Nikita Grigoryevich Almazov

He was born in 1874 in the village of Sychevo, Smolensk province, in the family of a priest.

He began his service to the Church as a psalmist.

In 1897, he was ordained as a deacon.

The materials of the archival criminal case state that Father Nikita Almazov "...during the Russo-Japanese War served as a deacon in the headquarters of General Kuropatkin. From 1907 to 1918, he served as a deacon in the Semenovsky Preobrazhensky Regiment at the cathedral of all artillery in the city of Petrograd. In 1933, he served as a deacon in the Greek Embassy Church. He received orders from the Tsarist government: Anna of the III degree, Vladimir of the II degree, seven medals. He was elevated to the rank of Protodeacon. He belonged to the Tikhonov movement."

In 1935, by the decision of the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR, he was administratively exiled from Leningrad as a socially dangerous element to Kazakhstan for a term of five years. He served his exile in the city of Atbasar, North Kazakhstan region. He had contacts with exiled priests from Leningrad to the city of Atbasar: Feodot Andreev, Vasily Sokolsky, and Nikolai Kovalev.

On November 22, 1937, he was arrested by the Atbasar District Department of the NKVD. At the time of his arrest, he was unemployed. He was accused of "conducting systematic counter-revolutionary agitation aimed at discrediting the party and government measures, praising the life of old Tsarist Russia and fascist countries, expressing defeatist sentiments about the imminent demise of Soviet power and a change in life." During interrogation, in response to the charge against him, Father Nikita Almazov said: "I categorically deny it; I have never engaged in counter-revolutionary activities and do not engage in them."

On November 28, by the decision of the troika of the NKVD of the North Kazakhstan region, he was sentenced to execution.

He was executed on November 28, 1937, in Atbasar. The place of burial is unknown.

On May 26, 1989, he was rehabilitated by the prosecutor's office of the Tselinograd region for the repressions of 1937.

He was canonized among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for general church veneration.