Sofiya Kalistratova

Who was Sofiya Kalistratova?

Sofiya Vasilyevna Kalistratova, also known as Sofia Kallistratova was a public defense lawyer in the Soviet Union. She defended various Soviet dissidents and from 1977 was a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, distributing information about human rights violations in the Soviet Union.

Born in the town of Rylsk, she graduated from the Moscow State University, specializing in the field of law. Unable to find a position in prosecutor's office, she began her activity as public defender at the Moscow College of Advocates. According to rumors, in the 1960s, the officer who was issuing her with a new passport, misspelled the last name "Kallistratova" as "Kalistratova". Sofiya did not make a big deal out of it and signed the documents as Kalistratova ever since.

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 activity of the Moscow Helsinki Group became impossible, while the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, was making his career out of the repression of dissidents. Supporters claim that all their work defending the human right to obtain, discuss, and distribute information was legal.