Biography
On July 31, 2019, mass searches were carried out in the homes of believers in Karelia. Three criminal cases were initiated at once, including against 57-year-old Nikolai Leshchenko. What do we know about this man?
Nikolay was born in 1962 in the Ukrainian city of Poltava. His mother worked as an accountant and his father as a driver. Nikolay has a younger sister, Valentina. As a child, he loved hockey and fishing, was fond of technology.
In 1981, Nikolay graduated from a technical school with a degree in road technician. He entered the Higher Military School in Riga (Latvia). In 1987 he was promoted to the rank of officer. He served near the city of Stargard-Szczecinski in Poland, where he was engaged in the maintenance and repair of aircraft. There he also became interested in the Bible, seeing how strikingly different people are who apply the advice from this book in their lives. He wanted to be like them.
In Riga, Nikolay met his future wife Svetlana, and in 1984 they registered their marriage. In 1992 we moved to Petrozavodsk.
Svetlana mastered different professions: she worked in a dry cleaner, as a computer operator in a design bureau, as a nanny in a kindergarten. She is caring for an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease.
After his discharge from the army, Nikolay worked as a bus driver in a construction organization, repaired apartments, and helped his friends with car repairs. Since April 2019, he has been working as chairman of the board of the HOA in his house. He still loves fishing, traveling and hiking with tents with his wife and friends.
Stress greatly affected the health of the spouses. "The criminal prosecution deprived me of my usual way of life," says Nikolay. "The dream ran away, thinking, 'What's next?'"
Relatives, although they do not share the religious beliefs of Nikolai and Svetlana, worry about them and are concerned about the current situation.