Shatz, The Soviet dissidents

138: highly education

"The demand for human rights and for civil liberties and political self-expression is very much a demand emanating from the educated segment of Soviet society." (Shatz, 138)

-product of the Russian state, Stalin compared to PTG

"Unquestionably, the names of Soviet dissidents most familiar to wEsterners have been those of writers..."

"Given the traditional role of literature as the 'conscience' of Russia and the high moral calling that many writers consequently feel, it is not surprising that literature and nonconformity show a marked affinity for one another. Because of it's social commitment and its frequent use as a vehicle of critical ideas, literature naturally attracts the restless, the questioning, the individualistic spitits." (Shatz, 141)

"Under Soviet conditions, however, literature does not merely attract dissidents, it generates them; for the amount of creative liberty granetd to it, though greater than in some othe endeavors, has strict limits. THe very nature of his work propels the wrier into a head-on confrontation with the control apparatus of the state through the latter's excersise of censorship....Censorship thwarts his creative impulses-and hence his very personality- and at the same time humiliates him by subjecting him to te dictates of individuals who are less knowledgeable, less imaginiative, less sensitive than he feels himself to be." (Shatz, 141)

Generations:

"According to this theory, dissent is largely the work of the postwar generation. THis younger generation was shocked and repelled by the revelations of its parent complicity, whether active or passive, in Staln's repression; having grown up in relative secutiry and prosperity, it is more willing to assume the risks of outspoken criticism than its elders, who cherish the peace and stability they have at last achieved. From this perspectiv, Soviet dissent may appear to be a local branch of the worldwide youth rebellion of the late sixties and early seventies, rejecting, like its foreign counterparts, 'bourgeoise' materialism, social conformity, and political hypocrisy-an example, perhaps, of the 'convergence' of industrial societies, whether socialist or capitalist.

...BUT..."Despite some external similarities to contemporary currents in the West, the characer of Soviet dissent has been determined by specigic Russian historical and political circumstances and is a response to local events."(shatz, 149-150)

"One of the themes the dissidents voice most frequently when asked to explain their actions is a strong sense of personal guilt over the repressions of the Stalin era, and a determination to redeem that guilt by combating injustice in the present. Even when they themselves in no way participated in the repressions, the silent acquiescence, the passivity, and the unquestioned faith in the authorities that Soviet society displayed under Stalin torment them and compel them to speak out." (Shatz, 150)

Skaharov: "[A man] may hope for nothing but nonetheless speak, because he cannot, simply cannot remain silent."

NG: on Czech protest "The purpose of our demonstration was, so it seems to me, not merely to give expression to our own remorse, but also to redeem at least a freaction of our people's guilt before history" Shatz 150

secret speech as awakening

Evutshenko

"Although I had some idea of Stalin's guilt, I could not imagine, until Khrushchev mad his speech, how tremendous it was. Most people had the same experience. After the text was read to them at Party meetings they went away, their eyes on the ground. Probably many among the older people tortured themselves with the question: had they lived their lives in vain." (Shatz, 151)

"As a group experience, the impact of Khrushchev's secret speech on the educated eleite of Soviet society was as decisive as the impact of the wholesale importation of Western culture had been on the Russian nobility in the eighteenth century." (Shatz, 153)

Sakharov- written by Shatz "THe effecto f the exposure of Stalin's injustivices was to mak him examin his own relation to the forces of good and evil in the world and to arouse within him a latent sense of guilt over his contribution to the forces of nuclear destruction" (Shatz 154)

"More frequently, however, a deeply affecting personal taste of Stalnisim helps to explain the feelings and determination of the dissident.."