Bio

Nikolai Nikolaevich Averin was born on June 13, 1961, in the Kaluga region. He grew up in a family of collective farmers. He had a brother and a sister.

In the late 1970s he was drafted into the Soviet Army. A year after being drafted, he was sent to fight in Afghanistan. People who knew him said his psycho-emotional state worsened while he was at the front. He did not have visible physical injuries from the war. After he left the army, he refused to talk about his combat experience and grew more withdrawn.

During this time he began to show strong religious behavior. His relatives, who were not religious, said he often brought home icons and spiritual books. He would read these books through the night. He also talked about what he read to people who were not there and felt severe anxiety.

In the early 1980s he enrolled in a vocational school in Kaluga. He graduated with a degree as a projectionist.

On August 8, 1991, he was sent to a psychiatric clinic and was declared legally insane. He was discharged in February 1992 with a third-degree disability. He returned to his native village of Volkonskoye in the Kaluga region and worked in the building of the local community center.

In the early 1990s he continued to show signs of mental illness. Priests said he complained of nightmares, insomnia, and severe headaches. He also reported hearing voices in his head. The voices were imperative and often gave him commands. He showed interest in occult practices and later renounced religion. As of April 2023, sources reported that he remained in a psychiatric hospital.

Murder Story

On the night of April 17–18, 1993, at Optina Pustyn Monastery, three monks were killed during the Easter services. The victims were Hieromonk Vasily (Igor Roslyakov) and monks Ferapont (Vladimir Pushkarev) and Trofim (Leonid Tatarnikov). Solemn services were taking place that night.

Nikolai Averin went to the bell tower with a prepared bladed weapon. He went to where Ferapont and Trofim were ringing the bells and fatally wounded both of them. At about 6 a.m., he attacked Hieromonk Vasily from behind near the bell tower and stabbed him several times. Vasily died an hour later. After the attacks, Averin threw down the knife and ran into the forest.

The monks’ bodies were found about an hour later. Pilgrims nearby saw the bell-ringers fall but did not clearly see the attacker. Three pilgrims reported seeing someone in a black naval overcoat jump over the railing of the bell tower and run away. Some witnesses thought the monks had become ill because of the Easter fast. Other witnesses described the monks falling quietly and then a man running toward the Skete Gate.

A knife found at the scene had fingerprints that matched Averin. He fled through the forests to the Tula region and committed a theft from a cooperative. He later returned home and was arrested. Averin gave a detailed account of the killings. A forensic psychiatric examination found him legally insane and diagnosed him with schizophrenia. He was sent to a closed special psychiatric hospital and, as of April 2023, remained there.