She was awarded the Carl von Ossietsky Prize for Contemporary History and Politics in 2014, and the Goethe Medal in 2017.

[2] She requested that the authorities resolve the cases of the crimes committed whilst Stalinism was in charge in Russia.

The judges chose her because of her campaign to study Russia's recent troubled history, and for encouraging German–Russian relations.

In 2019 she accused the Russian establishment of trying to rehabilitate Joseph Stalin as a national hero while forgetting his human rights abuses, which claimed millions of lives.

[5] In 2022, Memorial, Russia's most respected rights group, was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize less than a year after it was ordered to shut down during a wave of repression against critical voices.