Andrew Trofimov

Holy Martyr Andrew Trofimov (1882 to 1938) was a peasant, a chanter and choir director of the church of the village of Vozdvizhenskoe, in the Klin district. He died in the camp on 11 June 1938. The Russian Church honours him among the New Martyrs of Moscow.

He was born on 30 October 1882 in the village of Kitenevo, in the Klin district, in a peasant family; his father, Matvei Trofimov, worked the land in summer and cut timber in winter. Andrew finished the village school and helped his father until he married and set up a household, not rich, but sufficient in his opinion. In 1916 he was called to the front and was a private until 1917. He was a parishioner of the church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the village of Vozdvizhenskoe, from youth sang in the choir, was a psalm-⁠reader, choir director and member of the church council. When the persecutions began, he did not give up his faith and convictions and remained a member of the church council and choir director. In 1931, when the authorities began to destroy peasant households, he joined the collective farm, where he was assigned to care for the farm's horses.

In 1937 the local authorities began to draw up arrest lists of people not to the communists' liking. The pious peasant also drew attention, who kept all the church feasts, often went to church and during the services served as choir director. The NKVD demanded a certificate from the chairmen of the village council and the collective farm. The first wrote that Trofimov "is an active churchman, was and is a member of the church council, was church warden, is the choir director and does the deacon's service at the church, is hostile to the Soviet authorities and the collective farms"; the chairman of the farm wrote that Andrew Matveevich said "one should not work on patronal feasts but go to church, otherwise nothing grows for us because you do not go to church", and that, coming to a meeting, he threw the stable keys on the table, saying: "Take your keys and care for them as you like, I will work no more." In November 1937 villagers were questioned, who said that Andrew Matveevich is a man of firm religious convictions, does not go out to work on feast days and tells the collective farmers that working on feasts is a great sin and that is why nothing grows for them.

On 14 November 1937 he was arrested and imprisoned at Taganka. At the interrogation he admitted that he was indeed an active parishioner, member of the church council and sang in the choir, but refused to admit counter-⁠revolutionary activity. He admitted that at the farmers' meeting he had thrown the stable keys on the table and refused to work on the collective farm, but said that he had not spoken against the farm. On 21 November 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years in a camp and he was sent to Bamlag. Andrew Matveevich died on 11 June 1938 in the Srednebelsky camp in the Amur region and was buried in an unknown grave. He is commemorated on 11 June, on 7 February and in the Synaxis of the Moscow Saints.