SVETLANA ZAVRAZHNOVA

Svetlana, a long time human rights activist in the former Soviet Union, had lived for many years in Penza before returning to Moscow with her husband, Efraim Epstein, one of the editors of the Express Chronicle, an important “samizdat” publication of the then developing human rights movement in the Soviet Union. While she knew of Susan Mesinai and the Ark Project’s campaign to find new information about Raoul Wallenberg and missing Americans through the Chronicle, the first media entity to publish ARK’s three-part article – only after Effie’s death did she become an integral part of the independent investigation. Svetlana began doing research and translation for Susan Mesinai while working also as an instructor of English language at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and on occasion for the BBC. Their first project together involved review of files of prisoners held in Serbsky, a center for diagnosing prisoners with psychological trauma, starting in 1995.

As a Russian, Svetlana carried the soul of the human rights effort and of the search for Raoul. Svetlana worked on a daily basis with Susan Mesinai in translating prisoner files and in locating witnesses – the family of Issac M. Wolfin, “Swedish spy,” held in Vladimir; an artist and ex-patient of Serbsky who had the same year of birth and many other aspects which could have described Wallenberg, held in Butyrka in the early 1950s; and a woman prisoner who believed that she had met both Wallenberg and Langfelder briefly in a camp in the Pechora area in 1947. She also worked with Marvin Makinen, helping him in 1997 to deal with the prison authorities in an attempt to get the cooperation he had been promised to initiate the cell occupancy analysis of Korpus 2 of the Vladimir Prison.

Svetlana also uncovered documents, prison regulations and other archives, which illuminated procedure related to taking a prisoner into “protective custody,” (removing him or her from the world) or the care of prominent numbered prisoners even when in strict isolation .Svetlana was tireless and spirited, with a vast capacity to help others fulfill their goals.

Svetlana would always say that as long as her mother was still alive, she would hold out hope for Raoul Wallenberg – because her mother was born in the same year as he was. Unfortunately, her death after a struggle with cancer preceded that of her mother. Svetlana is survived by her two children, her grandchildren and a vast network of friends.