Biography
Maksim Zav'yalov was born in December 1979 in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). He has a sister who is 5 years younger than he is. "We have wonderful parents who took care of us and were always there — both in joyful and difficult times," the believer recalls.
As a child, Maksim enjoyed swimming, soccer, and volleyball, and attended ballroom dancing classes; as a teenager, he took up bodybuilding. After the ninth grade, Maksim enrolled in the Semipalatinsk College of Geodesy and Cartography, majoring in applied geodesy. After graduating, he went to serve in the army, but was discharged early for health reasons. After moving to Russia, Maksim and his father began renovating apartments — he worked in this craft for all the following years.
Maksim's aunt was the first in the family to begin studying the Bible, followed by his grandmother and mother. He himself began to think about the existence of a Creator while serving in the army. "I was on watch at night, saw many stars, and thought about God," Maksim recalls. After returning home, he began to study the Holy Scriptures. "When I started reading, I could not tear myself away, I was captivated... I saw all the wisdom of our Creator." In 2003, Maksim was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
In August 2026, the believer was charged with extremism and placed in a pretrial detention center. Within the first weeks of his detention, Maksim's health began to deteriorate. In October 2026, during a court hearing on the extension of the preventive measure, he suffered a hypertensive crisis. Maksim's wife and children worry about him.