One of the monuments to the victims of Stalinist terror was the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo, an area located in the south-west of the capital. In previous years, the greatest tragedy in the life of the country unfolded here, which took the form of genocide of its own people.
Crime Ground
For a long time after the death of Stalin, the territory of the Butovo training ground, where mass executions of illegally repressed citizens were carried out during the period 1935-1950, remained a closed guarded zone where unauthorized persons were not allowed under the pretext of secrecy of a military object. In reality, the authorities did their best to hide the traces of the lawlessness that was happening here.
Creation of an initiative group
With greater or lesser success, she succeeded until the beginning of perestroika, when in 1992 a group of enthusiasts was formed in Moscow, whose goal was to perpetuate the memory of the innocent victims of Stalinist repressions. The Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo, built and consecrated fifteen years later, was the result of their noble work.
This, then still a small group of enthusiasts, was headed by Mikhail Borisovich Mindlin. He and his comrades, thanks to the support provided by a number of federal services, were given the opportunity to carry out extensive archival work to study the investigative materials of people shot at a training ground near Moscow, the monument to which is the temple of the New Martyrs and Russian Confessors in Butovo today.
Scary Evidence of the Past
As a result of their research, the true extent of the tragedy, which is a crime that has been suppressed by official propaganda for many years, has been revealed. It is enough to say that, and this is only according to incomplete data, over the period between August 1937 and October 1938, more than twenty thousand people were shot here. It is terrible to imagine what was the total number of victims for all the years of terror.
In 1997, the enthusiasts of the group of M.B. Already at the beginning of excavations on an area not exceeding twelve square meters, the researchers discovered one hundred and fifty skeletons laid in five layers. By the end of the excavation in 2002, thirteen funeral ditches with a total volume of seventeen and a half thousand cubic meters were plotted on the site plan.
The beginning of the creation of the memorial
Despite the fact that the idea to build a temple of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo originated at the very beginning of archival work, it finally formed in the spring of 1993, when the site was first opened for visiting by her relatives of those killed and buried here. At the beginning of winter of the same year, a granite memorial plaque was installed at the test site.
Before the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo was erected, the wooden Poklonnaya Cross made by the masters of the Orthodox Holy Tikhvin Institute according to the sketches of the sculptor and architect D. M. Shakhovsky became a symbol of memory of all those who died here. His father, Archpriest Michael (Shika), was also shot at the firing range, sharing the fate of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. The blessing of the Cross of Worship took place on the eve of Victory Day 1994.
The construction of the first wooden temple
A year later, a significant event occurred - the territory of the notorious landfill was transferred to the disposal of the Russian Orthodox Church, and shortly afterwards, a memorial service for all innocent victims was first served at the tent church.
Then, according to the project of D. M. Shakhovsky, the author of the worship cross, a wooden church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia was built in Butovo, the head of which was the son of the priest V. Ambartsumov, who was shot here, Father Kirill (Kaled). His appointment became a symbol of the succession of generations of the Russian priesthood.
Shortly before the year 2000, one hundred and twenty representatives of the Orthodox clergy were canonized and martyred at the Butovo training ground (subsequently, this number increased significantly), a nation-wide worship service was conducted, led personally by Patriarch Alexy II. Over time, such services have become a tradition and are held annually.
The construction of a stone temple
Immediately after the creation of the temporary wooden temple, the construction of a large capital structure began. The work, carried out under the guidance of the creator of the project, architect M.U. Klesler, took almost eleven years and ended with a solemn consecration in 2007, performed by Alexy II, in conjunction with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Laurus (Shkurla).
The Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo, the photo of which is presented in the article, is built in the traditions of Russian tent architecture. In addition, the architect managed to realize a very original idea - thanks to the special construction of the foundation, the temple looks like it was erected on a hill. Thus, in the premises of the reliquary you have to go down the stairs, as in the crypts of Greek temples, where the relics of the saints rest.
The lower floor of the temple is a kind of memorial complex containing dying photographs of the dead, as well as numerous display cases with their personal belongings and the execution tools found on the training ground - bullets, cartridges, machine-gun tapes , etc.
Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo: how to get there
According to established tradition, every year on the fourth Saturday after Easter, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the Butovo Martyrs' Cathedral - a memorial day for all who, by their death, were likened to the first Christians who gave their lives for the Christian faith.
On this day, thousands of people gather to fill the temple of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo. Address: Moscow region, Leningrad district, pos. Butovo, st. Yubileynaya, 2. For those who want to visit him for the first time, we recommend that you take the metro from the Dmitry Donskoy Boulevard station to the Butovskiy Polygon terminus, as well as the bus number 18.