Nationality Armenian-Ukrainian | Children Timofey Grigoryants | |
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Native name Сергей Иванович Григорьянц (Сергій Іванович Григорьянц) Born May 12, 1941 (age 75) ( 1941-05-12 ) Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Citizenship Soviet Union (1941–1991) → Russia (1991–present) Occupation aerospace engineering, journalism, literary criticism, human rights activism, publishing Known for publishing Glasnost magazine, chairing the Glasnost Defense Foundation Movement dissident movement in the Soviet Union Award World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award Alma maters Moscow State University, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Riga Civil Aviation Engineers Institute | ||
Sergei Ivanovich Grigoryants (Russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Григорья́нц, Ukrainian: Сергі́й Іва́нович Григорья́нц, born 12 May 1941, Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Soviet dissident and former political prisoner, journalist, literary critic, chairman of the Glasnost Defense Foundation. He was imprisoned for 10 years in Chistopol jail as a political prisoner for anti-Soviet activities, from 1975 to 1980 and then four more years starting in 1983 on similar charges.
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Biography
Sergei Grigoryants is of Armenian-Ukrainian descent. He studied at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, the faculty of journalism at the Moscow State University and the Riga Civil Aviation Engineers Institute.
In 1975, Grigoryants was arrested by the KGB and sentenced to five years in prison for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.
After his release in 1982, he circulated in samizdat information on human rights violations in the Soviet Union as editor of the periodical Bulletin V. For this activity, he was again arrested in 1984 and sentenced to ten years of strict regime labor camp.
After the beginning of Gorbachev's perestroika he was released in 1987 under an amnesty. He immediately resumed his human rights activities and proceeded to publish Glasnost magazine, criticizing the communist system.
In May 1989 Grigoryants created and headed the union of independent journalists, which included a number of journalists representing independent (samizdat) printed in the USSR.
In 1989, Grigoryants was awarded Golden Pen of Freedom Award of the World Association of Newspapers.
In the 1990s he regularly voiced his demands for lustration, filed a lawsuit against the KGB, demanded to return his confiscated archive.
Sergey Grigoryants is in opposition to Putin's policies, in particular, he expressed protests against the infringement of democratic freedoms in Russia and criticized the government for the war in Chechnya.