Photo: solba.ru
Holy Hieromartyr Ioann (Ivan Mikhailovich Granitov) was born in 1875. He was ordained a priest, later elevated to the rank of archpriest, and appointed rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in the stanitsa2 of Talgar, Vernensky Uyezd, Semirechensk province.
Holy Hieromartyr Konstantin (Konstantin Ivanovich Zverev) was born in 1881. He graduated from the Vernensky Classical Gymnasium and the Tashkent1 Teacher’s Seminary. He was ordained a deacon and served in the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Talgar, Vernensky Uyezd.
On February 11, 1920, during the onset of godless persecutions, Archpriest Ioann was arrested by the Bolsheviks on the bogus charges of “counter-revolutionary actions against Soviet power… and hiding grain supplies.” During his arrest, the tormentors tore out his beard, gouged out his eyes before his execution, and sawed his neck with the chain of his pectoral cross. Amid the torture, the priest cried out to the Orthodox believers: “Do not renounce God!”
Seeing the priest suffering such brutal torment, Deacon Konstantin stood up in his defense and was immediately hacked to death with sabers. The executioners placed the remains of the holy martyr into a sack and threw them into a ravine near the cemetery where the executions were carried out.
Archpriest Ioann Granitov was executed on the night of February 11–12, 1920.
Holy Martyr Leonty (Klimenko) was born in 1887 and served in the village of Yevgenyevka, Vernensky Uyezd, Semirechensk Province. During the persecutions of the Church, he was accused by atheists of counter-revolutionary activities, mocking the Communist Party, storing ammunition, and refusing to grind grain for the communists. He was executed on the night of February 11–12, 1920, along with Archpriest Ioann Granitov and five other martyrs. The bodies of the brutally murdered saints were buried in an unmarked grave near the stanitsa of Talgar.