The holy martyr Dimitri Smirnov

The persecution of Soviet power to the Russian Church was such that it was not to say about their faith, but even silently follow it as a feat. The new martyrs and confessors, glorified in the face of the saints did not come: believed, prayed and meekly went to their Calvarys.

“Polit.ru” recalls those who gave their lives for faith and by whose prayers the Russian Church is alive - even if almost nothing came to us besides the name.

Publications were prepared by Kirill Kharatyan (included by the Russian authorities in the register of foreign agents).

The holy martyr Dimitri Smirnov

Dmitry Smirnov is the son of a priest from the village of Chernyaevo Dmitrovsky district of the Moscow province. In 1883, 15-year-olds, he graduated from the Zvenigorod Theological School and lived with his parents for several years. In April 1889, he entered the Kazan Church in the village of Kotelniki in the Moscow district. In November 1910, he was moved to the position of a psalmist to the Vlacheern Church in the village of Vlahernskoye-Kuzminki of the same county. On March 18, 1912, he was ordained a deacon to this temple. In March 1924, he was appointed to the Nikolaev temple in the village of Aksinino Zvenigorodsky district.

On September 21, 1928, he was ordained a priest to the Trinity Church in the village of Yershovo, Zvenigorodsky district of the Moscow region. In 1932 he was transferred to the Trinity Church of the village of Troitskoye of the same region.

In October 1937, his brother, Archpriest Vsevolod Smirnov, who served in the Assumption Church in the village of Dermentsevo, Volokolamsk district of the Moscow region, was arrested and a month later.

The economy of Father Demetrius was covered by a large tax, which could hardly pay. In 1937, due to the non -payment of the next tax, he was fined, and since the fine also failed to pay, in February 1938 he described all the property.

On March 15, 1938, investigators of the Zvenigorod district branch of the NKVD called several witnesses for interrogation, who gave the persecutions the testimony against the father of Demetrius. The chairman of the collective farm in the village of Troitsky, in particular, said: “As a minister of cult, Smirnov has a deceivingly operate on the collective farm. So, during the period of spring sowing, as well as in the harvesting and sowing campaign, he collects on the days of religious holidays in the church of collective farmers and collective farmers, where he is agitating that God needs to be afraid and love, but collective farms still give us anything good. During the days of religious holidays, collective farmers do not go to work, but go to church, which break the collective farm work and decompose labor discipline. In the summer of 1937, all the collective farmers began to convincingly demand that they were allowed to arrange a prayer for rain. Despite the ban on the part of the village council, Moleben Smirnov was secretly arranged and all the collective farmers were in the church and work on the collective farm was not carried out all day. He said in the church: you see, there is no rain, everything dries, this is because you forgot about God on your collective farm. If you forget God and faith, then on your collective farm you will die of hunger. On February 23, 1938, the chairman of the village council went to describe the property with Smirnov for a non -payment of a fine. At this time, Smirnov said: take what you want, I don’t care, because the Soviet government is not used to robbing. ”

On March 22, the priest was arrested and placed in a chamber of preliminary imprisonment in the city of Zvenigorod, and then transferred to Sretenskaya prison in Moscow. The next day, the investigator interrogated the priest.

- With whom do you maintain a personal connection?
- I support personal ties with my brother Archpriest Vsevolod Smirnov, now arrested by the NKVD bodies. I don’t support anyone more.
“You are accused of counter -revolutionary activity and expressing terrorist sentiments against the Soviet regime and party leaders,” and then the investigator began to read out excerpts from the testimony of false witnesses.
- I do not plead guilty of the prosecution.

On May 5, the investigator held three confrontations between false witnesses and priest Dimitri Smirnov. In his presence, they confirmed the data earlier.

- Do you find yourself guilty of the facts of your counter -revolutionary activity given by witnesses? - asked the investigator of the priest.
- Of all the facts given, I confirm only that I expressed dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime, since it takes a lot of tax from the priests, and that people have forgotten God and faith, which is why they live poorly, and also that I walked around the villages and spent prayers, it is possible that I spoke about the Soviet regime, now I do not remember from my old age. As for the inventory of my property, I said that the Soviet government imposes a lot of tax, not by income. As for the prayer service about rain, I served it and said to be present on a prayer service: you see, there is no rain, everything dries, this is because you, working on a collective farm, have forgotten about God, and if you forget about faith and God, then it will be good for the good, and bad for the bad.

On May 5, 1938, the investigation was completed. On August 9, 1938, a special meeting at the NKVD sentenced Father Demetrius to the exile in Kazakhstan for a period of five years.

The priest Dimitri Smirnov, obviously while still in Moscow, died on September 13, 1938 and was buried in an unknown grave.