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Let My People Go: The Refusenik Movement in the Soviet Union

Fri, November 22, 8:00 to 9:45am EST (8:00 to 9:45am EST), Boston Marriott Copley Place, Floor: 3rd Floor, Arlington

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Due to state anti-Semitism, Jews faced discrimination in the Soviet Union. Deprived of Jewish education, cultural and religious institutions, many Jews wanted to emigrate from the USSR. Limited emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union was allowed in the 1970s. However, it was severely restricted by the authorities. Many Jews were denied in their right for emigration. Some of them joined the Refusenik movement and struggled for their rights to leave the country. Refuseniks organized hunger strikes and pickets in front of Soviet government institutions, distributed their self-published periodicals and organized unauthorized Holocaust commemoration meetings. They disseminated the ideas of social justice, national dignity and human rights. The refuseniks’ activities had a strong impact on Soviet society and contributed to the ultimate collapse of communist ideology in the Soviet Union. The panel will analyze the Refusenik movement in the Soviet Union, the reasons for its establishment, its goals, methods of struggle with the Soviet regime, its influence on the political situation in the country, support for the Refusenik movement from abroad, and the achievements and failures of the movement. The panelists will examine the writings of the refuseniks and how they described the process of their physical and intellectual liberation from the tyranny of the Soviet regime. The panelists will discuss new directions and approaches for research of the Refusenik movement, including newly available digital archival collections on the topic.

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