Lyubov Vasilievna handed me a small icon: “Take this, this is in memory of my son...” The icon depicted a young man in a red cloak
and with a shield, right hand he clutched the Cross tightly. Below is the inscription: "NEW MARTYR FOR CHRIST WARRIOR EUGENE."
Outside the windows of an ordinary standard apartment in the village of Kurilovo near Moscow, where he lived short life Evgeny, the sun was shining brightly. It was April 2003.
SON
The only son Evgeniy was born to Lyubov Rodionova at half past twelve on the night of May 23, 1977. When the baby announced the world with its first cry, Lyubov Vasilievna for some reason looked out the window. There, a star slowly fell across the night spring sky, leaving behind a long luminous stripe. "This - good omen“,” the midwife reassured her, intercepting the wary gaze of the woman in labor. “And you will be happy, and so will your boyfriend...”
And indeed, the desired child brought great joy to the house. Calm, affectionate, with a sweet, serious face, he was almost never sick, rarely cried at night, and ate well. One thing was worrying: the baby had not walked for quite some time. He went only when he was one year and two months old - after his parents, on the advice of his grandparents, baptized him in a nearby church.
It turned out that Evgeniy returned to church only in the summer of 1989. And again thanks to the grandmothers. The two Marias, the mother of Evgeniy’s father and mother, were strong friends and together, in the old Orthodox custom, brought their grandson to confess and receive communion before academic year... And then it only became clear that the boy did not have a cross on his body...
CROSS
No one knows what words the priest found then, at Zhenya’s very first confession. And he won’t know anymore. Perhaps he told him old parable, an image that was born among the first Christians in difficult times of persecution: “The cross is a bell on the neck of a sheep. So that the Shepherd can quickly hear it when it is in trouble.” Since then, the boy began to wear the cross without taking it off. I threaded a thick, strong rope - “it’s more reliable this way.” Mom was embarrassed: “They will laugh at you at school.” “Let it be, I decided so, and so it will be.”
But, you know, no one even thought of laughing at Evgeniy. Moreover, gradually Zhenya’s friends began to make crosses themselves. Children learned to cast crucifixes in special molds. Today, these massive homemade crosses are very common in Chechnya. The soldiers make them there. They try to make it harder. It was very difficult for our boys in that war. Mentally, physically, whatever. And they just need to constantly feel the presence Orthodox cross on your body.
TRINITY
In the difficult times of the early 90s, Lyubov Vasilievna, a furniture maker and technologist, had to juggle three jobs to feed herself and her schoolchild. And Zhenya grew up absolutely independent. Not only did he cook his own food, he did his homework himself, he went to church alone (without his mother). Mainly to the Trotsky Cathedral in Podolsk. At the age of 14, he understood and accepted the essence of the Trinity, so much so that he was able to convey this understanding to the heart of his mother, who was then still far from the Faith.
Having completed his nine-year education well, Evgeniy decided to leave school and go to work. To a furniture factory. The boy turned out to have golden hands, he began to earn good money. Prosperity came to the house
At the age of 18, Zhenya was drafted into the army. He didn't particularly want to serve. But he, like all the guys from his company, was convinced that there are things that are not discussed. Evgeniy left the village of Kurilovo, Podolsk district, Moscow region, on June 25, 1995. The recruit was assigned to the border troops. On July 10, 1995, he took the oath.
SERVICE
We know surprisingly little about how Evgeniy served. Its part in the town of Lesnoye near Kaliningrad has long been disbanded; there is not even a memorial plaque. True, there is a legend that in those units where Yevgeny Rodionov served, hazing did not exist. And many soldiers consider this HIS FIRST MIRACLE.
Mom - Lyubov Vasilievna - constantly received letters from her son from the army. There are poems in them.
"...I wish you a lot of happiness,
May you live many years,
May you always be young
And always be with me..."
Before being sent to the North Caucasus, mother and son met only once. In September 1995. This is how it was (mother’s story): “The colonel of the unit where my son served, at first met me unfriendly. He said: “Another mother came demanding that her son not be sent to hot spot""". And only when Lyubov Vasilievna replied that everything would be as Zhenya decided (“He’s a grown man”), the boss changed his attitude towards her. Not only did he help her get to the field training center, where Evgeniy served, but also gave him eight days of leave... Finally...
Zhenya was very proud that he was a border guard, that he was busy with real work that the Motherland needed. And it was then, at that last meeting of theirs, that Zhenya told his mother: “Everyone from our unit is sent to hot spots, and I have already written a report...” Seeing how pale his mother turned, he tried to calm her down: “Fate has never left. I can go out onto the road and a car will kill me... But captivity... Captivity - it depends on your luck.”
CAPTIVITY
These words of his turned out to be PROPHETIC. On January 13, 1996, Private Evgeny Rodionov was sent on a business trip under the command of the Nazran border detachment of military unit 2038. He was captured exactly a month later. It was like this: a detachment of four people - Alexander ZHELEZNOV, Andrey TRUSOV, Igor YAKOVLEV and Evgeny RODIONOV - took up their next duty. They were on duty at the checkpoint and registration point (CRP) on the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. There was the only road in the mountains along which militants constantly transported kidnapped people, weapons, ammunition... But this most important post at that time was more like a bus stop. The guys didn't even have electricity. They stood unprotected in the middle of a highway infested with bandits.
It is clear that this could not continue for long. But it was on the night when Evgeniy’s squad was on duty that a minibus with the inscription “ ambulance". From there, fifteen healthy big men armed to the teeth jumped out... The boys did not give up without a fight. There were traces of blood on the asphalt. Evgeniy's colleagues, who were literally 200 meters from the road, clearly heard the cry: "HELP!!!" But why is all this? -it didn’t make any impression on them. Many were asleep!
Nobody declared any alarm. There was no chase. They weren't looking for the guys at all. Although no, they were looking. And even actively. But not in Chechnya, but in the distant and peaceful Moscow region! On February 13, Evgeniy was captured by bandits, and on February 16, Lyubov Vasilyevna already received a telegram, from which she realized that her son had left the unit AWOL. The police immediately arrived. The apartment was searched, looking for a deserter.
At this point, Lyubov Vasilievna, who knew for sure that her son could not go AWOL in any way, “is not the right nature,” rushed to Chechnya to save Evgeniy. There they confirmed to her: “Yes, indeed, there was a mistake, your son went missing...”
THE ROAD TO CALVARY
Lyubov Vasilievna arrived in Khankala, where fathers and mothers from all over Russia gathered in the hope of finding their missing children. “There is no village where I have never been,” says Lyubov Vasilyevna. “There is not a single field commander with whom I would not talk... I had to go through all the torment, all the circles of hell that exist on earth. Apparently, Lord He took me along those roads where I walked and did not get blown up, although there were more mines there than stones. Apparently, He protected me from bombings, considered that it was my duty, the duty of a mother, to find my son in order to bury him in native land according to Christian custom. I prayed then: “Lord, help him, don’t leave him, because he’s just a child... No one needs him except me, his mother, and You, the Creator and Savior. Help him, don’t leave him!”
At meetings with militants, they kept telling her: “Your son is alive. He’s definitely alive. But he’s in captivity.” And after that they fell silent meaningfully. They were probably assessing how much they could “rip off” from the unfortunate woman. And only after calculating that you wouldn’t make much money here did you come to a terrible decision.
But Lyubov Vasilievna did not understand any of this. I thought the military was also looking for Zhenya. I believed they would find me and not leave me. “He’s a statesman, he didn’t stand for himself, for his Motherland.”
Lyubov Rodionova found her child. But only after nine months. And already dead. And even for his remains, the bandits demanded from the unfortunate lonely woman 4 million rubles of that time - approximately 4 thousand dollars. And she paid all this money (ALL!!!) herself. Nobody gave her a single penny, and just think about it - a lonely woman without any “official cover” herself “negotiated” with the most inveterate and cruel bandits. Lyubov Vasilievna still hears machine gun fire at night and, huddled under the blanket, waits for the blow! After all, she herself was also captured and lived as a hostage for three days. Lyubov Vasilyevna learned from the militants true story the way of the cross for his son.
EXECUTION
From the first day of the 100-day captivity, when they saw the Cross on Zhenya’s neck, the bandits tried to “break” him and force him to accept their faith. They wanted to force him to torture and kill soldiers like him - boys. Evgeny categorically refused. He was beaten. They kept saying: “Take off the Cross and you will live!!!” And it's not empty words. The gang leaders themselves later assured Lyubov Vasilyevna: “If your son had become one of us, we would not have offended him.” We can only guess what Evgeniy was thinking about when he was less than nineteen years old during these scary days captivity. He probably firmly believed that he and the other guys would be found and saved. It is difficult for us, who did not experience this hell, to understand what was in his soul when he made his choice, refusing to take off the Cross and become a “brother” Chechen militant. But we know that the Lord does not abandon his own. And perhaps the Guardian Angel strengthened him in the fetid darkness of the basement, as was the case with the martyrs of the first Christians, because every day, confessing Christ, he rose upward in his spirit - not into death, but into life.
The denouement occurred on Evgeniy’s birthday. On May 23, 1996, Zhenya just turned 19. He and the rest of the soldiers were taken to the forest near Bamut. First they killed his friends, those with whom he was on his last border duty. Then in last time They suggested: “Take off the Cross! We swear by Allah, you will live!!!” Evgeniy didn’t take it off. And then he was executed in cold blood. It’s scary, like in an ancient pagan sacrificial ritual - they cut off the head of a living person...
But they did not dare to remove the Cross. And it was by this, this modest crucifix, that my mother later recognized her boy.
Lyubov Vasilievna herself was invisibly present at this death. The bandits gave her a videotape of the execution.
MIRACLE
In order to redeem Evgeniy’s body, Lyubov Vasilievna sold everything. Things, an apartment, some clothes. I transported Zhenya home on November 20, 1996. Buried. And that's it... She was left alone. Almost without housing, without funds, without basic moral support. People shied away from the unfortunate woman as if from a leper - “their troubles were in abundance.” Even the Order of Courage was awarded to her quietly.
But at this very time in the most different parts Incredible things began to happen in Russia. Back in 1997, I visited the then new rehabilitation Orthodox orphanage. There, one of the tramp girls told me about a certain soldier - “so tall, in a red cloak-tent”, who “called himself Eugene, took me by the hand and led me to church.” I was still surprised, there don’t seem to be red cloaks, then I gasped: “Yes, this is a martyr’s cloak!”
Further more. In many churches there were stories about a certain “Divine warrior in a fiery cloak,” helping captured soldiers in Chechnya find the path to freedom, showing them mines and tripwires... I also heard about him from my parents at the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers in May 1999 : “There is such a holy warrior Eugene - a martyr. He, they say, helps the guys in captivity. We really rely on him, on his prayers before the Lord.”
In the Burdenko hospital, wounded soldiers claimed that they knew a certain soldier Eugene, who helps them, “especially when the pain sets in”... Many swear that they saw him on the icon when they were on an excursion to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Moreover, the prisoners also know the “warrior in the red cape.” "He helps the weakest, lifts up the broken..."
In 1997, by order of the Church of St. Nicholas, in Pyzhi, with the blessing His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' published the book “The New Martyr for Christ, Warrior Eugene.” And immediately a report came from priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk that “the photograph on the cover of the book IS MYRRHUSING... Miro light color, with a slight scent of pine." I myself felt the same unique tart aroma when, in the house of Lyubov Vasilievna, I venerated the icon of her son, Saint Warrior Eugene...
MOTHER
I don’t know how, but all these miracles, thundering throughout all parishes, for the time being remained unknown to one, and the main person in this story - Zhenya’s mother. Everything is provided by God. And only when she, rejected by the whole world, having reached the last line of despair, decided to take a terrible, irreversible step, the mortal sin of suicide, some bright and joyful force (by her own admission) literally raised her to her feet and she physically felt the presence of her son . “Many people need you now,” flashed through my mind.
Everything has changed since then. In a wondrous way, people reached out to the mother of the soldier killed for the Faith. “It’s She, His Mom,” they say everywhere. “She’s a saint!” “What kind of saint am I?!” - Lyubov Vasilievna is sincerely surprised. - I'm still on the path to God. And I need my son alive and healthy. And so that the house is full of grandchildren. And everyone gives me icons. I already have more than 90 of them. They say, thank you, your Evgeniy helped me. They show how his faces stream myrrh... And I, I just help people in any way I can. Now, by my son’s will (not by myself, but by HIS WILL!!!), just as he would have done, I collect parcels and bring them to our soldiers in Chechnya myself. By myself, alone, I walk through checkpoints, military units, hospitals... My pass is my prayer. But you know what amazing guys we have serving in Chechnya! In almost every soldier's tent there are icons of Zhenya. And not only in tents. They make these little wearable images there..."
Mother Evgenia, having passed her way of the cross, is already able to think about her son’s tormentors without horror. And she was not at all triumphant when she learned that Evgeniy’s killers - gang leader Ruslan Khoikhoroev, along with his entire team - died three years and three months later at the hands of their own bandits: “Why be happy, another soul missing!”
Hundreds of people gather at Zhenya’s grave, especially on his birthday (and martyrdom) on May 23. "And what miracles happened for us then! Every year there is a rainbow. We already wait, we know. And last year there were 4 white cloudy crosses. A lot of priests come. Some do not hold a memorial service for Zhenya, as if for a dead person, but serve prayer services. Orthodox from all over The Russians are coming. They are helping me as best they can. They collected money in peace, allowed me to buy the apartment. The same one where my son grew up. They put a cross on the grave. Wooden, tall. The tallest in our entire village cemetery. The inscription was made: “Here lies the Russian soldier Eugene Rodionov, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce the Cross." Notes are slipped between the stones near the grave... Mothers who lost their children in Chechnya write, parents who are afraid to let their sons go into the army, girls who dream of meeting a real, kind, believing man... . One of Saratov traveled for three years, now she married a priest. Although, to be honest, I haven’t read these notes for a long time. After all, it wasn’t all written to me. To him. To my wife. To the boy. They believe in him. They love. They hope. Recently in At the temple they hand me a piece of paper with a prayer. From whom - it is not known. And there: “...Hear us, weak and infirm, who worship your most luminous image with faith and love...”
And all this has been said about my child. So I think, maybe that doctor was right who told me back in the maternity hospital that my son’s life would be as bright as a star.”
Yesterday, all of Orthodox Rus' commemorated private Yevgeny Rodionov, who ten years ago accepted martyrdom in Chechnya for our Lord Jesus Christ. Taken prisoner by militants, Zhenya refused to betray Christ and remove his pectoral cross, for which he was brutally beheaded. It so happened that on the day terrible death- May 23, 1996 - Evgeniy turned exactly 19 years old.
For nine months, Lyubov Rodionova searched for the body of her son in Chechnya. Beat almost everyone field commanders, I even visited Khattab, whose photograph became a kind of pass. And when I found it, I found it next to the body pectoral cross, which she herself put on Zhenya before his departure to Chechnya.
Lyubov Rodionova did not expect that ten years later the grave of her son in the village of Satino near Moscow would turn into a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox Christians not only from all over Russia, but also from Belarus, Serbia, and other Christian countries. From an ordinary border guard, Zhenya Rodionov became a new martyr in the hearts of the people for the faith of Christ, and now the Russian Orthodox Church is preparing for his canonization.
And there is every reason for this. Here is what journalist Vladimir Melnik wrote in the Orthodox newspaper Blagovest in December 2002: “In August 2002, a military priest from the Altai Mountains, Father Varlaami, called me. He urgently needed to contact the mother of warrior Evgeniy Rodionov , tortured in Chechnya for refusing to remove the cross and convert to Islam. It turns out that in one of the border detachments in Altai they decided to open a church in the name of St. Martyr Evgeniy - both in memory of Evgeniy Rodionov, and in the memory of his namesake Heavenly Patron (Evgeniy Rodionov has not yet been canonized) .
The Russian Border Troops Directorate was ready to send Evgeniy’s mother to prison at government expense. Mountain Altai- for the consecration of the temple. And everything happened with God’s help. We found Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova, and she ended up attending the consecration of the temple built in memory of her son, who, although not yet canonized, is quite worthy of canonization for his truly Christian feat. And, apparently, this canonization will take place over time. The consecration of the temple took place on August 10.
And here is a new call from Father Varlaamia: on November 20, there was a prayer service and procession in the church in honor of the martyr Eugene (temple holiday). One of the soldiers, private Andrei Zyablitsky, a believer who had read the biography of Yevgeny Rodionov and was imbued with a special love for his personality, was holding in his hands a temple icon with the image of St. Martyr Eugene the Warrior. The prayer service and religious procession were filmed, and right during filming procession the icon in the soldier’s hands began to bleed. Father Barlaami says that the film clearly shows how the ointment flows over the temple icon. A strong fragrance emanated from the icon, despite strong wind and cold. Myrrh flowed from the lower crossbar of the cross in the hands of the holy martyr Eugene.
Is there another indication here of the holiness of the feat of Evgeniy Rodionov, in whose memory this temple was opened?
Murdered warrior-martyr Eugene, pray to God for us!”
And yesterday in Satino, where they celebrated the anniversary of the death of Zhenya Rodionov, a church priest from Donetsk told how in his church the icon of the warrior-martyr Eugene also streamed myrrh, and then from the stage, to the accompaniment of paratroopers, he sang a song of his own composition, dedicated to the fallen warrior.
The rector of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in neighboring Znamenka, Father Eustathius, confessed to us: “The holy warrior-martyr Evgeniy Rodionov is our local saint. Every day I am happy to observe that he enjoys more and more reverence among the Orthodox people. I am sure that he will soon be canonized."
State Duma deputy from the LDPR Nikolai Kuryanovich also thinks, who told Pravda.Ru: “Those miracles that happen to the icons of the holy martyr Eugene say that the Lord gives the go-ahead for his canonization. It so happened that the anniversary of the martyrdom of Evgeniy Rodionov, coincided with the release on Russian screens of the patriotic and Orthodox epic "Breakthrough", dedicated to the exploits of our paratroopers in Chechnya, who in the most terrible moments turn to our Lord Jesus Christ and go into the last battle for Russia with in God's name on the lips. All sorts of “bastards” laugh at this feat, because they want us all to become brutish, to become thoughtless consumers of all sorts of vile anti-Christian abomination like “The Da Vinci Code”.
And here, at Evgeniy’s grave, you feel that Orthodox Rus' is alive and will live forever, that it will not be broken by any “new world order” established under whose leadership it is known. Not only do I think that the feat of Evgeniy Rodionov is worthy of perpetuation on the screen, “But while Mikhail Shvydkoy is in charge of cinema, it’s better not to apply for state support for Orthodox projects.”
Evgeniy’s mother Lyubov Rodionova doesn’t really care whether her son is canonized or not - it’s all the will of the Lord. We asked her to say a few words about Zhenya: “To be honest, I didn’t want to live. People said: “He died for an oil pipe, he died for someone’s money,” but I felt even worse, I was simply dying from pain, out of resentment. And then, when I went once again to worship that pit, that grave in which he lay for six months, maybe I was looking for death, so when I returned from there, everything changed. They put a cross on that temple, people from the “Russian House” arrived. - Alexander, Victor. They were told about Zhenya, they wanted to meet me.
I am grateful to those people who considered it their duty to honor the memory of my son. And I realized that Zhenya did not die for someone’s money, no, he died for the Fatherland, which, like his mother, is not chosen. He is simply loved and protected. And I felt a little better. The pain, of course, did not go away, but I realized that there was meaning in his death. Everything is just like that. He died for the Orthodox faith, did not change the faith of his grandfathers, and did not betray his great-grandfathers. Life is, of course, hard, but there are churches in Moscow - there is a Tushinsky church in Pyzhi, where I was accepted into their family.
Now people from all over Russia call me. They called from Abakan, Vladikavkaz, and from many other cities. I no longer felt completely alone. The lamp will burn, at least this will make me feel that my son needs me, if only to light the flame. I am grateful to believers, they explained a lot to me. I am very grateful to people for sharing my pain and helping me in every way they could. This memorial is at Zhenya's grave - it is placed on human kindness, on participation, on love, on respect for the act that Zhenya committed.
Maybe it's not a feat, maybe it's an act. May God grant us all to make the same choice. Zhenya has a very Good friends. Every Sunday, in any weather, they come here. And it’s so touching to watch when they put flowers, when they left oranges in the snow, when they put cigarettes for him. This is how they express their love. Well, here life seems to put everything in its place.
These guys, these phone calls, letters, of which there are more and more, are so touching, they support me, give me strength to live. I never thought that there was so much wisdom, so much kindness in people, especially in priests. I just don't have the words to express it all."
Now the warrior Evgeniy Rodionov is glorified as a locally revered saint of the Astrakhan-Enotaevsk Diocese in the ranks of martyrs, and a temple was founded in his honor in Khankala. Here is the text of the “Prayer to the Martyr Eugene”: “Passion-bearer of Russia, warrior Eugene! Graciously accept our prayers offered to you with love and gratitude before your holy icon. Hear us, the weak and infirm, who worship your most luminous image with faith and love. Your ardent love for "To the Lord, faithfulness to Him alone, your fearlessness in the face of torment gave you eternal life. You did not take the Cross from your chest for the sake of this temporary life. Your Cross shone for all of us as a guiding star on the path of salvation. Do not leave us on this path, holy martyr Eugene, with with the tears of those who pray to you."
(from the author of the site: while collecting information about Evgeniy, it was very difficult to keep thoughts and emotions in concentration. I, a 30-year-old mentally healthy man, was constantly “overcome with emotions.” Sorry, but that’s why I’m posting the material in episodes - in pieces). Evgeniy Rodionov is a private in the Russian Border Troops. Died in the first Chechen campaign. After 100 days of captivity, he was beheaded (alive, with a knife) by militants on May 23, 1996 (on his birthday) for refusing to remove his pectoral cross and convert to Islam….
Where was Evgeniy Rodionov born?
...Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Rodionov was born on May 23, 1977 in the village of Chibirley, Kuznetsk district Penza region. In more than a year, Evgeniy was baptized, but did not wear a cross, and only in 1988 (or 1989) did his grandmother take Evgeniy to church, where he was given a cross. Evgeny Rodionov began to wear the cross without taking it off. I threaded a thick, strong rope - “it’s more reliable this way.”
Mom was embarrassed: “They will laugh at you at school.” “Let it be, I decided so, and so it will be.”
Evgeniy Rodionov military service
...After the training unit, on June 25, 1995, he was drafted into the army and served as a grenade launcher at the 3rd border outpost of the 3rd motorized maneuver group of the 479 Border Detachment special purpose(military unit 3807, disbanded in 1998) of the modern Red Banner Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Kaliningrad region on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya. He took the military oath on July 10, 1995. On January 13, 1996, he was sent on a six-month business trip under the command of the Nazran border detachment (military unit No. 2094), where, after serving for one month, he was captured.
Zhenya was very proud that he was a border guard, that he was busy with real work that the Motherland needed. At that last meeting, Zhenya told his mother: “Everyone from our unit is sent to hot spots, and I have already written a report...” Seeing how pale his mother turned, he tried to calm her down: “No one has ever escaped fate. I can go out onto the road and a car will kill me... But captivity... Captivity - it depends on your luck.”
How did Yevgeny Rodionov get captured?
...On February 13, 1996, together with privates Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov, he took up a post on the Chechnya-Ingushetia section of the road. At night, a minibus with the sign “ambulance” drove up to their post. From there, fifteen healthy big men armed to the teeth jumped out under the control of a brigadier general Chechen Republic Ichkeria Ruslana Khaikhoroev. The boys did not give up without a fight. There were traces of blood on the asphalt. Evgeniy’s colleagues, who were literally 200 meters from the road, clearly heard the cry: “HELP!!!” But for some reason all this did not make any impression on them. Many were asleep! After discovering their disappearance from the post, the soldiers were initially declared deserters. Police officers came to Rodionov’s mother’s house to look for her son after his disappearance. The version that the soldiers were captured was accepted after a detailed examination of the scene and the discovery of traces of blood and struggle.
Evgeniy Rodionov did not film.
...From the first day of the 100-day captivity, when they saw the Cross on Zhenya’s neck, the bandits tried to “break” him and force him to accept their faith. They wanted to force him to torture and kill soldiers like him - boys. Evgeny categorically refused.
He was beaten. They kept saying: “Take off the Cross and you will live!!!” And these are not empty words. The gang leaders themselves later assured Lyubov Vasilievna (Evgeniy’s mother, who traveled throughout Chechnya during the war in search of her son after his disappearance): “If your son had become one of us, we would not have offended him.” Khaikhoroev invited the exhausted boys to convert to Islam and continue to fight on the side of the militants. All the prisoners refused. Evgeniy did not remove his pectoral cross, which was what the killers demanded.
Execution of Yevgeny Rodionov
…. near the village of Bamut, Chechnya. On May 23, 1996, Evgeniy just turned 19. He, along with the rest of the soldiers, was taken to the forest near Bamut. First they killed his friends, those with whom he was on his last border duty. Then for the last time they suggested: “Take off the Cross! We swear by Allah, you will live!!!” Evgeniy didn’t take it off. And then he was executed in cold blood - his head was cut off while he was alive - but they did not dare remove the Cross. Ruslan Khaikhoroev confessed to the murder.
In the presence of a foreign OSCE representative, he said: “...He had a choice to stay alive. He could have changed his faith, but he did not want to take off the cross. I tried to escape...”... Soon after the capture, Evgeniy’s mother,
Mother of Evgeniy Rodionov
Lyubov Vasilyevna came to Chechnya in search of her son, who was believed to be a deserter. His commander informed her that he was a prisoner of war, but showed no concern for his fate. She contacted Basayev, who promised her to find her son in front of everyone, but when she left the village, Basayev’s brother caught up with her and brutally beat her half to death, breaking her spine. In the end, she was forced to pay the militants money to find out the burial place of her son. Evgeniy's body was identified by his mother pectoral cross. Later, the identification results were confirmed by an examination. Eugene's cross was found in the grave on his headless body, and later mother Evgenia gave it to the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, where it was kept in the altar for several years.
Where is Evgeniy Rodionov buried?
... Evgeny Rodionov was buried near the village of Satino-Russkoye, Podolsk district, Moscow region, near the Church of the Ascension of Christ. However, the soldier's mother will again go to her son's killer and say: "Bring back your son's head." He will laugh and leave, and after a while he will bring her several pieces of the skull. The superstitious mountaineer was afraid of him and the dead man and therefore smashed his severed head with the butt of a machine gun so that he would not be pursued in the next world... Incredible things began to happen in various parts of Russia. Back in 1997, I visited the then new rehabilitation Orthodox orphanage. There, one of the tramp girls told me about a certain soldier - “so tall, in a red cloak-tent”, who “called himself Eugene, took me by the hand and led me to church.” I was still surprised, there don’t seem to be red cloaks, then I gasped: “Yes, this is a martyr’s cloak!” 
….Further more. In many churches there were stories about the “Divine warrior in a fiery cloak”, helping captured soldiers in Chechnya find the path to freedom, showing them mines and tripwires... In the Burdenko hospital, wounded soldiers claimed that they knew a certain soldier Evgeniy, who helps them, “especially when pain sets in”... Many swear that they saw it on the icon when they were on an excursion to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Moreover, the prisoners also know the “warrior in the red cape.” "He helps the weak, lifts up the broken..." 
...In 1997, by order of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, with the blessing of His Holiness Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', the book “New Martyr for Christ, Warrior Eugene” was published. And immediately a report came from priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk that
“the photograph on the cover of the book MYRRHINGS...
Miro is light in color, with a slight pine scent.” I myself felt the same unique tart aroma when, in the house of Lyubov Vasilievna, I venerated the icon of her son, Saint Warrior Eugene...
...They put a cross on the grave. The wooden one is the tallest in our entire village cemetery. The inscription was made: “Here lies the Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce the Cross.” People slip notes between the stones near the grave...
….Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic: “My opinion about the death of soldier Rodionov, who was killed by bandits demanding to change his faith, is heroic act one man and the vile abomination of those who killed him.”
!For many, Eugene has become a symbol of courage, honor and loyalty.!
Prayer to the martyr Eugene (Archpriest Valentin Sidorov composed a service to the martyr warrior Eugene):
Passion-bearing Russian, warrior Eugene!
Graciously accept our prayers with love and gratitude offered to you before your holy icon.
Hear us, the weak and infirm, who worship your most luminous image with faith and love.
Your fiery love for the Lord, loyalty to Him alone, your fearlessness in the face of torment gave you eternal life.
You did not take the Cross off your chest for the sake of sowing temporary life.
Your cross shone for all of us as a guiding star on the path of salvation.
Do not leave us on this path, holy martyr Eugene, who pray to you with tears.
Prayer to the martyr Evgeniy Rodionov, compiled by Hieromonk Varlaam (Yakunin) from the Altai Republic. Kontakion, tone 4:
You appeared to the astonishment of strength, imitating Christ’s patience even to death, you were not afraid of the Agarian torment, and you did not deny the Cross of the Lord, taking death from the tormentors like the cup of Christ; For this reason, we cry out to you: Holy Martyr Eugene, pray ever for us, O sufferer.
Dozens of churches contain portraits of Eugene (the portrait-icon on the altar door in the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul in the Znamenka estate near Peterhof was located around 2000 and was removed for an unknown reason around 2010-11; in Altai - in Aktash, Novoaltaisk , Zarinsk, etc.). Icons of the warrior Eugene the Russian are also painted in Serbia. In Ukraine, priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk had the image of Yevgeny Rodionov streaming myrrh.
Prayer to the martyr Eugene:
Passion-bearer, warrior Eugene! Graciously accept our prayers with love and gratitude offered to you before your holy icon. Hear us, the weak and infirm, who worship your most luminous image with faith and love. Your fiery love for the Lord, loyalty to Him alone, your fearlessness in the face of torment gave you eternal life. You did not take the Cross off your chest for the sake of sowing temporary life. Your cross shone for all of us as a guiding star on the path of salvation. Do not leave us on this path, holy martyr Eugene, who pray to you with faith.
(Prayer to the martyr Evgeniy Rodionov, compiled by Hieromonk Varlaam (Yakunin) from the Altai Republic).
Kontakion, tone 4:
You appeared to the astonishment of strength, imitating Christ’s patience even to death, you were not afraid of the Agarian torment, and you did not deny the Cross of the Lord, taking death from the tormentors like the cup of Christ; For this reason, we cry out to you: Holy Martyr Eugene, pray ever for us, O sufferer.
Nikolay Ivanov,reserve colonel
"GOLDEN-GOLDEN"
(story)
...And the bearded leader, with a green ribbon wrapped around his forehead, told her - you should go there. And he pointed the barrel of the machine gun at the mountain slope - behind it you will find your son.
Or what's left of it.
If you get there, of course.
And the militants froze at this gesture, and first of all those who were laying a minefield on this slope. I installed it securely - for my own safety, back and forth, movement.
The reconnaissance of the federal forces did not go through - they rolled away, carrying out the wounded.
Jackals that came under artillery fire, fleeing from the shells in the gorge, broke out into the open space here and set off fireworks on streamers for the amusement of Allah.
The prisoners who decided to escape immediately flew into heaven.
Son? No, her son is not here, but they heard about a captured Russian soldier who refused to remove orthodox cross. It was in vain that he refused - they didn’t take it off over his head, but in a matter of fact - they cut off his head with a sword, and he himself fell on the grass. A small pectoral cross on a silk thread that was instantly soaked in blood. He pretended to be proud, moving back and forth. Otherwise he would have lived. Just think, without a cross... Fool. And they buried him just there, behind the slope. Go, mother, otherwise night will soon - it’s getting dark quickly in the mountains. It's just a shame you won't make it. Nobody came.
Let's go.
I walked through the grass that grew on the mines and among the thin wires connecting grenade traps. Along bushes scarred by shrapnel. Along the yellowing bones of someone’s sons, not taken out of the minefield by either our own or others. She should have collected them along the way, since she was here, buried them like a human being, with a prayer, but she walked and hurried to her child, to her little blood, to her fool who did not listen to the bandit. Oh, Lord, for what? After all, she herself, in public, put a cross on her son at the recruiting station - to protect him. And I saw, I saw that Zhenya was embarrassed by her friends, hiding the gift deep under his shirt. I thought it was a sin that I wouldn’t wear it and would take it off on the sly.
Didn't take it off...
And everyone looked after her and looked after her, those who wanted to have their own sun, their own personal power, their own slaves. Well-groomed, well-fed, mocking bearded men. For three months she, still a young woman, felt these glances on her, endured humiliation, insults, and bullying. For three months she was lashed by cold rains, from which at other times she could only shelter herself with her own hands. Friend and foe fired at her: they always shoot at a lonely, unfamiliar figure in war - just in case or just for fun. She drank dew from the leaves and ate the roots of herbs. She had long ago lost her shoes in the swamp and was now walking along mountain paths, through forest thickets, and across unplowed fields barefoot. She was looking for her son, who had disappeared in someone else’s captivity in someone else’s war. Unslept, she moved from gang to gang, hungry from aul to aul, numb from gorge to gorge. But she knew: until she finds him alive or dead, she will not leave this land, these mountains and slopes.
"God help me. Give me strength to reach and find. I would be on my knees - but I have to go. Help, Lord. Then take everything you want: take my life, soul, mind - but now help ... "
Now, now the movement will take off, back and forth.
- Tenacious. But no one had passed here yet - the militants waited, not taking their eyes off the Russian woman and afraid to miss the moment when the earth would rise up under her feet, when her earthly torment would end.
Didn't end. Either the heavens, justifying themselves for the terrible punishment chosen for her son, pulled back the grenade tripwires, or the angels flew from him, from Zhenya, and spread their wings under the cracked, blood-covered legs, not allowing them to press harder than usual on the mine fuses. But she walked and walked to where her son could be, walked away from the leader with a green ribbon covered in Arabic script. And when she was already out of sight, disappearing among the grass, one of the militants raised sniper rifle, caught the hunched back in sight: she passed - she will lead others. If it doesn’t take off, it will fall...
But something trembled in the bearded man, he roughly knocked his weapon aside and walked away, into the gorge, into the holes, into the darkness. He guessed wrong. And the one who doesn't guess loses...
...And two days later, a gray-haired old woman came out to the combat guard of the infantry regiment with a cross on a silk thread clutched in her hand. And it was impossible to understand at first glance whether she was Russian or Chechen?
- Wait, who's coming? - asked the sentry, observing the regulations.
- Mother.
- There is war here, mother. Leave.
- I have nowhere to go. My son is here.
She raised her hands - without nails, twisted from frozen pain and torn tendons. She pointed them towards a distant mountain slope - there he was. In a stone hole, which she dug with her own hands, with her nails left there, among the stone chips. How long before that she lay without memory, when she found her native red head in the wolf hole, because of which Zhenya affectionately teased her “Golden-golden” - she doesn’t know. She also doesn’t know how long she lay next to the found headless body of her boy. But when she woke up, looking into someone else’s lifeless sky, looking at the militants standing around her in confusion, she grinned at them and suddenly rejoiced at something terrible: she didn’t let her son lie scattered around different corners gorges...
...And after listening to her quiet groan, also gray-haired, twitched by conflicting orders, accused of all mortal sins by politicians and human rights activists, the lieutenant colonel, who had never slept during the war, gave the command to line up a regiment under the scorching sun. All, to the last soldier. With the Battle Banner.
And as soon as the platoon and company boxes froze, forming a square clad in body armor and helmets, he led the unexpected guest into the middle of the mountain plateau. And in a drawn-out, hoarse voice, torn in battles, he shouted over the mountains, over the gorge with the remnants of gangs, over the minefields that covered the slopes - he shouted as if he wanted all the politicians and generals, elders and soldiers’ mothers, all of Chechnya and all of Russia to hear :
- Po-o-olk! On my knees!
And the first, bowing his gray head, knelt down in front of a small, barefoot woman with bleeding feet.
And after the commander, his battle-worn regiment, reduced to a battalion, fell onto the dusty granite crumbs.
The rank and file fell, still understanding little of what had happened.
Sergeants who unquestioningly trust their “father”.
The three surviving warrant officers - Petrov and two Ivanovs - knelt down.
There were no lieutenants - the lieutenants were knocked out in the attacks, they rushed forward like boys - and after the warrant officers the majors and captains bowed down, although they were taught from their cadet uniforms that a Soviet, Russian officer only has the right to kneel in three cases: to drink water from spring, kiss the woman and say goodbye to the Battle Banner.
Now the Banner, on the orders of the young gray-haired commander, itself bowed before the puny, bare-haired woman. And suddenly she found herself, willingly or unwillingly, by fate or chance, but higher than the red silk entwined ribbons even for that last Great Patriotic War.
Above the lieutenant colonel and majors, captains and three warrant officers - Petrov and Ivanov.
Above sergeants.
Above the rank and file, as was her Zhenya, who had not accomplished heroic deeds, had spent only one day in the war and half the next day in captivity.
She suddenly found herself higher than the mountains, alarmingly frozen behind her and to the left.
Higher than the trees left below in the gorge.
And only blue sky looked incessantly into her once cornflower blue eyes, as if trying to get enough strength and perseverance from their bottomless depths. Only the wind touched her sunken, weather-beaten cheeks, ready to dry her tears if they suddenly spilled. Only the sun tried to warm her small, fragile shoulders, covered with a faded blouse from someone else's shoulder.
And the regiment continued to kneel, as if begging for all of Russia, for the politicians who failed to stop the war, the torment and suffering of just one soldier’s mother. He stood for her Zhenya, an ordinary golden warrior. For the Orthodox cross, secretly put on and not publicly removed by the great Russian soldier in this terrible and merciless massacre...
“Die for the 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 the crown of martyrdom. On Holy Mount Athos, in Greece, in Serbia and other countries, the new martyr is revered today, calling him the warrior Eugene the Russian.
In 1996, the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord fell on May 23. On this day Evgeniy turned 19 years old. After 100 days of captivity, having failed to break the young Russian soldier through torture, the bandits last time offered the young man a choice - to remove his pectoral cross, convert to Islam and save his life, or accept a painful death. The leader of the Khaikhoroev gang, in the presence of OSCE representatives, told Lyubov Vasilyevna Rodionova: “It’s my own fault. If he had taken off the cross, he would have lived. “Whoever doesn’t want to become our brother, we break them or kill them.” The bandits told the Russian soldier’s mother: “It’s your own fault - you raised him poorly. You had him as a greyhound. If he took off the cross, he would be our brother, we would marry him, buy a house.” The executioners were unable to break the four young Russian soldiers captured by the terrorists Evgeniy Rodionov, Andrei Zheleznov, Yuri Trusov, and Igor Yakovlev. The guys were captured treacherously: an “ambulance pill” was constantly passing through the 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 struggle and blood on the road. But even in captivity, the four Russian guys remained real warriors. The executioners were unable to break their spirit, no one wanted to become a “brother” to the fanatical bandits, no one betrayed their homeland. But the terrorists were especially angry at Zhenya Rodionov’s pectoral cross (the other 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. Likewise, Christians in the Roman Empire were offered a choice between the cross and a painful death. The same choice was offered to the new martyrs during the years of persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church. Zhenya refused to remove 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 have torn it off the chest of a captured soldier?
In those years, the Salafis fought with us in Chechnya, and today they have built their own terrorist state on the lands of Iraq and Syria. Today the whole world watches in horror as fanatics cut off the heads of hostages and exterminate everyone who does not accept their ideology. I wonder, after the terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium, will Europeans remember how they sympathized with the “freedom fighters” when they killed Russians in the Caucasus and Serbs in devastated Yugoslavia with the same cruelty?
In the Russian North Caucasus in the 90s, the Salafis hoped to create a springboard for their worldwide pseudo-Islamic caliphate. In the Caucasus, mercenaries from 50 countries fought against us, money for waging “jihad” against the Russians came in a continuous stream from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the intelligence services of Turkey and the United States stood behind the Islamic terrorists. Islamist propaganda suggested that Russia was on its last legs, that Russians were those who had lost faith in God, a people who were slowly becoming an alcoholic under the rule of oligarchs-traders. In “democratic” Russia, everything is for sale, in the Kremlin they obediently carry out the orders of the “Washington Regional Committee”, money for the war against the “infidels” arrives regularly. And, consequently, the “invincible warriors of Islam” will soon defeat the cowardly “kafirs.” First, the North Caucasus will be torn away from Russia, and then they will 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 dozens of times and betrayed by the “democratic authorities,” fought the hardest bloody battles with gangs of terrorists, while its own media were methodically hitting it in the back, skillfully using all the techniques of information warfare. We remember how liberal journalists mocked the failures of the “federals” with a grin, and how they gloatingly reported our losses. We remember how the so-called “human rights activists” admired the “proud Chechen freedom fighters” and “Robin Hood” Basayev, who hid from special forces bullets behind the backs of women in labor in Budenovsk. IN New Year's Eve in Grozny, the Maikop brigade was dying, the paratroopers fought heroically to hold the station, and at that time the new masters of life were laughing, dancing and drinking champagne on all TV channels. In the fierce March battles in Grozny, SOBR soldiers died, and the whole country celebrated March 8th, champagne flowed like a river on TV screens again and the new “elite” and its faithful servants of politicians and show business stars had fun with all their might. This has never happened in Russia. The triumph of Ham and Judas. They reveled in their own impunity and power over the captured country. In Chechnya, an “international international of terrorists” fought with us with the support of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the intelligence services of our “overseas partners” with the assistance of the OSCE and other organizations ensuring that the Russians “proportionately use force” in the war against terrorists. And most importantly, with the help of the “fifth column”, which behaved like a master in the highest offices of the Kremlin. The enemy was strong and cruel, but more terrible than the enemy were Judas’s own traitors.
Time of Troubles always gives rise to Judas-traitors. But Russia won all the troubles thanks to the heroes who, in this tragic time, were ready to “lay down their souls 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 those who remained faithful to the oath and suffered martyrdom at the hands of fanatical executioners. Many of them are still listed as missing. About examples of the highest military valor, the heroism of our soldiers who fought against international terrorism in the Caucasus in those years is known today only to their military friends and close relatives.
But it was precisely the feat of the Russian soldiers and officers who stood up to die 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 Judaic thieves and their overseas masters to finally finish off the bloodless and plundered country with the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Russian soldier defeated fanatical executioners
At first Chechen war Dudayev, Basayev and Khattab were confident of their victory. They said that in Russia everything is bought and sold, and therefore Russians are leaving the historical stage, that Russia is a wounded, dying old bear, and they are young predatory wolves. They argued that the warriors of Allah would certainly defeat the former great nation, mired in vices and having lost faith, ruled by merchants. They looked with a contemptuous grin at Russian TV, where, at the behest of their owners, corrupt journalists described their “exploits”, mocked their own army, saw in the Kremlin the all-powerful Berezovsky and Gusinsky and the drunken “guarantor” of the Constitution. In order 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 told Lyubov Vasilievna: “We either break or kill those who do not want to become our brothers.”
In the battles in Grozny and Gudermes, in Samashki and Komsomolskoye, in the mountains and gorges, the terrorists suffered heavy losses. They saw how Russian soldiers, yesterday's schoolchildren, very quickly learn to fight, how steadfastly and bravely they fight. And these boys, under the command of Russian officers, successfully beat well-trained seasoned 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 have been completely defeated and finished off. Treacherous orders stopped the army, allowed the terrorists to lick their wounds, receive reinforcements, new weapons, and regroup. But the army, repeatedly sold and betrayed by the “democratic” government, continued to fight. Methodically and diligently, in accordance with all the rules and laws of information and psychological warfare, the Russian “democratic” media continued to hit our soldiers and officers in the back “with all guns.” But the army crushed and pushed back the terrorist gangs. The bandits felt that they were faced with an incomprehensible Russian force that was ruining all their plans to create a caliphate in the Caucasus. Can “kafirs” who do not believe in God fight like that? And in Zhenya Rodionov’s cross they felt the source of that mysterious force that forced Russian soldiers and officers to 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 on May 23, 1996 coincided with the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, Zhenya Rodionov was awarded the crown of martyrdom. Like most martyred warriors of the first centuries, the young Russian border guard was executed by beheading. Inhuman fanatics cut off Zhenya’s head, but the cross was never removed from him. The executioners, unable to break them, executed the soldiers Andrei, Alexander, and Igor. And in captivity, Russian soldiers managed to win their victory over the bandits, “trampling down death with death.”
Where does the Motherland begin?
The cross was placed on Zhenya at the age of 11 by her grandmother before leading her grandson to Communion. Lyubov Vasilievna was afraid that her peers would laugh at her son at school and during training in the sambo section. But Zhenya never took off the cross.
Undoubtedly, for Zhenya, this small cross embodied everything that was most dear to her - love for dear mother, loyalty to your friends and comrades, a monument over the mass grave of paratroopers of the Great Patriotic War, to which she and Lyubov Vasilyevna always brought flowers, the border guard’s oath of allegiance to the Motherland. Remember the song we all grew up with:
Where does the Motherland begin?
From the picture in your ABC book,
From good and faithful comrades,
Living in the neighboring yard.
Or maybe it's starting
From the song that our mother sang to us,
Since in any test
No one can take it away from us.
Indeed, it all begins “with the song that our mother sang to us.” In this small cross for Zhenya, everything that Lyubov Vasilievna put into his heart was concentrated, everything “that no one can take away from us in any trials.”
For the Russian warrior, over the 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 betraying Christ. Most likely, Zhenya did not think about this, but acted as many generations of his ancestors had done for centuries. For more than a thousand years, for Russian people, the Motherland began with the first childhood prayer to Christ the Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos.
The authentic image and emblem of people's Russia
In the St. John the Baptist skete of Optina Pustyn there is the grave of the monk Nicholas the Turk. During the war for the liberation of the Slavs, the Turkish general was amazed at how the captured Russian soldiers steadfastly endured all torture and accepted death, but did not renounce Christ. The General found the Gospel on French, read and confessed to be a Christian. The general was hacked to pieces, his bones were broken and he was left to die. 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. The 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, they were threatened with painful death. The Russian soldier did not renounce Christ and was executed on Margelan Square, in front of a large crowd of people. Russian troops defeated the enemy and hanged the rebellious Pulad Khan, who was particularly cruel to prisoners. In Margelan local residents told the Russians about the feat of Foma Danilov, emphasizing that “the Russian died like a real hero.”
F.M. Dostoevsky writes:
“Last year, in the spring, the news that appeared in the Russian Invalid was reprinted in all newspapers about the martyrdom of the non-commissioned officer of the 2nd Turkestan Rifle Battalion Foma Danilov, captured by the Kipchaks and barbarously killed by them after numerous and most refined tortures, November 21, 1875, in Margelan, because he did not want to go into their service and into Mohammedanism. The khan himself promised him pardon, reward and honor if he agreed to renounce Christ. Danilov replied 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 torturers, having tortured him to death, were surprised at the strength of his spirit and called him batyr, that is, in Russian, hero.” Dostoevsky was outraged by the reaction to this message from a significant part of the representatives of educated society, captured by the ideas of liberalism. Liberals argued that “there are also immeasurably higher ideas - the idea of universal humanity, for example...” How this reminds us of today’s Russian liberals with their chatter about “universal human values,” “democracy,” and “human rights.”
But Fyodor Mikhailovich had no doubt that the reaction of the ordinary Russian people would be different.
“People, of course, have 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 things.”
“I’m not talking about the people: there is no need for surprise there, there will be no surprise in them; Thomas’s act cannot seem extraordinary to him, simply because of the great faith of the people in themselves and in their souls. 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 manifestation of a great spirit, among the British, among the French, among the Germans, and they would probably shout about it to the whole world.”
Foma Danilov for Dostoevsky was the personification of Orthodox Russia.
“But this, so to speak, is the emblem of Russia, all of Russia, all of our people’s Russia, its true image, this very Russia in which our cynics and wise men now deny the great spirit and any possibility of rise and manifestation great thought and great feeling."
These words of the great Russian writer-prophet can also be applied to Zhenya Rodionov. In the most difficult 90s, when “our wise cynics” argued that the people had degenerated, drunk themselves and were no longer capable of “great deeds” or “great feelings,” the feat of the warrior Eugene was revealed to Russia. During 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 and never could break. And our people responded to this feat with “great feeling and great tenderness,” as predicted by Fyodor Mikhailovich, 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 been honoring the memory of Zhenya Rodionov, without doubting that the nineteen-year-old Russian soldier accomplished the same feat as the martyred soldiers who suffered for Christ in the first centuries of the history of the Church. Icons of the warrior Eugene stream myrrh, there are known cases of miraculous help, when a young warrior in camouflage and the red cloak of a martyr appeared to soldiers who escaped from Chechen captivity, wounded in hospitals, providing miraculous help. One day, a warrior in camouflage and a “red cloak-tent” appeared to a homeless tramp girl and led her by the hand to the shelter, after which he disappeared. The warrior-martyr Eugene the Russian is revered in Greece and Serbia, and his icons are painted on Holy Mount Athos. Even in the USA, on May 23 and on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist, a rite of special commemoration of the warrior Eugene was established for Orthodox military chaplains. People from all over Russia come to the graveyard at the Church of the Ascension in the village of Satino-Russkoe, where Zhenya is buried. On May 23, pilgrims from Moscow, Kaliningrad, Kyiv and Donetsk gather here, and Siberians come.
This year, on May 23, at the Cross over the grave of the warrior Eugene at 7 a.m. Divine Liturgy. Then, replacing each other, the priests served requiem services at the grave of the new martyr. Some priests were finishing the prayer, the newly arrived priests were already dressed to serve a memorial service for the soldiers Eugene, Alexander, Andrei, Igor. The prayer did not stop throughout the day. The honor guard of the Presidential Preobrazhensky Regiment stood at the Cross of Warrior Eugene. The guard of honor and the Preobrazhentsy Banner Group were replaced by the guard of honor and the banner of the Airborne Forces. Then, at the Russian Soldier's Cross, cadets stood on guard of honor; they were replaced by border guard soldiers. Until the evening, people arrived in Satino-Russkoye. Whole parishes came, traveling on buses and cars, Cossacks, cadets, nuns, border guards, grandmothers and Sunday school students, young schoolchildren and gray-haired Afghan soldiers. 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 genuine popular veneration of the warrior-martyr.
Officials in robes
But some church officials still have doubts about whether Evgeniy Rodionov is worthy of glorification as a saint. The logic of officials is often incomprehensible to an ordinary person. They claim 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 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 officials need? Help from Khaikhoroev? So Khaikhoroev, like Basayev, Raduev, Khattab, Abu-Walid and hundreds of other “el-murids” and other terrorist leaders who dreamed of building their own pseudo-Islamic caliphate on our land, were destroyed long ago.
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 even death is red,” and in captivity you are “missing in action” for everyone. And no one will ever know where and how you died, whether you removed the cross or not. Who did the young Russian boy face on his birthday, May 23, 1996, making his choice - to take off 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 prince-martyrs Mikhail of Chernigov and Vasilko of Rostov were glorified by Princess Maria of Rostov, the daughter of Mikhail and the wife of Vasilko. If we follow the logic of church officials, the testimony of Maria Mikhailovna would clearly not be enough for the martyred princes to be revered as saints in Rus'.
But let us remember that it is not the canonization commission that glorifies the holy saints of God. The Lord glorifies the saints, and the commission’s task is only to collect evidence of holiness. And one of the most important evidence is popular veneration.
In border detachments, and in others military units Having learned from conversations about Zhenya’s feat, that he did not remove the cross, many 18-year-old boys ask to be baptized. Many officers and priests caring for 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, stern and reverent. Faces become thoughtful. The guys apply his feat to their own lives. Is this not evidence that the feat of Evgeniy 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 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 atheists in the 17th and 18th years, in the 20s and 30s of the twentieth 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 twentieth century in Russia, Satanists also killed dozens of priests, monks and ordinary laymen. Let us 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-believers, 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. The fanatics from ISIS exterminate entire villages not only of Christians, Druze, Alawites, but also of Muslims who do not accept their teachings. In the 90s, Wahhabis in Chechnya tortured and killed Fr. Anatoly Chistousov, Abbot Pyotr Sukhonosov. In Terminauze, at the altar of the temple, Fr. was killed by a Wahhabi. Igor Rozin. Aren’t the bandits who kill Christians at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries the same “spirits of evil in high heaven” as behind the fanatical God-fighters who ritually killed the Holy Royal Family, with hatred exterminated bishops, priests, monks and thousands of ordinary lay people? during the years of persecution?
Indifference to the exploits of the Optina new martyrs and the warrior Eugene is a dangerous symptom of a person’s spiritual state. The Holy Fathers wrote that those who do not honor the martyrs for Christ who were close in time, thereby interrupt the living connection with the ancient saints, with the Heavenly Church.
Soldier's 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 jail near Bamut, the police came to the Rodionovs’ house to look for a “deserter.” A telegram arrived at the military registration and enlistment office marked “SOCH” - “left the unit without permission.” For nine months, Lyubov Vasilievna walked through the mountains of Chechnya trying to find her son, until the executioner Khaikhoroev himself informed her about Zhenya’s execution. Then, having mortgaged the apartment, she went to negotiations with 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 haggled for a long time, putting forward new demands each time. They demanded that the surrounding roads be cleared of mines, or that their accomplices be released from prison. Then, having sold Zhenya’s body, they asked for additional money to give the mother the head of her murdered son.
Since then, Lyubov Vasilievna has been to Chechnya more than 70 times. She transported tens of tons of cargo, items and products she personally collected, to mountain outposts, to border guards, to paratroopers, and to motorized riflemen. The guys there greeted her with shouts: “Mom! Mom has arrived!". And how many wounded she rescued from difficult situations, some found money for complex operations abroad, expensive German prostheses. She is a real "soldier's mother." Lyubov Vasilyevna says: “They are all my children now.” And this is not said for the sake of words. This will be confirmed by everyone who knows Lyubov Vasilievna. She lives a very difficult life. But her whole life is selfless service to the guys who, like Zhenya, defend their Motherland.
Having known Lyubov Vasilievna for many years, I testify: she never sought to glorify Zhenya as a saint. Lyubov Vasilievna always emphasized that there were many guys like Zhenya, but we will never know the names of all the unknown heroes. For her, her son was simply an honest, kind, good boy who fulfilled his duty to his Motherland. Today Lyubov Vasilyevna is trying to ensure that the graves of all soldiers who died not only in Chechnya, but also in Afghanistan and other “hot spots” are given the status of military graves. After all, if close relatives die, then the grave of a warrior who gave his life while performing his military duty becomes “ownerless” and may disappear...
It is common to endure a cold and callous attitude from military and civilian officials, but it is especially painful when insulting words of mistrust for a soldier’s mother come from the lips of officials in robes. 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 Eugene was very accurately expressed by Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov: “I have no doubt that Zhenya Rodionov is a saint. And when he is officially glorified, in 5 or 10 or 50 years, it’s not so important.” And, indeed, the people honor the feat of the warrior Eugene, for us he is a saint, but 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 his feat is revered by both real Muslims and people who have not yet found their way to God. The feat of a warrior who gave his life for his homeland is understandable to every person who has retained the idea of honor, duty, and loyalty. All the years of liberal dominance of our youth were taught that there is nothing sacred in life, such sacred concepts as heroism, selfless service and love for one’s Fatherland were ridiculed, and the goal of life was declared to be enrichment at any cost, comfort and unbridled consumption material goods. And during this difficult period of Russian history, we were shown the feat of the warrior Evgeniy Rodionov, the 6th company of Pskov paratroopers, and many other heroes. Our “sworn friends” hoped that the “democratic” media managed to raise a generation from our youth that “chooses Pepsi.” They miscalculated. Not only Lyubov Vasilyevna Rodionova, but many Russian mothers were able to teach their sons “where the Motherland begins”, to pass on 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 difficult and bloody wars in the Caucasus, destroying the plans international terrorism and our “sworn friends” in the dismemberment of Russia.
Zhenya Rodionov embodied the image of those boys who saved Russia in the most terrible years. Because, truly, there have been harder times, but there has never been a meaner time than the 90s. Royal alcohol, which was used to intoxicate men who had fallen into despondency and despair and who suddenly found themselves without work in a terrible dope, hundreds of factories and institutes were closed, the country was turned into one big flea market, old people at garbage cans, homeless people and street children. And above all this, from the TV screens, inhuman faces, but real demonic faces, voluptuously and subtly mock at everything that is sacred for the Russian person. The “Chubais” and their television staff of “political scientists”, “experts” and “historians” prove to the people day and night that all Russian history is a “dead-end branch” of the development of human civilization, the loser 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”. They mocked the heroes of the Great Patriotic War with particular fury - if it weren’t for these “scoops,” they would have been “drinking Bavarian beer” long ago. Young people were taught that the meaning of life was “to become such a millionaire.” What “highest values”! Everything that has been dear and sacred to Russian people for centuries is ridiculed by various Shenderovichs in countless humorous programs. What “love for the Motherland”, “sacred duty to defend the Fatherland” - all this is “totalitarian propaganda” - as Svanidze and the Posners tirelessly explain. The main value in life is green pieces of paper with a portrait American President. Whoever collects them the most is the master of life. And on television screens there are continuous feasts of the masters of life. At buffets, next to their hosts, the bankers, their faithful servants of “democratic” politicians, “pop stars” and “powers of thought” - journalists from MK, NTV and other “democratic” media - smile obsequiously. And this entire public unanimously, with all their hearts, hates the army and the special services, which is quite understandable. They experience an instinctive feeling of fear, they fear retribution for what they are doing to the country and the robbed people. Moreover, the Army is the embodiment of everything that is especially hateful to this public. The desire for profit at any cost is contrary to such concepts as honor, duty, service to the Fatherland. Therefore, the Army and Navy, special services and law enforcement agencies under the “new government” were destroyed methodically and purposefully. The masters of life and their overseas patrons were confident that the younger generation “chose Pepsi”, and the officers who remained in the Armed Forces, defeated by the “democratic authorities”, 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. They were going to continue to calmly and leisurely cut Russia into pieces - it would be more convenient to swallow it piece by piece.
But when, through the efforts of our “sworn friends” in the Caucasus, a bloody war was unleashed, which was supposed to end with the collapse of Russia, it was boys like Zhenya Rodionov who stood up to the death and defended our Motherland. Lyubov Vasilyevna, 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 killed and wounded there, and that he 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? But captivity depends on your luck.” 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 homeland.
Thanks to their dedication and military valor, the country gradually began to revive after the terrible degradation and disaster of the 90s. Thanks to the feat of those who fought in those difficult years, today we see a new Russian Army and Navy, which revive their combat power. Thanks to the feat of our soldiers and officers, the people stopped perceiving the characters of “liberal agitprop”, the regulars of all these “rains”, “echoes” and other Russophobes, broadcasting according to the instructions of the “Washington Regional Committee”, and the “Immortal Regiment” took to the streets of our cities. We will never know the names of all the soldiers who repeated Zhenya’s feat. But the Lord knows the names of all the heroes who gave their lives for the Fatherland, who laid down their souls for their friends. Therefore, when Orthodox people talk about the possibility of canonizing Zhenya Rodionov, they propose to glorify “the warrior Eugene and those like him who suffered.” All of them fulfilled the sacred covenant 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 the blessings that your ancestors bought for you with their blood.
Avoiding death for the honor of faith and for the freedom of the fatherland, you will die a criminal or a slave;
die for the faith and the fatherland, and you will receive life and a crown in heaven.”
St. Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow
The Kingdom of Heaven and eternal memory to all the soldiers who gave their lives defending the Fatherland!
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