John Blinov

Holy Confessor John Blinov, a psalmist, was born in 1874 in the village of Krasnoe in the Shuya district of the Vladimir province, in the family of the peasant Mikhail Blinov. In 1886 he finished the school in Krasnoe and then worked the land with his father. After his father's death, in 1889, he farmed in the summer, and in winter went with his brother to earn money in the Orenburg province. From 1915 he took up only farming, no longer leaving the village. In 1920 he became psalmist at the church of the Sign in Krasnoe. He was arrested in 1930 and 1931 and died in exile, on 1 April 1933.

On 10 February 1930 the OGPU arrested the priests of Krasnoe and Palekh and the psalmist John, accused of anti-⁠Soviet activity and of opposing the setting up of collective farms by using the religious feelings of the faithful, and imprisoned them at Shuya. The charges rested on the testimony of Communists and Komsomol members and the chairmen of collective farms and village soviets, who were settling accounts with those they disliked. Of John they all said that he was deeply believing and often said aloud that he would sooner die of hunger than give his soul to demons, and that he would suffer for the faith of Christ. At the interrogation he said that he had spoken with the peasants about politics, being discontented with Soviet power because of heavy taxes and poor supply, and that life under the tsar was better, but he did not admit guilt. More than fifty peasants of Krasnoe signed a petition for the release of the psalmist. After the investigation the OGPU demanded three years in a camp for some, but some were offered to become informers, and those who agreed were freed. The offer was made to John too, and he agreed and returned home. He had to report regularly to the OGPU, but he gave no information, and when villagers asked him where he had been, he said openly that he had been at the OGPU. Then it was decided to arrest him.

Witnesses said that he was an active religious man, who went through the villages and told the peasants of miracles and urged them to hold firmly to the faith. Another told that, returning with him from the haymaking, the psalmist said that they had worked and now they would pray, and God would give them His gift, while the Communists, however much they worked, would have no benefit and would die of hunger in winter, because they had forgotten God.

On 21 January 1931 he was arrested again and imprisoned at Shuya. On 2 February, at the interrogation, he said that he did not admit guilt; he had spoken with believing peasants of the violence of the authorities against the clergy, that even the last servants would be taken, and of the impossible taxes, but he had not agitated against the authorities. On 3 July 1931 the OGPU troika sentenced him to three years of exile in Kazakhstan, in the Semipalatinsk region. The psalmist John Mikhailovich Blinov fell asleep in exile on 1 April 1933 and was buried in an unknown place.

The Church commemorates him on 1 April, in the new style, on 20 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Ivanovo and on the movable day of the synaxis of the new martyrs.