The Self against the State: Valery Abramkin and the Destruction of Dissident Identity
The Self against the State: Valery Abramkin and the Destruction of Dissident Identity

Summary/Abstract: What was the context in which Soviet citizens dissented? What were their motives? What shaped their identities? With this article, I seek to suggest answers to these questions, using Valery Fedorovich Abramkin as an exemplary case of a dissident who was known but not famous, heard but not answered, a martyr but not a hero. I will describe his transformations from Soviet citizen to dissident, from hostage of the KGB to defendant in the courts, from prisoner in the gulag to post-Soviet Russian reformer. Through this lens, I seek to address two important issues. The first engages the historiography on dissidents; the second builds on recent historical writing that focuses on Soviet subjectivity and identity formation.

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