Alexis Neidgardt

Holy Martyr Alexis Neidgardt (in the world Alexis Borisovich Neidgardt, 1863 to 6 November 1918) was a Russian statesman, a layman, member of the State Council of the Russian Empire, shot by the Bolsheviks at Nizhny Novgorod. He was numbered among the saints by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000, together with Bishop Laurence (Knyazev) and Father Alexis Porfiryev. Our sources give no day of commemoration for him.

Family and youth

He was born at Moscow, in the family of a man of a noble Russian house, the officer Boris Alexandrovich Neidgardt (1819 to 1900), who became privy councillor and grand master of the Court. His mother, Maria Alexandrovna (1831 to 1904), was a great-⁠granddaughter of A. V. Suvorov. He entered military service on 1 September 1881, graduated from the Corps of Pages in 1883 and was released as ensign in the Preobrazhensky guards regiment. After his marriage, on 14 March 1887, he passed into the reserve, and in 1894 was discharged with the rank of guards sub-⁠lieutenant. He married in 1887 Princess Lyubov Nikolaevna Trubetskaya (1868 to 1928), who died in emigration. They had the children Elizabeth, Maria (married Ukhtomskaya), Natalia (married Murray) and Boris (1898 to 1918). The son and one of the daughters were shot at Nizhny Novgorod in 1918.

Public service

He lived on his estate in the Nizhny Novgorod governorate. From 1890 he was land captain, then, between 24 January 1897 and 15 April 1904, marshal of the nobility of the governorate and honorary justice of the peace. From 1901 he was honorary guardian in the Council of the institutions of Empress Maria Feodorovna. He gave generously for the needs and building of Orthodox churches in the governorate, for which he several times received the blessing of hierarchs and of the Holy Synod, as a "zealous builder of the churches of God". From 1906 he was churchwarden of the church of Saint Catherine at the shelter for poor nobles; from donations he built at Nizhny Novgorod the People's House and was trustee of several shelters and schools. Between 19 March 1904 and 5 January 1906 he was governor of Yekaterinoslav and was released because of illness.

From 1906 he was a member of the State Council, sent by the zemstvo assembly of Nizhny Novgorod (until 1915), at first in the Centre Group; in 1911 he founded and led the Right-⁠Centre Group, which was the main support of the government of P. A. Stolypin in the upper chamber. From 1915 he was a member of the State Council by appointment. He belonged to the Russian Borderlands Society (1908) and was among the founders of the All-⁠Russian National Club (1909). For his work on the building committee of the Feodorovsky cathedral in Petersburg, raised in memory of the 300 years of the House of Romanov, he received the thanks of Emperor Nicholas II, and on 4 March 1914 was named churchwarden of the memorial church. From 1914 he chaired the committee of Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna for the aid of those struck by the war, and consistently held monarchist views. He received several Russian and foreign orders, among them Saint Anna, Saint Stanislaus and Saint Vladimir.

Arrest and death

In May 1917 he was removed from the staff, together with the other members of the State Council, and moved to the Nizhny Novgorod governorate; in October 1917 he was dismissed from service by the Bolsheviks. On 7 June 1918, together with Bishop Laurence (Knyazev) and the archpriest of the Nizhny Novgorod cathedral, Alexis Porfiryev, he signed an appeal to the faithful, in the name of the congress of clergy, calling for protest against the closing of churches and monasteries and the confiscation of church property. Soon all who had signed were arrested and shot without trial, on 6 November 1918 (or, according to another source, on 7 November, "in honour of the glorious anniversary"). In 1991 he was rehabilitated by the Russian prosecutor's office. In 2000 he was glorified by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church.