The Precarious Lives of Late Soviet Inakomyslie

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

In the late Soviet period, thinking differently (in Russian: inakomyslie) from the dominant communist ideology was enough to arouse suspicion, and those who not only thought, but acted differently, ran the risk of prosecution. This panel examines different forms of inakomyslie, from religious to political dissent. While some dissenters, especially among Soviet believers, only strove to carve for themselves spaces of freedom to exercise their religion, the most outspoken dissidents actively defended their rights by appealing to various Soviet and international bodies and politicians. Publicity in the West could protect dissenters from repression, but connections over the Iron Curtain could also lead them to the camps or to forced exile. As for Soviet believers, they constantly crossed the boundaries of legality to lead a meaningful religious life, and thus lived in a state of permanent insecurity. Finally, our panel also examines the role of the KGB in monitoring and intimidating dissenters.

Sub Unit

• History: Russian and Eurasian, since 1924

Chair

• Barbara Martin, U of Basel (Switzerland)

Papers

• Protest from the Margins: A Human Rights Campaign Led by Evangelical Women in the Soviet Union, 1964-1987 - April French, Brandeis U

• Agent Training: KGB Surveillance in the Religious Underground - Tatiana Vagramenko, U College Cork (Ireland)

• The Precarious Professional Lives of Young Believers from the Russian Orthodox Intelligentsia, 1970s-1980s - Barbara Martin, U of Basel (Switzerland)

• Individuals, Not Politicians: Soviet Dissidents in Search of (Political) Contacts in the Mid-1970s - Olga Rosenblum, Russian State U for the Humanities (Russia)

Discussant

• Julie K. deGraffenried, Baylor U