As is known, on May 12, 1976, the Moscow Helsinki Group was created - an organization responsible for monitoring compliance with the third part of the Helsinki Agreements, which contains humanitarian articles. They include provisions on fundamental human rights, the observance of which members in the USSR monitored for several decades. The creation of the group was announced at a press conference in the house of Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov.
History of creation
The Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), represented by Yuri Orlov, its founder and first chairman, presented its goals as follows. The organization will monitor compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki in the USSR and inform all states that signed this document along with the Soviet Union of any violations.
In addition to Yuri Orlov, the group included Alexander Ginzburg, Lyudmila Alekseeva, Natan Sharansky, Vitaly Rubin, Malva Landa, Alexander Korczak, Elena Bonner, Anatoly Marchenko, Mikhail Bernshtam and Pyotr Grigorenko.
Forced signing
The Helsinki Agreements laid the foundation for a mechanism for monitoring compliance with their requirements. In particular, the heads of delegations were required to assess the compliance of all partner states with the declaration they signed at the annual conferences. The Moscow Helsinki Group hoped that information provided about violations of human rights articles would be considered at these meetings and that democratic states would demand that Soviet Union complied with the signed agreements in full, including humanitarian clauses. Failure to comply with them could lead to the collapse of the Helsinki Agreements, which the leadership of the USSR could not allow. It was in the interests of the Soviet Union to preserve the treaty, which was extremely beneficial for it, taking into account that the country was bled dry by long-term isolation from the rest of the world and a frantic arms race.
Effective work
Consisting of only eleven members, it seemed unable to monitor the entire vast territory of the Soviet Union. In the end, the members of the MHG were as powerless as all other citizens of the USSR, and all their equipment consisted of two old typewriters. On the other hand, the Moscow Helsinki Group included experienced human rights activists, who by that time had collected a large amount of material on the subjects involved. Moreover, foreign radio stations broadcasting throughout the Soviet Union constantly broadcast reports on the work of the MHG, and it began to receive information about human rights violations from all over the country. In particular, the members of the organization were informed by activists of the Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Georgian and Armenian national movements.
During the 6 years of its existence, the group compiled and transmitted to the West 195 reports on the Soviet Union. These reports contained information regarding restrictions on the right to use one’s native language to receive education in native language etc. Religious activists (Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostals and Catholics) spoke about violations of the right to freedom of religion. Citizens who were not members of any movements reported non-compliance with the third part of the Helsinki Accords, which affected either themselves or their loved ones.
A worthy example
Subsequently, following the MHG model, the Lithuanian and Ukrainian Helsinki groups were formed in November 1976, the Georgian group in January 1977, the Armenian group in April, the Christian Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Believers in the USSR in December 1976, and in November 1978 g. - Catholic Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Believers. Helsinki committees also emerged in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Reaction
In February 1977, arrests began in the Ukrainian and Moscow groups. One of the first detainees was the chairman of the MHG, Yuri Orlov. On May 18, 1978, he was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment with hard labor and 5 years of exile. The court regarded his activities as anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda with the aim of undermining the Soviet state and system. On June 21 of the same year, Vladimir Slepak was sentenced to 5 years of exile. On June 14, Natan Sharansky was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 10 years in a maximum security camp.
By the fall of 1977, more than 50 members of the Helsinki groups were deprived of their freedom. Many of them were sentenced to long prison terms, and some died before their release.
A wave of solidarity
The media in democratic countries that were partners of the Soviet Union under the Helsinki Agreements also covered the persecution of its participants in the USSR and its satellite states. countries responded to these persecutions by creating their own groups and Helsinki Committees.
The creation of the American Helsinki Group was announced in December 1978. Similar organizations later emerged in Canada and several Western European countries. Their goal was to stop harassing their colleagues and to pressure their national governments to force the Soviet Union to implement the Helsinki Accords.
Fruits of the work
These efforts have borne fruit. Beginning with the Madrid Conference in October 1980, democratic participating states began to unanimously voice these demands at every meeting. Gradually, compliance with the obligations of the third “basket” became one of the main aspects of the Helsinki process. During the 1986 Vienna Conference, an additional protocol was signed, according to which the human rights situation in a country party to the agreements is recognized as the concern of all signatories.
Thus, the MHG became the seed that gave birth to the international Helsinki movement. She had a growing influence on the content of the Helsinki Process. Perhaps for the first time, a human rights organization played such a role in interstate agreements. The Soviet Union was accused of violating humanitarian clauses based on documents provided by the Moscow, Ukrainian and Lithuanian groups.
Gorbachev's Thaw
Under pressure from democratic countries, not only the Moscow Helsinki Group, but also all persons imprisoned under political articles of the Soviet Criminal Code were released in 1987. In 1990, citizens of the USSR were granted the right to freely leave and return to the country, and the persecution of believers ceased.
The experience gained through this close co-operation was reflected in the fact that the OSCE became the first international association to include them in the process as equal partners. At Human Dimension Conferences, representatives of non-governmental organizations participate on the basis of parity with official representatives of OSCE member states, and they are given the floor on equal terms.
Back in action
The MHG, which at the time of its founding was the only independent public organization in the Soviet Union, today plays a leading role in the human rights movement and civil society that emerged in Russian Federation. The main focus of the MHG's work continues to be monitoring the human rights situation. Today, however, it is carried out not only on the basis of the humanitarian articles of the Helsinki Accords, but also with the support of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, European Convention on the protection of human rights and freedoms and other international treaties relating to human rights signed by the Russian Federation.
Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alekseeva headed the MHG in 1996. Three years earlier, she returned to Moscow from forced emigration to the USA in February 1977. All this time, the woman continued to work in this human rights organization, and also broadcast on Radio Liberty and Voice of America.
In 2012, a new Russian law came into force, defining the Moscow Helsinki Group as a foreign agent receiving funds from abroad and having connections abroad. To get rid of the stigma that has historically been used as a synonym for the word “spy,” the organization decided to limit its assistance to Russian citizens.
Well-deserved award
In 2015 Lyudmila Alekseeva for outstanding work in the field of human rights protection she received the Václav Havel Prize. Presenting €60,000 at a ceremony held at the Palais de Europe in Strasbourg on the day the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe began, PACE President Anne Brasseur said that the human rights activist, having taken on the responsibility to fight for justice, has inspired several generations of Russian and foreign activists . For decades, Alekseyeva was threatened, lost her job and was forced to leave the country so that she could continue to speak out about human rights violations in the Soviet Union. She now heads the Moscow Helsinki Group, a free-thinking non-governmental organization that often faces hostility but continues to condemn lawlessness and provide assistance to victims.
The attacks continue
Recently, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the creation of the MHG, the state television channel Rossiya-1 presented a “documentary” film in which allegations were made that opposition leader Alexei Navalny received funding from British intelligence, including with the help of the Moscow Helsinki Group. “Documents” and “correspondence” were presented, allegedly indicating his connections with the head of the Hermitage Capital investment fund, William Browder. An analysis of the “materials” of MI6 and the CIA showed that they are replete with factual and verbal errors typical of Russian-language authors. The chairman of the MHG rejected the accusations of the state media, saying that she never received any money from Alexei Navalny and did not give him any money. The human rights activist said that the Moscow Helsinki Group does not provide financing and is not involved in financial transactions, such as placing funds in hedge funds.
Apparently, another attempt to denigrate the MHG and the opposition failed miserably.
MOSCOW, December 8 – RIA Novosti. Soviet dissident, head of one of the oldest human rights organizations in Russia, Lyudmila Alekseeva, died at the age of 92. She was perhaps the most authoritative person in human rights circles: for some, officially - Lyudmila Mikhailovna, but among themselves, many human rights activists simply called her - "Baba Luda"
In her youth, Alekseeva shared communist views and was even a member of the CPSU for some time, but then left the party. During the Khrushchev Thaw, her apartment became a storage place for samizdat, meetings of dissidents and representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia.
Her human rights colleagues speak of her as a selfless, constantly and hard-working person who, while showing flexibility, never betrays her ideals. Meanwhile, Alekseeva, respected in human rights circles, has often been criticized because foreign funding MHG and her own American citizenship. She, like many human rights activists, has more than once become the object of being labeled as a “State Department agent” or a “fifth column.” But she was a human rights activist – one of the “patriarchs” of human rights protection in Russia.
She stood up for many and did not hesitate to make a request to the president. At one time, she asked him to pardon ex-senator Igor Izmestyev, sentenced to life, and she also offered to take him under his patronage. charitable foundation the tragically deceased Elizaveta Glinka - Doctor Lisa. The head of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, Mikhail Fedotov, often recalled one of her phrases - “chicken grain by grain” - this is how she acted, slowly, but systematically moving towards the goal, she taught this to others. She also taught compassion.
During the recent rotation in the Presidential Human Rights Council, Alekseeva again became a member of it. Last year, Alekseeva became a laureate of the state award for outstanding achievements in the field of human rights activities. She donated the monetary portion of the award to the needs of her organization. “I will give the prize to my group, like all my prizes, since I am being awarded not as Grandma Lyuda, but as the chairman of the famous Moscow Helsinki Group,” she said then.
Alekseeva was born in 1927 in Yevpatoria, a seaside resort town in western Crimea. The family moved to Moscow when Lyudmila was a child. Alekseeva’s parents shared communist views, apparently, which is why the future human rights activist from childhood was sure that she lived in the freest and fairest country, and grew up as an absolutely “Soviet” child. Meanwhile, Stalin’s repressions were unfolding before her eyes—many of her father’s colleagues in the Central Union were subjected to them. He himself also came under investigation, but was not repressed.
During the war, Alekseeva tried more than once to get to the front. In Izhevsk, where she came to visit her mother after evacuation to Northern Kazakhstan, she took nursing courses, but, being a minor, did not go to the front. Upon returning to Moscow in 1943, Alekseeva did not go to school, but again tried to get to the front or to a defense enterprise. Then she was sent to the construction of the Stalinskaya metro station (later renamed Semyonovskaya). What she saw during the war years largely determined her life and partly pushed her into human rights activities. As Alekseeva herself recalled, many factories were evacuated to small Izhevsk, but not a single one square meter no housing was built for the people who came there. But, despite everything - she saw it - people helped each other. According to the human rights activist, it is respect for the feat Soviet people during the war, she was inspired by the desire to make sure that her fellow citizens lived better, and that the authorities respected their rights and human dignity. People who survived war and emerged victorious deserved to be treated as human beings—a belief that played a huge role in her subsequent human rights work.
Party member
In 1945, Alekseeva entered the history department of Moscow State University. Years of study greatly influenced her views. According to Alekseeva’s recollections, many student functionaries and Komsomol members during their years of study at the history department built their future careers as party leaders; they often initiated “personal cases” against fellow students for any minor “misdemeanors.” Perhaps this was the first time Alekseeva began to doubt the CPSU - it seemed to her that the party had been infiltrated by people devoid of moral principles and striving for power.
After Moscow State University and graduate school at the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics, Alekseeva began teaching history at a vocational school in Moscow and was a freelance lecturer for the Komsomol (Komsomol). In 1952, Alekseeva joined the CPSU, but soon her views changed, she became disillusioned with the party, abandoned her PhD in the history of the CPSU and abandoned her scientific career. And the Khrushchev Thaw - the time of the birth of the human rights (dissident, as it was called in the USSR) movement - was marked by a turning point in its own life– she found herself in the ranks of human rights activists, fighters, and Soviet dissidents. Then her apartment became a meeting place for Moscow intellectuals and dissidents and a “handicraft printing house” - a place for storing and reproducing samizdat, which, according to her, was the quintessence of artistic, political, and social thought of that time and previous times.
Dissident
Her first human rights activities began ten years before the creation of the MHG. In 1966, she, along with other dissidents, spoke out in defense of writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky, who were tried for publishing their works abroad - bypassing Soviet censorship. At the end of the decade, she took part in speeches in connection with the political process against samizdat activists - journalist Alexander Ginzburg and poet Yuri Galanskov, who were accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation. Then Alekseeva took up the topic of political prisoners and became one of the initiators of providing material assistance to them and their families.
This ends for her with expulsion from the party and dismissal from her job in 1968. But her human rights activities do not end there: she signs documents for the dissident movement and becomes a typist for the first human rights bulletin in the USSR - the samizdat Chronicle of Current Events. The first “Chronicle” was printed on Alekseeva’s typewriter – an old, heavy “Underwood” from the 1920s. At this time, the human rights activist met perhaps the most famous Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov.
But along with this, systematic searches and interrogations came into her life. One day in 1974, Alekseeva was called to the Lubyanka and told - as a preventive measure - that a case was prepared against her under Article 70 (anti-Soviet agitation or propaganda), and if she continued her activities, she would immediately be brought to justice.
In 1976, Alekseeva joined the newly created MHG, became the editor and custodian of the organization’s documents, and her apartment became a kind of office for the group. The oldest existing human rights organization in Russia, the Group for Assistance to the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords in the USSR (MHG) was created to collect and publish information on violations of the humanitarian articles of the Helsinki Accords. At the MHG, Alekseeva worked side by side with Yuri Orlov, Mikhail Bernshtam, Elena Bonner, Alexander Ginzburg, Anatoly Marchenko, Vitaly Rubin, Anatoly Sharansky.
Emigrant
In 1977, during another search of the apartment, samizdat and foreign human rights literature were confiscated. Under threat of arrest, she was forced to emigrate and settled in the United States, where she became a foreign representative of the MHG. Over time, she received American citizenship, and returned to her homeland only in 1993 - but not to the Soviets, but to Russia. During the years of emigration, she prepared the publication of MHG documents and hosted programs on Radio Liberty and Voice of America. In the USA, she published her memoirs “The Thaw Generation” and the monograph “The History of Dissent in the USSR. The Newest Period,” which was initially planned as a reference book on the dissident movement in the USSR, but eventually the work grew into a real study. Thus, Alekseeva became the first Russian researcher of the dissident movement of the USSR; this work still remains the most complete and comprehensive study on this topic. In the 1980s, as part of the US delegation, she took part in OSCE conferences (Reykjavik, Paris).
Head of the revived MHG
Returning to Russia, she headed the MHG in 1996. Alekseeva herself said that she hesitated when she was offered to head the MHG, but in the end she decided to test herself as a “boss.” As the leader of the movement “For Human Rights” Lev Ponomarev recalled, he and Alekseeva jointly took up the revival of the organization - group for a long time didn’t gather, people left, the organization bore the name MHG, but didn’t really work. According to him, the human rights activist returned to Russia consciously - she wanted to build democracy here - and it was she who became the engine for the restoration of the MHG. She had her own office, but more often she worked at home. According to Ponomarev, Alekseev is an example of devotion, “exorbitant,” as he put it in one of his interviews, devotion to his work; she often neglects her health and devotes all her time to work. For many human rights activists, she has become a standard, a moral authority. Everyone talks about her dedication to her cause - she devoted her whole life to protecting human rights. And her qualities helped in this - activity, inflexibility and at the same time compassion for people and a desire to help. Lev Ponomarev notes in her a combination of a sober practical mind and dedication to the human rights cause: according to him, she manages to interact with the authorities and maintain her human rights face. After the law “on foreign agents” came into force, the MHG refused foreign funding and turned to Russian citizens for support.
Russian human rights activist
For ten years, Alekseeva was a member of the Human Rights Commission under the President of the Russian Federation, later transformed into the Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC), but left it due to disagreement with the new procedure for forming the council. She participated in the preparation of large-scale events related to the consolidation of civil society in Russia: she was one of the organizers and three co-chairs of the All-Russian Civil Congress, and joined the organizing committee of the Civil Forum, held in 2013 on the initiative of the committee of civil initiatives of ex-Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Alexei Kudrin. Since 2009, Alekseeva has taken an active part in the speeches of citizens on the 31st of every month on Triumfalnaya Square in defense of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation on freedom of assembly - “Strategy-31”. During the next action, she was detained by riot police and taken to the police station. This incident caused a huge resonance both in Russia and abroad.
She received threats from nationalists, she was accused of serving the interests of the United States, eggs were thrown at her at a press conference in defense of prisoners, her photograph was used in an offensive installation with the inscription “you are not welcome here” at the Seliger youth forum. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was among the ten most influential women in Russia, and was awarded the most famous human rights awards and prizes.
Lyudmila Alekseeva long years remains at the helm of human rights affairs in Russia - she began her journey back in the USSR, when she defended the rights of writers and poets to their right to express their thoughts, for which she was expelled from the Union at one time. Currently, her activities have subsided; Alekseeva also became part of several state human rights institutions.
Family
Lyudmila Alekseeva (nee Slavinskaya) was born in Yevpatoria in the family of Mikhail Lvovich Slavinsky and Valentina Afanasyevna Efimenko.
Lyudmila Mikhailovna's parents came from poor families, to whom the revolution gave them the opportunity to get higher education— my father studied to become an economist, my mother studied mathematics.
Subsequently, Lyudmila Alekseeva’s mother worked at the Institute of Mathematics Academy of Sciences USSR, taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School, wrote a number of textbooks on higher mathematics for university students. I was involved in raising little Lyuda Estonian granny.
Alekseeva is a widow. First husband - Valentin Alekseev, military man, teacher at the Zhukovsky Academy. The second is Nicholas Williams, school teacher, dissident, writer.
Mother of two sons (from her first marriage): Sergei and Mikhail.
Biography
From Lyudmila’s early childhood, her family settled in Moscow, initially living in a barracks in Ostankino.
In 1937, they moved to the center of Moscow into a communal apartment, which was vacated after the arrest of one of the senior officials of the Central Union, the department in which Mikhail Slavinsky worked.
On July 14, 1941, Slavinsky went to the front. Alekseeva, along with other children of employees of the Institute of Mathematics, was evacuated to Kazakhstan.
In the spring of 1943, Lyudmila Alekseeva and her mother returned to Moscow. Lyudmila did not go to school; she turned to the Komsomol organization with a request to send her to the front or to a defense enterprise. She was sent to the construction of the metro station "Stalinskaya" (now "Semyonovskaya"), Lyudmila dragged trolleys with rock from the tunnel.
In 1945, Lyudmila Alekseeva entered the first year of the history department Moscow State University. After a week of classes, she was elected Komsomol organizer of the group, but soon she was told that the Komsomol organizer should be a front-line soldier, and the decision was revised.
As Lyudmila Alekseeva later noted in her memoirs, front-line soldiers of a “special breed” went to the history department - those who became party and Komsomol functionaries in the army and felt a taste for power over people.
They were not interested in historical science, but they were building their future careers as leaders. In order to be noticed by their senior comrades, student functionaries initiated “personal cases”, accusing fellow students of disloyalty, loss of vigilance and other sins. A student could be expelled from the university even for not turning in the banner on time after the demonstration.
In 1950, she graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University and began teaching history at one of the vocational schools in Moscow, and also became a freelance lecturer for the regional committee. Komsomol.
In 1952 Alekseeva joined CPSU.
In 1956, Alekseeva graduated from graduate school at the Moscow Economic and Statistical Institute. From that same year, Alekseeva’s apartment became a place for storing and distributing “samizdat”; meetings of the intelligentsia were also held there.
In 1959-1968 she worked as a scientific editor of the archeology and ethnography editorial office in the publishing house "The science".
In 1966, she began to participate in human rights activists against the arrest and conviction of writers. Andrey Sinyavsky And Yuri Daniel who published their books abroad, bypassing Soviet censorship. At the same time, Alekseeva became one of the initiators of providing financial assistance to political prisoners and their families.
In 1967, Alekseeva joined the campaign launched by human rights activists in connection with the political trial Alexander Ginzburg And Yuri Galankov.
In April 1968, for participating in the human rights movement, she was expelled from the ranks of the CPSU and fired from her job. In the same year, Alekseeva began reprinting the first human rights bulletin in the USSR "Chronicle of Current Events".
In 1970, Alekseeva became an employee of the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In May 1976, she joined a new human rights organization - Moscow Helsinki Group and became the editor and custodian of the organization's documents.
In 1974, by decree of the Presidium Supreme Council The USSR warned Alekseeva for “the systematic production and distribution of anti-Soviet works.”
At the end of February 1977, Alekseeva was forced to emigrate from the USSR. She settled in USA, was published in the Russian-language emigrant, as well as in the English and American press.
In 1980, she compiled a reference book on currents in Soviet dissent. Then she revised it into the monograph “The History of Dissent in the USSR. The Newest Period.” This book became the first fundamental historical research on this topic, which has not lost its significance in the future.
In the summer of 1989, Alekseeva became an absentee member of the restored Moscow Helsinki Group.
The human rights activist returned to Russia in 1993.
In May 1996, she was elected chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group.
In November 1998, she headed the International Helsinki Federation (she held this post until November 2004).
Alekseeva has a number of awards:
officer of the Legion of Honor (France, 2007). Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Germany, 2009). Knight of the Order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas (Lithuania, February 5, 2008). Order of the Cross of the Land of Mary, 3rd class (Estonia, 2012).
Alekseeva was awarded several prizes:
Prize "For Freedom of Thought" named after Andrey Sakharov; Olof Palme Prize; Award of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR) "Person of the Year - 5765"; Natalya Estimirova Prize "Man of Honor and Conscience"
Policy
On October 19, 2002, Alekseeva was included in the Human Rights Commission under the President of Russia, later transformed into the Council for Promotion of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights.
At the end of December 2004, Alekseeva became a member of the Human Rights Commission under the Mayor of Moscow. In the same month, she was elected co-chairman of the Organizing Committee (later the committee was named the Supervisory Council) of the All-Russian Civil Congress "Russia for Democracy, Against Dictatorship" - together with the head of the INDEM Foundation. Georgy Satarov.
In January 2005, Alekseeva was awarded the prize Olof Palme.
In June 2006, Alekseeva took part in organizing the conference “The Other Russia”. Representatives of the opposition held this conference in opposition to the G8 summit taking place at that time in St. Petersburg.
In July 2007, due to leadership rivalry "Other Russia"(conflict between the leader of the United Civil Front Garry Kasparov and leader of the People's Democratic Union Mikhail Kasyanov) founders of "The Other Russia" - Satarov, Lyudmila Alekseeva and Alexander Auzan left its ranks.
In December 2007, Satarov, Alekseeva and Kasparov were re-elected co-chairs All-Russian Civil Congress. However, already in January 2008, Alekseeva and Satarov announced that they were leaving the posts of co-chairmen, because “the work civil organization“the most negative inherent in modern Russian political practice is introduced.”
Since August 31, 2009, Alekseeva took an active part in "Strategy-31"— regular demonstrations by citizens on Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square in defense of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (on freedom of assembly).
On December 31, 2009, during an attempt to hold another rally on Triumfalnaya Square, Lyudmila Alekseeva was detained by riot police and, along with dozens of other detainees, taken to the police station, which caused a great resonance in Russia and abroad.
At the end of 2010, we disagreed on the tactics of holding events with Eduard Limonov and left Strategy-31. Alekseeva took 10th place in the ranking "100 most influential women in Russia" for 2011 (Echo of Moscow, RIA Novosti, Ogonyok and Interfax).
On June 22, 2012, it became known that Lyudmila Alekseeva submitted a statement of resignation from the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, not agreeing with the new procedure for forming the council.
Alekseeva admitted that the Moscow Helsinki Group “works almost entirely on grants from American foundations.” However, after the law on NPOs performing the functions of a foreign agent came into force in November 2012, MHG refused foreign funding and turned to Russian citizens for support.
In December 2012, State Duma deputy from "United Russia" Irina Yarovaya accused Alekseeva, who criticizes legislative initiatives in response to the adoption of the Magnitsky Act in the United States, of serving US interests: " US citizen Ms. Alekseeva took an oath of allegiance to the United States, completely renounced Russia and pledged to fight only on the side of the United States, even with arms in hand.".
Alekseeva supported the initiative of the Committee of Civil Initiatives Alexey Kudrin about holding a civil forum on November 23, 2013 in Moscow and joined its organizing committee.
In May 2015, a bill was introduced to the State Duma increasing the number of grounds for the use of force law enforcement agencies. Deputies proposed allowing the use of batons and stun guns to suppress crimes or violations of the rules of detention in colonies and detention centers.
On May 29, Alekseeva and other human rights activists held single pickets at the State Duma against this bill, which they nicknamed "the law of sadists".
Alekseeva also announced her readiness to start a hunger strike: " This law cannot be passed. I'm sure it won't be accepted. I will protest against him in every way possible and impossible for me. For example, a hunger strike. This law cannot be passed", said the human rights activist.
Rumors (scandals)
In August 2004, Alekseeva and the leader of the Youth Human Rights Movement Andrey Yurov received threatening letters from the leader of the Slavic Union Dmitry Demushkin. The sheet depicts a sniper, with the inscription underneath: “Girenko, Yurov, Alekseeva.” Nikolai Girenko, a scientist from St. Petersburg, was killed in June 2004 in his apartment.
In June 2008, during a press conference in defense of prisoners, Alekseev was pelted with eggs by a group of young people, presumably from LDPR.
On March 31, 2009, Lyudmila Alekseeva was hit by a certain Konstantin Pereverzev, when she laid flowers at the Park Kultury metro station in memory of those killed in the terrorist attack, and was detained.
The incident was condemned by a member of the presidium of the Solidarity movement Boris Nemtsov and the Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin. For “inflicting beatings for hooligan reasons,” Pereverzev was sentenced to one year’s probation.
In the summer of 2010, at the annual forum of pro-Kremlin youth on Seliger, Alekseeva became one of the heroes of the installation "You are not welcome here". A plastic head with a photograph of her in a headdress with fascist symbols was impaled on a stake.
In January 2012, TV presenter Arkady Mamontov published documents proving that the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva, has obligations to the UK (from where she received grants) and to the USA (she is a citizen of this country). A request was sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs demanding an explanation of how a US citizen ended up on the public council.
“Human rights activist” Alekseyeva will be buried in Washington. No matter how much the authorities puffed up with stories about the “irreparable loss,” the ashes of the “greatest human rights activist” will be buried in the United States, which is quite logical, since throughout her life, the US citizen religiously defended the interests of her true Motherland. ………………….. This is to make it better clear who they are trying to erect as “people’s idols”. One plus, at least after her death, Russia finally got rid of her and in order to go “to Alekseeva’s grave,” you will have to go to your native Washington. https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/4634680.html
P.S.
I'll complement my friend.
Alekseeva was a US citizen. Here is the full text of the US citizen oath: “I hereby swear that I I absolutely and completely renounce allegiance and devotion to any foreign monarch, ruler, to the state or sovereign power of which I was a subject or citizen before this day; what am I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America from all enemies, external and internal; what am I I will serve the United States faithfully; what am I I will take up arms and fight for the United States when I am required to do so by law; that I will perform non-combatant service in the United States Armed Forces when required by law to do so; that I will perform civilian work when I am legally required to do so; and that I pronounce this oath openly, without ulterior motives or intention to evade its execution. May God help me."
Alekseeva became an American civilian in 1982, when the Soviet Union was still alive! In 2002, her passport expired and she renewed it. In fact, for more than 30 years, working in the socio-political sphere of the USSR and the Russian Federation, she was a real foreign agent, even if she never received any Western grants (and she received them more than once, including from the intelligence services at the British Embassy!). And therefore Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG)
- the political organization that she headed cannot be anything like a foreign agent, whose activities are directly or indirectly aimed at promoting the interests of a foreign state or states to the detriment of Russia.
The organization itself arose in 1976, when a group of, let’s say, enthusiasts decided to begin public control over the fulfillment of obligations in the USSR to protect human rights (according to agreements concluded in Helsinki)... The fate of the MHG in Soviet times was difficult: many ideologists of the fight against the Soviet system ended up behind bars, many left for Europe and the United States, securing the right to use the label of the main champions of human rights in the USSR. The MHG either ceased to exist due to the work of the special services, then was restored again. But then 1991 came - the Soviet Union ceased to exist and, it would seem, the members of the MHG should have joined hands and drunk a glass of champagne for the fact that they became one of the links in a long chain of causes of the collapse big country. And after the festive feast, one could retire to a well-deserved rest with a feeling of fulfilled dignity, because the beginning of the 90s was the wild heyday of the triumph of the rights of some people over the rights of others - all according to the laws of the Moscow Helsinki Group... However, no one hands in their “membership cards” I was in a hurry. Why? Probably all readers have already guessed, but you need to try to maintain the intrigue and mention it later. And if the MHG leaders continued their activities, then it was necessary to choose an object for such activities. And he was unexpectedly found. These are the so-called totalitarian sects. Representatives of the Moscow Helsinki Group decided to defend the right of Russians to freedom of conscience, and therefore to protect members of sects of various kinds from government pressure.
At the center of one of the biggest scandals related to the activities of the MHG is Hubbard Humanities Center and the Church of Scientology. VGTRK correspondents once aired a story in which there was information that the movement of Ron Hubbard, promoting moral emancipation under the motto “Make money. Do more money. Make others work so they can make even more money for you,” had active contacts with the MHG. The sect (religion) of Mr. Hubbard itself, or rather its Russian branch, was actively in contact in the mid-90s with the so-called "Unity Church" of Korean preacher Moon. As a result, the MHG became mired in legal proceedings regarding its activities for the “good of freedom of conscience” in Russia, which it often initiated itself. Obviously, the West was getting stories about how the NGO “Moscow Helsinki Group” continues to guard the interests of Russians, putting human rights at the forefront, and the Russian authorities are doing everything to undermine the authority of human rights activists with a long track record. Sects became a life raft for the continued existence of the MHG and, let’s be honest, generous funding from associations such as MacArthur Foundation, United States Agency for International Development, Soros Foundation, American Endowment for Democracy, and this is far from full list those who have invested and are investing in what is undoubtedly so necessary for Russian society MHG activities such as, for example, support for totalitarian sects. However, that's all history. What are people doing at the Moscow Helsinki Group NGO today?
MHG stands for support for sexual minorities In Russian federation. In a weighty report, Ms. Alekseeva and her associates brand Russian legislation regarding his infringement of the rights of lesbians, gays, transgender and bisexual people. As you can see, in order to obtain funding from overseas, the MHG is ready to take literally any life-saving straw: it didn’t work out with sectarians, so we need to try our luck with sexual minorities. After the decision of the authorities of some Russian regions ban the propaganda of homosexuality and similar same-sex “human rights”, members of the MHG felt a second wind. Now supporters of the ideas of the main Russian expert on the rights of sexual minorities often gather in front of local government buildings with posters calling for gays and lesbians to be given freedom for their intercourse and the promotion of same-sex love in Russia.
The “legal” work of the MHG is noteworthy in terms of covering the activities of the Russian armed forces. The link on the website of the NGO “Moscow Helsinki Group” leads to a very interesting section"Society and the Army". Here it is described in colors that Russian army- this is the most closed power structure in the world, and then the authors of the materials encourage in the blog to share their impressions of serving in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It would seem that the idea is quite positive, except for the fact that the competition is being held, for some reason, under the patronage of the German Deutsche Welle. Moreover, the previous project, which was recognized as the best on the site, was the well-known Alexei Navalny's blog"RosPil". In general, it is clear in what direction the “impressions” of Russian military personnel about the Russian army should be published. The authors of the idea, using the name of the past winner, seem to be hinting that, in general, they do not need a positive experience of serving in the RF Armed Forces. They want materials that are obviously revealing. And here is one of them. Conscript soldiers who ended up at the Ashuluk training ground allegedly faced violations of human rights... Their rights were violated by being forced to work with ammunition... The authors are confident that conscript soldiers should not perform work that risks their lives. One gets the impression that representatives of the MHG and supporters of similar ideas about military service slightly confuse the essence of military service and sanatorium-resort recreation. Already on my own military service– this is a constant risk, thanks to which the country should feel protected. Maybe weapons are also contraindicated for RA soldiers - also, after all, there is a risk - suddenly the machine gun falls on his leg, and the soldier bursts into tears...
It turns out that the activities of the NGO “Moscow Helsinki Group” extend to the protection of human rights in states former USSR. Apparently, the members of the MHG see for themselves the right of succession in control over the entire territory of the state, which now no longer exists. Here, 80% of all materials, as you might guess, are devoted to the “egregious situation” in Belarus, another 15% falls on Kazakhstan, and the MHG does not pay much attention to everyone else. Apparently, in the other Republics, from the point of view of respect for human rights, everything is simply great: free Georgian gays or Azerbaijani lesbians, for example... And here is a very eloquent example: by clicking on the “Lithuania” link, we are taken to a blank page with the only inscription “In this category there are no materials." Who would doubt it, right... Now try to click on the link “Belarus” - read, not re-read... In general, non-governmental organizations from the MHG series conduct their activities according to a pre-developed program: with plans and notes, exclusively for the benefit of you and me . And for those who doubt this, a harsh NGO truth awaits with revelations of human rights violations. Such a convenient democracy...
Used article by Alexey Volodin: http://topwar.ru/13624-nepravitelst...veter-duet.html
The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva, had obligations to the UK (from where she received grants) and to the USA (she is a citizen of this country). Both facts: US citizenship and payment for the activities of a Russian public organization through the British Embassy were confirmed by Alekseeva herself.
A real colonel
HOW HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER ALEXEEVA DEALED US A POSTHEATH SLAP
The other day, Lyudmila Alekseeva, the main human rights activist of the Russian land, died. She was 91 years old.
All of us treated her with great respect. We can say that she was considered the last conscience of the nation after the death of Dmitry Likhachev.
We can’t live without the conscience of the nation, right?
Alekseeva once had many competitors in this noble field, but she outlasted them all. In the 60s, 70s, 80s, no one knew her - but now they forget those whom they knew before. They say correctly that you have to live in Russia for a long time.
Alekseeva has been involved in human rights throughout her life.
We are accustomed to this word, but what kind of profession is this? Where do they teach it, how much do they pay for it?
I’m kidding, of course - they don’t teach it anywhere, and officially there is no such work. Being a human rights activist is a calling. Again, it is difficult to find a match. Most likely this is someone like a saint or blessed. It’s also not work, but everyone knows and respects such people. And they feed on whatever God sends - or what good people give.
I have never been interested in Alekseeva’s biography, but now I wanted to read it.
“Lyudmila Alekseeva (nee Slavinskaya) was born on July 20, 1927 in Yevpatoria in the family of Mikhail Lvovich Slavinsky and Valentina Afanasyevna Efimenko. Mother was a researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and a teacher at the Moscow Higher technical school named after Bauman, is the author of several textbooks on higher mathematics...
From Lyudmila’s early childhood, her family settled in Moscow, at first they lived in a barracks in Ostankino, and in 1937 they moved to the center of Moscow into a communal apartment, which was vacated after the arrest of one of the responsible employees of the Central Union - the department in which Mikhail Slavinsky worked...
Lyudmila's father came under investigation, but escaped reprisals. In total, according to the memoirs of Lyudmila Alekseeva, 297 colleagues of M.L. Slavinsky were sent to camps or destroyed..."
What a horror! How did dad escape repression? Why did 297 of his colleagues sit down, but he didn’t? Why did dad get housing in the center of Moscow? On this score, there is a big gap in the biography of the most revered Russian human rights activist and anti-Soviet activist...
The following is the story of the family's life during the war. She was taken to Kazakhstan for evacuation, then returned to Moscow again. Lyudmila worked at Metrostroy out of conscientiousness. Wikipedia describes it very dramatically: “I was dragging trolleys with rock from the tunnel. The work was grueling, but the girl perceived it as a requirement of the time.”
Well, my mother-in-law, the same age as Alekseeva, also lived in Moscow at that time. True, her father was just subjected to repression, having been moved from a bright room to a kennel under the stairs (and the room went to an informer who reported on the head of the family - that he said something stupid about giving money to Spanish children: they say his own people have nothing to eat). But they didn’t even think about evacuating the family; my mother-in-law had to leave school and work at the factory, because... her mother really needed a working food card and little sister. The work was hard, my mother-in-law lost sight in one eye, but it was impossible to survive without work. This is how the mother-in-law explained her action at that time, and not due to high Komsomol consciousness.
But Alekseeva pulled trolleys precisely because of the desire to help the Motherland, and not for the sake of some kind of food card.
Why did such a conscientious girl later become a dissident? Oddly enough, Wikipedia has an answer to this question:
“In 1945, Lyudmila entered the first year of the history department of Moscow State University. After a week of classes, she was elected Komsomol organizer of the group, but soon she was told that the Komsomol organizer should be a front-line soldier. As Alekseeva later noted in her memoirs, front-line soldiers of a “special breed” went to the history department - those who became party and Komsomol functionaries in the army and felt a taste for power over people.
They were not interested in historical science, but they were building their future careers as leaders. To be noticed by their senior comrades, student functionaries initiated “personal cases”, accusing fellow students of disloyalty, loss of vigilance and other sins.
Observing such proceedings, Alekseeva formulated a theory for herself that the party was infiltrated by people devoid of moral principles. She was pondering the dilemma of whether to join the party to fight for the purity of its ranks, or to stay away from it. At that time I settled on the second option.”
Aren't these front-line soldiers bastards! Just think, we fought! They wanted to become leaders! The poor girl who pulled trolleys was kicked out of the Komsomol! How could one not be offended by the Soviet regime?
By the way, it’s interesting: did Moscow State University accept all first-year girls directly into the CPSU? And you didn't need any candidate experience?
In general, some genius wrote an article about Alekseeva on Wikipedia. How do you like this paragraph:
“Another way to escape from reality for Lyudmila Mikhailovna was personal life. An old friend of their family, military man Valentin Alekseev, proposed to her. Lyudmila convinced herself that she was in love and agreed to get married, and soon discovered that she was pregnant. Family life and caring for the child allowed us to forget about the surrounding injustice of Stalinist society...”
Even when having sex with her husband and aunt’s son, Lyudmila did it for a reason, but to forget about the injustice! And she ate the rolls with the same feeling, and she slurped the borscht not just anyhow, but as a sign of protest against the Gulags!
Lyudmila studied at graduate school at Moscow State University until 1956, but never took part in her defense - because “in 1953 after the death of I.V. Stalin and the arrest of L.P. Beria, Alekseeva had an ideological crisis.”. However, this crisis did not prevent her from joining the CPSU back in 1952, apparently as a sign of protest against injustice.
From 1956 to 1977 Alekseeva worked at the Nauka publishing house and at the INION of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Not a bad place, I would say.
And in the 1960s, Alekseeva became a dissident:
“Her apartment became a place for meetings of dissidents and the Moscow intelligentsia, interviews with Western correspondents, and was also used for the production and storage of samizdat. She provided legal and organizational assistance to political prisoners in the USSR, and traveled to camps and exile. In 1968-1972, she participated as a typist in the publication of “Chronicles of Current Events”, distributed samizdat...”
And how did she, in whose capacity did she travel freely through the camps and exiles? Perhaps as a freelance agent of the department in which Putin began, known for his outstanding sympathy for this current “old woman Izergil”?
“In April 1968, she was expelled from the CPSU and fired from her job. As official reason it was indicated that she took part in speeches by human rights activists against the trials of the poet Yu.G. in 1966-1968. Galankov, writers Yu.M. Daniel and A.D. Sinyavsky, as well as journalist A.I. Ginsburg.
In 1974, she received a KGB warning, based on a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, for “the systematic production and distribution of anti-Soviet works”, about the inadmissibility of continuing “anti-Soviet activities” and possible arrest.”.
The description of the atrocities of the bloody Gebni makes one's hair stand on end. They gave a warning instead of an encouragement!
“In 1976, at the suggestion of dissident Yuri Orlov, she became one of the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) in the USSR...”
Dissident - another one interesting profession. But it was only possible to truly work as a dissident abroad. Here there are continuous warnings and no money is paid. And there everything is as it should be: daily allowance, allowance.
“In February 1977, under the threat of arrest, Lyudmila Alekseeva was forced, together with her second husband Nikolai Williams, to youngest son Mikhail, a graduate of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, emigrated from the USSR and settled in the USA"
.
Here! They've made more threats! For years they actually threatened and threatened me - and forced me to go to this colony-settlement, to the Indians of that overseas side!.. However, as it turned out, not to the Indians.
“In exile, Alekseeva was a foreign representative of the MHG. She worked at the Voice of America and Svoboda radio stations, where she hosted programs on human rights. She published in periodicals of the Russian-speaking emigration, acted as a consultant to several human rights organizations and trade unions...
Received US citizenship in 1982, five years after leaving the USSR ... "
She got promoted!
And in 1993, when the best friend of the American people, Yeltsin, finally took power in Russia, she returned to Moscow. But without relatives, who stayed in the USA just in case.
Since then, she has not left our TV screens - and was hung with all sorts of honorary regalia like a New Year tree.
But whose rights did Alekseeva defend in 1993, when the first Russian parliament was shot? History is silent.
But after that bloody execution, about which the successful human rights activist tactfully kept silent about the alarm bell, her new political growth began. Since 1996, she has been the chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group. In 1998-2004 - President of the International Helsinki Federation.
Since 2002 - member of the Human Rights Commission under the President of the Russian Federation. After the transformation of the Commission in November 2004, it joined the Council for the Promotion of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights under the same president. She was also a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a member of the Public Advisory Council under the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation.
In this new socio-political role, she deftly maintained parity between the interests of the Russian government and its opponents.
So in 2003 she spoke out against the war in Iraq. In 2004, she became one of the co-chairs of the All-Russian Civil Congress (together with Garry Kasparov and Georgiy Satarov), but left it due to disagreement with Kasparov’s radicalism.
She participated with Eduard Limonov in Strategy-31, but then left it due to disagreements with Limonov.
Participated in the “Ukraine – Russia: Dialogue” congress, held in April 2014 in Kyiv...
And always these entrances and exits only raised her personal value - right up to the already mentioned favor of Putin towards her, who almost kissed her hand on her anniversaries...
She had awards: the Sakharov Prize, the Olof Palme Prize, the Natalya Estemirova Prize “Man of Honor and Conscience”, officer of the Legion of Honor (France, 2007), commander of the Order of Merit for the Federal Republic of Germany (2009), Knight of the Order Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas (2008)… And dozens more equally high-profile and honorable titles, you’ll be tired of listing…
It seems that people like Alekseeva were needed Russian authorities, so that at the right moment, using their international authority, somewhere and somehow to stand up for us...
This is confirmed by the fact that very different people arrived to say goodbye to Alekseeva:
“The farewell ceremony was attended by Russian President Putin, Human Rights Commissioner Moskalkova, journalist Svanidze, head of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation Fedotov, oppositionists Navalny and Dmitry Gudkov, head of the Accounts Chamber Kudrin, State Duma Speaker Volodin and many other famous figures.”.
Our media hastened to write that Alekseeva will be buried at the Troekurovskoye cemetery in Moscow. But they naively miscalculated.
“Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva will be buried in the United States - in the same place as other members of her family”
. Her son, professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, Mikhail Alekseev, told the Moscow agency about this.
How is it with Akhmatova in the poem “Native Land?
“But we lie down in it and become it,
That’s why we call it so freely – ours.”
Here's what it is - motherland. For Alekseeva, it was formed in the USA. And for us she simply worked as a “human rights activist.” And our president greatly appreciated her work.
But it’s still hard to resist the thought that her will to be buried in a historical foreign land is such a posthumous spit in our face. Including in the face of the President of the Russian Federation, who bestowed the highest honors on her.
https://publizist.ru/blogs/107563/28474/
P.P.S.
…On December 11, an official farewell ceremony took place at the Central House of Journalists. Who was there: from senior officials Russian state to inveterate haters of the Russian state (with the obvious predominance of the latter).
Russian President Vladimir Putin (put the bouquet on the stage, talked with Alekseev Jr. and soon left the hall),
Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin,
1st Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation Sergei Kiriyenko,
Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation Alexey Kudrin (declared the deceased a “spiritual leader”),
Chairman of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova,
Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Tatyana Moskalkova,
Chairman of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov,
Head of the Republic of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Yevkurov,
President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin,
Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, information technology and connections Leonid Levin,
Member of the Federation Council and former Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Vladimir Lukin,
Commissioner for Children's Rights in Moscow Evgeniy Bunimovich,
ex-commissioner for human rights in Moscow Alexander Muzykantsky,
leader of the virtual party "Russia of the Future" Alexei Navalny with his wife Yulia Navalnaya,
Chairman of PARNAS Mikhail Kasyanov and Head of Moscow PARNAS Mikhail Shneider,
ex-deputy of the State Duma Gennady Gudkov and chairman of the “Party of Changes” Dmitry Gudkov,
founder of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky (demanded to “release Sentsov”) and deputy chairman of Yabloko Nikolai Rybakov,
former chairman of Yabloko Sergei Mitrokhin,
leader of the Yabloko human rights faction Valery Borshchev,
TV presenter Nikolai Svanidze and former TV presenter Tatiana Lazareva,
lawyers Henry Reznik and Karinna Moskalenko,
ex-Minister of Economy Andrei Nechaev,
poet Lev Rubinstein, writer Viktor Shenderovich,
dissident Boris Altshuller,
actress Liya Akhedzhakova,
President of the Holocaust Foundation Alla Gerber,
Chairman of the International Society "Memorial" Jan Rachinsky,
Chairman of the Committee "For civil rights» Andrey Babushkin,
Chairman of the Civic Assistance Committee Svetlana Gannushkina,
Director of the ANO Social Information Agency Elena Topoleva-Soldunova,
President of the Glasnost Defense Foundation Alexey Simonov,
President of the Confederation of Labor Boris Kravchenko,
State Duma deputy from A Just Russia Oleg Shein,
Professor of the Higher School of Economics Ilya Shablinsky,
US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman,
British Ambassador to the Russian Federation Laurie Bristow,
German Ambassador to the Russian Federation Rüdiger von Fritsch,
Ambassador of Sweden to the Russian Federation Peter Eriksson,
Head of the Office of the President of Poland Michal Dworczyk and others.
Michael (Mikhail) Alekseev read out the words of condolences from his mother’s colleagues in the leadership of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Sergei Kovalev and Yuri Orlov, which they sent from the United States.
Marked (also from a distance) and Mikhail Gorbachev
, who called Alekseeva’s life (dissidence, emigration, oath of allegiance to the United States, etc.) "an inspiring example of citizenship and patriotism for younger generations"
.
The court did not release the arrested leader of the movement “For Human Rights” Lev Ponomarev to the event.
The ceremony lasted about four hours.
Yesterday US State Department awarded Lyudmila Alekseeva the title of “one of the greatest human rights activists in the world”. Today Polish President Andrzej Duda posthumously awarded her the highest award for foreigners - the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alekseeva is a Soviet dissident and Russian public figure, a participant in the human rights movement in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia, one of the founders (in 1976) of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and since 1996 the chairman of the MHG.
Alekseeva Lyudmila Mikhailovna, children, biography, personal life: biography
From Lyudmila’s early childhood, her family settled in Moscow, at first they lived in a barracks in Ostankino, and in 1937 they moved to the center of Moscow into a communal apartment.
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War found Lyudmila Alekseeva in Feodosia, where they were vacationing with their grandmother.
On July 14, 1941, M. L. Slavinsky went to the front, Lyudmila Alekseeva, along with other children of the Institute of Mathematics employees, was evacuated to Kazakhstan.
In the spring of 1943, Lyudmila Alekseeva and her mother returned to Moscow. Lyudmila did not go to school; she turned to the Komsomol organization with a request to send her to the front or to a defense enterprise. She was sent to the construction of the Stalinskaya metro station (now Semyonovskaya), Lyudmila dragged trolleys with rock from the tunnel.
In 1945, Lyudmila Alekseeva entered the first year of the history department of Moscow State University.
In 1950, she graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, and in 1956 she graduated from graduate school at the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics with a degree in History of the CPSU.
Alekseeva Lyudmila Mikhailovna, children, biography, personal life: family
Lyudmila Alekseeva was married twice. Her first husband was Valentin Alekseev, a military man. Second husband - Nicholas Williams, mathematician, dissident and writer.
Nicholas Williams died several years ago.
In her first marriage, Lyudmila Alekseeva had sons Sergei and Mikhail (the eldest of them has already died).
“My eldest son got married early, lived separately, and the younger one lived with me. This was a period when human rights activities supplanted all other aspects of my life. My husband Nikolai is a mathematician, writes poetry, and loves to communicate with friends. From the age of 13, my son dreamed of becoming an economist. Human rights protection was not part of their interests. But of course, since we lived in the office of the Helsinki Group, how could they not participate? And often at the risk of their own freedom,” Lyudmila herself said about her family.
Alekseeva Lyudmila Mikhailovna, children, biography, personal life: what do you remember?
She provided legal and organizational assistance to political prisoners in the USSR, traveled to camps and exile.
She participated in the publication of “Chronicles of Current Events” and distributed samizdat.
- Lyudmila Alekseeva.
In 1974, she received a KGB warning about the inadmissibility of continuing “anti-Soviet activities” and possible arrest.
In 1976, at the suggestion of dissident Yuri Orlov, she became one of the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Group in the USSR.
In February 1977, under the threat of arrest, Lyudmila Alekseeva was forced, together with her second husband N. Williams and youngest son Mikhail, a graduate of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, to emigrate from the USSR and settled in the USA.
In exile she was a foreign representative
MHG. In 1977-1984. prepared the publication of group documents.
In 1977-1980 worked on the monograph “History of dissent in the USSR. The Newest Period" is the first fundamental historical study on this topic.
During the same period, Lyudmila Alekseeva hosted programs on human rights on radio stations “Liberty” and “Voice of America”, published in Russian-language emigrant periodicals, as well as in the English and American press, and advised a number of human rights organizations.
In the second half of the 1980s, she participated in the OSCE conferences (Reykjavik, Paris) as part of the US delegation.
She published her memoirs, The Thaw Generation, in the USA. From the summer of 1989 until his return to Russia, he was an absentee member of the restored MHG.
She became a US citizen in 1982, five years after she left the USSR under threat of imprisonment for her human rights work.
In 1993 she returned with her husband to Russia. Son Mikhail (Michael) remained in the USA, where since 1992 he has been a professor of economics at Indiana University in Bloomington and actively collaborates with Russian economists.
In May 1996, Alekseeva was elected chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group. In 1998-2004 - President of the International Helsinki Federation.
Since 2002, she has been a member of the Human Rights Commission under the President of Russia. After the Commission was transformed in November 2004 into the Council for Promoting the Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights under the President of Russia, it became part of the updated Council.
On April 2, 2003, Alekseeva and the chairman of the board of the Memorial society, Arseny Roginsky, sent letters to the ambassadors of the United States and Great Britain demanding that they stop fighting in Iraq and move to peaceful means of resolving the conflict.
In December 2004, Alekseeva became one of the organizers and then one of the co-chairs of the All-Russian Civil Congress (together with Garry Kasparov and Georgy Satarov).
The All-Russian Civil Society was created as a broad human rights association under the common slogan “For democracy against dictatorship.” At the same time, it was established that the Congress does not participate in elections and the creation of parties, and it should not be led by existing politicians.
Later, together with Satarov, Alekseeva was the organizer of the All-Russian Civil Network (ARC), created on the basis of the “human rights part” of the VGC.
On June 2, 2010, Alekseeva signed an agreement with the editor-in-chief of the online publication “Portal-Credo.Ru” Alexander Soldatov “to combine their efforts and begin joint information and human rights activities.”
She supported the initiative of the Committee of Civil Initiatives of Alexei Kudrin to hold a civil forum on November 23, 2013 in Moscow and joined its organizing committee.
Alekseeva admitted that the Moscow Helsinki Group “works almost entirely on grants from American foundations.”
On July 20, 2017, on the day of L.M. Alekseeva’s ninetieth birthday, Russian President V.V. Putin came to her home, congratulated her, and presented her with an engraving depicting her hometown (Evpatoria).
Since August 31, 2009, Lyudmila Alekseeva took an active part in “Strategy-31” - regular demonstrations of citizens on Triumphal Square in Moscow in defense of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (on freedom of assembly).
On December 31, 2009, during an attempt to hold another rally on Triumfalnaya Square, Lyudmila Alekseeva was detained by riot police and, along with dozens of other detainees, taken to the police station, which caused a great resonance in Russia and abroad.
The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, and the US National Security Council expressed their outrage at the detention of the famous human rights activist; The New York Times published a front-page article about this protest, “The enthusiasm of Russian dissidents will endure any test.”
Co-chairman of the Right Cause party Leonid Gozman called the dispersal of the peaceful demonstration and the arrest of Lyudmila Alekseeva “stupidity” and a “shame” of the Moscow authorities.
At the end of 2010, she disagreed with Eduard Limonov on the tactics of holding events and left Strategy-31.
On July 20, 2007, on her 80th birthday, Lyudmila Alekseeva expressed the hope that Russia would become a democratic country before 2017.
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