MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has expressed condolences over the death of human rights champion Lyudmila Alexeyeva at the age of 91 on Saturday.
"Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva devoted her entire life to protecting human rights and freedoms, and was one of the most active public figures. She had to pass many tests but she always lived with her head held high and with crystal-clear conscience," Medvedev wrote on his Facebook page.
Alexeyeva’s name became a symbol of freedom and democratic changes in Russia, Medvedev noted, stressing that "she was not afraid to speak when others kept silence," and she "continued struggling for her principles when others gave up."
Medvedev emphasized that Alexeyeva "achieved great results, including in the Russian Presidential Council for Human Rights, where she had worked for many years." "At any time, there were no forbidden issues and authorities for Lyudmila Alexeyeva, besides the authority of law. She was characterized by courage, dedication, and unfailing firmness in defending her position," he said.
Lyudmila Alekseeva was born on July 20, 1927. In 1950, she graduated from the History Department of Moscow State University and started working as a history teacher in a vocational school in Moscow. Later, she became a science editor of the archaeology and ethnography desk of the Nauka (Science) publishing house. In 1970-1977, Alekseeva worked at the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences at the Soviet Union’s Academy of Sciences.
Alekseeva joined the human rights movement in 1966 campaigning against the arrests and convictions of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, who had published their books abroad in the bypass of censorship in the Soviet Union. She advocated for financial help to arrested dissidents and their families. She helped to publish a dissident human rights bulletin, first in the Soviet Union.
In 1974, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued a decree lashing out at Alekseeva for "regular production and circulation of anti-Soviet publications." In February 1977, she was forced to emigrate from the Soviet Union. The dissident settled in the United States and authored some research into the history of dissident movement in the Soviet Union.
Alekseeva returned to Russia in 1993 and three years later headed the oldest human rights organization - the Moscow Helsinki Group. In 2002, she joined the Russian Presidential Commission for Human Rights, which was renamed as the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights in 2004.
In 2004, the Russian human rights activist was awarded the highest French decoration, the Legion of Honor. In 2009, she received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In December 2017, she was awarded the Russian State Prize for achievements in human rights.