Shabatura, Stefaniia

Shabatura, Stefaniia [Шабатура, Стефанія; Šabatura, Stefanija], b 6 November 1938 in Ivanie Zolote, Zalishchyky county, Galicia; d 17 December 2014 in Lviv. Textile artist, dissident, and political prisoner. A graduate of the Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Art, she gained prominence in the 1960s as a tapestry and kilim maker. Her work was displayed at many group exhibitions. Her participation in public campaigns in defense of Valentyn Moroz and other Ukrainian political prisoners resulted in her expulsion from the Union of Artists of Ukraine and her own arrest, imprisonment in a Mordovian labor camp (1972–6), and exile in a Tadzhik village (1976–9). In the camp she produced over 100 bookplates and over 150 drawings, which were confiscated and destroyed. Toward the end of her exile she joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. In December 1979 she was allowed to return to Lviv, but she was not permitted to exhibit her works until the late 1980s. In 1990 she was elected a member of the Lviv City Council.

[This article was updated in 2015.]