Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Rodionov (Russian: Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Родио́нов; 23 May 1977 - 23 May 1996) was a Russian soldier (and is now a saint and martyr of the Orthodox faith) who was taken prisoner of war by Chechen rebels in the First Chechen War and later executed in captivity. He has gained much admiration throughout Russia for the circumstances of his death, as his execution allegedly resulted from his refusal to convert to Islam and defect to the enemy side.[1] Despite widespread popular veneration he has not been glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church as a New Martyr due to lack of evidence about his death. Still, icons depicting him are installed in many churches across Russia, in St. Valery church in Chișinău, in a church of Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine, and in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Frankfurt in Germany.
