Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alekseeva was a prominent public figure and concurrently a dissident. She actively participated in the human rights movement. She stood at the origins of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and later headed this organization.
From the biography of Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alekseeva
Lyudmila Alekseeva (nee her surname is Slavinskaya) was born in Evpatoria on July 20, 1927. Some time after the birth of the girl, her family moved to the capital of the USSR. Lyudmila's father, Mikhail Slavinsky, fell on the battlefields during the war with the Nazis. Mom worked at the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences, taught to students of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. She is the author of several higher mathematics textbooks.
During the war, Lyudmila was trained in nursing courses. I wanted to go to the front and beat the Nazis as a volunteer, but they didn’t take her because of her age.
After the war, Lyudmila graduated from the history department of Moscow State University. Then there was a postgraduate study at the capital's Institute of Economics and Statistics. After completing her studies, Lyudmila Mikhailovna taught history in one of the capital's vocational schools. At the same time, she was a freelance lecturer at the regional committee of the Komsomol. Since 1952 Lyudmila Mikhailovna has been a member of the CPSU.
From the late 1950s to 1968, Lyudmila Alekseeva worked as a scientific editor at the Nauka publishing house, where she headed the editorial board of ethnography and archeology. From 1970 to 1977 L. M. Alekseeva was an employee of the Institute of Scientific Information of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
World outlook crisis
After the death of the "leader of all peoples" Joseph Stalin, Lyudmila Mikhailovna experienced an acute ideological crisis. She revised her views on the history of the country and the policies of its leadership. The process of reassessing values was difficult and painful. As a result, Lyudmila Mikhailovna did not defend her dissertation on the history of the party. This was tantamount to giving up a scientific career.
In the 60s, the apartment of Lyudmila Alekseeva turned into a meeting place for the capital's intelligentsia. Among those who visited her home were prominent dissidents. Alekseeva's apartment was used to store and distribute banned publications. Here, opposition-minded public figures have repeatedly given interviews to Western journalists.
Members of the human rights movement had a lot to do: they had to issue samizdat, go to court hearings, send parcels to camps. There was no time for the usual gatherings. Lyudmila Alekseeva immediately plunged into tireless activities to defend the rights of dissidents.
In the spring of 1968, Lyudmila Mikhailovna was expelled from the ranks of the party. This was followed by dismissal from work. A little later, her husband, who also actively participated in the activities of human rights defenders, was left without work. The reason for such repression was the participation of Alekseeva and her husband in speeches against the trials of dissidents. Among the names of those whom Lyudmila Alekseeva tried to protect:
- Julius Daniel;
- Andrey Sinyavsky;
- Alexander Ginzburg.
For some time, Lyudmila Mikhailovna was typing the first samizdat bulletin in the country, which told about current events in the USSR. A kind of chronicle compiled by Alekseeva highlighted more than four hundred political trials in which at least seven hundred people were convicted. At that time, the Soviet courts did not pass acquittals in such cases. One and a half hundred dissidents were sent for compulsory treatment in mental hospitals.
Alekseeva put her signature on several human rights documents. Since the end of the 60s, searches have been carried out in her house several times. Alekseeva was repeatedly summoned for humiliating interrogations. In 1974, Lyudmila Mikhailovna received an official warning. The basis for it was the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the country, which established responsibility for the systematic production of anti-Soviet works, as well as for their distribution.
Life in exile
In 1976, Lyudmila Mikhailovna was among those who founded the Moscow Helsinki Group. A year later, Alekseeva had to emigrate from her native country. She chose the United States as her place of residence. Lyudmila Mikhailovna became a representative of the Moscow Helsinki Group outside the USSR.
She hosted programs on radio "Voice of America" and "Freedom", where she talked about the state of affairs with human rights in the USSR. Her articles were published in Russian in émigré publications, as well as in the American and English press. Alekseeva acted as a consultant to several trade unions and human rights organizations. Over time, Lyudmila Mikhailovna acquired a certain weight and authority in the circles of human rights defenders.
At the end of the 70s, Alekseeva compiled a reference manual, which included information about the numerous trends in the dissent movement in the Land of the Soviets. This guide later formed the basis for the book "History of Dissent in the USSR". The monograph was published in English and subsequently in Russian.
After the collapse of a great power
Lyudmila Alekseeva was able to return to Russia only in 1993. Three years later, she was elected chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Alekseeva continued to actively deal with the problem of human rights. In 2002, a member of the human rights movement was included in the number of members of the Commission on Human Rights under the head of the Russian Federation. Then this structure was renamed into the Council for the Development of Civil Society under the President of the Russian Federation. In 2012, Lyudmila Mikhailovna left the Council on her own initiative. However, in 2015 she was again included in this organization by the decree of the President of the country.
For her active work in the protection of human rights, Lyudmila Alekseeva has been awarded many awards. Here are just a few of them:
- Legion of Honor;
- Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit for the Federal Republic of Germany;
- knight's cross of the order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas;
- badge of honor "For Human Rights";
- Estonian order "Cross of Maarjamaa".
Lyudmila Mikhailovna was married twice. Her first husband was a military man. The second time she married the mathematician, writer and dissident Nikolai Williams. In her first marriage, Lyudmila Mikhailovna had two sons. The eldest of them is no longer alive.
A world-famous member of the human rights movement passed away on December 8, 2018 in the capital of Russia.
