For the 2014 annual edition of the International Herald Tribune Magazine, the International New York Times invited prominent people to answer one of the big questions of the year: Who are their moral leaders for these times?

Among the diverse contributors to the question in the INYT’s Turning Points section are Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia’s best known political prisoner, Elif Shafak, a Turkish author, Salam Fayyad, the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Liao Yiwu, a Chinese poet in exile, Rowan Williams, formerly the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Hindu guru from India.

For Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the moral compass in life has always been his mother – Marina Philippovna Khodorkovskaya who is now 80 years old. Below are excerpts from his contribution:

“For me, my mother has always been an undeniable moral authority. She has not had an easy life. But then again, Russia has always been a land of hard destinies.

…But my mother does not give in.”

He concluded: “My parents never told me what they thought of the Soviet system. They did not want to see me suffer the fate of a dissident. Only once, after I had gone to work for the Young Communist League, did my mother tell me that she felt ashamed for me. I did not understand her then. But I understood later, when I was standing on the barricades in front of the White House in 1991.

Mother, you will never have to feel ashamed of me again.”

Read The New York Times article in full