George Troitsky

Holy Confessor George Troitsky, a priest, was born in 1873 and died on 29 October 1931, in exile, in the village of Ust in northern Russia. From 1903 he served at the church of the Saviour in the village of Rai-⁠Semenovskoe, Moscow province.

He was born in the village of Darishchi in the Kolomna district, Moscow province, as George Alexandrovich Troitsky. He finished the Moscow Theological Seminary and was a teacher at the parish school of the Nikolo-⁠Ugresh Monastery. In 1898 he was ordained priest and until 1903 served in various villages of the Serpukhov district. In 1903 he was appointed to the church of the Saviour in the village of Rai-⁠Semenovskoe, where he served until 1930 as its last rector. The stone church in the village was built in two stages, between 1765 and 1783, and the lower side chapel was dedicated to Saint Demetrius of Rostov. After the priest's exile the church was closed and laid waste, and services were resumed in it in the nineties of the twentieth century.

The persecution

In 1929 the inhabitants of Rai-⁠Semenovskoe, Stankovo and other villages of the parish decided to close the church. An eighteen-⁠year-⁠old Komsomol member, chairman of the circle of the godless of the village, raised in the session of the village soviet the question of drawing the peasantry into the union of the godless, and then the question of closing the church was also raised. At Christmas 1930 the village soviet forbade Father George to go to the houses of the parishioners. As he himself told at the interrogation, after the service on the feast days he told the faithful that rumours were going about the closing of the church and that there was a decree of the soviet that he should not go about the parish on feasts; he also spoke to them of the taxes put on the church and how to proceed, since there was no money in the church. The faithful said that the church could not be closed as long as there were believers and asked him to go about the parish. But for fear that some unpleasantness might result, he asked them to write a petition, which was written and signed right there.

In these acts of the priest the authorities saw an anti-⁠Soviet manifestation and began an investigation. The chairman of the village soviet of Rai-⁠Semenovskoe, called on 22 January to the investigation, testified that no anti-⁠Soviet manifestations had been observed on the part of our priest. Several witnesses said that Father George had urged resistance to the authorities' intention of closing the church in the village. At the interrogation the Father did not admit guilt. On 2 February 1930 the priest George Troitsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Serpukhov house of correction. In the indictment it was written that in January 1930 he had delivered from the ambo a speech in which he complained of bad living and that the church was stifled by taxes, and that the inflammatory words of Troitsky so affected those present that they made a noise and cried out all sorts of things against some representatives of the authorities. Since not enough evidence had been gathered for a trial, the investigation was halted, but, taking into account the increased activity and resistance of class enemies and the social danger of the accused, the file was sent to the Special Council of the OGPU. On 23 February 1930 the sentence was given: exile through the OGPU to the Northern Territory for three years.

In exile

After the transport, in August 1930, Father George settled with the priest Alexander Derzhavin, likewise exiled by the OGPU to the Northern Territory, in the village of Ust, some thirty-⁠five versts from Ust-⁠Tsilma. On arrival they learned that there was no church in the village, and the inhabitants were Old Believer schismatics. The lodging in which the priests had settled pleased the local teacher, so the clergy were forced to move out and look for another. There was nowhere to find work, and heavy physical labour, at his age, Father George could not do. They lived in great want and crowding; sometimes there was nothing at all to eat. With the money sent there was nowhere to buy anything. On 6 August 1931 Father George fell ill. After a few days the illness grew worse: strong vomiting and pain in the belly began, he stopped eating and drinking and lay so for several days. He faded slowly and on 29 October 1931 died, presumably of typhoid fever.

Burial

He was buried in the village of Ust. All through his illness he was cared for by the priest Alexander Derzhavin, who also took care of the burial. To pay for the coffin he had to sell to local people Father George's cassock and boots. Father Alexander sang the funeral service and, on the days of commemoration, went to serve a memorial service at his grave. The place of the confessor's burial is not known today. He is commemorated, according to the Azbyka page, on 11 February and on 29 October.