Author and publisher Valery Nikolaevich Chalidze (Russian: Вале́рий Никола́евич Чали́дзе; Georgian: ვალერი ჭალიძე: 25 November 1938 – 3 January 2018) was a Soviet dissident and human rights activist, deprived of his USSR citizenship in 1972 while on a visit to the US.

Set up and edited by Chalidze, it covered a range of themes in the humanities and social sciences, including both original articles and translated work.

[3] As part of his publishing activities Chalidze became adept at mending mechanical typewriters, the essential tool of samizdat publication and distribution.

Chalidze wielded Soviet law in defense of many different people, including Crimean Tatars, students, Jews, Orthodox Christians, political prisoners, Baptists, and Muslims.

It was a stance that concerned some of his colleagues, and led to an attempt by the Soviet regime to discredit him among the wider population by suggesting (wrongly) that he was himself gay—an assertion that could have paved the way for criminal prosecution of him.

The following month Newsweek, the US weekly magazine, published Chalidze's replies to questions from its Moscow correspondent about the Committee's aims and the prospects for its future activities.

His wife Vera Slonim, a cousin of Pavel Litvinov, remained with him in the United States for a short time, retaining her Soviet citizenship.

Based in New York, its purpose was to publish Russian-language books and important Soviet periodicals as the Chronicle of Current Events (April 1968-July 1982).

Among the books issued by Chalidze Publications were original memoirs of historically important figures (such as Nikita Khrushchev), memoirs of Soviet dissidents whose work was banned in their home country, Russian translations of classic Western works of political philosophy, and original analyses of social problems.

[citation needed] With the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader, Chalidze continued to participate in the effort to promote democracy in his native country.

[citation needed] At the request of the U.S. Administration, Chalidze Publications also organized and published the first-ever Russian translation of The Federalist Papers (1788).

Gorbachev and Yeltsin both quoted from The American Federalists in their historic debates in the Russian parliament after August 1991 during the final months of the Soviet Union.

His sister Francheska, sacked from her job as a scientist in retribution for her brother's dissident activities, emigrated to the US and settled in San Diego.