Ivonka Survilla (, born Iwonka Szymaniec, , 11 April 1936) is the President of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, a Belarusian government in exile.
Early life
Ivonka Survilla was born Iwonka Szymaniec in Stowbtsy, then part of the Second Polish Republic (Western Belorussia), into the family of Uladzimier Šymaniec, an engineer, and Evelina Šymaniec (née Paškievič).
In 1940, after the Soviet annexation of Western Belorussia, Uladzimier Šymaniec was arrested by the Soviets and sentenced to five years imprisonment in the Gulag. He escaped due to the German invasion of the USSR.
In 1944 the family fled to the West through East Prussia with thousands of other refugees and eventually reached Denmark, where they lived in a refugee camp for several years. On the way Ivonka's younger sister died.
In Canada, Ivonka Survilla became an active member of local Belarusian organisations.
In 1989, Ivonka Survilla, with the assistance of her husband Janka Survilla and friends Zinaida Gimpelevitch and Pauline Paszkievicz-Smith, created the Canadian Relief Fund for Chernobyl Victims in Belarus. This charitable organization has provided medical aid in various forms, reciprocal medical staff visits between Canada and Belarus, food aid, and has provided health respites for children in various locations within Canada.
As president
Ivonka Survilla was elected president of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1997. She is the first woman president of the Rada and the first president elected after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and creation of an independent Republic of Belarus.
Survilla regularly addresses the Belarusian society on March 25 and other occasions.
She is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.
In 2013 she was awarded the Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for "her lifelong work in restoring democracy to Belarus".
Personal life
Ivonka Survilla has two daughters. One of her daughters, Maria Paula Survilla, (1964–2020) was a professor of ethnomusicology at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.