the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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However, on June 12-13, 1930 there took place in the village of Maliye
Yalchiki the trial of the warden of the church, Demetrius Susmetov, 34 years
old. He was sentenced to five years in a corrective labour camp, while
Timothy Shilov, the secretary of the Union, was sentenced to ten years. The
blind Monk Theophanes was sentenced to one year’s exile in a remote part of
Russia.
But the work of the Union continued. In place of Priest Orlov Fr. Andrew
Khrisanfovich Khrisanfov was elected. He had been ordained to the
priesthood by Bishop Abraham of Syzran at the request of the believers in
October, 1926. On the day of the October revolution, 1926 he organized a
cross procession which disrupted a demonstration which the communists
were planning to hold on their feast day.
In his house Fr. Andrew constructed a church or prayer house. He was
helped by the zealous parishioners Maria Arkhipova and Eudocia Yegorova.
Their house was next to the prayer house. They swept the floor, kept the stove
going, looked after the lampadas and icons, and spent almost the whole of
their time in the prayer house. They also gave hospitality to wandering nuns
in their house.
Fr. Andrew prepared Maximus Arkhipov and Nicholas Krasnov to become
priests. They were ordained in 1930 by Bishop Habbakuk.
In the record of the interrogation, it was said that Fr. Andrew “forced”
people to be crowned, and slowed down dekulakisation and collectivization.
On October 7, 1931 he was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for not
paying taxes. In 1932 he was formally charged with being one of “the
initiators and leaders of the counter-revolutionary organisation of the
Habbakukites, ’the Union of the Orthodox Church’”, with “systematically and
over a period of years acting to disrupt undertakings initiated by Soviet
power”, with “hindering collectivisation”, with “re-establishing the old
monarchist order” and that “in 1930 when the bells were being removed he
roused the religious masses to mass speeches.”
At that time other active Habbakukite priests and laity were arrested.
Alexander Grigoryev was also accused of being an initiator of the Union. He
was ordained by Bishop Habbakuk at the beginning of 1930 and served in the
church of the village of Noviye Shimkusy, the former rector of which,
Hieromonk Philemon, also a Habbakukite, had already been arrested. Fr.
Alexander served every day according to the monastic typicon, from early in
the morning to four in the afternoon. After the service he gave long sermons
and conducted discussions. He talked about Soviet power, about the
international situation, and said that soon there would be a war and the end
of Soviet power. He did not allow collective farm workers to his services. He
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