Annunciation Monastery (Tolyatti)
The Annunciation Monastery () is a church complex in the village of in the urban district of Tolyatti in Samara Oblast in Russia. History Founding Barbara Bakhmetev (née Lopukhin) was the lifelong love of the poet Mikhail Lermontov and the inspiration for some of his works, but the pair was not allowed to marry. Instead, Barbara was married to the wealthy landowner and master of Fyodorovka, Nikolai Fedorovich Bakhmetev. Barbara was never happy or well after her marriage, and fell more deeply ill after the death of Lermontov in 1841. In 1846 Nikolai Bakhmetev constructed a stone church, the altar which was dedicated in honor of St. Barbara, in hope of a cure for his wife. This was the first building of what would become the Annunciation Monastery. The first priest of the church was Alexander Kornilievich Yastrebov. Barbara Bakhmetev died in 1851 at the age of 36. In 1871, Peter Flerinsky was baptized in the church. Flerinsky later became Bishop Paul, a leader of the Orthodox Church in early Soviet times (and sometime prisoner of the Soviets). Deconsecration and renewal On March 6, 1930, the church bells were removed. The church, like many others in the diocese, was closed,