Stefaniia Shabatura

Stefaniia Mykhailivna Shabatura (; 5 November 1938 – 17 December 2014) was a Ukrainian textile artist and human rights activist. First acquiring attention as a creator of tapestries and kilim rugs, she later became a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and spent several years imprisoned on charges of anti-Soviet agitation.

Early life and career Stefaniia Mykhailivna Shabatura was born on 5 November 1938 in the village of Ivane-Zolote, then part of the Second Polish Republic. Her mother was , a painter. Her father, Mykhailo Hnatovych Shabatura, was a soldier in the Polish and Red armies, Following her graduation, Shabatura's tapestries and kilim rugs were widely displayed at art exhibitions, and she acquired prominence. She was a member of Mykhailo Kosiv's Lviv branch of the Artistic Youths' Club, and printed samvydav.

Shabatura's dissident activism began in 1970, following the arrest of Valentyn Moroz. She was part of a group of artists and writers that condemned Moroz's arrest and demanded to be allowed to observe the trial. Charged with anti-Soviet agitation, Shabatura was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and six years of exile. She was interned at the women's penal colony ZhKh-385/3-4 in , in the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. and remained imprisoned in Mordovia until late 1975. During that time, she spent 115 days in solitary confinement and one and a half years in a .

Shabatura died in Lviv on 17 December 2014. Her funeral was held at the Church of the Presentation in Lviv the following day, and she was buried at Lychakiv Cemetery.