Yevgeny Rodionov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Rodionov ( ; May 23 , 1977 - May 23 , 1996 ) was a Russia n soldier who was taken prisoner and later executed in Chechen captivity for his refusal to convert to Islam and defect to the enemy side . The circumstances of his death have garnered him much admiration throughout Russia . Despite widespread popular worship he has not been glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church as a New Martyr due to lack of evidence about his death . Career and capture . Rodionov was born in the village of Chibirley , Penza Oblast . Though he aspired to be a cook , he was conscripted into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 1995 . Private Rodionov was deployed to Chechnya , where he served in border troops . On 13 February 1996 , he went to mount guard over the road accompanied by privates Andrey Trusov , Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov . During the watch they stopped an ambulance , in which brigade general of “ Chechen Republic of Ichkeria ” Ruslan Khaikhoroev and a dozen of enforcers were transporting weapons . During their attempt to examine the ambulance , young soldiers were overpowered and taken prisoners . After the soldiers were discovered to be missing , they were initially announced as deserters . Military police came home to Yevgeny Rodionov ’ s mother to search for her missing son . Only later , after detailed survey of the checkpoint the soldiers had been manning , and detection of traces of blood and fighting , the military recognized that the missing soldiers had been taken prisoner . On his 19th birthday , Rodionov was beheaded on the outskirts of the Chechen village Bamut . According to his killers , who later extorted money from his mother in exchange for knowledge of the location of his corpse , they beheaded him after he refused to renounce his Christian faith or remove the silver cross he wore around his neck . Ruslan Khaikhoroev later admitted the murder . In the presence of foreign representatives of OSCE he confessed : " Your [ Yevgeny ' s mother ] son had a choice to stay alive . He could have converted to Islam , but he did not agree to take the cross off . He tried to escape " . On May 23 , after 100 days of imprisonment and tortures , Rodionov was again ordered to remove the cross he was wearing and accept Islam . After his final refusal , Rodionov was beheaded while still alive . Andrey Trusov shared his fate , while Igor Yakovlev and Alexander Zheleznov were shot dead . Veneration . Yevgeny Rodionov was posthumously awarded the Russian Order of Courage . There was a growing movement within the Russian Orthodox Church to canonize him as a Christian saint and martyr for faith . Some Russian soldiers , feeling themselves abandoned by their government , have taken to kneeling in prayer before his image . One such prayer reads : Thy martyr , Yevgeny , O Lord , in his sufferings hath received an incorruptible crown from Thee , our God , for having Thy strength he hath brought down his torturers , hath defeated the powerless insolence of demons . Through his prayers , save our souls . , religious icons depicting Yevgeny had become popular . His mother has one herself ; she has suggested that the icon of her son sometimes emits a perfume which she believes to be holy , to the extent that it actually drips with it . Because of the huge devotion given to the New Martyr Yevgeny , the pious faithful sought official canonization from the Moscow Patriarchate . Initially , it refused , which divided the Orthodox Church in Russia . Maksim Maksimov , Secretary of the Canonization Commission , explained the Synod ' s position in " Tserkovny Vestnik " ( Church Bulletin ) , the official publication of the Russian Orthodox Church . His arguments can be summarized in three points : However , he emphasized that the deceased can be honoured without canonization . Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow personally blessed the popular account of Yevgeny ' s life but worried that his cult would balloon into anti - Muslim rage . Opponents of the decision , including Alexander Shargunov , a well - known priest , argued that an outbreak of people ' s love is enough for the truth and that Yevgeny ' s grave works miracles , curing the sick and reconciling enemies . They also pointed out that the soldier did not die at war but in captivity and that to say that the time of martyrs is over is nearly heresy . Chechclear . Rodionov has been misidentified as the unnamed Russian soldier whose beheading by Chechen rebels in 1996 was filmed and has since become a viral video on the internet ( " Chechclear " ) .