Refuseniks
Refusenik (, ; alternatively spelled refusnik) was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, Soviet Jews—who were denied permission to emigrate, primarily to Israel, by the authorities of the Soviet Union and other countries of the Soviet Bloc. The term ''refusenik'' is derived from the "refusal" handed down to a prospective emigrant from the Soviet authorities. In addition to the Jews, broader categories included: *Other ethnicities, such as Volga Germans attempting to leave for Germany, Armenians wanting to join their diaspora, and Greeks forcibly removed by Stalin from Crimea and other southern lands to Siberia. *Members of persecuted religious groups, such as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Baptists and other Protestant groups, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Russian Mennonites. A typical basis to deny emigration was the alleged association with Soviet state secrets. Some individuals were labelled as foreign spies or potential seditionist ...
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Soviet Dissidents
Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union (USSR) 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 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 a ...
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