Gorbanevskaya received medal from Charles University

Former Soviet dissident and poet Natalya Gorbanevskaya received an honorary medal from Prague’s Charles University on Tuesday for her lifelong commitment to the struggle for democracy, freedom and human rights. Ms. Gorbanevskaya was one of eight people who came out onto the Red Square in Moscow in 1968 to protest the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. She was arrested along with the other within minutes of beginning the protests and was placed in psychiatric facility for two years. She emigrated to France in 1975, but has been outspoken about human rights abuses in the Soviet Union and post-Communist Russia.

Author: Masha Volynsky