Iosif Ivanovich Arkharov

Iosif Ivanovich Arkharov was born on April 1, 1874, in the village of Rogachyovo, Dmitrovsky Uyezd, Moscow Governorate, into the family of a leather factory owner.

Until 1930, he worked at the leather factory. In the same year, he was ordained as a priest.

In 1933, he was arrested and sentenced by the Vereya People's Court to 2 years of imprisonment under Article 74 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.

On January 1, 1936, he was arrested again; on January 2 of the same year, he was sentenced by the NKVD USSR Troika under Article 54 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 3 years in corrective labor camps.

On March 8, 1936, he was imprisoned in the Karaganda corrective labor camp. While in the camp, reports were made against Father Iosif, stating: "Prisoner Arkharov, a former priest... in the evening in the barracks, when Romanov asked for a book to read, he advised him to read the Gospel or the Psalter, saying that other books were useless. Prisoner Arkharov publicly claimed that supposedly all churches were being restored and services would resume soon. ...Prisoner Arkharov always tries to sing something divine."

On September 3, 1937, he was arrested again in Karlag. From the report: "...Prisoner Arkharov loves the Church very much... In the camp, he carefully kept his priestly cassock, sometimes in the money locker. When once asked for it for a scene to play the role of a priest, he replied: 'I will not allow mockery of religion.'"

"He was never satisfied with any aspect of the Soviet regime. Arkharov repeatedly stated in conversations that he recognized Soviet power as divine punishment sent to people, hence the need to endure it."

On September 14, 1937, the NKVD Troika of the Karaganda Region sentenced him under Articles 58-10 and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR for counter-revolutionary agitation and spreading provocative rumors:

"Prisoner Arkharov Iosif Ivanovich... while serving a sentence for counter-revolutionary activities in the NKVD Karlag at the Volkovskoye branch, systematically conducted counter-revolutionary agitation among prisoners, aimed at discrediting the policies of the party and the Soviet government, expressing dissatisfaction with the existing system, and spreading provocative rumors about an imminent war and the downfall of Soviet power. When interrogated as a defendant, prisoner Arkharov did not admit his guilt but was fully incriminated by witness testimonies" and was sentenced to execution by shooting.

He was executed on September 21, 1937, and buried in an unknown grave.

On April 3, 1990, he was rehabilitated by the prosecutor of the Karaganda Region for the 1937 repressions.

He was canonized among the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church for veneration throughout the Church at the August 2000 Hierarchical Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.