Limonov vs. Putin

THE SPOUSE

Lyudmila Alexandrovna Shkrebneva (Putina after her marriage) was born on January 6^th 1958 in Kaliningrad. She was born the same year as my late wife Natasha Medvedeva, a singer and a writer, who died in February 2003, at that time I was behind bars in Saratov’s central prison. Lyudmila Putina attended Kaliningrad’s 44^th School and then School Number 8. She finished her 8^th grade with a good work certificate but in her school-leaving certificate she already had three Bs. In school she liked needlework (she knitted), was an active Komsomol member. In the theatrical circle of the Young Pioneers’ House she played in The Cherry Orchard, The Inspector and dreamed of becoming an actress. L. Putina’s mother Ekaterina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva lives in Kaliningrad for almost forty years now. She worked as a cashier in an autocade. Her husband Alexander Abramovich worked in Kaliningrad’s machinery factory. He died. (I do not have information about the time he died or his function in the factory). In 2003 Ekaterina Tikhonovna still lived in Kaliningrad. She had a dacha in the town of Pregolski.

Lyudmila Putina has a younger sister – Olga. Olga is married to Viktor Tzomaev. She works as a stewardess in Kaliningrad’s squadron.

In 1975 Lyudmila graduated and did not become an actress, but started to work as a post woman. Later she went to work in Kaliningrad’s Torgmash factory as a capstan lathe operator (she is a second class operator) but did not stay there. Still in 1975 she attended Kaliningrad’s technical institute, but dropped out during the second session.

Some time after dropping out she worked as a stewardess in Kaliningrad’s squadron. On that job Lyudmila proved to be a shy and a quiet employee.

So we see a somewhat frivolous soviet girl who switches jobs and does not stay long at any of them. In those years such an ardor was not welcome and caused suspicion. Many stamps in a workbook made the human resources employees frown.

In 1978 the stewardess Lyudmila Shkrebneva, she is twenty years old, was spending her vacations in the city of Leningrad. With a friend. There she visited the show of the comic Arkady Raykin in the Lensovet Theater. There she met Vladimir Putin, as we know, he was already working in the KGB. The trip to the show with the girls was organized by Putin’s friend, he has invited Lyudmila’s friend. VVP was providing tickets for the whole group. From this time Lyudmila frequently visited Leningrad on her vacations. And in 1980 she moved to Leningrad finally – she entered the preparatory courses for Leningrad’s State University and then for the philological faculty.

In university Luydmila specialized in “Spanish language and literature” (although she supposedly wanted to study German) and lived on the campus on Mytninskaya Street.

In June 28^th 1983 Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Shkrebneva registered their marriage in the Wedding Palace on Petr Lavrov Street. Lyudmila was then in her third session. The event was celebrated on a Neva steamship. We do not know if they rented the whole steamship or modestly partied in the bar. After the marriage the newly weds started to live in the house of Putin’s parents. Again we do not know if it was in the communal apartment or the country house in Tosno.

According to their neighbors in Saint Petersburg, Lyudmila was a shy and a friendly person. She rarely used make-up. We do not know if children were afraid of her.