Nicholas Malkov

Holy Martyr Nicholas Malkov was a layman of Shuya, in the Vladimir province, killed by a shot to the temple in the square before the Resurrection Cathedral, on 15 March 1922, on the occasion of the confiscation of the church's valuables.

The Azbyka page tells the events at Shuya and those that followed at Palekh. After the decree of 1922 and in the time of famine, Patriarch Tikhon had organised aid for the hungry, but the Soviet authorities demanded the dissolution of the church committee and then began the forced confiscation of liturgical objects. Among the first victims were priests and laymen of the town of Shuya and the village of Palekh: the archpriest Paul Svetozarov, the priest John Rozhdestvensky, Peter Ivanovich Yazykov, Nicholas Malkov, Avxentius Kalashnikov, Sergius Mefodiev and the maiden Anastasia.

At Shuya a commission came to make the inventory in the Resurrection Cathedral. The faithful would not leave the church, Father Paul advised them with dignity to disperse, and on the morning of 15 March 1922 a crowd of people, mostly women, gathered in the square before the cathedral. The mounted militia struck them with whips, women and children together, then soldiers of the 146th regiment came, and trucks with machine guns, and they fired first over their heads, then into the crowd. Adolescents and children climbed the bell tower and rang the bells. The first to be killed was a parishioner, Nicholas Malkov: passing through the square, he stopped and cried "Orthodox, stand for the faith", and was shot in the temple. The second was the maiden Anastasia, who was going to the factory and had stopped on the steps of the cathedral; then Avxentius Kalashnikov and Sergius Mefodiev were killed. Twenty-⁠two of the faithful were wounded, four of whom died. The bodies were laid on the porch of the cathedral and no one was allowed near. On 19 March Lenin used the events of Shuya in a letter to the Politburo to demand that the confiscation campaign be carried out as ruthlessly as possible.

Later the priests Paul Svetozarov and John Rozhdestvensky and the layman Peter Yazykov were sentenced to death. The faithful of Palekh asked for clemency; the presidium of the supreme body decided on pardon, but the Politburo voted for the execution, and the sentence was confirmed on 4-5 May. They were shot on 10 May 1922, at two in the night. It is told that before the execution the priests performed the funeral service for themselves and remained courageous; Father Paul's last prayer was for the children left orphans, and God heard it.

Nicholas Malkov is remembered on 10 May, on 20 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Ivanovo Metropolis, and on 7 February (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors, in the new style.