Nationality Ukrainian Role Poet Name Irina Ratushinskaya | Known for human rights activism Alma mater Odessa University Education Odessa University | |
 | ||
Native name Irina Borisovna Ratushinskaya Born March 4, 1954 (age 70) ( 1954-03-04 ) Odessa, Ukrainian SSR Occupation poet, writer, screenwriter Books Dance with a Shadow, The Odessans, Wind of the journey, Fictions and Lies: A Novel, No - I'm Not Afraid | ||
For Irina Ratushinskaya
Irina Borisovna Ratushinskaya (Russian: Ири́на Бори́совна Ратуши́нская, 4 March 1954, Odessa – 5 July 2017, Moscow) was a Russian Soviet dissident, poet and writer.
Contents
- For Irina Ratushinskaya
- Brian Elias 5 Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya Laments
- Background
- Political persecution
- Exile
- Books
- Adaptations
- References
Brian Elias: 5 Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya & Laments
Background
Irina Ratushinskaya was born in Odessa, Ukraine. Her father was Boris Leonidovich, an engineer, and her mother was Irina Valentinovna Ratushinsky, a teacher of Russian literature. She has one sister.
Her mother's family originated from Poland, and her grandfather was deported to Siberia shortly after the January Uprising, a Polish uprising against forced conscription in the Russian Army in 1863.
Ratushinskaya was educated at Odessa University and graduated with a master's degree in physics in 1976. Before her graduation she taught at a primary school in Odessa from 1975–78.
Political persecution
On September 17, 1982, Ratushinskaya was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation. In April 1983, she was convicted of "agitation carried on for the purpose of subverting or weakening the Soviet regime", sentenced to seven years in a labor camp followed by five years of internal exile. She was released on October 9, 1986, on the eve of the summit in Reykjavík, Iceland between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
While imprisoned Ratushinskaya continued to write poetry. Her previous works usually centered on love, Christian theology, and artistic creation, not on politics or policies as her accusers stated. Her new works that were written in prison, which were written on soap until memorized and then washed away, number some 250. They expressed an appreciation for human rights; liberty, freedom, and the beauty of life. Her memoir, Grey is the Colour of Hope, chronicles her prison experience. Her later poems recount her struggles to endure the hardships and horrors of prison life. Ratushinskaya was a member of International PEN, who monitored her situation during her incarceration.
Exile
In 1987 Ratushinskaya moved to the United States, where she received the Religious Freedom Award from the Institute on Religion and Democracy. In the same year she was deprived of Soviet citizenship by the Politburo. She also was the Poet in Residence at Northwestern University from 1987–89. She lived in London, UK until December 1998, when she returned to Russia to educate her children in Russian school after a year of procedures to restore Russian citizenship.
Ratushinskaya died in Moscow on July 5, 2017, from cancer. She was survived by her husband, human rights activist Igor Gerashchenko, and their two sons.