Ekaterina Karavelova

Overview

Ekaterina Karavelova (née Peneva) born Rouschuk, Bulgaria, Otttoman Empire October 21, 1860 (d. 1947). Bulgarian peace leader, feminist, and teacher. Co-founded Bulgarian Women’s Union, 1901; organized relief in Russo-Japanese War, 1905, and Balkan Wars, 1912-13. Founded Traen Mir (Lasting Peace). Joined WILPF, 1919, becoming national president. Promoted Balkan unity and Union Panerova.

Quotations

“No woman wants war.” (Regine Bowden, Ahead of Her Time, p. 97, in de Haan, bio. Dict. Women’s Movements, p. 233)

“I plead for justice, that is to say—Worldwide peace. Because we still do not have it. . . our ideal is not peace, which is signed by governments that do not know the actual interests of people, but peace of true democracy.” (Washington DC, May 1, 1924, Ingrid Sharp, Women Activists, p. 89; photo adio Bulgaria)

Freya Klier

Overview

Freya Klier born Dresden, East Germany February 4, 1950. Leading East German dissident; author, stage director, and documentary filmmaker. Served one year of 16-month prison term for attempt to escape East Germany, 1969. Founding member of Pankow Peace Circle, 1981; it contributed to nonviolent dissolution of East German state and fall of Berlin Wall. Arrested for treason and deported, 1988; after reunification she led fight against persistent racism.

Quotations

“My eleventh commandment: ‘Thou shalt remember.’" (photo freya-klier)

Indira Kajosevic

Overview

Indira Kajosevic born Podgorica, Montenegro June 7, 1966. Co-founder of Serbian Women in Black 1991; Executive director Reconciliation and Culture Cooperative Network (RACCOON, New York 1997. Coordinator Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, 2002-03; Amer. Friends Service Committee refugee consultant 1994-99; leader Women in Black vigil, New York.

Quotations

"People usually understand and relate to each other. They share their humanity." (New York Daily News, July 2, 2008)

“[Y]ou're really in a business to make sure that people understand that  it is not only yourself who believes that peace is possible and that the only way people can achieve peace is that they live their own lives without violence and don't accept violent means as a way to resolve conflict.” (Julian Portillo interview, 2003; photo nydailynews)

Tsvetana Kamenova

Overview

Tsvetana Kamenova born Sofia, Bulgaria March 8, 1950. Judge for the International War Crimes Tribunal Yugoslavia (ICTY), 2006-9; convicted 5 Serbian officials, including deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic, of war crimes of, "a broad campaign of violence directed against the Kosovo Albanian civilian population."

Nina Karpachova

Overview

Nina Karpachova born Ceadîr-Lunga, Moldova, USSR August 12, 1950. Ukrainian human rights lawyer. First national Ombudsman and Commissioner of Human Rights, 1998-2012. Protested arrest of former premier Yulia Tymoshenko. Condemned Israeli violence in Gaza, 2009; opposed the war in Donbass.

Quotations

"Instantly, the disastrous atrocities of the war in Ukraine challenged the right to life of the people from many countries. In reality it is not only our war. After all, the world is very closely linked and interdependent. . . I believe that the main cause of the disaster is the war in the East of Ukraine. Therefore, it is a matter of urgency for the European and international community to help in early termination of the hostilities in the region and resolution of the crisis in a peaceful manner through negotiations, which will save the lives of many people." (official apology for downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, Sept. 2014)

Irina Khakamada

Overview

Irina Khakamada born Moscow April 13, 1955. Economics professor; Russian liberal politician. Member of Duma, 1993-2003. Vice-Speaker of Duma, 2000-03; received 4 million votes for president, 2004; negotiator in Chechen hostage crisis, Moscow, 2002; opposed Chechen War, 2004.

Quotations

"Russians do not want a war. . . That is why an anti-war rally I participated in gathered quite a lot of people, around 50,000." (Kiev, in The Day, May 13, 2014)

Alexandra Kollontai

Overview

Alexandra Kollontai born St. Petersburg, Russia March 31, 1872 (d. 1952). Soviet diplomat. Credited with ending war with Finland, 1940; opposed World War I.

Quotations

"If they’d just said we’re not going off to be killed or to kill other people like us there wouldn’t have been a war at all." (Love of Worker Bees, p. 21; photo Wikipedia)

Kathe Kollwitz

Overview

Käthe Kollwitz (née Schmidt) born Königsberg, E. Prussia July 8, 1867 (d. 1945). “Mother of Expressionist Artists.” German anti-war artist.

Quotations

On the death of young soldiers like her son Peter: “Seed Corn Must Not Be Ground.”

“Every war already carries within it the war that will answer it.” (1944, diary, Wikiquote; photo Wikipedia)

Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis

Overview

Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis born Limossol, Cyprus August 3, 1949. First woman Foreign Minister of Cyprus 2007; poet; sociologist; delegate to UN active in securing independence of Namibia.

Quotations

"The process of European integration is by its nature a peace process." (St. Louis, March 19, 2001; photo cemea.economistconferences.com)

Hertha Kraus

Overview

Hertha Kraus born Prague, Bohemia, Germany September 11, 1897 (d. 1968). German Jewish professor of social welfare; Quaker pacifist; early member of German FOR; exiled 1933.

Quotations

"[Nazi] Social policy has been given a clearly defined task. . .  [T]o achieve the ends which are fixed for the nation by National Socialism: developing the resources of the nation in line with totalitarian population and manpower policy; it does not recognize the humanitarian ideal of the preservation of human values nor the integrity of each individual being." ("Social Services in Nazi Germany." Cornell Law School, p. 4, 1944; photo sbk-koeln.de)

Marta Kubišová

Overview

Marta Kubišová born České Budĕjovice, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia November 1, 1942. Czech singer; “Song for Marta” became anthem of resistance against military occupation 1968.

Quotations

“Let peace still remain with this country! Let hatred, envy, grudge, fear, and strife cease! Let them cease!” (photo Wikipedia)

Ida Kuklina

Overview

Ida Kuklina born Russia April 15, 1934. Founded Committee of Soldiers' Mothers Against the Chechen War, 1989. Received Right Livelihood Award, 1996.

Quotations

"The mothers' love, the mother’s aspirations to defend their children turned very soon into the conscious human rights activity with the general purpose—to prevent the violations of human rights of those soldiers who were taken to the army for compulsory military service, of draftees and also of their parents." (Right Livelihood Award acceptance speech, Dec. 9, 1996; photo Right Livelihood Award)

Anna Kuliscioff

Overview

Anna Kuliscioff (née Rosenstein) born Moskaya, Crimea January 9, 1854 (d. 1925) Italian feminist, socialist-anarchist doctor and editor; opposed World War I and Mussolini.

Quotations

"What perversion, what bestial impulses, what general degeneration! It makes me shiver just to think that in cold blood, without heat, without passion, without real fanaticism, one can carry out such ignoble and repugnant gestures." (description of fascists in World War I, Turati & K 1977 IV/2, pp. 808-9, from O'Brien, p. 181; 1908 photo Wikipedia)

Zofia Kuratowska

Overview

Zofia Kuratowska born Skolimów-Konstancin, Poland July 20, 1921. Physician, activist, and politician. Leading female organizer of Solidarity movement, 1980. Protested state of war, 1982. President of Senate, 1989-97.

Quotations

“I promised—and we all said this—to tell the truth, and to vote for what we believe is fair, and against what is unfair, and to take into account what the people want, and that our goal was not improvement of the situation, but a change of the system.” (New York Times, June 23, 1983; photo wyborcza.pl)

Zofka Kveder

Overview

Zofka Kveder born Ljubljana, Slovenia, Hungary April 22, 1878 (d. 1926). Pioneer Slovene and Croat writer, playwright, journalist; only Slovene woman at founding WILPF The Hague 1915, chosen by Croatian women, as part of Hungarian delegation; feminist author Mystery of a Woman.

Quotations

“I am not afraid of death, if I am to die soon, all right. But I love life. Life is something marvellous, wonderful, big, strong. The feeling of life, the great and strong feeling of being, is something elevated and beautiful. . . Do not be afraid of life!” (letter to Vadosa Jalovsek, Feb. 2, 1915, 3 months before the conference; photo it.wikipedia)

“All who comprehend the values of other nations will never be chauvinists, will never think of themselves better.” (antiwar novel Hanka, in Katja Poniš, “Slovene Writers,” p. 38)