Kashin, Tver Province, Russia, June 30, 2026
Photo: tvereparhia.ru
His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrose of Tver and Kashin consecrated a memorial cross near Sergiev Cemetery in Kashin on the evening of June 24, at the site where prisoners of the Kashin prison were shot and buried during the Great Terror of 1937–1938.
The blessing followed the All-Night Vigil for the second glorification of the holy Princess Anna of Kashin at the Ascension Cathedral, reports the Metropolis of Tver.
The site was identified through research by Archpriest Alexander Rychkov, rector of the Ascension Cathedral and secretary of the Tver Diocesan Commission for the perpetuation of the memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Tver, together with his son, Fr. Alexander Rychkov.
Their work confirmed that executions were carried out at this location and established with reasonable certainty that approximately 250 victims are buried there, including at least ten glorified New Martyrs of the Russian Church who suffered in 1937–1938, among them Hieromartyr Gregory of Shlisselburg and Hieromartyr Nikolai Morkovin.
Following the consecration of the cross, Met. Ambrose read a prayer to the New Martyrs and Confessors and served a memorial litia for the innocently slain prisoners of the Kashin prison.
Among those present were relatives of some of the victims, including a great-great-grandnephew of Hieromartyr Jacob Bobyrev, who was sentenced to death on October 15, 1937 — the feast day of Princess Anna of Kashin — and a great-granddaughter of Archpriest Nikolai Fruktov, shot on January 5, 1938.
The 16-foot cross was made by V. A. Ptitsyn, a senior lecturer at the State University of Education, who has been erecting memorial crosses across various regions of Russia for thirty years. He has erected no fewer than 30 such crosses in the Arkhangelsk, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, and Tver provinces, funded entirely from his own resources.
Met. Ambrose awarded Archpriest Alexander Rychkov and Fr. Alexander Rychkov diocesan certificates of blessing for their work in honoring the new martyrs. Ptitsyn was awarded the medal of Hieromartyr Thaddeus, Archbishop of Tver, second degree.
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