20 Years in Exile: Russian Journalist and Democratic Women's Leader Tatyana Mamonova

NEWS RELEASE







For Immediate Release



Contact: Carmella Mildred Didio, Esq. Tel/Fax +1-212-866-8130, E-Mail: womearth@dorsai.org







20 Years in Exile: Russian Journalist and Democratic Women's Leader



Tatyana Mamonova











Despite the recent "election" of new Russian President Vladimir Putin marking a new "era" for Russia, the past is still the present for exiled Russian feminist TATYANA MAMONOVA. July 20, 2000 marks the 20th Anniversary of her exile to Vienna from the then Soviet Union for publishing and editing Woman and Russia Almanac, the first independent collection of Soviet feminist writings, and for re-igniting the Russian women's movement by starting WOMAN AND RUSSIA, NOW WOMAN AND EARTH, the first NGO grass roots collective who risked their lives to promote human rights for women and a peaceful, healthy and sustainable planet by contributing to the creation of this Almanac and seeking to link the voices of Russian speaking with women world wide.



In many ways, the censorship experienced by Tatyana Mamonova and her NGO in 1980, is not unlike the recent arrest of Media-Most owner Vladimir Gusinsky, owner of Russia's only independent national television station.







"It seems to me that in our time feminism is emerging as the strongest expression of humanism." Tatyana Mamonova, Women and Russia: Feminist Writings from the Soviet Union (Boston: Beacon Press, 1984).







Indeed, in the early '80's, celebrity followed this "ambassador of Soviet women" as she received invitations from Amnesty International and other leading human rights organizations, organized labor, Ms.



Magazine and a number of publishing houses, and governments, to travel the world to conduct lectures, exhibit her art and represent the situation of Soviet women to world leaders, women's organizations, and the public at large who were hungry to learn the real situation there. Tatyana never forgot her sister leaders in her homeland and from her NGO, two of whom later lost their lives in this struggle and many of whom were imprisoned or harassed for their continued participation in this movement.



Nor did she forget the need to continue the women's movement in her native land and to connect it with the growing international women's movement. Thus, Tatyana, who, prior to her exile and censorship in her country, had been an accomplished artist (and the first woman artist to organize and exhibit in the non-conformist artist movement), poet and literary journalist with Aurora publishers in Leningrad (working alongside Josef Brodsky) and television journalist for Leningrad television, continuously contributed her voice, her art and her media celebrity to call attention to and help raise money to stop on-going human rights violations experienced by Soviet women and the need for global feminist solidarity.



In 1980, Tatyana MAMONOVA was awarded WOMAN OF THE YEAR by F Magazine Paris for her courageous actions. She was recognized alongside four other prominent women of that time who included the first President of Iceland and the leader of Poland's solidarity movement. She continued to publish and serve as chief editor of the ALMANAC with the writings being smuggled out of the Soviet Union to her office in Paris, and soon the borders where the writings came from spread to other former Eastern bloc countries.



The ALMANAC received BOOK OF THE YEAR honors by Elle Magazine in 1982 and throughout the '80's it was translated into 11 languages and published in more than 20 countries. Most recently, the 1979 publication of the first Almanac by Tatyana and her NGO was recognized as the Most Significant Event for the Promotion of Women in 1979 in the French language encyclopedia Notable Women of the 20th Century, edited by Florence Montreynaud.











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From 1980 until 1984, Western Europe served as a home base for her many travels.



Shortly after her exile to Vienna Tatyana was invited to live in Paris by French television and the French publishing house editions des femmes, now editions des femmes Antoinette Fouque. She was given refugee status as a political exile in France thanks in part to the public outcry expressed by many French citizens, including 2000 prominent figures who placed an advertisement in Le Monde condemning the actions of the Soviet government. During this time she also lived in Berlin following a successful lecture tour of Germany.



Then, in 1984, at the recommendation of Simone de Beauvoir, Tatyana Mamonova was awarded a post-doctoral Bunting Institute fellowship at Harvard University's Radcliffe College. At the same time, Beacon Press published an American anthology from the first 5 volumes of the ALMANAC which was titled, Women and Russia: Feminist Writings from the Soviet Union, and included a foreword by noted American feminist author and poet, Robin Morgan, who joined with Tatyana on two national lecture tours for Ms.



Magazine.







Tatyana's Bunting Institute Fellowship provided her with a unique opportunity to gain access to research on Russian women's history. She continued this research and also taught Russian women's studies at The University of Michigan and then concluded her research at The Hartford Women's Research Institute which resulted in the publication of her second book in the U.S., Russian Women's Studies: Essays on Sexism in Soviet Culture (Pergamon Press and Teachers College Press) that was favorably reviewed in The New York Times by noted American author and feminist Marilyn French, has been re-printed several times and serves as text for many college and university courses.



Concurrently, now operating from the U.S., Tatyana continued the leadership of her NGO as founder and President and the ALMANAC and in 1990, transformed the name of both to WOMAN AND EARTH to reflect the growth of this publication and organization to all corners of the world and to show the long-term linkage that women have had with preserving, protecting and contributing to a healthy, peaceful and sustainable planet. WOMAN AND EARTH NGO, which describes itself as an "Eco-Network" has also taken over as the sole print publisher of Woman and Earth Almanac under its Woman and Earth Publishers Project.



Woman and Earth Almanac carries on the unique tradition of its original publication by including art and literary as well as social and ecological writings, but has expanded to include the voices of women world-wide. To maintain its mission to link in the voices of Russian speaking women, the Almanac is published in English and Russian. It is sold throughout the world and published on CD Rom and on-line by Softline Information, Inc. in CT, USA. Free copies are distributed to individual women and women's organizations in the former Soviet Union and economically disadvantaged women elsewhere.



On March 8, 2000, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was presented with the 20th Anniversary issue of Woman and Earth Almanac at the reception for International Women's Day held at Hotel Matignon in Paris.









Utilizing Tatyana's professional experience as a journalist, her connections with many leading American feminist thinkers such as Gloria Steinem, who helped support her 8 year battle to obtain a permanent resident status in the U.S., and the growing membership of the NGO, Woman and Earth launched its second major project, Woman and Earth Productions which started out with a video television series that Tatyana produced and hosted called, "Remarkable Women of America", that featured interviews and documentary reports on American feminists with a special focus that included a message to Soviet women.



This project continues today with many additional programming about women's contributions world-wide and eco-women's issues. There is a weekly television show in NYC, and its programs are also shown on other stations throughout the US and abroad, copies of the videos are sold to the western public and, like the Almanac, distributed free to women's organizations in the former Soviet Union and economically disadvantaged women elsewhere.







Woman and Earth, with Tatyana as a co-organizer, has also launched an education project called Sister to Sister that has been providing educational programming for more than 8 years and since 1997 has held an Annual World Conference, Film Festival and Expo at various world venues and supported the participation of many women leaders from throughout the former Soviet Union, Central Europe, Africa, Asia and elsewhere.



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The organization most recently conducted a media campaign to mark the 20th Anniversary of its founding, called "20 Years Later โ€ฆ Woman and Earth 1979-1999" with press conferences and releases reflecting the activities of the organization which now has representatives throughout the world and chapters in UK, France, Russia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Ghana, Togo, and Turkey in addition to the US. The campaign was launched in January, 1999 at the Hotel Scribe Paris where a press conference and exhibition was held.



In addition to realizing her mission through the NGO to serve as the founder of the modern Russian women's movement and international women's leader and, in the process dedicating all of her resources to this cause, Tatyana has also continued her lecturing, writing and art. She published her third book in the U.S. on the subject of the current situation of women in Russia/CIS called Women's Glasnost vs. Naglost: Stopping Russian Backlash (Greenwood Press), co-illustrated the children's book I Remember about a young Russian Jewish feminist growing up in pre-Revolutionary Russia, and she is currently preparing to publish her collection of poetry called Russia Renaissance 2000.



Continuously recognized for her outstanding contributions and talents, in 1998, Tatyana received the 100 World Heroines Award for her contributions towards women's equality by a prestigious committee based in Rochester, NY, home of the first women's rights convention and in the same year also received Poet of the Year by the National Poetry Society based in Hollywood, CA. In 1999, she was given a Human Rights Award by the African Peace Network International at their national conference in Accra, Ghana.



"My dreams for change may seem naive for some, but I believe it impossible to betray the world - to choose an illusion veiling a deeper truth." Tatyana Mamonova Women and Russia: Feminist Writings from the Soviet Union (Boston: Beacon Press, 1984).







Despite the many accolades afforded her and her own continued belief in society, Tatyana Mamonova remains WITHOUT HER RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP - NOR ANY CITIZENSHIP FOR 20 YEARS and she has kept well hidden the sufferings experienced by rare leaders like herself who sacrifice their lives for the betterment of society and then are forced to bear inhumane consequences.



And the government has never returned the feminist library that was seized from Tatyana, nor the other items connected with the NGO's activities that were seized from her and other members of the NGO. Moreover, Tatyana lost her home and all her possessions in the center of Leningrad as a result of this human rights violation and no compensation has been given or offered to date. In 1993, the Russian government enacted a law restoring citizenship to its early democratic leaders known initially as dissidents but the government has still refused to apply this law to its only exiled feminist dissident - Tatyana Mamonova.



Woman and Earth's Vice President and international human rights lawyer, Carmella Mildred Didio has been working since 1993 on the case of Tatyana Mamonova. On behalf of Woman and Earth, she is issuing this appeal to the world community to join the organization's campaign to rectify these on-going human rights violations against her. These human rights abuses also negatively impact ALL Russian women whose leader was taken from them for many years. This continuing sanctioning of the wrongful censorship against Tatyana Mamonova by the government which appears to continue with recent actions by the new government sends a chilling effect on Russia's bid to transition to a democracy.



Moreover, all of humanity is affected by the unnecessary obstacles faced by Tatyana Mamonova in her support of Russian women, a democratic Russia, and women world wide.







FOR MORE INFORMATION Please contact Woman and Earth by post, telephone, fax e-mail or through its web site at the following details:



Woman and Earth



Campaign to Rectify Human Rights Abuses against Tatyana Mamonova



467 Central Park West, Suite 7F



New York, NY 10025 USA



Tel/Fax +1-212-866-8130



E-Mail: womearth@dorsai.org



http://www.



dorsai.org/~womearth/ 









ยฉ Carmella Mildred Didio, Woman and Earth. Permission to reprint for media purposes granted. Please include this copyright notice.















































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