The future ascetic Nina was born on December 28, 1887, in the town of Lalsk, Vologda Governorate, into the devout family of police officer Alexei Kuznetsov and his wife Anna. Her pious parents raised her in the Orthodox faith. From childhood, the girl accompanied them on pilgrimages to monasteries. She became so deeply imbued with the quiet life of prayer that at home she devoted every spare moment to prayer and the reading of spiritual books. Seeing her aspiration toward the spiritual life, her parents did not hinder her and allowed her to devote herself to prayer and service.
In 1932, Nina’s father was arrested for having served under the Tsarist regime, and her mother was arrested with him. The elderly couple were sent to a corrective labor camp. Nina, then forty-five years old, was imprisoned locally. Some time later, while in prison, she learned of her parents’ death. The news, together with all that she had endured, caused her to suffer paralysis: she lost the use of her legs and partially of her arms. The prison authorities did not want to care for a disabled woman, so Nina was released. She then opened the doors of her home to everyone who needed help and to those who were persecuted for their faith.
Nina Kuznetsova retained the use of her right hand and was able to write. One after another, she sent petitions to Moscow demanding that the closure of churches in Lalsk be stopped. People warned her that it was dangerous to stand up for the Church and that she could be arrested. But Nina understood the risk she was taking. In the late 1930s, after she gave shelter in her home to monks from the closed Koryazhma Monastery, the authorities came for her. Though ill and unable to move, she was arrested.
For anti-Soviet church activity, she was sentenced to eight years in a corrective labor camp in Kargopol, Arkhangelsk Region. Six months later, on May 14, 1938, she reposed in the Lord.
