Biography
On May 17, 2018, a massive raid on Jehovah's Witnesses took place in the city of Birobidzhan. The operation, code-named "Judgment Day", involved 150 security officials. One of the believers, Sergey Shulyarenko, was accused of collecting donations for worship services. Four and a half years later, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to seven years in a penal colony.
Sergey was born in 1984 in the city of Khabarovsk. He has two older brothers. For some time, Sergey lived with his parents in Turkmenistan; his father was in the military. Later, the family returned to the Far East region of Russia and settled in the small village of Budukan, Jewish Autonomous Region. As a child, Sergey learned Christian values from his mother.
Sergey entered the medical college of Birobidzhan but did not graduate due to an injury and disability. Later, he graduated from a vocational school as a machinist in opencast mining and worked as an assistant machinist. In 2009 he returned to Birobidzhan because of deteriorating health.
In his free time, Sergey loves to draw portraits in pencil. He also enjoys foreign languages.
In September 2023, when Sergey was already in the penal colony, where he was placed to serve his sentence, his wedding took place—he married Marina. The girl supports her husband in everything and waits for his release.