Anna Jermolaewa, Untitled

Anna Jermolaewa was born and grew up in Leningrad, USSR. At the age of seventeen, she became one of the original members of Democratic Union, the first political opposition party

in the Soviet Union. The party’s statute declared their main objective: the “liquidation of the totalitarian state.” Anna and her husband, the Ukrainian poet Vladimir Yaremenko, and Artem Gadasik published the party’s illustrated weekly, “Democratic Opposition,” printed on photo paper in their bathroom.

In 1989, after a year and a half of printing, a criminal case was opened against the three, who were charged with causing anti-Soviet agitation and spreading propaganda, after publishing a poem by Yaremenko. The KGB interrogated approximately three-hundred people and conducted over a dozen searches, seizing manuscripts.Facing political persecution and the prosecution of “Case No. 64,” Anna and Vladimir had to leave the country.

Activists from Solidarność arranged for an invitation for the two to visit Krakow. The invitation was from a woman they hadn’t met before, Aleksandra Wysokińska. Aleksandra hosted them for a week before arranging the next stage of their flight, a Polish shopping bus tour to Vienna. After spending a month in the refugee camp in Traiskirchen, and then several months in refugee housing in southern Austria, they received political asylum.

Anna has lived in Austria since 1989. Her childhood and teen years in the Soviet Union, the persecution and political repression she experienced as a part of Democratic Union, and her time as a refugee have shaped her artistic position. In addition to her strong views against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s murderous, totalitarian regime, Anna has provided continuous assistance for Ukrainian refugees in Austria.

The refugee-advocate group Ariadne – We Refugees for Austria, made up of political refugees from various countries of origin, was co-founded by Anna in 2021. Ariadne’s main goal is to use each group member’s experience and networks in Austria to support newly arrived refugees. Since 2022, when Russia escalated the war in Ukraine, Ariadne has provided support for Ukrainians who have fled the war. Mint condition, signed and numbered on the back, Hand-signed by artist, backside.