Biography
Sergey Petrov has been married for more than 40 years, and he worked at the same place for 33 years. Then one day everything changed abruptly — he ended up in a pretrial detention center because of his faith.
Sergey was born in the city of Syzran in the Kuybyshev (now Samara) Region, but he spent his youth in Kazakhstan, in the small town of Taldy-Kurgan. He is the eldest of five children: he has one brother and three sisters. Their mother worked as a plasterer and painter, and their father was a mechanic at an airport.
Sergey's parents tried to instill in their children a love of hard work. From childhood, Sergey was fascinated by technology and radio electronics. He built many things and learned how to repair bicycles and motorcycles. As a young man, he graduated from vocational school with honors and later from a technical college. He continued deepening his knowledge of electrical engineering and electronics. For a while, he worked as a teacher of physics, drafting, and ran a school workshop. For the last 30 years — right up until his arrest — he worked as an electrician--mechanic at a network of gas stations, maintaining and calibrating fuel dispensers.
In December 1983, Sergey married Raisa. In the early 1990s, the young family — Sergey, Raisa, and their two children, a son and a daughter — moved to Talmenka, where they have lived ever since. The Petrovs' son trained as a vocational education instructor (a technical specialist), while their daughter became both an accountant and a hairdresser. Both now have families of their own.
Sergey enjoys growing grapes and making homemade wine. He loves fishing and grilling shashlik. Together with his family, he enjoys spending time outdoors, tending the garden, cycling, Nordic walking, and being with friends.
The first person in the family to learn about the Bible was Sergey's mother — that happened in 1970. While raising her children, she tried to instill in them a love for biblical principles. Sergey thought deeply about his mother's words and reflected on the remarkable way the world around him is designed. This convinced him that there must be a Creator. In time, Sergey decided to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
After Sergey's arrest, Raisa lost the support of a loving husband and the family's sole breadwinner: her pension is small, and her husband provided most of the household's income. Sergey also suffers from chronic health conditions and needs daily medication, including prescription drugs — something difficult to manage in a pretrial detention center.
For those who have known Sergey for many years — his relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances — it is hard to understand why he became the target of a criminal prosecution. They describe him as a kind, responsive, and law-abiding person.