Hieroconfessor Benjamin, Bishop Of Aksinsk And Those With Him

Bishop Benjamin ( Fyodorovich Frolov) was born in 1863 or 1883 or 1897 in Perm province. On October 15, 1923 he was secretly consecrated Bishop of Aksinsk (Baikinsk, according to another source) by Archbishop Andrew of Ufa. He actively opposed renovationism in Ufa. On November 14, 1929 he was arrested and in January, 1930 was in prison in Birsk, Bashkiria. He was sentenced according to article 58-10 on February 26, 1930. He was for many years in the camps. In 1940 he was released and exiled. In 1941 he was arrested and sentenced to 10 (?) years in the camps. According to one (dubious) source, he signed the decisions of the Catacomb Council of Chirchik in 1948 through Fr. John Balkov. In 1949 he was released and settled in Yakutsk, where he died in 1959. But according to another source he died in the 1930s in prison. He is often confused with Bishop Benjamin (Troitsky)of Baikinsk.

Fr. John Ioannovich Balkov was born in about 1900, of Yakut nationality. He was ordained in 1922. He took part in the rebellion of the Yakuts against Soviet power. From 1928 he went into hiding, his family was shot. He was never arrested. He represented Bishop Benjamin at the Council of 1948. He died on January 6, 1987.

(Sources: M.E. Gubonin, Akty Svyateishago Patriarkha Tikhona, Moscow: St.

Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1994, p. 966; Pravoslavnaya Rus', N 14 (1587), July 15/28, 1997, p. 7; Bishop Ambrose (von Sievers), "Katakombnaya Tserkov': Tainij Sobor 1948g.", Russkoye Pravoslaviye, N 5(9), pp. 20, 26; Za Khrista Postradavshiye, Moscow: St. Tikhon's Theological Institute, 1997,pp. 241-142; I.I. Osipova, "Skvoz' Ogn' Muchenij i Vody Slyoz", Moscow: Serebryanniye Niti, 1998, pp. 279-280)