Resistance International was an international anti-communist organisation that existed between 1983 and 1988. It anticipated and embodied the so-called
Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was stated by United States President Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address on February 6, 1985: "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to ...
which took final shape in 1985. Resistance International was set up in France in May 1983 on the initiative of Soviet dissident
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Константи́нович Буко́вский; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Russian-born British human rights activist and writer. From the late 195 ...
and
Armando Valladares
Armando Valladares Perez (born May 30, 1937) is a Cuban-American poet, diplomat and former political prisoner for his involvement in the Cuban dissident movement.
In 1960, he was arrested by the Cuban government for conflicting reasons; the C ...
, a representative of the
Cuban dissident movement.
"Today few traces remain of the activities of Resistance International", writes Galina Akkerman in a memoir describing her work for writer
Vladimir Maximov at the organisation's "tiny office on the Champs Elysée" in Paris. "The internet was still unknown and to restore the history of this organisation I must turn to the few things I can recall".
[Galina Akkerman]
"Vladimir Maximov"
''Kontinent'', No 146, 2010. (in Russian)
Organisation
Vladimir Bukovsky was chosen president and the organisation was run by former Soviet dissidents. Everyday organisation was then in the hands of the executive director
Vladimir Maximov, writer and editor of the ''
Kontinent
''Kontinent'' was an émigré dissident journal which focused on the politics of the Soviet Union and its satellites. Founded in 1974 by writer Vladimir Maximov,Tatyana ShvetsovaAfter word to the epoch of Nikita Khrushchev
PAUL GRAY. THE SEVEN D ...
'' quarterly. Galina Akkerman describes how
Eduard Kuznetsov later took over part of Maximov's role and recalls the involvement of
Armand Maloumian Armand Maloumian (4 May 1928 – 24 June 2007 was a French Gulag prisoner in the Soviet Union and writer.
Maloumian was born in Marseilles, France, in 1928 into a family of Armenians who fled the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. In 1944 he ...
, a post-war inmate of Stalin's Gulag.
Among the members of the International's advisory committee were Cornelia Gerstenmaier, Lord
Nicholas Bethell
Nicholas William Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell (19 July 1938 – 8 September 2007) was a British politician. He was a historian of Central and Eastern Europe. He was also a translator and human rights activist. He sat in the House of Lords as a C ...
, Winston Churchill Jr,
Mstislav Rostropovich, and
Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration ...
. By 1986 they had been joined by
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...
,
Bruno Bettleheim,
Robert Conquest
George Robert Acworth Conquest (15 July 1917 – 3 August 2015) was a British historian and poet.
A long-time research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Conquest was most notable for his work on the Soviet Union. His books ...
and others.
Afghanistan, Angola and the USSR
The aim of the organisation was to coordinate the activities of anti-communist movements in the Socialist bloc and in the Third World and challenge the legitimacy of Communist governments everywhere. In a 1991 interview Bukovsky commented, "We didn't do that much, but the little we did all worked and had a considerable effect."
In particular Resistance International directed its efforts towards
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, where tens of thousands of Soviet troops had been based since the invasion of December 1979. The International organised Radio Free Kabul, providing 25 portable transmitters that served not only as a means of transmitting radio propaganda in local languages, but also as a means of communication between the mujahideen forces. Resistance International helped Soviet deserters and prisoners of war leave the country.
"Lord Bethell smuggles two soldiers out of Afghanistan", 11 November 1984, British Universities Film and Video Council
/ref> To spread information among Soviet forces serving in Afghanistan the organisation issued a newspaper that bore an external resemblance to Krasnaya Zvezda
''Krasnaya Zvezda'' (russian: Кра́сная звезда́, literally "Red Star") is the official newspaper of the Soviet and later Russian Ministry of Defence. Today its official designation is "Central Organ of the Russian Ministry of Defe ...
, the daily published by the Soviet Ministry of Defence.
Resistance International was also said to have carried out propaganda work among the Cuban troops deployed in Angola.
With the aid of the Solidarity movement in Poland, it sent propaganda videos to the USSR concealed in Polish trucks.
Activities in Europe
Between 1985 and 1987 Resistance International organised major events in Western Europe, two in Paris and one in Vienna, to draw attention to the lack of free speech and human rights in the Soviet Union.
The first event was timed to coincide with Mikhail Gorbachev's first visit to Paris in October 1985. As an alternative to the official events of the Soviet leader's visit a large gathering was held at the Grand Palais.[
The second event, an exhibition entitled a "Helsinki Mirror" and a press conference, took place in Vienna from 4 to 6 November 1986 as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) which produced the 1975 ]Helsinki Accords
The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, between ...
was transformed into the permanent Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, pro ...
(OSCE).[
The third and last major public event of Resistance International was the Paris Forum, "Literature without borders", held in November 1987 and organised jointly by the French , Resistance International and the Russian and French editions of the '']Kontinent
''Kontinent'' was an émigré dissident journal which focused on the politics of the Soviet Union and its satellites. Founded in 1974 by writer Vladimir Maximov,Tatyana ShvetsovaAfter word to the epoch of Nikita Khrushchev
PAUL GRAY. THE SEVEN D ...
'' quarterly. "Freedom of speech in the USSR and Eastern Europe", noted Galina Akkerman, "was something more people could agree on than aid for the Contras or the Afghan mujahideen," and forty famous writers attended, including Joseph Brodsky, Czeslaw Milosz and Georgy Vladimov
Georgi Nikolayevich Vladimov (russian: Гео́ргий Никола́евич Влади́мов; real family name Volosevich, russian: Волосевич; 19 February 1931, Kharkiv – 19 October 2003, Frankfurt) was a Russian dissident writer. ...
. This would prove, in Akkerman's words, to be the "swan song" of Resistance International. It closed down the following year.[
]
Funding public and private
Resistance International initially had funding from the US Congress (from which it received 6 million dollars in 1983) and from private American foundations. In 1985 the organisation was put on a more serious footing with the establishment of the American Foundation for Resistance International which had a roster of famous names and influential right-wing politicians on its advisory committee (among them Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...
, William F. Buckley Jr, and, later, Richard Perle
Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941) is an American political advisor who served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs under President Ronald Reagan. He began his political career as a senior staff member to ...
), while Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (née Jordan; November 19, 1926December 7, 2006) was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. An ardent anticommunist, she was a lo ...
served with Bukovsky and Albert Jolis
Albert Jolis (1912–2000) was an American diamond dealer, head of the international firm Diamond Distributors, Inc, and a fund-raising anti-communist, serving in the 1980s as board chairman of Resistance International.
World War II and its after ...
on its board. For the next three years this body raised funds for Resistance International and expanded the scope of its activities.
See also
* Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Константи́нович Буко́вский; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Russian-born British human rights activist and writer. From the late 195 ...
* Eduard Kuznetsov
* Albert Jolis
Albert Jolis (1912–2000) was an American diamond dealer, head of the international firm Diamond Distributors, Inc, and a fund-raising anti-communist, serving in the 1980s as board chairman of Resistance International.
World War II and its after ...
Notes
References
{{Reflist
Anti-communist organizations
Organizations based in Paris
Cold War