Andoropov's Suppression of Dissidents: Who Were They? Flashcards
When did Andropov begin heading the KGB?
1967
One of the most important changes that developed under the KGB, in the words of poet Anna Akhmatova?
People were no longer arrested “for nothing”; now they were at least arrested “for something”
What is a dissident?
Someone who criticises the (Soviet) state
Diverse range of people in soviet Russia
Why were intellectuals targeted under Andropov?
High status in Society
Independent ways of thinking
Came up against restrictions
If you’re an intellectual and you want a promotion, what are you expected to do?
Participate in politics
What was Andrei Sakharov’s job?
What element of this needed restricting?
Nuclear scientist
Science = foreign contact important (people, news, equipment)
When did Sakharov (and other scientists) write a letter to Brezhnev detailing their irritations?
What happened as a result?
1970
Banned from further military research
Three Soviet writers that complained about restrictions on their freedom as professionals?
What did they find?
Historian Roy Medvedev, Zhores Medvedev
Novelist Solzhenitsyn
Their ability to work and travel restricted by the government
What did political dissidents do (under Andropov) that made them a threat?
Tried to hold the government to account of their own laws, usually HUMAN RIGHTS concerned
(Abuses that broke Soviet law and international agreements)
What two agreements did groups of political dissidents monitor the Soviet Union for?
UN Declaration on Human Rights, 1948
Helsinki Accords, 1975
UN Declaration on Human Rights:
When?
What?
USSR involvement?
1948
Promote human rights and fundamental freedoms for all (speech & religion)
DID NOT SUPPORT THE DECLARATION but was a member of the UN
Helsinki Accords:
When?
What?
USSR involvement?
1975
Agreement to respect basic human rights (speech, movement)
USSR signed up
Nationalist dissidents under Andropov: VOCAL
Who?
Groups of Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Georgians
Nationalist dissidents under Andropov: VOCAL
What did they call for?
Greater status for their own national languages and cultures— some independence
What alarmed authorities, under Andropov, about Ukrainians?
They had a growing awareness of their own culture
Ukrainians (under Andropov) has a growing awareness of their own culture.
What did the USSR try to ban?
150th anniversary of Ukrainian poet Shevchenko celebrations— 1964
At the same time as the Soviet Union tried to ban the 1964 celebrations of the anniversary of Shevchenko, what happened in Ukraine?
A mysterious fire destroyed the Ukrainian archives as the Academy of Sciences in Kiev
Police arrested 20 leading nationalists to deter further displays of dissent.
ANDROPOV what did 4 Lithuanian groups join to form?
When?
a National Popular Front
1974
What did Lithuanians aim to achieve with their National Popular Front?
Lithuanian recognised as the language of their republic
An end to soviet colonisation
What did the Lithuanian National Popular Front trigger?
Further arrests
Which group of dissidents often received encouragement from abroad?
Nationalists
Religious dissidents under Andropov:
Who?
Why?
Where were Catholic dissidents often prominent?
Baptists and Catholics
Faced restriction on their worship/ religious practices
Baltic republics, such as Lithuania
What was the name of one of the most prominent groups of dissidents— Soviet Jews who were denied their wish to emigrate to Israel?
Refuseniks
What was the wish of the refuseniks?
To emigrate to Israel
Where did refuseniks have strong support?
US Congress
Where did refuseniks remain a difficult issue?
At international summits between leaders of US and USSR
What were the concern that all the groups of dissidents shared?
Human rights
Freedom of expression
Many dissidents were communists, they just wanted
The system to work better for them
What was the main action of Andropov’s dissidents?
To produce material that shared their concerns
Samizdat:
What?
When popular?
Illegal, self published, often hand written notes
Their production was a popular hobby in the 1960s
What did samizdat include?
Poems
Newsletters
Voice of America transcripts
Name one of the most well known samizdat.
What was it?
“Chronicle of Current Events”
Underground newsletter
Highlighted human rights abuses and treatment of dissidents
Dissidents by the 1970s
More diverse
BUT
bolder— using a range of methods to promote their views, including foreign press
