Soviet-era dissident Lasmane-Doroņina nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Take note – story published 5 years ago

Latvia’s Soviet-time dissident Lidija Lasmane-Doroņina has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Inese Laizāne (National Alliance), chairperson of the Saeima Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee, told LETA.

The nomination has been prepared by Latvian writer Nora Ikstena and submitted by Laizāne.

According to information provided by representatives of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Lasmane-Doroņina is one of the 320 candidates nominated for the Peace Prize this year.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on October 5.

Ikstena writes in the nomination letter that the life story of Latvian dissident and prisoner of conscience Lidija Lasmane-Doroņina is a striking and vivid testimony to the Communist terror and genocide that broke and ruined thousands of lives under the Soviet regime.

The nomination letter quotes Lasmane-Doronina’s memories: “I had grown up with my state, its spirit. I could not accept the occupation, it was in contradiction to my very nature. The superpower had no right whatsoever to conquer us.”

According to information available in LETA Archive, the Soviet-regime punished Lasmane-Doroņina for supporting Latvian national partisans from 1946-1954. From 1970 to 1972 she was punished for dissemination of anti-Soviet and religious publications and from 1983 to 1987 for anti-Soviet propaganda.

Lasmane-Doroņina has been awarded the Order of the Three Stars but she has renounced the highest state decoration on the grounds that there are also former KGB agents among its recipients.

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