Nicholas Kuzmin

Holy Martyr Nicholas Kuzmin was a believing layman of Moscow, shot on 31 October 1937 at Butovo, after being arrested with the parish of the church of Saint Sergius at Rogozhskaya Zastava.

The Azbyka page holds the life of the Holy Hieromartyr Peter Nikotin and of the laymen Victor Frolov, John Rybin, Elizabeth Kuranova and Nicholas Kuzmin, arrested with him.

Nicholas Kuzmin

Nicholas Vasilievich Kuzmin was born on 10 October 1899 in Moscow. His father was head of the diocesan candle shop. In 1917 he finished the commercial school and in 1918 was called into the Red Army, where until 1921 he was a clerk at the main artillery administration. Between 1921 and 1929 he worked at a marine scientific institute as head of the household and took part in expeditions. In 1929 he fell gravely ill and, being near death, prayed to God and was healed; from then on he had firm religious convictions, on which he built all his life and his relation to people. Before, after the revolution, he had regarded religion critically and did not go to church. He was arrested on 29 September 1937 and imprisoned at Butyrka. The watchman of the church of Saint Sergius, arrested earlier, said of him that he was an ardent churchman, dissatisfied with the authorities, who had said among the faithful: "I recognise no power and no party except the party of Christ, of which I am a member." The investigator asked him for a political characterisation of the archpriest Peter Nikotin and other acquaintances, but Nicholas answered that he knew them only in connection with the Church. Of anti-⁠Soviet agitation he said that he had not carried it on, though he might have said that he would not go to the demonstration but rather to church, if a service was held there. He based his attitude toward the authorities on Christ's teaching: love your enemies, do not resist the powers that be.

Those with whom he suffered

The archpriest Peter Fyodorovich Nikotin was born on 5 October 1889 in the village of Bolkhuny in the Enotaevsk district of the Astrakhan province. He finished the Kazan Theological Academy with the degree of candidate in theology in 1919 and was ordained priest. He was arrested three times briefly between 1920 and 1924, then served at Tsaritsyn, at Astrakhan and in several churches of Moscow, and at the end of 1935 was named to the church of Saint Sergius at Rogozhskaya Zastava. He was loved by the faithful, especially the young, with whom he spoke after the services about the Church, and he guided several nuns of the closed monasteries of Moscow. He was arrested on 20 August 1937 and imprisoned at Butyrka; at the interrogation he denied having carried on anti-⁠Soviet agitation or having passed himself off as a blessed one, a healer or a seer, admitting only that he had laid the epitrachelion on a woman who was screaming at a service, and she grew calm.

Victor Frolov, born in 1913 in Moscow, an accountant at a factory, gave shelter in his home to monastics, pilgrims and hidden believers. John Rybin, born on 1 April 1898 in the village of Chernaya Gryaz, was a janitor and stoker at the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lefortovo. With them Elizabeth Kuranova was arrested. On 17 October 1937 an NKVD troika sentenced them all to death. Peter Nikotin, Victor Frolov, John Rybin and Elizabeth Kuranova were shot at Butovo on 21 October 1937, and Nicholas Kuzmin on 31 October. All were buried in the unknown common grave.

He is remembered on 21 October, on 29 May (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in the new style.