Pictured (from left to right): Viktoria, Marina, and their daughter, Elisa.
Viktoria and Marina, a lesbian couple from St. Petersburg, Russia, have been together for more than six years. In St. Petersburg, they lived like an ordinary family. Viktoria ran a lifestyle blog, Marina worked as a teacher, and they have a daughter, Elisa.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Viktoria started to state her anti-war position on her blog, as both Viktoria and Marina are against war. “Shortly after, we faced harassment in [the social media platform] Telegram. A chat was created where they leaked all our data, including passport and personal documents,” Viktoria shared with us through a translator.
The harassment not only continued but intensified. “They threatened to kill us,” Viktoria said. After this, Social Services visited the family and informed Viktoria and Marina they were raising their daughter in “nontraditional values that are not accepted in Russian Federation.” Social Services also had issues with the couple's anti-war stance.
Child Services also visited their home, asked offensive questions, and threatened them with criminal and administrative punishments. They accused Viktoria and Marina of “forcing their daughter to be a lesbian,” demanded they stop attending synagogue and said there could be additional punishment for their anti-war stance.
By then, Viktoria had been communicating with Quarteera, a volunteer-driven organization of Russian-speaking LGBTIQ people living in Germany. After hearing about the visits by Russian officials to their home, a representative from Quarteera recommended they pack up all their belongings and leave Russia immediately. “Every sound, every passing car resulted in anxiety,” Marina shared with us about that time. “We started packing our bags immediately,” she said. Taking everything they could with them, the family took the train to Moscow. There, they temporarily separated from their daughter, whom they left with Viktoria’s mother. With little money remaining, Quarteera purchased the family tickets to Armenia and then to Georgia, where they stayed at a refugee shelter.
Pictured: Marina and Viktoria on their journey to Georgia.
They lived in Georgia for almost three months in two different shelters. “In Georgia, it was really stressful and very difficult mentally,” they shared with us. Once their visas were approved to go to Germany, they began collecting their documents.
Eventually, they left Georgia for Germany, where they stayed in Berlin. “It was the first time in several months that we could at least feel safe. There might be something good ahead,” they said.
Viktoria and Marina were reunited with their daughter in Berlin and moved into a shelter for refugees shortly after. Viktoria created a Telegram chat at the shelter for Russian and Ukrainian refugees. This chat has been a great way to share information about the experiences faced by Russian and Ukrainian refugees in Germany.
While living in the shelter, they learned about the ORAM short-term housing project in Berlin. Soon after, ORAM provided Viktoria, Marina, and Elisa with two weeks of safe, independent housing. “It was a beautiful place with a beautiful view of a park,” they shared with us. “It was a clean apartment, and everyone was very friendly. It was a very nice place.”
Living in Germany, they are not experiencing the judgment they were facing in Russia. Now, when Viktoria, Marina, and Elisa share they are a family, they are mostly faced with acceptance. In Viktoria and Marina’s German language classes, their teacher told the class that people of the same gender can marry in Germany. “It’s beautiful. It’s very good that no one judges it,” Viktoria said. “In Germany, they treat us like a family... In Russia, we were never treated like a family.”
Thank you, Viktoria and Marina, for sharing your story with us! Please donate today to help sustain ORAM’s program to provide short-term housing to LGBTIQ people displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, like Viktoria and Marina.