The historian, social activist, the founder, president and former rector of the Russian State University for Humanities (RSUH), Yuri Afanasiev, has died at the age of 82 in Moscow, his son-in-law Victor Prichesnyaev said.
Afanasiev was behind the creation of the Democratic Russia movement, he was a member of the Interregional Deputy Group. He was called "the foreman of perestroika", but in 1993 Afanasiev announced his retirement from politics, TASS reports.
