A main voice of the Soviet dissident movement, Gorbanevskaya passed away in Paris at the age of 77.

The Indomitable Natalia Gorbanevskaya

by Vladimir Tismaneanu

The ongoing revolutionary upheaval in the Ukraine shows that the spirit of freedom prevails over infamy and fear.

This is the great lesson of Natalia Gorbanevskaya’s admirable life. A main voice of the Soviet dissident movement, Gorbanevskaya passed away in Paris at the age of 77. She was one of the few demonstrators in the Red Square, in August 1968, who dared to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Their courageous action, dashed by the KGB, marked the birth of the human rights movement in the USSR. Their heroic defiance of the despotic Leviathan remains a most inspiring example of civic disobedience, under the most unpropitious circumstances. The secret police obtained a temporary victory, but, in the long run, Gorbanevskaya and her fellow dissidents were the victors.

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