New Martyr 20th century

New-Martyrs Tatiana Gribkov & Natalia Kozlov

died 1937

Two of the New Martyrs of Russia, put to death in 1937 during the Soviet persecution

Feast Day
September 1
Draft
Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.
Commemorated as

The Holy New-Martyrs Tatiana (Gribkova) and Natalia (Kozlova) of Russia

Life

Tatiana Gribkova and Natalia Kozlova were two laywomen of the Russian Orthodox Church put to death in 1937 during the Soviet persecution and numbered among the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. They are commemorated together on September 1, the Church New Year, which by the old-style calendar corresponds to the day of execution at the Butovo firing range outside Moscow.

The two women came from different backgrounds and were not, so far as the records indicate, personally connected before their shared commemoration; they are joined in the calendar as fellow sufferers of the same year and the same wave of arrests. Both were accused under the standard Soviet charge of anti-Soviet or counter-revolutionary activity, both maintained their innocence under interrogation, and both were sentenced to death by an extrajudicial NKVD troika rather than by any ordinary court.

Their canonization formed part of the broad glorification of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia undertaken by the Russian Orthodox Church around the turn of the twenty-first century, by which thousands of those who died in the persecutions were numbered among the saints on the basis of investigation files and surviving testimony.

Timeline 5 moments Read Hide
  1. 1878 Birth of Tatiana Gribkova Tatiana Gribkova is born in Shchukino, near Moscow, into the family of a cab driver.
  2. 1895 Birth of Natalia Kozlova Natalia Kozlova is born in the village of Churiki in Ryazan province.
  3. 1937 Martyrdom Both women are arrested, condemned by NKVD troikas, and shot at the Butovo firing range during the Soviet persecution.
  4. 2002 Glorification of Tatiana Tatiana Gribkova is numbered among the saints by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on July 17, 2002.
  5. 2004 Glorification of Natalia Natalia Kozlova is canonized by the Holy Synod on August 17, 2004, and added to the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

Contributions & Legacy

2 contributions Read Hide

Natalia Kozlova

According to the published life, Natalia Kozlova was born on September 12, 1895, in the village of Churiki in the Skopinsky district of Ryazan province, the youngest of five children in a devout peasant family. She married Stepan Kozlov, a religious man, and they raised eight children together while working the land.

She served her parish as church warden and treasurer of the Epiphany Church. Arrested in August 1937, she was charged under Article 58, paragraph 10, with anti-Soviet activity, including the accusation that she had organized religious gatherings and a so-called counter-revolutionary procession. The records relate that she refused to admit guilt. An NKVD troika sentenced her on September 10, 1937, and she was shot on September 14, 1937, at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. She was canonized by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on August 17, 2004.

Tatiana Gribkova

By tradition, Tatiana Gribkova was born in 1878 in Shchukino, then a village and now a district of Moscow, into the family of a cab driver. Accounts describe her as a nurse and paramedic who extended care to prisoners and exiles and gave support to clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1937 she was denounced by a lodger and accused of receiving many visitors, of association with senior clergy, and of anti-Soviet agitation through her assistance to prisoners and her religious conversations. She denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. She was condemned to death by a regional NKVD troika, shot, and buried in an unmarked mass grave at Butovo. She was legally rehabilitated on October 11, 1991, and numbered among the saints by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on July 17, 2002.

Commemorated with Read Hide
Notes

Among the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

Sources: Synaxarion