On July 25, 2024, a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was held at the Patriarchal and Synodal Residence in the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, chaired by His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.

 

The Holy Synod, in connection with the request of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, decided to open the Iversky-Petropavlovsky Convent in the village of Oktyabrskoye, Kostanay Region, in the Kostanay Diocese and appoint nun Nika (Otroshchenko) to the post of abbess of the newly established monastery.

 

The candidacy of nun Nika (Otroshchenko) for the post of abbess was presented by the Synod of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan.

 

The opening of the Iversky-Petropavlovsky Convent essentially became the revival of the ancient Iversky Monastery.

 

The Central State Archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan contain petitions from 1883-1885 "On permission for the settlers of the city of Kustanai, young women Anna Zhutova and Fevronia Silantieva, with others, to establish a prayer house." In 1883, the sisters asked to open a prayer house, and in 1884, a monastery. However, the highest officials, represented by the military governor, Major General Protsenko, refused them this request with the remark that "... to fulfill their desire, they can join already existing prayer institutions within Russia." Another reason for the refusal to establish a monastery in Kustanai was that it would require allocating land for buildings, vegetable gardens, etc., and the plot of land allocated for Kustanai was very small compared to the large number of residents in it.

But the sisters were quite determined to organize their good deed.

In the summer of 1887, the settlement of Kustanai was visited for the first time by His Grace Bishop Makarii (Troitsky) of Orenburg. The girls tearfully asked the bishop for a blessing for their monastic feat. But since the sisters lived in the homes of their relatives, the archpastor said that he would bless this community if they lived together. The words of Bishop Makarii prompted the sisters to action - 25 women, initially having no material resources, began to work hard. Two girls - Elena Borodina and Ksenia Sadchikova - sowed grain for several years, and gave the proceeds to provide for the community. By that time, the number of sisters was increasing, which also contributed to the successful outcome of the community's fundraising.

At the end of 1889, Hieromonk Seraphim arrived in the city from Mount Athos. He brought a copy of the miraculous Iveron Icon of the Mother of God to Kustanai. The sisters accompanied the relic to homes where prayers were held before the image of the Mother of God, and replaced Hieromonk Seraphim as psalm-readers. He, in turn, encouraged the sisters to undertake monastic labors and advised them to purchase a house for the community. Hieromonk Seraphim personally found a five-walled house in the Verkhne-Kustanai settlement, which was purchased on February 20, 1890 for 615 rubles, payable in installments. Six months later, Hieromonk Seraphim returned to Mount Athos and sent the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God as a blessing to the sisters.

At the end of July 1890, Bishop Makarii arrived in the city of Kustanai again and visited the sisters' dormitory, where they asked him to open a community. But the bishop again refused their request, citing the fact that, according to the law, opening a community required financial resources and a large plot of land for the construction of cells and outbuildings. The sisters began to tearfully beg the bishop, and he, deeply touched by their sincere impulses and seeing their firm determination, told them that they would have to be patient, and gave the dean and district chief the order to convince the city residents to allocate land to the community.

On October 7, 1897, report number 9986 was written to Bishop Vladimir of Orenburg and the Urals (Sokolovsky-Avtonomov) on behalf of the abbess of the Iverskaya women's community, nun Anna, with a request for permission to build a wooden church at the community. In 1899, changes were made to the original project. On September 29, 1901, this church was consecrated by the dean, Archpriest Pavel Podbelsky, in honor of the Iverskaya Icon of the Mother of God. Eight more clergy took part in the consecration. On October 3 and 4, 1901, monastic tonsure took place in the newly built church.

On September 1, 1898, a church literacy school was opened at the Iverskaya women's community, where 17 people studied. The catechist was priest Vasily Gilyarov, and the teacher was novice Marina Shalygina. On June 18, 1908, at the request of the abbess nun Anna, the priest of the village of Lavrentyevsky, Kustanai district, Petr Kasenkov, was transferred to the second priestly position in the Kustanai Iversky Convent. The monastery had two farmsteads: the official one (near the village of Zhdanovka) and the unofficial one (the modern address is the village of Oktyabrsky, Kostanai district), the land under which was leased from the local population. On the site of the official farmstead, near the village of Zhdanovka, a prayer house was built and consecrated on May 29, 1909, in the name of the Great Martyr Paraskeva. Cells for the sisters and utility rooms were also built here. In 2023, the exact location of the monastery farmstead was determined using a copy of the map of the Kustanai district from 1895. During the inspection of the site of the former monastery farmstead, the remains of brick walls, foundations of buildings, numerous pits, probably from cellars, etc. were found. A sickle, remains of dishes, etc. were also found (all the exhibits found were transferred to the diocesan museum of the city of Tobyl). In 1905, a church orphanage was opened on the site of the unofficial farmstead. Since 1903, the abbess, Abbess Anna, regularly submitted petitions to the higher authorities to transfer the lands of the unofficial farmstead to the permanent ownership of the monastery due to the fact that the land near the village of Zhdanovka turned out to be unfavorable for agricultural cultivation. Abbess Anna personally came to St. Petersburg to resolve this issue, where she met with Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. And in 1913, the state gave the lands in the area of ​​the modern village of Oktyabrsky in the Kostanay district to the permanent ownership of the monastery. Thus, the land near Zhdanovka was confiscated, and all the buildings were moved to a new location. In 1917, a church in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built on the territory of the courtyard (in the current settlement of Oktyabrsky).

In 1915, by the decision of the Holy Synod, the abbess of the Kustanai Iversky Convent, Abbess Anna, was dismissed from her position in accordance with her request due to illness, and the treasurer of the Chelyabinsk Odigitrievsky Convent, nun Raphaela, elected by the sisters of the convent, was appointed to the vacant position of abbess, with her elevation to the rank of abbess.

During the First World War, on July 22, 1915, an orphanage for girls - soldiers' orphans, in the amount of 15 people, was opened at the convent. On February 25, 1916, the Turgai Governor submitted a petition to the Chancellery of the Council of Ministers for the Romanov Committee to provide assistance to the Iversky Convent in the Turgai Region for the construction of an orphanage and the maintenance of 30 orphans - children of fallen soldiers.

On September 3, 1916, priest Veniamin Ioannovich Palmin was appointed cleric of the Kustanai Iversky Convent. He also became the head and teacher of the catechism of the monastery parish school.

Significant changes in the life of the monastery occurred after the revolution. In 1920, a commission was created from representatives of the UzemOtdel, Komkhoz, and the Management Department to register the monastery property, which was instructed to "immediately begin work on the registration of the monastery property." On November 30, 1925, the nationalization of the convent building took place, which was given to the Department of Public Education.

On January 15, 1930, the monastery was closed. From January 24, 1930, a technical school was located in the monastery buildings. Residential buildings were used for storage facilities, a pig farm, and a rabbitry. Before the revolution, several dozen nuns and about 140 novices worked in the Iversky Monastery. After the monastery was closed, many of them remained to live in the city in private apartments and houses. In 1929, the monastery's confessor, Archpriest Pyotr Kasenkov, was sentenced "to 3 years in a concentration camp for opposing the closure of a women's monastery." Nun Anna Danilova was sentenced along with him. In 1937, mass repressions began, which affected the nuns as well. In the case of the "Churchmen of the Cemetery Church" in August-November, 39 people from among the clergy, monks and parishioners were arrested, 32 of them were shot (including 24 nuns) and buried in an unknown common grave, 7 were sentenced to imprisonment in a labor camp for 10 years. Among those convicted and shot were also the monastery's confessor, Archpriest Peter Kasenkov, and Abbess Paraskeva Vodyasova, who was the abbess of the monastery at that time. By 1961, out of 180 nuns, only 25 remained alive. Many of them labored in Kustanai, others in the village of Stepanovka (Mendykarinsky district of the Kostanai region), later some ended their earthly journey in the village of Borovskoye, Mendykarinsky district, where they were spiritually cared for by Archpriest Nikolai Moiseyev. In 1932, the monastery church in Kostanay was destroyed, but some buildings survived: on Krasnoselskaya Street near the TV tower, you can still see the monastery buildings. One of them houses a school of technical creativity, another houses a children's psychoneurological boarding school, the rest are privately owned. In the village of Oktyabrsky (Kazakhstanets), by 1990, a building that previously belonged to a women's monastery survived, where the church in honor of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul is currently located. In 1992, this building was transferred to the Uralsk and Guryev diocese. In June 1992, 0.6 hectares of land were allocated for the needs of the temple. On June 2, 2023, by a court decision, the church building and land were transferred to the ownership of the Kostanay and Rudny diocese of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan. On July 12, 2023, a minor consecration of the church in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul took place. With the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, the revival of the monastery began. Pilgrims come to the village of Oktyabrsky to help restore the community. Cells have been built in which monastics, novices and sisters of mercy live.