Demetrius Ilinsky

Holy Martyr Demetrius Ilinsky was a psalm-⁠reader and died in a camp on 17 February 1938, condemned for standing by the church. He was born on 21 October 1894 in the village of Novo-⁠Rozhdestvenskoe, in the Bronnitsy district of the Moscow province, in the family of the psalm-⁠reader John Ilinsky, who served at the church of Saint John the Forerunner in the village. He is commemorated on 17 February, on 7 February, in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and on 5 September, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.

He finished the village school and two classes of the clerical school and from 1914, after his father's death, served as psalm-⁠reader at the church of his native village; for his virtuous life he enjoyed great respect from the parishioners. After the revolution, the persecution by the atheist authorities began, and he was warned that he too would be arrested. Once a man who came to warn him promised to spare him prison if the psalm-⁠reader would give him money. Dmitry Ivanovich reckoned that he would not escape arrest anyway, the money would be lost and the family would be left without means, and he did not give the money. Once it was proposed that he leave the church and take a job at the village soviet, but he refused this too, not wishing to buy his life by betraying the Church.

In 1936 the authorities decided to demolish the church of Saint John the Forerunner and the cemetery around it, to prepare the site for the construction of the TsAGI institute. The priest of the church, Peter Ozeretskovsky, went with the church warden to the Patriarchate in Moscow to ask what to do. They were told not to begin efforts to leave the church to the faithful, and the warden asked whether at least the closing could be put off. Seeing their resolve, they were advised to make a petition to the VTsIK. The petition was written and sent, and until May 1937 the authorities made no attempt to close the church. On 11 May 1937 the faithful were told that the VTsIK had refused their request and the church would be closed. From then, believing women gathered in front of the church every day. On 15 May representatives of the authorities came and demanded the keys to the church, but they were not given, and they broke the locks, despite the protests of the parishioners.

On 4 September 1937 the priests of the church, the warden, the psalm-⁠reader Dmitry Ilinsky and one active parishioner, Olga Evdokimova, were arrested and imprisoned at Taganka. After the priests' arrest the church was closed. The local authorities ordered the bells thrown down, the marble crucifix of Christ smashed, and the icons and church books burned. The wrought-⁠iron fence of the cemetery was broken, all the monuments were destroyed, and in place of the church a parachute tower was set up, which in time fell into disrepair and was abandoned. The investigator told the psalm-⁠reader that the investigation had evidence of his counter-⁠revolutionary activity, that he had received instructions from Father Ozeretskovsky and that he had led the disturbance of 15 May. Dmitry Ivanovich denied all of this. On 17 October 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years in a camp. The psalm-⁠reader Dmitry Ivanovich Ilinsky died in detention on 17 February 1938 and was buried in an unknown grave.