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Run by Retirees by Nina Dimas [Fall-Winter, 1999-2000] If you think RBR stands for "Run By Retirees", you are half right. Actually, RBR -- Religious Books for Russia -- is a successful homespun venture which was started twenty years ago by a retired babushka, the late Catherine Lwoff. Though in failing health, she single-handedly raised money, collected Bibles, prayerbooks and religious material and managed to get them behind the Iron Curtain. After the death of the founding babushka, RBR's mission and mantle fell on the shoulders of another babushka, Mrs. Sophie Koulomzin. Many of you remember that Mrs. Koulomzin established the Orthodox Christian Education Commission, while the priests she taught at St. Vladimir's Seminary prize her work in establishing church schools at the parish level. There must have been a point when Mrs. Koulomzin formally retired, but she never abandoned her dedication to religious education. She actually managed to recruit some babushkas and others to volunteer to carry on the work begun by Catherine Lwoff. With Mrs. Koulomzin's guidance and active involvement, RBR now actually publishes books in Russia and continues to distribute them free of charge. Since after the fall of communism RBR books no longer have to be furtively smuggled into Russia but can actually be published there, you'd think RBR's work should be a lot easier. Today many millions who were raised on atheism want to understand and practice their ancestral faith. Unfortunately, countless non-Orthodox groups and cults also view Russia and the other former communist republics as fertile ground missionary ground. Thus RBR has now become part of the Church's effort to teach the faith to those who know little or nothing about Orthodoxy and to raise a new generation of believers. Patriarch Alexy II recently recognized RBR's and
especially Mrs. Koulomzin's effort to contribute to the rebirth of Orthodoxy in
Russia by conferring to her the Order of St. Olga. On August 14, in the
Chapel at Otrada in Spring Mrs. Koulomzin's family, many friends as well as the RBR's board of directors were privileged to be part of this celebration. It was particularly moving that the two former IOCC workers who had been held hostage in Chechnya and who attended the AAC in Pittsburgh were also present. One of them, Dimitri Petrov now works for RBR in Russia. |
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