Among the paintings of the remarkable Russian artist M.V. Nesterov have several canvases connected with each other in a manner embodied in them by the priest Leonid Fedorovich Dmitrievsky, with whom M.V. Nesterov met in Armavir in 1918.
 At that time in Armavir there was a family of the artist, and Nesterov came to take his relatives to Moscow. However, the events of the civil war in the south of Russia delayed the departure of Nesterov until 1920, and return to the capital became possible only after the establishment of Soviet power in the Kuban. Caught in such a difficult time and so long away from his beloved city, from the familiar surroundings, seriously and painfully experiencing what is happening in the country, Nesterov, being a deeply religious person, could not help but came to the temple. That\\\'s where the acquaintance of the artist and father Leonid took place, which grew into warm and sincere relations. There were two people of high spirituality and morality. Nesterov by that time was known throughout the world as an outstanding Russian painter. Despite the significant difference in age (Nesterov was older than Leonid\\\'s father for 13 years), they were much united and brought together. M.V. Nesterov came from an intelligent merchant family with a religious-patriarchal way of life. Leonid Fedorovich Dmitrievsky (1875 - 1963) was a clergyman at least in the sixth generation. He graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy with a degree of candidate of theology for his essay \\\"The Basic Principles of the Moral Teachings of  St. John Chrysostom. \\\" The wife of Leonid\\\'s father, Vera Vasilievna, graduated from the Vladimir Diocesan School, was educated at a high level, played piano, she knew French and German. Father Leonid and Vera Vasilyevna, due to their education and intelligence, were respected people in the city. The circle of their acquaintances included wonderful people teachers, doctors, composer of sacred music Ya.A. Shevtsov.
 The house in which Nesterov lived in Armavir (Rosa Luxemburg, 253) was not far from the home of Leonid\\\'s father, who then served in the Church of St. Nicholas.
 In the ensuing October revolution of 1917, the period of the civil war, M.V. Nesterov witnessed the bloody events in the south of Russia, in the epicenter of which, until 1920, was Armavir. During this time in Armavir the power changed thrice. Parts of the Taman army, which were being fought by the army of General Denikin, leaving hundreds of wounded and wounded, left Armavir. The White Guards, having seized Armavir, ordered all Denia\\\'s wounded, sick and captured Red Guards to be placed in the city prison and in the cellars of the General\\\'s headquarters. Conditions of detention were terrible, typhus raged, people dozens of people died without medical assistance, food and drink. Father Leonid, being faithful to the priestly duty, subordinated all his activities to the principles of philanthropy, remaining a spiritual shepherd not only for his parishioners, but also for all the sufferers, regardless of their origin, religion or political convictions. After receiving a reception from Denikin, Father Leonid convinced him to show mercy to the unfortunate, to act in a Christian way and was given the consent of the general to open cellars and allow all wishing citizens to pick up the people therein to their homes for care and treatment.
 It so happened that in the Caucasus, MV. Nesterov fell seriously ill, and recovered with difficulty. A warm participation and spiritual support from Father Leonid helped the artist survive this difficult time.
 For the family of Dmitrievsky, the years of the Civil War were tragic. Declared \\\"counterrevolutionaries and saboteurs\\\", representatives of the Orthodox clergy were persecuted and humiliated \\\"from the side of people who lost faith in God and conscience [1], up to a fierce extermination. In 1919, the brother of Father Leonid Grigory Fedorovich, the priest of the Intercession Church in the village of Solomenskoe of the Stavropol Diocese, died (at the expense of sabers) at the hands of the Red Guards. Father Leonid himself narrowly escaped punishment, a white officer rescued him. All this, as well as fear for the lives of their children, strongly affected the spouse of Leonid\\\'s father, Vera Vasilievna. She died of a heart attack in 1919. The pain of the loss of a loved one was well known and M.V. Nesterov, more than 30 years before, survived the death of his wife.
 In addition to the spiritual human relations of Father Leonid and M.V. Nesterov was united, first of all, by experiences and reflections about the fate of the Motherland and the Russian people.
 The threat of persecution, the fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones for a long time remained a reality for representatives of the clergy and religious thinkers, to whom LF Dmitrievsky and M.V. Nesterov. Confirmation of this can serve as the arrest of M.V. Nesterov in the 1920s in connection with his friendship with the religious philosophers of the memory society of Vl. Solovyov.
  It turned out that Father Leonid and M.V. Nesterov was a mutmutual acquaintance. Among them - Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), whose portrait the artist wrote in 1917, a year before his trip to the Caucasus. Nesterov was familiar with Fr. Anthony from the 1890s. It is for this time that the rector, then Bishop Antoat the Kazan Theological Academy (1894-1900), whose student in 1896-1900. Was Dmitrievsky Leonid Fedorovich. The study at the Academy remained the brightest memory of Father Leonid. According to him, it was \\\"a happy time, an unforgettable time \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\".
 Feeding deep respect for Father Leonid, on the Day of his Angel Nesterov wrote a watercolor \\\"The Protection of the Virgin.\\\" This watercolor repeats the nadltarnaya painting of the Intercession Church of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Moscow, created by Nesterov in 1908-1911. The donative inscription on the backof the watercolor reads: \\\"To the Honorable Father Leonid Fedorovich Dmitrievsky for a good memory on the day of his angel in 1920 on April 16.\\\" Mikhail Nesterov. \\\"
Despite the fact that the creative activity of MV. Nesterov in Armavir almost froze, the artist created several works, among which three drawings: \\\"On the shore\\\", \\\"Sea\\\", \\\"Armavir yard\\\" [2], portrait sketches written from Leonid\\\'s father, \\\"who brought Nesterov his subtle emotional organization and expressive Appearance \\\"[3], to future pictures:\\\" Wanderers \\\",\\\" Traveler \\\",\\\" Prophet \\\",\\\" Passionate Week. One of the drawings of MV Nesterov depicting Leonid\\\'s father was kept with Leonid Fedorovich for some time and was subsequently presented to them by one of the parishioners of the Trinity Church. In 2012 The descendants of this parishioner handed the drawing to the family of Dmitrievsky.
After the departure of MV. Nesterov from Armavir, his relationship with Father Leonid continued in the correspondence, unfortunately, was not preserved (seized during the arrest of LF Dmitrievsky in 1935). The persecution of the Orthodox Church and priests, started after the revolution of 1917, especially intensified in 1922 during the famine in the Volga region. Under the pretext of helping the starving, church valuables were seized: icons, sacred vessels, books, etc. The priests also took away everything valuable. Father Leonid confiscated furniture, pianoforte, a gold cross with an ornament, a silver cross (awards for merits before the church). The time was difficult and terrible. Litigation has affected virtually all clergymen. Father Leonid was no exception. He was arrested seven times. The time of arrests fell on large church holidays. Many parishioners, not fearing the consequences, gathered under the walls of the NKVD and waited for the release of their spiritual pastor. In 1935 Father Leonid was once again arrested, convicted by a special meeting of the NKVD under Article 58.10 and sent into exile in Kargopol for three years. Of course, there was no question of any possibility of preserving the letters, since this could affect the lives of people connected with correspondence with Father Leonid.
 The only after the Armavir period of communication meeting LF. Dmitrievsky with M.V. Nesterov was held in Moscow in the artist\\\'s apartment on Sivtsev Vrazhek, where Father Leonid stayed only one night on the way back from the exile in Kargopol. Arriving at Nesterov under the cover of darkness, avoiding crowded places, hiding, if possible, from outside views his beard, which gave rise to suspicion, Father Leonid left the artist\\\'s apartment before dawn.
It was necessary to have great courage and humanity to shelter a priest at home, even if returning after serving his sentence. Probably, the relationship between Nesterov and Leonid\\\'s father went beyond the realities of that time, they stood above fears, though not unfounded, for their lives. It is known that in 1938 M.V. Nesterov was arrested and spent two weeks in Butyrka prison. The artist\\\'s son-in-law was accused of espionage and shot, Olga\\\'s daughter was sent into exile. Father Leonid and M.V. Nesterov shared a common fate for the intellectuals and clergy representatives of the potential \\\"enemies of the people\\\", however, mutual deep respect and kind human relations were valued and placed above their own security.
The most significant works of MV. Nesterov were devoted to the theme of the path to God. The artist wrote about this: \\\"Everyone has his own\\\" ways \\\"to God, his understanding of him, his\\\" approach \\\"to him, but everyone goes to the same, only hurrying, others - sly, some ahead, others behind, alone Joyously, without doubting, the other serious, wit. \\\" In search of the image of Christ, the artist turned to the theme of a wandering traveler, the embodiment of which was, among others, the picture \\\"The Traveler\\\", about which Nesterov wrote: \\\"Summer evening, among the fields along the road are and are talking. Traveler and peasant, the woman meets the Wonderress with a low bow . That\\\'s all. The picture is not large - it\\\'s one and a half arshins: it is one of a new cycle conceived, the smallest both in size and content \\\"(Letter to AA Turygin, 1921). Whether the idea described in the original form was realized by the artist is not known. In any case, the location here is no information about the whereabouts of the corresponding version of the picture with the figure of a man. In version 1922 In another version of The Wanderers (1922), next to the traveler, a girl-peasant woman is portrayed, humbly carrying her burden of doubt and anxiety along the path of seeking God.
 A fragment of one of the variants of the picture \"Wanderers\" depicting Fr. Leonid was kept until 1980. In the family of Dmitrievsky. The picture itself was destroyed by Nesterov, and the image of Fr. Leonid\'s artist cut himself out of the canvas with his own hand and gave Fr. Leonid through their mutual friend, an art teacher Zhukov MVNesterov come to Moscow in the late 30s. At the present time, the fragment and watercolor \"The Protection of the Virgin\" were transferred to the Art Museum of Krasnodar, and one of the variants of the picture \"Wanderers\" with the figure of a man is in a private collection, originally by the family of LA Ruslanova.
 In Armavir Nesterov conceives the work, which he manages to carry out only in 1932. This painting \"Holy Week\". About work on it the artist wrote: \"I work one thing, conceived about 14 years ago. I work with enthusiasm. I\'ll write such a one, like you used to say Ivan-sitter \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \"in the cabbage soup did not rush \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" .. . \"(Letter to AA Turygin, 24.10.1932). In another letter, the artist again returns to his painting, saying that \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \"she is good on the topic, and in fact your Repin to this matter (subject) attached considerable importance, and we The old Wanderers did not run from them, understanding them in their own way, in Russian, according to their time. My theme, my typical theme, of course, it has all the elements from which it is possible to add my artistic person. And \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \"people \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\", is and \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\ \"penitent \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" (the devil is that) an intellectual, everything is there, but is there, or will there be Goes umene- it look as good picture will be over \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\. \"[letter A. Turyginu, 1.02.1933] On March 15, 1933, Nesterov reported in a letter to A.A. Turygin: \"I finished the picture that I wore in my womb since 19 g. As if something happened and something did not work out. I showed it to someone, approve, they say that it\'s deep, but what the heck is it, if only \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \"deeply \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\ \". Is not it?\".
 Written in Armavir sketch for the painting with the image of his father, Leonid was kept in the private collection of the artist\'s daughter, NM Nesterova. The very same picture is in the Church - the archaeological study of the Moscow Theological Academy in Sergiev Posad. On it, Father Leonid is depicted as a priest. Next to him - a peasant and two women. On the right are the figures of N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky and inconsolable mother with child\'s coffin, fixed his gaze on the face of Christ. Each of them came to Christ: some - with pain, anguish and spiritual torment, others - with repentance and humility, humbly bowing their heads, and each went his own way, \"full of great deeds, delusions and revelations\" (Letter to AA Turygin , 10.10.1915).Business No5 and No10. A special commission to investigate the atrocities of the Bolsheviks, consisting of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces in the south of Russia. Information about the atrocities of the Bolsheviks against the Church and its ministers in the Stavropol diocese.3. V. Zakharov, art. \"Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov in the Kuban\", the magazine \"Native Kuban\", No. 1/2001E. Khasanova. Religious problems in painting. Nesterov Soviet period. // News of the Ural state. University number 35, 2005. The humanities, issue 9.The author of the study and the articles of the great-granddaughter of Father Leonid Fedorovich Dmitrevsky Irina Pogorelova.
Http://acmus.ru/news/stati/mvnesterov_strastnaya_sedmica/index.php
  As for Nesterov\'s painting \"The Prophet\", it was not preserved - it was destroyed by the author. Known etude \"Priest in a white cassock\", 1918., which was exhibited at an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of MV Nesterov in Moscow in 1962. (Listed in the exhibition catalog).
 Currently, from the pictures of MV. Nesterov with the image of Leonid\'s father can only be seen \"Passionate Week\" in the Church and Archaeological Study of the Theological Academy (Sergiev Posad). The rest are stored in the museum\'s storerooms and private collections. +