Biography
Olga Kalinnikova, a mother of two children, was prosecuted in November 2023 for her belief in Jehovah God.
Olga was born in December 1976 on Iturup Island, in the city of Kurilsk (Sakhalin Region). She has an elder sister. Their father worked as a driver, and mother worked as a paramedic. The parents are now retired.
As a child, Olga loved to read and draw, for some time she attended an art school and a sambo section. She liked to spend time in the forest and at sea, riding a bicycle and a moped. In her youth, she enjoyed hiking.
After school, Olga graduated from accounting courses, but did not work in her specialty. At the age of 18, she got a job as a janitor-cleaner in a children's art school. She studied remotely at the Moscow Institute of Technology at the Faculty of Civil Engineering; studied at Japanese and English language courses, completed an internship in Japan. Olga also took an art course and a photography course.
In the summer of 1994, Olga moved to Khabarovsk, where she met Jehovah's Witnesses. They showed in the Bible the answers to the questions that had worried her since childhood: what is the meaning of life? Why do people die? Olga recalls: "Simple, logical and understandable to the mind and heart explanations from the Bible, plus love, which is not found anywhere in the world, but the people of God have, convinced me that I had found the truth." In 1995, she embarked on the Christian path.
Since 1998, Olga has been working as a technician at a seismic station. She continues to study languages, loves to read and draw, she likes to be in nature with friends.
Olga is divorced. She has an adult son and a school-age daughter. In connection with the criminal case, the believer worries about her daughter and parents. Relatives are worried about Olga and say: "We understand that Olga and extremism are incompatible concepts." They are outraged by the fact that the authorities are persecuting peaceful believers.