Nina Strokata was a Ukrainian woman from Odesa, the wife of Sviatoslav Karavansky, a microbiologist and a human rights activist. A unique woman, she fought tirelessly and heroically for the freedom of Ukraine all her life. She perceived the restoration of independence in 1991 as a great victory and called on Ukrainians to preserve it with all their might.
Viktor Danylenko, historian
Nina Karavanska (née Strokata) was a Ukrainian microbiologist, dissident, co-founder of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, member of its Foreign Representation, and public figure who lived and worked in the United States.
The human rights activist was born in Odesa on January 31, 1926. She studied at Odesa Medical Institute (1947) and worked there after graduation.
In 1961, she married a former political prisoner, Sviatoslav Karavansky. When her husband was arrested for the second time (1965), she fought against his illegal arrest and conviction.
In 1971, Nina Karavanska got fired and was later arrested for distributing samizdat (process of reproducing and spreading censored publications). In the same year, in Lviv, Viacheslav Chornovil created the Public Committee for the protection of Nina Strokata, Ukraine’s first human rights organization. However, the authorities soon liquidated the Committee, and its members were arrested. Nina Karavanska was sentenced to 4 years in a strict regime camp and served her sentence in Mordovia.
The American Society for Microbiology defended the scientist and elected her a member in 1974. In 1977, she became an absentee member of the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America.
After her release, she co-founded the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (1976) and actively participated in its activities. In 1979, her husband returned from exile. At the end of the year, the Karavansky couple was deprived of Soviet citizenship and allowed to move to the United States.
She lived and worked in the United States for almost 20 years. Through her numerous public speeches and articles, she sought to convey truthful information about the persecution of dissidents by the Soviet authorities and the national liberation movement in Ukraine. She became a member of the Foreign Representation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and co-founder of its publication, “Visnyk represiy na Ukraini” (Bulletin of Repressions in Ukraine, 1980-1985, edited by Nadiia Svitlychna). Karavanska published several books: “Ukrainian Women in the Soviet Union: Documented Persecution” (1980) and “A Family Torn Apart” (1981).
She died after a severe illness on August 2, 1998, in Baltimore (USA).
