Dmitry Petrov

Dmitry Dmitrievich Petrov (; 9 September 1989 – 19 April 2023), also known by his nom de guerre Ilya Leshiy and under other pseudonyms, was a Russian anarchist activist, ethnographer and historian. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he volunteered for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and was killed in the battle of Bakhmut.

Biography Activism in Russia Dmitry Petrov joined the Russian anarchist movement in 2004, when he was still a teenager. In the 2000s, he was known among Russian anarchists by the pseudonym "Ecologist" for his environmental activism. He was involved in organising protests against the construction of waste incineration plants, the defence of the Bitsevsky Park and the Khimki Forest, etc. In addition to environmental protection activities, he also participated in street fights against Russian neo-Nazis, the activities of the anarchist trade union , social protests (in particular, against the eviction of dormitory residents), independent book publishing and cultural and educational events. To take part in the Belarusian protests, he illegally crossed the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, as he faced extradition to Russia in Belarus. He was engaged in promoting information about Kurdistan and the Middle East in general as part of the research project Hevale: Revolution in Kurdistan, co-authored and co-edited the books Life without a State: The Revolution in Kurdistan and Desert Flowers: 10 Years of the Rojava Revolution, as well as a translator of the study Kurdistan. Real Democracy under War and Blockade. His materials about Kurdistan also appeared in the Ukrainian publications Commons and .

During his stay in Kurdistan, he found out that the FSB was interested in him and, against the backdrop of persecution of anarchist and anti-fascist activists by the Putin regime, he decided not to return to Russia and moved to Kyiv in 2018.

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Pseudonymous articles