Human rights defender Nina Litvinova died by suicide because of repression and the war in Ukraine

Human rights defender Nina Litvinova died by suicide because of repression and the war in Ukraine

80-year-old human rights defender and dissident Nina Litvinova died by suicide on May 13, leaving a suicide note. Her cousin Masha Slonim published a fragment of that note on Facebook, since pro-government media had already written about it. "Putin killed her!" Slonim wrote about her relative.

"I have to go, life has become unbearable for me. Ever since Putin attacked Ukraine and has been killing innocent people, while here he endlessly throws thousands of people into prison, where they suffer and die for being, like me, against the war and against killing. I tried to help them, but my strength ran out and I suffer day and night from helplessness. I am ashamed, but I gave up. Please forgive me," Litvinova wrote.

▶️ What Nina Litvinova did

Nina Litvinova was the granddaughter of Maxim Litvinov, the USSR's People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the 1930s and ambassador to the United States during World War II, and the sister of Soviet dissident Pavel Litvinov, who took part in the August 25, 1968 demonstration against the entry of troops into Czechoslovakia.

In the Soviet era, Litvinova worked at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; from the 1960s onward, she distributed samizdat and helped dissidents.

In the last years of her life, Litvinova supported political prisoners at court hearings. For example, she traveled to Petrozavodsk for the trials of historian Yury Dmitriyev, attended hearings in the cases of Memorial co-chair Oleg Orlov and director Yevgenia Berkovich, and also helped many lesser-known political prisoners.

"Nina Litvinova embodied modest but unbending courage and nobility. She was always there where the pain was greatest. The best way to honor her memory will be to continue her work," Memorial writes in its obituary.

Nina Litvinova / Photo: Darya Kornilova