Evgeny Shtorn

Evgeny Shtorn (Russian: Евгений Шторн) is an LGBT activist, organizer, scholar and poet.

Shtorn was born in Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1983 and moved to St.Petersburg, Russia in 2000 at the age of 17.

He studied in Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University 'LETI' and in Russian State Institute of Performing Arts.

He speaks and write in Spanish, English and Russian.

In St. Petersburg he was working in the Centre for Independent Social Research with Viktor Voronkov and other prominent sociologists.

He completed master's degree in sociology in Higher School of Economics under the supervision of Elena Omelchenko.

Shtorn was born in Kazakhstan in 1983 (known then as: Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic).

When Evgeny was a teenager, many young Russian-language speaking school graduates chose to travel from Kazakhstan to Russia for academic purposes.

He moved to St.Petersburg in 2000 at the age of 17, and shortly afterwards came out as gay.

He quickly identified with the LGBT population in St.Petersburg and became increasingly more involved in the community.

Shtorn was a regular at popular gay nightclubs and engaged in other activities within the community where he is said to have realized that this was "my culture," "my music," "my style," and "this is where I feel comfortable."

Yet, this job turned into a political confrontation in 2015 when "the Justice Ministry added the TsNSI to the list of “foreign agents”- organizations that receive financing from abroad and, in the authorities’ opinion, are engaged in political activity."

While Putin is enforcing the Russian gay propaganda law, the government is also working to dismantle N.G.O institutions.

The Russian foreign agents law requires that N.G.O's who receive foreign funding submit specific reporting requirements.

This set limitations to the research occurring at Centre for Independent Social Research where Evgeny and his partner Alexander work, as the centre ended up on a list for government surveillance.

Things began to take a turn for the worst when Shtorn received a call from the Russian migration service informing him that there was a problem with his application and he must come into their offices to discuss it.

When Shtorn arrived, he was led to a room on the first floor that had nothing but a camera, and a large portrait of Yuri Andropov.

The man then shows Evgeny his FSB (Federal Security Agency) ID card, which is the successor agency to the KGB.

Evgeny is reported saying he was kept by the FSB agent for 2 hours, they discussed his masters thesis and his studies in the LGBT field; the murder of gay men and the work of the Centre for Independent Social Research.

It soon became clear that the man wanted Evgeny to be an informant for foreign individuals involved with the N.G.O centre:

"Basically his main attitude was very polite, but in a kind of very subtle, tender way he mentioned the law on espionage and the law of the traitor of motherland. My main goal was to get out of there but also not to damage other people."

He explained in a New Yorker interview that his safety, his privacy and his agency were violated as the Russian government was attempting to use him as an informant.

In 2018 Shtorn was forced to leave Russia due to political repression from the Russian government under Vladimir Putin and the legislation against independent NGOs known as foreign agent law the Russian gay propaganda law that was enacted in 2013.

In 2018 Shtorn claimed international protection in the Republic of Ireland.

He was initially sent to Balseskin Reception Center in Finglas where he started his first book 'Chronicles of Refugee' about life in direct provision.

He was then relocated to Moate and shortly after to Galway, where he spent most of the time waiting for his asylum claim to be processed.

Shtorn was forced to leave Russia in 2018 and take asylum in Dublin, Ireland. He experienced a number of issues as he attempted to acquire his Russian citizenship before leaving the country.

When Shtorn became a student, he applied for his Russian passport and was able to get it quite easily.

10 years later he was told, without warning, that there was a problem and his passport had been issued improperly.

Concerned for his status, Evgeny went to the Kazakhstan embassy in hopes to rectify the issues, but they rescinded his citizenship as well.

This meant that he was now a stateless person. When you are a stateless person you lose your passport and your ability to travel.

This affected him everyday; every policeman or states-person he comes into contact with could potentially stop him and looks at his papers and instantly know that "something is wrong."

Despite this experience, Russia did eventually explain to Shtorn that he had options for citizenship application: he can stay in the country on a residency permit and apply for a passport in 5 years; he cannot break any laws and he has to work.

While living on a residency permit, the individual is required to report back to states-people on regular basis.

Shtorn got a job at the same N.G.O as his partner Alexander Kondakov at the Centre for Independent Social Research.

He studied community development postgraduate diploma in NUI Galway He was granted refugee status in late 2019.

He finished his book about direct provision in Galway, Ireland; He is a stateless person and refugee in Ireland.

Despite all this he continues to engage in research and activism for the LGBT community in Ireland.

Evgeny explores and studies the issues suffered by the LGBT population in Russia, as well as the state of living conditions in Ireland's direct provision system for refugees and his personal experience there.

He is praised by his interviewees for his raw, personal poetry and analysis of the social issues he is involved with as well as studies.