Alexander Solovyov

Saint Hieromartyr Alexander Solovyov (1893 to 1937) was a priest in the village of Slyadnevo, in the Moscow region, and was shot on 5 November 1937, at Butovo. He is commemorated on 5 November, on 29 May with the new martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September with the saints of Moscow.

He was born on 5 August 1893 in the village of Bogorodskoe, Kolomna district, into the family of the priest John Solovyov. He finished two classes of the Moscow seminary and served as psalm-⁠reader at the church of the Protection in the village of Tashirovo, Vereya district, then at the church of the Transfiguration in the village of Slepushkino, until July 1916. He married Zoya, daughter of the priest Innocent Gruzinov of the church in the village of Rozhdestvenskoe, and they had five children. In 1916 he was ordained deacon at the church of Saint Elijah at the Strebukovo cemetery. In February 1919 he was moved to the church of the Protection in the village of Pokrovskoe, Samara diocese, and on 30 August 1921 he was ordained priest at the church of the Mother of God of Kazan in the village of Korolevka, Melekes district, Samara province. In 1924 he was assigned to the church of the Transfiguration in the village of Slyadnevo, Volokolamsk district, Moscow region, where he served until his martyr's death. For the parishioners he was a strict but just pastor.

The persecution by the godless authorities and the conditions of life in that village and the villages around were so harsh that the means of food were not enough, and Father Alexander and the children went to the forest to gather mushrooms and collect willow bark, which they traded for bread. In 1933 and 1934 came the time of famine. At school only the children of collective farm workers were helped, and the children of the disenfranchised, among them the priests' children, were not fed. When the others ate, Father Alexander's children cried with hunger. In winter the children of the farm workers were taken by sleigh, but Father's children were not allowed to get in and walked; rarely someone, merciful and unafraid of the price of mercy shown to the priest's children, would drive them to school. After school the children worked to earn their bread; in summer they gathered mushrooms, handed the caps to the state buyers and bought bread with the money, and kept the stems and dried them, and these were their main food through the whole year. In the village there were two beggars, and the priest's wife bought extra pieces of bread from them.

In 1937, after a temporary closing, the church was reopened through his efforts. In October 1937 Father Alexander was arrested on a charge of "anti-⁠Soviet agitation". At the interrogation he did not admit guilt, confirming only the requests for help for the church. The NKVD troika sentenced him to death, and he was shot on 5 November 1937, at the Butovo firing range.