CHRONOLOGY

1941

After the German invasion, the family moves for protection to the deep interior of the country.

1944

Near the end of the war, the Yakunin family returns to Moscow. Shortly afterward, Pavel Ivanovich dies of heart attack, leaving Klavdiia Iosifovna alone to raise her son.

1945

Gleb Yakunin continues his education in the Moscow school system, specializing in the sciences, especially biology.

1952

Yakunin enters the Institute of Zoology in the southern suburbs of Moscow.

1953

Yakunin meets Aleksandr Men, a student at the same institute, and the two become fast friends. As their friendship develops and under Men’s influence, Yakunin, an atheist, begins to forsake his atheistic beliefs.

1955

The Institute of Zoology moves to a new home in Irkutsk, Siberia, and a large part of its faculty and students, including Yakunin and Men, move also. Yakunin and Men room together.

1956

Yakunin and Men explore Irkutsk, visit churches of diverse confessions, study biology, and discuss theology. Yakunin develops an interest in the history of the Catacomb Church in Russia.

1957

Influenced by Men but also by other people and experiences in Irkutsk, Yakunin converts to Christianity. He reads Nikolai Berdiaev’s Philosophy of Freedom and The Meaning of Creativity, both of which make a large impact on his worldview.

1958

Despite Men’s expulsion from the institute, Yakunin remains determined to complete his course of study and the required service after graduation. He makes a decision about his long-term goal: to study for the priesthood.

1959

He meets a young woman in Irkutsk, Iraida Georgievna Semenova, falls in love with her, and proposes marriage. Determined to complete her education first, Iraida Semenova asks him to wait for her. After graduation, Yakunin returns to Moscow.

1960

Yakunin enrolls in the Moscow Theological Seminary.

1961

He marries Iraida Georgievna, who by then has completed her course of study and moved to Moscow. Accused of stealing a book from the library, Yakunin is expelled from the seminary.

1962

May: Iraida gives birth to the first child, Mariia.

August: Yakunin is ordained as a deacon in the Orthodox Church and less than two weeks later is consecrated as a priest and appointed to serve in the city of Zaraisk. The church soon transfers him to the city of Dmitrov, where he would serve for the next three years.

1963

Yakunin encounters Archbishop Yermogen at Fr. Aleksandr’s parish at Alabino.

1965

Yakunin and Fr. Nikolai Eshliman send two letters, the first to Patriarch Aleksii I and the second to the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, Nikolai Podgorny.

1966

Patriarch Aleksii I suspends Yakunin and Eshliman from the priesthood.

1968

Boris Talantov writes “The Moscow Patriarchate and Sergianism” and “Sovetskoe obshchestvo, 1965–68,” both of which support the views of Yakunin and Eshliman.

1969

Fr. Sergii Zheludkov’s letter to Andrei Sakharov calls for freedom of thought and speech.

1974

The Christian Seminar, a religious-philosophical seminar, is formed in Moscow. The gathering attracts young people who are searching for an approach to life and truth different from the Soviet perspective.

1975

April: Yakunin and Lev Regel′son write an “Appeal” to Christians in Portugal. In the same month, they communicate with Soviet authorities on topics concerning the date of the upcoming “subbotnik.”

May: Yakunin and Regel′son write an “Appeal for the Glorification of Russian Martyrs in the USSR.”

October: Yakunin and Regel′son send a letter to the World Council of Churches, meeting in Nairobi. The letter deals with violence and persecution of religious believers of numerous confessions and it results in heated discussion.

1976

Yakunin serves as one of the founders of the Christian Committee for the Defense of Believers’ Rights in the USSR.

June: US House Subcommittees on International Political and Military Affairs and on International Relations discuss the issues raised by Yakunin and Regel′son in their letters to the World Council of Churches and elsewhere.

1977

The Christian Committee develops a relationship with a San Francisco entrepreneur and publisher Henry S. Dakin, who agrees to publish many of the committee’s documents.

April: Yakunin is the subject of a scathing two-part article written by Boris Roshchin and published in Literaturnaia gazeta. Yakunin responds to the attack.

1978

Yakunin joins the Christian Seminar.

1979

August: Yakunin publishes “The Russian Orthodox Church Today and Perspectives on a Religious Revival in the USSR.”

September: the KGB searches Fr. Gleb’s home.

November: Yakunin is arrested.

1980

Yakunin is tried in Moscow and charged with violating Article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. He is sentenced to five years in strict-regime camps and five years in exile.

1981

Yakunin is transported to a forced labor camp, the notorious Perm-37.

September: Yakunin writes an “Appeal” to President Leonid Brezhnev protesting the seizure of the Bible and other religious literature by camp authorities.

October: Yakunin writes “An Appeal to Western Christians” asking for their prayerful support of political prisoners in the camps. He begins a hunger strike. He starts writing his narrative poem “Eulogy of a Simple-minded Fool of God: In Honor of God, the Universe, and the Homeland.”

1984

Yakunin arrives in a Siberian village, located in Ust-Maiskii ulus, in a remote corner of Yakutia, to begin his five-year term of forced exile. He continues to work on his narrative poem.

1987

After Mikhail Gorbachev grants amnesty to political prisoners, Yakunin is freed and returns to Moscow.

1988

Yakunin is reinstated as an Orthodox priest and assigned to a church on the outskirts of the city of Shchyolkovo.

1989

Yakunin serves as leader of a movement called “The Church and Perestroika,” which aims at following a key goal of Gorbachev’s perestroika.

1990

While serving as a priest, Yakunin decides simultaneously to run for election to the Congress of People’s Deputies. He participates in a new group that calls itself the Russian Christian Democratic Movement. He plays a large part in the parliamentary commission to revise the Russian law on freedom of conscience. He is convinced that Russia’s future depends on overcoming the cult of the leader and also its messianic vision.

1991

Yakunin plays an active part in defusing the opposition movement aimed at overthrowing the newly elected government of Boris Yeltsin. He is selected as a member of a small parliamentary commission to investigate a special section of KGB archives that monitors the Orthodox Church and other religious organizations.

1992

Yakunin faces a crucial decision about continuing to be involved in Russian politics. He resolves to remain a part of the political process.

1993

Patriarch Aleksii II orders Orthodox priests to refrain from engaging in Russian politics. Nevertheless, Yakunin wins a seat in the Federal Assembly of the State Duma. In October, the Holy Synod orders Yakunin again defrocked for disobeying the patriarch’s command. Yakunin decides to fight back.

1994

In two open letters to Patriarch Aleksii II, Yakunin accuses the Holy Synod of acting illegally in defrocking him.

1995

March: Yakunin writes two letters to President Yeltsin in which he expresses strong criticism of the Moscow Patriarchate and its failure to meet the needs of the Russian people. He supports the Protestants’ activities in Russia.

September: ultranationalists physically attack Yakunin on the floor of the Federal Assembly.

1996

Yakunin pledges allegiance to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate.

1997

February: The Assembly of Archbishops of the Russian Orthodox Church excommunicates and anathematizes Yakunin for disobedience.

April: Yakunin files suit against Alexander Dvorkin.

September–October: Yakunin strongly protests the 1997 newly revised Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations, approved by President Yeltsin.

1999

Yakunin expresses opposition to the appointment of Vladimir Putin as President Yeltsin’s successor.

2000

Yakunin helps with the creation of the Apostolic Orthodox Church. He establishes a parish in Moscow, and it canonizes Fr. Aleksandr Men.

2006

April: Yakunin writes critique of Metropolitan Kirill’s Russian alternative to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Dignity and takes strong exception to Kirill’s views.

2008

Yakunin begins to experience health problems and receives a diagnosis of a neurological disease.

2012

Yakunin supports the three young women of “Pussy Riot.”

2014

Yakunin dies on December 25, 2014.