Opposition From Cultural Dissidents: Publishing Flashcards
How did the harsh censorship of the Stalinist years impact culture under Khrushchev
-they largely ended Russian tradition of criticism theory medium of lit + arts e.g. writings of Tolstoy
Despite this how was cultural opposition seen under Khrushchev
-K allowed return of greater intellectual + artistic freedom bringing emergence of new group of ‘cultural dissidents’ using arts to convey political messages
What were these dissidents primarily connected to
-primarily connected to greater democracy, human rights + rights of nationalities
-protest also stemmed from religious feeling or expressed grievances against the violation of artistic freedom
How did this impact
-nit an outright physical opposition but nevertheless it was worrying to authorities
How was this cultural dissident seen in publishing
-written word + poetry a popular medium to express political views
How did some writes under Khrushchev try to avoid the censorship laws
-some sought evade Soviet censorship by publishing work abroad - known as tamizdat
-hoped that this work be relayed back to Soviet citizens through foreign broadcasts
What is an example of tamizdat
-publication of Pasternak’s ‘Dr Zhivago’ 1955 overseas in Italy 1957 - immediately became international bestseller winning Nobel prize for lit 1958
-a personal drama of lives destroyed by civil war
What did other writers use to public their works under Soviet censorship
-others used samizdat - laboriously duplicating material illegally
-copies then circulated by personal contact
What was the downside to samizdat
-the activity was high risk + brought the danger of imprisonment or labour camps
How did dissident literature spread through underground societies
-dissident lit also spread via underground societies like ‘the youngest society of geniuses’
-this was a student group set up in mid 60s
What did the underground group ‘the youngest society of geniuses’ produce
-produced a journal called ‘The Sphinxes’
-this contained collections of prose + poetry
How was dissidence seen through poetry
-1958 June monument to Vladimir Mayakovsky - satirical poet who criticised Stalinist system - unveiled in Moscow
-event marked by impromptu public poetry readings of his work
What did this unveiling of Mayakovsky’s monument spark
-sparked a series of regular readings known as the ‘Mayak’ in Mayakovsky Square
-became very popular + attended by many students + members of intelligentsia
What did these poetry readings inevitably amount in
-in 1961 some regular attenders arrested for subversive political activity
-the actions cost one biology student - Vladimir Bukovsky - his uni place driving him to become a fully committed dissident
How did these poetry readings impact another man
-Eduard Kuznetsov accused of publishing samizdat + charged with ‘anti-Soviet agitation + propaganda’ was to spend 7 yrs in prison
How was dissidence seen through magazines
-number of dissident magazines published
-incl. Ginzburg- editor + publisher of a Moscow samizdat poetry magazine called Syntaxis - arrested 1960
What happened to Ginzburg
-arrested 1960 + sent to labour camps three occasions 1961-69 for exposing human rights abuses + demanding reforms
-also tried smuggle writings abroad to increase external pressure on USSR
What are examples of other dissident magazine publications
-the ‘Boomerang’ edited by Osipov from 1960 + ‘Phoenix’ edited by Galanskov from 1961
What is an example of a magazine changing its political stance to go against Khrushchev
-‘Novy Mir’ an official publication changed its political stance adopting more dissident position early 60s
-Nov 1962 this magazine very famous for publishing ‘one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich’
How did the authorities try to stop the spread of dissident magazines
-took steps to restrict the spread of unwarranted material 1961 when 130k people identified as leading ‘anti-social, parasitic way of life’
-these were intellectuals whose writings considered hostile to regime + who were prevented from obtaining employment by the state
How did so,e dissidents avoid imprisonment
-avoided imprisonment by taking unskilled jobs like street sweepers
-this still gave them time to pursue their writings but others sent to labour camps or mental hospitals
What is an example of further campaigns continuing
-1963 Joseph Bradsky charged with ‘social parasitism’ + sentenced to 5 years exile in Archangel
