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Russia - ACTING UP - Lyudmila Alexeeva

1,735 views · Published 29 December 2011 · 2:17 · Indexed 6 October 2026

Channel: Human Rights Watch · 2011 · Nonprofits & Activism

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ACTING UP - RUSSIA'S CIVIL SOCIETY - Portraits by Platon for Human Rights Watch -
Lyudmila Alexeeva may look elderly and frail, but don't be fooled. She is one of Russia's toughest human rights campaigners, a woman who began her activism in the days when it could earn you years in the Gulag. Trained as a historian, Alexeeva got involved in dissident work in the 1960s and was one of the founding members of the Moscow Helsinki Group in 1976. It was named after the Helsinki Accords of 1975, which recognized Soviet dominance over eastern Europe but also obligated the USSR to recognize and protect human rights. Alexeeva likes to say modestly that she was the group's "typist," but in fact, she edited many of its "samizdat" documents -- and helped to hide them from the Soviet authorities. Today the Moscow Helsinki Group provides support to civil society groups nationwide. "I was 25 years old when Stalin died," says Alexeeva. "In the Soviet era, there was a monopoly on the distribution of information and ideas. Today, that is impossible."

To support the so-called "Helsinki movement" of dissidents in Eastern Europe, including the Moscow Helsinki Group, Helsinki Watch was founded in the United States in 1978 -- the group that eventually renamed itself Human Rights Watch.

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