The Legacy of Soviet Dissent: Dissidents, Democratisation and Radical Nationalism in Russia (BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies)

During the 1970s, dissidents like Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn dominated Western perceptions of the USSR, but were then quickly forgotten, as Gorbachev's reformers monopolised the spotlight. This book restores the dissidents to their rightful place in Russian history. Using a vast array of samizdat and published sources, it shows how ideas formulated in the dissident milieu clashed with the original programme of perestroika, and shaped the course of democratisation in post-Soviet Russia. Some of these ideas - such the dissidents' preoccupation with glasnost and legality, and their critique of revolutionary violence - became part of the agenda of Russia's democratic movement. But this book also demonstrates that dissidents played a crucial role in the rise of the new Russian radical nationalism. Both the friends and foes of Russian democracy have a dissident lineage. Children of terror The great alibi Solzhenitsyn and the dissident interpretation of Soviet history The court of society 'Honest and total glasnost' The leninist sources of Gorbachev's glasnost The demand for glasnost The weapon of glasnost The practice of glasnost Official glasnost versus dissident glasnost The rights-defenders The pravozashchitniki Constitutional illiberalism Deputy Sakharov Democratic Russia Sergei Kovalyov and 'the true principles of constitutionalism' The invention of russophobia Shafarevich the rights-defender Cosmopolitanism, metanoia, russophobia The construction of rusofobiya [sic] The politics of russophobia Russophobia and perestroika The 'children of Sharik' The ideologue of the red-brown alliance. Book Cover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 2 Title......Page 6 Copyright......Page 7 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Introduction......Page 10 1 Children of Terror......Page 16 2 'Honest and Total Glasnost'......Page 51 3 The Rights-Defenders......Page 79 4 The Invention of Russophobia......Page 139 5 The Politics of Russophobia......Page 169 Conclusion......Page 214 Notes......Page 216 Bibliography......Page 256 Index......Page 263 Children Of Terror -- Honest And Total Glasnost -- The Rights-defenders -- The Invention Of Russophobia -- The Politics Of Russophobia. Robert Horvath. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [280]-287) And Index. This important book argues that the dissident movement between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s had profound repercussions for Gorbachev's reforms and for the post-Soviet order