OTHERWISE-THINKING THE SOVIET HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND TRANSNATIONAL NETWORK Mathilde Bache Wold Spring 2019 MASTER’S THESIS IN HISTORY DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY, CONSERVATION AND HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF OSLO II OTHERWISE-THINKING THE SOVIET HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND TRANSNATIONAL NETWORK III © Mathilde Bache Wold 2019 Otherwise-thinking: The Soviet Human Rights Movement and Transnational Network Mathilde Bache Wold http://www.duo.uio.no/ Print: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo Photo: Demonstration at Pushkin Memorial in Moscow, December 5th, 1976. Courtesy of Memorial Society Photo Archive: https://topos.memo.ru/en/node/142 IV Abstract In 1965, a group of Soviet dissidents met at the Pushkin memorial in Moscow to protest ‘socialist legality’ and the return to Stalinist tendencies. A decade later, the Soviet Union signed the Helsinki Accords, publicly committing themselves to implement human rights as a requirement for European security and cooperation. These two events would culminate in a transnational advocacy network spearheaded by the Moscow Helsinki Group. This thesis asks how the Soviet human rights movement used international human rights politics to expand its domestic influence by gaining transnational attention and cooperation. The movement in the periods prior and after the Conference are compared in their use of underground publishing, foreign appeals, and legal rhetoric. Dissident organizations, like the Initiative Group and the Moscow Helsinki Group, are approached as stand-alone organizations as well as part of the movement’s continuity. Archival material from Radio Free Europe and transnational actors confirm that the movement consciously used the Helsinki framework and human rights language in order to attract broader membership and audience. These domestic and foreign allies would pressure the Soviet government in a process established at the first follow-up meeting in 1977-1978. V VI Acknowledgements The past two years have been the most educational, frustrating, and rewarding years of my life. I don’t think I will ever be able to view human rights, international relations, and civil society without problematizing and somehow relating it to Soviet dissidents. I first wish to thank all my friends and fellow students on the third floor of Niels Treshcows hus. Waking up early and staying late would have been impossible without you. Thank you for much needed breaks for coffee, quiz, and laughing. A special mention to VB, it might not seem like it now, but I will miss seeing your faces every day. I hope our collective FOMO will continue to bring us together. Thank you to my advisor, Daniel Maul, for respecting my process and giving invaluable insights. Ann Komaromi at University of Toronto for taking the time to meet with me and sharing her vast knowledge on the topic of samizdat and archives. The hospitality and support from the employees at the Open Society Archives, The Nobel Peace Institute, and Riksarkivet. Thank you to the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History for funding my research trip to Budapest. My friends and family for doing your best to enthuse and understand a very foreign topic, it was very convincing! My father for reading my unfinished chapters to give much needed notes and comments. My roommate Tone for always being there to watch a movie or share a bottle of wine after a long day. I am especially grateful to Sophie Bruusgaard Jewett for taking time out of your busy schedule to give valuable feedback and words of encouragement. Your thoroughness and academic instincts continue to amaze me! I specially want to thank Bjørn and Jorun Bache for your sincere interest and enthusiasm for everything I do, especially this. VII A Note on Russian Transliteration There are a variety of ways to transliterate Russian names and terms from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Roman alphabet. Throughout this paper I have used GOST 7.79 B systems, except in cases where another English transliteration is widely used, for example, Nikita Khrushchev and Andrei Sakharov. As authors use different methods of transliteration, there will occasionally be alternative spellings in quotations or references. Within the text I have forsaken the Russian patronymics (middle names) for the sake of readability, however, these are included for the persons included in the index in Appendix A. In general, I have tried to stay as respectful and accurate to a language and culture which I find fascinating and hope this is seen throughout. VIII Contents INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 The project .............................................................................................................................. 2 What was the human rights movement? ............................................................................ 2 Scope .................................................................................................................................. 4 Terminology ....................................................................................................................... 5 Historiography ........................................................................................................................ 8 Existing Literature .............................................................................................................. 8 Primary Sources ............................................................................................................... 14 Memoirs ........................................................................................................................... 15 Theory .................................................................................................................................. 16 1 HUMAN RIGHTS IN SOVIET THOUGHT AND POLICYMAKING .............................................. 17 The Rights of homo Sovieticus ............................................................................................ 18 Soviet Constitutions and the All-Union Discussion ......................................................... 19 The Universal Declaration: Soviet participation and abstention ...................................... 20 Socialist Legality and the Birth of the Movement ............................................................... 21 A Movement in the Making ............................................................................................. 22 Trial reporting and samizdat ............................................................................................ 25 Formalization of the Movement: Groups and organizations ............................................ 27 Crackdown on dissidence ..................................................................................................... 30 Conclusion: A Legalistic Approach ..................................................................................... 33 2 ENTERING THE INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS .................................................................... 35 Voices from the West ........................................................................................................... 36 Listenership and Jamming ................................................................................................ 38 The Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe .................................................... 39 The Helsinki Final Act ..................................................................................................... 42 The Issue of Implementation ............................................................................................ 44 Andrei Sakharov and the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize ............................................................... 46 The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway ........................................................ 48 Soviet reactions to the Nobel Peace Prize ........................................................................ 50 Conclusion: Implementation and Publicity .......................................................................... 51 3 THE CREATION OF THE MOSCOW HELSINKI GROUP .......................................................... 53 IX Unprecedented Blossoming: Publishing the Final Act ........................................................ 53 Leading by example: the Moscow Helsinki Group .............................................................. 55 Initial reactions ................................................................................................................. 58 Surveillance and harassment ................................................................................................ 59 Arrests .............................................................................................................................. 61 The Helsinki Period in Moscow ........................................................................................... 64 A Universal Purpose ......................................................................................................... 65 Branches of the Moscow Helsinki Group ........................................................................ 66 Strategies and structure .................................................................................................... 67 Conclusion: A Framework of Fluidity ................................................................................. 70 4 THE TRANSNATIONAL