Biography
"Everything happened unexpectedly," recalls Albert Pilshchikov, a resident of Naberezhnye Chelny. "The security forces threw me to the ground, handcuffed me, dragged me into a minibus and threatened me with physical force." In November 2020, the family was searched, and in March 2026, the believer was detained by law enforcement officers.
Albert was born in the village of Starye Savrushi (Tatarstan) in a family of builders. He is the eldest of three sons. Their father worked as an installer-bricklayer, and their mother worked as a plasterer-painter. The father taught his sons to work from an early age: he taught them construction, housekeeping, and work in the garden. He instilled in them a love of cleanliness and order. The family often spent time in nature—they went fishing, sometimes with overnight stays.
As a child, Albert was fond of sports: he went skiing, attended a tourist club, went hiking, played football. In addition, he attended a fine arts club. Albert spent his holidays in the village, helping his grandparents with the housework. After graduating from school, he entered an agricultural college and received the specialty of a lawyer.
While the children were growing up, the family moved several times. For five years they lived in the city of Pervouralsk (Sverdlovsk region), then returned to Tatarstan. For thirteen years, the family remained in the workers' settlement of Kamskiye Polyany, and then for about ten years in the city of Chistopol.
His father died at the age of 42, when Albert was twenty. As the eldest son, he took care of the family. Before that, he worked with his parents in the family construction team, and now he got a job as a seller of auto parts.
In the late 1990s, Albert met Jehovah's Witnesses. He said: "Bible study helped me get rid of bad habits—foul language and alcohol abuse. This book taught me high moral standards, not to return evil for evil, to be sympathetic and ready to help others." According to him, faith also changed his attitude towards his family: "I learned to sincerely love and respect my parents, to be a faithful and reliable friend." In 2003, Albert was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
In 2011, he married Olesya. She is a nurse by training and enjoys drawing and reading books in her free time. Together with friends, the couple love to travel around the country, especially to go to the mountains and ski. Albert also likes to bake bread and cook dishes of different nations: khinkali, pizza, pilaf, kimchi. He completed a course in digital drawing and paints portraits.
Albert's mother, a disabled person of group III, and other relatives are worried about the couple in connection with the criminal prosecution of the believer.