Political Repression in The Soviet Union

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:

    “Today he plays jazz; tomorrow he betrays his country.”
    —Stalinist slogan in the Soviet Union (1920s)

    “Circumstances ... give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.”
    —Edmund Burke (1729–1797)

    “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)

    “If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.”
    —Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)

    “I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.””
    —Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)