This anthology draws attention to the Ukrainian dissident movement and offers detailed insights into this phenomenon among Western readers. The stories of ideas and personal undertakings are unfolding before the reader in a vivid pulsation of texts that testify for themselves. The collection gathers texts from different genres: from poetry, public speeches, and samvydav (self-published, uncensored) texts to court speeches, texts on being held in jails, special psychiatric hospitals for those not accepting the official ideology, and prison camps, and finally to self-reflection on personal experiences of opposing the totalitarian system. The variety of texts creates a multidimensional and meaningful picture of the Ukrainian dissident movement-a generation of Ukrainian public and cultural figures who, one way or the other, insisted on their freedom of speech and made history by daring to challenge the official ideology and culture. The book is compiled by Oleksii Sinchenko, Dmytro Stus, and Leonid Finberg. Scholarly reviewing of the book by Myroslav Marynovych.

Autorentext
Dr. Oleksii Sinchenko studied Ukrainian Language and Literature at the Taras Shevchenko National University (Kyiv, Ukraine). Since 2009 he is Associate Professor at the Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University. Previously, Oleksii Sinchenko completed an internship at the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Sinchenko is a member of the PEN Club Ukraine. His previous books include Communication strategies in Theory of Literature: Author, Text, Reader (Kyiv, Logos, 2015); Authorities, Society, Citizen: Problems of Interaction in Modern Ukraine. An Analytical Report (Kyiv, IPIEND named after. I.F. Kuras, NATIONAL Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2013) collective monography, Ukrainian Culture: The Evolution of Crisis Consciousness (Ternopil, Jura, 2013) collective monography. Oleksii Sinchenko is a compiler and editor of the books: Korogodsky R. Brama of Light: Sixties / [compiled by M. Kotsiubynska, N. Kucher, O. Sinchenko (Lviv, UCU, 2009), Yevhen Sverstyuk Valeriya Andreevska Correspondence 1973-1983: In 2 books / compiled by V, Andreevska, O. Golub, O. Sinchenko, text. and comment. O. Sinchenko (Kyiv, Dukh i Litera, 2019), Dmitry Gorbachev. Knights of the Hungry Renaissance (Kyiv, Dukh i Litera, 2020) and others.Dr. Dmytro Stus studied philology at Kyiv National University. Since 2012 he is Chief Executive of the Taras Shevchenko National Museum. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of the Kyivska Rus literary-critical journal, head of the department of criticism and bibliography of the Suchasnist journal, deputy editor-in-chief of the Knizhnik-Review journal, researcher at the department of Manuscripts and Textual Studies of the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Dmytro Stus is a member of the All-Ukrainian Literary Association Congress of Writers of Ukraine, The National Writers' Union of Ukraine. His most famous book is Vasyl Stus: Life as Art (Kyiv, Fact, 2004).Leonid Finberg studied in at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Since 1997, he is chief-editor of the Dukh i Litera publishing house and since 2007 the director of the Centre for Studies of the Culture and History of East-European Jews of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Previously, he held lectures as Invited Professor at the Geneva University and at the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, was the director of the Jewish Studies Institute, a leading sociologist at the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, a board member of the International Renaissance Fund responsible for the civil society, and the director of the Jewish Studies Institute. Finberg is a member of the PEN Club Ukraine. He is the compiler and editor of a number of books, including: Essays on History and Culture of the Jews of Ukraine (Kyiv, Dukh i Litera, 2008), the art catalogue Kultur-Lige: Artistic Avant-Garde of 1910s and 1920s (Kyiv, Dukh i Litera, 2007), and Book Graphics of the Kultur-Lige Artists (Kyiv, Dukh i Litera, 2011), Jewish Civilization. The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (Kyiv, Dukh i Litera, 2012), Maidan. Testimonies (2015), Maidan. Testimonies. Medical support. International solidarity (2018). So far, Finberg has more than 80 publications.

Klappentext

This anthology of seminal texts documents the development of the post-war anti-Soviet Ukrainian dissident movement. The collection is designed to introduce, via some crucial primary sources, Western and other non-Ukrainian readers to various forms of Ukrainian opposition to the communist regime. Stories of ideas and personal undertakings are unfolding before the reader in a vivid pulsation of texts that testify for themselves.

The anthology gathers contributions from different genres. They range from poetry, public speeches, and samvydav-uncensored, self-published-texts to court speeches. They come from dissidents who were held in jails, special psychiatric hospitals (for not accepting the official ideology), and prison camps. Finally, they include self-reflections by dissidents on their personal experience of opposing the totalitarian system. This variety of contributions creates a multidimensional picture of the Ukrainian dissident movement-a generation of prominent Ukrainian public and cultural figures who, in one way or another, insisted on their freedom of speech and made history by daring to challenge the official ideology and culture.

This remarkable book about the struggle for freedom has been compiled by Oleksii Sinchenko, Dmytro Stus, and Leonid Finberg. Scholarly reviewed by Myroslav Marynovych.