Starovoitova, Galina Vasilievna

Galina Starovoitova was born on May 17, 1946 in Chelyabinsk . Parents - Vasily Stepanovich Starovoitov (1919-2002) and Rimma Yakovlevna Potapova (1923-2010). In 1948, with the return of the evacuated units of the Kirov Plant from Chelyabinsk, the family moved to Leningrad , where his father continued to work at the Kirov Plant. Over the years of work in Leningrad, Vasily Stepanovich became a doctor of sciences , the head of the All-Russian Research Institute of Heavy Engineering in Gorelov , and the winner of the Lenin Prize ^[2] .

In 1964, Starovoitova graduated from high school No. 397 of the Kirov region (since 2004 - gymnasium No. 397 named after G.V. Starovoitova, in Soviet times - named after S. M. Kirov) ^{[3] [4]} and entered the Leningrad Military however, after completing three courses, she entered the Faculty of Psychology of Leningrad State University named after A. A. Zhdanov , who graduated with honors in 1971.

In 1968-1971 she worked as an engineer-sociologist of the NGO Krasnaya Zarya in Leningrad. In 1972-1973 she worked as a senior engineer-sociologist at the Leningrad Central Research Institute of Shipbuilding Technology .

In 1973-1976, in graduate school of the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR ^[5] . She defended her thesis on the topic "Problems of Ethnosociology and Foreign Groups in the Modern City."

In 1977-1991, he was a research fellow, then a senior fellow at the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences , a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Interethnic Relations under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences . In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she participated as an ethnopsychologist and leader in the work of international expeditions that studied the phenomenon of longevity in Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh ^[6] . Since 1988, a member of the Moscow Tribune club.

In 1989, Starovoitova was nominated as a candidate for people's deputies of the USSR from Armenia . May 14, 1989 was elected by an overwhelming majority of voters, receiving 75.1% of the vote ^[5] . In 1989-1991, People's Deputy of the USSR .

Since 1990 - People's Deputy of the RSFSR , member of the RSFSR Supreme Council Committee on Human Rights.

From July 20, 1991 ^[7] to November 4, 1992 ^[8] - Advisor to the President of the RSFSR on issues of interethnic relations.

In October 1993, she headed the laboratory of ethno-political problems of the transition period at the Institute of Economic Problems of the Transition Period .

In 1995, she ran for the State Duma in the Northern single-mandate constituency No. 209 of St. Petersburg . Along with Lev Ponomarev and Gleb Yakunin, she headed the pre-election association “Democratic Russia - Free Trade Unions”. Having won the election, she became a deputy of the State Duma. Each time, running for parliament, she went to the polls in a single-mandate constituency , and never - on party lists.

On January 29, 1996, the Central Election Commission registered an initiative group of voters, which nominated Starovoitova as a candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation , but on April 26, 1996, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation refused Starovoitova registration.

Since January 1996, a member of the State Duma Committee on Public Associations and Religious Organizations. On January 7, 1996, almost at the age of 50, she was baptized in the church of Mikhail the Archangel in Troparyov ^[9] .

Since April 1998, the chairman of the federal party " Democratic Russia ". Co-chairman of the movement " Democratic Russia ". She headed the association “Northern Capital”, which was preparing for the elections to the Legislative Assembly in December 1998.

Over the years, taking part in many international conferences, symposia and discussions, she became widely known, met many prominent political figures of different countries - Margaret Thatcher , Jacques Chirac , Henry Kissinger , Lech Walesa , Vaclav Havel .

As a lawmaker, Starovoitova invariably had to face the resistance of an “aggressively obedient majority” blocking the adoption of important laws. In the State Duma of the second convocation, Starovoitova took an active part in the development of documents such as the Laws “On Employment in the Russian Federation”, “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions ”, “On the Rights of National Cultural Associations”, “On Alternative Civil Service ”, “About military duty and military service ”,“ On freedom of conscience and on religious associations ”,“ On the restoration and protection of the savings of citizens of the Russian Federation ”and many others.

Thanks to the perseverance of the deputy Starovoitova, an amendment to the state budget was adopted, namely, to the chapter “External Borrowings”, where it was supposed to allocateRAO SCM loan of $ 200 million against guarantees of the Government of the Russian Federation (subsequently, in the absence of funding, the activities of RAO SCM led only to St. Petersburg receiving the “most expensive hole” at the Moscow railway station ). Galina Starovoitova managed to get $ 50 million out of those 200 million to restore the St. Petersburg metro line that suffered from the erosion of the Kirov-Vyborg line . The fate of the remaining 150 million was not officially reported to the public.

Deputy Shortly after the murder of G.V. Starovoitova, the ZAKS of St. Petersburg, Alexei Kovalev suggested that it could be connected with the requirement that the then Governor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Yakovlev, would publicly report on the use of the multi-million dollar World Bank loan provided for the reconstruction of the center of St. Petersburg ^{[10] [11 ] [11 ] ] [12]} . Deputy Starovoitova organized together with Novaya Gazeta the action “Forgotten Regiment”, the heading of the same name in “NG” was led by her assistant Major Izmailov, it published data on the search and exchange of prisoners, the rescue of hostages. She actively supported the initiative of the Committee “Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg” and achieved the creation of an independent medical examination for draftees at the Ministry of Health . In the year of the death of Galina Starovoitova, at the evening of her memory, the former deputy of the RSFSR , people's artist Oleg Basilashvili said:

To the Law on Lustration

In post-communist Russia, attempts have been made to justify the need to bring to justice the organizers and conductors of the policy of totalitarianism . The essence of the proposals made was to limit the participation of these persons in socio-political life or to remove them from public and economic spheres that provide them with authority at any level. These proposals, however, did not receive public support and legislative drafting.

In December 1992, Starovoitova introduced to the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation a draft bill “On the prohibition of professions for policy makers of a totalitarian regime”. It proposed to subject professional restrictions to the workers of the CPSU office apparatus, full-time employees and agents of the Soviet and Russian special services . In 1997, Starovoitova repeatedly tried to submit this document to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, but the law was never adopted.

Long before her death, Starovoitova had concerns and forebodings: she received anonymous calls with threats to herself and her son, and even took measures to protect him. On November 20, her husband A. Volkov was embarrassed by a strange circumstance - Galina Vasilyevna unexpectedly and without explanation of reasons changed the time of departure from Moscow to St. Petersburg ^[9] .

On the evening of November 20, 1998, Starovoitova was killed in St. Petersburg, in the front door on 91 Griboedov Canal Embankment, near her apartment on the second floor. That evening, she flew to St. Petersburg from Moscow . At Pulkovo Airport, she was met by an assistant, 27-year-old Ruslan Linkov, with whom they stopped at Starovoitova’s parents and then went to her apartment. She worked with Linkov for 9 years ^[13] .

According to the investigation, the “authority” of the Bryansk organized crime group Sergey Musin ^{[14] was} waiting for the deputy at the airport, who let her know about the arrival of the benevolent prince Alexander Nevsky security company, former GRU warrant officer Yuri Kolchin , who was also not far from the airport. Further, Kolchin ordered the hired killers , members of the Tambov criminal group — Vitaly Akinshin and Oleg Fedosov — to wait and kill Starovoitova at her entrance. The investigation believes that it was they who shot the deputy from the Agram 2000 submachine gun and a home-made pistol based on the Beretta Gardone pistol. It is assumed that the deputy was shot by Oleg Fedosov, who put on a woman’s wig and dress before the murder — a seriously wounded Linkov, in a flash from the shots, managed to examine the face of one attacker and the silhouette of the second: a woman’s coat, straight hair to the shoulders ^{[14] [15]} .

Having received two gunshot wounds, Starovoitova died at the scene. Linkov received two serious gunshot wounds - in the spine and in the head, but survived. Subsequently, he was the main witness to the crime, but until a certain point the preliminary investigation, for reasons which were still unclear, was not very interested in his testimony (“He was questioned carefully, not displaying persistence usual in such cases” ^{[16] [17]} ). In the courtroom, several years after the crime, Linkov recognized the face of the killer and pointed to the court at Akinshin ^[14] .

On June 30, 2005, the city ​​court of St. Petersburg sentenced the participants in the murder - Yuri Kolchin (as an organizer) and Vitaly Akinshin (as an executor) - to 20 and 23.5 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony, according to one of the most serious articles of the Criminal Code - “Assault to the life of a statesman ”(207,“ Terrorism ”). Oleg Fedosov, declared wanted, disappeared without a trace; his whereabouts have not yet been established.

Later, already in the colony, Kolchin called the customer of the murder of his acquaintance, former State Duma deputy from the LDPR Mikhail Glushchenko , a member of the Tambov organized crime group under the nickname Misha Khokhol. However, the investigation could not find other evidence against Glushchenko then, and in March 2012 Glushchenko was sentenced to 8 years in a different case - extortion. Thus, directly the customers of the murder were not established ^{[18] [19] [20]} .

In August 2007, Linkov published the book Notes of the Defile, dedicated to the circumstances and versions of the crime ^[21] .

In the summer of 2009, after the detention of Glushchenko, the sister of the deceased Olga Starovoitova and R. Linkov wrote an open letter to the President of the Russian Federation D. Medvedev , in which he drew his attention to the unfinished criminal case and called for further investigation ^[22] . On October 26, 2011, the criminal case for the murder of Starovoitova was resumed ^[23] .

On March 16, 2012, the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg suspended an investigation into the murder of Starovoitova. As reported, the decision is "formal." The investigation suspended the case in order “not to delay the proceedings” ^[24] .

In March 2013, the public’s attention was again attracted to the murder of Starovoitova in connection with the activities of the Anti-Plagiarism Committee, sending deputy Ilya Ponomaryov to the prosecutor’s office ^[25] and publishing materials ^[26] on the dissertation of Vladimir Zhirinovsky ^{[27] [28] [29]} .

On November 8, 2013, in connection with newly discovered circumstances, the FSB indicted Starovoitova’s complicity and encroachment on the life of former deputy Mikhail Glushchenko, who had already been involved in the case ^[30] .

In April 2014, Glushchenko admitted that he was an accomplice in the murder of Starovoitova, and named the investigation the name of another alleged accomplice in the crime - Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin) ^[31] . In March 2015, Glushenko made a deal with the investigation, testified against the customers of the crime, which were confirmed by a polygraph test ^{[32] [33]} .

The Glushchenko Version, which was put forward shortly after Barsukov was acquitted by a jury on a different charge ^[34] , was attributed by some media to his former membership in the LDPR faction ^[35] . In April 2019, the charge of organizing a murder was brought against Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin) ^[36] .

Sister - Olga Starovoitova (b. July 9, 1948, Leningrad ), member of the International Union of Journalists, religious scholar , president of the public foundation "Museum of Galina Starovoitova" ^{[37] [38]} . Lives in St. Petersburg.

Galina Starovoitova was married twice.

• The first husband (from April 29, 1968 to 1989) was a philosopher, sociologist Mikhail Borschevsky (b. 1939), the author of several monographs, lives in the UK, and lectures in Oxford .
  • Son - Plato Borschevsky (b. October 22, 1969), lives in the UK, businessman, journalist, musicologist.
    • Grandson - Artyom ^[39] .
• Второй муж (с 22 мая 1996 года до конца жизни) — учёный Андрей Фёдорович Волков, с которым в январе 1999 года собиралась обвенчаться , но не успела ^{[9] [13]} .

Галина Старовойтова похоронена на Никольском кладбище Александро-Невской Лавры в Санкт-Петербурге.

Гимназия имени Старовойтовой

В 1964 году Г. В. Старовойтова окончила среднюю школу № 397 Кировского района . В 2004 году она была переименована в гимназию № 397 им. Г. В. Старовойтовой (в советское время — имени С. М. Кирова) ^[3] .

Именем Галины Старовойтовой была названа средняя общеобразовательная школа № 177 в Ереване (микрорайон Чаренц).

Памятник Старовойтовой в Санкт-Петербурге

17 мая 2006 года , в день шестидесятилетия Г. В. Старовойтовой, в центре Санкт-Петербурга на Суворовском проспекте (угол ул. Моисеенко) состоялось открытие памятника Галине Старовойтовой ^[40] в сквере, названном её именем.

Авторы памятника архитекторы В. С. Васильковский , Т. Н. Милорадович и скульптор народный художник академик АХ России Григорий Данилович Ястребенецкий ^[41] . Г.Ястребенецкий и архитекторы Т. Милорадович и В. Мельников являются авторами мемориальной доски, установленной ранее на доме, где жила Старовойтова, и где она была убита. Новый знак представляет собой четырёхгранный столб с барельефным портретом Старовойтовой. На обратной стороне написано: «Галина Васильевна Старовойтова — учёный, правозащитник, народный депутат СССР, РСФСР, депутат Госдумы РФ, советник Президента России, председатель партии „Демократическая Россия“. Погибла 20 ноября 1998 года в результате террористического акта от рук наёмных убийц.»

Стипендия имени Старовойтовой

Постановлением Правительства Санкт-Петербурга 22 мая 2007 года учреждена стипендия имени Галины Старовойтовой для студентов гуманитарных факультетов учреждений высшего профессионального образования ^[42] .

• 1993, США , награда Института Мира (Вашингтон) за вклад в укрепление мира ^[43]
• 1995, США, медаль Американской ассоциации эмигрантов за борьбу против фашизма
• 2009, Литва , Орден Креста Витиса третьей степени (Командорский крест) ^[44] (посмертно)

• Старовойтова, Г. Этническая группа в современном советском городе. — Л., Наука, 1987.
• Старовойтова, Г. Десять лет без права передышки. СПб., 1999
• Старовойтова, Г. Национальное самоопределение. СПб., 1999

• Г. В. Старовойтова
• G. Starovoitova. "National self-determination: approaches and case studies", M., 1999
• In Voronezh, they remembered Galina Starovoitova
• STAROVOYTOVA GALINA - publications about the investigation into the murder of Starovoitova , September 2009
• The convict in the case of the murder of Starovoitova was transferred to St. Petersburg , information on the case, RIA-NEWS, 10/19/2009
• Vladimir Voinovich . Anti-Soviet Soviet people. Galina Starovoitova: on the 15th anniversary of the death of Grani.ru, 11/19/2013