Nadiya Svitlychna

Nadiya Oleksiyivna Svitlychna (Надія Олексіївна Світлична, born 8 November 1936, the village of Polovynkyne, Starobilsk district, Luhansk region — 8 August 2006, Irvington, New Jersey, United States) was a Ukrainian dissident and human rights activist, and an active member of the Ukrainian Helsinki group. She was a writer and editor and for a time was a political prisoner of the Soviet regime.

Svitlychna was praised by Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko, who stated that "her views, the way she lived her life and passed along values to the next generation, have left footsteps to follow for millions of contemporary Ukrainian patriots."

After emigrating to the United States in November 1978 she became a member, along with General Petro Grigorenko and Leonid Plyushch (and later others) of the External Representation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and continued her work in advocating human and national rights in Ukraine and protesting Soviet violations of the Helsinki Accords.