“I am to blame for rushing to do the perfect thing”: architect A. P. Aplaksin and the construction of the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God at the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg

2022 is an anniversary year for the St. Petersburg Diocese, as this year marks the 280th anniversary of its foundation. One of the largest dioceses at the beginning of the 20th century, it numbered 790 churches and 1,638 chapels and prayer houses. In Petrograd itself (including the nearest suburbs, which are now part of the city) there were 495 churches by 1915. Of course, the life of the diocese consisted not only of the active concerns of the ruling bishop, the diocesan administration, the clergy, but also of the works and care of the houses of God - temples and those pious people who prayed in them. Throughout the 300 year history, new churches were built and opened in the diocese, some of which, during the sad Soviet years for the Church, were closed and transferred for other purposes, and some were demolished and destroyed altogether. Noting this or that event, I am eager to describe the previously unknown materials both about the churches of the St. Petersburg Diocese and about the people who took an active part in the church life of the city on the Neva. The article tells about the Church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, erected at the Volkovsky Orthodox cemetery at the beginning of the 20th century. Planned back in 1901, a small but elegant church in its form, it was erected only in 1911 and consecrated seven years later. Based on the archival materials, the author tries to reconstruct the sequence of events of such a long construction and consecration of the Dormition Church. The article also provides unique facts of the biography of the diocesan architect A. P. Aplaksin, who, in addition to the mentioned church, also designed other church buildings of the northern capital. Reconstructing the history of one St. Petersburg church that has lived for less than 20 years, the author of the article hopes that the Dormition Church will remain in the annals of the St. Petersburg Diocese forever.