The genocide of Orthodox Christians in Atheist Soviet Russia is perhaps the single greatest Christian persecution in Human history. What crimes did the Bolsheviks commit during the ‘Russian Revolution? They nailed him to the floor of the church. He remained alive for a long time. Red-hot ramrods were slowly driven into his body until one pierced his heart… This is how Bishop Sylvester (Olshevsky) of Omsk died in February 1920. Bishop Tikhon (Nikanorov) of Voronezh was crucified on the Royal Doors of the iconostasis. Bishop Andronik of Perm was buried alive in a pit which he had been forced to dig himself. Bishop Hermogenes of Tobolsk was tied to a ship’s wheel and drowned. Bishop Seraphim (Chichagov) was carried on a stretcher to be executed at the Butovo firing range, as the nearly 90-year-old elder could no longer walk. Grand Duchess Elizabeth & the nun Barbara were thrown alive into a deep mineshaft in Alapaevsk. Bishop Benjamin of Petrograd, along with several laymen, was shot after a show trial based on false charges related to the confiscation of church valuables. Priest Peter Skipetrov was shot in the face in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Archbishop Nikon Rozhdestvesnky (accused of ‘antisemitism’) was stabbed & maimed to death outside of his monastery (Trinity Sergius Lavra), his body was disfigured beyond recognition. The Bolsheviks also beheaded him. Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) of Kiev was dragged outside the walls of the Kiev Lavra, shot, and bayoneted while he gave his blessing to his executioners. The elderly ascetic, Bishop John (Pommer) of Latvia, was tied to a door torn from its hinges, laid on a workbench, brutally tortured, and then set on fire while still alive. Bishop Thaddeus of Tver was drowned in human waste. Father Alexey Merkuryev of the Urals was murdered in front of his congregation, daughter, and son. Bishop Theophan of Solikamsk was stripped, his hair braided, a pole threaded through it, & he was slowly lowered into an icy hole in the Kama River. His body became encased in ice. But the hierarch was still alive - and then he was drowned. Some priests and laymen had their hands tied behind their backs, their eyes blindfolded, and were ordered to walk across the ice until they fell into a hole. The torturers mockingly called them ‘divers.’ The holy prisoners of the Solovki labor camp had their beards and mustaches ripped out and were starved to death… No number of pages or tears can recount all that our land endured so recently - just yesterday. This is only a drop in the ocean of blood shed by the Holy New Martyrs, whose memory we commemorate each year. Hundreds of thousands of priests and millions of laypeople were killed and torn apart for their faithfulness to Christ. More than 2,000 have been canonized as confessors and martyrs - and how many more are known only to God? And this was not some mere political struggle. It was hell itself unleashed. Only demons devoid of all conscience could torture people in such ways. The scale, ferocity, and mercilessness of Soviet persecution of the Church is encapsulated in a single figure: out of 80,000 churches and monasteries at the beginning of the 20th century, by 1939, barely a hundred parishes remained across the vast Russian land. Not a single monastery. Not a single seminary. Not a single bishop at liberty. Just a scattered handful of monks.
