Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articlesavailable from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Sofiya VasilyevnaKalistratova, or Kallistratova was a public defense lawyer in the SovietUnion. She defended various Soviet dissidents and from 1977 was a memberof the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), distributing information about humanrights violations in the Soviet Union. Born in the town of Rylsk, shegraduated from the Moscow State University, specializing in the field oflaw. Unable to find a position in prosecutor's office, she began heractivity as public defender at the Moscow College of Advocates.According to rumors, in the 1960s, the officer who was issuing her witha new passport, misspelled the last name 'Kallistratova' as'Kalistratova'.