Alexander Volkov

Saint Hieromartyr Alexander Volkov (1873 to 1919) was a priest at the Dormition church in the city of Narva, in Estonia, and was shot on 8 January 1919, together with Archpriest Demetrius Chistoserdov. They are commemorated on 8 January, on 7 February with the synaxis of the new martyrs, on 11 July with the saints of Saint Petersburg, and on 1 December with the saints of the Estonian land.

In January 1919, on the second day of Christmas, on the feast of the Synaxis of the Mother of God, by order of the authorities of the Estlandic Labour Commune two priests were shot at Narva: Archpriest Demetrius Chistoserdov and the priest Alexander Volkov. The pastors, who received death shoulder to shoulder, served together and had similar lives. They served in two neighbouring churches of Narva, on the Ivangorod side: Father Alexander at the Dormition church in the fortress, and Father Demetrius at the church of the Sign by the Petersburg road.

Beginnings

The priest Alexander Volkov was born at Narva in 1873, into a priest's family. His father, Paulinus Alexeevich Volkov, had been archpriest and rector of the Dormition church in Ivangorod, in whose parish he had served almost half a century, forty-⁠seven years. His obituary said: "he enjoyed the rare love of the parishioners, among whom were not only residents of Narva but also of the surrounding villages." The son studied at the Saint Petersburg seminary, which he finished in 1893 in the first rank. Then, at twenty, he was sent as teacher to the church school at Merrekyul, a villa locality near the resort of Ust-⁠Narva, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland; there, in the nineties, a wooden church in honour of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God had been built, which served mainly in summer. After three years he asked to be moved to the Alexander Nevsky church school, where he worked ten years, as supervisor of pupils, teacher of Russian and sacred history and steward. On 6 November 1901 Bishop Constantine (Bulychev) of Gdov ordained him deacon.

Martyrdom

The overthrow of October 1917 made itself felt at Narva too. In November the German military authority, established in Estonia during the First World War, was replaced by the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks. Seizing power by force and declaring Estonia a Labour Commune, the representatives of the new regime set about cleansing the country of the "religious opium". On 10 December 1918 the Council of the Estlandic Labour Commune issued a decree expelling from the country all persons of clerical rank, as spreaders of false teaching. Two days later a new decree appeared forbidding the celebration of services, and on 30 December the Directorate of Internal Affairs put all buildings of worship at the disposal of the local executive committees. In fact these decrees aimed at the total destruction of the Church in Estonia. On their basis all the clergy of Narva were arrested, and the priests were ordered to leave the country within twenty-⁠four hours. Only three were not deported: Father Alexander Volkov and Father Demetrius Chistoserdov, who were shot, and Father Vladimir Bezhanitsky, priest of the church of the Resurrection in Kreenholm, who was mocked.

No investigation was made of those deported or shot; the lists were drawn up beforehand; the resolution of the chairman of the Narva commission for the struggle against counter-⁠revolution, Oskar Ellek, was enough for a man to be shot. The priest Alexander Volkov and Archpriest Demetrius Chistoserdov were shot as "Black Hundreds", though they had not been involved in political activity. But as pastors they probably could not help speaking to their flock of their views and convictions in that tragic time. For this alone, for sincerity and pastoral frankness, for faithfulness to the Homeland and Church that had raised them, they were condemned to death. On the second day of Christmas, on the feast of the Synaxis of the Mother of God, 8 January 1919, they were taken out of the city and received a martyr's death.