Gunārs Astra (22 October 1931 – 6 April 1988) was a Latvian

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

and anti-Soviet

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

arrested by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1961 and sentenced to prison for 15 years. He was released in 1976. In 1983, he was arrested again but released several weeks before his death.

Biography

Gunārs Astra was born in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

, on 22 October 1931. He graduated primary school and later continued his education in an electromechanical

technical school In the United States, a technical school is a type of two-year college that covers specialized fields such as business, finance, hospitality, tourism, construction, engineering, visual arts, information technology and community work. Associa ...

. After graduation in 1952, he started to work in one of the largest electromechanical factories in the

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Latvian SSR), also known as Soviet Latvia or simply Latvia, was a federated republic within the Soviet Union, and formally one of its 16 (later 15) constituent Republics of the Soviet Union, republics. Th ...

– VEF. Because Astra was a very erudite and industrious worker, he was granted a promotion and became chief of the 7th Radio manufacturing workshop. He also studied the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

in university as an external student. In 1958, Gunārs Astra had the chance to meet

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

diplomats in Riga. This encounter had a great influence on him in his later life, allowing him to consider

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

and develop an innate opposition to

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

and the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...

. In 1961, Astra was accused of spying, anti-Soviet propaganda and homeland betrayal and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was imprisoned in

Mordovia The Republic of Mordovia (russian: Респу́блика Мордо́вия, r=Respublika Mordoviya, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə mɐrˈdovʲɪjə; mdf, Мордовия Республиксь, ''Mordovija Respublikś''; myv, Мордовия Рес ...

and later in the

Perm Oblast Until 1 December 2005, Perm Oblast (russian: Пе́рмская о́бласть) was a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) in Privolzhsky (Volga) Federal District. According to the results of the referendum held in October 2004, Perm Oblast was ...

. During his custody, he educated himself and met other political prisoners from all over the

. Astra was released in 1976 and returned to Latvia. He had not changed his political views and continued to oppose the Soviet regime. In 1983, he was arrested for the second time and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. This time he was accused of possessing and distributing anti-Soviet literature, one of them being

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...

's ''

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

''. In courts proceeding the Soviet rule, Astra became known for his famous final statement, in which he defended the right to speak the Latvian language and condemned the Soviet regime. He ended his speech by saying, "I believe that these times will disappear like a nightmare does. That gives me the strength to stand and breathe here." He was released from prison in February 1988, but died in a hospital in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

on 6 April, shortly afterwards, from heart disease. Nevertheless, there remain unconfirmed theories that the KGB was involved in his death. His funeral in Riga was reportedly attended by 10,000 people. There is a commemorative plaque on the District Court building in

where Astra was sentenced, and a street in the capital bears his name. Gunārs Astra lies in the Forest Cemetery in

. On 3 May 2019, he was posthumously awarded with the

Order of Viesturs The Order of Viesturs ( lv, Viestura ordenis) is a Latvian state order founded in 1938, which was temporarily discontinued in 1940 by the Soviet occupation of Latvia, but was re-established in 2004. The order is named after the medieval histori ...

. On 20 January 2022 a monument to him was unveiled in front of the Latvian Supreme Court building.

Bibliography

1998. Novel ''Gunars Astra'' written by Māris Ruks (awarded the General Goppers Prize (USA) – a historical documentary of the most renowned defenders of human rights, renewal of independence in the Baltic States and dissident Gunārs Astra)

External links

gunars-astra-1931-1988 Gunārs Astra 1931–1988, by Makss, allaboutlatvia.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Astra, Gunars 1931 births 1988 deaths Latvian human rights activists Soviet human rights activists Soviet dissidents Prisoners and detainees of the Soviet Union People from Riga Burials at Forest Cemetery, Riga