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Roy Medvedev
Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev (russian: Рой Алекса́ндрович Медве́дев; born 14 November 1925) is a Russian political writer. He is the author of the dissident history of Stalinism, ''Let History Judge'' (russian: К суду истории), first published in English in 1972. Biography Medvedev was born in Tbilisi, Transcaucasian SFSR, Soviet Union. He had an identical twin brother, the biologist Zhores Medvedev, who died in 2018. From a Marxist viewpoint, Roy criticized former Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin and Stalinism in general during the Soviet era. In the early 1960s, Medvedev was engaged in ''samizdat'' publications. He was critical of the unscientific nature of Lysenkoism. Medvedev was expelled from the Communist Party in 1969 after his book ''Let History Judge'' was published abroad. The book criticized Stalin and Stalinism at a time when official Soviet propagandists were trying to rehabilitate the former General Secretary. ''Let ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Tbilisi was founded in the 5th century AD by Vakhtang I of Iberia, and since then has served as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Between 1801 and 1917, then part of the Russian Empire, Tiflis was the seat of the Caucasus Viceroyalty, governing both the northern and the southern parts of the Caucasus. Because of its location on the crossroads between Europe and Asia, and its proximity to the lucrative Silk Road, throughout history Tbilisi was a point of contention among various global powers. The city's location to this day ensures its position as an important transit route for energy and trade projects. Tbilisi's history is reflected in its architecture, which is a mix of medieval, neoclassical, Beaux Art ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Let History Judge
''Let History Judge'' (russian: К суду истории, ''Before the Court of History'') is a Soviet history book by Roy Medvedev that critiques Stalinism from a Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ... perspective. Its publication in 1969 resulted in Medvedev's expulsion from the Communist Party and in subsequent harassment. Medvedev said of his methodology that "I did not make use of or have access to any closed archives, “special collections,” or any other limited-access depositories and I am not familiar with any" and "there could not be a published source for much of the information in this book; it was passed on by the victims of repression or their friends or relatives". The book was republished in expanded form in 1989. References 1969 non-fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of Russia
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government of Russia and is the commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. It is the highest office in Russia. The modern incarnation of the office emerged from the president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). In 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the RSFSR, becoming the first non Communist Party member to be elected into Soviet politics. He played a crucial role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union which saw the transformation of the RSFSR into the Russian Federation. Following a series of scandals and doubts about his leadership, violence erupted across Moscow in the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. As a result, a new constitution was implemented and the 1993 Russian Constitution remai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monthly Review
The ''Monthly Review'', established in 1949, is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. The publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following the failure of the independent 1948 Presidential campaign of Henry A. Wallace, two former supporters of the Wallace effort met at the farm in New Hampshire where one of them was living. The two men were literary scholar and Christian socialist F.O. "Matty" Matthiessen and Marxist economist Paul Sweezy, who were former colleagues at Harvard University. Matthiessen came into an inheritance after his father died in an automobile accident in California and had no pressing need for the money. Matthiessen made the offer to Sweezy to underwrite "that magazine weezyand Leo Huberman were always talking about," committing the sum of $5,000 per year for three years. Matthiessen's funds made the launch of ''Monthly Review'' possible, although the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supreme Soviet Of The Soviet Union
The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Верховный Совет Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, r=Verkhovnyy Sovet Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik) was, beginning in 1936, the most authoritative legislative body of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and the only one with the power to approve constitutional amendments. Prior to 1936, the Congress of Soviets was the supreme legislative body. During 1989–1991 a similar, but not identical structure was the supreme legislative body. The Supreme Soviet elected the USSR's collective head of state, the Presidium; and appointed the Council of Ministers, the Supreme Court, and the Procurator General of the USSR. By the Soviet constitutions of 1936 and 1977, the Supreme Soviet was defined as the highest organ of state power in the Soviet Union and was imbued with great lawmaking powers. In practice, however, it was a pse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congress Of People's Deputies Of The Soviet Union
The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union (russian: Съезд народных депутатов СССР, ''Sʺezd narodnykh deputatov SSSR'') was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991. Background The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union was created as part of Mikhail Gorbachev's reform agenda, and was enabled by Gorbachev's first constitutional change. On 1 July 1988, the fourth and last day of the 19th Party Conference, Gorbachev won the backing of the delegates for his last minute proposal to create a new supreme legislative body called the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union. Frustrated by the old guard's resistance to his attempts to liberalise, Gorbachev changed tack and embarked upon a set of constitutional changes to try and separate party and state, and thereby isolate his conservative opponents. Detailed proposals for the new Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union were publishe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glasnost
''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, and so on. It has been used in Russian to mean "openness and transparency" since at least the end of the 18th century. In the Russian Empire of the late-19th century, the term was particularly associated with reforms of the judicial system. Among these were reforms permitting attendance of the press and the public at trials whose verdicts were now to be read aloud. Vladimir Lenin repeatedly emphasized the importance of glasnost as the most important feature of democracy. In the mid-1980s, it was popularised by Mikhail Gorbachev as a political slogan for increased government transparency in the Soviet Union. Historical usage Human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva argues that the word ''glasnost'' has been in the Russian language for s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated with CPSU general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning "openness") policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "reconstruction", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system, in an attempt to end the Era of Stagnation. Perestroika allowed more independent actions from various ministries and introduced many market-like reforms. The alleged goal of perestroika, however, was not to end the command economy but rather to make socialism work more efficiently to better meet the needs of Soviet citizens by adopting elements of liberal economics. The process of implementing perestroika added to existing shortages, and created political, social, and economic tensions within the Soviet Union. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and additionally as head of state beginning in 1988, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 and the only President of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s. Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Russian SFSR, to a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin, in his youth he operated combine harvesters on a collective farm before joining the Communist Party, which then governed the Soviet Union as a one-party state. Studying at Moscow State Univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Abuse Of Psychiatry In The Soviet Union
There was systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, based on the interpretation of political opposition or dissent as a psychiatric problem. It was called "psychopathological mechanisms" of dissent. During the leadership of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, psychiatry was used to disable and remove from society political opponents ("dissidents") who openly expressed beliefs that contradicted the official dogma. The term "philosophical intoxication", for instance, was widely applied to the mental disorders diagnosed when people disagreed with the country's Communist leaders and, by referring to the writings of the Founding Fathers of Marxism–Leninism—Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin—made them the target of criticism. Article 58-10 of the Stalin-era Criminal Code, " Anti-Soviet agitation", was to a considerable degree preserved in the new 1958 RSFSR Criminal Code as Article 70 "Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda". In 1967, a weaker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an individual but provided to the public through newspapers and other media, such as a letter to the editor or blog. Especially common are critical open letters addressed to political leaders. Letters patent are another form of open letter in which a legal document is both mailed to a person by the government and publicized so that all are made aware of it. Open letters can also be addressed directly to a group rather than any individual. Two of the most famous and influential open letters are '' J'accuse...!'' by Émile Zola to the President of France, accusing the French government of wrongfully convicting Alfred Dreyfus for alleged espionage, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s ''Letter from Birmingham Jail'', including the famous quotation "Injustic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nuclear disarmament, peace, and human rights. He became renowned as the designer of the Soviet Union's RDS-37, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov later became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union, for which he faced state persecution; these efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. The Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights and freedoms, is named in his honor. Biography Early life Sakharov was born in Moscow on May 21, 1921. His father was Dmitri Ivanovich Sakharov, a physics professor and an amateur pianist. His father taught at the Second Moscow State University. Andrei's gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
