Leonid Nikolaev or Nikolayev may refer to:

Leonid Nikolayev (pianist) (1878–1942), Russian composer and academic Leonid Nikolaev (1904–1934), Russian assassin of Sergei Kirov Leonid Nikolaev (conductor) (1940–2009), Russian musicologist and academic Leonid Nikolayev (1984–2015), Russian member of dissident art group Voina