The Life and Legacy of Lyudmila Alexeyeva: Human Rights in Russia—Past, Present and Future: Workshops and Conferences: Russian Studies Workshop: Indiana University Bloomington

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The Life and Legacy of Lyudmila Alexeyeva: Human Rights in Russia—Past, Present and Future

The Life and Legacy of Lyudmila Alexeyeva: A Symposium on Human Rights in Russia—Past, Present and Future

Friday, November 15, 2019

9:00 A.M.

Location: Indiana Memorial Union

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, who died on December 8, 2018 at the age of 91, was widely considered the “matriarch” of the Russian human rights movement. Recipient of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Award in 2015, at the time of her death Alexeyeva was one of the last Soviet dissidents still active in the Russian Federation. She was one of the founders in 1976 of the Moscow Helsinki Group, which exposed human rights abuses in the Soviet Union and inspired the creation of similar human rights watchdog organizations around the world. In 1977, Alexeyeva was forced to flee the Soviet Union for the US, where she continued to advocate for the improvement of human rights in the USSR. She returned to Russia in 1993 and was named Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) in 1996, a role she maintained until the end of her life.

See the RSW blog for reflections on this symposium: https://blogs.iu.edu/russianstudiesworkshop1/

See this slideshow of highlights in Lyudmila's life, presented at the symposium reception.

This event is open to the public.

Thursday, November 14—IMU Georgian Room, 7pm-9pm (reception)
Friday, November 15—IMU Dogwood Room, 9am-4:30pm
Saturday, November 16—IMU Oak Room, 9am-12:30pm

Photos from the symposium

Symposium Panels

Thursday, November 14—Georgian Room

7:00pm-9:00pm Opening Reception

Friday, November 15—Dogwood Room

9:00am-9:15am Opening remarks by Lee Feinstein, Amb. (Retired), Dean of Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies

9:15am-10:45am Panel 1: Memories of Lyudmila. Panelists’ memories and reminiscences of Lyudmila Alexeyeva the person, their friendships and relationships, and of course her work and influence on their lives. Panelists: Cathy Cosman, Paul Goldberg, Lynne Davidson, Michael Alexeev (chair)

11:15am-12:45pm Panel 2: Freedom of assembly. This was a lynchpin of Alexeyeva’s work from 1976 to the end of her life. In 2009 for instance, Alexeyeva was an active and visible participant in “Strategy-31,” the regular protest rallies in Moscow defense of the 31st Article (On the Freedom of Assembly) of the Russian Constitution. Panelists: Cathy Fitzpatrick, William Pomeranz, Dmitrii Makarov, Lynne Davidson (chair)

2:30pm-3:00pm Screening of Voice of America documentary film by Natella Boltyanskaya about Alexeyeva’s life and work.

3:00pm-4:30pm Panel 3: Monitoring courts, police, and prisons. Alexeyeva and her MHG colleagues observed trials, took up the cases of victims of human rights abuses, supported political prisoners, and protested conditions and abuses in Russia’s prisons. Panelists: Sergei Davidis, Anastasiia Aseeva, Louise Shelley, Emma Gilligan (chair)

Saturday, November 16—Oak Room

9:00am-10:15am Panel 4: Developing a regional human rights network in Russia. Alexeyeva worked tirelessly to help civil society in Russia expand beyond circles of intellectuals in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, rallying activists in Russia’s “regions” to join in a nationwide human rights advocacy network. Panelists: Tanya Lokshina, Paul Goble, Kate Graber (chair)

10:45am-12:30pm Roundtable: Pressing human rights issues in Russia today. The symposium will culminate in a round table to discuss the most important current human rights concerns in Russia, and strategies for tackling them. Panelists: Tanya Lokshina, Paul Goble, Sergei Davidis, Dmitrii Makarov, Paul Goldberg, Cathy Fitzpatrick, Emma Gilligan (chair)

Symposium Program

A Final Speech by Lyudmila Alexeyeva

Oral History Foundation's Conversations with Alexeyeva

The archive of Lomonosov Moscow State University's Oral History Foundation maintains 22 recorded and transcribed conversations with Lyudmila Alexeyeva. The conversations range from her memories of growing up in Moscow in the 1930's, to the development of the human rights movement in the USSR, to her emigration from the USSR, and more.

The Oral History Foundation collects and publishes conversations on science, culture and everyday life of the twentieth century. All published conversations are kept in the Department of Oral History of the Scientific Library of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. The participants in these conversations are eyewitnesses and participants in the most important events in Russian and world history, outstanding figures in scientific and cultural life.

Link to Alexeyeva's Conversations in the Oral History Archive

Co-sponsors of this symposium

The College Arts and Humanities Institute, the Russian and East European Institute, the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, Borns Jewish Studies Program, the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, the Department of History, the Office of International Affairs, the Department of International Studies, the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, the Center for Constitutional Democracy, the Department of Economics, the Department of Anthropology, and the Russian Studies Workshop with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.