Olga Krause

Olga Leopoldovna Krause (born March 1953) is a Russian-born poet, singer-songwriter, and LGBT rights activist.

Krauze in 2012

She is the publisher of the Probuzhdenie journal. After coming out as gay, she left Russia for Ukraine. As of 2022, she was in Germany.

Early life and education

Krause was born on 12th or 15th March 1953 in Leningrad to parents who were railway workers.[1][2][3]

She graduated from secondary school number 75 in Dnepropetrovsk.[1][4]

Career and activism

Krause worked at a Komsomol work camp before working as a press operator at a paper mill.[5] She later worked at Gostinny Dvo department store in Leningrad.[5]

Krause published the Probuzhdenie (English: Awakening) journal[6] and performs as a folk singer.[7] Her 1980's song Где ты упал (English: Where did you fall?) is about a Soviet soldier who burned to death in a tank during Soviet–Afghan War.[2]

In 2022 she was in Liebenau, Germany, supporting Ukrainian refugees.[8]

Personal life

Despite being gay, following an unexpected breakup, she hastily married a man only to break up with him three days later.[5] After finding the identification card that a male soldier had lost, she forged her own photograph onto it, used the man's identification and married her girlfriend.[5]

After she came out on television, she was pushed out of her job and relocated to Kharkiv, Ukraine.[2][5]

References
  1. "AZ.GAY.RU: Авторы :: Ольга Краузе". az.gay.ru. Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  2. Волчек, Дмитрий (15 October 2016). "Безумие и подлость побеждают". Радио Свобода (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  3. Soviet and Post-Soviet Sexualities. (2019). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
  4. "Ольга Краузе: "Раньше мы все были гораздо дружнее..."". www.gayru.info. Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  5. "From the shadows into the light – and back again". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  6. Consuming Russia: Popular Culture, Sex, and Society Since Gorbachev. (1999). United Kingdom: Duke University Press.
  7. Essig, L. (1999). Queer in Russia: A Story of Sex, Self, and the Other. United Kingdom: Duke University Press.
  8. "So hilft die gebürtige Ukrainerin Olga Krause den Menschen aus ihrer Heimat". DIE HARKE (in German). 28 July 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-24.
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