Private Evgeny Rodionov. Biography

May 23 marked the 30th anniversary of the death of Yevgeny Rodionov, an ordinary soldier of the border troops. Captured by militants during the First Chechen War, he was tortured for about 100 days and executed on his birthday for refusing to remove his cross. About the early years of the serviceman, military service, the circumstances of captivity and national memory — in the material of Izvestia.

Early years and faith

Evgeny Rodionov was born on May 23, 1977 in the village of Chibirley, Kuznetsky district, Penza region. His father, Alexander Rodionov, worked as a carpenter and furniture maker (he died a week after his son's funeral). My mother, Lyubov, is a furniture technologist by profession. In 1984, the family moved to the village of Kurilovo in the Moscow region, where Evgeny graduated from the ninth grade of secondary school. Then he worked at a furniture factory, studied to be a driver.

In early childhood, Rodionov was baptized, but he did not wear a cross. It was only later that the boy was taken to the temple by his grandmother. There, the future military man was given a cross. At the same time, the mother, a former communist, admitted that she did not put any effort into her son's religious upbringing — two grandmothers led him to faith. In her opinion, Eugene's steadfastness in faith was formed after the words of his father, which he remembered for the rest of his life.

Military service and captivity

In 1995, Rodionov was drafted into the army. According to his mother's recollections, after receiving the summons, he was happy that he got into the border troops. He served on the administrative border of Chechnya and Ingushetia. In September 1995, the last meeting with his mother took place, during which Rodionov said that he had asked to be sent to a hot spot. In January 1996, he was sent to the Nazran border detachment, on the border with Chechnya.

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On the night of February 13-14, 1996, Junior Sergeant Andrei Trusov and privates Evgeny Rodionov, Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov were on guard duty at a checkpoint in a mountainous area on the border of Chechnya and Ingushetia.

An ambulance carrying militants of field commander Ruslan Khaikhoroev drove up to the checkpoint. The soldiers stopped the car for inspection, but were captured. The unit's command mistakenly informed the parents that the soldiers had voluntarily left the unit, but later the fact of capture was confirmed.

Torture and execution

Rodionov and his colleagues were held captive for about 100 days, being subjected to severe torture and bullying. As Khaikhoroev later told Yevgeny's mother in the presence of an OSCE representative, the Russian serviceman had a choice: take off his Orthodox cross, convert to Islam, fight on the side of the militants — and stay alive. However, Rodionov refused to comply with these demands.

Because of this, on May 23, 1996, on the day of his 19th birthday, Evgeny Rodionov was executed by militants in the village of Bamut — a military man's head was cut off. Khaikhoroev also promised to kill his mother Lyudmila Rodionova if she appeared in Chechnya again.

The search for Rodionov's mother and burial

Lyubov Rodionova spent nine months searching for her son on her own. The woman was negotiating with militant leaders, was in captivity, and met with field commander Khattab. Through an intermediary, she managed to buy her son's body from the militants, and then his head.

Rodionov is buried in the cemetery in the village of Satino-Russian in the Troitskiy administrative district of Moscow, near the Church of the Ascension of Christ. The military was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage.

National memory

Years later, Rodionov was revered as a martyr, although the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) did not officially canonize him. Images of the soldier appeared on icons, commemorative signs, crosses of worship and military chevrons.

Monuments and memorials dedicated to the soldier have been erected in various regions of Russia, including the Tula, Penza, Moscow and Voronezh regions. On the 165th kilometer of the M4 Don highway in the Tula region, there is a cross of worship and a memorial to the Warrior Eugene, erected on the initiative of local residents. Among believers, Evgeny Rodionov remains a symbol of steadfastness and fidelity to his beliefs, he is known and revered in Cyprus, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro.