This article examines the impact of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the U... more This article examines the impact of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR, the first Soviet human rights NGO. It argues that this group, which functioned for over six years as the principal public platform of Soviet dissidents, made an important contribution both to the subversion of totalitarianism and to the rise of the Soviet rights-defense movement. The Initiative Group overcame a longstanding taboo on the creation of public structures and spearheaded the resistance to the KGB's most serious crackdown on the movement. It also shaped the methods and the ethics of Soviet rights-defenders. Although its members suffered severe repression, they deserve recognition for their contribution to the global human rights boom of the late 1970s.
Al eksandr Solzhenitsyn's relationship with Vladimir Putin and his role in the collapse of Russia... more Al eksandr Solzhenitsyn's relationship with Vladimir Putin and his role in the collapse of Russian democracy is one of the most problematic episodes in his career. The chronicler of the Gulag and a symbol of the struggle of memory against totalitarianism, Solzhenitsyn became a defender of a regime that was engaged in the rehabilitation of the Stalinist past. The mortal enemy of the state security "organs," he developed cordial relations with a president who boasted of his pride in his days as a "Chekist." The champion of local selfgovernment, he encouraged the Kremlin as it imposed a "vertical of power" that subordinated the regions to the diktat of Moscow. This convergence was a matter of political significance. During Putin's first year in power, his meeting with Solzhenitsyn was a public relations coup that helped to define the president's public persona and to weaken liberal criticism of his crackdown on the independent media. In 2005, when the Kremlin was shaken by Ukraine's Orange Revolution and mass protests at home, Solzhenitsyn appeared on state television for an interview that was widely perceived as part of the regime's effort to neutralize the threat of a domestic "velvet revolution." In 2007, as the authorities prepared to orchestrate the presidential succession and brutally suppressed opposition demonstrations, Solzhenitsyn was again deployed as part of the Kremlin's counterrevolutionary strategy. The government broadsheet Rossiiskaia gazeta instigated a national debate around the antirevolutionary insights contained in Solzhenitsyn's essay, "Reflections on the February Revolution." Later that year, Solzhenitsyn received a state prize from Putin, who boasted that several steps undertaken by his government accorded with Solzhenitsyn's recommendations. 1 The writer's This research was supported under the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DP0986741). I am grateful to James Pontuso for inviting me to participate in an APSA panel on Solzhenitsyn where this paper was originally presented, and to Daniel Mahoney and two anonymous referees for valuable criticisms. I am also indebted to
This article examines the impact of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the U... more This article examines the impact of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR, the first Soviet human rights NGO. It argues that this group, which functioned for over six years as the principal public platform of Soviet dissidents, made an important contribution both to the subversion of totalitarianism and to the rise of the Soviet rights-defense movement. The Initiative Group overcame a longstanding taboo on the creation of public structures and spearheaded the resistance to the KGB's most serious crackdown on the movement. It also shaped the methods and the ethics of Soviet rights-defenders. Although its members suffered severe repression, they deserve recognition for their contribution to the global human rights boom of the late 1970s.
Al eksandr Solzhenitsyn's relationship with Vladimir Putin and his role in the collapse of Russia... more Al eksandr Solzhenitsyn's relationship with Vladimir Putin and his role in the collapse of Russian democracy is one of the most problematic episodes in his career. The chronicler of the Gulag and a symbol of the struggle of memory against totalitarianism, Solzhenitsyn became a defender of a regime that was engaged in the rehabilitation of the Stalinist past. The mortal enemy of the state security "organs," he developed cordial relations with a president who boasted of his pride in his days as a "Chekist." The champion of local selfgovernment, he encouraged the Kremlin as it imposed a "vertical of power" that subordinated the regions to the diktat of Moscow. This convergence was a matter of political significance. During Putin's first year in power, his meeting with Solzhenitsyn was a public relations coup that helped to define the president's public persona and to weaken liberal criticism of his crackdown on the independent media. In 2005, when the Kremlin was shaken by Ukraine's Orange Revolution and mass protests at home, Solzhenitsyn appeared on state television for an interview that was widely perceived as part of the regime's effort to neutralize the threat of a domestic "velvet revolution." In 2007, as the authorities prepared to orchestrate the presidential succession and brutally suppressed opposition demonstrations, Solzhenitsyn was again deployed as part of the Kremlin's counterrevolutionary strategy. The government broadsheet Rossiiskaia gazeta instigated a national debate around the antirevolutionary insights contained in Solzhenitsyn's essay, "Reflections on the February Revolution." Later that year, Solzhenitsyn received a state prize from Putin, who boasted that several steps undertaken by his government accorded with Solzhenitsyn's recommendations. 1 The writer's This research was supported under the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DP0986741). I am grateful to James Pontuso for inviting me to participate in an APSA panel on Solzhenitsyn where this paper was originally presented, and to Daniel Mahoney and two anonymous referees for valuable criticisms. I am also indebted to
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