Private Yevgeny Rodionov: martyr of the First Chechen War. Private Evgeny Rodionov

Material overview

I'm a Russian soldier!
And I will not take off the cross ...
And don't give me the Quran!
I won't take it...
Nothing to live after
If you sell faith...
It is visible to me
Dying for Christ...

Introduction

Most recently, I was driving in a car with my dad, and he turned on the music CD of Alexander Marshal on the radio. He, my dad, generally loves the work of this musician, so I went and listened to songs with him.

At some point, the composition “The Ballad of Evgeny Rodionov” began to play, and after listening to the whole song, I asked my father: “What is the song about? Who is he, Holy Warrior Eugene? To this, my father told me a short story about Evgeny Rodionov. I was so shocked and surprised that I decided to find out more about this man.

At school, I asked my classmates: “What do you know about Yevgeny Rodionov?”, But the guys themselves did not know anything about this person.

Then I decided to independently find material about this hero, so that later I could tell about the feat of the Russian soldier.

The object of the study is information about the heroic deed of Evgeny Rodionov.

The subject of the study is the biography of Evgeny Rodionov

Hypothesis - the act of Evgeny Rodionov can be considered heroic

I set myself the goal - to show by the example of the personality of Yevgeny Rodionov what it means to be a real Son of the Fatherland, a patriot, a hero.

To achieve the goal, I set the following tasks:

Studying the biography of Evgeny Rodionov

Showing an example of a heroic act of a contemporary;

Research methods:

1. Literature analysis

2. Survey

3. Generalization of the material

The theoretical significance of my work lies in the fact that many schoolchildren may pay attention to my research and draw certain conclusions.

The practical significance of my research work lies in the fact that it can be used for conversations with students at class hours and events dedicated to the defenders of the Fatherland.

1. Biography of Evgeny Rodionov

Evgeny Rodionov was born on May 23, 1977 in the village of Chibirley, Kuznetsk district, Penza region.

For more than a year, Eugene wasbaptized, but did not wear a pectoral cross, and only in 1988 did his grandmother take Eugene to the temple, where they gave him a cross. Although Eugene's mother had a negative attitude towards her son wearing a cross, he did not even think of taking it off; only eventually changed the chain to a thick rope.

He grew up as an ordinary, strong and healthy child. At the school in the village of KurilovoPodolsky district, Moscow regionstudied well, but when he finished the ninth grade, he went to work at a furniture factory.

Working as a furniture maker, he mastered the specialties of an assembler, upholsterer and cutter. He liked this job, and the salary was decent.

In the townOzyorskKaliningrad region, he served in the training unit of the military training unit No. 2631 of the border troops of the Russian Federation.

After the training unit on June 25In 1995, Evgeny was drafted into the army and served as a grenade launcher at the 3rd frontier outpost of the modern Red Banner Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia in the Kaliningrad region on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya. He took the military oath on July 10, 1995.

13th of January1996Eugene was sent on a six-month trip under the command of the Nazran border detachment, where, after serving for one month, he was taken prisoner.

February 13In 1996, together with privates Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov, he took over the post. While on duty, they stopped an ambulance under the control of Brigadier General of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Ruslan Khaykhoroev, in which weapons were transported. While trying to search the soldiers were captured. After the discovery of their disappearance from the post, the soldiers were first declared deserters.. Policemen came to Rodionov's mother's house to look for her son after his disappearance. The version that the soldiers were taken prisoner was accepted after a detailed examination of the scene and the discovery of traces of blood and struggle.

Yevgeny Rodionov was killed in captivity on May 23, 1996. Confessed to the murderRuslan Khaikhoroev. In the presence of a foreign representative of the OSCEhe said: “…He had a choice to stay alive. He could have changed his faith, but he did not want to remove the cross from himself. Tried to run...

From the first day of the 100-day captivity, when they saw the Cross around Yevgeny's neck, the bandits tried to "break" him, to force him to accept their faith. They longed to force him to torture and finish the same as him, a fighter - boys. Eugene categorically refused. He was beaten. They kept repeating: "Take off the Cross and you will exist!!!" And these are not empty words. The gang leaders themselves later assured Yevgeny's mother, Lyubov Vasilievna: "Become your heir one of us, and we would not offend him." We can only guess what Eugene was thinking about in his incomplete nineteen years in these terrible days of captivity. He must have believed adamantly that he and the other boys would be found and rescued. It is hard for us, who did not survive that same hell, to realize what was in his soul when he made his choice, refusing to take off the Cross and become the "brother" of the Chechen militant. But we know that the Lord does not leave his own. And perhaps the Guardian Angel strengthened him in the fetid darkness of the basement, as was the case with the martyrs of the first Christians, because on an arbitrary day, confessing Christ, he ascended with his spirit - not to the end, but to being.

The denouement occurred on the birthday of Eugene. On May 23, 1996, Yevgeny just turned 19. Together with the rest of the soldiers, he was taken to a village near Bamut. First, they killed friends, those with whom he was on his last border duty. Then, for the final time, they suggested: "Take off the Cross! We swear by Allah, you will exist!!!" Eugene didn't take it off. And then he was executed in cold blood. It is terrible, as in an ancient pagan sacrificial ritual - they cut off the head of a living one ...

But they did not dare to remove the Cross.

Shortly after being captured, Yevgeny's mother, Lyubov Vasilievna, came to Chechnya in search of her son, who was believed to be a deserter. His commander informed her that he was a prisoner, but did not show any interest in his fate. She went to Basaev, he promised her to find her son with everyone, but when she left the village, Basaev's brother caught up with her and severely beat her to a pulp, breaking her spine. In the end, she was forced to pay money to the militants in order to find out where her son was buried. Eugene's body was identified by his mother by a pectoral cross. Later, the results of the identification were confirmed by the examination. Lyubov Vasilievna herself was invisibly present at the death of her son. Bandits gave her a video cassette with the execution.

Yevgeny Rodionov was buried near the village of Satino-Russkoye, Podolsky district, Moscow region, near the Church of the Ascension of Christ.

2. "Divine warrior in a fiery cloak"

In order to redeem Yevgeny's camp, his mother, Lyubov Vasilievna, sold everything. Things, an apartment, a share of clothes. Carried her son home on November 20, 1996. Buried. And that's all... She was left alone. Practically without housing, without funds, without elementary moral support. People shied away from the unfortunate, as from a leper, - "their troubles in bulk." Even the Order of Courage was awarded to her quietly.

But at the same time, incredible things began to happen in various parts of Russia. Many churches were told about a certain "Divine warrior in a fiery cloak" helping captured soldiers in Chechnya to dig the path to freedom, showing them mines and tripwires... They spoke about him in the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers in May 1999: "There is a kind of Saint fighter Yevgeny is a martyr. He, they say, helps the guys in captivity. We really hope for him, for his prayers before the Lord."

In the Burdenko hospital, the wounded soldiers claimed that they knew a certain soldier Yevgeny, the one who helps them, "especially when pain sets in" ... Many swear that they saw him on the icon when they were on an excursion in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Moreover, the "warrior in a red cape" is also known to the inmates. "He helps the weakest, lifts up the broken..."

In 1997, by order of the church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhy, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', the book "The New Martyr for Christ, Fighter Eugene" was published. And this very minute a report came from the priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk that "the photograph on the cover of the book IS RUNNING MYRHO... Myrrh is light in color, with a slight smell of pine needles" (2) .

People were drawn to the mother of the soldier killed for the Faith by a wondrous craft. "It's She, His Mom," they say all around. - She is a saint!" "What kind of a saint am I?! Lyubov Vasilievna is surprised from the bottom of her heart. - I'm still on my way to God. And I need an active, healthy son. And to the building is full of grandchildren. And everyone gives me icons. I already have more than 90 of them. They say, thank you, your Eugene helped me. They show how his faces are streaming myrrh... And I, I can easily help people in any way I can. Now, by the will of my son (not by myself, but just by HIS WILL!!!), just as he would have done, I collect parcels and bring them to our soldiers in Chechnya myself. By myself, alone, I go to checkpoints, military units, hospitals... My pass is my prayer. But you know what amazing boys serve in Chechnya! Almost in every soldier's tent there are Zhenya's icons. And not only in tents. There they make such small wearable images ... "

At the grave of Yevgeny Rodionov, especially on the day of his birth (and martyrdom) on May 23, hundreds of people gather. Lyubov Vasilievna recalls: “And what miracles happened to us then! Every year there is a rainbow. We are already waiting, we know. And last year there were 4 white cloudy crosses. serve. Orthodox from all over Rus' come. They help me as best they can. They collected coins in peace, allowed me to buy an apartment. The very one where my son grew up. They put a cross on the grave. Wooden, tall. The tallest in our entire village cemetery. The inscription was made: " Here lies the Russian fighter Yevgeny Rodionov, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce the Cross. "Notes near the grave are slipped between the pebbles ... Mothers who have lost children in Chechnya write, parents who are afraid to release their sons into the army, girls who dream of meeting a real, kind , a believer ... One of Saratov traveled for three years, at the moment she married a priest. Although, frankly speaking, I haven’t read these notes for a long time. After all, it’s not all written for me. To him. My wife mu. Boy. They believe in him. They love. Hope. Recently, in the temple, they give me a leaflet with a prayer. From whom is not known. And there: "... Hear us weak and weak, with faith and love worshiping your brightest image ..."

And because all this is said about my child. So I’m thinking, maybe that doctor was right, who told me back in the maternity hospital that my son would have an existence as bright as an asterisk.

3. After the death of Evgeny Rodionov ...

At the end of 2003, it was proposed to canonize Yevgeny Rodionov. Mother Eugene was invited to the synodal commission for canonization, where she was heard. The commission made the following conclusions about the death of Yevgeny and his possible canonization: reports of the martyrdom of Yevgeny Rodionov were recorded only from the words of his mother, who did not see her son's death itself. She also cannot confirm with certainty that her son was forced to renounce Christ. With the alleged killer of Yevgeny - Ruslan Khaykhoroev - the mother saw only once in her life, for 7 minutes, during this meeting Ruslan Khaykhoroev, according to the mother herself, did not tell anything about the circumstances of the death of Yevgeny Rodionov. There are no witnesses and testimonies of a martyr's death, except for Rodionov's mother.

In early 2004, the Synodal Commission for Canonization refused canonization due to the lack of reliable information about the death of a martyr in the church sense and that Rodionov led a conscious church life.

However, despite this, icons with Yevgeny Rodionov began to appear spontaneously in Russian churches. Including those that are very far from Chechnya, from the Caucasus. One of the first icons was installed in the church of the village of Znamenki, near St. Petersburg, in the spring of 2003. Private Rodionov, “killed in Chechnya,” was depicted on it in full growth, in military uniform and with a machine gun over his shoulders. Then icons with him began to exhibit in other St. Petersburg churches. In the end, on October 21, 2008, the warrior Yevgeny Rodionov was glorified as a martyr as a locally venerated saint of the Astrakhan-Enotaev diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

4. We remember the feat of the Russian soldier

Probably, no one remains indifferent to the feat of Yevgeny Rodionov. So, in 2009, school number 4 in Kuznetsk, Penza region, was named after him. On September 25, 2010, a monument to Rodionov was unveiled in the school yard in the form of a bronze candle, the flame of which embraces a warrior holding a cross. A sculpture of the warrior Yevgeny "The Candle of Memory" was created (the author is the artist-sculptor Sergei Georgievich Mardar).

In memory of Yevgeny Rodionov in Altai, on August 10, 2002, a church was consecrated in the name of the holy martyr Yevgeny. The Chapel of St. Eugene was opened in Kharkov. In Khankala, a temple was laid in honor of the martyr Yevgeny Rodionov.

Conclusion

I was shocked when I looked through the material for my research paper. Feelings of pain and regret arose in me for his mother, for the torture he experienced. I came to the conclusion that the heroism shown by Yevgeny Rodionov for the Orthodox faith is a manifestation of the values ​​of a real Russian person, the Son of the Fatherland. I realized the meaning of the concept of "patriotism". It seems to me that every Russian person is ready to make serious decisions and bear responsibility for them.

The proposed hypothesis was fully confirmed. Here he is - a real Russian soldier, a true patriot of Russia!

Making out their research work on this topic, my classmates became interested in the personality of Evgeny Rodionov. And my history teacher, Olga Vladimirovna Ivanova, suggested that I present my work at school on December 9, when our country celebrates the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland.

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(from the author of the site: when collecting information about Evgeny, it was very difficult to keep thoughts and emotions in focus. As a 30-year-old mentally healthy man, I was constantly "overwhelmed with emotions." Sorry, but that's why I post the material in episodes - in pieces). Yevgeny Rodionov - private of the Border Troops of the Russian Federation. Killed in the first Chechen campaign. After 100 days of captivity, he was beheaded (alive, with a knife) by militants on May 23, 1996 (on his birthday) for refusing to remove his pectoral cross and convert to Islam ....

Where was Evgeny Rodionov born?

... Evgeny Alexandrovich Rodionov was born on May 23, 1977 in the village of Chibirley, Kuznetsk district of the Penza region. In more than a year, Eugene was baptized, but he did not wear a pectoral cross, and only in 1988 (or 1989) did his grandmother take Eugene to the temple, where they gave him a cross. Yevgeny Rodionov began to wear the cross without taking it off. I threaded a thick strong rope - "it's more reliable."

Mom was embarrassed: "They will laugh at you at school." - "Let me decide so, and so it will be."

Evgeny Rodionov military service

... After a training unit on June 25, 1995, he was drafted into the army and served as a grenade launcher at the 3rd border outpost of the 3rd motorized maneuver group 479 of the Special Purpose Border Detachment (military unit 3807, disbanded in 1998) of the modern Red Banner Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia in the Kaliningrad Region on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya. He took the military oath on July 10, 1995. On January 13, 1996, he was sent on a six-month business trip under the command of the Nazran border detachment (military unit No. 2094), where, after serving for one month, he was captured.
Zhenya was very proud that he was a border guard, that he was engaged in a real business that the Motherland needed. At that last meeting, Zhenya told his mother: “From our unit, everyone is sent to hot spots, and I have already written a report ...” Seeing how pale his mother turned, he tried to calm her down: “No one has ever escaped fate. I can go out on the road, and a car will kill me ... But captivity ... Captivity - that's how lucky.

How did Yevgeny Rodionov get captured?

... On February 13, 1996, together with privates Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov, he took up a post on the Chechnya-Ingushetia road section. At night, a minibus with the inscription "ambulance" drove up to their post. Fifteen healthy hulks armed to the teeth jumped out from there under the control of Brigadier General of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Ruslan Khaykhoroev. The boys did not give up without a fight. There were traces of blood on the pavement. Yevgeny’s colleagues, who were literally 200 meters from the road, clearly heard the cry: “HELP!!!” But for some reason all this did not make any impression on them. Many were asleep! After the discovery of their disappearance from the post, the soldiers were first declared deserters. Policemen came to Rodionov's mother's house to look for her son after his disappearance. The version that the soldiers were taken prisoner was accepted after a detailed examination of the scene and the discovery of traces of blood and struggle.

Yevgeny Rodionov did not film.

... From the first day of the 100-day captivity, when they saw the Cross on Zhenya's neck, the bandits tried to “break” him, to force him to accept their faith. They longed to force him to torture and kill soldiers like him, boys. Eugene categorically refused.

He was beaten. They kept repeating: “Take off the Cross and you will live!!!” And these are not empty words. The gang leaders themselves later assured Lyubov Vasilievna (Yevgeny's mother, who traveled throughout Chechnya during the war in search of her son after his disappearance): "Become your son one of us, and we would not offend him." Khaikhoroev offered the exhausted boys to convert to Islam and continue to fight on the side of the militants. All the prisoners refused. Eugene did not take off his pectoral cross, which the killers demanded.

Execution of Yevgeny Rodionov

…. near the village of Bamut, Chechnya. On May 23, 1996, Evgeny just turned 19. He, along with the rest of the soldiers, was taken to the forest near Bamut. First, they killed friends, those with whom he was on his last border duty. Then for the last time they offered: “Take off the Cross! We swear by Allah, you will live!!! Eugene didn't take it off. And then he was executed in cold blood - they cut off his head alive - but they did not dare to remove the Cross. Ruslan Khaikhoroev confessed to the murder.

In the presence of a foreign representative of the OSCE, he said: “... He had a choice to stay alive. He could have changed his faith, but he did not want to remove the cross from himself. I tried to escape ... ". ... Soon after the capture, the mother of Eugene,

Mother of Evgeny Rodionov

Lyubov Vasilievna, came to Chechnya in search of her son, who was believed to be a deserter. His commander informed her that he was a prisoner, but did not show any interest in his fate. She went to Basaev, he promised her to find her son with everyone, but when she left the village, Basaev's brother caught up with her and severely beat her to a pulp, breaking her spine. In the end, she was forced to pay money to the militants in order to find out where her son was buried. Eugene's body was identified by his mother by a pectoral cross. Later, the results of the identification were confirmed by the examination. Eugene's cross was found in a grave on his headless body, and later Eugene's mother gave it to the church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhy, where it was kept in the altar for several years.

Where is Evgeny Rodionov buried?

... Yevgeny Rodionov was buried near the village of Satino-Russkoye, Podolsky district, Moscow region, near the Church of the Ascension of Christ. However, the soldier's mother will again go to her son's killer and say, "Return the son's head." He will laugh and leave, and after a while he will bring her a few pieces of the skull. The superstitious highlander was afraid of him and the dead, and therefore he smashed the severed head with the butt of a machine gun so that he would not pursue him in the next world ... ... Incredible things began to happen in various parts of Russia. Back in 1997, I visited a then-new rehabilitation Orthodox orphanage. There, one of the vagrant girls told me about a certain soldier - "a tall one, in a red cape", who "called himself Eugene, took my hand and led me to church." I was still surprised, there don’t seem to be red cloaks, then I gasped: “Yes, this is the cloak of a martyr!” ….Further more. Many churches were told about the “Divine Warrior in a fiery cloak”, helping captured soldiers in Chechnya find the path to freedom, showing them mines and stretch marks ... In the Burdenko hospital, the wounded soldiers claimed that they knew a certain soldier Yevgeny, who helps them, “especially when pains are approaching ”... Many swear that they saw him on the icon when they were on an excursion in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Moreover, the “warrior in a red cape” is also known to the prisoners. "He helps the weak, lifts the broken..."

... In 1997, by order of the church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhy, with the blessing of His Holiness Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', the book "The New Martyr for Christ, Warrior Eugene" was published. And immediately a report came from the priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk that

“The photo on the cover of the book MYROTOCHIT…

Miro is light in color, with a slight smell of pine needles. I myself felt the same unique tart aroma when, in the house of Lyubov Vasilievna, I kissed the icon of her son, Holy Warrior Eugene ...

... They put a cross on the grave. The wooden one is the tallest in our entire village cemetery. The inscription was made: "Here lies the Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce the Cross." People slip notes near the grave between the pebbles ...
.... Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic: "My opinion about the death of a soldier Rodionov, who was killed by bandits, demanding to change his faith, is a heroic deed of one person and a vile abomination of those who killed him."

!For many, Eugene has become a symbol of courage, honor and loyalty.!

Prayer to Martyr Eugene (Archpriest Valentin Sidorov compiled a service to Martyr Warrior Eugene):

Passion-bearer of Russia, warrior Eugene!
Graciously accept our prayers with love and thanksgiving to you brought before your holy icon.
Hear us, the weak and infirm, with faith and love worshiping your brightest image.
Your fiery love for the Lord, your fidelity to Him alone, your fearlessness before torment have given you eternal life.
You did not remove the Cross from your chest for the sake of this temporary life.
Your cross shone for all of us as a guiding star on the path of salvation.
Do not leave us on this path, holy martyr Eugene, praying to you with tears.

Prayer to the martyr Yevgeny Rodionov, compiled by Hieromonk Varlaam (Yakunin) from the Altai Republic. Kontakion, tone 4:

Thou didst appear to the astonishment of strength, imitating Christ's patience even to death, thou wast not afraid of the Agarian torment, and thou didst not renounce the Cross of the Lord, accepting death from the tormentors like the cup of Christ; For this sake, we cry out to you: Holy Martyr Eugene, pray for us, sufferer.

There are portraits of Eugene in dozens of churches (the portrait-icon on the altar door in the church of the apostles Peter and Paul in the Znamenka estate near Peterhof has been around since 2000 and was removed for an unknown reason around 2010-11; in Altai - in Aktash, Novoaltaysk , Zarinsk, etc.). Icons of the warrior Eugene the Russian are also painted in Serbia. In Ukraine, priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk had an image of Yevgeny Rodionov streaming myrrh.

“Here lies the Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov,” it is inscribed on the cross placed on his grave, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce Christ, who was executed near Bamut on May 23, 1996.

A short biography of Evgeny Rodionov is simple and ordinary.

He grew up as an ordinary, strong and healthy child. He studied well at school, but when he finished the ninth grade, he went to work at a furniture factory.

The work of a furniture maker - he mastered the specialties of an assembler, upholsterer and cutter - he liked, and the earnings were decent. As her mother, Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova, recalls, she did not receive so much even at three jobs ...

Life started getting better...

Then, in 1994, the Rodionovs moved into a two-room apartment.

And a year later, when he was eighteen years old, Eugene was drafted into the army.

- Zhenya did not want to go to the army ... - says Lyubov Vasilievna. But debt is everything. And he, and other guys from his company, all perfectly understood that there are things that you want, you don’t want, but you need to do it. There was never any question of evading the army.

Evgeny did not try to evade even when he was sent to Chechnya.

– Zhenya, there is a war going on, you don’t even know how serious it is. There are already prisoners there, there are dead, and if something happens, you know, I won’t survive, ”Lubov Vasilievna tried to dissuade him.

- Mom ... - Evgeny answered her. - No one has ever escaped fate ... I can go out onto the road, and a car will crush me. What will make it easier for you? And captivity ... Captivity is how lucky ...

On January 13, 1996, Yevgeny was sent to military unit 2038 of the Nazran border detachment, and a month later, on February 13, 1996, young soldiers were sent on duty to the checkpoint, two hundred meters from the outpost.

This PKK was located on the road along which Chechen fighters transported weapons, ammunition and prisoners, and was an ordinary booth without light, without communication, without any fire support ...

There were four of them on duty that day: Andrey Trusov, Igor Yakovlev, Alexander Zheleznov and Yevgeny Rodionov. Not sniffing gunpowder "newbies" from training. Their impromptu checkpoint did not dare to be called a roadblock. In this booth, it was hardly possible to hide from rain and snow, not like from a bullet. They didn't even put up a barrier. A bare field, a road and three hundred meters to their camp...

The old ambulance seemed suspicious to them from afar: it was sneaking from Chechen territory like a thief. We decided to stop. The car was stuffed to capacity with weapons, it was personally driven to Ingushetia by Brigadier General Ruslan Khaykhoroev. The fight was short: a dozen hefty militants against yesterday's boys. They were simply beaten with rifle butts, tied up and taken to Chechnya. They called for help - where there. In the unit at that time there was a "buzz" - they were celebrating Valentine's Day. The "in love" commanders realized it only after a few hours, but they decided not to make a fuss. They realized that it was their own fault.

Three days later, the parents of the guys received telegrams: “Your son left the unit ...” The command accused all four of desertion. In Nalchik, a criminal case was opened against them. And in order to finish off, apparently, completely, they also showed up at the soldiers' houses with searches. Leaving, the law enforcement officers warned Rodionov’s mother: “As soon as your son appears, immediately lead to us, there is nothing to hide the fugitives.” Lyubov Vasilievna, of course, wept, but she did not believe in her son's betrayal. I was planning to go to Chechnya: to look for Zhenya. And the guys were tortured all this time - a hundred days.

“This telegram for the rest of my life cut me off with a black stripe from that bright, albeit not quite easy, but normal life that we lived with my son,” recalls Lyubov Vasilievna. “It was scary that they might think such a thing about him. Everyone knew Zhenya as a faithful, principled person. And suddenly, having received such a telegram, I went there, and here, at home, in the basements, in the dacha, policemen began to climb - to look for a deserter.

When I arrived at the unit, they apologized to me and said that they didn’t sort out the turmoil right away, they got excited. In fact, everything was so obvious there that even two weeks after this incident, the blood stain on the road was not completely covered with snow. There were visible signs of a struggle... The observer saw how an ambulance drove up to the checkpoint at three o'clock, he even heard a cry: "Help!". After that, silence. For some reason, this did not excite anyone, for some reason the detachment was not alerted. At four o'clock in the morning they went to change the guys, and when they arrived, they were no longer there ... "

An imposing colonel from the commission for the search for prisoners of war will tell Rodionova: “Find yourself a militant, become his mistress, and he will quickly help you find your son, but who will look for that?” Her Chechen marathon lasted nine months. How she survived, probably only God knows. She lived with the federals, then with the "Czechs". The Chechens' safe-conduct was a Polaroid photograph of Rodionova next to Khattab - she lived for some time in the camp of the main "treasurer" of the militants. He generally did not like to act next to women, but made an exception for Rodionova.

The mother was looking for her son for 9 months. She was late. Yevgeny was killed on May 23 - the day of his 19th birthday. The militant cut off his head: only in this case, according to wild belief, the enemy will not come after you later. The rest were simply shot.

“He was in captivity for three and a half months,” says Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova. “I know he was waiting, he hoped that they wouldn’t leave him, they simply couldn’t leave him, that they would release him and that it would all end, but no one needed him. Unfortunately, he is not alone. From time immemorial, captivity has been considered the worst thing that can happen to a person. Captivity is captivity, it is bullying. Life has shown that Chechen captivity is the most terrible, most inhuman, savage thing that can ever happen in the world.”

Rodionov could have escaped. Khaikhoroev hinted to him more than once: “If you want to live, accept the “true faith”, become the defender of “free Ichkeria”. Some broke. Zhenya refused to take off the cross: once he cast it with his own hands and never parted with it. The corpses were thrown into a crater from an aerial bomb and covered with earth in haste.

Even for the dead Yevgeny and his guys, Khaikhoroev demanded money - 4 thousand dollars. The woman had to mortgage her apartment in Kurilovo. The mediator brought her to the place and said: "Look." It was a huge clearing: one hundred by one hundred meters. Digging at night. We stumbled upon the grave already closer to the morning. Among the bones was a cross gleaming in the light of a flashlight with small blood stains. Zhenya's cross.

Yevgeny Rodionov's father died four days after his son's funeral: his heart could not stand it. Lyubov Vasilievna bought the apartment, put an end to her son's grave: the world was not without good people. Posthumously, Private Rodionov was awarded the Order of Courage. A lamp is now burning on his grave almost all the time, and people come and go here. They come specially from the most remote corners of Russia, from other countries to bow to the Russian soldier.

Lyubov Vasilievna remembers the feeling of danger that did not leave her for a long time after Evgeny was born. Then everything was forgotten, and remembered after nineteen years.

She says that although the boy grew up healthy and strong, he did not start walking for a long time, and, worried, Lyubov Vasilievna decided to baptize him. A month after that, Eugene went, went firmly, confidently, without haste.

I was also surprised by his observation. Eugene paid attention to what no one would ever pay attention to.

“I remember,” Lyubov Vasilievna writes, “I took him with me to the forest, it was a hot, good summer. The forest was next to us. He stood on the path among the tall ferns. I hid and thought that now he would start looking for me, show some kind of anxiety. Silence. Then I looked out, and was surprised to find that my child had even forgotten that his mother was nearby - he was so enthusiastically looking at the fern, on which various insects were crawling, and looked at all this with such joy; and then, throughout life, he somehow saw each blade of grass in a special way. I have not been given it. I can walk along the path and mechanically pluck the grass, leaves, twigs growing on the side of the road without noticing it. He never did this, he always said: "Mom, you need to tie your hands."

Very soon, Lyubov Vasilievna discovered that for all her quietness and invisibility, her son had a fairly strong character.

At eleven, he returned from summer vacation with a cross around his neck.

- Zhenya, what is it? Lyubov Vasilievna asked.

- It's a cross. I went to church with my grandmother before school, so I took communion, confessed, and they gave it to me.

- Zhenya, take off, what are you, they will laugh at you.

The son was silent, but did not remove the cross.

Sometimes the question arises, why did Yevgeny Rodionov sacrifice his young life, what did he achieve with this, what did he want to prove?

He overcame both his fear and his grievances, and won the victory, which is most difficult of all ... He won the victory that every person must win in himself if he wants to save both his Motherland and his own ...

We do not know what spiritual experiences Yevgeny had with his pectoral cross. It is possible that there were no special ones. Except the belief that this is the Cross of Christ.

First of all, the very picture of the torture of prisoners reveals a lot. No one can imagine all the horrors they were subjected to. A person can go through any torture and through death and be saved. But to renounce the faith, to renounce everything that is the cornerstone of the soul, to say that my whole life is a lie, that I don’t believe in God, I don’t love my parents, that I don’t give a damn about my Fatherland and the Church, and stay alive - what to do to the person after that with his life? After renouncing God from the mere consciousness that you have betrayed God, the pain does not stop. Spiritual pain is incomparably more painful than physical pain. What should a person do after this so as not to go crazy? Only pray. Without prayer of repentance it is impossible to survive.

The most significant thing that can be said about the warrior Eugene is that he participated in suffering for Christ. He went through unthinkable torments, but did not renounce the Orthodox faith, but confirmed it with his martyrdom. He proved that Russia, as in former times, is capable of giving birth to martyrs for Christ, which means that it is invincible.

In the holy army of the Archangel Michael, a worthy warrior. Clean, correct look. A man from childhood showed his way. Real Warrior. Like Peresvet. No big words.

Felix, age: 33 / 20.10.2017

A low bow to his parents, his mother for such a son ... For her endurance and stamina. An incredibly strong woman, just like her son. Blessed memory of Eugene, Hero of our time... An example for everyone.

24 , age: 21/24.05.2013

Blessed memory of the dead sons of Russia! Patience and courage to mothers who did not wait! Shame and contempt for corrupt cattle who push the children to a senseless death, glory to the Russian people, unbending and unbeatable, UNTIL WE ARE TOGETHER WE ARE ONE!

Pavel, age: 33 / 03/03/2011

Each person lives his own mind, his own life..but not everyone thinks about such\"little things\" as:\"Why do I live? What is my goal on this Earth?\"... They say that you need to live your life with dignity so that they would later remember her with a kind word, that is, leave a useful piece of myself for posterity ... And I completely agree with this! Life, it is short and every minute of life is precious. Every word, deed has its consequences... And if a person does GOOD, as Yevgeny Rodionov did, then this is a Man with a capital letter. Eugene, like a staunch tin soldier with a warm heart, overcame the painful torture of a hundred days ... He won the victory in what he believed, and Eugene believed in God. He was not afraid of death .. He was only afraid of losing himself, the meaning of life, after renouncing what was dear to him ... After all, FAITH for him was the core that helped to understand the essence of this confusing life ... (Faith is a big part of the soul. .And if a person’s soul consists of a hard stone, then we can confidently say that he is lost.) So Evgeny Rodionov left a memory of himself .., a memory of a SPIRITUALLY strong Person who will be remembered to this day ...

Svetlana, age: 10/19/2010

His feat once again confirms that there is not I and They, but We! To protect and love our Motherland, to love God and stand to the end for "faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland" is not "foreign interests", as some have put it, BUT OUR COMMON BUSINESS!

Skeptic, age: 24/19/04/2010

A real Russian guy (not like today) There would be more of these

Hrono , age: 20/02/03/2010

Yeah, and they call to go to such an army in order to become real men. It infuriates that our military are cowards, afraid to take responsibility for themselves. Who will they bring up in such an army and what will they teach? Where is the cripple Andrey Sychev now, beaten half to death by grandfathers on New Year's Eve? How is he doing? Who knows? nobody. And the death of Zhenya is not death, but a victory for the sake of our God Jesus Christ!

Andrey, age: 32 / 01/08/2010

One question is not clear. We know about the feat of Yevgeny Rodionov, we know where he is buried. However, we do not know the names of his "valiant commanders", and the number of the zone where they are sitting is not posted for some reason. Objectively, they committed a crime - out of drunkenness, through negligence, out of cowardice. It doesn't matter. The blood of Rodionov and other guys is on the hands of these same commanders. There is no worse enemy than an undercover reptile.

Rory, age: 29/08/10/2009

God rest his soul. Be Eugene a real example for the boys. Because of people like Evgeny Rodionov, Russia has been and will be invincible. Keep her Lord.

Alexander, age: 39 / 07/15/2009

As I read this post, tears keep running down my cheeks. I think about this soldier, and about millions like him... Eternal memory to you.

Seagull, age: 20 / 04.11.2008

Yes, the guy himself is well done .... But it is a pity that he died at the age of 19, "protecting" other people's interests ...

Irena Horch, age: 25/25.06.2008

See also on this topic:

Prince Alexander Nevsky: the sun of the Russian land
Admiral Ushakov - invincible naval commander
Colonel Konstantin Vasiliev: life is for friends
Nikolay Pirogov: War with pain ( Andrey Kulba)
Good Doctor Haaz ( Historian Stanislav Velichko)
The truth about the 6th company of the Pskov landing ( Michael)
Firefighter Yevgeny Chernyshev: remained in the line of fire
Archimandrite Alipy Voronov: the best defense is an offensive
Boyar Evpaty Kolovrat - death as a victory ( Dmitry Semenik)

On June 25, 1995, 18-year-old Rodionov was drafted into the army. First, he ended up in the training unit of the military training unit No. 2631 of the Border Troops of the Russian Federation near Kaliningrad. After that, he served as a grenade launcher at the 3rd border outpost of the 3rd motorized maneuver group of the 479th special border detachment on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya.

On January 13, 1996, Evgeny was sent for combat training to the Nazran border detachment. On February 4, 1996, he was on duty along with privates Andrei Trusov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov. The military stopped a minibus with the inscription "Ambulance", in which Brigadier General of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Ruslan Khaykhoroev was traveling with his militants. It turned out that weapons were being transported in the car. When they tried to search the border guards, they were captured.

First, the missing soldiers were declared deserters. The police were looking for Rodionov at his parents' house. And only after a detailed examination of the scene, when traces of blood and struggle were found, the version about captivity was adopted.

Mother Evgenia Lyubov Vasilievna went to Chechnya in search of her son. She managed to contact Shamil Basayev, but after trying to negotiate she was severely beaten and held hostage for three days. Only when Lyubov Rodionova paid the militants a large amount of money - about 4 thousand dollars (for this she had to sell the apartment and all valuables) - she was told about the fate of her son and indicated the place of his burial.

As it turned out, Yevgeny Rodionov was executed by Chechen fighters. One hundred days he and his comrades were brutally tortured, demanding to convert to Islam. However, Zhenya refused to take off the Orthodox cross. On May 23, 1996, his own birthday, he was beheaded.

The corpse of Yevgeny Rodionov, found in a grave without a head, was identified by his mother by a pectoral cross. Later, the examination confirmed the identification results.

Today marks twenty years since the martyrdom of Yevgeny Rodionov. A 19-year-old private of the border troops was brutally murdered in captivity by militants in the North Caucasus on his birthday, May 23, for refusing to take off his Orthodox cross.

Who rushed through the Earth like lightning,

He is clothed with light under heaven...

Father Vasily Roslyakov

/killed by a satanist on Easter, aged 32./

“Zhenya was born at half past midnight on May 23, 1977. The birth was not difficult. Zhenya was a strong, healthy child, height 52 cm, weight 3900. When I heard his first cry, a cry that “I came into this world, meet me, love me," such a sigh of relief escaped, and my eyes accidentally fell on the window. It was deep night, a dark sky, in which bright large stars, and at that moment a star suddenly began to fall across the sky. I turned pale, my heart became small , cold and for some reason shaggy lump. Doctors and nurses began to convince me that this is a good sign, which means that the child will have a good fate, and so will I. But the feeling of danger, fear, tense expectation of something did not leave me for a very long time. Then somehow everything was forgotten, and remembered nineteen years later ... "

The patriotic press has already written about the feat of 19-year-old Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov, who in 1996 found himself in Chechen captivity and, at the time of the most sophisticated torture, did not betray the Fatherland and Faith, did not take off his pectoral cross. The state awarded Eugene with the Order of Courage. Now, thanks to donations, a two-meter cross has been erected on his grave, a lamp is lit, and people come and go here. They come, on purpose, from the most remote corners of Russia, from other countries, to bow "to my unknown, quiet son." Mother, Lyubov Vasilievna Rodionova says that this is the attitude of people "turned my whole mind in life..." And once one of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War came to the grave of his son in Kurilovo (near Podolsk). He took off his front-line award - the medal "For Courage" - and put it on the gravestone ...

The biography of Yevgeny Rodionov, recorded from the words of his mother, was published in the first book dedicated to the soldier, published in 2002, - "The New Martyr for Christ, the Warrior Eugene" / Moscow, "Chronos-Press" /. This is, more precisely, a small brochure compiled by the rector of the church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhy, Archpriest Alexander Shargunov. Nevertheless, we still know very little about the life of Yevgeny - his innermost thoughts, feelings, experiences, about what he had to endure during more than three months of captivity with Chechen bandits. Much here is shrouded in a veil of secrecy.

Priest Alexander Shargunov and rector of the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands in the village of Prokhorovo near Moscow Father Vladimir Pereslegin reflect on the feat of Yevgeny Rodionov on the pages of the publication. Lyubov Vasilievna shares her memories - how she raised her son, what he was interested in and what he aspired to in life, how he worked and studied, how he treated military service and how he voluntarily left to serve ... And then, already terrible memories, - about the news that came home about the alleged "desertion", about the circles of hell that were then passed through. About what happened in a hostile and mined Chechnya in order to find his son. Son's body...

18-year-old Yevgeny Rodionov, along with three other soldiers, was taken prisoner on the night of February 13-14 near the village of Galashki. The guys, who had arrived at the location of the unit from the Kaliningrad region just a month before, were on guard duty on the Chechen-Ingush border. An open PKK (checkpoint) was located about two hundred meters from the outpost. A small booth - without communication and light, without any fire support - on the only "road of life" in the mountains, along which weapons, ammunition, prisoners, drugs were transported ... From the ambulance that drove up, which the border guards stopped for checks , "orderlies" in camouflage suddenly jumped out - more than a dozen Chechens armed to the teeth. It was not difficult for these thugs to cope with the youngsters who had not yet been shot. Although, recalls Lyubov Vasilievna, "Even two weeks after this incident, the blood stain on the road was not completely covered with snow. Traces of a struggle were visible there - that they were not left in the car like chickens ...". The mother believes that the guys suffered largely due to the negligence of the officers.

And then the captivity began. "From time immemorial, captivity has been considered the most terrible thing that can happen to a person. Captivity is bondage, it is bullying. Life has shown that Chechen captivity is the most terrible, most inhuman, savage thing that can ever happen in the world ...",- says Lyubov Rodionova.

"Mom, no one has ever escaped fate. I can go out onto the road, and a car will crush me. Will it make it easier for you? said the son before saying goodbye to his mother.

And as soon as she found out, she searched for Zhenya all over Chechnya for ten months. “I had to go through all the torments, all the circles of hell that there are on earth, which a person could think of. Apparently, the Lord led me along those roads where I walked and didn’t get blown up, although there were more mines than stones. He protected me from the bombings, did not give me the opportunity to die, considered that it was my duty, the duty of a mother, to find my son, bury him in his native land; only now I understood everything, but then, when I walked along the military roads, I only silently prayed to the Lord ... "

Chechen thugs killed Yevgeny Rodionov on May 23, 1996 - on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, in the Chechen village of Bamut. On the day of his death, Eugene had a birthday - he just turned 19 years old. Mother did not have time a little - then she was some seven kilometers from the place of execution. And Bamut was taken by Russian troops - the next day.

The mother was able to find out about the death of her son only in September. In order to find the body of Eugene and then take him, along with other dead comrades, to her homeland, she had to mortgage her own apartment. Lyubov Vasilievna distributed many photographs of her son to Chechen intermediaries, hoping to learn at least something. For big money, one of the Chechens agreed to indicate the place of burial.

“When I arrived at the end of February, an ordinary soldier, alive, was worth 10 million. In August, an ordinary soldier, alive, was worth 50 million, when they were already in the role of winner. Melikhova was asked for 250 million for her son, because he is an officer. It was already night when I, with the sappers, were stealthily digging a hole in the headlights, into which the bodies of four guys were thrown. I stood and only prayed that Zhenya would not be among them. I could not, did not want to believe that he had been killed. one, then another. I already recognized his boots, worn down the way only he wore them out, but I kept saying: "I won't believe it if you don't find my wife's cross." And when someone shouted: "Cross, cross!" I lost consciousness."

The killer of Yevgeny Rodionov turned out to be Ruslan Khaykhoroev. In the end, he himself admitted this - this confession was literally forced out of him by his mother, in the presence of the foreign representative of the OSCE, Lenard: "The son had a choice to stay alive - Khaikhoroev said. - He could have changed his faith, but he did not want to remove the cross from himself. Tried to run... "(Khaikhoroev, along with his bodyguards, was killed in an intra-Chechen gangster showdown on August 23, 1999 - exactly three years and three months after the death of Yevgeny Rodionov.)

Upon the return of Lyubov Vasilievna home, on the 5th day after the funeral, Evgeny's father died, who did not leave his son's grave - his heart could not stand it. And Eugene himself on the same night, after the memorial service, dreamed of his mother. According to her, already "joyful and radiant."

Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov, Acting Chairman of the Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Cooperation with the Armed Forces, said that "The issue of canonization of private Yevgeny Rodionov will be resolved positively - this is a matter of time." A request about this was made to the Synodal Commission for Canonization, however, additional information was required about the fate of the courageous border guard.

Mother Evgenia was invited to the synodal commission for the canonization of the Russian Orthodox Church, where she was heard. The commission made the following conclusions about the death of Yevgeny and his possible canonization: reports of the martyrdom of Yevgeny Rodionov were recorded only from the words of his mother, who did not see her son's death itself. She also cannot confirm with certainty that her son was forced to renounce Christ. With the alleged killer of Yevgeny - Ruslan Khaykhoroev - the mother saw only once in her life, for 7 minutes, during this meeting Ruslan Khaykhoroev, according to the mother herself, did not tell anything about the circumstances of the death of Yevgeny Rodionov. There are no witnesses and testimonies of a martyr's death, except for Rodionov's mother. In early 2004, the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of the Russian Orthodox Church refused canonization due to the lack of reliable information about the death of a martyr in the church sense and that Rodionov led a conscious church life. Nevertheless, the former and. about. Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces, argued that "the issue of canonization of Private Yevgeny Rodionov will be resolved positively - it's a matter of time."

A message was published on the Internet that on October 21, 2008, the warrior Yevgeny Rodionov was glorified as a martyr as a locally revered saint of the Astrakhan-Enotaev diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, in 2011, Archpriest Maxim Maksimov, secretary of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, denied this report in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper: "The diocese itself could not and did not canonize him, and therefore he cannot be locally honored" /

September 25, 2010 in the city of Kuznetsk, Penza region, a monument to Yevgeny Rodionov was opened and consecrated, the composition of the monument is as follows: a bronze candle, the flame of which embraces the figure of Yevgeny; around the head of Eugene is a halo, in his hands he has an eight-pointed cross. The monument was erected on the territory of the 4th school named after Yevgeny Rodionov, the website "Penza Orthodox" reports. and others like him, the injured soldiers Andrei, Igor and Alexander "/

In May 2011, he was included as "New Martyr Eugene the Warrior" in the military memorial service recommended by the Orthodox chaplains of the United States Army to commemorate the dead soldiers on the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist and Demetrius Saturday /

Archpriest Valentin Sidorov composed a service for the martyr warrior Yevgeny. The service includes stichera for small and great vespers, for matins, a canon to the martyr Eugene, including 9 songs and an akathist, and a prayer to the holy martyr Eugene /

Prayer to the martyr Eugene:

Passion-bearer of Russia, warrior Eugene! Graciously accept our prayers with love and thanksgiving to you brought before your holy icon. Hear us, the weak and infirm, with faith and love worshiping your brightest image. Your fiery love for the Lord, your fidelity to Him alone, your fearlessness before torment have given you eternal life. You did not remove the Cross from your chest for the sake of this temporary life. Your cross shone for all of us as a guiding star on the path of salvation. Do not leave us on this path, holy martyr Eugene, praying to you with tears.

Prayer to the martyr Yevgeny Rodionov, compiled by Hieromonk Varlaam (Yakunin) from the Altai Republic. Kontakion, tone 4:

Thou didst appear to the astonishment of strength, imitating Christ's patience even to death, thou wast not afraid of the Agarian torment, and thou didst not renounce the Cross of the Lord, accepting death from the tormentors like the cup of Christ; For this sake, we cry out to you: Holy Martyr Eugene, pray for us, sufferer.

There are portraits of Eugene in dozens of churches (the portrait-icon on the altar door in the church of the apostles Peter and Paul in the Znamenka estate near Peterhof has been around since 2000 and was removed for an unknown reason around 2010-11; in Altai - in Aktash, Novoaltaysk , Zarinsk, etc.). Icons of the warrior Eugene the Russian are also painted in Serbia. In Ukraine, priest Vadim Shklyarenko from Dnepropetrovsk had an image of Yevgeny Rodionov streaming myrrh. "Miro is light in color, with a slight smell of pine needles." The image of Eugene streamed myrrh on November 20, 2002 in the church in the name of the holy martyr Eugene in Altai.

On the canonization of the warrior-martyr Yevgeny Rodionov.

It is said that Serbian soldiers and Russian volunteers asked for the intercession of St. Eugene during the NATO bombing.

Priest Timothy Selsky noted on this occasion that in the Chechen war “The captive Russian guys refused to convert to Islam and became martyrs for Christ, although in peaceful life, it seems, they were not particularly zealous for the Church ... And so they preceded us in the Kingdom of God with all our knowledge in the field of ecclesiology. What raised them immediately to the height of holiness? “Of course, the special grace of God, given in response not to something spiritual, but to a purely spiritual one - to Russian fidelity to duty, to the zeal of a serviceman who does not seek to hide in private life.”

Today, warrior Eugene is already revered as a saint by many Orthodox people not only in Russia, but also in other Orthodox countries (in Serbia he is called Eugene of Russia), more than one and a half hundred icons have been painted, they appeared in dozens of churches, among them there is already a myrrh-streaming image of a martyr warrior , and the day is not far off when the warrior Eugene will be officially canonized by the Church.

At the entrance to the school where Yevgeny studied, there is a memorial plaque of the hero-border guard. A documentary film dedicated to him was released. The pectoral cross of Yevgeny Rodionov was transferred by his mother to the church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhy and is kept in the Altar. And on the cross, installed above the grave, there is an inscription: "Here lies the Russian soldier Yevgeny Rodionov, who defended the Fatherland and did not renounce Christ, who was executed near Bamut on May 23, 1996" .

People come and go here.

“We know that these were long, terrible sufferings, which can probably be compared only with the sufferings of the great martyrs, who were in the most ancient times, when they were dismembered, beheaded, subjected to the most sophisticated tortures, but they testified before the world that the soul, and the body are involved in the Cross of Christ, the victory of God, His Resurrection"(Father Alexander Shargunov, from a sermon at a memorial service on the day of memory of Yevgeny Rodionov).

Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic:

"My opinion about the death of a soldier Rodionov, who was killed by bandits, demanding to change his faith, is a heroic deed of one person and a vile abomination of those who killed him."

As a sign of respect for the feat of a soldier, the inhabitants of Bamut not only do not encroach on the Christian symbol, but also help the Terek Cossacks in taking care of the memorial place.

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