Alexis Kuznetsov

Holy Hieromartyr Alexis Kuznetsov, a priest, was born in 1873 and was killed by Red soldiers on 1 October 1918, in the time of the Red Terror, near the Nizhnyaya Salda station in the Urals. He served as a priest at the church of Saint John the Theologian in Verkhnyaya Salda Works. He was glorified in 2002 in the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Yekaterinburg diocese.

He finished the teachers' seminary and was first a teacher at the people's school in the village of Gorbunovskoe. In February 1898 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Christopher of Yekaterinburg and Irbit and sent to serve at the cathedral of Saint Nicholas at Vyisk, in Nizhny Tagil. The church had been built in memory of Nikolai Nikitich Demidov and became the burial vault of the Demidov family, a famed family of Ural industrialists; in it was kept an icon of the Mother of God painted by Saint Demetrius of Rostov. While serving there he taught at the parish school, which in 1900 to 1901 was counted among the best of the diocese, and Deacon Alexis was listed among the teachers of particular devotion to the school.

In September 1909 he was ordained priest by Archbishop Vladimir of Yekaterinburg and served as second priest at the church of Saint John the Theologian in Verkhnyaya Salda Works, with the future martyr Peter Dyakonov as rector. He remained there until his death. The settlement had a fine stone church, famed for its bells. In 1914 he was awarded the epigonation for zealous service, and he was a member of the missionary committee at Nizhnyaya Salda, where there were many sectarians and schismatics.

In the autumn of 1918 the front drew near, and the Red Army was retreating through Nizhnyaya Salda. At the edge of the settlement, near a dead-⁠end station, the Reds shot many hostages, among them clergy. On 1 October 1918 near the Nizhnyaya Salda station the priests of Verkhnyaya Salda, Father Alexis Kuznetsov and Father Peter Dyakonov, received the death of martyrs. Contemporaries told of the cruelty of the killers: after their departure, people found severed heads, mutilated bodies and blood mixed with the earth. On 9 October, the day of the repose of Saint John the Theologian, the priests were buried in the Christian manner, with other villagers killed for the faith: Father Alexis's remains in the churchyard, Father Peter's in the parish cemetery. The next day the White troops entered Nizhnyaya Salda. At the place where the victims had been buried a wooden cross was set up. He is commemorated on 1 October, on 7 February, and on 11 February in the Synaxis of the Saints of Yekaterinburg.