With the Participation of the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a Meeting on the Construction of a Memorial Church in Lisya Balka Was Held in Shymkent

August 15, 2025. Shymkent. At the invitation of the Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Aida Galymovna Balaeva, visited the site of the construction of the memorial church in honor of the New Martyrs of Chimkent in Lisya Balka.

At the construction site, a meeting was held with the participation of the Minister. Among those present were: Bishop Chrysanf of Chimkent and Turkestan, Akim of Shymkent G. Syzdykbekov, Secretary of the Chimkent Diocese A.B. Demin, Head of the City Department of Religious Affairs B.A. Onerbaev, Deputy Head of the Land Management Department of Shymkent B. Omarkhanov, representatives of the city and regional branches of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan; diocesan staff and benefactors – members of the Board of Trustees.

During the meeting, the stages of implementing this spiritually and culturally significant project – the construction of the memorial chapel – were discussed. Completion is scheduled to coincide with the visit of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church to Kazakhstan in September of this year. It is expected that Patriarch Kirill will consecrate the newly built memorial church and celebrate the first service in it in memory of the New Martyrs and as a commemoration of the victims of political repressions.

The initiative to build the memorial church in Lisya Balka belongs to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’. The place, sadly known throughout the world, became the site of execution and final resting place of thousands of Orthodox Christians. Among them were prominent spiritual figures of the last century – Metropolitan Cyril of Kazan (Smirnov), Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh), Archbishop Alexy (Orlov), Bishop Eugene (Kobranov), many other well-known hierarchs and pastors, and countless ordinary believers. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, well acquainted with the history of persecutions against Orthodoxy, during his official meeting with the Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Maulen Sagathanovich Ashimbayev, held on November 22, 2024, proposed the construction of a memorial church in Lisya Balka, which is located within the modern city of Shymkent.

The creation of this memorial chapel will serve to perpetuate the memory of Orthodox hierarchs, clergy, and laity who suffered for the faith on the territory of modern Southern Kazakhstan in the 20th century. The project for the construction of the memorial chapel, which received the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, was reviewed by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K.-Zh.K. Tokayev. Kassym-Jomart Kemelovich, after studying the issue, approved the creation in Lisya Balka of two religious memorials – an Orthodox chapel and a Muslim mosque – since in this place found their final rest innocent victims belonging to the two leading traditional Kazakhstani confessions: Islam and Orthodoxy.

The construction of a memorial church at the site of the martyrdom and burial of countless people is eagerly awaited by many of their relatives. Petitions for the creation of a memorial chapel in the tragically world-renowned Lisya Balka have come not only from Kazakhstan but also from descendants of the victims living in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, the USA, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, and other countries.