The campaign to canonize "Saint Eugene", beheaded by militants, is in full swingAfter Yevgeny Rodionov was beheaded by Chechen militants, he received the glory of a modern Russian martyr. According to the British newspaper pendent, for thousands of parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church, he has already become "Saint Eugene", and the campaign for his canonization in in full swing. Not wanting to wait for the Church to consider his case, icons with the image of a martyr soldier have already been distributed throughout Russia, and thousands of pilgrims set off on a journey to places associated with his life.
Independent (Russian translation on the InoPress website): How a young recruit turned into a Russian saint
[…] Yevgeny Rodionov was 19 years old when Chechen fighters cut off his head. During his lifetime, he was the most ordinary boy from an unremarkable provincial town, strummed the guitar, wrote poetry and dreamed of becoming a cook. But, having died, Yevgeny Rodionov ceased to be ordinary.
For his admirers, including deeply believing Christians, war veterans, Russian nationalists, Evgeny is a symbol of patriotism, which, as thousands of people believe, will inspire pride young generation and will give millions of downtrodden Russians what they so desperately lack - hope.
For them, Eugene or Zhenya, as they affectionately call him, is a modern crusader who made a great sacrifice in the name of his country, having met face to face the main enemy of Russia at the moment - radical Islam, which is personified by Chechen fighters.
Eugene was killed on May 23, 1996 during the first Chechen war. It happened on his 19th birthday. He, along with three other Russian border guards, was captured and kept in a cell for 100 days, beaten and starved to death. He did not participate in hostilities. He and his comrades were seized at a distant border point on the Russian-Chechen border by a Chechen combat commander who inspires the greatest fear.
Since 1994, when Russia first sent tanks into Chechnya to crush the separatist movement, thousands of Russians have died there. But Eugene's death is different from them.
His mother, Lyubov Vasilievna Rolionova, says that Yevgeny was promised to save his life if he converted to Islam and took up arms against the Russian federal forces. As she says, he only had to symbolically take off the silver cross that he wore around his neck from the age of 11 and accept the faith of his tormentors. Eugene refused and preferred death.
Now this cross, which still shows traces of blood on its chain, has become a relic covered with the kisses of the many pilgrims who visit Yevgeny's mother in her modest dwelling in the town of Kurilovo, west of Moscow.
Priest Konstantin Tatarintsev with the icon "Saint Eugene". Photo - "Komsomolskaya Pravda"
Forty wanderers, some of whom had walked more than 600 miles without sleep to get here, gathered at Yevgeny's grave last Saturday to mark the eighth anniversary of his decapitated body being brought to Kurilovo.
Ignoring the ten-degree frost, men with frozen beards, clutching icons with images of a young man in their hands, wandered around the cemetery.
One of them, who introduced himself as a priest from the places where Eugene was born, raises a huge icon high. On it, Yevgeny's boyish face is surrounded by a halo, his border guard uniform protrudes from a medieval-style cloak, he himself clutches an Orthodox crucifix in his hands. Pilgrims covered with snow in the freezing wind sing hymns and read prayers, cross themselves, share stories from his life and remind each other why Yevgeny should be canonized.
Cadets from a nearby military academy who are being trained for border service poured out of a wrecked bus, they also came here to pay respect to Yevgeny. Dressed in overcoats and fur hats, they hold different icons in their hands, and a blizzard is circling around. “He is an example for us,” says serious cadet Artem Pavlov, “an example of courage and faith. He didn’t know what he was fighting for, but he still refused to betray Russia and fought for his homeland. He is a real hero. We need heroes now. Russia needs there are more soldiers like him who are not afraid to die for their Motherland.
The pilgrims delivered one eulogy after another, and the beautiful White church behind them, the church, destroyed in 1812 by Napoleon's army, seems to shine in the morning twilight.
Followers of the cult of Eugene say that his icons work wonders - they stream myrrh, in front of them "enemies forget about their enmity."
Lyubov Rodionova, brewing tea in the kitchen, does not look like the mother of a saint, but they perceive her that way. "I have no future, no past. No present. They don't call me by my first name anymore, I'm just "Eugene's mother". I exist only for this, and this is a great honor." There was no room for anything else in her life.
Lyubov Rodionova is like millions of other Russian women in their fifties, but in search of the truth about her son, she traveled to places where many of them will never appear.
Not believing that her son was a deserter, as first told in the army, she spent nine months in Chechnya, where she finally found his body.
To find the body, she paid $4,000 to the man she thinks killed Yevgeny. She dug it out with her own hands and delivered it to Kurilovo.
Lyubov Vasilievna says that she recognized her son by the cross that remained on the neck of the decapitated body, and other signs "that only the mother knows." And then she had to return to Chechnya again to find his skull, which the Chechen fighters split into pieces, because they were afraid that otherwise his soul would haunt them.
The experience gained in Chechnya changed her. She was insulted, spat on, she was almost killed by the brother of the wanted Chechen militant Shamil Basayev. He severely beat her and left her to die. "All my teeth were knocked out. When I returned from Chechnya, all my hair was gray. I have no health. When you bury a child, you bury half of yourself with him. I can no longer laugh and rejoice."
But she says that she does not care whether her son will be canonized in accordance with all the rules, or not. "God finds a place for everyone. His place will not change if he is made a saint. He is already in paradise."
Before the death of her son, Love did not go to church, but now she considers herself a deeply religious person. "War quickly reveals the true nature of people. If you are a piece of shit, then you quickly shrink, but if you are decent, then it grinds you like a diamond, you need to go through a lot to reach this stage." […]
THE SAINT WAS 19. N THE NEW MARTHER FOR CHRIST THE WARRIOR YEVGENY IS BRUTALLY EXECUTED BY CHECHEN BANDITS.
First, the facts. On the night of February 13-14, 1996, the then 18-year-old private Yevgeny Rodionov, along with three of his brother-soldiers, the same guys who had not been shot at, were on guard duty at an unprotected open post on the Chechen-Ingush border. Their unit had been transferred here from the Kaliningrad region just a month before. It was forbidden to use weapons first by order, it was allowed to shoot to kill only after a warning shot upwards. And all this - in the conditions of the Chechen lawlessness.
The guys were taken by bandits who were passing by in an ambulance. Chechens armed to the teeth. After that, the militants passed three more of our checkpoints without hindrance. And then followed a three-month captivity, during which our soldiers were offered to accept the Mohammedan faith. Eugene, the only one of all, was wearing a pectoral cross, with which he never parted, having been consciously baptized at the age of 11. This caused a special fury, they demanded from him to remove the cross, that is, to renounce Christ. For his irrevocable refusal to take off his cross, he was subjected to a painful execution. May 23, 1996, on his birthday, on the day Orthodox holiday Ascension of the Lord, Eugene was beheaded.
An independent group of Chechen journalists made a film about the war. This film uses footage of the execution of our prisoners, made by militants. Partially, these frames were shown in the program "Russian House", but not all. These frames show how two tied guys are shot, and then the head of the third is sawed off alive with a saw. Eugene was subjected to such an execution. Together with him, for refusing to accept Mohammedanism, three more were tortured: the soldiers Igor, Andrei and Alexander. Eugene, for his refusal to remove the baptismal cross, took a special torment.
mournful road
On February 16, 1996, Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova received a telegram informing her that her son Yevgeny Alexandrovich Rodionov had left the unit without permission. In it, the command asked her to take measures to return him to his duty station. The telegram was sent when the Chechens had already begun torturing the captured Zhenya...
“This telegram for life cut me off with a black stripe from that bright, albeit not quite easy, but normal life, which we lived with my son, - recalls Lyubov Vasilievna. - It was scary that they could think such a thing about him. Everyone knew Zhenya as a faithful, principled person. Having received such a telegram, I went there, and here, at home, in the basements, in the dacha, policemen began to climb - to look for a deserter. When I arrived at the unit, they apologized to me and said that they didn’t sort out the turmoil right away, they got excited. In fact, everything was so obvious there that even two weeks after this incident, the blood stain on the road was not completely covered with snow. There were signs of a struggle... The observer saw how an ambulance drove up to the checkpoint at three o'clock, he even heard a cry: "Help!". After that, silence. For some reason, this did not excite anyone, for some reason the detachment was not alerted. At four o'clock in the morning they went to change the guys, but they were already gone ... "
“He was in captivity for three and a half months,” Lyubov Vasilievna continues. - I know, he was waiting, hoping that they would not leave him, that they would release him and that it would all end. Only he turned out to be of no use to anyone. Unfortunately, he is not alone. From time immemorial, captivity has been considered the worst thing that can happen to a person. Captivity is captivity, it is bullying. Life has shown that Chechen captivity is the most terrible, most inhuman, savage thing that can ever happen in the world.
For 10 months, Lyubov Vasilievna traveled almost all of Chechnya. I managed to get an appointment with Aslan Maskhadov, meet with Basaev., Yandarbiev, Gelaev. During a meeting with Khattab, one of the militants photographed her. This photograph served as a kind of pass to the gangs. And only in September, Lyubov Vasilievna learned that Eugene had been executed and buried in Bamut.
After several weeks of humiliation, she contacted the killer - a certain Ruslan Khoykhoroev, who reported the circumstances of Yevgeny's death. It turned out that he was killed on May 23 - the day of his birth. The grave was found far from immediately - a huge ransom was demanded for information. I had to mortgage an apartment. Three border guards were buried in the air funnel indicated by the militants, and another burial was located nearby. All the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, two of them were beheaded. Yevgeny was identified only by the pectoral cross, which he had worn since childhood. For a fee, they returned the head.
The mother herself brought the remains of her son to their homeland - to the Podolsky district of the Moscow region. A few days after Eugene's funeral, his father died of a stroke.
“Here lies the Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov,” it is inscribed on the cross set on his grave, “who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce Christ, who was executed near Bamut on May 23, 1996.”
simple and ordinary short biography Evgenia Rodionova. He was born on May 23, 1977. He grew up as an ordinary strong and healthy child. He studied well at school, but when he finished the ninth grade, he went to work at a furniture factory. The work of a furniture maker - he mastered the specialties of an assembler, upholsterer and cutter - he liked, and the earnings were decent. And then there was the army...
The posthumous life was unexpectedly unusual. First came retribution. In the summer of 1999, during a raid on a Russian frontier post, the brother of Khoykhoroev, Yevgeny's killer, was killed. Exactly at the very spot where Evgeny and three other soldiers were captured in 1996. And in early autumn, news came of the death of Khoykhoroev himself. He, along with thugs-bodyguards, was killed in Grozny in an intra-Chechen gangster "showdown".
Word of Remembrance to the New Martyrs
The suffering and death for Christ of Yevgeny Rodionov and his comrades are strikingly reminiscent of the suffering of the New Martyrs, especially the Greek and Balkan martyrs, who suffered from Mohammedans and fire-worshippers. Thus, we can remember John the New from Ioannina, John Kulik from Epirus, who suffered in the 16th century, the Great Martyr John the New Sochavsky, who refused to blaspheme the faith in Christ and after terrible torments was beheaded, and thousands of Greek, Serbian and other Balkan sufferers for the faith, who were killed only because they professed Christianity. They were also forced to change their faith, they were also killed for the same name "Christian" or "Orthodox." They, too, like Yevgeny, were beheaded after being tortured.
The very name "new martyrs" came to us from these martyrs of the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Such sufferers are immediately ranked by the Church as holy martyrs. They are not required to lead a godly life before suffering. Suffering for Christ, for the name of Christ, is reckoned to them as righteousness, since they died with Christ and reign with Him. Suffice it to recall the last of the forty martyrs of Sebaste, who knew nothing about Christ, but was accepted along with the rest of the martyrs for his determination to die with them. The significance of this feat and prayerful veneration, which is already being revealed in our people, cannot be overestimated. Martyrs were and will be main love Church, its glory and triumph. In relation to our youth, in the glorification of the martyr warrior Eugene, there is a special mercy of God for our time.
Higher Powers confirm
We received a report (for 2001) from the rector of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara, Priest Vadim Shklyarenko, to Bishop Ephraim, Administrator of the Krivoy Rog Diocese of St. Nicholas, about the miracle of myrrh-streaming photos of the warrior Yevgeny Rodionov. The report is published with minor cuts.
“Your Eminence, I am reporting to you about the events that have taken place in the life of the parish. At the end of April of this year, in Dnepropetrovsk, the parishioners of the Church of St. royal family”, “Archangel Michael” and the icon of the Mother of God “Assuage my sorrows”, which I, at the request of numerous parishioners, were brought to the church of St. Barbara for repentance for the sin of regicide.
During these events, it happened to me in the city of Dnepropetrovsk to purchase the brochure "The New Martyr for Christ, Warrior Eugene." Initially, before purchasing the brochure, seeing the image in the background Russian flag warrior Yevgeny Rodionov, there was distrust in the content of the brochure. The next night, or rather, early in the morning, I saw a warrior standing by my bed in camouflage, as in the portrait in the brochure, with a red cape thrown over the top, as depicted on the icons of martyrs. Asking mentally: "Who are you?", I heard the answer: "I am the one about whom that book is written." The vision was clear, colorful and did not cause fear. As it appeared, so it disappeared. After that, having waited for the first transport to Dnepropetrovsk, I went to church shop and bought a brochure about the exploits of Yevgeny Rodionov, the content of which amazed and shocked me. I shed tears of repentance and tenderness throughout the reading of this entire book, as later on all those to whom I gave this book to read.
One Sunday I delivered a sermon on the New Martyr Yevgeny Rodionov. All those who listened were imbued with love for the feat of the young warrior - a martyr for Christ, and wept. Arriving home after the service, I put the book between the shelves of the bookcase, and only I knew about its location. The next day, after the morning rule, having decided to transfer the pamphlet to a bookcase with other books, I saw that the front side of the pamphlet with a portrait of the new martyr for Christ, the warrior Eugene, was dotted with drops of peace that glowed under the rays of the morning sun.
In support of this, I kiss the Holy Life-Giving Cross and the Words of my Lord Jesus. Humble novice of Your Eminence priest Vadim Shklyarenko.
Reflections on the Christian feat of martyrdom
Archpriest Alexander Shargunov devoted a special sermon to this issue. Most important thoughts from which we present today.
“On the feast of the New Russian Martyrs and Confessors, we again pray that the Lord would grant His Church the grace of repentance at the same depth as the righteousness of her saints appeared. And we remember not only those who accepted suffering during the years of communist persecution, but also those. who suffered for Christ in our day. Today I would like to single out from this host a new martyr and confessor - the warrior Eugene. We have heard about others Christian martyrs Chechen captivity - about the murdered archpriest Anatoly, about three young soldiers crucified on Good Friday several years ago, about other martyrs of this war. And now - Evgeny Rodionov.
What happened? The young soldiers captured were told: "Whoever wants to stay alive, let him take off his pectoral cross and call himself a Muslim." When Yevgeny refused to take off his cross, he was subjected to cruel torture which continued for three months. Then they killed him by cutting off his head. The Chechens themselves pointed out his grave to his mother for a huge amount of money. The mother identified her son's body by the pectoral cross.
What is a pectoral cross? Why does Satan hate it so much and does everything so that no one wears it, or wears it simply as a meaningless decoration? The Lord said to one young man in a dream: "The cross is a bell around the sheep's neck so that the Shepherd can hear it sooner when it is in trouble."
We do not know what spiritual experiences Yevgeny had with his pectoral cross. It is possible that there were no special ones. Except the belief that this is the Cross of Christ. With the Cross of Christ in hand, the martyrs of Christ are depicted on the icons.
Let us try to comprehend the feat of the new martyr Eugene.
First of all, the very picture of the torture of prisoners reveals a lot. There was no torture, physical or mental, that they did not go through. If they yielded, they were lowered even lower. No one can imagine all the horrors they were subjected to. A person can go through any torture and through death and be saved. But renounce faith, renounce all that is cornerstone soul, say my whole life a total lie that I don’t believe in Christ God, that I don’t love my parents, that I don’t give a damn about my Fatherland and the Church, and stay alive - what should a person do with his life after that? After renouncing God from the mere consciousness that you have betrayed God, the pain does not stop. Spiritual pain is incomparably more painful than physical pain. What should a person do after this so as not to go crazy? Only pray. Without prayer of repentance it is impossible to survive.
The most significant thing that can be said about the warrior Eugene is that he participated in suffering for Christ. And he showed that the Orthodox faith is stronger. “Your martyr, O Lord, Eugene, in his suffering received an incorruptible crown from You, Christ our God. Have more Thy fortress, put down the tormentors, crush and the demons of the weak insolence. Save our souls with prayers.” It is impossible to find more precise words than this common troparion to the martyrs, which we sing every day in church.
Prepared by Petr RASTRENIN
SECRET POWER №9, 2005
Icon of the New Martyr Warrior Eugene
in the Assumption Cathedral in Astrakhan.
(photo by N.Antysheva)
Article address: http://uspenskiysobor.narod.ru/html/7_1_3.html
Discussion of the article in the Pravoslavie community:
In the village of Satino-Russian, there is a cross on the grave of a soldier who died at the hands of Chechen thugs. An inscription is engraved on the cross: "Here lies the Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce Christ, who was executed near Bamut on May 23, 1996." The death of a 19 year old boy with a strong blow for his parents. The death of his father, Alexander Konstantinovich, who could not survive the blow, took him away four years after the death of his son. Doom dear people ruined her mother's life.
Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova, who had been looking for her son for a long time, declared at first a deserter, paid the killers of her boy only to show her the burial place. Having lost her health, as she was severely beaten, the mother nevertheless found and dug up the headless body of Yevgeny in order to bury him in her homeland according to Christian customs. Then she returned again and for a long time searched for the skull of her son, which the bandits split into pieces, fearing the persecution of the soul of the murdered. Zhenya was torn to pieces on the day of his birth, for refusing to take off his pectoral cross and accept the faith of Islam.
Evgeny Rodionov was born on May 23, 1977 in the family of a simple carpenter. Woodworking was a common profession in the area. Mother Evgenia Lyubov Vasilievna also worked at a furniture factory as a technologist. According to her stories, on the birthday of her son, a star fell from the sky, and her heart sank in anticipation of trouble. Perhaps this was only the result of the exhausting process of childbirth, but Lyubov Rodionova herself associates the feeling with tragic fate boy. In adolescence, Eugene loved to walk in the forest and enjoy the beauty of wildlife, he was interested in the laws of this world, its harmony. The boy did not walk for a long time, and he was christened, after which his legs got stronger, and Eugene took his first steps. nine classes secondary school, then work at the same furniture factory and driver courses - this is a short biography of a martyr warrior. Rodionov left for the army at the age of 18, he was ready to fulfill his duty with honor.
Rodionov was sent to the Nazran detachment to the second motorized maneuver group of the 479th detachment special purpose Red Banner Border Guard of the FSB of the Russian Federation. It was one of the hottest spots on the border of the Chechen Republic and Ingushetia. Rodionov was enlisted in the detachment as a grenade launcher.
Stepping into the frontier post, Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev, Evgeny Rodionov and Alexander Zheleznov did not suspect what awaited them in the near future. How the checkpoint was stormed is unknown, however bloody footprints, found at the battle site, indicate that the guys resisted. One hundred days of nightmarish captivity, inhuman torture and humiliation became the last days of the Russian border guards. Rodionov was the youngest of them. According to some reports, an ambulance drove up to the checkpoint, and even cries for help were heard, but no one raised the alarm and four border guards disappeared without a trace. Today it is known that in the car was field commander Ruslan Khaykhoroev with bandits.
The search for prisoners was not carried out. Many articles have already been written about this dishonorable behavior of the Russian command. Today, shocking data are known about how defenseless mothers tried to find their sons, and Russian authorities hushed up the facts of criminal mockery of them. Great amount grief-stricken women never returned home, torn to pieces by bandits.
The task of our army, voiced by Lieutenant General Tikhomirov, was to restore full control of Russian troops over a large number settlements of Chechen settlements and the final destruction of armed gangs. However, the highlanders' war tactics were very different from the usual. There were no open battles here large forces, the militants skillfully hid among the civilian population and systematically made sorties. Russian troops were forced to break up into many small checkpoints, including several people, and carry a round-the-clock guard to avoid attack. The militants themselves called themselves wolves, and preferred to operate under the cover of night.
The unfortunate were kept in an unheated dilapidated house, deprived of water and food, regularly beaten and humiliated. The practice of the militants included training bullying for underage Chechen boys over captured Russians. Rodionov and his comrades were forced to write letters asking for ransom to their homeland, but none of them could pay the large sums that were required. All the prisoners were low-income families. The torture ended on Rodionov's birthday, he turned 19. Khaikhoroev offered the exhausted boys to convert to Islam and continue to fight on the side of the militants. All the prisoners refused. Yevgeny did not take off his pectoral cross, which the killers demanded, as a result he was beaten, and then his head was cut off. The mockery of the corpses of young Russian fighters was common in the Chechen camp, so the mother was able to identify her son only by the cross.
At first, Yevgeny was declared a deserter, but then they nevertheless recognized his being in captivity. Guys up last day They were waiting for help, but no one was going to look for them. There was no system for searching for prisoners and the dead at all, the state did not take care of this even after the end of hostilities. The mother went in search of her son, as the father would have been immediately killed in the Chechen villages. However, Lyubov Vasilievna also experienced terrible bullying. Once she was so severely beaten that her spine was broken, only incredible fortitude allowed her to survive and find the remains of Rodionov.
The victim of four young guys was avenged, the place where they were tortured and killed was wiped off the face of the earth by the Russian troops who came here again, not one of the thugs escaped retribution. Lyubov Vasilievna annually comes to the unit where her son began his service and addresses the recruits. She wishes them responsible commanders, not those who betrayed Rodionov.
Icon depicting Yevgeny Rodionov during procession at the White House in October 2003
Today we honor the memory of the dead border guards Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev, Evgeny Rodionov and Alexander Zheleznov.
Eugene was awarded the Orders of Glory and Courage, the Orthodox Church canonized Rodionov as a martyr. According to the stories of the clergy, the image of Eugene streams myrrh, believers turn to him, for which Archpriest Sidorov compiled the texts of prayers. Three churches were founded in honor of the martyr. The school where Zhenya Rodionov studied was named after him in 2009. On the next year in the courtyard of this school there is a monument "Candle of Memory". About Evgeniy and his comrades documentaries plays have been written. The memory of ordinary Russian guys who were martyred for Orthodox Faith will forever remain in our hearts.
"Die for Faith and Fatherland, and you will receive life and a crown in heaven »
Twenty years ago, on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, a young Russian soldier received a martyr's crown. On Holy Mount Athos, in Greece, in Serbia and other countries, the New Martyr is venerated today, calling the warrior Eugene of Russia.
In 1996, the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord fell on May 23. On this day, Eugene turned 19 years old. After 100 days of captivity, having failed to break a young Russian soldier with torture, the bandits last time They offered the young man to make a choice - to remove his pectoral cross, convert to Islam and save his life, or accept a painful death. The leader of the gang, Khaikhoroev, told Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova in the presence of the OSCE representatives: “It is my own fault. He would take off the cross - he would live. Who does not want to become our brother - we break such people, or kill them. The bandits told the mother of a Russian soldier: “You yourself are to blame - you raised him badly. You had a greyhound. If I took off the cross, I would be our brother, we would marry him, we would buy a house. Four young Russian soldiers who were captured by terrorists Yevgeny Rodionov, Andrei Zheleznov, Yuri Trusov, Igor Yakovlev, the executioners could not break. The guys were treacherously captured: an “ambulance tablet” was constantly passing through a checkpoint on the border of Chechnya and Ingushetia. 15 seasoned bandits suddenly jumped out of the car. The young border guards did not give up without a fight - there were traces of a struggle and blood on the road. But even in captivity, four Russian guys remained real warriors. The executioners failed to break their spirit, no one wished to become a "brother" to fanatical bandits, no one betrayed their homeland. But Zhenya Rodionov's pectoral cross aroused particular malice among the terrorists (the rest of the guys had soldier's medallions on their chests).
On May 23, 1996, Evgeny Rodionov turned 19 years old. On this day, the bandits offered him the last time to remove the cross, threatening to cut off his head. Similarly, Christians in the Roman Empire were offered a choice between the cross and painful death. The same choice was offered to the New Martyrs during the years of persecution against the Russian Orthodox Church. Zhenya refused to take off the cross.
Judas vs Heroes
Let's think about why the bandits tried to force Zhenya to take off his pectoral cross, because they themselves could tear it off the chest of a captured soldier?
In those years, in Chechnya, the Salafists fought with us, who today built their own terrorist state on the lands of Iraq and Syria. Today, the whole world is watching with horror as fanatics cut off the heads of hostages, exterminate everyone who does not accept their ideology. Interestingly, after the terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium, the Europeans will remember how they sympathized with the "freedom fighters" when they killed Russians in the Caucasus and Serbs in the devastated Yugoslavia with the same cruelty?
In the Russian North Caucasus in the 1990s, the Salafists hoped to create a springboard for their worldwide pseudo-Islamic caliphate. Mercenaries from 50 countries fought against us in the Caucasus; Saudi Arabia and Qatar, behind the backs of Islamic terrorists were the special services of Turkey and the United States. The propaganda of the Islamists suggested that Russia was on its last legs, that the Russians had lost faith in God, a people who were slowly becoming an inveterate drunkard under the rule of oligarchs-merchants. In "democratic" Russia, everything is for sale, in the Kremlin they obediently carry out the orders of the "Washington regional committee", the money for the war with the "infidels" is regularly received. And, consequently, the "invincible warriors of Islam" will soon defeat the cowardly "infidels". First torn away from Russia North Caucasus and then spread "jihad" to the Volga region and Siberia. The Islamists considered the territory of our country as their legitimate prey.
In Chechnya, the Army, sold and betrayed by the "democratic authorities" dozens of times, waged the most difficult bloody battles with gangs of terrorists, while they methodically beat her in the back, skillfully using all the methods of information warfare, their own media. We remember how liberal journalists sneered at the failures of the “feds”, how they reported our losses with glee. We remember how the so-called. “human rights activists” admired the “proud Chechen freedom fighters” and “Robin Hood” Basaev, hiding from the bullets of special forces behind the backs of women in labor in Budenovsk. AT new year's eve in Grozny, the Maikop brigade was dying, the paratroopers fought heroically, holding the station, and at that time, on all TV channels, the new masters of life were laughing, dancing and drinking champagne. In the fierce March battles in Grozny, SOBR fighters died, and the whole country celebrated March 8, champagne flowed like water on TV screens and the new “elite” and its faithful attendants from politicians and show business stars were having fun with might and main. This has never happened in Russia. The triumph of the boor and Judas. They reveled in their own impunity and power over the occupied country. In Chechnya, an “international international of terrorists” fought with us with the support of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the special services of our “transatlantic partners” with the assistance of the OSCE and other organizations that ensure that the Russians “use proportionate force” in the war against terrorists. And most importantly, with the help of the “fifth column”, which behaved in a businesslike way in the highest offices of the Kremlin. The enemy was strong and cruel, but more terrible than the enemy were their own Judas-traitors.
Time of Troubles always gives rise to Judas-traitors. But Russia won all the troubles thanks to the heroes who, at this tragic time, were ready to "lay down their lives for their friends." Such heroes turned out to be Zhenya Rodionov, Andrei Trusov, Alexander Zheleznov, Igor Yakovlev and dozens of other boys whom the bandits could not break in Chechen captivity. We will never know the names of all who remained faithful to the oath and were martyred at the hands of fanatic executioners. Many of them are still missing. Today, only their fighting friends and close relatives know about the examples of the highest military prowess, the heroism of our soldiers who fought international terrorism in the Caucasus in those years.
But it was precisely the feat of the Russian soldiers and officers who rose to their death at this last frontier that kept Russia from destruction. The heroes of the most difficult war in the Caucasus in those years did not allow the Jewish thieves and their overseas masters to finally finish off the bloodless and robbed country with the hands of Islamic terrorists.
The Russian soldier defeated the fanatic executioners
At the beginning of the Chechen war, Dudayev, Basaev and Khattab were sure of their victory. They said that in Russia everything is sold and bought, and therefore the Russians are leaving the historical stage, that Russia is a wounded, dying old bear, and they are young predatory wolves. It was argued that the warriors of Allah would certainly defeat the former mired in vices, who had lost his faith great people, which is ruled by merchants. With a contemptuous grin, they looked at Russian TV, where, at the behest of the owners, corrupt journalists described their "exploits", mocked their own army, saw the all-powerful Berezovsky and Gusinsky and the drunken "guarantor" of the Constitution in the Kremlin. To assert their superiority over the "infidels", it was very important for the bandits to break the prisoners, force them to convert to Islam, and fight on their side. The bandits had to prove that they were stronger than the Russians. It was no coincidence that Khaikhoroev said to Lyubov Vasilievna: “Those who do not want to become our brothers, we either break or kill.”
In the battles in Grozny and Gudermes, in Samashki and Komsomolsk, in the mountains and gorges, the terrorists suffered heavy losses. They saw how Russian soldiers, yesterday's schoolchildren, very quickly learn to fight, how staunchly and bravely they fight. And these boys, under the command of Russian officers, successfully beat well-trained hardened bandits and professional mercenaries. The terrorists understood that if orders from the Kremlin had not stopped Russian army, then their numerous and well-armed gangs would be completely defeated and finished off. Treacherous orders stopped the army, allowed the terrorists to lick their wounds, get reinforcements, new weapons, and regroup. But the army, repeatedly sold and betrayed by the "democratic" authorities, continued to fight. Methodically and diligently, according to all the rules and laws of the information-psychological warfare, they continued to hit our soldiers and officers in the back with their own Russian “democratic” media “from all trunks”. But the army smashed and pressed the gangs of terrorists. The bandits felt that they were faced with an incomprehensible Russian force, which broke all their plans to create a caliphate in the Caucasus. How can non-believers in God "kafirs" fight like that? And in the cross of Zhenya Rodionov, they felt the source of that mysterious power that made Russian soldiers and officers fight so courageously and stubbornly.
Therefore, it was important for the bandits to break Zhenya, to force him to take off his cross. But the young Russian soldier chose the Cross, death at the hands of the executioner and Eternal Life. On his nineteenth birthday, which coincided with the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord on May 23, 1996, Zhenya Rodionov was honored with a martyr's crown. Like most of the martyrs-warriors of the first centuries, the young Russian border guard was executed by beheading. Non-human fanatics cut off Zhenya's head, but the cross was never removed from him. The executioners, unable to break, also executed the soldiers Andrei, Alexander, Igor. And in captivity, Russian soldiers managed to win their victory over the bandits, "trampling death with death."
Where does the Motherland begin?
The grandmother put on the cross for Zhenya at the age of 11, before taking her grandson to Communion. Lyubov Vasilievna was afraid that at school and at trainings in the sambo section, peers would laugh at her son. But Zhenya never took off the cross.
Undoubtedly, for Zhenya, this small cross embodied all the most precious things - love for her mother, loyalty to her friends and comrades, a monument to mass grave paratroopers of the Great Patriotic War, to which he and Lyubov Vasilievna always brought flowers, the border guard's oath of allegiance to the Motherland. Remember the song we all grew up listening to:
Where does the Motherland begin?
From the picture in your primer
With good and faithful comrades,
Living in a neighboring yard.
Or maybe it starts
From the song that our mother sang to us,
Since in any trials
No one can take away from us.
Indeed, it all begins "with the song that our mother sang to us." In this small pectoral cross for Zhenya, everything that Lyubov Vasilyevna put into his heart was concentrated, everything "that no one can take away from us in any trials."
For a Russian soldier, for centuries, loyalty to Christ the Savior and loyalty to the Motherland were inseparable from each other. Foreigners wrote with surprise that for Russians to betray their Tsar and Russia meant to betray Christ. Most likely, Zhenya did not think about it, but acted as many generations of his ancestors had done for centuries. More than a thousand years for a Russian person, the Motherland began with the first children's prayer to Christ the Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos.
The original image and emblem of people's Russia
In the John the Baptist skete of Optina Hermitage there is the grave of the monk Nicholas the Turk. The Turkish general during the war for the liberation of the Slavs was amazed at how the captured Russian soldiers steadfastly endured all the tortures and accepted death, but did not renounce Christ. General found the gospel on French, read and confessed himself a Christian. The general was hacked to pieces, his bones were broken and left for dead. The future Optina monk was picked up by Persian merchants and brought to Astrakhan. From Astrakhan he came to Optina, where he took monastic vows. Optina elder Barsanuphius told the brethren that Fr. Nicholas is a modern confessor of Christ. At the same time, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in his "Diary" wrote about the feat of non-commissioned officer of the 2nd Turkestan Foma Danilov. They tried to force a captured Russian soldier to convert to Islam, promising various benefits and high position at the court of Pulad Khan, threatened with painful death. The Russian soldier did not renounce Christ and was executed on Margelan Square, with a large gathering of people. Russian troops defeated the enemy and hanged the rebellious Pulad Khan, who was distinguished by particular cruelty to prisoners. In Margelan locals told the Russians about the feat of Foma Danilov, emphasizing that "the Russian died like a real batyr."
F.M. Dostoevsky writes:
“Last year, in the spring, the news that appeared in the Russian Invalid was reprinted in all the newspapers, about martyrdom non-commissioned officer of the 2nd Turkestan rifle battalion Foma Danilov, captured by the Kipchaks and barbarously killed by them after numerous and most subtle tortures, on November 21, 1875, in Margelan, because he did not want to go to their service and into Mohammedanism. The khan himself promised him pardon, reward and honor if he agreed to renounce Christ. Danilov answered that he could not change the cross and, as a tsar's subject, although in captivity, he must fulfill his duty to the tsar and to Christianity. The tormentors, having tortured him to death, were surprised at the strength of his spirit and called him a batyr, that is, in Russian, a hero. Dostoevsky was outraged by the reaction to this message of a significant part of the representatives of an educated society, captured by the ideas of liberalism. The liberals argued that "there are also ideas that are immensely higher - the idea of universal humanity, for example..." How this reminds of today's Russian liberals with their chatter about "universal values", "democracy" and "human rights".
But Fyodor Mikhailovich had no doubt that the reaction of the simple Russian people would be different.
“In the people, of course, this great death will not be forgotten: this hero suffered torment for Christ and is a great Russian; the people will appreciate this and will not forget, and they never forget such deeds.”
“I am not talking about the people: there is no need for surprise, there will be no surprise in them; Thomas' act cannot seem unusual to him, given the people's great faith in themselves and in their souls alone. He will respond to this feat only with great feeling and great tenderness. But if a similar fact happened in Europe, that is, a similar fact of the manifestation of a great spirit, among the British, the French, the Germans, and they would probably shout about it to the whole world.
Foma Danilov for Dostoevsky was the personification of Orthodox Russia.
“Why, this, so to speak, is the emblem of Russia, all of Russia, all of our people’s Russia, its true image, that’s the very Russia in which our cynics and wise ones now deny great spirit and every possibility of the rise and manifestation of a great thought and a great feeling.
These words of the great Russian writer-prophet can also be attributed to Zhenya Rodionov. In the most difficult 90s, when “our wise cynics” argued that the people had degraded, drunk themselves and were no longer capable of either “great deeds” or “great feelings”, the feat of the warrior Yevgeny was revealed to Russia. In the years when the cult of the “golden calf” was imposed on society, Zhenya became an emblem, an image of eternal Orthodox Russia, which no enemies could ever and never will be able to break. And our people responded to this feat with “great feeling and great tenderness,” as Fyodor Mikhailovich predicted, who perfectly understood the soul of the Russian people.
Warrior Eugene gathers Russian people at his Cross
All these twenty years, Orthodox Russian people have honored the memory of Zhenya Rodionov, having no doubt that the nineteen-year-old Russian soldier accomplished the same feat as the martyr soldiers who suffered for Christ in the first centuries of the history of the Church. Icons of the warrior Yevgeny stream myrrh, there are cases of miraculous help when a young warrior in camouflage and a red cloak of a martyr appeared to soldiers who had fled from Chechen captivity, wounded in hospitals, providing miraculous assistance. One day, a warrior in camouflage and in a “red cape” appeared to a homeless vagrant girl and led her by the hand to a shelter, after which he disappeared. The warrior-martyr Eugene of Russia is revered in Greece and Serbia, and his icons are painted on Mount Athos. Even in the United States, on May 23 and on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist, Orthodox military chaplains were given the rank of special commemoration of the warrior Eugene. People from all over Russia come to the churchyard at the Church of the Ascension in the village of Satino-Russkoye, where Zhenya is buried. On May 23, pilgrims from Moscow, Kaliningrad, Kyiv and Donetsk gather here, Siberians come.
This year, on May 23, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Cross over the grave of the warrior Yevgeny at 7 am. Then, replacing each other, the priests served memorial services at the New Martyr's grave. Some priests were finishing their prayers, the newly arrived priests were putting on clothes to serve a memorial service for the soldiers Yevgeny, Alexander, Andrey, Igor. Prayer did not stop throughout the day. At the Cross of the Warrior-Eugene, there was an honor guard of the Presidential Preobrazhensky Regiment. The guard of honor and the banner group of Preobrazhensev were replaced by the guard of honor and the banner of the Airborne Forces. Then the cadets stood guard of honor at the Cross of the Russian Soldier, they were replaced by border guards. Until the very evening, people arrived in Satino-Russkoye. Cossacks, cadets, nuns, border guards, grandmothers and Sunday school students, young schoolchildren and gray-haired Afghan warriors came in whole parishes, traveled by bus and car. Every year on this day, the Russian people gather at the Cross of the Warrior Eugene, who responded to this feat with "great feeling and great tenderness." Zhenya Rodionov today is the emblem and image of the Orthodox Russian people. Over the years, we have seen a genuine popular veneration of the warrior-martyr.
Officials in cassocks
But until now, some church officials have doubts about whether Yevgeny Rodionov is worthy of glorification as a saint. The logic of officials is very often incomprehensible ordinary person. They argue that the feat of Zhenya Rodionov is allegedly known only from the words of his mother, and the testimony of close relatives cannot be considered by the commission for the canonization of saints. But after all, the killer himself, in front of witnesses, OSCE officials and representatives of the "committee of soldiers' mothers," clearly said that Zhenya was killed because he refused to remove the cross. What else do government officials need? Help from Khaikhoroev? So Khaikhoroev, like Basaev, Raduev, Khattab, Abu-Walid and hundreds of other “el-murids” and other leaders of terrorists who dreamed of building their own pseudo-Islamic caliphate on our land, have long been destroyed.
It is probably impossible for church officials to imagine what it means to survive 100 days of Chechen captivity in a zindan near Bamut. This is “in the world and death is red”, and in captivity you are “missing” for everyone. And no one will ever know where and how you died, whether or not you took off your cross. Before whom did the young Russian boy face his birthday on May 23, 1996, making his choice - to remove his pectoral cross and stay alive, or to put his throat under the knife of a grinning executioner? For any ordinary Orthodox person, it is clear that the warrior Eugene at that moment stood before Christ, and on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, another Christian warrior-martyr joined the host of saints of the Russian Orthodox Church.
As for the mother’s testimony, let me remind you that the holy noble princes-martyrs Mikhail of Chernigov and Vasilko of Rostov were glorified by Princess Maria Rostovskaya, Mikhail’s daughter and Vasilko’s wife. If we follow the logic of church officials, the testimony of Maria Mikhailovna would clearly not be enough for the martyr princes to be revered as saints in Russia.
But let us remember that it is not the canonization commission that glorifies the saints of God. The Lord glorifies the saints, and the task of the commission is only to collect evidence of holiness. And one of the most important evidence is popular veneration.
In the border guards, and in others military units, having learned from conversations about Zhenya's feat, that he did not take off the cross, many 18-year-old guys ask them to be baptized. Many officers and priests who feed the troops can testify to this. The priests told me that as soon as you start talking about Zhenya with the soldiers, a special silence sets in, strict and reverent. Faces become thoughtful. The guys try on his feat to their lives. Is this not evidence that the feat of Yevgeny Rodionov leads souls to Christ?
Once I had to hear that "new martyrs are those who suffered during the years of persecution in the era of the totalitarian regime." And those who suffered at the hands of Satanists in the era of "freedom, democracy and universal tolerance", are they "the newest martyrs"?
We honor the memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, who suffered from the theomachists in 1717 and 18, in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century. Of course, the scope and scale of persecution at that time was comparable only to the most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. But at the end of the 20th century, dozens of priests, monks and ordinary lay people were also killed by Satanists in Russia. Let's remember what happened in the 90s in the Caucasus. It is no coincidence that Muslims call Islamic extremists "Iblis". These terrorists kill not only non-Christians, but also mullahs and imams who preach traditional Islam. The whole world sees what the same terrorists with whom we fought in the North Caucasus are doing in Syria today. Fanatics from ISIS exterminate entire villages not only Christians, Druze, Alawites, but also Muslims who do not accept their teachings. In the 1990s, Wahhabis in Chechnya tortured and killed Fr. Anatoly Chistousov, hegumen Peter Sukhonosov. In Terminous, at the altar of the temple, Fr. Igor Rozin. Is it behind the bandits who kill Christians at the end of the twentieth century and in early XXI centuries are not the same “spirits of malice in the heavens” as behind the savage god-fighters who ritually killed the Holy Royal Family, exterminated bishops, priests, monks and thousands of ordinary laity during the years of persecution with hatred?
Indifference to the exploits of the Optina New Martyrs, the warrior Eugene - dangerous symptom spiritual state of man. The Holy Fathers wrote that those who do not honor martyrs close in time for Christ, thereby interrupt the living connection with the ancient saints, with the Heavenly Church.
soldier mother
Lyubov Vasilievna suffered a lot from the indifference of various officials, both military and civilian. In those days when Zhenya Rodionov was sitting in a zindan near Bamut, the police came to the Rodionovs' house to look for a "deserter". A telegram was sent to the recruiting office marked "SOC" - "arbitrarily left the unit." For nine months, Lyubov Vasilievna walked through the mountains of Chechnya trying to find her son, until the executioner Khaikhoroev himself informed her about the execution of Zhenya. Then, having mortgaged the apartment, she went to negotiate with the bandits 17 times, trying to buy Zhenya's body. "Freedom fighters", as the so-called bandits and terrorists were called. "Human rights activists" and corrupt journalists bargained for a long time, putting forward new demands each time. They demanded either to clear the surrounding roads, or to release their accomplices from prison. Then, having sold the body of Zhenya, they asked for additional money in order to give the mother the head of the murdered son.
Since then, Lyubov Vasilievna has been to Chechnya more than 70 times. To mountain outposts, to border guards, to paratroopers, to motorized riflemen, she transported tens of tons of cargo, things and products she personally collected. Her guys there were greeted with shouts: “Mom! Mom has arrived!". And how many wounded she pulled out of difficult situations, some found money for complex operations abroad, expensive German prostheses. She is the real "soldier's mother". Lyubov Vasilievna says so: “They are all my children now.” And this is not said for the red word. This will be confirmed by everyone who knows Lyubov Vasilievna. She lives very hard. But her whole life is selfless service to the guys who, like Zhenya, defend their homeland.
Knowing Lyubov Vasilievna for many years, I testify: she never sought to glorify Zhenya among the saints. Lyubov Vasilievna always emphasized that there were quite a few guys like Zhenya, but we will never know the names of all the unknown heroes. For her, the son was just an honest, kind, good boy who fulfilled his duty to the Motherland. Today, Lyubov Vasilievna is trying to ensure that the graves of all the soldiers who died not only in Chechnya, but also in Afghanistan and other “hot spots” are given the status of military burials. After all, if close relatives die, then the grave of a warrior who gave his life, performing military duty, becomes “ownerless” and may disappear ...
It is customary to endure a cold and heartless attitude from military and civilian officials, but it is especially painful when words of distrust that are insulting to the mother of a soldier are heard from the lips of officials in cassocks. Thank God that Lyubov Vasilievna has met many real good shepherds over the years and understands everything perfectly. The attitude of the Orthodox people to the possible glorification of the warrior Yevgeny was very accurately expressed by Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov: “I have no doubt that Zhenya Rodionov is a saint. And when he will be officially glorified, after 5 or 10 or 50 years is not so important. And, indeed, the people honor the feat of the warrior Eugene, for us he is a saint, and no one is going to demand his speedy glorification. We rely on the will of God and the wisdom of the hierarchy.
For the Orthodox, Zhenya Rodionov is a holy warrior-martyr, but both real Muslims and people who have not yet found their way to God revere his feat. The feat of a warrior who gave his life for the Motherland is understandable to every person who has retained the idea of honor, duty, loyalty. All the years of liberal dominance of our youth inspired that there is nothing sacred in life, ridiculed such sacred concepts as heroism, selfless service and love for the Fatherland, and enrichment at any cost, comfort and unrestrained consumption were declared the goal of life. wealth. And in this most difficult period of Russian history, we were shown the feat of the warrior Yevgeny Rodionov, the 6th company of the Pskov paratroopers, and many other heroes. Our "sworn friends" hoped that the "democratic" media managed to bring up a generation from our youth that "chooses Pepsi." They miscalculated. Not only Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova, but many mothers of Russia were able to teach their sons “how the Motherland begins”, to convey to them values that “no one can take away from us in any trials.” Zhenya Rodionov, Pskov paratroopers, thousands of heroes became the heroic outpost that held The Last Frontier during the years of the "liberal pogrom" of Russian statehood.
« Die for your faith and fatherland, and you will receive life and a crown in heaven.”
Unfortunately, the country still has not realized the feat of our soldiers and officers who broke the back of the enemy in two hardest and bloody wars in the Caucasus, destroying the plans of international terrorism and our "sworn friends" to dismember Russia.
Zhenya Rodionov - embodied the image of those boys who saved Russia in the most terrible years. Because, truly, there were times harder, but there was no time meaner than the 90s. Alcohol "Royal", which was poisoned in a terrible dope by men who fell into despondency and despair, suddenly found themselves without work, hundreds of factories and institutions were closed, the country turned into one big flea market, old people at garbage cans, homeless people and homeless children. And over all this, from the TV screens, inhuman faces, and real demonic faces, voluptuously and subtly mock at everything that is sacred for a Russian person. "Chubais" and their TV service of "political scientists", "experts" and "historians" day and night prove to the people that the whole of Russian history is a "dead end branch" of the development of human civilization, the unsuccessful people must repent before the entire "civilized world", renouncing from its thousand-year "totalitarian past" and finally learn to live according to the laws of the "market". With particular fury, they mocked the heroes of the Great Patriotic War - if it were not for these "scoops", then they would have "drank Bavarian beer" long ago. Young people were taught that the meaning of life is "to become such a millionaire". What "highest values"! Everything that for centuries has been dear and sacred to a Russian person is ridiculed by various Shenderovichs in countless humorous programs. What “love for the Motherland”, “sacred duty to protect the Fatherland” - all this is “totalitarian propaganda” - as the Svanidzes and posners tirelessly explain. The main value in life is green papers with a portrait american president. Whoever gathers them more is the master of life. And on TV screens - solid feasts of the owners of life. At receptions next to their owners, bankers obsequiously smile at their faithful servants from politicians - "democrats", "pop stars" and "rulers of thoughts" - journalists from MK, NTV and other "democratic" media. And all this public unanimously, wholeheartedly hates the army and special services, which is quite understandable. They experience an instinctive feeling of fear, they are afraid of retribution for what they are doing with the country and the robbed people. In addition, the Army is the embodiment of everything that is especially hated by this public. The desire for profit at any cost is the opposite of such concepts as honor, duty, service to the Fatherland. Therefore, the Army and Navy, special services and law enforcement agencies under " new government”destroyed methodically and purposefully. The masters of life and their overseas patrons were sure that the younger generation "choose Pepsi", and the officers who remained in the Armed Forces, defeated by the "democratic government", in conditions when the division commander receives a salary several times less than the stall seller, not to mention different "brokers" and "dealers", of course, will not fight. Russia was going to continue to be cut into pieces calmly and unhurriedly - it is more convenient to swallow in pieces.
But when, through the efforts of our "sworn friends" in the Caucasus, bloody war, which was supposed to end with the collapse of Russia, it was boys like Zhenya Rodionov who rose to the death and defended our Motherland. Lyubov Vasilievna, before Zhenya was going on a business trip to the Caucasus after three months of training, tried to persuade her son to stay, saying that there were dead, wounded, and one could be captured. But Zhenya hugged his mother and said: “Mom, someone has to serve there, why do you think that another mother is less sorry for her son? And captivity is how lucky. When, in the terrible winter of 1995, mothers of soldiers came to Chechnya to take their sons home, almost all the guys refused: “How can I leave my comrades!” These guys didn't choose Pepsi, they chose their Motherland.
Thanks to their dedication and military prowess, the country gradually began to revive after the terrible degradation and catastrophe of the 90s. Thanks to the feat of those who fought in those hardest years, today we see a new Russian Army and Navy who revive their combat power. Thanks to the feat of our soldiers and officers, the people stopped perceiving the characters of the “liberal agitprop”, the regulars of all these “rains”, “echoes”, etc. Russophobes broadcasting according to the instructions of the “Washington Regional Committee”, and took to the streets of our cities “ Immortal Regiment". We will never know the names of all the soldiers who repeated the feat of Zhenya. But the names of all the heroes who gave their lives for the Fatherland, laid down their lives for their friends, the Lord knows. Therefore, when Orthodox people talk about the possibility of canonization of Zhenya Rodionov, they offer to glorify "the warrior Yevgeny and others like him who suffered." All of them fulfilled the sacred testament of St. Philaret of Moscow:
“Do not be afraid of danger, striving for the truth: it is better to die for it than to survive it.
Redeem with blood for your descendants those blessings that your ancestors bought for you with blood.
Avoiding death for the honor of the faith and for the freedom of the fatherland, you will die a criminal or a slave;
die for your faith and fatherland, and you will receive life and a crown in heaven.”
St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow
Kingdom of Heaven and everlasting memory to all the soldiers who gave their lives defending the Fatherland!
On June 25, 1995, 18-year-old Rodionov was drafted into the army. First he got into training unit military training unit No. 2631 Border Troops Russian Federation near Kaliningrad. After that, he served as a grenade launcher at the 3rd border outpost of the 3rd motorized maneuver group of the 479th special border detachment on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya.
On January 13, 1996, Evgeny was sent for combat training to the Nazran border detachment. On February 4, 1996, he was on duty along with privates Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov. The military stopped the minibus with the inscription " Ambulance", in which Brigadier General rode with his militants Chechen Republic Ichkeria Ruslan Khaikhoroev. It turned out that weapons were being transported in the car. When they tried to search the border guards, they were captured.
First, the missing soldiers were declared deserters. The police were looking for Rodionov at his parents' house. And only after a detailed examination of the scene, when traces of blood and struggle were found, the version about captivity was adopted.
Mother Evgenia Lyubov Vasilievna went to Chechnya in search of her son. She managed to contact Shamil Basayev, but after trying to negotiate she was severely beaten and held hostage for three days. Only when Lyubov Rodionova paid the militants a large amount of money - about 4 thousand dollars (for this she had to sell the apartment and all valuables) - she was told about the fate of her son and indicated the place of his burial.
As it turned out, Yevgeny Rodionov was executed by Chechen fighters. One hundred days he and his comrades were brutally tortured, demanding to convert to Islam. However, Zhenya refused to take off the Orthodox cross. On May 23, 1996, his own birthday, he was beheaded.
The corpse of Yevgeny Rodionov, found in a grave without a head, was identified by his mother by a pectoral cross. Later, the examination confirmed the identification results.
