Dissident Histories in the Soviet Union

From De-Stalinization to Perestroika

Dissident Histories in the Soviet Union

From De-Stalinization to Perestroika

Barbara Martin (Author)

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Description

How was it possible to write history in the Soviet Union, under strict state control and without access to archives? What methods of research did these 'historians' - be they academic, that is based at formal institutions, or independent - rely on? And how was their work influenced by their complex and shifting relationships with the state?

To answer these questions, Barbara Martin here tracks the careers of four bold and important dissidents: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Roy Medvedev, Aleksandr Nekrich and Anton Antonov-Ovseenko. Based on extensive archival research and interviews (with some of the authors themselves, as well as those close to them), the result is a nuanced and very necessary history of Soviet dissident history writing, from the relative liberalisation of de-Stalinisation through increasing repression and persecution in the Brezhnev era to liberalisation once more during perestroika. In the process Martin sheds light onto late Soviet society and its relationship with the state, as well as the ways in which this dissidence participated in weakening the Soviet regime during Perestroika. This is important reading for all scholars working on late Soviet history and society.

Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Party's Call to Denounce Stalin's Crimes
2. From a Reopening of the Stalin Question to a Closure of the Ideological Lid
3. Voicing Opposition to Stalin's Rehabilitation
4. Writing History through the Voice of the Repressed
5. Exiting the System
6. From 'Inner Immigration' to Exile
7. Diverging Truths
8. Unleashing the Past
Conclusion
Timeline of Events
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Published	16 May 2019
Format	Ebook (PDF)
Edition	1st
Extent	312
ISBN	9781350106802
Imprint	Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations	5 bw illus
Series	Library of Modern Russia
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Author

Barbara Martin

Barbara Martin is Research Associate at the Pierre…

This is a welcome and long overdue study … For Martin these works were more than acts of protest. They are testaments to historical memory.

The Russian Review
Precise and illuminating.

Times Literary Supplement
This is an impressive piece that is a recommended read to anyone with an interest in political dissent, intellectual history, or life in the Soviet Union.

European History Quarterly
This wonderful new book by Barbara Martin acts as a mediator from that gateway text to many other robust, fascinating de-Stalinization era authors. Not only that, it offers insight into the post-Stalin period up to Gorbachev's perestroika, as well as the ever-changing public opinion both inside and outside Russia.

Lossi 36
[A] well-written, timely micro-history of the careers and fates of four chief protagonists, Anton Antonov-Ovseenko, Roy Medvedev, Aleksandr Nekrich, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

International Review of Social History
Barbara Martin's new book on Soviet 'Dissidents' deserves to be read and re-read.

Europe-Asia Studies