turned out differently. There was nothing accidental. For example, my personal life should have worked out great, but it didn’t, and it’s no one’s fault,” Mother Adriana reflects and straightens her black hood with the usual movement of her hand. She first tried it on as a child, when she went to the Passionate Monastery. And this is considered a sure sign that the girl will become a nun. Probably, an intelligence officer who became a monk is, by definition, a fatalist.
December 1941.
Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva was born in Crimea, in the family of a zemstvo doctor. Since childhood, I have been involved in swimming and gymnastics, skiing, and shooting. Graduated from nursing courses. Before the war, Natalya Vladimirovna managed to enter the Moscow Aviation Institute.
Since childhood, she prepared for the military path: she shot, did swimming and gymnastics, and skied. She was fond of horse riding, studied German and spanish languages, there was an idol: the cavalry maiden Nadezhda Durova, the first female officer in the Russian army. “I really wanted to imitate her,” recalled Natalia Vladimirovna. - I learned to ride a horse and generally prepared myself for one profession: defender of the Motherland. She completed nursing courses and passed the GTO standards. They didn’t take me into aviation, so I went to the aviation institute.
In 1941 she went to the front. When the war began, I ran around military academies with friends - I wanted to transfer there. But they didn’t take it because it was a girl. By October, they were assigned to one of the divisions of the people's militia. In November - the oath. I applied to be a nurse, but was accepted into divisional intelligence.
She went behind enemy lines 18 times. One day, in December 1941, one carried out a wounded scout. Mother Adriana remembered the words of her first commander, Hero Soviet Union Nikolai Mikhailovich Berendeev, told to young intelligence officers: “Now you are one family until victory. Each of you must remember the main thing: never, under any circumstances, leave your comrade in trouble. The law of front-line life is immutable: perish yourself, but save your friend.” And the young intelligence officer more than once risked her life to save her comrades.
In June 1942, she was sent to a three-month course at the intelligence school in Gireevo. After them, she served in the army intelligence of the 16th Army, commanded by Rokossovsky. The tasks were already different: I worked with agents in the German rear, went behind the front line as a messenger in partisan detachments. The future nun Adriana fought as part of reconnaissance and sabotage groups. Scout Natalya Malysheva went on deep raids behind enemy lines and carried out the most dangerous missions. Combat work reconnaissance and sabotage groups are one of the heaviest and most dangerous in the war. But Mother Adriana considered the battles in Stalingrad to be the most difficult and bloody battles in which she had to participate during the entire war. Once, during heavy fighting on the banks of the Volga, Natalya Malysheva was deafened by an explosion. When she regained consciousness, she found herself tied to a board; the current had carried her quite far along the river. Almost all the soldiers who defended this section of the Volga coast at that time died. Some of them, dying under scale fire, still managed to save the girl stunned by the explosion.
She finished the war as a lieutenant.
Lieutenant Malysheva.
“The war gave me a lot to understand. I realized that during the war it was as if a photograph was being developed. Those who have good traits are intensified and often manifest themselves heroically. And those who had something nasty, their features become terrible over time.”
After the war.
After the Victory, until 1949, she served in Poland, in Upper Silesia. In 1949 she was transferred to Potsdam and returned home as a guard captain.
After leaving the army, she returned to MAI immediately for her third year, graduated with honors and began working as a distribution engineer for rocket engines at NII-88 in Podlipki (now the city of Korolev). Natalya Vladimirovna has worked in this field for 35 years. Design engineer Malysheva participated in the creation of engines for maneuvering and braking in orbit of the first ballistic missiles and spacecraft, including for Gagarin’s Vostok.
Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva. At MAI.
She was the only woman on the state commission for testing missile systems. N.V. Malysheva participated in the creation of engines for the S-75 anti-aircraft missile system of Peter Grushin. She was awarded an order for this engine.
Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva. Summer at sea.
Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva.
Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva.
After the war, Natalya Vladimirovna was still far from the Church for a long time. Until she found out that the son of her front-line comrade had taken monastic vows. This was in 1988, the year of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus'.
Major Malysheva.
Having arrived with the mother of a young monk in a village near Uglich, she saw Sergei, whom she had known since childhood, in a hut near a huge temple. The young man finished Leningrad University, left a comfortable apartment, a prestigious job, a comfortable life to serve God. Mother said: “Everything in his house was very modest, even squalid. And a wave of such delight arose in my soul that I unexpectedly exclaimed: “Lord, give me the same faith as his!”
Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva.
Soon, the famous designer of rocket engines (and Natalya Vladimirovna was even nominated as a deputy of the Supreme Council) will also leave her job and devote all her energy to restoration Orthodox church.
Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva.
In order to take an active part in the restoration of the courtyard of the Holy Dormition Pyukhtitsa Convent in Moscow, she retired and remained here to serve as a simple nun, taking monastic vows under the name Adrian. Mother Adriana became the laureate of the international award “For Faith and Fidelity”, established by the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation.
Shortly before the tonsure.
Everyone who knew nun Adriana forever remembered mother’s blue, bright eyes - they truly shone, shone with wisdom and extraordinary kindness. Mother was a very joyful, lively person. She said: “I have three greatest loves in life: first of all, love for the Lord, love for our Fatherland - Russia, and love for our Russian Army.” Mother always had a cheerful and very lively character. Once, a reconnaissance group had to lie in the snow for several days under the noses of the Germans. The rations had long since run out, the scouts were losing their last strength, but the main thing was not to be discovered and to complete the mission. And then Natalya Malysheva took out the last piece of black bread cracker and, dividing it into 6 small pieces, said: “Guys! This is not an easy bread. It is impregnated with a special vitamin composition. They gave it to me as a last resort. But you can’t chew it, you have to keep it in your mouth until it melts.” After the scouts tasted a tiny piece of special vitamin bread, everyone seemed to have increased strength, and they completed the combat mission successfully. Although everyone understood that it was the most ordinary cracker. After the war, when getting together, combat friends laughed, remembering how Natalya Malysheva saved the entire reconnaissance group with her magic “vitamin bread.”
Mother Adriana (Malysheva).
In one of the programs “Street of My Destiny,” the host, actor Alexander Dedyushko, talked with a special forces officer, Hero of Russia. In a conversation, a fairly young colonel recalled how, in one of the military operations in the Caucasus Mountains, his group found itself in a difficult situation, on a snow-covered pass, the dry rations had long since run out, the ammunition was at its limit, the frozen soldiers were completely exhausted, the situation seemed hopeless. And then he told the soldiers about how, in the same situation during the Great Patriotic War, a young girl intelligence officer encouraged her comrades without losing her presence of mind. The special forces gathered their strength and managed to overcome a seemingly impassable mountain pass and complete the combat mission. At this time, the presenters announced that this girl scout was in the hall. A little nun with an amazingly kind and bright face came out into the hall and presented the officer with icons of the St. Sergius of Radonezh and Holy Mother of God. The presenters asked mother: “Would you and Sergei go on reconnaissance?” “We need to see,” answered nun Adriana seriously and, looking carefully into the face of the young colonel, she firmly said: “I would go with Serezhenka. He has kind eyes." It was clear how deeply moved the special forces combat officer, Hero of Russia, awarded the Order of Courage, was deeply moved by these words. For Sergei, these words were no less valuable than government awards.
Mother Adriana revealed the secret Great Victory. "He has kind eyes." At my mother’s funeral service, the son of her fellow soldier, to whom she came to a village near Uglich in 1988, now a gray-bearded archimandrite, spoke about the warm friendship that united the scouts and comrades after the war: “Someone became a designer, someone an engineer, doctor. They continued to maintain a strong friendship. They all had one thing in common - they loved their Motherland very much.”
On February 4, 2012, Mother Adriana (Malysheva), an intelligence officer, aircraft designer, and nun, reposed in the Lord...
- Adrian's mother? — I asked very loudly, dialing the cell phone number of nun Adriana (Malysheva).
- Yes Yes! - answered a cheerful and cheerful voice on the phone.
— It’s so good that you will come for an interview after May 9, such texts always turn out better than those that are hastily prepared the day before.
In a nutshell, she served as a scout throughout the war, after the war she graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute and worked as a design engineer for S.P. Korolev. She retired only so that work would not prevent her from devoting all her strength to the revived Pyukhtitsa courtyard. If, again, in a nutshell, then her whole life was spent in the epicenter of the most active activity.
More than a year ago, having suffered a severe leg fracture, she is practically locked in her cell and is completely dependent on others - who are not always attentive, caring and punctual. That doesn’t stop her from telling jokes, singing songs and making her remember the names from “A Hero of Our Time” by her beloved M. Lermontov.
“Every word of his goes straight to my heart. I can’t find anything from him that would somehow dissatisfy me or offend me...”
Unwanted Daughter
Natasha Malysheva was an unwanted child in the family - her mother only wanted a son.
“She didn’t even think that it could happen differently. And she was already talking with her future son, saying “he” when someone asked her about her well-being before giving birth. The disappointment was unbearable for her and complicated the life of an innocent child from the first days.”
Love and attention had to be won from early childhood, intuitively: Natasha learned to read at the age of 5, and she repeated everything from her sister school lessons, so then at school the teachers didn’t know what to do with her. She also entertained herself a lot - for example, she ran to catch the sun over the horizon, confident that she would certainly catch up. One day, after reading about the cavalry maiden Durova, I realized that this was fate!
Crucifixion
One day Natasha met Christ.
In the not yet destroyed Passionate Monastery, the girl was led to the Cross on which there was a Man. On which God was. And there are nails at His feet! How five-year-old Natasha tried to tear off the nails from the Savior’s pure feet with her teeth - the carved nails did not give in, and it was impossible to get away from the Crucifixion...
Misha Babushkin
Since childhood, Natasha’s mother reminded Natasha that she was ugly, but her sister Olya - yes, but she was standing in front of the mirror! Therefore, when a fellow student at the Moscow Aviation Institute, the snub-nosed and tall Misha Babushkin (the son of a Hero of the Soviet Union), began talking to her more often than others, she suspected a trick and decisively ended the acquaintance. But he continued to accompany her and invited her home to meet her parents. Suddenly he returned to the conversation from a week ago: “Why don’t you believe that I like you?”
Lowering my head, I talked about the sadness with which I had lived since childhood: “After all, I’m ugly!” Then he led me to the wardrobe, grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me towards the huge mirror:
“Look at you! Look! What eyes do you have! Smile! And don’t you dare ever say that again!”
I burst into tears. I buried myself in his shoulder, crying and feeling as if the skin of a vile frog, which I had dressed myself in, was slipping off me. A miracle happened - Natasha began to look prettier before our eyes - out of happiness.
War
1941 War. At first it seemed that it would take a few days to defeat the enemy and you wouldn’t have time to stand up for your Motherland. But months passed... “Bombs fell on Arbat, fell in front of the Bolshoi Theater. I understood that everything turned out completely differently than I thought. We were going to go and win. And then suddenly they talk about prisoners, about a large number of wounded”...
Misha went to the front immediately - he studied to be a military pilot. Natasha went to the front in October, Misha tried to dissuade her - already over the phone as best he could.
“I clearly understood what I was doing, but there was no hesitation. It was as if some force was guiding me: I knew that I had to do just that. I went home to pick up the necessary things. I’ve sometimes gone on night shifts at the hospital before, so my mother didn’t know anything.”
I have never met more love than I had for Misha in my life; his photograph is still in a prominent place. Mother is still friends with Misha’s sister...
She ended up in intelligence. Good German, very young - like a teenager - she quickly learned to crawl on her bellies, observe landmarks and, most importantly, not leave a friend in trouble.
Saved
This is how she saved a wounded fellow soldier in the winter of 1941 - he was abandoned because it was impossible to pull the wounded man out through an open place that was being shot at by the Germans. Natasha did not obey the order and rushed after the wounded man.
“When I found Yura, he opened his eyes and whispered: “Oh, she’s come!” And I thought you left me.”
And he looked at me like that, he had such eyes that I realized: if this happens again, I’ll go again and again, just to see such gratitude and happiness in his eyes again.
We had to crawl through a place that was being shot at by the Germans. I crawled through it quickly alone, but what about the two of us? The wounded man had one leg broken, the other leg and arms were intact. I tied his leg with a tourniquet, connected our belts, and asked him to help me with his hands. We started crawling back.
And suddenly, thick snow began to fall, as if ordered, as if in a theater! The snowflakes stuck together, fell on their paws, and under this snow cover we crawled through the most dangerous place.
Halfway there, our guys rushed towards us, took Yura in their arms, and they had to drag me too - my strength left me.”
Life
The hardest thing at the front is everyday life. Life of a woman among men.
“It was very difficult for our men to even go under a bush! You’re walking with a squad on skis, you start to fall behind a little, and you think - now I’ll quickly catch up! But as soon as I start to fall behind, all the men immediately become caring, as if on purpose: “Guys, take a smaller step, Natasha is tired!” I think: “Well, let you all die!” One day I finally chose one older one and said: “Well, why are you all so stupid, or what?” And he replies in bewilderment: “It never occurred to us that you would be so afraid to say it.”
Stalingrad, Kursk Bulge. She went around calling on the Germans to surrender, and once a German caught her during a wiretap and... let her go with the words: “I don’t fight with girls!” 
The feeling of Victory came unexpectedly, and then the victory was ordered to be practically forgotten - only in 1965 did celebrations and honors for veterans return.
Rocket science
Natasha Malysheva, after working in Germany for several years, graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute and began working in rocket science.
“The most difficult thing was to look for errors in the calculations. You calculate everything, carefully check and double-check it many times, each launch costs a lot of money, everyone is watching. And suddenly the rocket at the test site begins to malfunction!.. Once there was a hole in the pipe that caused a leak, and one of the components lacked resources. But until you establish the cause of the accident, how much time passes!
By a tragic accident, S.P.’s life was interrupted. Korolev and A.M. Isaev, and Malysheva begins a completely different life - in an ordinary Soviet institution, where people are not passionate about work, do not sit all night, work for a salary, and not for an idea. It was getting empty.
Seryozha - Father Sylvester
At this time, a friend told me a secret: Seryozha’s son took monastic vows and became a priest... “Perhaps you’ll come with me to see how he’s doing?”
“Sergei, in response to my address “Seryozha!”, corrected sternly, leisurely: “Father Sylvester.” We drove almost silently to the village. We stopped at a hut with a small front garden and a well. Two rooms. In one was Sylvester's father's cell, in the other there was a bed, a trestle bed, a table and two stools. Pieces of tow were sticking out of the ceiling through the cracks, there were no curtains on the windows, the “conveniences” were in the courtyard. I remembered the magnificent three-room apartment of Colonel Lukashenko, Seryozha’s father. And suddenly, instead of horror and protest, I felt such a surge of delight that I could not hide it. "God! - I thought, “what strong faith You sent to this young man, so that just like that, completely voluntarily, he could leave a comfortable life here, in this desolation, alone, and be so calm and peaceful!”
The change that happened to Seryozha - Father Sylvester, struck Natalia Vladimirovna. She began to go to church, read the Gospel... “Everything that has been the meaning of my life until now: work, active social activity, the desire to be in the center of attention - at once faded and lost its meaning.”
Soon she found a confessor, traveled to many monasteries, and began working on the restoration of the courtyard of the Pukhtitsa Monastery. There was not enough time, and she decided to retire. They let me go reluctantly, but Natalia Vladimirovna was adamant: once she decided, that was it.
Adriana's sister
Here in 2000 she took monastic vows. Favorite name Natalia - what name will be tonsured now?
“I will never forget the minutes of waiting for my new name, and when the bishop said: “Our sister Adriana,” it was difficult for me to contain my joy. Now I will forever remain with my holy martyr Natalia, since she and Adrian are one whole body and soul.”
Mother has not walked for more than a year - after a severe leg fracture. She is always active and the most active, a skier and ballerina - chained to her chair and completely dependent on others - who are not always attentive, obliging and efficient.
Adrian's mother greets everyone with a smile and warmth. 
Rules of life
“I have developed two rules in my life:
“Never linger where you really want to stay.” This rule has been my lifesaver for the rest of my life. I was never annoying when visiting, I always left, although they asked me to stay.
My second rule came when I was already older. Watching people, I realized that in society you should never show in public that you are offended. Even if they told you something rude or treated you less politely. It’s much better to pull yourself together, make a completely incomprehensible face and ask him: “Something probably happened to you? Bad mood?" I assure you - this is an excellent medicine. Then, when I began to delve into Christian laws, I realized that although I had a little selfish humility, it was still humility. A person says rudeness to me, and I express sympathy, I do not allow any thought that this rudeness applies to me and our relationship. Works amazingly well."
The highest award is the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called
Mother Adriana's front diary
A few months after her death, a book of memoirs, “The Nun andfrom intelligence"
How did a Soviet atheist intelligence officer decide to become a nun? What did she experience during the Great Patriotic War? And what happened to her in recent years? The Moscow Trust TV channel prepared a special report.
Not of this world
Former intelligence major Natalya Malysheva at the end of her life became a real star: a book was published about her, a famous artist painted her portrait, the patriarch wanted to meet her. And all because, being at the peak of her career, unexpectedly for everyone, the atheist intelligence officer went to a monastery.
“She is a little different from our stereotype of an old man or old woman, she was a very good example of life,” says Vladimir Mishchenko, vice-president of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation.
Natalya Malysheva
She went through the Great Patriotic War without a single injury. She was personally entrusted with secret missions by Marshal Rokossovsky. Not a single bullet took Natalya Malysheva, but the Germans grabbed her and let her go. She did not attach any importance to these miracles for many years, until one day she went to church.
Eve of the 1990s. Natalya Malysheva became seriously ill. She faces complete paralysis. This happens literally before the elections of deputies in The Supreme Council Russia. She withdraws her candidacy. It turns out it was a sign from above.
Natalya Malysheva remains aloof from politics. He doesn’t date anyone, and at first he almost never leaves the house. But the worst predictions will not come true, and when she is able to move, she will go to the nearest temple.
The secret visits to the church that she has been making for the past few years can already be made explicit.
“She told how she came to God. They came with their front-line friend to dissuade her son, at that time, in my opinion, he was a novice, to dissuade him from this hole, from the Yaroslavl region, to come back to St. Petersburg , at that time Leningrad. And she says: “We are sitting in this hut in which he rented a corner, and here he comes - as tall as the ceiling, in this black robe, such huge blue eyes... And that’s all,” recalls Vladimir Mishchenko. .
Father Sylvester could not have imagined then how this meeting would turn the life of Aunt Natasha, whom he had known since childhood, upside down. When his parents' fellow soldiers gathered at home, she was always taciturn.
“Always a very collected person, very attentive, very extraordinary. Little could be found out about her, she was always classified as “Secret,” says Archimandrite Sylvester.
Steel Woman
Photographer Ivan Chernov is a former intelligence officer himself. When I met Mother Adriana, this name was given to Malysheva after her tonsure, I tried for a long time to find out about her service at the front. But in vain.
“I asked her: “Mother, where did you meet the victory?” “In Germany.” I said: “Where in Germany?” When she said that in Potsdam, I asked: “Mother, where were you? Which part?” – she doesn’t tell me anything,” recalls Ivan Chernov.
Natalya Malysheva
At this time, Chernov himself was in Potsdam, but he did not have to intersect with Malysheva there. As it turned out later, she served on the headquarters of Marshal Rokossovsky. Even at the front, she had to hide from her own people when she went on reconnaissance.
Here she comes out of the unit in uniform, pretending that she is going to the neighboring division. Along the way, she changes into a simple dress to pass as a local. Rokossovsky instructed to infiltrate the nearest village as a liaison. One of the families passed on information from the partisans to the army. The scout who had gone to see them the day before did not return. It was impossible to wait. But Malysheva fails this important task. I didn't understand the password.
“And the password is that the rake will stand with its teeth towards you, which means you can’t go in, but if it’s the back side, then come in, then there will be a connection.” She found all this, saw this rake - it stands edge-on. And then she turned back, and suddenly the rake has turned…” says Ivan Chernov.
She will sit in the bushes for more than an hour, wondering what it means and whether it is possible to enter, but she will still return to headquarters. Along the way he will cry because he is going with nothing. Imagine her surprise when, seeing her, everyone rushes to hug and kiss her. It turns out that the owner of that house surrendered to the Germans, and they were waiting for the messenger in ambush.
Journalist Anna Danilova spent six months painstakingly recording all the stories of Mother Adriana. That unfulfilled task of Rokossovsky is not the first miracle that happened to her during the war.
“She called the first such a miracle an event that happened in the very first days of her stay at the front - this was the battle near Moscow, and this was the case when she saved a wounded man, carried him out from under fire,” says Danilova.
On the verge of life and death
Malysheva is not taken to the front right away. She entered her third year at the Moscow Aviation Institute when the war began. The whole group comes to sign up as volunteers for the army, but they are turned away - they are too young. It seemed that the war would not last long, and the Germans would quickly be defeated. It soon becomes clear that this is not the case.
In October 1941, all volunteers were already accepted for the defense of Moscow. Natalya Malysheva, who is involved in equestrian sports, jumps with a parachute, shoots and knows how to provide first aid medical care They offer to go on reconnaissance. On the very first mission, she will save her wounded fellow soldier.
Great Patriotic War, 1941. Photo: ITAR-TASS
“She strips down to her white underwear so that she would be invisible in the snow, runs along the tracks to where the wounded man lies, she ran up there quickly, she is not particularly visible in the white snow, and therefore avoided the shelling. How to crawl back? Suddenly it began to snow, unexpectedly, and with such a solid white wall that it was Natasha Malysheva who tied this fellow soldier to her, and they barely crossed this place, covered with an absolutely white wall of snow,” says Anna Danilova.
Malysheva turned out to be a godsend for intelligence. It turns out that she also speaks German fluently. In Stalingrad, when Soviet troops They took the city, Malysheva walks the streets and calls on the remnants of the Nazis to surrender. They shout after her: “Traitor!”
More than once at the front she goes alone to tap German telephone lines. One day such an outing almost became her last.
“And then the German caught her while she was bugging her. At that moment she was hit in the back with a machine gun from the German. She realized that she was finished, she was about to be shot - she was caught at the scene of the crime. “All of me,” she says, “I remember right now, cowered, took the pistol to shoot herself." He noticed her hand movement, snatched the pistol, took it for himself, and then suddenly said to her: “In general, I don’t fight with girls, get out of here.” She didn’t believe in her unexpected salvation, unexpected joy, and says: “I cowered, expecting a bullet in the back, and began to move away from him towards the forest.” And he says to her: “Stop.” She says: “I stopped, he took out the gun and said: “Take your weapons, otherwise your own people will shoot you if you return without your service weapon,” says artist Alexander Shilov.
She will hide this story for many years. She will also hide the fact that after the war she went to prisoner-of-war camps and looked for the officer who did not kill her.
After the war
This is how the artist Alexander Shilov saw Mother Scout. She called herself a modern nun. She did not renounce the war, she continued to be interested in social life. This portrait was painted in 2010, two years before her death.
A.M. Shilov "For Faith and Fatherland"
“I was so, you know, pleasantly surprised. She understood that she had to sit well, it was, of course, hard for her, after all, she was nearly 90 years old. She joined these orders, these orders, I say, are a memory of the war, she tells a young girl who is a believer about how she fought. And you know, people often even approach this picture, just don’t think that I’m bragging, they look at it and pray at it, like an icon, and say: “Some kind of light really comes from it.” , some kind of inner light came from Mother Adriana, such a spiritual inner light,” says Alexander Shilov.
Anatoly Prasolov was once her subordinate. She officially left intelligence, returned to the Moscow Aviation Institute, and upon graduation ended up in the design bureau. Rocket engines were developed here.
When years later, former colleagues found out that she had given up her career and gone to a monastery, they didn’t believe it, they thought it was rumors until they read it in the newspapers.
“We were, in general, surprised and, perhaps, even proud,” says the deputy head of the department of the Chemical Engineering Design Bureau named after. A.M. Isaeva Anatoly Prasolov.
In the 50s, at the Malysheva design bureau he headed the development of surface-to-air combat missiles. You won’t find her in her office: she personally monitors all experimental work. She, the only female boss, again, as if on the front line, tries not to yield to the men.
“As a rule, we did not work with distilled water; the components sometimes spoiled and appearance, and clothes. And I remember this case: after the next test at the bench base, we look and say: “Natalya Vladimirovna...” - the tights were unsuitable. We had to work in such unusual conditions for female staff,” recalls Prasolov.
The secret of personal life
Scout and photographer Ivan Chernov, after meeting Mother Adriana, found some inconsistencies in her biography. As a leading designer of rocket engines, she often visited the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the team of Sergei Korolev. The veteran explains it this way...
“The only one Korolev took for testing was her, just one woman. Can you imagine? I understood this: he couldn’t help but take her at certain points. So, it was no coincidence that she ended up there. This way - they don’t resign, but everyone they work," says Ivan Chernov.
Sergei Korolev with his mother, 1950. Photo: ITAR-TASS
Most of the information about her is still closed. Perhaps, in parallel with her work in the design bureau, she continued to serve in intelligence.
But we managed to find out that Adriana’s mother was married. She didn’t like to talk about it, and until the end of her life she kept a photograph of her first fiancé, Mikhail Babushkin. Even in his cell, his photograph stood in a prominent place.
“He died tragically in the first months of the war. He was a pilot, like his father, Hero of the Soviet Union. And this man was so significant in her life, their relationship was so important that she, in general, didn’t care about him was able to forget, and, having already gotten married, she realized that she could not give such a feeling to her husband,” explains Anna Danilova.
She will live with her colonel husband for only four years. They broke up in 1949. She was accustomed to loneliness since childhood. Natalya Malysheva is the youngest child in the family, and an unloved child. The mother was expecting a boy, when her second daughter was born, she lost interest in her.
“Her path in the Church was quite fast, a spiritual path. She called when something was not clear. Why is confession needed, why do they take communion, why is the same unction needed, and how often should you go to church, and how to treat to the priest,” says Archimandrite Sylvester.
Conversion
It is after meeting Father Sylvester that she begins to go to the temple from time to time. There is no thought of giving up forever the work and politics into which she was drawn into in the late 80s. But during her illness, bedridden, she will look at her life differently.
“One of her first obediences was to sell books on the street. Well, imagine: a major, with such experience, a member of so many state commissions and so on, this is a respected woman. And suddenly in the middle of Rozhdestvenka Street at a stall with books, yes for the first months she pulled the scarf over her eyes so that no one would recognize her: what if one of her friends noticed her? Well, it would be unclear what she was doing as a saleswoman. Then she got used to it, got used to it and began to carry out her obedience with joy. , without worrying that someone might recognize her,” says Anna Danilova.
The sale of books then brought a lot of money to the reviving monastery, and there everything had to be literally built from scratch.
Natalya Malysheva
Pyukhtitsa Compound - this is where she came. IN Soviet years was here architectural institute. In the early 90s, this place was returned to the Church. Here Natalya Malysheva was tonsured a nun. This courtyard became famous throughout Moscow. As soon as one of the newspapers wrote about the unusual intelligence officer, both journalists and ordinary people flocked to her.
“When Mother Adriana turned 89, I told the girls in the editorial office: “Let’s call after all,” they called, the voice was young, the intonations were very lively: “Of course,” she said, “come.” And it’s very good that you call after May 9, because all those who are before May 9 are in such a hurry. “Everyone, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, write it down,” and those who call after May 9 are usually able to record, listen, and think about everything in more detail. So come." Amazing, completely clear mind, young, cheerful intonations. Excellent use mobile phone“You also have to understand, after all, he’s 89 years old,” recalls Anna Danilova.
And at the first meeting, when they began to question her and write them down, it became clear that it was necessary to write down her entire story.
The recordings of the video interview with Mother Adriana are unique. There are no professional television lights on here, and there is not a layer of makeup on the heroine, but you don’t notice this as soon as she starts speaking. The nun remembers the first person saved.
“His leg was broken. One was completely intact, his arms were intact. I tied him to me and said: “We’ll crawl, just you help me as much as you can, with your arms and legs, otherwise I won’t drag you through.” So again. it will happen, God forbid, it will happen again - I’ll go again, just to see this gratitude in the eyes... It’s such a feeling that he... Let him die even after this, but before his death to know that he is not abandoned, but that they came for him - for this it was even possible to take risks, that’s all,” says nun Adriana.
Love and patience
December 2009. Moscow. Mother Adriana is awarded the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called for faith and fidelity. The hall is standing.
“But she didn’t really prepare, and, in general, somehow she, you know, is not a gallant general - he was in front of her, he was also awarded, but the audience stood up several times and simply applauded, they were so kind words that hooked people so much,” recalls Vladimir Mishchenko.
I was impressed by the speech of the unfamiliar mother and another prize winner, the President of Ingushetia Yunus-bek Evkurov. The Hero of Russia, a military officer, then talked with her the whole evening.
Mother Adriana
“They are talking, he is a handsome young man, and she is so fragile in this chair, but it’s as if they are standing two identical person- two warriors, two soldiers. Since then, they began such a very subtle, you know, connection: he always congratulated her, sent her telegrams when he could (of course, due to his busyness), came, gave her some of his products from home, from his relatives : some kind of cheese, homemade bread - this is customary in the East, and only the closest, dearest people do this,” says Mishchenko.
On December 12, 2011, the Pyukhtets courtyard was flooded with people: everyone came to congratulate Mother Adriana on her 90th birthday. She prepared for this for a long time: she sorted out photographs, finished a book of memories, called all her friends. She seemed to have a premonition that this holiday would be her last. Two months later she was gone.
“There are such beautiful prayers: “Lord, give me peace of mind to meet everything that the coming day will bring me. Let me completely surrender to your holy will for every hour of this day, in everything. Instruct and support me, no matter what news I receive during the day, let me accept it with a calm soul and the firm conviction that everything is your holy will. In all my words and deeds, guide my thoughts and feelings in all unforeseen cases, do not let me forget that everything was sent down by you. Teach me to act directly and wisely with every person, without confusing or upsetting anyone. Help me bear the fatigue of the coming day and all the events during the day. Guide my will and teach me to pray, believe, hope, endure, forgive and love." Isn't this a miracle?" - says nun Adriana.
She would never have believed that she would end her life in a monastic cell. The intelligence officer, whose main virtue in her profession is the ability to remain silent, at the end of her life spoke in such a way that the priests listened to her. Once upon a time in childhood, Natalya Malysheva was told that God spoke through her lips. It was in the temple next door to the house where her mother once took her. She did not remember her words, but she remembered the attention that the nuns then surrounded her with.
Only later, having already become Mother Adriana, did she understand that this was the first sign from above. And for this fate she was saved from death more than once.
Major Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva. As a 3rd year student she went to the front, and 2 weeks later her fiancé Mikhail was killed. She went through the entire Great Patriotic War as an intelligence officer, served on the headquarters of K. Rokossovsky, and reached Berlin. After the war, she graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute and worked in the design bureau of S.P. Queen. In order to take an active part in the restoration of the Pukhtitsa metochion in Moscow, she retired and took monastic vows in 2000 with the name Adrian. She died on February 4, 2012 at the age of 90.
A book of Mother Adriana’s memoirs about her life is being prepared for publication. Mother really wanted to live to see one more Victory Day and was very happy when she was told that her stories helped to remember the war and the people’s feat during the war years.
We bring to our readers' attention Mother's amazing story about the Great Patriotic War.
FIRST MIRACLE
Young heroine Natalia Malysheva. Photo for newspaper
This was during the days of the battle of Moscow.
It seems to me that I still feel the excitement that we all felt in the first minutes of anxious anticipation when our comrades went on reconnaissance. Suddenly, shooting was heard. Then it became quiet again. Suddenly, through the snowstorm, we saw a comrade hobbling - Sasha, one of those who had gone on reconnaissance, was walking towards us. He looked terrible: without a hat, with his face distorted in pain. He said that they stumbled upon the Germans and Yura, the second scout, was seriously wounded in the leg. Sasha’s wound was lighter, but he still couldn’t bear his comrade. Having dragged him to a sheltered place, he himself hobbled with difficulty to us for a message. We are numb: how to save Yura? After all, it was necessary to get to it through the snow without camouflage.
Nun Adriana. Photo by Yulia Makoveychuk
And the words of the commander immediately surfaced in my mind: “Don’t leave your comrade...”
I don’t know how it happened, but I quickly began to take off my outerwear, leaving only warm white underwear. She grabbed the bag that contained the emergency kit. She put a grenade in her bosom (to avoid capture), pulled on her belt and rushed along the trail left by Sasha in the snow. They didn’t have time to stop me, although they tried.
He's waiting for help, he can't be left there! - she said as she walked, as if obeying an imperious inner order, although fear squeezed her heart.
When I found Yura, he opened his eyes and whispered: “Oh, she’s here! And I thought you abandoned me!”
And he looked at me like that, he had such eyes that I realized that if this happens again, I’ll go again and again, just to see such gratitude and happiness in his eyes again.
We had to crawl through a place that was being shot at by the Germans. I crawled through it quickly alone, but what about the two of us? The wounded man had one leg broken, the other leg and arms were intact. I tied his leg with a tourniquet, connected our belts, and asked him to help me with his hands. We started crawling back.
And suddenly, thick snow began to fall, as if ordered, as if in a theater! The snowflakes stuck together, fell on their paws, and under this snow cover we crawled through the most dangerous place.
Halfway there, our guys rushed towards us, took Yura in their arms, and they had to drag me too - my strength left me.
In the cell. Photo by Yulia Makoveychuk
MIRACLE RESCUE
On the Kursk Bulge I had to listen to German telephone conversations. An escort took me behind the front line. He also had a wiring diagram. Having connected, I listened and remembered everything important that the German command conveyed to its troops. Then she returned to her people and reported what she had heard to headquarters.
Twice such operations were successful. But for the rest of my life I will not forget what happened on my third raid. When I had already passed out and got out of the shelter to wait for darkness to return to my people, I felt with my back that I was not alone. She quickly turned around, snatching a pistol - according to the instructions, she had to commit suicide so as not to be captured - but immediately received a blow to the hand. The German standing in front of me instantly had my pistol. I was petrified with horror: now they will take me to the German headquarters.
Lord, not this!
I didn’t even see what kind of German he was - I couldn’t see his rank or age out of fear. My heart was jumping out of my chest, I almost couldn’t breathe. And suddenly, grabbing me by the shoulders, the German jerked me back to him. “Well, now he’ll shoot,” I thought even with relief. And then she received a strong push in the back. The pistol fell far ahead of me.
I don't fight with girls! Take a pistol, otherwise your own people will shoot you...
I was stunned, turned around and saw a long figure walking into the depths of the forest.
My legs did not obey me, and I, stumbling, wandered to the place where, in the darkness, I could go out to my people. On the way, I restored myself to a more or less normal state and returned as usual. I was smart enough not to tell anyone about what happened. Then, much later, I shared it with close friends. The son of one of them, who later became a monk, uttered words that became a revelation to me not so long ago:
Major Natalia Vladimirovna Malysheva
Have you still not realized that the Lord has been protecting you all the time, and someone has been praying earnestly for you and your salvation?..
THE FRONT LINE IS A MYTH
The front line is not at all what it is usually imagined to be. In reality, it simply doesn't exist. It's something visual. We ourselves determined: here is our side, and there are already the Germans; they themselves found the most favorable places to reach their positions. We never knew for sure whether we had crossed the front line or not yet - we only guessed based on individual signs.
ABOUT THE MAIN MILITARY TEST
The war gave me a lot to understand. I realized that during the war it was as if a photograph was being developed. Those who have good traits are intensified and often manifest themselves heroically. And those who had something nasty - their features become terrible over time.