Benjamin (Kononov), in Russian Veniamin, was an archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church and, by tradition, the last superior of the Solovki (Solovetsky) Monastery before its suppression under Soviet rule. He was martyred in 1928 during the persecution of the Church and is commemorated on April 4. He is counted among the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
According to the sources, Benjamin was born around 1868 or 1869 into a peasant family in the Shenkursk district of Arkhangelsk province in the Russian North. He entered monastic life and rose through the ranks of the monasteries of the region. In 1912 he was appointed superior of the Antoniev-Siysky Monastery (the monastery of St. Anthony of Siya) and was raised to the rank of archimandrite. Around 1917 or 1918 he was made superior of the Solovki Monastery, succeeding Archimandrite Joannicius.
Following the Bolshevik seizure of power and the closure of the Solovetsky Monastery, Benjamin was arrested. The accounts relate that he was charged in connection with the hiding of monastery valuables and was exiled to forced labor at Kholmogory, where he spent several years. After his release he withdrew to a remote spot in the forests near Arkhangelsk, on the bank of a lake (named in the sources as Volkozero), not far from the village of Korovkinskaya, where he built a small cell or skete and lived in monastic labor and prayer together with the hieromonk Nicephorus (Kuchin).
Benjamin and Nicephorus were killed in 1928. The sources agree that their death fell during Bright Week, coinciding with the Russian Orthodox celebration of Pascha that year, and that the two monks died together. They were glorified among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in 2000.
