Priest Leonid Lebedev and Psalmist Isidor Reshetkin served in the Trinity Church in the village of Sannikovskoye, Omsk diocese (now the village of Ulyanovsk in the Karaganda region).
The village of Sannikovskoye was founded in 1902. The first settlers came from the regions of Tavrida, Rostov, Dnepropetrovsk, and other areas of Russia. In 1910, a three-class primary school was opened in the village where Priest Leonid Lebedev taught the Law of God. The village had a brick church built with funds from the merchants of Karkaralinsk, the Ryazantsev family, and the treasury. The church was situated on a hill. By the time of the October Revolution, the village had a population of about 2,000 Orthodox believers. Clergymen lived in three houses near the church, and there was an organized church choir. Priest Leonid Lebedev received commendations from the ruling archbishop.
On November 25, 1919, the Red Army occupied the city of Akmolinsk. The retreat of Ataman Dutov's army passed through Sannikovskoye and nearby villages. At the end of November, Priest Leonid Lebedev and volost elder D. I. Moskvichenko welcomed Ataman Dutov with the ringing of bells as he arrived in the village accompanied by an archbishop. One of the clerics held the icon of the Tabynsk Mother of God. A lavish feast was prepared near the church. A few days later, the village was occupied by the Reds.
In 1921, the Ishim Cossack uprising occurred, with its center in the city of Karkaralinsk. The insurgent Cossacks were defeated near Petropavlovsk and, retreating towards China, moved towards Akmolinsk.
During their retreat, Father Leonid, being the dean, was traveling around his district. On the way, he encountered a Cossack detachment heading towards Sannikovskoye and accompanied them to his village. The Cossacks, upon entering the village, asked Father Leonid to serve a thanksgiving moleben, which he did. Afterward, the Cossacks executed local communists, killing several people, and then left the village.
Soon after, a detachment of Red Army soldiers entered Sannikovskoye. Relatives of the deceased communists pointed to Father Leonid as being involved in their deaths since they saw him entering the village with the Cossacks. They also remembered his welcome of Dutov in 1919.
Priest Leonid Lebedev and Psalmist Isidor Reshetkin were stripped naked by the Red Army soldiers and led to their execution on a hill opposite the church. Before the execution, Father Leonid and Psalmist Isidor formed their fingers for the sign of the cross to cross themselves one last time towards their church, but their fingers were cut off. Then they were hacked to death with sabers.
Relatives were not allowed to take Father Leonid and Psalmist Isidor for burial, and for ten days, their bodies lay on the hill. Villagers came to see them. Their heads were severed but not completely—held on by the skin, and their eyes were pecked out by birds. After ten days, relatives took the bodies of Priest Leonid and Psalmist Isidor and buried them on the edge of the village cemetery.
According to another version, Priest Leonid Lebedev and Psalmist Isidor Reshetkin were shot by the communist Magdalin, who commanded the Red Army detachment and wished to personally kill the priest and the psalmist.
The current location of their burial is unknown.
Priest Leonid Lebedev and Psalmist Isidor Reshetkin were rehabilitated in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Mass Political Repressions" from April 14, 1993.
They were canonized as new martyrs and confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for universal veneration.
Saints of Kazakhstan