Starovoytova G.V. (1946-1998), ethnographer, politician

Categories / Social Life/Personalia
STAROVOYTOVA Galina Vasilievna (1946-1998, St. Petersburg), public and political figure, human rights advocate, ethnopsychologist, Ph.D. (History) (1975). She lived in Leningrad from 1948. She studied at Leningrad Institute of Military Mechanics in 1964-66 and moved to the faculty of psychology at Leningrad State University in 1966 to graduate with honours in 1972. As a post-graduate, she studied dispersed ethnic groups in Leningrad and Kazan. In the late 1970s-early 1980s, she took part in international expeditions to Abkhazia and Nagorny Karabakh. She worked as a sociologist at various Leningrad plants and was a researcher at the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1974-87. She lived in Moscow from 1987. Elected a People's Deputy of the USSR from Armenia, she joined the Interregional Deputy Group at the 1st congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in 1989. She was an associate of Andrey Sakharov and became a member of the Helsinki group in Moscow. Starovoytova was elected a People's Deputy of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from Leningrad in 1990. In 1990-91, she was a member of the Supreme Advisory Council to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. A member of the coordinating council from January 1991, she co-chaired the Democratic Russia movement from March 1993. In July 1991-November 1992 she was an advisor on ethnic relations to the President of the Russian Federation. She then joined the parliamentary Coalition of Reforms, and took part in forming the Democratic Choice block in April 1992, and participated in the Constitutional Meeting in May-June 1993. In 1993, she became the head of the Centre of Ethnopolitical Problems under the Institute of Economics of Transition. She lectured in the USA in April 1993-October 1994. From December 1994, she was a co-chair and after April 1998, the chair of the Democratic Russia federal party. She was elected a Deputy of the 2nd State Duma from St. Petersburg in December 1995 and entered the Coalition of Liberal And Centre-Right Parties in September 1996. Starovoytova was a co-founder of the Severnaya Stolitsa (Northern Capital) social movement from June 1998. She authored Etnicheskaya Gruppa v Sovremennom Rossiyskom Gorode (Ethnic Group in a Modern Russian City) (1987), Natsionalnoye Samoopredelenie (National Self-Determination) (1999), and other books. She was assassinated at the entrance of her house at 91 Griboedova Canal Embankment (commemorative plaque) on 20 November 1998. Buried at Nikolskoe Cemetery of Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The former office of the Deputy (35 Bolshaya Morskaya Street) now houses Starovoitova 's Public Fund (permanent display available).

Works: Ten Years In, Ten Years Out. St. Petersburg, 1999.

Reference: Галина Старовойтова: 100 фотографий: 10 лет полит. жизни. СПб., 2000; Галина: [Альбом]. СПб., 2001. O. V. Starovoytova . Sakharov Andrey Dmitrievich
Starovoytova Galina Vasilievna
Bolshaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 35
Griboedova Canal Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 91
State University, St. Petersburg
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography
Nikolskoe Cemetery