Alexander Lavut
| Alexander P. Lavut | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 4, 1929 |
| Died | June 23, 2013 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | USSR, Russia |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University |
| Occupation | mathematician |
| Known for | human rights activist, dissident |
| Criminal charge | Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (Article 190-1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code) |
| Criminal penalty | Three years in corrective-labour camps; three years' internal exile. |
| Spouse(s) | Sima Mostinskaya |
Alexander Pavlovich Lavut (Russian: Алекса́ндр Па́влович Лаву́т; 4 July 1929 – 23 June 2013) was a mathematician, dissident and a key figure in the civil rights movement in the Soviet Union.
Alexander Lavut was born on 4 July 1929, the son of entrepreneur Pavel Ilyich Lavut (1898–1979), an ebullient figure on the cultural scene of the Soviet 1920s, mentioned in the works of Vladimir Mayakovsky ("that soft-spoken Jew Lavut").
Alexander graduated in 1951 from the Mechanics and Mathematics faculty of Moscow State University. After graduation, he taught at secondary schools in the city, and in Kazakhstan. In 1966–1969, he worked at the Laboratory of Mathematical Geology at Moscow State University.
In 1968, like dozens of others, Lavut added his name to an open letter in defense of the poet Alexander Ginzburg. Ginzburg had been arrested as one of the compilers, with Yuri Galanskov, of the White Book documenting the trial of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel.
In May 1969 Lavut joined the Action Group for the Defense of Human Rights, the first such organization in Soviet history. Together with other members, he signed an open letter to the UN Human Rights Commission. He lost his job in November that year. Of Lavut's 14 co-signatories, ten would be arrested later and imprisoned.
Lavut also worked for the samizdat periodical A Chronicle of Current Events. Founded in April 1968, the Chronicle ran until 1983, producing 65 issues in 14 years. It documented the extensive human rights violations committed by the Soviet government and the ever-expanding samizdat publications (political tracts, fiction, translations) circulating among the critical and opposition-minded. Each issue was produced as a few dozen typewritten copies, passed on to friends and then replicated in the manner of a chain-letter.
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