On the fourth Saturday after Easter, the Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the Cathedral of the New Martyrs in Butovo. This is a special day of ecclesiastical and national remembrance of those who died for their faith during the years of persecution, remaining faithful to Christ and the Church.
The Butovo firing range is located within Moscow today, but in the history of Russia it has remained one of the most terrible places of mass shootings and graves of victims of political repression in the 1930s and early 1950s. From August 1937 to October 1938, 20,765 people were shot and buried here. Among them were peasants, workers, employees, representatives of noble families, scientists, military, cultural figures, people of different nationalities and faiths. Many of them had nothing to do with the political struggle: they were accused on formal, far-fetched or absurd grounds.
Orthodox clergy and laity hold a special place among those killed. Hundreds of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were shot at the Butovo training ground: bishops, archimandrites, archpriests, priests, deacons, monks, nuns, novices, hymnists, regents, choristers, church elders, icon painters, members of church councils and ordinary parishioners. Almost all of them were charged under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. The reason could be worship services at home, assistance to exiled clergy, shelter for a priest, the preservation of the church community, or even words that churches were closing and clergymen were being arrested.
However, in matters of faith, many of the victims showed amazing courage. The investigators tried to get them to renounce the Church, self-incriminate themselves, and denounce other people. But even under pressure, torture, and the threat of death, believers did not renounce God or blaspheme the Church. A characteristic detail is often found in investigative cases: The defendants did not name new names, nor did they provide the investigation with material for new arrests. Their silence became the last evidence of love and loyalty.
Butov's story remained hidden for a long time. The territory of the training ground was under the protection of the special services, was fenced off and closed to the relatives of the victims. It was only in the early 1990s that work began to restore memory: investigative cases were studied, biographies of the executed were compiled, and relatives of the victims came to the training ground for the first time. In 1994, a Large Cross of Worship was erected here, and in 1995, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the marching church. Later, the territory was transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate, and a church was built here in the name of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
In 2000, at the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, many victims in Butovo were glorified. In 2003, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the celebration of the Council of the New Martyrs in Butovo was included in the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church. Today, about a thousand people are known to have been shot here for professing the Orthodox faith; hundreds of them have been canonized.
The Butovo training ground has become not only a place of mourning, but also a place of prayer. A solemn divine service is held annually over the burial ditches, gathering bishops, clergymen, pilgrims and descendants of the murdered. It is especially clear here that the memory of the new martyrs is not only the memory of the tragedy. It is a memory of spiritual fortitude, of human dignity, and of loyalty that cannot be destroyed by violence. Butovo reminds us that even in the darkest times, holiness can manifest itself in an ordinary person — in his silent courage, in his refusal to betray his neighbor and in his willingness to keep faith to the end.