Presbyter
Saint Martyr Vsevolod was born on March 25, 1874, in the village of Troitskoye, Moscow Province, in the family of priest Vasily Smirnov. In 1897, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and became a teacher. In 1900, he was ordained as a priest. For his impeccable service, he became a protopresbyter in 1926.
October 1929 marked the beginning of persecutions: for preaching repentance, he was arrested and imprisoned in Butyrka prison. During interrogations, he denied any anti-Soviet agitation. On November 18, 1929, he was sentenced to three years of exile in the Northern region.
At the end of 1932, he was released and returned to the church. He served until 1937, when he was arrested again on October 10, accused of anti-Soviet agitation. On November 11, the NKVD troika sentenced him to execution. Protopresbyter Vsevolod Smirnov was shot on November 13, 1937, and buried in an unmarked grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
