Nikolai Vasilievich Tolgsky

Born on February 20, 1886, in the village of Dorki, Bronitsky Uyezd, Moscow Governorate. He was the youngest of three priest brothers, sons of Archpriest Vasily Tolgsky, who served in the village of Dorki. The eldest brother, Archpriest Sergei, served in Moscow in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Kulishki, and then in the Church of Peter and Paul on the Yauza River.

In 1936, he voluntarily followed his daughter’s family into exile to the city of Kokand. The middle brother, Father Alexander, was a well-known rector of the Church of the Prophet Elijah in Obidenny Lane.

The future hieromartyr received his education first at the Moscow Theological Seminary, graduating in 1907, and then became a candidate of theology at the Moscow Theological Academy (graduating in 1911).

He was ordained to the holy orders after completing the Academy and was assigned to serve in the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the village of Altufyevo, Moscow Governorate. He was then transferred to Moscow to the Church of St. Sergius in Pushkary (Kolokolnikov Lane).

Father Nikolai was a very prominent figure in the church life of that time. Despite the persecution of the Church by the godless authorities, he was actively engaged in educational activities and created choirs. His pastoral work caught attention, and he became personally known to Patriarch Tikhon. Father Nikolai was appointed dean of the Sretensky Sorok Churches District, ordained as an archpriest, and awarded a mitre.

In 1922, Archpriest Nikolai was arrested for teaching the Law of God but was released after two weeks. The second arrest took place on April 12, 1935: the Special Council at the NKVD of the USSR sentenced the arrested priest to three years of exile in the city of Chimkent, South Kazakhstan Region.

On June 23, 1937, Father Nikolai was arrested for the third and final time in exile. Alongside the accusations made against all participants in the case (being part of a "counter-revolutionary center, which included a significant number of clergy, monks, and priests" aimed at "establishing the Patriarchate and the supremacy of the Church over state power"), Archpriest Nikolai Tolgsky was accused of being "the leader of the exiled clergy in the Karakat District, grouping around himself and providing counter-revolutionary leadership to counter-revolutionary elements in the village of Leninskoye on the orders of [Bishop] Kobranov.

He conducted counter-revolutionary agitation of a defeatist nature, wrote a counter-revolutionary novel, which was confiscated during a search."

During the interrogation, when asked by the investigator:
"Give testimony about your counter-revolutionary activities," Father Nikolai replied: "I did not engage in counter-revolutionary activities and have nothing to testify on this matter."

The Troika of the UNKVD for the South Kazakhstan Region sentenced Father Nikolai to the highest measure of punishment – he was executed by shooting on August 27, 1937, in the Lisya Balka ravine of Chimkent city. His burial place is currently unknown.

Hieromartyr Nikolai was glorified as a saint at the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.