Biography
Olga Kalinnikova, a mother of two, 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 their mother worked as a paramedic. The parents are already 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 the sea, ride 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 and cleaner at a children's art school. She studied remotely at the Moscow Technological Institute at the Faculty of Civil Engineering; studied Japanese and English language courses, completed an internship in Japan; She took an art course, studied photography.
In the summer of 1994, Olga moved to Khabarovsk, where she met Jehovah's Witnesses. They showed in the Bible the answers to questions that had worried her since childhood: what is the meaning of life? Why do people die? Olga recalls: "Simple, logical and understandable explanations from the Bible, plus love, which does not exist anywhere in the world, but God's people do, 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 has not given up learning foreign languages, loves to read and draw, as well as 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 that she may be separated from her daughter and parents. Relatives are worried about Olga and say: "We understand that Olga and extremism are incompatible concepts." They are outraged that the authorities are persecuting peaceful believers.