Between Prague and Helsinki: Setting the Transnational Stage for Dissidence

Kacper Szulecki

Research output: Contribution to Book/Report typesChapterpeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

The first half of the 1970s was a time of soul-searching for the opposition, but by 1975 open political dissent reemerged, beginning a new chapter in the struggle with Communist authoritarianism. Three elements had to be in place before the transnational figure of the dissident in the form that we now know it could emerge. Firstly, the massive wave of emigration after 1968 created a network of “dissident interpreters” ready to publicize and explain to Western audiences the nuances of Central European politics. Secondly, the growing domestic unofficial publishing—samizdat—began to cross borders and create new channels for ideas’ circulation, together with exilic publishing, radio, and later TV. Finally, human rights began to take the role of a universal lingua franca of 1970s détente and gave the East European dissenters an idiom in which their struggles could be expressed in a way intelligible across the political spectrum.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPalgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages87-117
Number of pages31
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NamePalgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements
ISSN (Print)2634-6559
ISSN (Electronic)2634-6567

Keywords

  • Dissent
  • Helsinki Accords
  • Human rights
  • Prague Spring
  • Radio Free Europe
  • Samizdat
  • Transnational activism

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