Alexander Petrovich (Pavlovich) Aksyonov

Born in 1886 in the village of Rychkovo, Voznesenskaya Volost, Nikolsky Uyezd, Vologda Province (now Vokhomsky District, Kostroma Region). He graduated from the Vologda Theological Seminary. In 1917, he was ordained a priest for the Nikolsky Church in the village of Chernovsko-Nikolaevskoye, Nikolsky Uyezd, Vologda Province (now Shabalinsky District, Kirov Region). He resided in the village of Zhavoronkovo of the same uyezd.

In 1929, he was arrested in the village of Chernovsko-Nikolaevskoye on charges of "anti-Soviet agitation" and sentenced to three years of exile in the Narym region. He worked on firewood procurement for the steamboat pier on the Ob River, 12 versts from the village of Tym. The family received letters from Father Alexander from exile.

After the exile, he served as a priest in the Kirov region.

On May 7, 1936, he was arrested again on charges of "anti-collective farm agitation in his apartment about forced labor in the collective farm, advising individual farmers not to join the collective farm, and storing sermons of counter-revolutionary content." He was imprisoned in the city of Pavlodar, East Kazakhstan region.

On August 4 of the same year, he was sentenced to ten years of labor camps and five years of disenfranchisement. On March 5, 1937, he arrived at the First Volkovskoye Division of the NKVD Karlag. In the camp, he was engaged in convoyed labor.

On September 5, 1937, he was arrested in the camp and accused of "conducting systematic hostile counter-revolutionary agitation among prisoners, aimed at discrediting the policies of the Communist Party and Soviet government," together with Kostogryz. He was involved in the group case "Case of Priests Father Alexander Aksyonov and Father Stefan Kostogryz, Karlag, 1937."

From the case materials:

"Aksyonov said that 'although the Constitution states that freedom of religion is for everyone, this is fiction. There is persecution of religion and believers, you can't say anything, and if you do, you are immediately put in prison.' He also said that 'Japan will defeat the Chinese and then take on the Soviet government; it will be bad for the communists because they mock the people and believers.'" He did not plead guilty.

On September 20, 1937, he was sentenced to the highest measure of punishment by the NKVD Troika for the Karaganda region. He was executed on September 26, 1937, in Karlag.

On January 31, 1990, he was rehabilitated by the prosecutor of the city of Karaganda for the 1937 repressions.

He was canonized by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000.