Presbyter
Saint Martyr Basil was born in 1886 in the village of Izvolskoye, Smolensk province. After graduating from the Smolensk Theological Seminary, he worked as a teacher and in 1915 was ordained a priest at the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.
In the 1920s, he was brought to trial for requesting assistance in paying taxes and was sentenced to punishment. In 1931, he was arrested for tax evasion but was later acquitted. In 1937, he was arrested on charges of anti-Soviet activity based on a denunciation.
On November 24, 1937, he was imprisoned in Taganka prison. During the investigation, he denied the accusations. On December 5, 1937, he was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment in a labor camp. He passed away on July 8, 1940, in the Temnikov labor camp and was buried in an unmarked grave.
