In May 1921 after graduating from high school in Tbilisi Leselidze joined the Red Army and was deployed primarily in Georgia.

From February 1941 to the outbreak of hostilities, colonel Leselidze was chief of artillery, rifle corps in the Belorussian Special Military District.

In the first year of war, colonel Leselidze remained in command of the artillery in the 2nd Infantry Corps and the 50th Army on the Soviet Western Front.

The troops under his command fought hard and Leselidze's tactics managed to defend the Caucasus from Wehrmacht takeover, initiating the recapture of the entire area by Soviet forces.

From February 1944, Leselidze was treated at central military hospital of the People's Commissariat of Defence of the USSR where he was evacuated from the front for a serious illness after a complication of influenza.