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Zoya Alexandrovna Krakhmalnikova (Russian:Зоя Александровна Крахмальникова; January 14, 1929 – April 17, 2008) was a Russian Christian writer, of Ukrainian origin[citation needed]. She was an activist and formerSoviet dissident who was repeatedly arrested by the authorities of the formerSoviet Union for her publications.[1] She was a recipient of theAndrei Sakharov Prize for Writer's Civic Courage.
Krakhmalnikova was born in the city ofKharkov,Ukraine on January 14, 1929.[1] Her father was arrested in 1936 during one ofJoseph Stalin's manypurges.[1] She graduated from theGorky Literary Institute in 1954 in Moscow and completed her postgraduate work at theGorky Institute of World Literature despite her family's background.[1] An avid scholarly writer, Krakhmalnikova was publishing articles in Sovietliterary journals by the 1960s.[1] She became a member of theSoviet Academy of Sciences' Institute of Sociology in 1967.[1]
Her husband was fellow authorFeliks Svetov.[1]
Zoya Krakhmalnikova was baptized into theRussian Orthodox Church in 1971, which led to her being fired from her job. Her baptism also led to her dismissal from theUSSR Union of Writers, which meant that she could no longer publish any of her work in the Soviet Union.[1] Instead, Krakhmalnikova turned her attention to writing articles concerningChristianity in the Soviet Union, many of which she sent outside of the country to be published.
In 1976, she began publishingNadezhda (Hope), which was a revival of apre-revolutionary Christianjournal.[1] She focused her publication on thehistory of the Russian Orthodox Church, not to attack Soviet authorities for their policies or human rights abuses. However, the journal also explored the subject of what it called "new martyrs", who were victims of the Communist rule.[1]
Posev [ru], which was a Russian emigrepublishing house based inWest Germany, began printing copies ofNadezhda once it received thetypescripts.[1] Copies ofNadezhda were then smuggled back into the Soviet Union.[1]
Krakhmalnikova was arrested at 4:00 a.m. on August 4, 1982, at herdacha.[1] A total of ten issues, with several others published anonymously, had been published by the time she was arrested.[1] She spent almost a year at theLefortovo prison awaiting trial.[1] Soviet authorities charged Krakhmalnikova with deliberately sending articles by a Russian Orthodox priest, Fr.Dmitri Dudko, out of theU.S.S.R. to be published abroad.[1] She pleaded not guilty to all charges on April 1, 1983.[1]
She was ultimately convicted. Her sentence was called lenient by the state run Soviet news agency,Tass.[1] However, the Soviet press omitted the fact that her official prison sentence at Lefortovo was to be followed by a five-yearexile at the remote settlement ofUst-Kan, which is located in Russia'sAltai Republic, much closer toMongolia than Moscow.[1] She was allowed visits once a month from her husband and daughter, but was not allowed to visit a church.[1] She did put up a few traditional Orthodoxicons and a Bible in small corner of her room.[1] She had no access to a priest while living in Ust-Kan.[1]
Her husband, Feliks Svetov, an author and Russian Orthodox activist, was later arrested and also sent into internal exile inSiberia.[1] Svetov was one of the Soviet Union's last dissidents of the Soviet Union who were arrested for religious oppression.[1] He was sentenced in January 1986, just ten months afterMikhail Gorbachev becamegeneral secretary.[1] The couple refused to "repent" for their so-called crimes, but were still granted apardon in July 1987.[1] Following her release, Krakhmalnikova became apro-democracy activist and publicly called on the Russian Orthodox Church to apologize for its collaboration with Soviet authorities, which, as of 2008, it still has not done.[1]
Krakhmalnikova later wrote her autobiography, which was published in the United States, but not the United Kingdom.[1] Following thedissolution of the Soviet Union, Krakhmalnikova never became a high-profile Russian figure and was little known in Western Europe or the United States.[1] However, she remained influential within her group of friends, activists and supporters.[1]
Zoya Krakhmalnikova died on April 17, 2008, at the age of 79.[1]
