Political Repression In The Soviet Union
Throughout the history of the Soviet Union millions of people became victims of political repression (according to western historiography), which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution. Culminating during the Stalin era, it still existed during the "Khrushchev Thaw", followed by increased persecution of Soviet dissidents during the Brezhnev stagnation, and didn't cease to exist during Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika. Its heritage still influences the life of modern Russia and other former Soviet states.
Read more about Political Repression In The Soviet Union: Origins and Early Soviet Times, Red Terror, Collectivization, Great Purge, Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Population Transfers, Gulag, Repressions in Annexed Territories, Post-Stalin Era (1953-1991), Loss of Life, Difficulties in Counting The Repressed, Remembering The Victims
Famous quotes containing the words soviet union, political, repression, soviet and/or union:
“In the Soviet Union everything happens slowly. Always remember that.”
—A.N. (Arkady N.)
“We assume that politicians are without honor. We read their statements trying to crack the code. The scandals of their politics: not so much that men in high places lie, only that they do so with such indifference, so endlessly, still expecting to be believed. We are accustomed to the contempt inherent in the political lie.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Despots play their part in the works of thinkers. Fettered words are terrible words. The writer doubles and trebles the power of his writing when a ruler imposes silence on the people. Something emerges from that enforced silence, a mysterious fullness which filters through and becomes steely in the thought. Repression in history leads to conciseness in the historian, and the rocklike hardness of much celebrated prose is due to the tempering of the tyrant.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
““Is there life on Mars?” “No, not there either.””
—Russian saying popular in the Soviet period, trans. by Vladimir Ivanovich Shlyakov (1993)
“The union of hands and hearts.”
—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)