Mochalny Island — located on the Volga River opposite the confluence of the Oka. Its old name was Rozhnov.
The name is connected with the fact that during the yarmarkas the island housed warehouses for bast fiber (mochal), matting, and sacks. In addition, at the beginning of the 16th century the island belonged to Ivan Mikhailovich Rozhnov, a court bailiff.
In the autumn of 1918 the island became known as the "Nizhny Novgorod Golgotha," a site of mass executions of priests and laypeople. The bodies of those killed were thrown into the Volga River. In 2005 a stone cross was erected on Mochalny Island in memory of those executed.
In total, during the Soviet terror approximately five thousand people were killed on the island. Plans exist to build a memorial chapel on the island in honor of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and in the name of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, and Love, and their mother Sophia. [1]
Historical background
The Red Terror of 1918 on Mochalny Island
During the night of 17–18 August 1918, on Mochalny Island in the Volga opposite the historic center of Nizhny Novgorod, 15 monks of the Oransky Monastery were shot, along with the monastery's abbot, Archimandrite Avgustin, and the rector of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, Nikolai Orlovsky.
Mochalny Island was used by the Nizhny Novgorod Cheka as an execution site for Orthodox clergy and laypeople, many of whom were canonized in 2000 as New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
A memorial cross was erected in Nizhny Novgorod on Mochalny Island in the Volga, opposite the Chkalov Staircase descending to the riverbank.
The cross was placed at the very spot from which, in 1918, the bodies of executed Orthodox priests were thrown into the Volga.
Among the clergymen thrown into the river was Bishop Lavrentiy of Balakhna (Knyazev), who in 1917–1918 effectively governed the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese alone, since the ruling bishop, Archbishop Ioakim (Levitsky), had left in the summer of 1917 for the Local Council in Moscow and from there had gone to Crimea, where he had a dacha, and was hanged there by bandits.
In order to deal with the troublesome bishop, the authorities used as a pretext a resolution passed by the congress of clergy of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese, in which a protest was expressed against the seizure of churches, monasteries, and church property by the godless, as the diocese noted.
The arrested clergy were offered the chance to renounce God and their holy orders — only then might they be pardoned. They refused, whereupon the Chekists savagely beat the priests and pronounced the verdict: execution by shooting.
Late in the evening of 6 November 1918, Bishop Lavrentiy, Archpriest Aleksiy Porfyryev, and the marshal of the Nizhny Novgorod nobility, Aleksei Neidgardt, were shot by Latvian riflemen (Russian soldiers had refused to execute the priests and their compatriot).
In 2000, Bishop Lavrentiy and Archpriest Aleksiy Porfyryev were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The killings of the 1930s
In 1938, not far from Mochalny Island, Father Ioann (Bystrov) and many other priests of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese were brutally murdered (their names are known only to God). They were taken out to the middle of the Volga opposite the town of Bor, near Nizhny Novgorod. The bound priests were pushed into the water one by one while guards watched to make sure no one swam free, using poles to push down anyone who surfaced. All of them perished in this way.
Rehabilitation
The Prosecutor's Office of Nizhny Novgorod Region rehabilitated 38 Nizhny Novgorod residents who were shot by the provincial extraordinary commission (GChK) in 1918 as hostages following the assassination attempt on the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, Vladimir Lenin, and the Chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Moisei Uritsky.
This was reported to the NTA-Privolzhye news agency by the regional prosecutor's office.
A list of 41 people shot without any proven guilt, without trial, on the basis of their former membership in "counter-revolutionary" public organizations or their past service in the army or law enforcement bodies, was published on 1 September 1918 in the newspaper Raboche-Krestyansky Nizhegorodsky Listok.
"The criminal attempt on the life of our ideological leader, Comrade Lenin, the murder of Comrade Uritsky, organized with the funds of the bourgeoisie and with its direct participation, have exhausted the patience of the revolutionary proletariat. In consequence, the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution yesterday shot 41 persons from the enemy camp," the publication stated.
According to the agency's source at NTA-Privolzhye, the 38 Nizhny Novgorod residents shot in 1918 have been recognized as victims of political repression and, by a ruling of the Prosecutor of Nizhny Novgorod Region dated 24 June 2009, have been rehabilitated.
However, no official information confirmed by archival records has yet been established regarding the execution of three more Nizhny Novgorod residents — Vasily Toporkov, Nikolai Kuznetsov, and Ivan Safronov — the agency's source noted.
The Law of the Russian Federation "On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression" of 18 October 1991 provides for the rehabilitation of all victims of political repression who were subjected to such repression on the territory of the Russian Federation from 25 October (7 November) 1917 onward, according to nta-nn.ru.
In the media
"On Mochalny Island, on the mournful shore..."
08:49 — 10.10.2011
These are the opening lines of the inscription on the cross erected here as early as 2004 in memory of those who perished. The island, to which the trade in bast fiber (mochal) was moved from the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka for fire-safety reasons — hence the name — became a place of executions from August 1918 onward.
According to data from the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese, during the years of the "Red Terror" approximately 5,000 people were shot on Mochalny Island — Orthodox clergy and laypeople. Many of them were canonized in 2000 as New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, who laid down their lives for faith and Fatherland at the hands of the godless authorities. They were shot, buried alive, and — bound — pushed one by one into the water from barges near the island where the current runs strong, while guards watched to make sure no one swam free... Yet they did not renounce the Orthodox faith.
It was no accident that the cross — first wooden, then stone — was erected on 30 September, the feast day of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and their mother Sophia. And the memorial chapel that has been decided upon for the island will be consecrated in honor of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and in the name of the holy martyrs. "We believe that the prayers rising from the very heart of Russia, from the place where two great rivers — the Volga and the Oka — meet, from Nizhny Novgorod, the birthplace of true citizens of the Fatherland, Minin and Pozharsky, will strengthen our people in the virtues of faith, hope, love, and wisdom," states the appeal of the organizing committee.
On 30 September of this year, as has become a tradition of several years' standing, a trip to the island was once again organized. It was a sunny, summery warm day when the river ferry set its course for the site of the tragedy — and within minutes the sky darkened, clouds gathered over the city, and the wind picked up. One could not help thinking: "What might they have seen — those who were brought here to be killed? What did they feel? Over there, on the hill, in the city, their family and loved ones remained. Their lives remained there..."
Igumen Damaskin (Orlovsky), a member of the Synodal Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate for the Canonization of Saints, describes one episode of those events in his research as follows: "At dawn the condemned were put aboard a steamboat heading for Mochalny Island. They were firmly convinced that they were dying for their faith, and along the way they served a memorial service for themselves."
Arriving at the island, the participants in the event bowed before the cross on the shore and, carrying banners and icons, made their way into the interior of the island, where a cross stands at the site that has been consecrated for the construction of the memorial chapel. There, a priest of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese, Vyacheslav Senichev, served a prayer service and a memorial service. "We magnify, we magnify you, holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and their mother Sophia..." — the words rang out over the clearing, and at that moment the sun came out, illuminating the concentrated faces of those at prayer.
The memorial service began, and the enormous poplar trees standing in the clearing seemed to fall still, as if listening — only somewhere in the distance a lone titmouse called out plaintively, counting off the passing time. But the moment the congregation began to sing "Eternal Memory...", a gust of wind swept in, and the mighty trees swayed and rustled, shedding their leaves like letters and greetings from those whose souls had been prayerfully remembered by those gathered. Had we been heard? Had we been answered?
Some will call it "mysticism." But I was reminded of a trip to the Iveron Convent in Vyksa in late autumn 2008. Snow already lay on the ground. Evening was falling. We stood within the walls of the Trinity Cathedral — miraculously preserved after a powerful explosion — amid the twisted metal reinforcement bars. A nun told us of eight schema-nuns who had been buried alive after refusing to leave the church before the explosion. The moment the words "Eternal Memory..." fell silent, everyone suddenly heard the song of a small, bright bird: where had it come from, perched on a stalk sticking up through the snow, when even the sparrows and crows had all flown off to roost for the night? Then, too, everyone present had the feeling that we had been heard, that we had been answered. Many had tears in their eyes...
After the prayers at the site of the future church, Irina Valeryevna symbolically passed on to the schoolchildren from the town of Bor who had taken part in the trip (Mochalny Island now belongs to the territory of Bor) a handful of earth, with an appeal to remember that it had been watered with the blood of martyrs and to surrender it to no one. The island was defended with great difficulty against those who wished to build wharves there and turn it into a place of entertainment.
The children were entrusted with the "Torch of Good Deeds": they were charged with collecting information about all the good deeds that would be performed for the construction of this church.
The participants in the event walked in a religious procession across the island, after which a small memorial meal was held: everyone was offered hot tea with homemade pies, lovingly prepared by the organizers and participants of the trip.
....The leaflet distributed to all present states: "Your participation may take the form of any good deed, a kind word, a kind thought, or a contribution within your means."
Vera Vazhdaeva, Nizhny Novgorod Pravda, No. 110, 10.10.2011