High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Metropolitan Veniamin (Benjamin, born Vasily Pavlovich Kazansky, Russian: Василий Павлович Казанский; 17 April 1873 O.S. – 13 August 1922 O.S.) was a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church and eventually Archbishop (later Metropolitan) of Petrograd and Gdov from 1917 to 1922. He was executed by firing squad by Soviet authorities and, in August 1992, was recognized as a holy martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church.