25 Yuta Bondarovskaya St, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 198510
The Church of the Holy Great Martyr Anastasia the Pattern-Setter of the 148th Infantry Caspian Regiment. In 1900, the Minister of War Kurapatkin submitted a report to His Majesty on improving the living conditions of the lower ranks, in which he wrote that at present “it seems necessary to find means to build churches at all military units where priests are assigned according to the staff, for which it is necessary to develop a type of military church, even if of a barrack system, but spacious and inexpensive, so that the search for funds for the construction of churches would not delay the satisfaction of this urgent need”... On this authentic report, His Imperial Majesty’s own hand wrote: “God grant that the religious needs of the troops be satisfied soon, which I consider a matter of the highest importance. January 23, 1900.” By the Highest Order of January 23, 1900, a special commission was established at the General Staff to discuss issues concerning the satisfaction of the religious needs of the troops and to raise their religious and moral education. The commission completed the development of these issues, having developed a special type of military church, exemplary not in luxury and decoration, but in capacity and economy of construction, costing 40,000 rubles. Its plan was submitted for the consideration of the Sovereign Emperor and received the Highest approval. On December 1, 1901, the Highest Order was issued: — “to establish for the future a rule to be followed that in the barracks of the Military Department, both existing and newly constructed by order and at the expense of this department, an Orthodox church, in the form of a separate building, shall be an indispensable part of the barracks of those military units whose staffs include church clergy, — to be guided in the construction of military churches by the Highest approved design of such a church and the table of internal dimensions of military churches developed by the aforementioned commission established by the Highest order” (Order of the Military Department dated January 23, 1902, No. 32).
The named type of church was first realized in the construction of the church of the 148th Infantry Caspian Regiment. On June 30, 1901, in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II, the solemn laying of the church took place on the territory of the Caspian Regiment’s town. The construction of the church, as well as all the regiment’s barracks, was carried out under the supervision of a special construction commission headed by Cavalry Guard Major General Pavel Pavlovich Dyagilev. Its members included: - commander of the 148th Caspian Regiment Colonel Baron Fyodor Fyodorovich von Taube; - Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Frantsevich Antonovich; - builders (civil engineers) Vasily Vasilievich Bocharov and Alexander Glebovich Uspensky; - the commission’s clerical work was conducted by Staff Captain Mikhail Nikolaevich Himmelman. For the construction, the standard project of military engineer Fyodor Mikhailovich Verzhbitsky was used for the first time. The construction and finishing of the church were carried out hastily. Great material assistance in the construction of the church was provided by those for whom it was intended. Church utensils: chandeliers, panikadilo (multi-branched candelabrum), altar cross, seven-branch candlestick, and others were purchased with the regiment’s funds. In addition, the regiment’s officers’ society decided to provide at their own expense, after the church’s consecration, a marble vestment for the altar made of multicolored marble. In early August 1902, the Minister of War, General-Adjutant Alexei Nikolaevich Kurapatkin, reported to Emperor Nicholas II on its full readiness. Having heard the report, Nicholas II tentatively set the date of the church’s consecration for the first days of September. The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna also expressed a desire to be present at the celebration of the consecration of the Caspian Regiment’s church. Newspapers of that time quite thoroughly described the preparation of the church for consecration, also providing its description: “The church in Russian style is distinguished by elegant simplicity of architecture, stone, one-story, laid out of red brick, crowned on the east by a large dome over the altar. Above the western entrance rises a 15-sazhen (approx. 32 meters) bell tower, the chime of which consists of 9 bells, the largest weighing 168 poods (approx. 5.5 tons); 9 gilded iron crosses adorn the altar part of the roof. The floor is made of multicolored Metlakh tiles. A beautiful iconostasis of carved light oak accommodates 13 icons. Both they and the 4 images of the Evangelists inside the dome and the wall painting on the ceiling were executed in oil paints by the Society for Assistance to Underprivileged Russian Artists. From the center of the church hangs a large bronze panikadilo. The altar of the church is dedicated to the Holy Great Martyr Anastasia, whose memory is celebrated on June 5, the name day of Their Majesties’ little daughter.”
The consecration of the church did not take place in 1902. The reason for this was, most likely, the circumstance that the church was built, but the barracks were still under construction and the regiment remained in Kronstadt. Since the main altar of the church was dedicated to the Great Martyr Anastasia, the consecration ceremony took place on June 5, 1903. On this day, the birthday of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, at 10 a.m., the solemn consecration of the constructed church at the barracks of the 148th Infantry Caspian Regiment took place. In early 1911, Baron Fyodor Fyodorovich von Taube died, and Emperor Nicholas II permitted his burial in Peterhof on the territory of the Caspian Regiment’s town. On March 5, 1911, in the church, in the presence of representatives of the Don Guard regiments, officials of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes, personnel of the 148th Infantry Caspian Regiment, and his former comrades-in-arms, the funeral service and burial next to the church took place. Soon a chapel adjoining the church was erected over the grave. Years passed, and in 1924 the church was closed. In 1932, the new occupants of the former barracks of the 148th Infantry Caspian Regiment — the Voroshilov NKVD Military-Political School — dismantled the chapel where Lieutenant General Baron von Taube was buried, removed all the domes from the church, and converted it into a club. In the post-war years, the building was turned into the “Samson” House of Culture. Later, the building was rebuilt several times and burned down twice (the last time in 2010).
Sources:
https://ruskline.ru/analitika/2020/02/19/vo_imya_mch_ioanna_voina
