Conscience, Dissent and Reform in Soviet Russia

297 Pages·2009·0.905 MB·English

by  Philip Boobbyer

Conscience, Dissent and Reform in
Soviet Russia
There was an ethical paradigm shift in the Soviet Union in the decades
after Stalin’s death; Leninist ethics were rejected, and religious and secular
thinkers alike promoted respect for human rights, non-violence, truth-
telling, repentance and conscience.
Conscience, Dissent and Reform in Soviet Russia examines this ethical
change, focussing specifically on the idea of ‘conscience’ and the diverse
ways in which dissidents and party reformers of the late Soviet era under-
stood it. It explores the history of the idea of conscience before the revolu-
tion and in the early decades of Bolshevik rule, as well as under
Khrushchev. It then examines the ethics of the human rights movement
and the way in which dissident ethics were shaped by experiences of
imprisonment and interrogation. This valuable study also explores the idea
of conscience in late Soviet literature and philosophy, the enduring influ-
ence of Russian Orthodox spirituality in Soviet life, the ethics of party
leaders such as Gorbachev and Yakovlev and the moral concerns of the
intelligentsia and the emerging democratic movement.
An important and original contribution to research on Soviet history,
this book contains many new insights and will be of interest to academics,
historians and students of the Soviet era.
Philip Boobbyer is a Senior Lecturer in modern European history at the
University of Kent. He specialises in Russian history, and his previous
publications include S. L. Frank: The Life and Work of a Russian Philo-
sopher, 1877–1950 (Ohio University Press, 1995) and The Stalin Era
(Routledge, 2000).
BASEES/Routledge series on Russian and
East European studies
Series editor:
Richard Sakwa, Department of Politics and International Relations,
University of Kent
Editorial Committee:
George Blazyca, Centre for Contemporary European Studies, University
of Paisley
Terry Cox, Department of Government, University of Strathclyde
Rosalind Marsh, Department of European Studies and Modern
Languages, University of Bath
David Moon, Department of History, University of Strathclyde
Hilary Pilkington, Centre for Russian and East European Studies,
University of Birmingham
Stephen White, Department of Politics, University of Glasgow
This series is published on behalf of BASEES (the British Association for
Slavonic and East European Studies). The series comprises original, high-
quality, research-level work by both new and established scholars on all
aspects of Russian, Soviet, post-Soviet and East European Studies in
humanities and social science subjects.
1 Ukraine’s Foreign and Security 6 Dostoevsky and the Idea of
Policy, 1991–2000 Russianness
Roman Wolczuk Sarah Hudspith
2 Political Parties in the Russian 7 Performing Russia – Folk
Regions Revival and Russian Identity
Derek S. Hutcheson Laura J. Olson
3 Local Communities and Post- 8 Russian Transformations
Communist Transformation Edited by Leo McCann
Edited by Simon Smith
9 Soviet Music and Society under
4 Repression and Resistance in Lenin and Stalin
Communist Europe The baton and sickle
J.C. Sharman Edited by Neil Edmunds
5 Political Elites and the New
Russia
Anton Steen
10 State Building in Ukraine 17 The Legacy of Social Dissidents
The Ukranian parliament, Dissidents, democratisation and
1990–2003 radical nationalism in Russia
Sarah Whitmore Robert Horvath
11 Defending Human Rights in 18 Russian and Soviet Film
Russia Adaptations of Literature,
Sergei Kovalyov, dissident and 1900–2001
Human Rights Commissioner, Screening the word
1969–2003 Edited by Stephen Hutchings
Emma Gilligan and Anat Vernitski
12 Small-Town Russia 19 Russia as a Great Power
Postcommunist livelihoods and Dimensions of security under
identities: A portrait of the Putin
intelligentsia in Achit, Edited by Jakob Hedenskog,
Bednodemyanovsk and Vilhelm Konnander, Bertil
Zubtsov, 1999–2000 Nygren, Ingmar Oldberg and
Anne White Christer Pursiainen
13 Russian Society and the 20 Katyn and the Soviet Massacre
Orthodox Church of 1940
Religion in Russia after Truth, justice and memory
Communism George Sanford
Zoe Knox
21 Conscience, Dissent and
14 Russian Literary Culture in the Reform in Soviet Russia
Camera Age Philip Boobbyer
The word as image
22 The Limits of Russian
Stephen Hutchings
Democratisation
15 Between Stalin and Hitler Emergency powers and states of
Class war and race war on the emergency
Dvina, 1940–46 Alexander N. Domrin
Geoffrey Swain
23 The Dilemmas of
16 Literature in Post-Communist Destalinisation
Russia and Eastern Europe A social and cultural history of
The Russian, Czech and Slovak reform in the Khrushchev era
fiction of the changes 1988–98 Edited by Polly Jones
Rajendra A. Chitnis
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Conscience, Dissent and
Reform in Soviet Russia
Philip Boobbyer
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
Transferred to Digital Printing 2009
© 2005 Philip Boobbyer
Typeset in Times by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN10: 0-415-33186-2 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-54587-0 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-33186-9 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-54587-7 (pbk)
To my parents
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All I have is my conscience.
Svetlana Alliluyeva