Telyatnikov served many years as an officer in both Soviet and Ukrainian firefighting organizations, working in a variety of junior and senior leadership positions throughout his career.

Leonid Petrovych Telyatnikov was born on January 25, 1951, in the village of Vvedenka, located in the Kustanay Rayon of the Kazakh SSR of the Soviet Union.

[1][2] Having completed the three-year program, he graduated in 1971, becoming a part of the Paramilitary Fire Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (MVD).

Telyatnikov then returned to Kustanay and became the head of the Paramilitary Fire Department of the MVD of the Kustanai City Executive Committee, a position he held from 1978 to 1980.

[1] In his first year there, he served as senior engineer of the group for supervision of special objects of the Fire Safety Department of the ROVD of the Kiev-Svyatoshinsky District Executive Committee of the city of Kiev.

One of his first actions was to order a visual survey of the building to determine the locations of the many fires: Telyatnikov visited the Unit Four control room, and was told by Deputy Chief Engineer Anatoly Dyatlov that with the fire on the roof of the turbine hall under control, the priority must be the roofs of Unit 3 and the ventilation block.

[7] Around 02:30, Telyatnikov ordered three firemen to the roof of the ventilation block to relieve the first group of firefighters which had been fighting the fires ignited there since the beginning of the emergency.

[8] This initial group, which included Volodymyr Pravyk, Viktor Kibenok, and Vasily Ignatenko, was already suffering from the effects of radiation exposure and descended the fire escape from the roof with difficulty.

[12] Experiencing only the mild initial effects of radiation exposure, and unaware of the extent of his injuries, he was able to talk, smoke, and walk around with fellow firefighters.

[3] As the extent of the disaster and the severity of the radiological injuries sustained by first responders began to be understood, the decision was made to evacuate Telyatnikov and the other hospitalized firefighters and plant staff to Moscow.

[3] His bone marrow had been damaged by ionizing radiation, lowering his white blood cell count, weakening his immune system and leaving him vulnerable to bacteriological infection.

[12][15][3] After his recovery, Telyatnikov was honored in the Soviet media, including a front-page feature in Isvestia and spotlights on television and radio.

[3][16] Visiting the United States, in November 1987, he delivered an address at the Fourth Great National Firehouse Exposition and Muster, a firefighting convention in Baltimore, Maryland.

[1] In this capacity he was responsible for organizing an annual children's firefighting festival, which would continue to be held after his death, and was subsequently rededicated in his honor.