Alexander Vladimirovich Dagaev

Born in 1862 in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk to the family of Protopriest Vladimir Dagaev. He graduated from the theological seminary and academy. From 1888, he served in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk as the rector of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos Cathedral and was the dean of the churches of the Zmeinogorsk District. According to the recollections of the old residents of Ust-Kamenogorsk, Father Alexander was a man of fervent faith, a zealot of Orthodoxy, sincerely loving God and his homeland. He strictly adhered to the Church Statute and, as a dean, was moderately strict. He was a man of uncompromising character.

Father Alexander taught the Law of God in the Ust-Kamenogorsk male and female gymnasiums. Above all, he tried to instill in his students a love for God and strict morality. The old residents who attended the Intercession Church in Ust-Kamenogorsk remember that Father Alexander was distinguished by his intelligence.

Father Alexander's labors for the benefit of the Church and the homeland were marked by imperial awards. He was a knight of the Orders of St. Anna of the III and IV degrees and St. Vladimir of the IV degree, and he had the "For Labor and the Homeland" order, and medals from Emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II "For Zeal."

In his free time, Father Alexander was fond of studying the history of the Church and the Russian State, and playing musical instruments, which was a favorite activity of his large family. In the small patriarchal Ust-Kamenogorsk, thanks to the pastoral care of the local clergy and the city council, piety reigned, there was almost no crime, and "murders, as noted in church books, did not occur every year and were usually committed by non-residents."

During the period after 1917, Father Alexander firmly defended the Orthodox faith and monarchical statehood. He openly denounced from the church pulpit the godless, anti-Christian direction of Bolshevism, urging the people to stand for the Truth and be with Christ.

After the Bolsheviks killed the rector of the Holy Trinity Fortress Church in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Hieromartyr Protopriest Sergey Fenomenov, in the summer of 1918, Father Alexander took his place as rector of this church. There were casemates in the fortress where revolutionary Yakov Ushakov, who fought for the establishment of Bolshevik power in Ust-Kamenogorsk in 1917-1918, was imprisoned by soldiers of Admiral Kolchak's army who occupied Southern Altai in 1918. Protopriest Alexander repeatedly visited Ushakov in his imprisonment, spoke with him, and urged him to renounce his revolutionary beliefs, not to shed fraternal blood, and to repent. But the priest's appeals did not find a response in the heart of the revolutionary blinded by mad ideas. In early 1920, during the retreat of Admiral Kolchak's army, he was burned by soldiers in the boiler of a steamboat.

In early 1920, regular units of the Red Army entered Ust-Kamenogorsk. Arrests began in the city of those who had authority among the population and could, in the opinion of the Reds, lead opposition to the establishment of Soviet power dictatorship. In peaceful Ust-Kamenogorsk, no one wanted bloodshed. Protopriest Alexander also called for its cessation in his sermons. From the pulpit, he called for observing Christian commandments under any authority. He had enormous authority among the residents of Ust-Kamenogorsk and the surrounding areas, and his sermons had a great moral and spiritual impact on the people. Not only townspeople but also residents of nearby villages came to listen to them.

The bolsheviks did not delay in dealing with Father Alexander. They could no longer allow his denunciatory sermons to reach the minds and souls of the people; he was dangerous to them. They avenged his loyalty to the Truth and the death of Yakov Ushakov, to which Father Alexander was not involved.

On January 11, 1920, the day of the memory of the 14,000 infants slain by Herod in Bethlehem, armed men came to Father Alexander's house. It was lunchtime, and the priest was sitting at the table surrounded by his family. The visitors demanded that he come with them.

Father Alexander complied with the order. Together with Father Alexander, the city head Sidorov, the elderly General Vedernikov, all the remaining former officers in the city, and the owner of the printing house Gorlov (the latter for refusing to provide the services of his printing house for the publication of Bolshevik newspapers and proclamations) were arrested. The execution of the arrested "counter-revolutionaries" took place in the Sekenkinsky ravine near Ust-Kamenogorsk. Here's how Efim Permitin testified about Father Alexander's death: "...Mortally wounded, only Protopriest Dagaev did not fall. With a slashed cheek and shoulder, he slowly, as if in prayer, sank to the edge of the moat, rose again, and, making the sign of the cross over his numbed executioner and the other guards, cried out: 'Brothers! Come to your senses! Come to your senses, my children!' His large eyes were filled with blood and tears. With a face as white as snow, the head of the convoy stepped back from the moat a step, then, making a thrust again, struck Dagaev with terrible force on his thick red hair. The remains of the hieromartyr were given to Stepanida Alekseevna for burial. She buried him near the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos Church, where he had served as rector for many years. In the 1930s, this church was destroyed, and now there is a city park on its site.

There is also another version, according to which Father Alexander was buried in the city cemetery. And although the exact burial place of Protopriest Alexander Dagaev is unknown, the oral tradition about this has survived to this day.

The name of Protopriest Alexander Dagaev was included in the Assembly of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on December 27, 2000.