Valeriya Novodvorskaya
| Valeriya Novodvorskaya | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 1st Chairman of the Democratic Union | |
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In office 8 May 1988 – 12 July 2014 |
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| Preceded by | Position created |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya 17 May 1950 Baranovichi, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | 12 July 2014 (aged 64) Moscow, Russia |
| Cause of death | Toxic shock syndrome |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Political party | Democratic Union |
| Alma mater | Moscow Region State University |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Religion | |
Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya (Russian: Вале́рия Ильи́нична Новодво́рская, 17 May 1950, Baranovichi, Byelorussian SSR – 12 July 2014, Moscow) was a liberalRussian politician, Soviet dissident, the founder and the chairwoman of the "Democratic Union" party, and a member of the editorial board of The New Times.
Novodvorskaya was born in 1950 to a Jewish engineer Ilya Borisovich (Boruchovich) Burshtyn and a pediatrician Nina Feodorovna Novodvorskaya who came from a noble Russian family. Her parents divorced in 1967; Ilya Borisovich later emigrated to America.
Novodvorskaya has been active in the Soviet dissident movement since her youth, and first imprisoned by the Soviet authorities in 1969 for distributing leaflets that criticized the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia (see 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 and imprisoned at Soviet psychiatric hospital and, like many other Soviet dissidents, diagnosed with "sluggish schizophrenia". In the early 1990s, psychiatrists of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia proved that the claim of her mental illness was bogus. She described her experience in psikhushka in her book Beyond Despair.
Novodvorskaya stood as a candidate for the radical liberal party Democratic Union in the 1993 Russian legislative election 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 never held public office.
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