Feodor Pavlovich Chichkanov

Feodor Pavlovich Chichkanov was born on February 10, 1884, in a small village in the Barnaul district to the family of a scribe and psalmist, Pavel Vasilyevich and Nadezhda Efimovna Chichkanov. The family had two other children: a son, Dimitri, and a daughter, Ksenia. With a good singing voice, Feodor sang in the choir and enjoyed reading in his free time.

After finishing the Barnaul Theological School, he entered the Tomsk Theological Seminary, graduating in 1905.

Upon graduation, he worked at the Omsk Theological Consistory until July 1909. It was there that he met his future wife, Lyuba Smirnova, the daughter of priest Vasily Yakovlevich and Maria Nikolaevna Smirnov. They married in 1909. Orphaned early, Lyuba was raised by her grandmother, Glafira Georgievna. At 19, she graduated from the Omsk Women's Gymnasium, earning the title of home teacher in geography.

In 1912, their daughter Nina was born. Six months later, Feodor contracted tuberculosis and spent a year in Crimea for treatment. It was in Crimea that Feodor confirmed his desire to become a priest.

Upon returning home, he was ordained as a priest on July 22, 1913, by Bishop Andronik (Nikolsky) of Omsk and Akmola and assigned to the Dolonskaya Church in the Semipalatinsk district of the Omsk diocese.

In Dolon, their son Boris was born.

In 1915, Father Feodor was transferred to one of the churches in Semipalatinsk.

In 1920, their daughter Olga was born, and in 1921, daughter Antonina followed. That same year, scarlet fever claimed the lives of ten-year-old Nina, one-year-old Olga, and the elderly grandmother Glafira. Feodor’s father passed away soon after, and his mother, Nadezhda Efimovna, moved in with the Chichkanovs.

Antonina recalls: "From my childhood memories, our family rented a two-room apartment or a small house. In one room, there was a large bookshelf full of books. Father prepared his sermons from those books. My parents read a lot and discussed what they read together. Our home was filled with goodwill and mutual understanding. Father taught us a pious life, meaning prayer and fasting. A small prayer book marked with morning and evening prayers in father's handwriting has survived. We went to church as a family. Usually, my brother assisted during the archbishop's service by holding the bishop's staff, while I held music sheets for the soprano section and sang from the age of 5 or 6. Twice a week, Father Simeon, a Kazakh by nationality, conducted choir rehearsals, which we attended regularly."

In his free time from church services, Father Feodor engaged in household chores: in the winter, he made felt boots for the entire family, and in the summer, he sewed slippers for them. His wife took care of all the sewing for the family, even making cassocks and undercassocks.

On November 27, 1931, the Znamensky Cathedral was closed, and the "association of believers was given the building of the former Cossack church." Father Feodor became the priest of the Resurrection Cathedral.

At that time, the church was subjected to heavy taxation, and Father Feodor had to give up a significant portion of his salary each month. The state introduced ration cards, but "servants of the cult" were not entitled to them and had to survive on alms. To pay the taxes and support his family, Father Feodor took on additional work as a bookkeeper.

Father Feodor was summoned to the NKVD. He returned from these summonses grim and asked his family not to ask him anything: "I won't tell you anything anyway," he would say.

In 1937, a wave of arrests swept through Semipalatinsk due to a conspiracy fabricated by NKVD officers against the clergy. Everyone expected arrests. Mother Lyuba prepared small bags of dry bread and a change of underwear for Father Feodor.

On November 19, 1937, Father Feodor was arrested, accused of being a member of a "counter-revolutionary spy organization of churchmen." He was part of the group case "Archpriest Boris Gerasimov. Semipalatinsk, 1937."

During interrogation, he gave the following testimony:

"I was not part of any counter-revolutionary organization. I studied with Gerasimov in the same Theological Seminary. I have known him since 1915 as a colleague, but I do not know him as a member of a counter-revolutionary organization. I did not conduct agitation among the population, but I did read a prayer with Gerasimov and Panin in the church, though I do not consider this prayer counter-revolutionary."

On November 19, 1937, the NKVD troika of the East Kazakhstan Region sentenced him to death.

He was executed on November 22, 1937, in Semipalatinsk.

On April 25, 1989, he was rehabilitated by the prosecutor's office of the Semipalatinsk region (regarding the 1937 repressions).

On December 27, 2000, he was canonized by the Holy Synod and included in the assembly of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia for general veneration.