From the mid-1960s on, Peter Reddaway published numerous articles and books about Soviet dissent. In 1969 he co-founded the Alexander Herzen Foundation with historian Jan Willem Bezemer and Karel van het Reve, in order to publish the work of Soviet dissidents for a Western audience. Reddaway got to know many dissidents and their work from a distance, publicizing their writings in the West and helping some of them settle abroad. In a talk commemorating the launch of his new book The Dissidents, Reddaway described the human costs of the repression that marked the Soviet state. He placed the work and struggles of these dissidents within the context of the secretive politics inside the Kremlin, where a tiny elite competed for power — even as the Soviet system was crumbling around them.
Speaker:
Peter Reddaway - Former Kennan Institute Director and Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
