Senya the Dream-Maker

Irina Ratushinskaya is a Russian poet born in 1954. Charged with “the dissemination of slanderous documentation in poetic form,” she was forced to serve four years in a Soviet labor camp. Ratushinskaya continued to produce poetry during this time. After her release, she moved to the United States, where she was honored with the Religious Freedom Award. (updated 7/2010)

Diane Nemec Ignashev is assistant professor of Russian language and literature at Carleton College in Minnesota. She has spent over three years working and studying in the USSR. (1986)