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:

    “Nothing an interested foreigner may have to say about the Soviet Union today can compare with the scorn and fury of those who inhabit the ruin of a dream.”
    —Christopher Hope (b. 1944)

    “I’m not into smoke-filled rooms. I don’t have the time for byzantine political intrigues.”
    —Benazir Bhutto (b. 1953)

    “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)

    “How can I explain the difference to me between America and Russia?... the America I’ve known is a place where men on horseback escort union marchers, the Russia I’ve known is a place where men on horseback slaughter young Socialists and Jews.”
    —Golda Meir (1898–1978)