Falsely charged with resistance to withdraw from church values, a large group of clergy and believers is tried here in a state court. On the night of August 12-13, 1922, Martyr Saints Veniamin and Segius were sentenced to death together with Yuri Novitskiy and Ivan Kovsharov-the four of them now proclaimed holy martyrs.

In ancient and medieval iconographic tradition judges normally sit while the judged are portrayed standing. However, since in this case those being judged are the holy martyrs, the iconographers honored the saints here by portraying them sitting on a bench. In order to incorporate the depiction of a cotemporary event-in this case, the trial-within a traditional iconographic system, the iconographers here used a method known as the dead angle. By doing this, the judge and the accused are turned against each other in a three-quarter profile, and at the same time they both face the spectator.

The judge holds a scroll with the written names of the saints to be sentenced to death. As canonical tradition holds text in an icon as the equivalent of sound, the voice of the judge is hereby represented. In response, Veniamin is portrayed here blessing the judge as a sign of acceptance of martyrdom and humbleness.

The scene is surrounded by a curved wall, which corresponds to a usual method for delimiting internal space since the 14th century. Behind the wall stands the infamous Petrograd prison and the Isaakiyevskogo Cathedral baring the crosses in honor of the condemned. Behind it all, the sea as an indicator of Petrograd's coastal location. As in other scenes, the brightly painted martyrs contrast with the more opaque colors of their surroundings.