Presbyter
Saint Nikolai was born on January 21, 1880, in the village of Barsukovskaya in Kuban. His father, a military man, was killed by terrorists in 1898. Raised in a believing family, Nikolai became a priest, graduating from the Stavropol Theological Seminary in 1907. He was ordained as a deacon and then as a priest, serving in various churches.
In 1919, he became the rector of the church in the village of Vozdvizhenskaya. During the Civil War, he preached against godlessness, ignoring the events happening around him. After the departure of the White Army and the establishment of Soviet power, persecution of the Church began. In 1922, he refused to leave the village, despite offers for his salvation.
Arrested in 1930, he was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. After his release, he served in Belarus, where he also suffered from hunger. In 1935, he became the rector of the Vvedensky Church in Podlesnaya Sloboda, where he restored the community and the church.
On January 25, 1938, he was arrested. During the interrogation, he was accused of anti-Soviet agitation, but he did not confess to any wrongdoing. On February 2, the NKVD troika sentenced him to execution. Priest Nikolai was shot on February 17, 1938, and buried in an unmarked grave at the Butovo shooting range near Moscow.
