Evgeny Shtorn: An LGBT Activist and Scholar Shaped by Saint Petersburg

Evgeny Shtorn’s biography spans activism, scholarship, organizing and poetry, with Saint Petersburg serving as an important setting in his work and education.

Born in 1983 in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Shtorn moved to Saint Petersburg in 2000, when he was 17. He studied at Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University, also known as LETI, and later attended the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts. The extract identifies him as a speaker and writer in Spanish, English and Russian.

His professional work in the city included a role at the Centre for Independent Social Research. There, he worked with Viktor Voronkov and other sociologists. Shtorn later completed a master’s degree in sociology at the Higher School of Economics under the supervision of Elena Omelchenko.

The source presents his academic work alongside involvement in LGBT activism and organizing. It also identifies him as a poet, pointing to a career that crossed disciplinary and community boundaries rather than fitting into a single professional category.

According to the extract, Shtorn left Russia in 2018 after being subjected to political repression by the government under Vladimir Putin. It links that pressure to legislation affecting independent nongovernmental organizations, described as the foreign-agent law, and to the law referred to in the source as Russia’s gay-propaganda law, enacted in 2013.

After leaving Russia, Shtorn sought international protection in the Republic of Ireland. The account says he was first sent to Balseskin Reception Center in Finglas. During that period, he began writing his first book, “Chronicles of Refugee,” about life in direct provision. He was subsequently relocated to Moate and then to Galway, where he spent most of the time covered by the extract.

For Saint Petersburg, Shtorn’s story offers a local lens on the relationship between LGBT activism, independent social research and the pressures faced by people working in those spheres. His years in the city included higher education, sociological research and professional contact with prominent scholars. They also preceded his departure from Russia and his later experience of seeking protection abroad.

The available account ends during Shtorn’s time in Galway, so it does not provide a complete chronology of his later life or work. What it does establish is a trajectory from a teenage arrival in Saint Petersburg to a public identity combining LGBT advocacy, research, literary work and migration experience.

Source and reuse information This automatically generated backgrounder adapts text from “Evgeny Shtorn” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Shtorn The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. The source article’s linked references are provided below where available. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/a-gay-russian-exiled-in-ireland - https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/i-m-35-years-old-and-i-feel-like-my-life-is-turning-into-nothing-1.3707162 - https://www.rte.ie/culture/reviews/2019/1029/1086250-reviewed-writing-home-the-new-irish-poets/ - https://gcn.ie/galas-awards-names-evgeny-shtorn-person-of-the-year/ - https://gcn.ie/country-seen-through-lens-direct-provision/ - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/charting-russia-s-most-dangerous-cities-for-lgbt-people/ Image rights Photograph description: Lecture about history of a "Stained-glass windows of Russia" project at "Linii" community center. Saint Petersburg, Russia. Creator: Красный. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A%D0%92%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B8_%D0%B2_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B8%2C_%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B0._11_%D0%B0%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8F_2021_(2).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.