Biography
Yelena Shestopalova is a loving grandmother, mother and wife. All her life she has tried to help others. In the fall of 2025, following her daughter Vladlena, she was prosecuted for her belief in Jehovah God. "I have to learn to trust people again," the woman shared.
Yelena was born in the summer of 1965 in the city of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskiy, located on the west coast of Sakhalin Island. She is the middle of three sisters. Despite the fact that their parents adhered to different beliefs, the family was close-knit. Father worked as a driver all his life, and mother worked at a local fish factory. According to Yelena's recollections, her father was respected for his responsiveness, and when he died, his obituary was published in the local newspaper.
Parents taught the girls to help people. "Mom sent me with gifts to elderly neighbors," Yelena recalls. "We treated them to homemade meat and bacon. If they needed help, they washed dishes and floors. At the same time, my mother said never to take money for help. You could only treat yourself to a candy or cookies."
Yelena grew up as an athletic child. In the summer, she loved to swim and ride a bike, and in the winter she went skiing, regularly taking part in competitions. She also liked to knit. After graduating from school, the girl entered the agronomy faculty of the Ussuri Agricultural Institute (now the Perm State Agricultural Academy) as an external student. She took an active part in public life: she helped those who were lagging behind in their studies, was the head of the group.
At the institute, Yelena met her future husband Nikolay, who studied at the zoological faculty. They got married in 1987 and moved to Nikolay's hometown—Birobidzhan. The couple raised two daughters who already have their own families. Yelena and Nikolay love hiking and boating. She enjoys admiring the beauty of nature, bird watching, taking pictures and filming. She also still likes to come to her hometown on Sakhalin and walk along the seashore.
Yelena is retired. During her life, she managed to work as a laboratory assistant in a biological laboratory, a social worker, as well as an agronomist in the Birobidzhan educational colony. Yelena helped her husband engage in commerce, and for the last few years before retirement she worked as a cleaner in the Government of the Jewish Autonomous Region.
The woman recalls how she first thought about God: "Around 1985, during a class on the basics of scientific atheism, the teacher gave us advice: 'If believers come up to you and talk about God, don't listen to them, because they will definitely convince you that God exists.' From that time on, I wanted to figure out: Does God really exist?" Thanks to a former employee, she met Jehovah's Witnesses, began to study the Bible, and in the summer of 1995 she was baptized.
"Studying the Bible has become like a second higher education for me," Yelena shared. "The knowledge from this book helped me cope with negative character traits. I remember my husband saying to his sister: 'Study the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses. Lena has become wiser and calmer.' Applying Bible knowledge has helped me preserve and strengthen our marriage. I was also able to raise wise and kind children."
Criminal prosecution has changed the usual way of life of Yelena and her loved ones. "My husband, who does not share my religious views, received severe stress . . . My children, as well as relatives and friends, also received it. They are very worried about me," the believer shared. She herself had problems with blood pressure, she had to seek medical help due to anxiety and insomnia.