Faces of Natalia Gorbanevskaya. Part 2

The First Thirteen Years in Paris (1976–1988)

Abstract

The article above – based on both printed and archival sources as well as the author’s personal recollections – concerns the first thirteen years of Natalia Gorbanevskaya’s (1936–2013) life in emigration. Gorbanevskaya was a well-known Russian human rights activist in the USSR, as well as a poet, translator, and journalist. In emigration in Paris, during this highly creative early period, she worked primarily – from 1976 onward – with Vladimir Maksimov at the émigré quarterly Kontinient, whose main goal was to unite and foster solidarity among anti-communist forces throughout Eastern Europe. Beginning in 1978, Gorbanevskaya hosted a series of broadcasts on similar topics for Radio Liberty, and from summer 1980, she also contributed to the Paris-based émigré weekly Russkaya Mysl (Russian Thought), edited by Irina Ilovaiskaya-Alberti. For the next ten years, she worked there as a translator and journalist, focusing primarily on developments in Poland as it was breaking free from communism. During this time, she also collaborated very fruitfully with the Polish émigré monthly Kultura, led by Jerzy Giedroyc. Wishing to portray as faithfully as possible her activities and her understanding of Russia, Poland, communism, and religion during that time, I have divided my extensive article into eight parts: 1. Emigration or Exile?; 2. Encounters with Giedroyc and Kultura; 3. Creative Years at Kontinient; 4. An Unyielding Poland in the Pages of Russkaya Mysl; 5. The Presence of John Paul II; 6. Gorbachev as the New Stalin?; Gorbanevskaya’s First Journey to Poland (August–September 1988); 8. Woroszylski, Michnik, and Gorbachev Again. The last three sections focus largely on Gorbanevskaya’s criticism of Gorbachev and perestroika, including, consistently, criticism of those Poles – chief among them Adam Michnik and Andrzej Drawicz – who supported the democratic changes in the Soviet Union, hoping for similar developments in Poland. Gorbanevskaya’s criticism of them, however, did not stem from any opposition to democracy on her part, but solely from her conviction that no General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union could ever truly contribute to the triumph of freedom in the USSR or in its neighboring countries.