In Memoriam – Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva, 1927-2018 (National Security Archive)

The National Security Archive mourns the passing of Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva, our dear friend, colleague and inspiration for all our work documenting human rights abuses globally. She passed away on December 8 at the age of 91.

The self-described “Grandmother” of Russian human rights, Lyudmila Mikhailovna was a fearless opponent of authoritarianism in her homeland, facing the constant threat of retribution from her early days as a protestor and publisher of samizdat in the Soviet 1960s to her years as an internationally recognized advocate for civil rights in Russia of the 2000s. Sent into exile in the 1970s, she wrote one of the seminal histories of Soviet dissent, reflecting another of her remarkable qualities. (Being a historian, she said, became a “personal harbor” during her enforced time abroad.) 

Read more here.