The Dissidents

Peter Reddaway

doi:10.5771/9780815737742

The Dissidents

A Memoir of Working with the Resistance in Russia, 1960-1990

Published 2020

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doi.org/10.5771/9780815737742
ISBN print: 978-0-8157-3773-5
ISBN online: 978-0-8157-3774-2
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

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Abstract

The nearly forgotten story of Soviet dissidents

It has been nearly three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Unionenough time for the role that the courageous dissidents ultimately contributed to the communist system's collapse to have been largely forgotten, especially in the West. This book brings to life, for contemporary readers, the often underground work of the men and women who opposed the regime and authored dissident texts, known as samizdat, that exposed the tyrannies and weaknesses of the Soviet state both inside and outside the country.

Peter Reddaway spent decades studying the Soviet Union and got to know these dissidents and their work, publicizing their writings in the West and helping some of them to escape the Soviet Union and settle abroad. In this memoir he captures the human costs of the repression that marked the Soviet state, focusing in particular on Pavel Litvinov, Larisa Bogoraz, General Petro Grigorenko, Anatoly Marchenko, Alexander Podrabinek, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, and Andrei Sinyavsky.

His book describes their courage but also puts their work in the context of the power struggles in the Kremlin, where politicians competed with and even succeeded in ousting one another. Reddaway's book takes readers beyond Moscow, describing politics and dissident work in other major Russian cities as well as in the outlying republics.

Schlagworte

Pavel Litvinov Peter Reddaway Soviet State Soviet Union Resistance Russia Samizdat Vyacheslav Bakhmin Larisa Bogoraz Anatoly Marchenko Andrei Sinyavsky Dissidents General Petro Grigorenko Alexander Podrabinek Kremlin

Chapter Expand | CollapsePage
Preface
- Table of Contents
1–4 Introduction 1–4
5–27 First Steps 5–27
28–37 Graduate Studies: A Double Miracle 28–37
38–68 Immersion: Daily Life in Khrushchev's Russia 38–68
69–102 Explusion: Cultural Trends, Literary Friends, and the Sharp Edges of the Soviet State 69–102
103–119 The Emergence of Dissent: Bringing Dissidents and the Emerging Human Rights Movement to the World's Attention 103–119
120–131 The Other '68: Upheaval in the Soviet Bloc and the Chronicle of Current Events 120–131
132–149 Two Early Giants of Soviet Dissent: Marchenko and Grigorenko 132–149
150–163 Confronting the Naysayers in the West 150–163
164–184 "The Mental State of Such People Is Not Normal": Exposing the Political Abuse of Psychiatry 164–184
185–195 Dignity under Persecution: Dissent among the Ethnic Minorities 185–195
196–202 Religious Persecution, Religious Dissent 196–202
203–214 Fighting on Old and New Fronts: 1968 to 1983 203–214
Photo Insert
215–219 Publishing Samizdat in the West 215–219
220–241 Dissent and Reform under Gorbachev: Uncertain Terrain 220–241
242–256 Upending Manufactured Schizophrenia 242–256
257–288 The End: RIP USSR, 1917 to 1991 257–288
289–294 Some Conclusions 289–294
295–300 Works by Peter Reddaway Cited in this Volume, By Year 295–300
301–318 Notes 301–318
319–328 Subject Index 319–328
Names Index

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