the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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he did not recognize the renovationists, and was banned by the renovationist
Metropolitan Peter (Blinov). He did not recognize this ban, and was elected
by the part of the cathedral parish that separated from the renovationists as
priest of the Kazan church of the Mother of God. He started serving there on
June 4, 1923, but on June 27 he was arrested and accused by the OGPU of
“participating in a meeting of clergy” that had taken place the previous day in
his flat. He was sentenced to two years’ exile as part of “the Case of the
Chelyabinsk priests at the illegal meeting, Chelyabinsk, 1923. Nothing more is
known about him.
Priest Demetrius Alexandrovich Nassonov was born in October, 1875.
Having studied in a theological seminary and at university, he began to teach
the Law of God in Orenburg. In 1917 he was the president of the All-Diocesan
Congress of Clergy in Orenburg. He served successively in Port Arthur
settlement, the village of Karachelskoye, Miassky Factory and the Pokrov
church in Chelyabinsk. In June, 1923 he was arrested for “participation in an
illegal congress of clergy”. For lack of evidence against him he was released.
In the investigatory records he is characterized as “the leader of
autocephalism”, having many followers in the Chelyabinsk diocese. Emphasis
was laid on his connections with Bishop Dionysius (Prozorov), who was in
prison, and who had supposedly blessed him temporarily to administer the
diocese. Fr. Demetrius was convicted of “counter-revolutionary activity” and
sentenced to two years’ exile. Nothing more is known about him.
*
The following Orenburg priests were arrested on July 20, 1925 and
convicted in the group case “The Case of Bishop James (Maskayev) and
others, Orenburg, 1925” for refusing to accept the “Living Church” when the
married renovationist “bishop” Andrew Sosedov and his supporters seized
some churches in Orenburg:
Protopriest Demetrius Mikhailovich Kononov. He was married with
eight young children and served in Orenburg, where he was arrested on July
20, 1923 and cast into prison. In September he was released. At the beginning
of 1925 he was arrested again, and in April was convicted of refusing to
recognize the “Living Church”, and was sentenced in accordance with article
69 to three years’ exile in Siberia. On July 13 the Tikhonite parishes of
Orenburg asked the Political Red Cross to petition for his release, but without
success. From September he was in exile in the village of Kindal, Tomsk
province. Nothing more is known about him.
Protopriest Nicholas Ivanov. He lived in Orenburg and had a daughter.
Nothing more is known about him.
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