The dissident movement in the Sumy region of the 1960s – early 1980s: personalities, ideas, activities

Abstract

The article covers the main aspects of the dissident movement in Sumy region in the 1960s – early 1980s, that is, from the time of the sixties till the restructuring period (perebudova). The main approaches to the definition of the concepts of “dissident movement” and “dissent” in the national historiography are analyzed. The main forms of activities of the participants of the dissident movement were: distribution of banned works (samizdat, self-edited), support of persons persecuted by the authorities, and the condemnation of systematic violations of civil and political rights in the USSR, of the policies of Russification, of the restriction of the rights of the Ukrainian people for their own language and culture. The author focuses on the regional peculiarities of the dissident movement, in particular, the links of the movement’s participants with Western Ukraine, which became the source of national freshness and oppositional mood for future dissidents from other regions. Participation of the natives of Sumy region in the activities of the Ukrainian and all-union human rights organizations, the content and ideological orientation of their works are analyzed. The author as well considers how the leadership of the regional organization of the Communist Party of Ukraine and its local branches reacted to the activities of dissidents. The question of the forms and methods of counteraction to the dissident movement by the Soviet special services (KGB) has been studied; attention is paid to more brutal methods of persecuting dissidents at the local level compared to central cities. Article received 11.01.2019