KARAGANDA QR-GUIDE

Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel

Orthodox parish was established in the iron years of religious prosecutions by efforts of the repressed people who had been exiled to Kazakhstan during the Stalin repressions in the 1930’s. Initially the orthodox house of prayer was located in a dugout by Kirovskaya mine. Worship services were held here secretly by a repressed priest, father Jacob Penkov. The majority of congregation consisted of the so-called special settlers and workers: dispossessed kulaks, former KARLAG prisoners and the “national enemies”, who had been deported to Kazakhstan from all over the country. On March 4, 1947, after religious prosecutions were partially ended by the initiative of J. Stalin, the parish was officially registered as Church of the St. Michael the Archangel. In 1988 church was granted the status of cathedral. At present, Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel regularly holds worship services and divine liturgy. The cathedral is famous for the beauty of its interior decoration, as well as for its numerous relics, one of which is Icon of the Mother of God “Seeking out of the Lost”. It is worthy of note that Sunday school for children, as well as “Mercy” church group operate by the cathedral.  The old cemetery in the vicinity of the cathedral is the place where numerous victims of the Stalin repressions were buried in mass graves.