‘Repression makes you stronger’: Lyudmila Alexeyeva, grand dame of Russian human rights movement, dies at 91

She received death threats, was accused of spying for the West, interrogated by the Soviet KGB and forced into exile for 16 years

She came of age as a dissident in the late 1960s, spurred by the arrest of writers and other intellectuals under Brezhnev

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epa07218907 (FILE) - Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a veteran of a movement for human rights, takes part in a protest action to defend 31 articles of the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of demonstrations, in Moscow, Russia, 31 March 2011 (reissued 09 December 2018). Russian human rights activist and Soviet-era dissident Lyudmila Alexeyeva has died at a hospital in Moscow on 08 December 2018 at the age of 91, media reported. EPA-EFE/MAXIM SHIPENKOV *** Local Caption *** 02663241

Published: 9:22am, 10 Dec 2018Updated: 9:47pm, 10 Dec 2018

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the grand dame of Russia’s human rights movement, who championed democratic reforms under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and later became a leading antagonist to President Vladimir Putin, died on December 8 at a hospital in Moscow. She was 91.

Her death was announced by Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, which did not give a cause.

“This is a loss for the entire human rights movement in Russia,” said council head Mikhail Fedotov. In 2012, he had likened her to “a lighthouse standing on a rock and showing you where to go and not to go”.

As one of Russia’s leading voices for democratic governance and civil liberties, Alexeyeva received death threats, was accused of spying for the West, interrogated by the Soviet KGB and forced into exile for 16 years. At age 82 she was still marching on the streets of Moscow, dressing as the Snow Maiden – the Russian equivalent of Santa’s helper – for an unsanctioned rally on New Year’s Eve 2009.

On October 31, 2009 Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva holds a poster reading ‘Respect the Constitution!’ in central Moscow. Photo: AFP

Organised in defence of Article 31, the Russian constitutional provision that, at least in theory, guarantees the right to assembly, the rally ended with Alexeyeva and about 50 other protesters detained by police as pro-Kremlin activists danced to holiday music nearby. Expecting to be arrested, she had already ordered meat pies to her flat, where a New Year’s party was raging by the time she arrived home from the police station at 11pm.