Hlaholev Oleksiy, Tetiana, Mykola and Mahdalyna

Oleksiy Hlaholev was born on July 2, 1901 in Kyiv. His father, Oleksandr Hlaholev, was a teacher at the Kyiv Theological Academy. Oleksiy graduated from the Third Kyiv Gymnasium and Kyiv Theological Academy. In 1926 he married Tetiana Bulashevych. In 1926 and 1928, their children Mahdalyna and Mykola were born, respectively. In 1937, his father was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a "fascist church organization" and died after being tortured in Lukyanivska prison. In 1941, Oleksiy was ordained as a priest.

On September 19, German troops entered Kyiv. At the time of the occupation of the city, Jews felt relatively safe here, and due to the information vacuum created by the Soviet authorities, they didn’t know about the Holocaust in Europe and not everyone believed that Germans were exterminating Jews in the USSR. They knew that in 1918 German troops in Kyiv did not organize any ethnic cleansing and were convinced that this would be the case this time as well.

But on September 29-30, more than 30,000 Jews were shot dead in Babyn Yar. During the entire occupation, about 70,000 Jews were shot there.

In early October of 1941, Oleksiy's cousin Maria Yehorycheva asked  Hlaholev family to hide her Jewish daughter-in-law Isabella Mirkina. Tetiana Hlaholeva gave her passport, to where she pasted Isabella’s photo. Under Tetiana’s name, Isabella left Kyiv and moved to acquaintances in the village of Zlodiivka. At the end of November, due to suspicions from the occupation administration of the village, she returned to Kyiv and asked Hlaholevs for help. Together with her daughter, they lived as Oleksiy’s relatives. In addition to them, Oleksiy Hlaholev hid other Jews in the estate of the Church of the Intercession: the families of Hemaise, Pasichnykh, and others. He issued them false metric certificates or represent as members of the church choir or guards of the church estate. Once Hlaholevs were almost discovered, after they helped the aforementioned Hermaise family. It consisted of Mykola, Liudmyla, and their adopted son Yuri. The whole family was baptized before the revolution.

All men in Kyiv had to register. Yuriy and Mykola were arrested during registration. The Hlaholevs tried to find witnesses that they were not Jews, but they did not have enough time. Liudmyla was also arrested, but Tetiana wrote a note to the German administration stating that she was not a Jew. If the deception was exposed, they would both be shot.

Oleksandr Horbovsky, a researcher at the Academy of Sciences, helped the Glagolevs in their difficult and dangerous activity. He was the head of the church buildings of the estate of the Kyiv-Podilsk Intercession Church, where he hid Jews and those who could be taken to forced labor in Germany.

After the war, Oleksiy Hlaholev wrote a note addressed to the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Khrushchev, where he told about his activities during the German occupation. It was published only in 1998.  Oleksiy Hlaholev died in 1972.

On September 12, 1991, Oleksiy and Tetiana Hlaholevs and their daughter Mahdalyna were awarded the honorary title of the Righteous Among the Nations. On October 8, 2000, Mykola Hlaholev also got this title.