Soviet Women Dissidents
Product details
- ISBN 9781041298991
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 14 Jul 2026
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This book explores how women dissidents in the Soviet Union faced punishments equal to men in psychiatric hospitals, prisons, labour camps, and exile, yet their political activism, imprisonment, and acts of resistance remain largely overlooked in literature.
The author draws on evidence from the late 1960s, collated by independent human rights groups across the Soviet Union and abroad, including Amnesty International and organizations monitoring the implementation of the 1975 Helsinki Accords. It incorporates personal testimonies of women’s experiences of psychiatric detention, imprisonment, labour camps, and exile, alongside accounts of women employed by the internal security forces, judiciary, and penal apparatus, revealing their roles and motivations as perpetrators of repression.
Soviet Women Dissidents is an essential resource for scholars and students of Soviet history, gender studies, human rights, and political activism. It provides unique insights into the intersection of gender and state repression during the late Soviet era.
Melanie Ilic is Professor of Soviet History at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. She has published widely in the area of Soviet women’s history and the history of Soviet repressions. She has served as consultant on a number of international research projects. She is the author of Life Stories of Soviet Women: the Interwar Generation (Routledge, 2013), Soviet Women – Everyday Lives (Routledge, 2020), and Women in the Soviet Dissident Movements (Routledge, 2026).
