John Shuvalov

Holy Martyr John Shuvalov, a psalmist, was born in 1884 in the village of Kupelitsy in the Vereya district of the Moscow province, in a devout peasant family, of Semyon Shuvalov, whose relatives were almost all psalmists and singers. Ivan graduated from the parish school and worked on his own farm; from 1910 he bore the obedience of psalmist at the church of the Protection in Kupelitsy.

In 1918, in the Vereya district, a revolt of peasants took place who were protesting against the cruelties of the new authorities. Arrests followed. Among those detained was Ivan Semyonovich, but when it became clear that he had taken no part in the revolt, he was released. On 7 January 1930 he was arrested again and imprisoned at Vereya, on a charge of not having denounced the deacon Nicholas Bogaev, whom the authorities had judged a counterrevolutionary. With the deacon he had long had bad relations, and the lack of love between them led the psalmist to plead guilty. He said: "I knew well that the deacon Bogaev in the summer of 1928, at harvest time, carried on agitation and propaganda among the peasants clearly directed against Soviet power. Knowing that the priest Zachatevsky also knew, I told the judicial authorities nothing, because I feared I would lose my post. I am deprived of rights and have nothing to feed a family of six souls. I admit guilt of not having denounced Bogaev's propaganda." On 3 March 1930 the Special Council of the OGPU sentenced him to six months in prison. Shortly afterward he fell gravely ill, so that he could hardly move.

On 26 January 1938 he was arrested on a charge of active counterrevolutionary and anti-⁠Soviet activity and imprisoned at Taganka in Moscow. The witnesses accused him of anti-⁠Soviet agitation and said that among the collective farmers he showed his discontent with the order: that before, people lived like people, all awaited the Nativity of the Lord and rejoiced, the feast was felt, and now all go about like plague victims; before, when a man died, he was buried with honour, and now one who is born is not baptized, and one who dies is buried like a dog, without a service. The investigator told him that he was arrested for counterrevolutionary activity and demanded testimony. He answered: "I have carried on and carry on no counterrevolutionary activity." To the charge for November 1937 he said that he was ill then. To all the questions he answered that he did not agree with what the investigator said and denied his guilt.

On 2 February 1938 the NKVD troika sentenced him to death. The psalmist John Shuvalov was shot on 17 February 1938 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. The Church commemorates him on 17 February, the day of his death, in the new style, and on the movable days of the synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo and of the Saints of Moscow.