Dissident movement in the Soviet Union
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Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of
Soviet ideology The ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was Bolshevist Marxism–Leninism, an ideology of a centralised command economy with a vanguardist one-party state to realise the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviet Union' ...
or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until the fall of communism.Chronicle of Current Events (samizdat)
It was used to refer to small groups of
marginalized Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...
intellectuals whose challenges, from modest to radical to the Soviet regime, met protection and encouragement from correspondents and typically criminal prosecution or other forms of silencing by the authorities. Following the etymology of the term, a dissident is considered to "sit apart" from the regime. As dissenters began self-identifying as ''dissidents'', the term came to refer to an individual whose non-conformism was perceived to be for the good of a society.Universal Declaration of Human Rights
General Assembly resolution 217 A (III), United Nations, 10 December 1948
Proclamation of Tehran, Final Act of the International Conference on Human Rights, Teheran, 22 April to 13 May 1968, U.N. Doc. A/CONF. 32/41 at 3 (1968)
United Nations, May 1968
CONFERENCE ON SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE FINAL ACT. Helsinki, 1 aug. 1975
The most influential subset of the dissidents is known as the Soviet human rights movement. Political opposition in the USSR was barely visible and, with rare exceptions, of little consequence, primarily because it was instantly crushed with brute force. Instead, an important element of dissident activity in the Soviet Union was informing society (both inside the Soviet Union and in foreign countries) about violation of laws and human rights and organizing in defense of those rights. Over time, the dissident movement created vivid awareness of Soviet Communist abuses. Soviet dissidents who criticized the state in most cases faced legal sanctions under the Soviet Criminal Code and the choice between
exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
abroad (with revocation of their Soviet citizenship), the mental hospital, or the
labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
. Anti-Soviet political behavior, in particular, being outspoken in opposition to the authorities, demonstrating for reform, writing books critical of the USSR were defined in some persons as being simultaneously a criminal act (e.g., violation of Articles 70 or 190-1), a symptom (e.g., "delusion of reformism"), and a diagnosis (e.g., " sluggish schizophrenia").


The 1950s–1960s

In the 1950s, Soviet dissidents started leaking criticism to the West by sending documents and statements to foreign diplomatic missions in Moscow. In the 1960s, Soviet dissidents frequently declared that the rights the government of the Soviet Union denied them were universal rights, possessed by everyone regardless of race, religion and nationality. In August 1969, for instance, the
Initiating Group for Defense of Civil Rights in the USSR The Initiative or Action Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR (russian: Инициати́вная гру́ппа по защи́те прав челове́ка в СССР) was the first civic organization of the Soviet human right ...
appealed to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to defend the human rights being trampled on by Soviet authorities in a number of trials. Some of the major milestones of the dissident movement of the 1960s included: * Public readings of poetry at the Mayakovsky Square in downtown Moscow, where some of the underground writings critical of the system were often circulated; some of these public readings were dispersed by the police; * The trial of poet Iosif Brodsky (later known as
Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
, the future winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature) who was charged with 'parasitism' for not being officially employed and sentenced in 1963 to internal exile; he gained widespread sympathy and support in dissident and semi-dissident circles, mostly through the notes from his trial compiled by Frida Vigdorova * The trial and sentencing of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel who were arrested in 1965 for publishing their co-authored work abroad under pennames and sentenced to labor camp and internal exile; opposition to this trial led to a campaign of petitions for their release that was signed by thousands of people, many of whom went on to participate more actively in the dissident movement * Silent demonstrations on Moscow's Pushkin Square initiated by
Alexander Yesenin-Volpin Alexander Sergeyevich Esenin-Volpin (also written Ésénine-Volpine and Yessenin-Volpin in his French and English publications; russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Есе́нин-Во́льпин, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪ ...
on the Soviet Constitution Day of Dec. 5, 1965, with posters urging the authorities to observe their own Constitution * Petitioning campaigns against the downplaying of Stalin's terror after the removal of Nikita Khrushchev and the resurgence of the cult of Stalin's personality in parts of the Soviet government bureaucracy * The launch, in April 1968, of the underground periodical, ' Chronicle of Current Events', documenting violations of human rights and protest activities across the Soviet Union * The publication in the West of Andrei Sakharov's first political essay 'Reflections on Progress and Intellectual Freedom' in the spring and summer of 1968 * The rally of protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia to suppress ' the Prague Spring'; was held on August 25, 1968 on Moscow's Red Square by eight dissidents including Viktor Fainberg, Natalya Gorbanevskaya,
Pavel Litvinov Pavel Mikhailovich Litvinov (russian: Па́вел Миха́йлович Литви́нов; born 6 July 1940) is a Russian-born U.S. physicist, writer, teacher, human rights activist and former Soviet-era dissident. Biography The grandson of ...
, Vladimir Dremlyuga, and others * The founding of the Initiative on Human Rights in 1969


The 1970s

Our history shows that most of the people can be fooled for a very long time. But now all this idiocy is coming into clear contradiction with the fact that we have some level of openness. (
Vladimir Voinovich Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Войно́вич, 26 September 1932 – 27 July 2018), was a Russian writer and former Soviet dissident, and the "first genuine comic writer" produced by the S ...
)
The heyday of the dissenters as a presence in the Western public life was the 1970s. The Helsinki Accords inspired dissidents in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland to openly protest human rights failures by their own governments. The Soviet dissidents demanded that the Soviet authorities implement their own commitments proceeding from the Helsinki Agreement with the same zeal and in the same way as formerly the outspoken legalists expected the Soviet authorities to adhere strictly to the letter of their constitution. Dissident Russian and East European intellectuals who urged compliance with the Helsinki accords have been subjected to official repression. According to Soviet dissident Leonid Plyushch, Moscow has taken advantage of the Helsinki security pact to improve its economy while increasing the suppression of political dissenters. 50 members of Soviet Helsinki Groups were imprisoned. Cases of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union were divulged by
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
in 1975 and by The Committee for the Defense of Soviet Political Prisoners in 1975 and 1976. US President Jimmy Carter in his inaugural address on 20 January 1977 announced that human rights would be central to foreign policy during his administration. In February, Carter sent Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov a letter expressing his support for the latter's stance on human rights. In the wake of Carter's letter to Sakharov, the USSR cautioned against attempts "to interfere' in its affairs under "a thought-up pretext of 'defending human rights.'" Because of Carter's open show of support for Soviet dissidents, the KGB was able to link dissent with American imperialism through suggesting that such protest is a cover for
American espionage in the Soviet Union The United States of America has conducted espionage against the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation. Soviet Union Throughout the Cold War, acts of espionage, or spying, became prevalent as tension between the United ...
. The KGB head Yuri Andropov determined, "The need has thus emerged to terminate the actions of
Orlov Orlov may refer to: Places *Orlov, Russia (''Orlova''), several inhabited localities in Russia *Orlov, Stará Ľubovňa District, village in Eastern Slovakia *Orlová, a town in Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic People *Orlov (family) ...
, fellow Helsinki monitor Ginzburg and others once and for all, on the basis of existing law." According to Dmitri Volkogonov and Harold Shukman, it was Andropov who approved the numerous trials of human rights activists such as
Andrei Amalrik Andrei Alekseevich Amalrik (russian: Андре́й Алексе́евич Ама́льрик, 12 May 1938, Moscow – 12 November 1980, Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain), alternatively spelled ''Andrei'' or ''Andrey'', was a Russian writer ...
, Vladimir Bukovsky, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Alexander Ginzburg, Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Pyotr Grigorenko,
Anatoly Shcharansky Natan Sharansky ( he, נתן שרנסקי; russian: Ната́н Щара́нский; uk, Натан Щаранський, born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky on 20 January 1948); uk, Анатолій Борисович Щаранський, ...
, and others.
If we accept human rights violations as just "their way" of doing things, then we are ''all'' guilty. ( Andrei Sakharov)
Voluntary and involuntary emigration allowed the authorities to rid themselves of many political active intellectuals including writers Valentin Turchin,
Georgi 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. ...
,
Vladimir Voinovich Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Войно́вич, 26 September 1932 – 27 July 2018), was a Russian writer and former Soviet dissident, and the "first genuine comic writer" produced by the S ...
, Lev Kopelev, Vladimir Maximov,
Naum Korzhavin Nahum (Naum) Moiseyevich Korzhavin (russian: Нау́м Моисе́евич Коржа́вин; real surname Mandel, russian: Мандель; 14 October 1925 – 22 June 2018) was a Russian poet of Jewish descent, a dissident and emigrant who m ...
, Vasily Aksyonov, psychiatrist Marina Voikhanskaya and others. '' A Chronicle of Current Events'' covered 424 political trials, in which 753 people were convicted, and no one of the accused was acquitted; in addition, 164 people were declared insane and sent to compulsory treatment in a psychiatric hospital. According to Soviet dissidents and Western critics, the KGB had routinely sent dissenters to psychiatrists for diagnosing to avoid embarrassing public trials and to discredit dissidence as the product of ill minds. On the grounds that political dissenters in the Soviet Union were psychotic and deluded, they were locked away in psychiatric hospitals and treated with neuroleptics. Confinement of political dissenters in psychiatric institutions had become a common practice. That technique could be called the "medicalization" of dissidence or psychiatric terror, the now familiar form of repression applied in the Soviet Union to Leonid Plyushch, Pyotr Grigorenko, and many others. Finally, many persons at that time tended to believe that dissidents were abnormal people whose commitment to mental hospitals was quite justified. In the opinion of the Moscow Helsinki Group chairwoman Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the attribution of a mental illness to a prominent figure who came out with a political declaration or action is the most significant factor in the assessment of psychiatry during the 1960–1980s. At that time Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky wrote ''A New Mental Illness in the USSR: The Opposition'' published in French, German, Italian, Spanish and (coauthored with Semyon Gluzman) ''A Manual on Psychiatry for Dissidents'' published in Russian, English, French, Italian, German, Danish.


Repression of the Helsinki Watch Groups

In 1977-1979 and again in 1980-1982, the KGB reacted to the Helsinki Watch Groups in Moscow, Kiev, Vilnius, Tbilisi, and Erevan by launching large-scale arrests and sentencing its members to in prison, labor camp, internal exile and psychiatric imprisonment. From the members of the Moscow Helsinki Group, 1978 saw its members Yuri Orlov,
Vladimir Slepak Vladimir Semyonovich Slepak (russian: Влади́мир Семёнович Слепа́к; 29 October 1927 – 24 April 2015) was a Soviet dissident, refusenik, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Along with his wife Mariya Slepak (née Rashko ...
and
Anatoly Shcharansky Natan Sharansky ( he, נתן שרנסקי; russian: Ната́н Щара́нский; uk, Натан Щаранський, born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky on 20 January 1948); uk, Анатолій Борисович Щаранський, ...
sentenced to lengthy labor camp terms and internal exile for "
anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (ASA) (russian: антисове́тская агита́ция и пропага́нда (АСА)) was a criminal offence in the Soviet Union. To begin with the term was interchangeably used with counter-revolu ...
" and treason. Another wave of arrests followed in the early 1980s: Malva Landa,
Viktor Nekipelov Viktor Aleksandrovich Nekipelov (russian: Ви́ктор Алекса́ндрович Некипе́лов, 29 September 1928 – 1 July 1989) was a Soviet Russian poet, writer, Soviet dissident, and a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. He spe ...
, Leonard Ternovsky, Feliks Serebrov, Tatiana Osipova, Anatoly Marchenko, and Ivan Kovalev. Soviet authorities offered some activists the "opportunity" to emigrate. Lyudmila Alexeyeva emigrated in 1977. The Moscow Helsinki Group founding members Mikhail Bernshtam, Alexander Korchak, Vitaly Rubin also emigrated, and Pyotr Grigorenko was stripped of his Soviet citizenship while seeking medical treatment abroad. The Ukrainian Helsinki Group suffered severe repressions throughout 1977-1982, with at times multiple labor camp sentences handed out to
Mykola Rudenko Mykola Danylovych Rudenko ( uk, Мико́ла Дани́лович Руде́нко; 19 December 1920, Yurivka, Luhansk Oblast, Yurivka, Donets Governorate, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR – 1 April 2004, Kyiv) was a Ukrai ...
, Oleksy Tykhy,
Myroslav Marynovych Myroslav Frankovych Marynovych ( uk, Миросла́в Фра́нкович Марино́вич, born 4 January 1949, Komarovychi, Staryi Sambir Raion) is a vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, social activist, co-founder of ...
, Mykola Matusevych, Levko Lukyanenko, Oles Berdnyk,
Mykola Horbal Mykola Andriyovych Horbal ( uk, Мико́ла Андрі́йович Го́рбаль; born September 10, 1940) is a well-known Ukrainian dissident, human right activist, member of parliament of Ukraine, poet, and member of the Ukrainian Helsink ...
, Zinovy Krasivsky, Vitaly Kalynychenko, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Olha Heyko, Vasyl Stus, Oksana Meshko, Ivan Sokulsky,
Ivan Kandyba Ivan Kandyba ( uk, Іван Кандиба) (June 7, 1930 - Nov. 8, 2002), was a Ukrainian lawyer, who achieved most fame by being a founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. Early life Ivan Kandyba was born into a Ukrainian peasant family ...
, Petro Rozumny, Vasyl Striltsiv,
Yaroslav Lesiv Yaroslav Vasylyovych Lesiv ( uk, Яросла́в Васи́льович Ле́сів, 3 January 1945, Luzhki, Dolyna Raion – 10 October 1991, Bolekhiv) was a Ukrainian poet, priest, and member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. Yaroslav Lesiv was ...
, Vasyl Sichko, Yuri Lytvyn, Petro Sichko. By 1983 the Ukrainian Helsinki Group had 37 members, of whom 22 were in prison camps, 5 were in exile, 6 emigrated to the West, 3 were released and were living in Ukraine, 1 ( Mykhailo Melnyk) committed suicide. The
Lithuanian Helsinki Group The Lithuanian Helsinki Group (full name: the Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords in Lithuania; lt, Helsinkio susitarimų vykdymui remti Lietuvos visuomeninė grupė) was a dissident organization active in the Lithua ...
saw its members subjected to two waves of imprisonment for anti-Soviet activities and "organization of religious processions": Viktoras Petkus was sentenced in 1978; others followed in 1980-1981: Algirdas Statkevičius, Vytautas Skuodys, Mečislovas Jurevičius, and Vytautas Vaičiūnas.


Currents of dissidence


Civil and human rights movement

Starting in the 1960s, the early years of the Brezhnev stagnation, dissidents in the Soviet Union increasingly turned their attention towards civil and eventually human rights concerns. The fight for civil and human rights focused on issues of freedom of expression,
freedom of conscience Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints. Overview Every person attempts to have a cognitive proficiency by ...
, freedom to emigrate,
punitive psychiatry Political abuse of psychiatry, also commonly referred to as punitive psychiatry, is the misuse of psychiatry, including diagnosis, detention, and treatment, for the purposes of obstructing the human rights of individuals and/or groups in a society ...
, and the plight of political prisoners. It was characterized by a new openness of dissent, a concern for legality, the rejection of any 'underground' and violent struggle. Throughout the 1960s-1980s, those active in the civil and human rights movement engaged in a variety of activities: The documentation of political repression and rights violations in samizdat (unsanctioned press); individual and collective protest letters and petitions; unsanctioned demonstrations; mutual aid for prisoners of conscience; and, most prominently, civic watch groups appealing to the international community. Repercussions for these activities ranged from dismissal from work and studies to many years of imprisonment in
labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
s and being subjected to
punitive psychiatry Political abuse of psychiatry, also commonly referred to as punitive psychiatry, is the misuse of psychiatry, including diagnosis, detention, and treatment, for the purposes of obstructing the human rights of individuals and/or groups in a society ...
. Dissidents active in the movement in the 1960s introduced a "legalist" approach of avoiding moral and political commentary in favor of close attention to legal and procedural issues. Following several landmark political trials, coverage of arrests and trials in samizdat became more common. This activity eventually led to the founding of the '' Chronicle of Current Events'' in April 1968. The unofficial newsletter reported violations of civil rights and judicial procedure by the Soviet government and responses to those violations by citizens across the USSR. During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the rights-based strategy of dissent incorporated human rights ideas and rhetoric. The movement included figures such as
Valery Chalidze Author and publisher Valery Nikolaevich Chalidze (russian: Вале́рий Никола́евич Чали́дзе; ka, ვალერი ჭალიძე: 25 November 1938 – 3 January 2018) was a Soviet dissident and human rights activis ...
, Yuri Orlov, and Lyudmila Alexeyeva. Special groups were founded such as the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR (1969) and the
Committee on Human Rights in the USSR The Committee on Human Rights in the USSR (russian: Комите́т прав челове́ка в СССР) was founded in 1970 by dissident Valery Chalidze together with Andrei Sakharov and Andrei Tverdokhlebov. Members Valery Chalidze was a ...
(1970). The signing of the Helsinki Accords (1975) containing human rights clauses provided rights campaigners with a new hope to use international instruments. This led to the creation of dedicated
Helsinki Watch Group Helsinki Watch was a private American non-governmental organization established by Robert L. Bernstein in 1978, designed to monitor the former Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Expanding in size and scope, Helsinki Watch b ...
s in Moscow ( Moscow Helsinki Group), Kiev ( Ukrainian Helsinki Group), Vilnius (
Lithuanian Helsinki Group The Lithuanian Helsinki Group (full name: the Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords in Lithuania; lt, Helsinkio susitarimų vykdymui remti Lietuvos visuomeninė grupė) was a dissident organization active in the Lithua ...
), Tbilisi, and Erevan (1976–77). The civil and human rights initiatives played a significant role in providing a common language for Soviet dissidents with varying concerns, and became a common cause for social groups in the dissident milieu ranging from activists in the youth subculture to academics such as Andrei Sakharov. Due to the contacts with Western journalists as well as the political focus during détente ( Helsinki Accords), those active in the human rights movement were among those most visible in the West (next to refuseniks).


Movements of deported nations

Several national or ethnic groups who had been deported under Stalin formed movements to return to their homelands. In particular, the Crimean Tatars aimed to return to Crimea, the
Meskhetian Turks Meskhetian Turks, also referred to as Turkish Meskhetians, Ahiska Turks, and Turkish Ahiskans, ( ka, მესხეთის თურქები ''Meskhetis turk'ebi'') are an ethnic subgroup of Turks formerly inhabiting the Meskheti regio ...
to South Georgia and ethnic Germans aimed to resettle along the Volga River near
Saratov Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...
. The Crimean Tatar movement takes a prominent place among the movement of deported nations. The Tatars had been refused the right to return to the Crimea, even though the laws justifying their deportation had been overturned. Their first collective letter calling for the restoration dates to 1957. In the early 1960s, the Crimean Tatars had begun to establish initiative groups in the places where they had been forcibly resettled. Led by Mustafa Dzhemilev, they founded their own democratic and decentralized organization, considered unique in the history of independent movements in the Soviet Union.


Emigration movements

The emigration movements in the Soviet Union included the movement of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel and of the Volga Germans to emigrate to West Germany. Soviet Jews were routinely denied permission to emigrate by the authorities of the former Soviet Union and other countries of the
Eastern bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
. A movement for the right to emigrate formed in the 1960s, which also gave rise to a revival of interest in Jewish culture. The refusenik cause gathered considerable attention in the West. Citizens of German origin who lived in the
Baltic states The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...
prior to their annexation in 1940 and descendants of the eighteenth-century Volga German settlers also formed a movement to leave the Soviet Union. In 1972, the West German government entered an agreement with the Soviet authorities which permitted between 6000 and 8000 people to emigrate to West Germany every year for the rest of the decade. As a result, almost 70000 ethnic Germans had left the Soviet Union by the mid-1980s. Similarly, Armenians achieved a small emigration. By the mid-1980s, over 15000 Armenians had emigrated. Russia has changed in the recent years largely in the social, economic, and political spheres. Migrations from Russian have become less forceful and primarily a result of free will that is expressed by the individual.


Religious movements

The religious movements in the USSR included Russian Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant movements. They focused on the freedom to practice their faith and resistance to interference by the state in their internal affairs. The Russian Orthodox movement remained relatively small. The Catholic movement in Lithuania was part of the larger Lithuanian national movement. Protestant groups which opposed the anti-religious state directives included the
Baptists Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
, the Seventh-day Adventists, and the Pentecostals. Similar to the Jewish and German dissident movements, many in the independent Pentecostal movement pursued emigration.


National movements

The national movements included the Russian national dissidents as well as dissident movements from Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, and Armenia. Among the nations that lived in their own territories with the status of republics within the Soviet Union, the first movement to emerge in the 1960s was the Ukrainian movement. Its aspiration was to resist the Russification of Ukraine and to insist on equal rights and democratization for the republic. In Lithuania, the national movement of the 1970s was closely linked to the Catholic movement.


Literary and cultural

Several landmark examples of dissenting writers played a significant role for the wider dissident movement. These include the persecutions of
Osip Mandelshtam Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam ( rus, Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам, p=ˈosʲɪp ɨˈmʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian Empire, Russian and Soviet Union, Soviet poet. He was one of t ...
,
Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...
,
Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...
, and
Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
, as well as the publication of '' The Gulag Archipelago'' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. In literary world, there were dozens of literati who participated in dissident movement, including Vasily Aksyonov, Arkadiy Belinkov,
Leonid Borodin Leonid Ivanovich Borodin (russian: Леони́д Ива́нович Бороди́н; 14 April 1938, in Irkutsk – 24 November 2011, in Moscow) was a Russian people, Russian novelist and journalist. Biography Born in Irkutsk, Borodin was a Rus ...
,
Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
,
Georgi 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. ...
,
Vladimir Voinovich Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Войно́вич, 26 September 1932 – 27 July 2018), was a Russian writer and former Soviet dissident, and the "first genuine comic writer" produced by the S ...
, Aleksandr Galich,
Venedikt Yerofeyev Venedikt Vasilyevich Yerofeyev, also Benedict Erofeev or Erofeyev (russian: Венеди́кт Васи́льевич Ерофе́ев; 24 October 1938 in Niva-3 settlement, suburb of Kandalaksha – 11 May 1990 in Moscow) was a Russian writer a ...
, Alexander Zinoviev, Lev Kopelev,
Naum Korzhavin Nahum (Naum) Moiseyevich Korzhavin (russian: Нау́м Моисе́евич Коржа́вин; real surname Mandel, russian: Мандель; 14 October 1925 – 22 June 2018) was a Russian poet of Jewish descent, a dissident and emigrant who m ...
, Vladimir Maximov,
Viktor Nekrasov Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov (russian: Ви́ктор Плато́нович Некра́сов, ) (17 June 1911, Kyiv – 3 September 1987, Paris) was a Russian writer, journalist and editor. Biography Nekrasov was born in Kyiv and graduated ...
, Andrei Sinyavsky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Varlam Shalamov. In the early Soviet Union, non-conforming academics were exiled via so-called Philosophers' ships. Later, figures such as cultural theorist Grigori Pomerants were among active dissidents. Other intersections of cultural and literary nonconformism with dissidents include the wide field of
Soviet Nonconformist Art The term Soviet Nonconformist Art refers to Soviet art produced in the former Soviet Union from 1953 to 1986 (after the death of Joseph Stalin until the advent of Perestroika and Glasnost) outside of the rubric of Socialist Realism. Other terms u ...
, such as the painters of the underground Lianozovo group, and artists active in the "Second Culture".


Other groups

Other groups included the Socialists, the movements for socioeconomic rights (especially the independent unions), as well as women's, environmental, and peace movements.


Dissidents and the Cold War

Responding to the issue of refuseniks in the Soviet Union, the United States Congress passed the Jackson–Vanik amendment in 1974. The provision in United States federal law intended to affect U.S. trade relations with countries of the
Communist bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
that restrict freedom of emigration and other human rights. The eight member countries of the Warsaw Pact signed the
Helsinki Final Act 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 ...
in August 1975. The "third basket" of the Act included extensive human rights clauses. When Jimmy Carter entered office in 1976, he broadened his advisory circle to include critics of US–Soviet détente. He voiced support for the Czech dissident movement known as Charter 77, and publicly expressed concern about the Soviet treatment of dissidents
Aleksandr Ginzburg Alexander "Alik" Ilyich Ginzburg ( rus, Алекса́ндр Ильи́ч Ги́нзбург, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ɨˈlʲjidʑ ˈɡʲinzbʊrk, a=Alyeksandr Il'yich Ginzburg.ru.vorb.oga; 21 November 1936 – 19 July 2002), was a Russian journalist ...
and Andrei Sakharov. In 1977, Carter received prominent dissident Vladimir Bukovsky in the White House, asserting that he did not intend "to be timid" in his support of human rights. In 1979, the US Helsinki Watch Committee was established, funded by the Ford Foundation. Founded after the example of the Moscow Helsinki Group and similar watch groups in the Soviet bloc, it also aimed to monitor compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords and to provide moral support for those struggling for that objective inside the Soviet bloc. It acted as a conduit for information on repression in the Soviet Union, and lobbied policy-makers in the United States to continue to press the issue with Soviet leaders. US President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
attributed to the view that the "brutal treatment of Soviet dissidents was due to bureaucratic inertia." On 14 November 1988, he held a meeting with Andrei Sakharov at the White House and said that Soviet human rights abuses are impeding progress and would continue to do so until the problem is "completely eliminated." Whether talking to about one hundred dissidents in a broadcast to the Soviet people or at the U.S. Embassy, Reagan's agenda was one of freedom to travel, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.


Dissidents about their dissent

Andrei Sakharov said, "Everyone wants to have a job, be married, have children, be happy, but dissidents must be prepared to see their lives destroyed and those dear to them hurt. When I look at my situation and my family's situation and that of my country, I realize that things are getting steadily worse." Fellow dissident and one of the founders of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva wrote: According to Soviet dissident Victor Davydoff, totalitarian system has no mechanisms that could change the behavior of the ruling group from within. Any attempts to change this are immediately suppressed through repression. Dissidents appealed to international human rights organizations, foreign governments, and there was a result.


See also

* '' A Chronicle of Current Events'' *
Anarchism in Russia Anarchism in Russia has its roots in the early mutual aid systems of the medieval republics and later in the popular resistance to the Tsarist autocracy and serfdom. Through the history of radicalism during the early 19th-century, anarchism de ...
*
Anti-Leninism Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishme ...
*
Anti-Stalinist left The anti-Stalinist left is an umbrella term for various kinds of left-wing political movements that opposed Joseph Stalin, Stalinism and the actual system of governance Stalin implemented as leader of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953. Th ...
* '' Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania'' *
Dissident movement in the People's Republic of Poland The dissident movement in the Polish People's Republic was a political movement in the Polish People's Republic (predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland, Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) whose aim was to change the political system fr ...
* Dubravlag *
Human rights movement in the Soviet Union In the 1980s a human rights movement began to emerge in the USSR. Those actively involved did not share a single set of beliefs. Many wanted a variety of civil rights — freedom of expression, of religious belief, of national self-determination. T ...
* Left communism *
Perm-36 Perm-36 (also known as ITK-6) was a Soviet forced labor colony located near the village of Kuchino, 100 km (60 miles) northeast of the city of Perm in Russia. It was part of the large prison camp system established by the former Sov ...
* ''
Parallels, Events, People ''Parallels, Events, People'' (russian: Паралле́ли, собы́тия, лю́ди) is documentary series on the Soviet dissident movement and 2011–13 Russian protests. ''Parallels, Events, People'' is produced by Natella Boltyanskaya ...
'' (36 parts) – 2013 documentary by
Natella Boltyanskaya Natella Savelievna Boltyanskaya (russian: link=no, Нате́лла Саве́льевна Болтя́нская (Киперма́н), born 20 May 1965, Moscow) is a Russian journalist, singer-songwriter, poet and ex-radio host on Echo of Moscow ...
* '' Refusenik'' – 2007 documentary by
Laura Bialis Laura Bialis is an American-Israeli filmmaker best known for directing and producing the documentary films Rock in the Red Zone (2015) and Refusenik (2008). Biography Laura R. Bialis was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in Los Angeles ...
* Samizdat * '' They Chose Freedom'' (4 parts) – 2005 documentary by
Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza (russian: Владимир Владимирович Кара-Мурза; born 7 September 1981) is a Russian political activist, journalist, author, and filmmaker. A protégé of Boris Nemtsov, he serves as vi ...


References


Further reading


Outsiders' works

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Insiders' works

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Audiovisual material

* * * * * * * * * * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** {{Authority control Soviet democracy movements Writing circles Soviet opposition groups Persecution of dissidents in the Soviet Union Underground culture * * * Era of Stagnation