To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement

Nathans (history, Univ. of Pennsylvania; Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia) thoroughly analyzes the origins of the authors of samizdat (the underground free press), and the censorship of literary works that circulated among the Soviet Union and found their way to the West. He covers the history of many of the founders of the dissident movement, starting with an examination of the 1965 trial of Soviet writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuly Daniel; they were accused of slandering the Soviet system in works, often satirical, published abroad pseudonymously. This book mentions many fascinating details, such the overlapping timeframe of boycotts and demonstrations in the U.S. against Jim Crow laws and the Soviet dissidents’ engagement in civil disobedience to raise awareness of the Soviet violations of its own laws and human rights.