When she became an adult, a tragedy happened: her mother was branded a "class enemy" in the 1970s in response to her record of speaking out in support of Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Andrei Sakharov. For her dissent she was briefly committed to a mental institution. She became a permanent invalid. After leaving school Anita attended the teacher training college, then law school at Moscow State University, where she met her husband Sergey P. Tsoy.