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Evgenia Debryanskaya

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Evgenia Debryanskaya
co-founder, Democratic Union, Libertarian Party
Personal details
Born (1953-06-10) 10 June 1953 (age 71)
Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR
Political partyDemocratic Union, Libertarian Party
SpouseAleksandr Dugin (formerly)
Children1
Occupation
  • Entrepreneur
  • activist

Evgenia Evgenievna Debryanskaya (Russian: Евгения Евгеньевна Дебрянская; born 10 June 1953) or Yevgenia Debryanskaya is a Russian dissident and LGBT rights activist.

She was also the co-founder of the Osvobozhdenie (Freedom), a radical group that emerged out of the first homosexual movement in Russia and the Democratic Union.[1] Former leader of the Libertarian Party of the RSFSR.[2]

Debryanskaya advocated for the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Eastern Europe, opening of the Russian borders, and the legalization of same-sex marriage.[3] She was also the first wife of Aleksandr Dugin,[4] the Russian political activist, who has been referred to as Vladimir Putin's "Rasputin" by the Milken Institute, as well as "Putin's philosopher", and "Putin's brain".[5][6] Debryanskaya was called the first "open" lesbian in Russia in a 2008 interview in Ogoniok.[7]

Debryanskaya is also a writer and has directed auteur films.

Biography

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Debryanskaya was born on 10 June 1953 in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union.[8] She has been described as provincial and uneducated, since she did not finish college.[9] She was, however, wealthy and enjoyed political connections. Her money was attributed to her skill in gambling while she owed her connections to her being the illegitimate daughter of a Moscow Party boss.[9] Prior to living as a lesbian, Debryanskaya was in a heterosexual relationship with Aleksandr Dugin, a Russian philosopher and political agitator.[10] She met him when she was 30 years old. Both were said to have hated the Soviet regime.[9] They married and, in 1985, had a son called Artur Dugin, named in honor of Arthur Rimbaud.[4] Debryanskaya said that she and Dugin were members of the "black order of the SS", a circle of people led by Yevgeny Golovin [ru] who studied esoteric fascism and occultism.[11]

Activism

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In 1987, Debryanskaya, Valeriya Novodvorskaya and Sergei Grigoryants co-founded the first official political opposition party in the Soviet Union Democratic Union. However, she was later expelled from the party for "amoral behavior".[12][13] She was also a member of the Establishment of Trust between East and West.[14]

Debryanskaya helped establish the gay and lesbian rights movement in Russia in the early 1990s.[15] This was possible due to Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost policy, which lifted some restrictions on the freedom of the press and freedom of expression.[16] With Roman Kalinin and eight others, she founded the Moscow Organization of Sexual Minorities. This organization, later renamed Moscow Gay and Lesbian Union, published Tema, a newspaper that helped advance its goals such as the repeal of Article 21, the law that criminalised consensual homosexual activity.[16] She headed a campaign for the RSFSR Libertarian Party[2] nomination of the one-legged openly-gay Roman Kalinin for the President of Russia. The campaign failed because Kalinin was younger than the minimum age allowed by the Constitution of Russia.[13]

With Masha Gessen, she founded "Triangle" the organization supporting Russian lesbians. It was named after Pink triangle, a Nazi concentration camp badge identifying prisoners as gay.[7][17]

One of her notable initiatives was the organization of a controversial pride parade in Moscow, which drew international attention to sexual minorities in the city.[15] This was announced with Nikolay Alexeyev on 27 July 2005.[15] The first-ever pride parade occurred a year later on 27 May 2006, ending in violence.[18] About 200 activists were arrested, including Debryanskaya and Alexeyev.[18] She was also involved with movie screenings, press conferences and discussions.[19]

Debryanskaya wrote and directed auteur films. Several of her initiatives were supported by international funding and, when these sources dwindled, nightclub owners.[20]

Later in life, Debryanskaya became an entrepreneur.[21] She owned a lesbian bar called Dietrich, which was stolen by Maksim Kozlouvskiy, her landlord.[22] In December 2015, Kozlouvskiy warned everyone to leave the club to avoid an imminent police raid.[22] Debryanskaya gave the keys to Kozlouvskiy and fled, but no police came. The landlord took over the establishment, saying it would be converted into a "natural nightclub".[22]

References

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  1. ^ Pope, Cynthia; White, Renee T.; Malow, Robert (11 June 2014). HIV/AIDS: Global Frontiers in Prevention/Intervention. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-78029-5.
  2. ^ a b Либертарианцы: Президент может быть гомосексуалистом [Libertarians: The President may be homosexual] (in Russian). Власть. 29 April 1991. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2009. «Около 700 делегатов Либертарианской партии … отметили праздник 1 Мая … выдвижением на пост президента России своего человека. Им стал лидер партии гомосексуалист Роман Калинин», «Завершилось мероприятие на квартире у Евгении Дебрянской - признанного лидера партии». ["About 700 delegates of the Libertarian Party … celebrated May Day with … the nomination of their person for the post of President of Russia. He became the leader of the party homosexual Roman Kalinin", "The event ended at the apartment of Evgenia Debryanskaya, the recognized leader of the party".]
  3. ^ "Dissidents No More: Three Russians Who Have Given Up Activism". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  4. ^ a b "The Bizarre Russian Prophet Rumored to Have Putin's Ear". The Bulwark. 27 April 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  5. ^ "Russian intellectual Aleksandr Dugin is also commonly known as 'Putin's brain'". NPR.org. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  6. ^ "Putin's Rasputin". milkenreview.org. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  7. ^ a b "БЕЗ СЕМЬИ" [WITHOUT FAMILY]. No. 52. Ogoniok. 2008. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012.
  8. ^ Millinship, William (1993). Front Line: Women of the New Russia. Methuen. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-413-45671-7.
  9. ^ a b c Gessen, Masha (2017). The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. New York, NY: Penguin. pp. 19, 20. ISBN 9781594634536.
  10. ^ Gessen, Masha (2017). The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. New York, NY: Penguin. pp. 19, 257. ISBN 978-0-698-40620-9.
  11. ^ Debryanskaya, Elena Anatolyevna; Yanova, Elena Alekseevna (2021). "The history of nuclear power development in the Russian Federation". Scientific Dialogue: Economics and Management. TSNS Interaktiv Plus. doi:10.21661/r-81173. S2CID 156314433.
  12. ^ Tatyana, Voltskaya (14 May 2018). ""Мы бежали впереди, проверяя минное поле". Демсоюзу исполнилось 30 лет" ["We ran ahead, checking the minefield." The Democratic Union is 30 years old]. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
  13. ^ a b ""Вы словно ходите по лезвию ножа"" [It's like you're walking on a knife edge]. Russian Planet. 28 May 2014.
  14. ^ Tolz, Vera; Tolz, Vera (1990). The USSR's Emerging Multiparty System. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 57. ISBN 0-275-93838-7.
  15. ^ a b c Gdaniec, Cordula (2010). Cultural Diversity in Russian Cities: The Urban Landscape in the Post-Soviet Era. New York: Berghahn Books. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-84545-665-8.
  16. ^ a b Belmonte, Laura A. (2020). The International LGBT Rights Movement: A History. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-4725-1147-8.
  17. ^ "Евгения Дебрянская — о писателе" [Evgenia Debryanskaya - about the writer]. Live lib.
  18. ^ a b "Moscow's first Pride ends in violence". xtramagazine.com. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  19. ^ ILGA Europe (2006). Pride Against Prejudice. London: ILGA Europe.
  20. ^ Browne, Kath; Ferreira, Eduarda (3 March 2016). Lesbian Geographies: Gender, Place and Power. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-10564-0.
  21. ^ Gessen, Masha (2017). The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. New York: Penguin. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-698-40620-9.
  22. ^ a b c Huetlin, Josephine (4 January 2016). "It's Legal to Steal a Gay Bar in Moscow Now". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
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