Russia now counts hundreds of political prisoners — more than in the waning years of the Soviet Union — whose only “crime” is to have political or religious beliefs unwelcome under Vladimir Putin’s regime. But they are not the only victims. Their families, many with young children, are left to survive on their own while their loved ones are taken away by a repressive state.
The 30 October Foundation has been established to help them. Its main mission is to provide direct financial support to the families of Russian political prisoners. In this, the Foundation continues in the tradition of Yelena Bonner’s Fund to Help Children of Political Prisoners and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Russian Public Fund to Aid Political Prisoners and Their Families, both created in the 1970s.
“Putin is trying to make political prisoners feel unheard and unseen, and we must make it known that we see, hear and stand with them.”
– Sonya Kara-Murza
The Foundation takes its name from the Day of Political Prisoner that was established on October 30, 1974, when Soviet dissidents Kronid Lyubarsky, Alexander Murzhenko, and other prisoners of the Mordovia and Perm camps held a hunger strike to call, among other things, for recognition of their status as political prisoners. In 2023, for the first time ever, October 30th was commemorated as the International Day of Political Prisoners.
“The Foundation is a unique instrument of showing solidarity with political prisoners and of supporting them and their families. It is important that the Foundation’s mission is to help these people not because they hold views similar to ours, but because they are victims of politically-motivated and unlawful persecution. But most importantly, the Foundation was established by Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political prisoner himself, and that is deeply symbolical.”
– Sergei Davidis, Human Rights Defender
The monetary part of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize and the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation Award for Courage, received by Vladimir Kara-Murza in 2022, as well as the Pro Gignitate Humana Prize, bestowed upon him in 2023 by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, — all in recognition for his work in the field of human rights defense, — will provide the foundation’s initial budget. At the same time, the foundation is starting its own fundraising drive. We won’t be able to do this important work without your help!
