Olga Krause

Olga Leopoldovna Krause is a Russian-born poet, singer-songwriter, and LGBT rights activist.
She is the publisher of the Probuzhdenie journal. After coming out as lesbian, 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.
She graduated from secondary school number 75 in Dnepropetrovsk.

Career and activism

Krause worked at a Komsomol work camp before working as a press operator at a paper mill. She later worked at Gostinny Dvo department store in Leningrad.
Krause published the Probuzhdenie journal and performs as a folk singer. Her 1980's song Где ты упал is about a Soviet soldier who burned to death in a tank during Soviet–Afghan War.
In 2022 she was in Liebenau, Germany, supporting Ukrainian refugees.

Personal life

Despite being lesbian, following an unexpected breakup, she hastily married a man only to break up with him three days later. 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.
After she came out on television, she was pushed out of her job and relocated to Kharkiv, Ukraine.