All saints Church commemorates victims of WWI

A small group of people gathered Thursday at the Transfiguration chapel of the All Saints Church located in the WWI military communal cemetery to commemorate soldiers and civilians killed in the first world war (1914-1918). The service was delivered by archpriest Vassily Baburin. "It is awful even to remember that WWI took the toll of more than 10 million lives and crippled 20 million," he said. "The Russian countryside bore the brunt of 2,300,000 people, including more than 10,000 clergymen, actually the best of the Russian military priesthood," said Father Vassily.

The cemetery is the burial-place of 17,500 soldiers and officers who fell in the most violent war of the last century's beginning.

The Transfiguration chapel has been conducting such memorial services on August 1 every year since the chapel's foundation in 1998. Father Vassily expressed the hope that more people will be commemorating this sad date in the future.