Boris Nemtsov given Eagle Prize of Jan Karski, resistance hero

The leader of Russian opposition Boris Nemtsov has been awarded Jan Karski Eagle Prize posthumously.

The ceremony at which Jan Karski Eagle Prize was awarded, was taking place in Warsaw on May 15 in one of the palaces of Łazienki Park. The widow and a daughter of the murdered politician, Raisa and Zhanna Nemtsov, had been invited to the ceremony, as well as the acting director of the Republican Party of Russia – People's Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS) Olga Shorina, a reporter of charter97.org informs.

During the ceremony the former Ambassador of Poland to the Soviet Union and Russia Stanisław Ciosek noted:

“In Russia Nemtsov dared to do the things no tsar or a first secretary dared. He was doing everything in order to revive active citizenship in a Russian, to make Russians concerned citizens.

I arrived to Russian in November 1989 and received a chance to become a witness of the struggle for the future of Russia. Those were wonderful aspirations of the Russian intelligentsia, which had a fairly good reputation then and an experience of sacrificial struggle.

Nemtsov lives on. His ideas have not perished. God has been generous with Russia and gave it lots of talented people. I believe that the time will come when most citizens of this country are to say: thank you, Boris, and forgive us.

The daughter of the leader of the Russian opposition, Zhanna Nemtsova, expressed gratitude for the award, and said:

“The award is called Jan Karski Eagle, and it seems to me that my father was an eagle of the Russian politics. Today his work as a governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and the first Vice Prime Minister of Russia has been recalled, but he had been in opposition to the Russian authorities for more than 10 years, he was a consistent critic, though it was becoming harder with every year.

Father had a coherent approach in everything. When asked: “How much have your views changed over the last 20 years?”, he answered: “They have changed little.” Even when he held important public offices, he stayed true to the principles of freedom. It is difficult, to have power and be free at the same time. My father always believed in what he had been doing, he set himself the most difficult tasks and often succeeded.

As for me, I promise to do everything for his cause to be continued. And I hope that one day Russia is to become free.”

The decision to bestow Jan Karski Eagle Award was passed by a commission including Lech Walesa, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, Professor Richard Pipes and the family of Jan Karski.

Jan Karski Eagle Award was established by himself in 2000, shortly before his death. The award of the Polish diplomat, the person who told the world about Holocaust, is given to “Poles who are taking care of Poland with dignity”, as he said, and to citizens of other countries, “who are not Poles and support Poland.”

The award is given posthumously for the first time. In previous years Jan Karski Prize was received by Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Lech Walesa, Adam Michnik, Marek Edelman, Shimon Peres.