Yevgeny Rodionov
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Rodionov was a Russian soldier who was taken prisoner of war by Chechen rebels in the First Chechen War and later executed in captivity. He has gained much admiration throughout Russia for the circumstances of his death, as his execution allegedly resulted from his refusal to convert to Islam and defect to the enemy side. Despite widespread popular veneration he has not been glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church as a New Martyr due to lack of evidence about his death. Still, icons depicting him are installed in many churches across Russia, in St. Valery church in Chișinău, and in a church of Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine.
Early life
Yevgeny Rodionov was born on 23 May 1977 in the village of Chibirley, Kuznetsky District, Penza Oblast, to Lyubov Vasiliyevna and Aleksandr Konstantinovich Rodionov. His father was a carpenter and furniture maker, who passed away a week after his son's death. His mother had a degree in furniture technologies.In 1978, he was baptized as a Russian Orthodox at the age of one year, but wore no pectoral cross until the first one was given to him in 1988 or 1989, while attending church together with his grandmother. Mother could not accept such fact, but Yevgeny never removed the cross; later he began wearing it not with chain, but with a small string. After finishing ninth grade at a rural school of Kurilovo in Moscow Oblast, he began to work at a furniture factory and trained to be a driver.
Military service and capture
Though Yevgeny aspired to be a cook, he was conscripted into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on 25 June 1995. His training took place in 2631 Military Unit of Russian Border Troops in Ozersk, Kalningrad Oblast. On 10 July 1995 the military oath was taken by private Rodionov. He was deployed to Chechnya, where he served in the Russian army's border troops as RPG operator at 3th border outpost of 3rd Motorised Maneuvre Group of 479th Border Troops Special Operations Unit.On 13 January 1996 Yevgeny was deployed to Caucasus Special Border District to Nazran Border Unit where he served for one month. A month later, on 14 February 1996, he went to mount guard over the road accompanied by privates Andrey Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov. During their duty an ambulance car transporting weapons and driven by Chechen Republic of Ichkeria brigade general Ruslan Khaikhoroev was stopped by soldiers. During their attempt to examine the ambulance all of them were overpowered by dozen of Chechen rebels and taken prisoners. Initially the soldiers were announced as deserters, and military police came to Yevgeny's mother's home to search for her missing son. Only after the detailed survey of the checkpoint the soldiers the traces of blood and fighting were discovered by the military police, and then three missing soldiers were declared as missed in action and possibly taken prisoners. Yevgeny's mother Lybov came to Chechnya, but Yevgeny's unit commander only told her that her son had been captured. Shamil Basayev promised to help Lybov to find her son, but after the meeting she was brutally beaten by Basayev's brother, who had broken her spine. Only after paying big amount of money Lybov has found the corpse of her son.
It was revealed that on 23 May 1996, on Yevgeny's 19th birthday, after more than 100 days of tortures, Yevgeny and two other soldiers were offered to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam in order to save his life. Yevgeny refused to convert to Islam and even to remove his silver cross he wore. After that decision he was beheaded by Chechen rebels. The soldier was killed in the outskirts of the Chechen village Bamut. Ruslan Khaikhoroev, the murderer, accompanied by OSCE representatitve, later confessed in the murder of Yevgeny Rodionov, saying to Yevgeny's mother: "Your son had a choice to stay alive. He could have converted to Islam, but he did not agree to take the cross off. He also tried to escape once.". Andrey Trusov was beheaded, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov were shot dead.
The Yevgeny's cross was given to St. Nicholas Church in Pyzhy. Rodionov was buried in Moscow, near Satino-Russkoye village at the Ascension Church.
Veneration
Yevgeny Rodionov was posthumously awarded the Russian Order of Courage. There was a growing movement within the Russian Orthodox Church to canonize him as a Christian saint and martyr for faith. Some Russian soldiers, feeling themselves abandoned by their government, have taken to kneeling in prayer before his image. One such prayer reads:Thy martyr, Yevgeny, O Lord, in his sufferings hath received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God, for having Thy strength he hath brought down his torturers, hath defeated the powerless insolence of demons. Through his prayers, save our souls.
, religious icons depicting Yevgeny had become popular. His mother has one herself; she has suggested that the icon of her son sometimes emits a perfume which she believes to be holy, to the extent that it actually drips with it.
Because of the popular devotion given to the New Martyr Yevgeny, the pious faithful sought official canonization from the Moscow Patriarchate. Initially, it refused, which divided the Orthodox Church in Russia. Maksim Maksimov, Secretary of the Canonization Commission, explained the Synod's position in Tserkovny Vestnik, the official publication of the Russian Orthodox Church. His arguments can be summarized in three points:
- The only evidence that the soldier was executed for this faith is the testimony of his mother, who in her love made a god of her son;
- The Russian Orthodox Church has never canonized anyone killed in war;
- The period of new martyrs ended with the collapse of the Bolshevik regime.
Opponents of the decision, including Alexander Shargunov, a well-known priest, argued that an outbreak of people's love is enough for the truth and that Yevgeny's grave works miracles, curing the sick and reconciling enemies. They also pointed out that the soldier did not die at war but in captivity and that to say that the time of martyrs is over is nearly heresy.