Leonid Vasilyevich Salkov

Martyr Leonid Vasilyevich Salkov was born in 1886 in the Tavria province. He received a higher technical education at Moscow University.

From 1910 to 1917, he served in the Tsar's army.

In 1917, refusing further military service, he began visiting monasteries in Crimea, the Caucasus, Stavropol region, and Odessa.

In March 1919, Elder Alexei of the Teklauk Monastery blessed Leonid Salkov for a life of pilgrimage.

In 1927, Leonid Vasilyevich was arrested on charges of espionage in favor of counter-revolutionary clergy and sentenced to three years in a concentration camp. He was sent to the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp, from which he was released in 1930.

In 1935, he was arrested again in Vologda on charges of counter-revolutionary activity and sentenced to five years in camps. The martyr was sent to the KarLag of the NKVD in the Karaganda region.

In 1937, he was arrested again in the camp.

From the case materials:

"While serving his sentence in KarLag, Salkov L.V. conducted religious rites, distributed self-written prayers among the prisoners, and spoke about the imminent fall of Soviet power. Together with Krasnopevtsev, on November 8, 1937, he held a requiem service for the executed Tsarist family." He did not plead guilty, stating, "I am not a scoundrel or a traitor, and I do not buy my freedom with the blood of other people."

Martyr Leonid Salkov was executed in KarLag at the end of 1937 or the beginning of 1938.

In August 2000, he was canonized as a saint of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia and Kazakhstan by the Hierarchical Synod.