Myroslav Marynovych received the Czech Memory of Nation award

Myroslav Marynovych, a Ukrainian political prisoner from the time of the USSR, became the laureate of the Czech Paměti Národa (Memory of Nation) award in 2022. This was announced on the website of the award.

Besides him, award was given to:

• Slovak-Czech dissident Anna Šestáková;
• Slovak prisoner Marie Henzlová, who survived the Holocaust;
• Czech prisoner Marie Susedková, who survived the Holocaust;
• Slovak Pavel Eli Vago.

On the website of the award, it’s noted that in 2022 it is a “reminder of totalitarianism, which is currently represented by putin’s russia”.

“The current russian aggression in Ukraine has given new meaning to the thousands of hours of stories we have recorded so far. But even before the start of the war, we created a branch of Memory of Nation in Ukraine. And thanks to the experience gained, we were one of the first Czech organizations that began to effectively help brave Ukrainians. However, even before that, we recorded a number of stories from local witnesses. Among them is the story of Myroslav Marynovych, who becomes the fifth laureate of this year’s Memory of Nation award”, the organizers of the award said.

The Memory of Nation award is a Czech prize that has been awarded since 2010 by the non-profit organization Post Bellum. The prize is aimed at honoring those who have proven with their lives that “honor, freedom and human dignity are not empty words”.

The goal is to celebrate “witnesses who, during their lifetime, behaved heroically in a difficult moment of life or did not betray their life positions”. These can be war veterans, dissidents, political prisoners, resistance fighters, persecuted writers, representatives of the underground, scouts, Holocaust survivors, and others.

Myroslav Marynovych is a founding member of the human rights Ukrainian Helsinki group, former political prisoner of the Soviet regime, founder and head of Amnesty International Ukraine, publicist, vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.

In 2021 a translation of the book “The Universe behind Barbed Wire. Memoirs of a Ukrainian Soviet Dissident” by Myroslav Marynovych was published in Great Britain.

We would also remind you that recently Oksana Zabuzhko received the 2022 Stanisław Vincenz Kraków City Council Award.

Featured photo: Kostiantyn Golubchyk (VOA)