Storia del dissenso Sovietico (Otradek 2007) by Marco Clementi (Professor of History of Eastern Europe at University of Calabria).

The names of very few Soviet dissidents are known in the Western world. Their stories, claims and ideas have often become journalistic cases and their revelations have been exploited for obvious political reasons, both from the right-wing and the left-wing parties, especially during the Cold War. In fact, until now, publications on the subject have dealt mostly with specific cases and not with the reconstruction of the entire historical reference frame in which the phenomenon developed. The normal consequence of this is a distortion, often intentional, of the facts, in favour of certain political tendencies. But no chronicle can do without rigorous research. Indeed, sixteen years after the fall of the USSR, Marco Clementi, with his Storia del dissenso sovietico. 1953-1991 (Odradek, p.302, 22 Euro), offers a remarkable reconstruction, discrediting a great quantity of commonplaces. The book, accurately documented, discusses well-known cases - such as the publication, first in Italy and then in the Soviet Union, of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, or the sad circumstances that brought to the expulsion of Aleksandr Solzeniticyn and Josif Brodskij -, as well as little-known or completely unknown events, outlining the phenomenon as a singular experience. An experience which is, without doubt, sui generis, for its strong pacifist characterization, for the lack of immediate political objectives - such as the destruction of the Soviet regime or the creation of a multiple political party society (the boundary line that the historian traces between the political opposition and dissidence is clear) -, but above all for the absence of a recognized leader capable of channelling revendications towards a specific political objective. However, in spite of the deep heterogeneity of opinions and political visions among the exponents that animated the dissidence - internally, in fact, there were, "besides laic and democratic ideals, confessional, nationalistic, and, in certain cases, even fascists and nazi ideals" -, they found their path on their own, a common denominator that united them around the objective of the defense of human rights and the dignity of man. The phenomenon finds its origin in the devastating effects of Stalinism on society: its constant resort to a state of terror as a government practice, justified by the unvarying evocation of the spectre of an internal enemy; the campaign of arrests; the net of gulag on all the territory. This way, no part of public or private life remains outside of the detailed control of the Party. The consequence was a social atomization process, not too different from that generated by capitalism, and the birth of a radicated idealogical conformism. Intellectuals would have to, in fact, according to the definition imparted by Stalin himself, become "engineers of the soul", and contribute to the construction of socialism within the compulsory and acritical vision of the world. In these conditions, it is not surprising that the changes - more illusive than real, and generated from an atmosphere different from the one felt during the Kruscev years - brought a true explosion for the desire of creative freedom by the men who never succumbed to social engineering. And it was during the "Years of the Thaw" that the encounters in Majakovskij Square took place, when young intellectuals began to meet to read verses that had not passed through the censorship net; at the same time, Samizdat was born, a clandestine form of literary circulation that soon became of such relevance to be considered a literature parallel to the official one. But the spontaneous and pacific reactions of the opposition conflicted with an obtuse bureaucracy firmly prepared to safeguard its priviliges. After the defenestration of Kruscev (1964), the neostalinist tendencies prevailed in the Party, and an attempt was made to block the free demonstration of thought with expulsions and arrests for the publication of non-conforming literary works. Such an attempt was extreme enough to actually surpass Stalin,under whose regime, Clementi reminds us, literature was strongly censured, but no arrests were made for the content of the works . Moreover, we must not forget the endless internment of dissidents in special psychiatric hospitals, a practice which officially ended in 1988. This dramatic experience, which represented one of the most shameful methods of repression, is described by Clementi through the stories of those who lived it personally. In spite of everything, it was impossible to stop the dissident flow; the conflict between intellectuals and the State not only could not be stopped, but it lasted until the collapse of the latter. The law for the rehabilitation of the victims of repression was promulgated only after the attempted coup of August 1991, when the Soviet Union no longer existed. In an article, published by the Italian daily Il Manifesto (dated August 1, 2007), Rossana Rossanda invites us to ask a series of questions, among which: "Why did the attempt to realize a non capitalistic society fail? When was the error first made? In 1917? Was it initially made at the time of the division between Lenin and the socialist revolutionaries? Or was the error originally committed at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union? Or was it only Stalin who committed a mistake? Would it have been better if the movements of 1917 had not been carried through, if passive resistance had been opposed to czarism, waiting for the war to end a year or two later, and for modernity to slowly get the better of autocracy? It is difficult to give an answer to all of these questions, because history, as we well know, is not made of "ifs". Clementi's book helps us in this reflection, providing us with a detailed reconstruction of a past that for years was troublesome (a past with which we are finally coming to terms), and offering numerous elements for the achievement of a deep social awareness necessary for the construction of the future.

© P. Cioni

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