was born 1946 in Velsk (Arkhangelsk). He studied history and concerned himself academically with the history of the Soviet Union in the 20th century. In 1981, he was sentenced to four years in prison on political grounds. He co-founded the organization Memorial, which campaigns for human rights and for the reprocessing of Stalinism; for this work, he later received the Lew Kopelew Prize for freedom and human rights.
The author died on December 18, 2017.