Breaking the Totalitarian Ice: The Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR

@article{Horvth2014BreakingTT,
  title={Breaking the Totalitarian Ice: The Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR},
  author={Robert A. Horv{\'a}th},
  journal={Human Rights Quarterly},
  year={2014},
  volume={36},
  pages={147 - 175}
}
  • R. Horváth
  • Published 6 February 2014
  • Political Science
  • Human Rights Quarterly
This article examines the impact of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR, the first Soviet human rights NGO. It argues that this group, which functioned for over six years as the principal public platform of Soviet dissidents, made an important contribution both to the subversion of totalitarianism and to the rise of the Soviet rights-defense movement. The Initiative Group overcame a longstanding taboo on the creation of public structures and spearheaded the… 
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