Michaš Kukabaka
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Michaš Kukabaka | |
|---|---|
Міхась Кукабака | |
| Born | 1936 (age 89–90) |
| Known for | Soviet Belarusian dissident |
Michaš Kukabaka (also known as Mikhail Kukobaka; born 1936) is a Soviet Belarusian dissident described as "the last Soviet political prisoner in the USSR".[1]
Kukabaka was born in Babrujsk, Soviet Belarus.[1] He grew up in an orphanage, as his father was killed during World War II, and his mother died after the war. He graduated from a vocational school.[2]
Dissident activities
In 1968, he publicly declared his disagreement with the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops and handed over his article condemning the invasion to the Deputy Consul General of Czechoslovakia asking him to forward it to the West.[1][2]
He was the author of a number of publications that were distributed by samizdat in the 1970s. His signatures were under numerous human rights documents of this time. In 1977, he announced the renunciation of his Soviet citizenship.[1][2]
In 1978 he wrote an essay The Stolen Fatherland, dedicated to the ongoing russification of Soviet Belarus. The essay was smuggled to the West, read out by the radio station Deutsche Welle and published in various émigré publications. For this essay, Kukabaka was accused by the Soviet authorities of distorting "Leninist national policy."[2]
