Naum Korzhavin has won the Russian-speaking Diaspora Justice Award for 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2015

Poet, playwright, Soviet-era political prisoner Naum Korzhavin – a native of Ukraine, a son of the Jewish people, a Russian writer, and a US citizen – has been awarded the Russian-speaking Diaspora Justice Award of 2015, “in recognition of the power of his poetic dialogue with Russia’s past and present, his fearlessness in the face of controversy, and his unwavering commitment to human dignity”. The award ceremony will take place tomorrow, December 5, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Born in Kyiv (Kiev) in 1925 as Naum Mandel (Korzhavin is his penname), Naum was a student at the Literary Institute in Moscow in 1947, when he was arrested and sentenced to exile in Siberia as ‘socially dangerous’. While in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, he graduated from a mining technical school. In 1959, upon return from exile, he was able to graduate from the Literary Institute as well. In the 1960s, he became famous as a poet and a playwright, as well as active in the dissident movement. His support for political prisoners and his underground ‘samizdat’ publications led to a ban on his writings by Soviet authorities. In 1973, he was compelled to leave the country and moved to the United States. In late 1980s, he was able to travel to Russia, reading his poetry to large and appreciative audiences. In 2005, he became one of the heroes of documentary film, ‘They Chose Freedom’.