The Universe behind Barbed Wire
Title Details

482 Pages

22.8 x 15.2 cm

75 b/w illus.

Series: Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe

Series Vol. Number: 26

Imprint: University of Rochester Press

The Universe behind Barbed Wire

Memoirs of a Ukrainian Soviet Dissident

by Myroslav Marynovych

Translated by Zoya Hayuk

Edited by Katherine Younger

Foreword by Timothy Snyder

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
  • Reviews
Ukrainian dissident Myroslav Marynovych recounts his involvement in the Brezhnev-era human rights movement in the Soviet Union and his resulting years as a political prisoner in Siberia and in internal exile.

This memoir by a prominent Ukrainian dissident, now in English translation, offers a unique account that spans the entire postwar period, from the author's childhood in newly Soviet western Ukraine and coming of age within the Communist system to the collapse of the Soviet Union, concluding with his reflections on culpability and justice in the post-Soviet context. Marynovych's description of the varied landscape of Ukrainian dissent in the 1960s and 1970s focuses on the emerging human rights movement, especially the creation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, of which he was a founding member. He vividly recounts his encounters with the Soviet repressive apparatus, including his arrest and trial, and offers a rich picture of daily life in a Siberian prison camp and his internal exile in Kazakhstan.

Imbued with the author's deep Christian convictions, this memoir sheds light on the key role faith played for some participants in the Soviet human rights movement, a movement that has most often been seen as having a secular inflection. It also provides a fresh look at the complex place of Ukrainian dissidents within the broader Soviet human rights movement, as well as the interplay between human rights advocates and other dissident groups in Soviet Ukraine.
Introduction
Establishing the Fundamentals of Fate
Finally in Kyiv
The Era of the Helsinki Movement
Arrest, Investigation, and Trial
The Labor Camp Up Close
In the Vise of the Strict Regime
The Pinnacle of the Struggle
When the Soul Snagged on Barbed Wire
Among the Kazakhs
Conclusion

MYROSLAV MARYNOVYCH is a Ukrainian social and political activist and commentator. He is vice-rector for University Mission at Ukrainian Catholic University.

ZOYA HAYUK is a freelance translator, language tutor, and former US State Department simultaneous translator.

KATHERINE YOUNGER is a historian and Research Director of the program Ukraine in European Dialogue at the Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna).

TIMOTHY SNYDER is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of numerous books on East and Central European history.

"This is a fascinating story of the courageous life of a political dissident in the last decades of the Soviet regime, told with scrupulous attention to detail and awareness that his conscience and convictions, experiences and faith have contributed to an extraordinary life." In Trust

Hardcover

9781580469814

May 2021

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9781648250576

August 2022

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Title Details

482 Pages

2.28 x 1.52 cm

75 b/w illus.

Series: Rochester Studies in East and Central Europe

Series Vol. Number: 26

Imprint: University of Rochester Press