In April 1968, Alexeyeva was expelled from theCommunist Party and fired from her job at the publishing house.[4] Nonetheless, she continued her activities in defense of human rights. From 1968 to 1972 she worked clandestinely as a typist for the first underground bulletinThe Chronicle of Current Events devoted to human rights violations in the USSR.[5]
In February 1977, Alexeyeva fled from the USSR to the United States following a crackdown against members ofThe Chronicle by Soviet authorities.[6] In the US Alexeyeva continued to advocate for human rights improvements in Russia and worked on a freelance basis forRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty andVoice of America.[6] She became a US citizen in 1982.[7] She wrote regularly on the Soviet dissident movement for both English and Russian language publications in the US and elsewhere, and in 1985 she published the first comprehensive monograph on the history of the movement,Soviet Dissent (Wesleyan University Press).[8] In addition, after moving to the United States, Alexeyeva took up freelance radio journalism forRadio Liberty and the Russian language section of theVoice of America. In 1990 she publishedThe Thaw Generation, an autobiography that described the formation of theSoviet dissident movement and was co-written with Paul Goldberg.[9]
In 1989 she restarted theMoscow Helsinki Group following its dissolution in 1982.[10] In 1993, after thedissolution of the Soviet Union, she returned to Russia, and she became a chairperson of the Moscow Helsinki Group in 1996.[6] In 2000, Alexeyeva joined a commission set up to advisePresidentVladimir Putin on human rights issues, a move that triggered criticism from some other rights activists.[3]
Alexeyeva was critical of the Kremlin's human rights record and accused the government of numerous human rights violations including the regular prohibitions of non-violent meetings and demonstrations and encouragement of extremists with its nationalistic policies, such as themass deportations of Georgians in 2006 and police raids against foreigners working in street markets.[11] She has also criticized the law enforcers' conduct inIngushetia and has warned that growing violence in the republic may spread to the whole Russian Federation.[12] In 2006, she was accused by the Russian authorities of involvement withBritish intelligence and received threats from nationalist groups.[11][13]
From August 31, 2009, Alexeyeva was an active participant inStrategy-31 – the regular protest rallies of citizens onMoscow'sTriumfalnaya Square in defense of the 31st Article (On the Freedom of Assembly) of theRussian Constitution.[14] On December 31, 2009, during one of these attempted protests, Alexeyeva was detained by the riot police (OMON) and taken with scores of others to a police station. This event provoked strong reaction in Russia and abroad.Jerzy Buzek, the President of theEuropean Parliament, was "deeply disappointed and shocked" at the treatment of Alexeyeva and others by the police.[15] The National Security Council of the United States expressed "dismay" at the detentions.[16]The New York Times published a front-page article about the protest rally ("Tested by Many Foes, Passion of a Russian Dissident Endures").[17]
Alexeyeva was opposed to the2014 Russian annexation of her native Crimea, saying "that the seizure of Crimea has shamed my country."[25] On her 90th birthday she was visited at her home by Russian president Vladimir Putin (accompanied by a cameraman), despite her longstanding criticism of him.[25]
She died in a Moscow hospital on 8 December 2018. No cause was given.[26] Alexeyeva's last words for publication were written to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, although she actually died two days short of that anniversary. She lamented the weakening of civil society through state propaganda and manipulation, and she drew attention to the weakness of legal culture and of democratic institutions in contemporaryRussia, as well as political cynicism and populism which - not just in Russia - treat carelessly the systems and institutions necessary to support human values.[27]
"Statement of Lyudmila Alekseeva and Lidia Voronina, accompanied by Edward Kline"(PDF).Basket III: implementation of the Helsinki Accords. Hearings before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Ninety-fifth congress. First session on implementation of the Helsinki Accords. Vol. IV. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1977. pp. 29–39.Archived(PDF) from the original on 23 November 2015.
Alexeyeva, Ludmilla (Autumn 1977). "The human rights movement in the USSR".Survey.23 (4):72–85.ISSN0039-6192.
Bayefsky, Anne; Alexeyeva, Ludmilla; Kampelman, Max; Tabory, Mala; Maresca, John; Henkin, Alice (28–31 March 1990). "Human Rights: The Helsinki Process".Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law).84:113–130.JSTOR25658533.
Alexeeva, Lyudmila (2000). "Private measures by which to ensure fundamental rights in present-day Russia: a view from inside".Helsinki Monitor.11 (2):23–32.doi:10.1163/157181400X00292.
