Evgeny the 'Martyr-Warrior'

[Nicholas Richard]

Dear all in Christ,


I was blessed to read the below on another Orhtodox list and I find it one of the most edifying accounts I have read on any Orthodox list since I started reading them two years ago.
It is the story of a man who was recently martyred for the faith in Chechnya. The English is not perfect but I find it endearing so I leave it as it is.


"Martyr Warrior Evgeny" pray to God for us!


In Christ,

Nicholas Richard.



Actually, now I would like to speak about other things: to tell you a story
>that impressed me very much some time ago. I do hope that this story may be
>very interesting for some orthodox christian people outside Russia who may
>not know that at all.
>
>I do know that some people belonging to different "jurisdictions", "hate"
>anything coming from anything connected with Moscow Patriarchate (that I
>belong to), considering it as a "KGB-controlled church" or something like
>this, as well as some "civic right-defenders" do speak something about
>"crime" in so-called "Russia's war against Chechnya". I will not go into ANY
>discussion concerning this subjects, I must warn at first.
>
>I'd like to tell about that even in our time there is a place for a real
>exploit (I don't know the English term) for Name of Christ. Some years ago
>(four or five) there was a Russian young men (about 18-19 years old), born
>in a Russian provinvial city or village, named Evgeny (or, English-French
>equivalent, Eugene - as Fr. Seraphim's former name "in world") who was
>joined the army and was sent to the war in Chechen district. As you know, we
>now have an obligatory army service.
>
>Then, being on this war, Evgeny was captured by Chechen bandits and was
>compelled to deny Christ, just by throwing away his neck-carried little
>cross. An alternative to it was the execution (or, I don't remember
>exactly), so-called "simle easy" execution by gun fire rather than cutting
>off his head with a dagger. Evgeny rejected this requirement, and was
>executed by a long agonizing procedure of very slow cutting off his head by
>a dagger that lasted an hour or so. This process was fixed on a video tape
>and therefore documented. He was buried somewhere without his head, and
>later his mother spent a lot of time to buy (to find) his head from Chechens
>bandits.
>
>What is actually notable that young youth Evgeny was baptised just before he
>go to the Army, and probably got Holy Communion very few times (if not only
>once after his baptism), and also _FORMALLY_ he had a very few experience in
>the Church Life, and from a FORMAL viewpoint he can't be said to be an
>experienced or so-called deep laymen of the Church. His decision to be
>baptised in a relatively adult age, as his mother recalls, was absolutely
>his own and independent.
>
>I think that were he accepted the requirement of Chechens and - who knows -
>somehow went home alive, he would be forgived by the church somehow, maybe
>after some kind of purely church "punishments". Neverhteless, he rejected,
>clearly not being "a deep educated church laymen" (from an extern viewpoint)
>and the action that he was required, did not stand for something "specific"
>from a civic viewpoint. Probably, he was ruled by Holy Spirit, and his
>exploit is a clear sign for us, the christians.
>
>Now he is called by Church as "Martyr Warrior Evgeny", though, if I am not
>mistaken, he is not canonized as a whole-church saint.
>
>That's the story. I decided to share it with you - dear brothers and sisters
>in Christ who mostly live not in Russia and are not ethnically Russians,
>because, as to my sinner's viewpoint, all our "jurisdiction" so-called
>contradictions mean not too much if we still have these exploits like martyr
>Evgeny's. I think that that was the place of real belief and real love to
>Christ, and this may be as a warn and simultaneously an example for all of
>us.
>

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear Nicholas,

I thank you for posting the message you read elsewhere, regarding this young Evgeny. I've not heard his story before. But it is a potent reminder of the fact that the climate of martyrdom is not a thing of the past. We who live in the West are inclined far too easily to think that this was the nature of the 'early church'. But the reality is that God may require of us such a sacrifice at any time, even in our own, comfortable lives. Thousands, millions have done so even during the lifetimes of many who are still with us. And perhaps one day we, too, shall face this call.

The wisdom of the Fathers here gives us support and direction: If we are not ready to answer the call to martyrom today, we may never have another day to prepare. 'Let there be no delay'.

INXC, Matthew

[Waldemar]

http://english.pravda.ru/society/2003/01/08/41724.html

Russian Soldier Goes Through Chechen Captivity Hell

Evgeny Rodionov,19 years old, did not lose his faith despite horrible tortures

The Chechen captivity is the most horrid, the most inhuman and barbaric thing that can ever happen, says Evgeny's mother. She had to survive hell to find her son, the body of her son, to be more precise. Evgeny's death coincided with his 19th birthday. Evgeny's mother, Lubov, was a little late: she was just seven kilometers far from the place of her son-s execution.

Evgeny was born 30 minutes after midnight on May 23, 1977. His delivery was not hard. He was a good and healthy child, his weight was 3900 grams. I was so relieved, when I heard his first cry. As if he was trying to say: I came into this world, love me! I incidentally looked at the window. It was dark outside, and I suddenly saw a falling star. I went pale, my heart turned to a cold small piece. Doctors tried to convince me that it was a good sign. They told me that a falling star was a sign of good life for my baby. However, I had to live with a sense of something dangerous coming over us. Time made me forget about it, but I had to remember the sign in 19 years.

The Russian patriotic press has already reported about the deed of a 19-year-old Russian soldier, Evgeny Rodionov. This young man found himself in the Chechen captivity in 1996. He did not betray either his fatherland or his faith. He did not take off his cross even at the hardest moment of beastly tortures. The state decorated Evgeny with the Order of Courage. Peoples donations made it possible to put a two-meter high Orthodox cross on his grave. People come to visit his grave from most distant parts of Russia. His mother, Lubov Rodionova, says that people's attitude changed her entire awareness of life. A WWII veteran once came to visit Evgeny's grave. He took off his military decoration v the Bravery Medal v and put in on the tombstone.

Evgeny Rodionov's biography was published in a book that came out in 2002. The book was called The New Martyr of Christ, Warrior Evgeny. This is not really a book, but a booklet, which was written by priest Alexander Shargunov. However, we know little about Evgeny's inmost thoughts, feelings, emotions, or what he had to go through during three months of the Chechen hell. A lot of things remain a mystery. Lubov Rodionova shared her thoughts with the priest about her son's childhood, his interests at school, his attitude to the military service. She also shared her most horrible thoughts about the news of his alleged desertion from the army, and what followed that news afterwards.

Eighteen-year-old Evgeny Rodionov was taken captive with three other soldiers at night of February 14th, not far from the Chechen settlement of Galashki. The guys arrived from the Kaliningrad region. They patrolled the border between the republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Their control and registration post was located some 200 meters far from the security detachment. The post was just a small cabin, without any light or wire communication. The cabin did not even have a military support, in spite of the fact that it was a single cabin on the mountainous road, which was used for carrying weapons, ammunition, captives, drugs and so on. The border guards stopped an ambulance vehicle to check it. More than ten armed Chechens got out of the vehicle. Needless to mention that it was very easy for them to cope with young inexperienced soldiers. The guys showed as much resistance as they could, but the outcome of the fight was evident before it even started. Lubov Rodionova believes that this incident happened over officers- negligence, basically. The captivity has always been considered to be the most horrible thing that can ever happen to a person. It implies no freedom, but only tortures and humiliation. Experience showed that the Chechen captivity is the most horrid, the most inhuman and barbaric thing that can ever happen, Lubov Rodionova believes.

As soon as she learned that her son was a captive of Chechen guerrillas, she started looking for him all over Chechnya for nine months. She had to go through every horror imaginable. I think that God was watching over me. I was walking along mined roads, but I did not step on a bomb. He protected me from bombings, he did not let me die, because my duty was to find my son, to bury him on his native land, according to Christian traditions. I have realized that recently. When I was walking along those military roads, I just kept silence, praying to God in my heart.

Chechen bandits murdered Evgeny Rodionov on May 23, 1996 in the Chechen settlement of Bamut. Russian troops occupied the village the next day. Lubov Rodionova learned about her son's death only in September. She had to put a mortgage on her own apartment in order to find Evgeny's body and to take it away along with the bodies of his murdered friends. A Chechen man agreed to show her the place, where Evgeny was buried. She had to pay him a lot of money for that. When I came to Chechnya in the middle of February, a living private cost ten million rubles. This price was 50 million in August. A friend of mine was told to pay 250 million rubles for her son, since he was an officer. It was nighttime, when I and some sappers were digging the pit, in which the bodies of four Russian soldiers were thrown. I was praying all the time, hoping that my Evgeny was not going to be there. I could not and did not want to believe that he was murdered. When we were taking out the remnants, I recognized his boots. However, I still refused to accept the fact of his death, until someone found his cross. Then I fainted.

Evgeny Rodionov was murdered by Ruslan Khaikhoroyev. This bandit confessed that himself. Your son had a choice to stay alive. He could convert to Islam, but he did not agree to take his cross off. He also tried to escape once, said Khaikhoroyev. The guerrilla was killed together with his bodyguards on August 23, 1999 in a fight between armed Chechen groups. When Lubov Rodionova came back home, Evgeny's father died five days after the funeral. He could not stand the loss of his son.

Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov, acting chairman of the Moscow Patriarchy department for cooperation with the Armed Forces, says that Evgeny Rodionov will definitely be canonized. The adequate inquiry has already been made, although more information about Evgeny's fate is needed. Father Dmitry said that Evgeny would be canonized as soon as the information was collected.

A sign in memory of the brave Russian border guard was put at the entrance to the school, where he studied. There was also a documentary released about him. The writings on Evgeny's grave cross run: Russian soldier Evgeny Rodionov is buried here. He defended his Fatherland and did not disavow Christ. He was executed on May 23, 1996, on the outskirts of Bamut.

We know that he had to go through horrible, long-lasting sufferings that could be compared to the ones of great martyrs in ancient times. They were beheaded, dismembered, but they remained devoted to Jesus Christ anyway, priest Alexander Shargunov said during the requiem in Evgeny Rodionov's memory.

Sergey Stefanov
PRAVDA.Ru

[Waldemar]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/international/europe/21MART.html

November 21, 2003
KURILOVO JOURNAL
From Village Boy to Soldier, Martyr and, Many Say, Saint

By SETH MYDANS

URILOVO, Russia — Shoulders back, chest out, the young soldier stands as if on parade in his camouflage fatigues — his boots polished, his rifle at his shoulder, a halo around his head.

His face is the blank mask of a man for whom duty is life. It is not easy being a soldier, or a saint.

Portraits of this young man, Yevgeny Rodionov, are spreading around Russia — sometimes in uniform, sometimes in a robe, sometimes armed, sometimes holding a cross, but always with his halo.

He is Russia's new unofficial saint, a casualty of the war in Chechnya who has been canonized not by the Russian Orthodox Church but by a groundswell of popular adoration.

The portraits are religious icons, venerated in homes and churches where Private Rodionov has become the focus of a minor cult that seems to fill a nationalist hunger for popular heroes.

In one icon he is painted to look like a medieval Russian knight. In another he is included, in full uniform, in a group portrait of the last czar and his family, under the gaze of Jesus.
Church officials say all of this breaks religious law. Sainthood is not a popularity contest, and icons are not campaign posters. The process of canonization, the officials say, is long and arduous and can only be carried out by the church.

But it does happen from time to time that a symbolic figure emerges to capture the passions of a moment and becomes a sort of folk saint — sometimes the first step toward official sainthood.

In pamphlets, songs and poems, in sermons and on Web sites, Private Rodionov's story has become a parable of religious devotion and Russian nationalism. The young soldier, it is said, was killed by Muslim rebels seven years ago because he refused to renounce his religion or remove the small silver cross he kept around his neck.

It is the story his mother says she was told by the rebels who killed him and who later led her, for a ransom of $4,000, to the place they had buried him. When she exhumed his body late one night, she said, the cross was there among his bones, glinting in the light of flashlights, stained with small drops of blood.

"Nineteen-year-old Yevgeny Rodionov went through unthinkable suffering," reads an encomium on one nationalist Web site, "but he did not renounce the Orthodox faith but confirmed it with his martyr's death.

"He proved that now, after so many decades of raging atheism, after so many years of unrestrained nihilism, Russia is capable, as in earlier times, of giving birth to a martyr for Christ, which means it is unconquerable."

As his story has spread, pilgrims have begun appearing in this small village just west of Moscow, where his mother, Lyubov, 51, tends his grave on an icy hillside beside an old whitewashed church.

Some military veterans have laid their medals by his graveside in a gesture of homage. People in distress have left handwritten notes asking for his intercession.

In a church near St. Petersburg, his full-length image stands at the altar beside icons of the Virgin Mary, the Archangel Michael, Jesus and Nicholas II, the last of the czars, who was canonized three years ago.

Aleksandr Makeyev, a paratroop officer who heads a foundation to assist soldiers, said he had seen soldiers kneeling in prayer before an image of Private Rodionov. "The kids in Chechnya, they feel they've been abandoned by the state and abandoned by their commanders," he told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.

"They don't know who to appeal to for help, but they understand that Zhenya is one of them," he said, using Private Rodionov's nickname. "You can say he is the first soldier-saint."

Among the photographs of her son that Mrs. Rodionov spreads on her kitchen table are laminated cards that she says some soldiers carry with them for luck. They bear his image along with a prayer:

"Thy martyr, Yevgeny, O Lord, in his sufferings has received an incorruptible crown from thee, our God, for having thy strength he has brought down his torturers, has defeated the powerless insolence of demons. Through his prayers save our souls."

Although he has not been formally canonized, Private Rodionov's mother and other believers say his icons sometimes emit rivulets of holy perfume, as some extremely sacred Orthodox icons are said to do.

Indeed, Mrs. Rodionov said, her own icon of her son drips perfume. "When that happens and I am planning a trip, I postpone it," she said. "The icon gives me signs."

Mrs. Rodionov said she was able to find her son's body and learn how he died during a lull in the war when rebel soldiers were demanding huge sums of money to return live prisoners or the bodies of men they had killed.

According to the accounts of his captors, she said, he and three other soldiers were seized in 1996 while manning a checkpoint and were held in a cellar for 100 days before they were executed.
Private Rodionov was killed, she said, when he refused the rebels' demand that he remove his cross and forswear his religion.

A poem called "The Cross," composed in his honor, paints a scene of laughing heathens who beheaded the young soldier when he defied them.

"Pure mountains in the distance, slopes covered in blooms of blue," the poem reads. "Refusing to renounce Christ, the soldier of Russia fell. And his head rolled, blood flowed from the saber, and the red grass whispered a quiet prayer in its wake."

Private Rodionov was proud to wear his military uniform and to do his duty for his country, his mother said. But as a boy in this small village, all he really wanted was to be a cook.

[Waldemar]

http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/364/11641_church.html

Spontaneous Orthodoxy
12/25/2003 15:48

Canonization of soldiers martyrized in Chechnya reveal that Russians do need the faith and their own heroes

At the time when officials speak about spirituality, teachers dispute about introduction of religion lessons into the school curriculum, church hierarchs settle unification of churches and politicians call the church Putin's support, - the Orthodoxy in Russia is living its own life separate from Putin, politics and sometimes even from spirituality itself.

On December 22, 2003 the city court of Mozdok (Chechnya) had an out session in Moscow and gave a repeated hearing of the case on the demise of special purpose police unit soldiers from the Russian city of Sergiyev Posad in Chechnya in spring of 2001. Higher commanders - former Deputy Chief of the Moscow Interior Ministry"s Department Major-General Boris Fadeyev and former Detachment Chief of the united group of troops in Chechnya, Colonel Mikhail Levchenko are blamed for negligence that entailed death of the soldiers.

Lyubov Markelova, the widow of detachment commander Dmitry Markelov brought an icon to the court session. She says: "The icon was painted in memory of the soldiers killed in the Stavropolsky district of Grozny on March 2, 2000." There are the 17 killed soldiers dressed in camouflage and traditional mantles depicted in the icon. The icon was painted several months ago in the Troitse-Sergiyev Monastery. Relatives of the tragically killed soldiers hope the icon will help the court to get to the truth.

Saint Yeugeny - private Rodionov

Yeugeny Rodionov was drafted in 1995; in winter of 1996 the soldier was sent to an outpost on the Ingushetia-Chechnya border. On February 14, together with three young soldiers Yeugeny stopped a minibus for examination. Terrorists headed by brigadier Ruslan Khaikhoroyev got out of the minibus and defeated the young soldiers. At the same very period, older soldiers and officers were celebrating The Saint Valentine's Day; they could not hear the sound of the fight. However, when it turned out the soldiers were gone, the officers decided to accuse them of desertion to avoid any responsibility for the fate of the guys. The terrorists offered private Rodionov make choice: either to adopt Islam and fight for independence of Ichkeria or to die. The soldier refused to adopt Islam. The Chechen brigadier severely tortured him for three months, and cruelly decapitated Yeugeny on May 23, on the day when the young soldier just turned 19. The Chechens preferred the atrocious method of execution because they followed a legend saying that a decapitated victim would not come for the murderer after death. Terrorists demanded that Yeugeny's mother must pay $4,000 for the dead body of her son. The father of the young soldier died as soon as the family received the tragic news about the death of the son. The cruel murderers of Yugeny Rodionov were killed within the past years either by federal forces or by terrorists themselves.

Many people know the tragic story of private Rodionov. There are icons where Yeugeny is depicted dressed in camouflage form and with a halo around his head. The icons are popular with soldiers in Russia, Ukraine and even Yugoslavia where Russian and Serbian soldiers ask Saint Yeugeny to defend them from NATO bombing. There is even an unofficial prayer in commemoration of Saint Yeugeny. Servicemen built a chapel at one of frontier posts in Altai in memory of Martyr Yeugeny and his divine patron. During a religious procession in commemoration of Martyr Yeugeny on November 20, 2002 the icon with the image of the soldier started secreting myrrh. The official Orthodox Church is so far rather cautious about the new saint. Deacon Sergey from the Moscow Patriarchy Department for law enforcement structures and the army says: "Private Yeugeny was martyrized. In the course of time this fact may become the demonstration of his sanctity. Now, documents and evidence are being collected concerning probable canonization of the soldier. Indeed, activity of a saint is characterized with some obvious wonders he works. The only fact that some icons with the image of the soldier started secreting myrrh does not prove his sanctity."

Christ and Coca-Cola

On January 14, 2003 an exhibition called "Be careful! Religion" was opened in Moscow's Andrey Sakharov Museum. Works of 40 artists from Russia, Cuba, the US, Japan, Georgia and Armenia were exhibited in the framework of the exhibition. Some of the exhibits were extremely unusual. For instance, there was a mirror instead of Christ's head in the copy of The Lord's Supper so that any visitor of the exhibition could imagine himself in the role of the Savior. There was also a full-length icon with a cut instead of the image so that visitors could put their faces and become part of the icon. The image of Jesus Christ was depicted against the background of Coca-Cola advertising with the inscription This Is My Blood in it.

The faithful strongly criticized the exhibition, the same way as Christians often receive typical projects. In 2001, during the exhibition Art-Moscow-2001 children under 18 were not allowed to one of the exhibition halls. An icon with the image of a soldier killed in Chechnya and standing with his decapitated head in the hands and an icon with the Vladimir Mother of God dressed in camouflage uniform were exhibited in the hall. In 2002, a group of Orthodox students of the Russian State Humanitarian University brought an action against the university management because they posted a picture representing Christian apostles together with Egyptian gods. The court rejected the suit.

The exhibition in Sakharov Museum ended quite differently. On January 18, six middle-aged men (they claimed themselves to be ardent Orthodox Christians) came to the exhibition to crush the glass, the installations and spray paint on the pictures. The police detained the hooligans. Metropolitan Kirill, the chairman of the church department for public relations commented upon the incident and called the exhibition "an obvious provocation intensifying tension in the society." Even though he said that the hooligans acted inadmissibly, he was still puzzled why that exhibition was organized at all.

The exhibition was closed before the appointed time. Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow declared the prosecution of the six men illegal. Criminal proceedings were started instead against the organizers of the exhibition on the charges of spreading religious hostility; the investigation is not yet over.

These are not the only examples of interaction between the religion and the society. A public committee "For moral revival of the society" has been recently created to fight against organization of "bad" exhibitions on the legal basis. Unification of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Orthodox Church abroad is being actively discussed. This is important that today the Russian Orthodox Church can exert much influence upon the leadership of the country as compared with Boris Yeltsin"s epoch. It is said that President Putin has a confessor of his own, archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) from Sretensky Monastery. However, some processes do occur among the people as well. The exhibition crushing and canonization of soldiers martyrized in Chechnya reveal that Russians do need the faith and their own heroes.

[Irene]

There are some pictures of Icons of the new martyr Evgeny here (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=181127&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=56314387481&aid=-1&id=1654587611&oid=56314387481#/photo.php?pid=30379251&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=56314387481&aid=-1&id=1245705083&oid=56314387481), for anyone who is interested. I've tested, I'm fairly sure you don't have to be a member of facebook to look at them.

[Kusanagi]

I also added a pic of him 2 days ago in my album

[Andreas Moran]

We are going to Russia very soon and will visit my wife's spiritual father who, though an Igoumen at the Holy Trinity St Sergius Lavra, is also chaplain to the Russian troops in Chechnya and goes there frequently. I'll ask him if Yevgeny is to be canonised. For a long time, appalling atrocities were committed by Chechen rebels against captured conscript Russian soldiers, who were just boys like Yevgeny. The Chechens would torture their captives in the most hideous ways, film what they did and send the videos to the soldiers' families.

[Andreas]

there is a group dedicated to evgeny on facebook this extract is from there

Evgenios Rontionof New Martyrs was the first soldier in the war in Chechnya on Yeltsin. Arrested by Chechen rebels, tortured, and slaughtered like a lamb and beheaded
when refused to become Muslim, even as he said himself in his mother executionerΤhe cut his head in 1996 the day who would be 19 years old. Although not raised in a devout environment is not ever separated the small cross who he had and his grandmother gave to him for his 11th birthday .From this small cross his mother's identify his body founded in a group grave with the three others soldiers . For the brave refusal was linked to the cross and to renounce his faith in Jesus crucified slaughtered a lamb on 10/23 May 1996. The Islamist insurgents buried his head somewhere else
The tragic mother began looking alone to find her son immediately after she learned that he was a prisoner in mid February 1996 and for 9 consecutive months. Learned that he was dead in September 1996. Then she put mortgage of her house in Moscow to provide money needed to trade with the rebels and began searching the place of his son was buried. Since the beginning of the search came in contact with Islamic separatists,her life be threatened of myriad dangers but finally managed to speak withthe killer of her son, Ruslan Khaikhoroyev.
He said that the Evgenios had chance to save his life but he refused to take the cross off and become Muslim, and even tried to escape once.
The mother refused to believe that her son does not live, even when she recognized his boots when exhumation his body
But when she saw a small cross at the headless body stood there and collapsed Eventually making it «ransom» to enable it to take and move the piles of Eugenios and partners in Moscow, where was the funeral.
Eugenios father died five days after burying his son.
The yield on his face increases year after year in Russia. Already have published books for his life and martyrdom of the blessing of Patriarch Alexios blissful B, there is a church on behalf of his,has written and have left many in the history of images, some of which spout essence Not yet classified in books of the Saints of the New Martyrs Church Evgenios but obviously this will not be too late.
We hope his soul to be in rest and to ask him to pray for us ,for the world in to the throne of the Holy God.

[Eric Peterson]

Mr. Moran,

Did you find out anything? Every now and again I do a Web search on him, and find some new things, but I haven't in a while.