In 1908, the first parish church was built in Baranovichi, dedicated to the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. The first rector was Fyodor Alekseevich Strashenya, born on March 14, 1885, in the village of Darevo, Novogrudok district, Minsk province, in the family of a paramedic.

On June 27, 1905, he graduated from the Minsk Theological Seminary and worked as a teacher at the Bobruisk Cathedral parish school. In Bobruisk, he married Anna Stepanovna Okulich. In 1908, Fyodor submitted a request for the position of law teacher in the Baranovichi railway schools. On July 22, 1908, Bishop Mikhail of Minsk and Turov ordained him as a deacon, and on July 27, as a priest, appointing him rector of the newly built church in Baranovichi.

In 1915, in memory of the stay of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief in the city, two chapels were added to the church, one of which was dedicated to Nikolai Kochan, whose name was borne by the brigade church of the city of Baranovichi.

On the night of Bright Monday, April 19 (May 2 in the new style), 1921, the church burned down. However, on the site of the burned church, the Church of the Protection of the Holy Virgin was erected, which became the keeper of unique mosaic panels from the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Warsaw and the Orthodox faith in the city. This church marked the beginning of the construction of new churches and the revival of faith in the hearts of the current generation.