EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4

EVENT: Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian politician, author, historian and former political prisoner, will receive the 2025 Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan.

Kara-Murza will deliver the 30th Wallenberg Lecture, titled “Free People in an Unfree Country: Standing Up to Kremlin Tyranny, Past and Present.” In keeping with the tradition of the Wallenberg Lecture, Kara-Murza will draw on his personal experience to share his understanding of how one person can make a difference with the audience.

He is also a recipient of several awards, including the Council of Europe’s Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, and is an honorary fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

The Wallenberg Medal and Lecture program honors a humanitarian who reflects the legacy of Raoul Wallenberg, a native of Sweden who graduated from the U-M College of Architecture in 1935.

Recent Wallenberg Medal recipients include global environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (2024); Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the Florida-based labor and human rights organization the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (2023); and Safa Al Ahmad, Saudi Arabian journalist and documentary filmmaker (2019).

No tickets required. The Wallenberg Medal and Lecture ceremony is free and open to the public.

PLACE: Rackham Auditorium, 915 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor

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