One of the monuments to the victims of Stalin’s terrorbecame the temple 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 unfolded here in the life of the country, which took the form of the genocide of its own people.
Crime scene
For a long time afterStalin’s death, the territory of the Butovo range, where mass executions of unlawfully repressed citizens were carried out in the period 1935-1950, remained a closed protected area, which was not allowed to by outsiders under the pretext of secrecy of a military facility. In reality, the authorities tried with all their might to hide the traces of the iniquities there.
Creating an initiative group
With more or less success she succeededright up to the beginning of perestroika, when in 1992 a group of enthusiasts was formed in Moscow, the purpose of which was to perpetuate the memory of the innocent victims of Stalinist repression. The temple of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo, built and consecrated fifteen years later, was the result of their noble labor.
Эту, тогда ещё немногочисленную группу enthusiasts headed by Mikhail Borisovich Mindlin. Thanks to the support provided by a number of federal services, he and his comrades had the opportunity to do a great deal of archival work on studying the investigative materials of people shot at the testing ground near Moscow, a monument to which is the temple of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo today.
Scary evidence of the past
В результате их изысканий открылись истинные the scale of the tragedy, which is a crime, has been ignored by official propaganda for many years. Suffice it to say that, and this is only according to incomplete data, in 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 M. B.Mindlin undertook large-scale work to establish the places where the funeral ditches were located in former times. Already at the beginning of the excavation, on an area not exceeding twelve square meters, researchers found one hundred and fifty skeletons arranged in five layers. By the end of the excavation in 2002, thirteen burial ditches with a total volume of seven and a half thousand cubic meters were deposited on the site plan.
The beginning of the creation of the memorial
Although the idea to build a templeNew martyrs and confessors of Russia in Butovo were born at the very beginning of archival work, it finally formed in the spring of 1993, when the landfill site was first opened for visiting by relatives of the dead and those buried here. In the beginning of the winter of the same year, a granite plaque was erected at the site.
Before the temple of the new martyrs was erectedRussian confessors in Butovo, the wooden Poklonny cross, made by the masters of the Orthodox St. Tikhvin Institute according to sketches by the sculptor and architect D. M. Shakhovsky, became a symbol of the memory of all those killed here. His father, Archpriest Michael (Shika), was also shot at the test site, dividing the fate of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. The consecration of the Poklonny Cross took place on the eve of Victory Day 1994.
Construction of the first wooden church
A year later, a significant event occurred -the territory of the notorious polygon was placed at the disposal of the Russian Orthodox Church, and soon after it, for the first time, a memorial service for all the innocent victims was served on it in a tent church.
Then the project D. M.Shakhovsky, the author of the cross of worship, built a wooden church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo, the head of which was the son of the cleric V. Pribar Ambartsumov who was shot here - Father Kirill (Kaleda). His appointment became a symbol of the succession of generations of the Russian priesthood.
Shortly before 2000One hundred and twenty representatives of the Orthodox clergy who canonized the martyr's demise at the Butovo training ground (later this number increased significantly) were canonized; a national service was held, headed personally by Patriarch Alexy II. Over time, these services became a tradition and are held annually.
The construction of the stone temple
Immediately after creating a temporary wooden churchThe construction of a large capital structure began. The work carried out under the direction of the project's creator, architect M. Yu. Klesler, took almost eleven years and ended with a solemn consecration in 2007, performed by Alexy II in co-operation with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Laurus (Shkurla).
Temple of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia inButovo, whose photos are presented in the article, is built in the traditions of Russian hip architecture. In addition, the architect managed to realize a very original idea - thanks to the special construction of the foundation, the temple looks erected on a hill. Thus, the reliquary has to go down the stairs, like crypts of Greek temples, where the relics of the saints rest.
The lower floor of the temple is peculiara memorial complex containing death photos of the dead, as well as numerous showcases with their personal belongings and instruments of execution found on the test site - bullets, cartridges, machine-gun belts, etc.
Temple of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo: how to get there
According to the established tradition, every year inOn the fourth Saturday after Easter, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the Council of Butovo Martyrs, a day to commemorate all who, with their death, become like the first Christians who sacrificed their lives for the Christian faith.
On this day, thousands of people come together tofill in the temple of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo. Address: Moscow region, Leningrad district, pos. Butovo, st. Yubileinaya, d. 2. Those who wish to visit it for the first time, we recommend to get by metro from the station of Dmitry Donskoy Boulevard to the Butovo Polygon terminus, as well as by bus number 18.
