The Iveron Icon of the Mother of God was brought in a religious procession to the restored Iversko-Peter and Paul Monastery of the Kostanay Diocese

On May 7, 2024, on the day of the glorification of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, with the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, the Divine Liturgy took place in the St. Nicholas Church in the city of Kostanay, which was performed by the secretary of the Kostanay diocese, Hieromonk Gennady (Burdyuzha) in the co-service of the diocesan clergy.

At the end of the service, the clergy delivered to the restored Iversko-Peter and Paul convent in the village of Oktyabrskoye, Kostanay region, a significant shrine - the Iveron image of the Mother of God, kept in the St. Nicholas Church of Kostanay. The icon, which historically belonged to the monastery, is the only evidence of the existence of the Kustanai Iversky Monastery, which was closed by Soviet authorities in 1925.

From the entrance to the Oktyabrskoye village to the monastery church in the name of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, a religious procession was held with the image of the Queen of Heaven. At the end of the prayer procession, a prayer service was held in front of the shrine, after which Hieromonk Gennady presented diocesan awards to the benefactors of the revived monastery.

The restoration of the monastery is an important historical event for the Kostanay land. Many believers in the region were not indifferent to this good undertaking and began to provide all possible assistance to the Peter and Paul Church.

On May 25, 1894, by decree of the Holy Synod number 2281, the Kustanai Iverskaya women's community was officially opened, which included 25 cell attendants of the peasant class. By the spring of 1895, there were already 80 sisters in the community, and they also provided shelter for the blind, poor and sick. In connection with this expansion of the community, on May 24, 1895, permission was given by the Spiritual Consistory to begin building a refectory church, according to the approved plan, as well as to build more adapted cells.

On August 8, 1895, according to the instructions of the lot, nun Anna (in the world Elena Stefanovna Borodina), who contributed more than others to the founding of the community, was approved as the abbess of the Kustanai Iveron women's community; Ksenia Sadchikova was appointed treasurer.

On September 30, 1895, a significant event took place - the dean priest Nikolai Malyshev consecrated the refectory church of the Kustanai Iveron women's community in the name of the Holy Trinity, and from October of the same year, services began to be held at the church on all Sundays, holidays and three weeks.

On October 7, 1897, a report numbered 9986 was written addressed to Bishop Vladimir of Orenburg and Ural on behalf of the abbess of the Iveron women's community, nun Anna, with a request for permission to build a wooden church at the community. In 1899, changes were made to the original project. The design cost of construction was 7181 rubles. In 1901, on September 29, this temple was consecrated by Dean Archpriest Pavel Podbelsky in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. Eight more clergy took part in the consecration of the temple. On October 3 and 4, 1901, monastic tonsure took place in the newly built church.

The monastery had two courtyards: official (near the village of Zhdanovka) and unofficial (the modern address is the village of Oktyabrsky, Kostanay district), the land under which was leased from the local population. On the site of the official courtyard, near the village of Zhdanovka, a prayer house was built and consecrated on May 29, 1909 in the name of the Great Martyr Paraskeva.

Since 1903, the abbess, Abbess Anna, regularly submitted petitions to the higher authorities that the lands of the unofficial metochion be transferred to the permanent possession of the monastery due to the fact that the site near the village of Zhdanovka turned out to be unfavorable for agricultural cultivation. Abbess Anna personally came to St. Petersburg to resolve this issue, where she met with Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna. And in 1913, the state gave the land in the area of the modern village of Oktyabrsky, Kostanay region, into permanent possession of the monastery. Thus, the site near Zhdanovka was seized, and all buildings were moved to a new location. In 1917, on the territory of the courtyard (in the current village of Oktyabrsky) a church was built in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

Significant changes in the life of the monastery occurred after the October Revolution. In 1920, to register the monastic property, a commission was created from representatives of the Land Department, Komkhoz and the Administration Department, which was instructed to “immediately begin work on registering the monastery property.” On November 30, 1925, the building of the convent was nationalized, which was given over to the department of public education. On January 15, 1930, according to Protocol No. 57, the monastery was closed, the bell was removed and scrapped. From January 24, 1930, according to Protocol No. 59, the monastery began to be used “... for ShKM and the Agricultural Technical School, having concluded a rental agreement for the sale of monastic property.” The residential buildings of the monastery were now used for warehouses, a pig farm and a rabbitry. Before the revolution, several dozen nuns and about 140 novices labored in the Iversky Monastery. After the monastery was closed, many of them remained to live in the city, living privately, in private apartments and houses. In 1929, the monastery’s confessor, Archpriest Pyotr Kasenkov, was sentenced “to 3 years in a concentration camp for opposing the closure of the nunnery.” Nun Anna Danilova was also convicted along with him. In 1937, mass repressions began, which also affected the nuns. In the case of the “Churchmen of the Cemetery Church”, in August-November 39 people from among the clergy, monastics and parishioners were arrested, 32 of them were shot (24 of them nuns) and buried in an unknown mass grave, 7 were sentenced to imprisonment in a correctional labor camp for 10 years . Among those convicted and executed were also the monastery’s confessor, Archpriest Pyotr Kasenkov, and Abbess Paraskeva Vodyasova, who at that time was the abbess of the monastery. By 1961, out of 180 nuns, only 25 remained alive. Many of them labored in Kostanay, others in the village of Stepanovka (Mendykarinsky district, Kostanay region), and later some ended their earthly journey in the village of Borovsky, Mendykarinsky district, where they were cared for by Archpriest Nikolai Moiseev. In 1932, the monastery church in Kustanay was destroyed, but some buildings survived: along Krasnoselskaya Street near Teletovyshka you can still see the monastery buildings. In one of them there is a School of Technical Creativity, in the other there is a children's psychoneurological boarding house, the rest are in private ownership. In the village of Oktyabrsky (Kazakhstanets), by 1990, a building that previously belonged to a convent had been preserved, where currently there is a church in honor of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul.

In 1992, this building was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1996-97 the rector of the parish in honor of the holy apostles Peter and Paul in the village of Oktyabrsky, priest Gennady Subbotin, transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. After the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 2007, the banned priest Gennady Subbotin left the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and went into schism under the leadership of Agafangel (Pashkovsky). In the 1990s and 2000s, Subbotin G. did not complete the registration of ownership of both the church building and the land plot, and therefore a trial was held in 2020. The plaintiff in the court was the Kostanay and Rudny diocese. By court decision, the church building and land plot were transferred to the ownership of the Kostanay and Rudny diocese of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan on June 2, 2023. On July 12, 2023, a minor consecration of the temple took place in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul.

Currently, there is a revival of the monastery: pilgrims come to the village of Oktyabrsky to help restore the community. There are also cells in which novices and sisters of mercy live. The community is headed by nun Nika (Otroshchenko).