John of Baku

Holy New Martyr John of Baku (Ivan Ilich Ganchev, in the world) was a priest of the Russian Church and rector of the Nativity of the Mother of God cathedral in Baku. He was born in 1878 in the village of Sima, Vladimir province, and was shot on 20 October (2 November) 1937 at Dolinka, in the Karaganda region. He was glorified among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia of the twentieth century at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in 2000 (the service of canonization took place on 20 August 2000). His commemoration is on 2 November by the old calendar.

He finished the Petrograd seminary. While studying he also attended art courses, since he loved painting greatly. After the seminary he was ordained in 1910 and, with the blessing of the hierarchs, was sent to serve in Azerbaijan. At first he was rector of the church of the Bogolyubovo icon of the Mother of God in the village of Aleksandrovka, Kuba district, Baku province. In 1911, by decree of Bishop Pimen (Pegov) of Baku, he was appointed rector of the Nativity of the Mother of God cathedral in Baku. With the beginning of the persecution of the Church he had to leave Baku and move with his family to his brother, who worked as a notary at Lenkoran. After the death of the priest of the church of the icon "Joy of All Who Sorrow" in the village of Prishib, near Lenkoran, Father Alexei Ponomarev, Father John was appointed rector of this church.

On 20 March 1933 he was arrested on a false charge. On 10 September, "for counter-⁠revolutionary and espionage activity" and "the intention of illegally leaving for abroad, to Persia, from the Azerbaijan SSR", he was sentenced by the secret police collegium (article 58, points 6, 10 and 12) and sent into exile in Kazakhstan for five years. In March 1936, at the end of the exile in Shymkent, he was returning to Baku, where his family lived. On the way he was arrested, sent to Shymkent and again sentenced by decision of the NKVD to three years. He was sent to Karlag.

On 19 September 1937 he was arrested again, on a charge that he "led a group of believers, former priests, and held services in which he spread his mood against the Soviet government". He did not admit guilt. By decision of the troika of the NKVD administration for the Karaganda region of 31 October 1937 he was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on 2 November 1937. He was buried in a common grave in the old cemetery of the settlement of Dolinka, in the Karaganda region.