This scene depicts princess Yelisavet and her keleynitsu Barbara together with prince Sergey Mikhaylovich, who together with three other princes and their devoted servants, were thrown into a mine shaft. The great princess Yelisavet Feodorovna was the sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovn and was married to the great prince Sergey Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II.

Though raised as a Protestant, Yelisaveta Feodorovna embraced the Orthodox Church when she settled in Russia. While fighting the revolutionaries, Sergey Alexandrovich was hit by a bomb and killed in 1905. After her husband's death, the great princess decided to give herself to a spiritual life and to conducting acts of mercy. She founded the famous Martha Marinska abode in Moscow and her spiritual path was crowned by her martyrdom.

The icon portrays the holy wives in bright, almost white garments symbolizing their connection with the spiritual world, as well as their contrasting innocence and humility. Like brides of Christ, they fall unflinchingly and with complete submission into the pit of their martyrdom. This scene is filled with light green views. In iconography, clean and sonorous greens are used to symbolize eternal youth. The scene, filled with the calm rhythm of trees and hills, suggests the silence and rest of a soul that has found peace in the world. Here, even the villainous actions of soldiers in murky green uniforms are incapable of destroying the overall quiet mood of the composition.