1989 – Sofiya Kalistratova, public defense lawyer in the Soviet Union
she distributed information about human rights violations in the Soviet Union as a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group.
Sofiya Vasilyevna Kalistratova (6 September 1907– 5 December 1989). Born in the town of Rylsk, she graduated from the Moscow State University, specializing in the field of law.
She joined the Moscow Helsinki Group as a legal consultant. The KGB searched Kalistratova’s apartment several times and confiscated typewriters and documents. Some of Kalistratova’s friends were arrested. The case against her started in 1981, but Kalistratova insisted on her innocence, and the formula was changed and reported as absence of any criminal element in her activity. In 1987, she tried to initiate a campaign for amnesty for political prisoners.
She died in 1989 and was interred in Vostryakovskoye Cemetery in Moscow. For her activism, she was awarded the medal of the Guild of Russian Advocates.