Sofia Kalistratova

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sofia Kalistratova or Sofiya Vasilievna Kallistratova (Russian: Софья Васильевна Каллистратова) (1907 – 1989), was a public defense lawyer in Russia during the Soviet period. She defended various Soviet dissidents and from 1977 was a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), distributing information about violations of human rights in the Soviet Union.

The KGB searched Kalistratova's flat several times and confiscated typewriters and documents. Supporters claim that all her work defending the human right to obtain, discuss, and distribute information was legal. As with many other defenders of human rights, she was accused of anti-Soviet activity, but a case against her started in 1981 was dropped, with reasons for discontinuing the case reported as the absence of any criminal elements in her activity.

[edit] References

• Criticism from 1970
• Accusations against S.V.Kalistratova
• New York Times July 29, 1985
• Moscow Helsinki Group (Sophia Kallistratova)
• Софья Васильевна Каллистратова