Presbyter
Archpriest Pyotr Ivanovich Pavlushkov, court councillor, was born in 1865 in the city of Vladimir, in a priest’s family. In 1892 he graduated from the Kyiv Theological Academy and was appointed to the Tula Theological Seminary, where he taught Holy Scripture and psychology. From 1907 he served as the seminary’s inspector.
Court councillor Pyotr Ivanovich was a recipient of the Orders of Saint Anna and Saint Stanislaus. On 30 September 1917 he became rector of the Tula Theological Seminary. After the Revolution, the premises of the theological schools were confiscated, and the seminary was closed in early 1918. For the next two years he taught at one of Tula’s schools. On 2 February 1921 he was ordained to the priesthood and appointed rector of the Church of the Twelve Apostles.
In March 1926 Archpriest Pyotr Pavlushkov was arrested. From the indictment: “…is accused of anti-Soviet agitation, which he carried out while delivering sermons from the ambo, for example: ‘If we do not support the Soviet authorities, we will not suffer for it, but if we do not support the law of the Bible, we will be punished in the next world…’.” Fr. Pyotr was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. Under an amnesty of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), the term was reduced by half.
The Renovationist Tula diocesan administration appointed its own priest to the Church of the Holy Twelve Apostles, but the parishioners drove the Renovationist out when they learned of Fr. Pyotr’s release and demanded the return of their beloved pastor. Fr. Pyotr lived amid constant denunciations, inspections, arrests, and struggle against the Renovationists.
On 9 September 1937 Archpriest Pyotr Ivanovich Pavlushkov was arrested again. He was charged with leading a “counterrevolutionary church group.” On 19 November 1937 a death sentence was handed down, and he was shot on 23 November 1937.
