Martyr
Martyrs Euthymius Grebenshchikov and Peter Vyaznikov
† 2 августа 1930
Also known as: Мчч. Евфимий и Петр (1930), Мч. Евфимий Гребенщиков, Мч. Петр Вязников
Peasants of Platava in Voronezh province, arrested after the suppression of their village's resistance to collectivization and shot in Voronezh on 2 August 1930 together with a group of clergy.
The Martyrs Euthymius Grebenshchikov (b. 1903) and Peter Vyaznikov (b. 1876) were peasants of the village of Platava in Voronezh province.
When a collective farm was forced on the village in December 1929 and its better-off families were marked for deportation, the peasants resisted. In January 1930 the villagers chose Euthymius as their elder; some at their gatherings said it was better to die for the faith of Christ than for the faith of Antichrist. On 2 February 1930 OGPU detachments stormed Platava, killing and wounding villagers and arresting more than a hundred people, among them Peter and Euthymius. Under interrogation both denied taking part in an uprising; Euthymius said he learned of his election as elder only when he was arrested.
Their case was joined to that of several Voronezh clergy, among them Archpriest John Steblin-Kamensky. On 28 July 1930 the OGPU Collegium sentenced them all to death, and on the evening of 2 August 1930 they were shot on the outskirts of Voronezh and buried in an unmarked common grave. They are commemorated on 20 July (2 August New Style) among the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.