Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 8 – In a detailed
and heavily footnoted 19,000 word article for the Liberal Mission Foundation,
Viktor Davydov, himself a dissident in Soviet times, says there are ten myths about
dissidents that continue to get in the way of an understanding of those grouped
under that term and their influence (liberal.ru/russia-past/10-mifov-o-dissidentah).
He
specifies that he is not referring to the official Soviet myth that dissidents
were paid agents of the CIA but rather to a variety of myths widely believed and
propagated by those who are sympathetic to the dissidents but fail to
understand that dissidence in Soviet times was much broader, more diverse and
more influential than they think.
Davydov
lists ten such myths and then demolishes them on the basis of the historical
record:
Myth No. 1: “The Dissident Movement
was Born in the 1960s.” In fact, it existed from the moment the Bolsheviks seized
power.
Myth No. 2: “The Dissidents were
Human Rights Defenders.” All human rights defenders were dissidents, but not all
dissidents were human rights defenders: many had entirely different agendas.
Myth No. 3: Dissidents were “a Narrow
Circle of Revolutionaries.” In fact,
over the decades, “tens of thousands of people” were involved, not the handful
the Soviet state tried to convince was the case.
Myth No. 4: “The Dissident Movement
was Not Political.” Some dissidents insisted they weren’t political for
tactical or even strategic reasons, but in fact, all of them by their actions
were political and many were self-consciously so.
Myth No. 5: “Dissidents Acted under
the Slogan ‘Obey Your Laws!’” Many believed that insisting the Soviet
authorities obey their own laws and constitution was a useful way to gain
support and put the regime on the defensive. But many recognized that the real
problem in the USSR was that the laws were never the real source of authority.
Myth No. 6: “Openness was a Principle
of the Action of Dissidents.” In fact, while many tried to act in public to
attract attention to their causes, none acted entirely in the open – the Soviets
did not make that possible – and many, including in particular ethnic and
religious activists, were forced to operate in large measure underground.
Myth No. 7: “Dissidents were Divided into
Westernizers and Slavophiles, Right and Left.” While these ideas capture some
of what was occurring, in a large number of cases, these divisions are far from
an adequate way to understand the intermixture of ideas on the ground. Most of
those who insist on these splits did so when they were already in emigration.
Myth No. 8: “Dissidents Always had
the Opportunity to Emigrate.” Many didn’t and many did not want to.
Myth No. 9: “By the mid-1980s, the
Dissident Movement had been Destroyed.” In fact, it had succeeded by
influencing events; and consequently, it was certainly weakened but in no way
destroyed.
Myth No. 10: “Dissidents did not
Influence Events During Perestroika.” In
fact, they had a profound influence on various people near Gorbachev as a source
of ideas and alternatives. But perhaps
their most important contribution is one that is often neglected most of all:
the dissidents were almost unanimously opposed to using force to achieve political
change; and that is a major reason why the collapse of communism and the disintegration
of the USSR took place so peacefully.
“As
a participant of the dissident movement,” Davydov says, he “cannot present that
group as consisting only of angels and saints. But if there was in the USSR, a
heroic and effective liberation movement, it consisted of the dissidents.
Without their efforts and sacrifices, the destruction of the most horrific ‘evil
empire’ in Europe could have drawn out for decades.”
“An
if on the remaining one-seventh of the earth’s surface, Soviet insanity were to
return again, this would mean only that the country would need new dissidents: people
who will actively defend the ideals of freedom despite the apparent hopeless of
such activity.”
No comments:
Post a Comment