Gunārs Astra
Gunārs Astra | |
---|---|
Born | 22 October 1931 Riga, Latvia |
Died | 6 April 1988(1988-04-06) (aged 56) Leningrad, USSR |
Nationality | Latvian |
Known for | human rights activism |
Gunārs Astra (22 October 1931 – 6 April 1988) was a Latvian human rights activist and an anti-Soviet dissident who was arrested by the Soviet Union in 1961, and was sentenced to prison for 15 years. He was released in 1976. In 1983, he was arrested again, but released several weeks before his death.
Biography
Gunārs Astra was born in Riga, on 22 October 1931. He graduated from primary school and later continued his education in an electromechanical technical school. After graduation in 1952, he started to work in one of the largest electromechanical factories in the Latvian SSR – VEF. Because Astra was a very erudite and industrious worker, he was granted a promotion and became chief of the 7th Radio manufacturing workshop. He also studied the English language in university as an external student.
In 1958, Gunārs Astra had the chance to meet American diplomats in Riga. This encounter had a great influence on him in his later life, allowing him to consider Western culture and develop an innate opposition to Communism and the USSR. In 1961, Astra was accused of spying, promoting anti-Soviet propaganda, and homeland betrayal, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was imprisoned in Mordovia, and later in the Perm Oblast. During his custody, he educated himself and met other political prisoners from all over the Soviet Union.
Astra was released in 1976 and returned to Latvia. He had not changed his political views and continued to oppose the Soviet regime. In 1983, he was arrested for the second time and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. This time he was accused of possessing and distributing anti-Soviet literature, one of them being George Orwell's 1984. In courts proceeding the Soviet rule, Astra became known for his famous final statement, in which he condemned the Soviet regime. He ended his speech by saying, "I believe that these times will disappear like a nightmare does. That gives me the strength to stand and breathe here."
He was released from prison in February 1988, but died in a hospital in Leningrad on 6 April shortly afterwards, from heart disease. Nevertheless, there remain unconfirmed theories that the KGB was involved in his death. His funeral in Riga was reportedly attended by 10,000 people.
There is a commemorative plaque on the District Court building in Riga where Astra was sentenced, and a street in the capital bears his name.
Gunārs Astra lies in the Forest Cemetery in Riga.
On 3 May 2019, he was posthumously awarded with the Order of Viesturs.
On 20 January 2022, a monument to him was unveiled in front of the Latvian Supreme Court building.
Bibliography
1998. Novel Gunars Astra written by Māris Ruks (awarded the General Goppers Prize (USA) – a historical documentary of the most renowned defenders of human rights, renewal of independence in the Baltic States and dissident Gunārs Astra).
External links
- gunars-astra-1931-1988 Gunārs Astra 1931–1988, by Makss, allaboutlatvia.com
- v
- t
- e
- Human rights movement in the Soviet Union: Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR
- Committee on Human Rights in the USSR
- Solzhenitsyn Aid Fund
- Moscow Helsinki Group
- Ukrainian Helsinki Group
- Lithuanian Helsinki Group
- Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes
- Helsinki-86
- Memorial
- Mikhail Agursky
- Vasily Aksyonov
- Lyudmila Alexeyeva
- Andrei Amalrik
- Chabua Amirejibi
- Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko
- Gunārs Astra
- Mykola Bakay
- Anna Barkova
- Vasile Bătrânac
- Arkadiy Belinkov
- Nikolai Berdyaev
- Yuri Bezmenov
- Larisa Bogoraz
- Alexander Bolonkin
- Yelena Bonner
- Leonid Borodin
- Vladimir Bougrine
- Joseph Brodsky
- Vladimir Bukovsky
- Valery Chalidze
- Lev Chernyi
- Boris Chichibabin
- Viacheslav Chornovil
- Lydia Chukovskaya
- Yuli Daniel
- Vadim Delaunay
- Andrey Derevyankin
- David Devdariani
- Ivan Drach
- Yuri Druzhnikov
- Mustafa Dzhemilev
- Ivan Dziuba
- Abulfaz Elchibey
- Alexander Esenin-Volpin
- Eliyahu Essas
- Efim Etkind
- Benjamin Fain
- Viktor Fainberg
- Moysey Fishbein
- Ilya Gabay
- Balys Gajauskas
- Yuri Galanskov
- Alexander Galich
- Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev
- Zviad Gamsakhurdia
- Vladimir Gershuni
- Alexander Ginzburg
- Yevgenia Ginzburg
- Anatoly Gladilin
- Semyon Gluzman
- Natalya Gorbanevskaya
- Pyotr Grigorenko
- Sergei Grigoryants
- Vasily Grossman
- Igor Guberman
- Tengiz Gudava
- Paruyr Hayrikyan
- Ivan Hel
- Oleksa Hirnyk
- Mykola Horbal
- Bohdan Horyn
- Mykhailo Horyn
- Grigory Isayev
- Boris Kagarlitsky
- Romas Kalanta
- Sofiya Kalistratova
- Ihor Kalynets
- Iryna Kalynets
- Vitaliy Kalynychenko
- Dina Kaminskaya
- Ivan Kandyba
- Ephraim Kholmyansky
- Yuliy Kim
- Nikolai Klyuev
- Lev Kopelev
- Boris Korczak
- Anatoly Koryagin
- Nahum Korzhavin
- Merab Kostava
- Lina Kostenko
- Sergei Kovalev
- Zoya Krakhmalnikova
- Victor Krasin
- Yuri Kublanovsky
- Jüri Kukk
- Anatoly Kuznetsov
- Eduard Kuznetsov
- Malva Landa
- Alexander Lavut
- Mikhail Leontovich
- Alexander Lerner
- Yaroslav Lesiv
- Eugene Levich
- Veniamin Levich
- Eduard Limonov
- Jüri Lina
- Pavel Litvinov
- Levko Lukyanenko
- Nikolay Lossky
- Kronid Lyubarsky
- Michail J. Makarenko
- Vasyl Makukh
- Guram Mamulia
- Nadezhda Mandelstam
- Anatoly Marchenko
- Valeriy Marchenko
- Myroslav Marynovych
- Grigorii Maksimov
- Roy Medvedev
- Zhores Medvedev
- Naum Meiman
- Mykhailo Melnyk
- Alexander Men
- Yosef Mendelevitch
- Vazif Meylanov
- Andrei Mironov
- Ion Moraru
- Viktor Nekipelov
- Viktor Nekrasov
- Alexander Nekrich
- Valeriya Novodvorskaya
- Vasile Odobescu
- Alexander Ogorodnikov
- Yuri Orlov
- Raisa Orlova
- Yulian Panich
- Lagle Parek
- Boris Pasternak
- Konstantin Paustovsky
- Gleb Pavlovsky
- Zianon Pazniak
- Yekaterina Peshkova
- Viktoras Petkus
- Alexander Piatigorsky
- Leonid Plyushch
- Alexandr Podrabinek
- Grigory Pomerants
- Vladimir Pribylovsky
- Dmitri Prigov
- Anatoly Pristavkin
- Boris Pustyntsev
- Irina Ratushinskaya
- Eliyahu Rips
- Arseny Roginsky
- Maria Rozanova
- Mykola Rudenko
- Yuly Rybakov
- Ain Saar
- Valery Sablin
- Andrei Sakharov
- Dmitri Savitski
- Shmuel Schneurson
- Iryna Senyk
- Victor Serge
- Efraim Sevela
- Igor Shafarevich
- Varlam Shalamov
- Avital Sharansky
- Natan Sharansky
- Alexander Shatravka
- Vladimir Shelkov
- Yurii Shukhevych
- Danylo Shumuk
- Andrei Sinyavsky
- Vladimir Slepak
- Victor Sokolov
- Sergei Soldatov
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- Pitirim Sorokin
- Galina Starovoytova
- Vladimir Strelnikov
- Aleksandras Štromas
- Vasyl Stus
- Nadiya Svitlychna
- Ivan Svitlichny
- Vasyl Symonenko
- Les Tanyuk
- Alexander Tarasov
- Valery Tarsis
- Enn Tarto
- Lev Timofeev
- Valentin Turchin
- Andrei Tverdokhlebov
- Tatyana Velikanova
- Tomas Venclova
- Georgi Vins
- Georgi Vladimov
- Vladimir Voinovich
- Michael Voslenski
- Anatoly Yakobson
- Gleb Yakunin
- Venedikt Yerofeyev
- Yevgeny Zamyatin
- Alexander Zinoviev
- Yosyf Zisels