Kira Obolenskaya

Holy New Martyr Kira Obolenskaya (Kira Ivanovna Obolenskaya) was a Russian princess, teacher and member of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood, born on 6 March 1889 and shot on 17 December 1937 (4 December on the old calendar), after she had lived at Borovichi. She was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia on 7 May 2003, by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Church. She is remembered on 4 December, on the old calendar, the day of her execution (17 December on the new calendar).

Youth

She was born into an old but impoverished family of the princes Obolensky, in the Wlodawa district. Her father, Ivan Dmitrievich, was an officer, and her mother, Elizabeth Georgievna, née Olderogge. At ten she was brought by her father to Saint Petersburg to be received at the Smolny Institute for girls of noble birth, the usual place of education for nobles. Her father asked in writing that she be admitted at his own expense to the Nicholas half of the institute. On 26 May 1904 she finished the institute with a silver medal. For the first six years after graduating she gave private lessons, as a home teacher, and then teaching remained the chief work of her life. In 1910 she became a teacher at a free school for the poor and taught also in other schools of the city. In September 1916 she entered advanced courses in French, which she finished in May 1917. Between 1918 and 1930 she worked as teacher and librarian at schools no. 32, 84 and 73 of Saint Petersburg. She took an active part in the life of the Alexander Nevsky Brotherhood.

Her niece, Kira Litovchenko, recalls that Aunt Kira came to them on feast days and on workdays, when she could, a warm, good, gentle, affectionate and "homely" person. She dressed simply, had a soft, quiet voice, and the illnesses and troubles of the family were hers too.

Arrest and exile

The librarian of school no. 73 was arrested on 14 September 1930. Lenin's sister, Anna, who knew her before the revolution as a teacher, interceded for her release. But at the interrogations Obolenskaya answered openly that she was not among those who share the platform of Soviet power. She said that her differences with the Soviet Constitution begin with the separation of the Church from the state, that she considered dekulakization unjust to the peasantry, and that the punitive policy of Soviet power, the terror and the rest were unacceptable in a humane and civilized state. She said she knew of no counter-⁠revolutionary grouping or organization, but that to name any names, if it were a matter of political criminal involvement against Soviet power, would be unworthy of her, because she knew it would bring on them arrests, exile and the like.

She was given five years of camp. At Belomorstroy she worked in the camp hospital and was then moved to Svirlag. In 1934 she was released. In 1936 she settled at Borovichi and taught German at the school.

Martyrdom

On 20 October 1937 she was arrested again. On 10 December 1937 the special troika of the NKVD of Leningrad sentenced her to death in carrying out the decisions of the Politburo on the struggle against the remnants of the capitalist classes. On 18 December a general act was drawn up that eighty-⁠nine people had been shot on 17 December 1937. The place of burial has not been found.