Ascension cathedral || Panfilov memorial park || 28 Mens Guard || Kazakhstan || Almaty

HISTORY OF ASCENSION CATHEDRAL

Throughout Ukraine’s history, the fate of Ukrainian churches frequently took tragic turns. In the past, they were either destroyed by invaders, captured by various denominations, or closed because there was allegedly no God: in the Soviet Union, it was believed that religion was the opium of the people.
A similar destiny befell the Ascension Church in the village of Lukashivka in the Chernihiv region. The first wooden church was built on its site in 1781 and dismantled at the beginning of the 20th century. Instead, a stone temple was erected here in 1913. It was cruciform, with a two-tiered belfry, and designed in the style of eparchial architecture, which was popular in the Russian Empire of that time.
After seizing power in Ukraine, the Bolsheviks closed the church and used it as a warehouse until 1988. It was the fate of many temples that were unfortunate enough to fall under Soviet control. No one could have imagined, however, that the Russian army in the 21st century would convert a century-old architectural landmark and the spiritual centre of a community into a military headquarters and ammunition depot. Unfortunately, this was exactly what happened to the Ascension Church in 2022 when the Russian troops came to Lukashivka on the 21st day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Half a thousand Russian soldiers with dozens of equipment units stayed beside and inside the temple until the end of March. During fierce battles, the church was destroyed: its facades, domes with crosses, and interiors were mutilated. When the Armed Forces of Ukraine expelled the Russian forces from the Chernihiv region, rescuers found not only the remains of ammunition and garbage but also human bodies on the temple’s territory.
Entire generations in Lukashivka have united around the local church for centuries. Here, they exchanged vows, baptised their children, prayed, and accompanied family and friends on their final journey. Until barbaric Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The site that once held memories has now turned into a memory itself.

HISTORY OF PANFILOV

The Panfilov Division's Twenty-Eight Guardsmen Dvadtsat vosem gvardeytsev divizii Panfilova), commonly referred to simply as Panfilov's Twenty-Eight Guardsmen, Panfilov's Men or just the Twenty-Eight, is a group of soldiers from the Red Army's 316th Rifle Division who took part in the 1941–1942 Battle of Moscow during World War II. According to Soviet records of the time, all were killed in action on 16 November 1941 after destroying 18 German tanks and stopping the enemy attack; the Twenty-Eight were collectively endowed with the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Post-war investigation by Soviet authorities, carried out in 1948 and since declassified, revealed the story to be a fabrication. Neither German nor Soviet operational documents confirmed the claimed German casualties, and the Germans fulfilled their day's objectives well before the end of the day.[1] After one of the supposedly dead men was arrested on suspicion of collaboration with the enemy and confessed to having "voluntarily" surrendered to German troops and to having later joined a German police force,it was discovered that not all twenty-eight were killed — six of the soldiers had survived and were still alive. Another one of the Guardsmen was arrested by the NKVD for allegedly "giving himself up to the enemy" and sent into a penal battalion. The findings were kept secret; the Twenty-Eight Guardsmen remained national heroes.