Presbyter
Saint Martyr Nicholas was born in 1876 in the city of Velsk, Vologda province, in the family of peasant Konstantin Kulakov. After finishing the Velsk two-class city school, he served as an assistant accountant in the Vologda provincial zemstvo, and then as a clerk. In 1912, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Anthony of Velsk.
From 1913, he served in the church of the Mitrophanievsky Podvorie in Saint Petersburg, fulfilling the duties of secretary to Archbishop Nicholas of Vologda. After the closure of the podvorie, he continued his ministry in the Vladimir Cathedral, and then in the Protection Church on Borovaya Street. In his pastoral work, Saint Martyr Nicholas actively educated the parishioners in the spirit of the Gospel and the works of the Holy Fathers.
On December 22, 1933, he was arrested and imprisoned in one of the Leningrad prisons. The indictment stated his connection with a church-monarchist organization that allegedly engaged in counter-revolutionary activities. Saint Martyr Nicholas openly expressed his religious beliefs, considering himself a monarchist and devoted to the cause of the united Orthodox Church.
On February 25, 1934, the troika of the OGPU sentenced him to five years in a correctional labor camp, and he was sent to the Sevvostoklag. In the camp, he resisted the pressure of the investigator, refusing to confirm false testimonies about a counter-revolutionary group.
