Esenin-Volpin Article

It also set them apart from one of the twentieth century's most distinctive forms of resistance to state power, the civil disobedience campaigns that flourished in places as diverse as Birmingham and Bombay. Civil disobedience, to quote the Dic tionary of the History of Ideas, presupposes a "formal structure of law" and consists of "publicly announced defiance of specific laws, policies, or com mands."1 It was Soviet dissidents who invented the less well known but, in the Soviet context, equally provocative technique of radical civil obedience: engaging in or insisting on practices formally protected by Soviet law?such as freedom of assembly or transparency of judicial proceedings—but frequently subject to the wrath of the regime.  (630)

For Vladimir Bukovskii, who met Vorpin at the Maiakovskii Square poetry readings in 1961 and later be came an international cause c?l?bre in the campaign against Soviet abuse of psychiatry for political purposes, Vol'pin was "the first person in our life who spoke seriously about Soviet laws. [... ]W e laughed at him: 'what kind of laws can there be in this country? Who cares?' 'That's the problem,' re plied Alik, 'Nobody cares. We ourselves are to blame for not demanding fulfillment of the laws.' " 631

Connection between language and legality

In contrast to the antimetaphysical thrust of analytic philosophy in its origi nal Oxbridge setting, Vol'pin's search for a "scientific" language is explic itly directed against the Soviet Union's reigning doctrine of materialism: Materialism consists in the conviction that all phenomena may be re duced to the material state. That this very reduction is unthinkable with out the aid of the intellect is shyly ignored. [ . . .] What shall we say about the obvious error of so-called historical ma terialism, which sees in economically grounded relationships the basis for all others and, in particular, the basis for moral and juridical rela tionships? This cannot for instance be applied to Soviet society, where a powerful state authority can change the economic system from an agrar ian to an industrial one. How then can the state authority remain the "su perstructure over the economic base"?70 Vol'pin's skepticism regarding "materialism" extended to the sacred cow of "realism," the notion that thought and representation ought to orient themselves exclusively to "reality" and lived experience, or as Russians like to say, to "life itself." In the Bolshevik lexicon (but with roots extending back to the nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia), "estranged from life" was a stock rebuke for perceived formalism or abstraction?or cer tain kinds of ideological rigidity. In two separate instances the "Free Philo sophical Tractate" invokes Vol'pin's adolescent crisis (now two decades old), that allegedly fateful day in April 1939 when he pledged himself to reason over emotion. Now, however, he tellingly recasts it as a "break with my belief in realism, [to which] I never returned again. [ . . . ] Intuition usually makes us lean toward realism, but here we must not trust intui tion until such time as it has been emancipated from language."71 The primacy of metaphysical truths (ideally formulated in the language of mathematical logic) over the "real" world of emotion and experience was encapsulated in a phrase that appears again and again, mantra-like, across Vol'pin's writings: "Life is an old prostitute whom I refused to take as my governess."72 Like the repeated retelling (and reworking) of his adolescent crisis, this phrase, with its suggestion of heroic resistance against tempta tion and struggle for intellectual autonomy, forms a leitmotif in Vorpin's ongoing fashioning of his life story. These recurring vignettes did not, however, form part of a narrative of self-realization or self-emancipation. Just as the "Tractate" describes real ity and thought as amorphous and unbounded, so it rejects the idea of a unitary self: Why must I believe in the unity of my own personality? [ . . . ] I do not imagine myself at all as something unitary! There is within me an entire chain of experiences that are unrelated to each other. They so little re semble each other that no philosophical desire arises to consolidate them into a single ego. [ . . . ] Does not my ego die and revive every minute? I am certainly not the same man who will die at about the age of eighty. My present "I" will be hopelessly lost by that time.73 If read against the background of the Bolshevik crusade to forge a new "Soviet person," this statement can be understood as rejecting not only the goal but the possibility of fashioning a coherent self. …In effect, Vol'pin is replacing the Utopian dream of creating a new type of human being with an analogous dream of creating a new type of language: transparent, ra tional, and unambiguous. Until that time, it seems, we will not be able to "trust our own thoughts," our intuition?or our self from all forms of belief via the con struction of an ideal language. Specifically, it calls for a reform of the Rus sian language so as to make it conform more closely to the requirements of "modal logic"?the branch of logic that classifies propositions accord ing to whether they are true, false, possible, impossible, or necessary.  (646-647)

Vol'pin's most important contribution to the rich interdisciplinary debate taking shape in the USSR during the thaw was based on a practical deployment of the Utopian project of fashioning an ideal language. Rather than developing such a language from mathematical proposi tions, or "reforming" the Russian language as a whole so as to rid it of am biguous meanings, Vol'pin sought to apply modal logic to two human istic fields that he considered most susceptible to "exact methods": jurisprudence and ethics. 648

Acting on the moral imperative "not to remain silent" in the face of perceived injustice?and encouraged by interrogators trained in the art of extracting information?arrestees often used the opportunity to argue their positions, with occasionally catastrophic results for themselves and their acquaintances. For Vol'pin, interrogations provided rich material for thinking about language and ethics: when to tell the truth to one's in terrogator and when to remain silent; how to refuse to answer a question, even under pressure; and how to avoid lying, that is, how to avoid com promising oneself. Most dissidents, it should be noted, regarded lying as a perfectly legitimate technique of self-defense vis-?-vis the KGB and other state organs.79 By contrast, more than a decade before Solzhenitsyn issued his ringing injunction to Soviet citizens to "Live Not by the Lie," Vol'pin had concluded, in his quest for a language free of ambiguity, that "the fundamental task of ethics" was the eradication of lying.80

The code had undergone a major revision in the late 1950s in response to the rampant abuse, not to say complete lack, of procedural rules in the administration of justice under Stalin. Vol'pin found in the revised code a surprisingly dense web of protective measures designed, at least in theory, to constrain the power of prosecutors and ju dicial investigators over defendants and witnesses. It explicitly banned "leading questions"; it granted individuals under interrogation the right to write down their own responses (rather than have an official transcribe their words), to request explanation of terms used by their interrogators, and in certain cases, to refuse to answer questions. In other words, this cat and-mouse game had rules, a kind of formal grammar governing speech between the citizen and representatives of the Soviet state. They were im perfect rules, to be sure, and often ignored in practice, but nonetheless they were designed to regulate verbal exchanges a nd the meaning of spe cific words. One could learn and exploit them. Vol'pin's strategies for successful interrogations (649)

Vol'pin's strategies for successful interrogations eventually found ex pression in his renowned 'Juridical Memorandum," one of the most widely circulated samizdat texts in the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and 1970s?so widely, in fact, that there were cases in which frustrated KGB investigators abruptly cut off interrogations with the words, "They've read too much Vol'pin!"81 )649-650

Vol'pin had special reason to react strongly to the arrests: he himself had published abroad works critical of Soviet society and had earlier been imprisoned for allegedly "anti-Soviet" poems. And yet his response dis played a curious combination of boldness and restraint. He refused to read works by either writer, considering their content to be at best irrele vant and at worst a distraction from the real issue, which was juridical rather than literary.100 Bypassing the all too familiar drama of state perse cution of writers, Vol'pin focused instead on a single issue: forcing the re gime to obey the Soviet Constitution's provisions regarding public access to judicial proceedings. "Let them go ahead and convict those fellows 97. [Siniavskii and Daniel'], but let the words, such as those expressed by Shatunovskii at my court case against him?'From our party-minded point of view, the conventional definition of "slander" is irrelevant'?let this entire pseudo-argumentation be heard loud and clear. [ . . . ] The more such occasions [arise], the more quickly will an end be put to simi lar repressions."101 If this agenda struck many of Vol'pin's acquaintances as strangely minimalist, the means by which he proposed to realize it did not: a public "glasnost' meeting" in advance of the trial, demanding judi cial transparency. Together with his friend Valerii Nikol'skii, Vol'pin be gan to plan a gathering in Pushkin Square, across the street from?and thus offering the hope of media exposure by?the office of the newspa per Izvestiia (News), to be held on 5 December, the official holiday cele brating the ratification of the 1936 "Stalin" Constitution by the Congress of Soviets. The meeting itself would exemplify strict obedience to the Constitution (Article 125 of which, "in conformity with the interests of the toilers and in order to strengthen the socialist system" guaranteed "free dom of assembly and meetings"), restricting participants to the single de mand for an open trial for Siniavskii and Daniel' (as per Article 111: "ex amination of cases in all courts shall be open, in so far as exceptions are not provided for by law") ,654-655

Hayward, Max, translator. On Trial: The Soviet State versus "Abram Tertz" and "Nikolai Arzhak." New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1966.

Intro:

made it to WEst by "undisclosed channels, but is of indubitable authenticity." (1)

on Sinyavsky: "It is true that, like most Russian intellectuals of his generation, he was deeply affected by Khrushchev's revelations at the 20th Party Congress in 1956 about the horrors of the Stalinist past, and reacted with all the inevitable outrage of one who had, albeit with some qualms of intellect and conscience, beleieved. This was a turning point for many younf Russians, who had hitherto tended to excuse the excesses of the Stalin era on the grounds of revolutionary expediency." 4

arrested on Sept. 13, 1965

"For the next two months, numberous anxious inquiries, both public and private, from leading Wester writers and organizations were addressed to Kosygin, Surkov (Secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers) and others. They were met by silence. Only on November 22 did Surkov (Secretary of the Union of Soviet WRiters) and others. They wre met by silence. Only on Novemeber 22 did Surkov admit the arrests at a press conference in Paris, at the same time giving a solemn assurance that 'legality' would be observed. (22)

"Ivestia tried to run a follow-up campaign of 'massive indignation' in response to Eremin's article. but it could produce only three or four rather unconvincing expressions of outrage from an ill assorted collection of 'average citizens.' The classical orchestration was lacking." (25)

"There were several unusual features about it and in one respect it was unprecedented, namelt, that it was the first time in the history of the Soviet Union that writers had been put on trial for what they had written." (26)

"The second unusual  feature was a striking difference in the way the case was reported in the fovernment newspaper Ivestia and the way it was reported in the party newspaper Pravda....The pieces are writeen in the classical style of the Russian satirical feuilleton, speak with heavy sarcasm of the accused, quote their words in order to mock them, and in general assume the guilt of the two men before the court reached its verdict. The defendants are presented as cowwardly felons who squirmed under the withering attack and the iron logic of the prosecution." (27)

More available about illegality of trial on 27

"The third unusual feature of the trial is that the accused did not plead guilty. This evidently took the prosecution by surprise and may partly explain the the very maladroit handling of of the trial, and the gingerly way in which it was reported by Pravda." (28)


"What is tragic about this trial is not only that the two men have been tried and sentenced for heresy, sacrilege and blasphemy, but that the trend toward and improvement in the administration of justice, the frequently expressed desire to do away with 'distortion of justic; as part of Stalin's legacy-- all this has recieved a sever setback. Sinyavsky and Daniel's trial could have been a test case to show that 'socialist legality' had really been established, that the earnest debate among Soviet jurists in recent years about the need to see that due legal procedures wer observed really counted for something." (32)

Article 70: "Agitation or propaganda carried out with the purpose of subverting or weakening the Soviet refime or in order to commit particularly dangerous crimes against the state, the dissemination for the said purposes of slanderous inventions defamatory to the Soviet political and social system as well as the dissemination or production or harboring for the said purposes of literature of similar content, are punishable by imprisonment for a period of from sic months to seven years  and with exile from two to five tears, or without exile, or by exile from two to five years." (42)

"In the novel The Trial Begins, Sinyavsky, under the guise of criticism of the cult of personality, sneers at the Soviet system and the principles of MArxism-Leninism." (45)

Daniel: "Stalin had not been dead all that long. We all remembered well what were called 'violations of socialist legality.' And I saw again all the symptoms: there was again one man who knew everything again one man who knew everything, again one person was being exalted, again one person was dictating his will to agricultural experts, artists, diplomats and writers. WE saw again how one single name appeared on the pages of newspapers and on posters, how the most banal and crude statement of this person was being held up to us as a revelation, as the quinesence of wisdom."  (61)

Daniel: "Even the statutes of the Writers oUnion don't require writers to write about only novle, intelligent people." (68)

Daniel: "I was asked all the time what I wrote my story This is Moscow Speaking. Every time I replied: Because I felt there was a real danger of a resurgence of the cult of personality. To this the answer was always: What is the relevance of the cult of personality, if the story was written in 1960-61? To this I say: It was precisely in these year that a number of events made one feel that the vult of personality was being revived. This was not denied; I was not told. 'You are lying, this is not true'--my words were simply ifnored as though I had never said them." (150)

Jacoby

Jacoby, Susan. Moscow Conversations. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1972. 


"Moscow is one of the easiest places in the world for a journalist to become dishonest with himself and his readers."  15


"Dishonesty becomes a part of journalism in Moscow when correspondents fail to tell their readers about these inhibitions and the profound effect they have on a reporter's perceptions of Russian life. The reluctance of the Moscow press corps to write about its working conditions is less a conspiracy of silence than a product of frustrated resignations; an abnormal situation begins to seem quite normal after only a few months of life in Russia."  15


"Foreign correspondents do not travel as much as they would like to, partly because editors at home demand a steady flow of political news from the capital and partly because each trip involves endless bureacratic snags. A correspondent must obtain special permission from the press departmente of the Soveit Foreign Ministry if he wishes to travel outside a twenty-five mile radius of Moscow and even for some points inside the circle" 19


"THe dissenters are a small, diverse collection of people who disagree strongly on long-range goals for Russia; their main area of agreement is their determination to make the Soviet authorities observe their own laws. Their chief activity is publicizing official actions against other dissenters; they view the publicity as an important guarantee that no one will quietly  disappear into prison or exile, as in the Stalin years. The dissenters naturally need foreign journalists to transmit the news of their activities to the outside world. Stories about Soviet political dissent published in foreign newspapers ensure that many Russians also hear the news." 22-23


"Some journalists are happy to consider dissidents friends as well as news sources; relationships with dissenters involve somewhat less strain and prestense than relationships with ther Russians. The skepticism about absolute truth that is characteristic of most truly educated minds in the west is completely foreign to the majority of Russians; only with a few of the dissidents did I find a common approach to intellectual questions that had nothing to do with politics."  23


"Khrushchev abolished formal censorship of correspondents outgoing news dispatches in 1961. Foreign journalists are now free to transmit their articles by telephone, Telex or cable without prior approval of a Soviet official. The authorities now attempt to censor news dispatches indirectly, through post-publication earnings, KGB harassment and the ultimate sanction of expulsion from the country. Officials in the press deparment in Soviet embassies throughout the world read articles that appear in newspapers and magazines with Moscow correspondents. If an article is both highly important and abrasive, a correspondent may receive an officialwarning from the press department in Moscow within two or three days of publication." 23


"Soviet officials are clearly furious about being unable to prevent contacts between foreign correspondents and political dissidents. The press department has established a pattern of harrassing and trying to get rid of correspondents who see dissidents frequently." 23


"Four foreign journalists were expelled from the Soviet Union during 1970; three of them had been particularly active in gathering news about political dissent and relaying it to other correspondents. Because it is difficult to arrange meetings and also because only the most urgent news is relayed over tapped phone lines, it is impractical for every correspondent to track down rach piece of dissident news himself. One or two correspondents usually meet with a dissenter and pass the news on to the rest of the Moscow press corps. Unfortunately, many spineless Moscow correspondents are only too happy to acquire the news of political dissent from their colleagues but are unwilling to incur official displeasure by meeting dissidents themselves." 23-24


26-most of the sources are intellectuals 


"The reluctance to talk about Stalin today is deep and wide-spread, even amonf people who recognize the dimensions of spread, even among people who recognize the dimensions of the tragedy that befell their country under his dictatorship. Admissions of Stalin's evil, which meant the death and imprisonment of millions of Russians are not forthcoming from most Soviet citizens who grew up during that period. To acknowledge the full extent of the tragedy would be to admit complicity in horrors too great for most people even to think about: The refusal of many middle-aged Germans to admit they knew about the Nazi concentration camps is a similar reaction." 42


"Stalin was never fully toppled from his pedestal, even when Khrushchev's de-Stalinization campaign was at its height. Too many officials still in power had been the executors of Stalin's policies; indeed, many Western analysts believe Khrushchev's seriousness about de-Stalinization was the major gavtor that led to his loss of support within the Party Central Committee. After Khrushchev's partial cleansing operation, the new Brezhnev-Kosygin leadership said in effect, 'Enough is enough,' and clamped hte lid back on the sewer. " 42


"I never met a student in any part of the Societ Union who did not listen to the VOA. Although reception is hampered by jamming, Russians patiently persevere. For obvious reasons, English language broadcasts are interfered with less than Russian language runs. Many students also listened to the BBC, saying they preferred its news broadcasts because the reports were less slanted by American government propaganda. (I prefereed the BBC for the same reason in Moscow.) The student consensus, however, was that the VOA offered better music than the BBC." 94

"The girls said they did not believe everything in Soviet newspapers 'any more than you believe everything in yours.' Tanya's favorite paper was Komsomolskaya pravda, the organ of the Komsomol Central Committee.

Oskar Rabin- Unofficial painter

on Hope against Hope: "He felt that one of its greatest strengths was its recognition that what happened under Stalin was not a passing aberration--the product of one man's insanity--but a national sickness that permitted the Stalinist terrror to develop and may appear in mutant forms for generations to come." 171

"Realism is a word that loses its meaning in such an ideological context. If a painter chooses to depict a shabby apartment or a drunk, he is being a "critical realist" rather a Socialist realist, and the authorities frown on critical realism. In the Soviet Union, realism refers to reality as Soviet ideologues think it should be--not to a reality that an individual artist might perceive." 173

"Soviet papers--like books, magazines, canned food labels and every other form of printed material--are subject to official censorship. The existence of censorship does not, however, mean that every statement in every newspaper represent the official policy of the Soviet government. Pravda, the organ of the Party Central Committee, and to a slightly lesser extent Ivestia, the government newspaper, are forums for top-level statements on foreign and domestic policy. To use a favorite phrase of Stalin's, 'it is not by accident' that articles appear in Pravda and Ivestia. Columns by important political commentators sometimes reflect the official government position on important matters."  213

"Ideas for articles are initiated by party authorities, editors, reporters, outside specialists and sometimes by readers. Letters-to-the-editor columns are extremely important in Soviet newspapers; they provide what is essentially the only public forum for complaints about the way various institutions are run." 216

"Government offices often take percautions to prevent their typewriters from being stolen or used for nefarious purposes. At Vera's newspaper, every typewriter had to be locked away before the staff went home at night."234

Dmitri-college student
"At the same time all of this was rumbling around in my head, One Day came out. I thought things might have changed enough so there was actually a possibility of publishing honest writing." 237

"Dmitri's attitude toward the official writers is, quite simply that they are prostitutes. It is an attitude shared by all committted samizdatchiki and political dissidents." 242

Outline 1.3

I ) The Thaw and Refreeze

1.      The Thaw

a.       Begins with Khrushchev’s Secret Speech

b.      Release of political prisoners

c.       Culminates in publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovish

d.      Solzhenitsyn novel exposing the brutality of labor camps

2.      The Refreeze

a.       Brezhnev and other party leaders felt the Khrushchev had gone too far in denouncing Stalin

b.      There was discussion of a partial rehabilitation of Stalin

c.       Literature that was acceptable under Khrushchev was no longer acceptable.

                                                               i.      Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward could no longer be published in 1966, although there had been plans for it. (Jacoby, 70)

d.      The re-freeze came to head with the trial of Sinyavsky and Daniel

                                                               i.      Sinyavsky and Daniel were two Soviet writers arrested and put on trial for publishing their works abroad

1.      There was actually no law prohibiting this.

                                                             ii.      The two writers were given excessive sentences

                                                           iii.      Many observers viewed it as the return of the Stalinist show trials

                                                           iv.      It confirmed what many dissidents feared-there was a crackdown. (Reddaway)

II )Rise of Dissident Media

1.      The White Book

a.       Ginzburg compiled trial documents and related information for the Sinyavsky and Daniel trial.

b.      Circulated in samizdat

c.       Ginzburg gave a copy of it to the KGB and bravely claimed that he had done nothing illegal as he did not “slander” the Soviet state.

                                                               i.      There was no law specifically prohibiting free speech. However, the state did make generous use of Articles 70 and 190 which outlawed libeling the state.

2.     “The Chronicle of Current Events”

a.       Underground newspaper published by a small group of dissidents, inspired by The White Book.

                                                               i.      It reported on trials, searches, conditions in labor camps, but very carefully did not comment on the news.

1.      It followed the model laid out by Ginzburg that reporting events as they happened was legal.

                                                             ii.      The staff of “The Chronicle” had to keep their identities and production schedule a secret for their own personal protection and to prevent KGB interference in publication.

1.      This created an internal dilemma for many involved because it was a newspaper devoted to openness.

b.      How it was reported

                                                               i.      Made use of the dissident network

1.      People going back and forth from labor camps.

2.      Taking secret notes at trials.

3.      In Issue 5 “The Chronicle” printed specific instructions for how to give them information.

a.       “Pass it forward.”-chain letter type deal

c.       How it was published

                                                               i.      Samizdat or “self-published”

1.      Dissidents typed out copies of “The Chronicle,”  and passed them along. Recipients would type more copies and pass them along.

a.       Hopkins argues that “The Chronicle’s” typists are it’s unsung heroes.

b.      Typing was rough manual work and it also came with great fear that the KGB could burst in at any moment.

2.      History of samizdat

a.       Began with literature during the age of socialist realism.

                                                                                                                                       i.      Socialist realism was the official literary doctrine. Works not following this doctrine were not published.

b.      Samizdat allowed writers to reclaim the realm of writing and publishing from the government.

3.      Samizdat became integral to the dissident movement.

a.       It was one of the few realms for open discussion.

b.      Bukovsky said he would build a monument to the typewriter.

                                                                                                                                       i.      Dissidents often speak of their typewriters with an almost messianic tone.

                                                                                                                                     ii.      The type writers gave them back the voice that the par had censored.

                                                                                                                                   iii.      Alexeyevna said that typing parties helped to establish trust among the dissidents.

c.       Meerson-Aksenov-“awakening of the conscious of Soviet society.”      

                                                                                                                                       i.      No longer would atrocities be hidden.

                                                                                                                                     ii.      Samizdat encouraged open discussion, even if it took place on onion skin paper.

3.     Foreign Publications of “The Chronicle”

a.       Besides samizdat, dissidents made use of “tamizdat,” literally published there.

                                                               i.      Like samizdat, this form of publication was frequently used to publish works that were not approved for the Soviet Union.

1.      The most notable instance is Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago.

2.      These texts were then often smuggled back into the Soviet Union.

a.       The interview with Sinyavsky details the process.

b.      As dissidents began to emigrate, copies of “The Chronicle” began to be available all over the world, most notably in New York and London where English language translations were available.  Hopkins explores this issue thoroughly in his book on “The Chronicle.”

                                                               i.      London

1.      Max Hayward translated issue no. 5 in 1968.

2.      Peter Reddaway became involved and compiled the first 11 issues in an annotated anthology Uncensored Russia (1972)

3.      Amnesty International London also published translated copies of “The Chronicle” beginning in 1971.

a.       Circulation reached

                                                             ii.      New York

1.      Chalidze (a dissident) was exiled while in NY in 1972

a.       This coincided with “The Chronicle’s” decision to stop publishing due to KGB pressure.

b.      Chalidze with financial backing from NY businessman Ed Kline began publishing a version of “The Chronicle” in English and Russian.

                                                                                                                                       i.      Relied on sources in and out of Soviet Union

c.       When “The Chronicle” began publishing again in 1974, it continued printing

                                                                                                                                       i.      Could get info to U.S. leaders faster

                                                                                                                                     ii.      Also printed up to 1,200 copies of each issue. Most went to Soviet Union

II ) Rise of Dissident Media

1.      The White Book

a.       Ginzburg compiled trial documents and related information for the Sinyavsky and Daniel trial.

b.      Circulated in samizdat

c.       Ginzburg gave a copy of it to the KGB and bravely claimed that he had done nothing illegal as he did not “slander” the Soviet state.

                                                               i.      There was no law specifically prohibiting free speech. However, the state did make generous use of Articles 70 and 190 which outlawed libeling the state.

2.     “The Chronicle of Current Events”

a.       Underground newspaper published by a small group of dissidents, inspired by The White Book.

                                                               i.      It reported on trials, searches, conditions in labor camps, but very carefully did not comment on the news.

1.      It followed the model laid out by Ginzburg that reporting events as they happened was legal.

                                                             ii.      The staff of “The Chronicle” had to keep their identities and production schedule a secret for their own personal protection and to prevent KGB interference in publication.

1.      This created an internal dilemma for many involved because it was a newspaper devoted to openness.

b.      How it was reported

                                                               i.      Made use of the dissident network

1.      People going back and forth from labor camps.

2.      Taking secret notes at trials.

3.      In Issue 5 “The Chronicle” printed specific instructions for how to give them information.

a.       “Pass it forward.”-chain letter type deal

c.       How it was published

                                                               i.      Samizdat or “self-published”

1.      Dissidents typed out copies of “The Chronicle,”  and passed them along. Recipients would type more copies and pass them along.

a.       Hopkins argues that “The Chronicle’s” typists are it’s unsung heroes.

b.      Typing was rough manual work and it also came with great fear that the KGB could burst in at any moment.

2.      History of samizdat

a.       Began with literature during the age of socialist realism.

                                                                                                                                       i.      Socialist realism was the official literary doctrine. Works not following this doctrine were not published.

b.      Samizdat allowed writers to reclaim the realm of writing and publishing from the government.

3.      Samizdat became integral to the dissident movement.

a.       It was one of the few realms for open discussion.

                                                                                                                                       i.      Examples of samizdat essays.

b.      Bukovsky said he would build a monument to the typewriter.

                                                                                                                                       i.      Dissidents often speak of their typewriters with an almost messianic tone.

                                                                                                                                     ii.      The type writers gave them back the voice that the par had censored.

                                                                                                                                   iii.      Alexeyevna said that typing parties helped to establish trust among the dissidents.

c.       Meerson-Aksenov-“awakening of the conscious of Soviet society.”      

                                                                                                                                       i.      No longer would atrocities be hidden.

                                                                                                                                     ii.      Samizdat encouraged open discussion, even if it took place on onion skin paper.

3.     Foreign Publications of “The Chronicle”

a.       Besides samizdat, dissidents made use of “tamizdat,” literally published there.

                                                               i.      Like samizdat, this form of publication was frequently used to publish works that were not approved for the Soviet Union.

1.      The most notable instance is Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago. (Rubenstein, 14-16)

2.      These texts were then often smuggled back into the Soviet Union.

a.       The interview with Sinyavsky details the process.

b.      As dissidents began to emigrate, copies of “The Chronicle” began to be available all over the world, most notably in New York and London where English language translations were available.  Hopkins explores this issue thoroughly in his book on “The Chronicle.”

                                                               i.      London

1.      Max Hayward translated issue no. 5 in 1968.

2.      Peter Reddaway became involved and compiled the first 11 issues in an annotated anthology Uncensored Russia (1972)

3.      Amnesty International London also published translated copies of “The Chronicle” beginning in 1971.

a.       Circulation reached

                                                             ii.      New York

1.      Chalidze (a dissident) was exiled while in NY in 1972

a.       This coincided with “The Chronicle’s” decision to stop publishing due to KGB pressure.

b.      Chalidze with financial backing from NY businessman Ed Kline began publishing a version of “The Chronicle” in English and Russian.

                                                                                                                                       i.      Relied on sources in and out of Soviet Union

c.       When “The Chronicle” began publishing again in 1974, it continued printing

                                                                                                                                       i.      Could get info to U.S. leaders faster

                                                                                                                                     ii.      Also printed up to 1,200 copies of each issue. Most went to Soviet Union

4.     Western journalists

a.       Served as a liaison between dissidents and world

                                                               i.      Jacoby writes that dissidents were one of the few groups of Russians willing to speak with western journalists.

                                                             ii.      The reporters in turn spread their story to the world at large.

b.      Shared a common goal of free, open discourse

                                                               i.      Walker argues that western journalists were instinctively sympathetic to the plight of the dissidents because of these shared goals.

c.       It went beyond writing stories.

                                                               i.      Western reporters regularly smuggled goods and information in and out of the Soviet Union.

                                                             ii.      Bought things at the foreign goods store.

d.      Wasn’t without its problems.

                                                               i.      Criticism on both sides about bravery

1.      Amalrik and Solzhenitsyn both argue that Western journalists were unwilling to risk losing their plum positions as Moscow correspondents by corresponding with dissidents.

2.      Jacoby has the similar thoughts on Russians who were unwilling to speak with her after finding out her husband was an American journalist.

3.      Jacoby writes that in the early ‘70s, the Party became much stricter with Western journalists. (23-24)

a.       Khrushchev had allowed them to publish as they pleased.

b.      However, by the late sixties, correspondents were regularly harassed by party press people or the KGB.

                                                                                                                                       i.      Party outlawed correspondents with certain dissidents

                                                                                                                                     ii.      By March 1971, KGB  began using physical force with reporters.

e.       Expanded the dissident audience to the west

                                                               i.      This type of coverage gave the dissidents some leverage in the USSR.

1.      Alexeyevna writes of Anatole Shub (Washington Post) who spotlighted Larisa Bogoraz’s poor medical treatment in prison camp. After the article ran, her treatment improved greatly.

5.     Foreign radio

a.       Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Voice of America and BBC radio were all broadcast in the USSR.

                                                               i.      Jacoby argues that this is why dissidents were willing to work with western journalists.

1.      Stories featured in western papers were frequently read in their entirety over the radio.

                                                             ii.      However, by the late ‘60s, Radio Liberty had an entire show devoted to samizdat.

1.      Puddington writes that RL was over-run with samizdat submissions.

a.       Never solicited-illegal

b.      Hired a person whose job it was to verify and confirm facts in samizdat. (Puddington)

2.      Regularly read issues of “The Chronicle” over the air.

3.      Hopkins estimates that while a typical issue of “The Chronicle” would have 1,000 to 10,000 copies in paper and ten times as many readers, having a radio audience increased that exponentially.

b.      Radio was particularly useful source of dissemination for the dissidents due to it’s prominence in Soviet society

                                                               i.      Stalin made it a goal to have radios in every home

1.      Roth-Ey writes that this allowed for the rise of foreign radio because it made radio listening a private instead of a public act

a.       It was almost un-Soviet

                                                                                                                                       i.      Listening to radio was now private and international

                                                             ii.      Foreign radio was attractive to Soviet listenters

1.      Mikkonen: Soviet radio wasn’t even audible in large parts of the U.S.S.R.

2.      While Soviet radio was didactic, western radio was entertaining

a.       The format mixed news and music

3.      It was also considered a more reliable source of information.

a.       Parta: Most people tuned into RL for political news

b.      Samizdat programming was the most popular under Brezhnev

4.      These two factors created a large and diverse audience for foreign radio.

a.       Mikkonen and Parta asses the audience in the early seventies (when the first study was done) and find a

6.      These sources gave dissidents a direct voice to the USSR and to the world. Exposing the flaws of the Soviet system, and the Party’s abuses, to a large public audience was radical.

III) Why dissident media was radical

1.      The point of the dissidents’ use of media was to demonstrate to the USSR and the world what exactly was going on in the Soviet Union. This violated the social norms in the USSR.

a.       This ideology of exposing the truth first came from Khrushchev’s Secret Speech.

                                                                  i.      He called for an exposure of the Stalinist years.

                                                                ii.      However, Khrushchev’s speech was not as radical as it first seemed.

1.      While he denounced the cult of personality, he carefully did not mention the terror of labor camps. He only discussed the purge of the party.

2.      While Khrushchev said exposing the truth of the Stalinist years was necessary, he argued that it must be done carefully and most notably, privately.

a.       He said: “We should not wash out dirty linen before their eyes.”

                                                              iii.      This creates a contradicting message. The idea is almost “expose the truth,” but not too much truth.

b.      Khrushchev’s schizophrenic views on open discussion of the Soviet system can be analyzed by his opinions on arts.

                                                                  i.      In order to get an idea of how willing Khrushchev was to tolerate dissent, we can analyze his policy with art.

1.      Shatz: Literature served as the “conscious” of Russia. It was a way of expressing dissent.

                                                                ii.      It’s nearly impossible to say what Khrushchev’s policy on the arts was. It varied wildly.

1.      Kept the policy of socialist realism in place.

a.       Socialist realism, at it’s most basic level, was a form of censorship.

b.      It only allowed for “socialist” truth.

                                                                                                                                          i.      Bulgakov’s novel, The Master and Margarita, written under Stalin demonstrates the difficulty writers had writing honestly under the doctrine of socialist realism

1.      The novel also demonstrates how the doctrine was enforced-carrots and sticks.

a.       Idea is further explored in Hope against Hope.

2.      It also demonstrates the notion of “double speak.”

a.       The characters with “official” positions do not speak the truth.

b.      This is a criticism the dissidents had of party officials and the Soviet system, which made them take part in a lie.

2.      While Khrushchev did not treat artists as brutally as Stalin did, he did make clear what was and was not acceptable for an artist in the USSR.

a.       He gave a series of speeches of artists explaining that they were the shapers of socialism.

b.      In one speech he said that the party would continue its policy of controlling culture.

3.      He did personally approve the publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

a.       The novel went further than Khrushchev’s speech.

                                                                                                                                          i.      It acknowledged the existence of camps.

                                                                                                                                        ii.      More importantly, it indicted the whole Soviet system, not just Stalinism.

                                                                                                                                      iii.      Jacoby details the reaction of everyday Russians to this novel.

1.      They found it radical.

b.      It still needed to be personally approved by Khrushchev- demonstrating the control the party maintained on culture.

4.      Collectively, it is difficult to find a common thread running through these decisions. Kenez says the Party’s art policy was mainly left to the Khrushchev’s whims.  We do however see that Khrushchev carefully monitored and controlled art and dissent.

c.       The dissidents willingness to expose their “dirty linen” to the world inherently put them at odds with the Soviet system, which promoted “socialist truth.”

IV) The Values Dissident Media Reflected

2.      Glasnost-Openness

a.       One of the most important messages of One Day was the idea that it was necessary to expose the whole truth of the Stalinist era.

                                                               i.      The novel specifically criticizes the notion of socialist realism. It argues that truth and openness about the past trump artistic forms.

1.      This argument is mirrored in Sinyavsky’s On Socialist Realism.

                                                             ii.      In In the First Circle, Solzhenitsyn condemns western journalists for keeping the truth about labor camps hidden.

                                                           iii.      In “Participation and the Lie,” Solzhenitsyn argues that the only way to undermine the Soviet system was to expose its lies.

                                                           iv.      Collectively, we see that Solzhenitsyn argued for openness in discussing public affairs as a way of 

b.      In reading dissident memoirs, the same idea pops up again and again-they couldn’t stay silent about the horrors of the Stalinist years or the current era. To do so, was to support the system. (Shatz)

                                                               i.      The intelligentsia of the ‘30s felt that their silence enabled the rise of Stalinism (Mandelstam)

                                                             ii.      Using this model, the ‘60s dissidents felt that if they exposed the truth about the Brezhnev years they could prevent the rise of high Stalinism.

c.       The obsession with the use of media demonstrates glasnost. Dissidents were caught up in promoting truth in discussion of events, rather than the “double speak” that permeated Soviet society.

                                                               i.      We see this in the shift from literary samizdat to publications like “The Chronicle” and legal/political samizdat.

1.      Politics could be discussed openly, not just hidden behind literature.

d.      Reddaway argues that “The Chronicle” serves as an example of free and open discussion, but also of the right to free expression

3.      Legality

a.       One of the key goals of the dissident movement was to call for the Soviet state to follow it’s own laws.

                                                               i.      A good deal of the out cry over the Sinyavsky and Daniel trial was that they had broken no law. It was not explicitly illegal to publish works abroad.

                                                             ii.      One of the catalysts for the publication of The White Book –to demonstrate the party’s manipulation its laws.

b.      This obsession with legality is evident in dissident media as well.

                                                               i.      The content of “The Chronicle” focused on trial transcripts and describing illegal searches of apartments.

1.      It sought to demonstrate that the Party violated it’s own laws.

a.       Issue 1 of The Chronicle makes this point explicit. It opens by declaring that 1968 was United Nations Human Rights Year, and juxtaposes it with Ginzburg’s trial for publishing the White Book.

                                                                                                                                       i.      This type of trial was in violation of the UN Human Rights treaty.

                                                             ii.      “The Chronicle” existed as an example of free speech.

1.      It insisted on it’s own legality beginning in Issue 5.

a.       Ginzburg’s model-telling the truth is not slandering the state.

c.       The argument here is that truth is legal, even if it is not “socialist” truth.

                                                               i.      Andrei Amalrik embodies this idea

1.       Arrested for giving interviews to foreign journalists under article 70.

2.      He told the KGB that he had done nothing illegal because nothing he said was false.

3.      He argued more over that he had an obligation to expose the truth in order to save the Soviet Union.

                                                             ii.      The rebirth of “The Chronicle”

1.      The KGB succeeded for briefly shutting down “The Chronicle” from 1972-1973.

2.      When it restarted, the identities of its editors were no longer a secret.  They decided to admit who they were as a way of making a statement that nothing they were doing was illegal.

                                                           iii.      The link between truth and legality was established early on in the dissident movement.

1.      December 5, 1968- Constitution Day Protest on Pushkin Square

a.       Considered the birth of the movement

2.      Ginzburg (the organizer) and protestors called for glasnost for the trial

a.       This would make the trial follow the rule of Soviet law.

3.      The protesters used free speech (a protest) to call for truthfulnesss in legal proceedings.