Valeria Novodvorskaya
Encyclopedia
Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya is a liberal
Russia
n politician, Soviet dissident, the founder and the chairwoman of the "Democratic Union
" party, and a member of the editorial board of The New Times
. Many of her remarks have provoked controversy.
(Prague Spring
). The leaflets included her poetry: "Thank you, the Communist Party for our bitterness and despair, for our shameful silence, thank you the Party!". Novodvorskaya was only 19 at this time. She was arrested, imprisoned at Soviet psychiatric hospital
(officially she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia). She described her experiences there in her book Beyond Despair. In the early 1990s, psychiatrists of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia
and G. N. Sotsevich proved the absence of mental illness in Novodvorskaya.
in a single-mandate district as part of the Russia's Choice bloc, and she also contested the 1995 Russian legislative election
on the list of the Party of Economic Freedom. She was not elected in either election, and hasn't yet held public office.
politician. She also sometimes calls herself and her allies successors to the Russian White movement
tradition. She is openly critical of Russian government policies, including Chechen Wars
, domestic policies of Vladimir Putin
, and the alleged rebirth of Soviet propaganda in Russia
In an interview with Echo Moskvy, in which she was discussing the 2008 South Ossetia War
, Novodvorskaya said that Shamil Basayev
was a democrat, given his support of Boris Yeltsin
during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt and his participation in the government of Aslan Maskhadov
in 1997, who had appointed Basayev Deputy Premier of the Ichkerian government. According to her, it was Russian governmental policies in Chechnya that turned Basayev into a terrorist. In response, Alexey Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the radio station, pulled the recording and transcripts of the program from the Echo Moskvy website. She later accused Venediktov of censorship and slander and suggested that the decision to remove the interview may have been due to Gazprom
, a state-owned company, being a controlling shareholder in Echo Moskvy. Venediktov asserted this to be his own decision and confirmed that Novodvorskaya was banned from the station until the end of 2008.
In March 2010 she signed the online anti-Putin manifesto of the Russian opposition "Putin must go
".
newspaper, August 23, issue #119). In it she made controversial claims, like:
Novodvorskaya was prosecutedcharges were later droppedfor some of her statements in the mid-1990s.
In an interview with a Georgian newspaper, Novodvorskaya said that Georgia "did well" in terminating diplomatic relations with Russia because this will bring the "pleasure of seeing Russia destroyed."
In 2007 Novodvorskaya commented:
Valeria Novodvorskaya alleged that the inclusion of the scenario of the blowing up of Lech Kaczyński's
aircraft in a March 2010 mockumentary shown on Georgian television
is evidence of complicity of the Russian State
in the death of the Polish President in a plane crash on 10 April 2010
in Smolensk Oblast
.
and strengthening democracy in Russia". She said at the ceremony that "we are not in opposition to, but in confrontation with, the present regime".
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n politician, Soviet dissident, the founder and the chairwoman of the "Democratic Union
Democratic Union (Russia)
Democratic Union is a Russian liberal party led by a controversial Russian female politician Valeria Novodvorskaya. The orientation has been radically liberal and pro-reform...
" party, and a member of the editorial board of The New Times
The New Times (Russia)
The New Times, or Novoye Vremya , is a Russian language magazine in Russia established in 1943 in the Soviet Union. It is a small, liberal, independent Russian weekly news magazine, publishing for Russia and Armenia. During the Soviet times it followed the official line...
. Many of her remarks have provoked controversy.
Soviet Union
Novodvorskaya has been active in the Soviet dissidents movement since her youth, and first imprisoned by the Soviet authorities in 1969 for distributing leaflets that criticized the Soviet invasion in CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
(Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
). The leaflets included her poetry: "Thank you, the Communist Party for our bitterness and despair, for our shameful silence, thank you the Party!". Novodvorskaya was only 19 at this time. She was arrested, imprisoned at Soviet psychiatric hospital
Psikhushka
In the Soviet Union, systematic political abuse of psychiatry took place. Soviet psychiatric hospitals were used by the authorities as prisons in order to isolate hundreds or thousands of political prisoners from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally...
(officially she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia). She described her experiences there in her book Beyond Despair. In the early 1990s, psychiatrists of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia
Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia
The Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia is a non-state professional human rights organization.- History :The IPA was established in Moscow in March 1989 and became the first psychiatric association in the USSR which was not controlled by the State...
and G. N. Sotsevich proved the absence of mental illness in Novodvorskaya.
Political career
Novodvorskaya stood as a candidate for the radical liberal party Democratic Union in the 1993 Russian legislative electionRussian legislative election, 1993
Legislative elections were held in the Russian Federation on 12 December 1993. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma , the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia .-Rules:...
in a single-mandate district as part of the Russia's Choice bloc, and she also contested the 1995 Russian legislative election
Russian legislative election, 1995
Legislative elections were held in the Russian Federation on December 17, 1995. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma , the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia ....
on the list of the Party of Economic Freedom. She was not elected in either election, and hasn't yet held public office.
Political activism
Novodvorskaya self-identifies as democratic and liberalLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
politician. She also sometimes calls herself and her allies successors to the Russian White movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
tradition. She is openly critical of Russian government policies, including Chechen Wars
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
, domestic policies of Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
, and the alleged rebirth of Soviet propaganda in Russia
In an interview with Echo Moskvy, in which she was discussing the 2008 South Ossetia War
2008 South Ossetia war
The 2008 South Ossetia War or Russo-Georgian War was an armed conflict in August 2008 between Georgia on one side, and Russia and separatist governments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other....
, Novodvorskaya said that Shamil Basayev
Shamil Basayev
Shamil Salmanovich Basayev was a Chechen militant Islamist and a leader of the Chechen rebel movement.Starting as a field commander in the Transcaucasus, Basayev led guerrilla campaigns against the Russian troops for years, as well as launching mass-hostage takings of civilians, with his goal...
was a democrat, given his support of Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt and his participation in the government of Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov was a leader of the Chechen separatist movement and the third President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, which allowed for the...
in 1997, who had appointed Basayev Deputy Premier of the Ichkerian government. According to her, it was Russian governmental policies in Chechnya that turned Basayev into a terrorist. In response, Alexey Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the radio station, pulled the recording and transcripts of the program from the Echo Moskvy website. She later accused Venediktov of censorship and slander and suggested that the decision to remove the interview may have been due to Gazprom
Gazprom
Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Its headquarters are in Cheryomushki District, South-Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow...
, a state-owned company, being a controlling shareholder in Echo Moskvy. Venediktov asserted this to be his own decision and confirmed that Novodvorskaya was banned from the station until the end of 2008.
In March 2010 she signed the online anti-Putin manifesto of the Russian opposition "Putin must go
Putin must go
"Putin must go" is a website and a public campaign of the same name organised for the collection of signatures under an open letter demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin...
".
Statements of Novodvorskaya
In 1993 she published a short article "We won't give away our right" ' onMouseout='HidePop("66308")' href="/topics/Novy_Vzglyad">Novy VzglyadNovy Vzglyad
Novy Vzglyad, is a weekly newspaper published in Moscow, Russia. It used to be well known for its commentaries on politics and social issues in 1990s.-History:...
newspaper, August 23, issue #119). In it she made controversial claims, like:
- Novodvorskaya has stated that human rights are not universal. They should be reserved for the moral and "good people", naming people like Khomeini or Kim Il-sungKim Il-sungKim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...
as not deserving rights. She looks upon this as justified discrimination. - "For example, I am absolutely not concerned about the number of missiles the democratic U.S. will fire against the undemocratic Iraq. In my opinion, the more the better. Similarly, I am absolutely not horrified with the annoyance that happened with HiroshimaHiroshimais the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
and NagasakiNagasakiis the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
. But have a look now, what a candy modern Japan is. Just like a 'Snickers'. The G7 meets in TokyoTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, there is a liberal parliament. The game was worth the expenses. I would be just happy if the U.S. preserved all of its thinkable and unthinkable priorities and wouldn't forget to throw sometimes something on those who deviate from the liberal way and behave badly. Unavoidability of punishment is the only thing that can keep humanity from political and moral regress, and do not tell me about remorse: a human being has no remorse. Some special advanced specimens have it, but the majority does not." - "Apartheid is a normal thing. SARSouth African RepublicThe South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
will see yet what order will be established by the native population that is having fun with arson, murders, violence. They wouldn't feel well of that... Civilian rights exist for educated, gorged, balanced people with good upbringing." - "Personally I am quite gorged with human rights. Once ago we, the CIA, and the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
used that idea as a battering ramBattering ramA battering ram is a siege engine originating in ancient times and designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates...
to destroy the Communist regime and make the USSR collapse. That idea is outdated and let's stop lying about human rights and human rights defenders. Otherwise, there is a risk of cutting the branch we all are sitting upon."
Novodvorskaya was prosecutedcharges were later droppedfor some of her statements in the mid-1990s.
In an interview with a Georgian newspaper, Novodvorskaya said that Georgia "did well" in terminating diplomatic relations with Russia because this will bring the "pleasure of seeing Russia destroyed."
In 2007 Novodvorskaya commented:
- "If the U.S. attacked Russia it would be good for us. It's better for Russia to be a state of the U.S. But I think Americans don't need us. That's why we have to prepare for a war against stupidity, degradation and restoring Soviet ways."
Valeria Novodvorskaya alleged that the inclusion of the scenario of the blowing up of Lech Kaczyński's
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
aircraft in a March 2010 mockumentary shown on Georgian television
2010 Georgian news report hoax
The 2010 Georgian news report hoax describes a fake news report, or mockumentary, aired by Georgian television station Imedi TV on 13 March 2010.-The broadcast:...
is evidence of complicity of the Russian State
Government of Russia
The Government of the Russian Federation exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister , the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers...
in the death of the Polish President in a plane crash on 10 April 2010
2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
The 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash occurred on 10 April 2010, when a Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft of the Polish Air Force crashed near the city of Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board...
in Smolensk Oblast
Smolensk Oblast
Smolensk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its area is . Population: -Geography:The administrative center of Smolensk Oblast is the city of Smolensk. Other ancient towns include Vyazma and Dorogobuzh....
.
Awards
Novodvorskaya received the Starovoytova award "for contribution to the defense of human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and strengthening democracy in Russia". She said at the ceremony that "we are not in opposition to, but in confrontation with, the present regime".
Her books
- Valeriya Novodvorskaya has released few books that are supplemented with the publications from the Novy VzglyadNovy VzglyadNovy Vzglyad, is a weekly newspaper published in Moscow, Russia. It used to be well known for its commentaries on politics and social issues in 1990s.-History:...
newspaper (ISBN 978-5-8159-0893-2).
- Valeriya Novodvorskaya. Beyond despair. .Moscow, NovostiNovostiRussian International News Agency ' is a Russian state-owned news agency based in the capital Moscow.-Overview:The agency publishes news and information about social-political, economic, scientific and financial subjects on the Internet and via e-mail in the main European languages, as well as in...
. 1993 Валерия Новодворская. По ту сторону отчаяния.
See also
- Larisa ArapLarisa ArapLarisa Arap is a Russian opposition activist who became a victim of involuntary commitment in the psychiatric facilities of Murmansk and Apatity, soon after publishing a story about mistreatment of patients in the same hospital where she was committed in July, 2007...
- Natalya MedvedevaNatalya MedvedevaNatalya Medvedeva was a Russian poet, writer, musician, and member of Tribunal rock band.-Career:...
- Eduard LimonovEduard LimonovEduard Limonov is Russian writer and political dissident, and is the founder and leader of radical National Bolshevik Party. An opponent of Vladimir Putin, Limonov is one of leaders of Other Russia political bloc.-Early life:...
- Evgeny DodolevEvgeny DodolevYevgeniy Yuriyevich Dodolyev , is a Soviet and Russian journalist and publisher.-TV Years:...
- Vitaly KorotichVitaly KorotichVitaly Korotich is a Soviet, Ukrainian and Russian writer and journalist,.Vitaly Korotich was born in 1936 in Kiev. In 1959 he graduated from the Kiev Medical University. Vitaly Korotich worked as a doctor between 1959 and 1966. Later, he became as a full-time writer, and served as an officer of...
- Alexander ProkhanovAlexander ProkhanovAlexander Andreyevich Prokhanov is a Soviet and Russian writer. He is a member of the secretariat of the Writers Union of the Russian Federation and the editor-in-chief of ultra-nationalist newspaper "Завтра" ....
External links
- The Democratic Union
- Opinions on grani.ru (Russian)
- «It can very soon come to pogroms», interview with Novodvorskaya, Jewish Observer, 21/40. November 2002