{"id":24295,"date":"2020-12-23T22:58:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T22:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=24295"},"modified":"2020-12-23T22:58:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T22:58:24","slug":"kacper-szulecki-dissidents-in-communist-central-europe-human-rights-and-the-emergence-of-new-transnational-actors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=24295","title":{"rendered":"Kacper Szulecki, \u201cDissidents in Communist Central Europe: Human Rights and the Emergence of New Transnational Actors\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This monograph traces the history of the dissident as a transnational phenomenon, exploring Soviet dissidents in Communist Central Europe from the mid-1960s until 1989. It argues that our understanding of the transnational activist would not be what it is today without the input of Central European oppositionists and ties the term to the global emergence and evolution of human rights. The book examines how we define dissidents and explores the association of political resistance to authoritarian regimes, as well as the impact of domestic and international recognition of the dissident figure. Turning to literature to analyse the meaning and impact of the dissident label, the book also incorporates interviews and primary accounts from former activists. Combining a unique theoretical approach with new empirical material, this book will appeal to students and scholars of contemporary history, politics and culture in Central Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Explores the origin and meanings of the term \u2018dissident\u2019 in relation to the history of the emergence and development of international human rights<\/li><li>Offers a new theoretical model for conceptualizing the dissident within a transnational framework<\/li><li>Draws on primary sources in the local languages and first-hand accounts from former Soviet dissidents in Central Europe<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Table of contents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Introduction<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who Are the Dissidents?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marxist Neophytes and Democratic Heretics<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dissent Gains Names and Faces<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between Prague and Helsinki: Setting the Transnational Stage for Dissidence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Birth of the Dissident Figure, 1976\u20131977<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Molding the Dissident Figure<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Looping Effect of the Dissident Figure: Resistance and Performance<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generalization of the Dissident Figure<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conclusion: Can Dissidentism Explain Post-Dissident Politics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the authors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kacper Szulecki is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway. He was previously a Dahrendorf Fellow at the Hertie School of Governance (Berlin, Germany), a visiting researcher at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (Florence, Italy) and a researcher at the Cluster of Excellence \u2018Cultural Foundations of Integration\u2019, University of Konstanz (Konstanz, Germany).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cKacper Szulecki\u2019s book is an extremely inspiring and thought-provoking read. It can be considered one of the most important books ever published on various forms of opposition to communism. Moreover, it also provides important impulses for understanding political conflicts in the modern, interconnected world and the movements currently fighting against dictatorships.\u201d (Jan Olaszek, H-Soz-Kult, hsozkult.de, December 8, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of the merits of the book is that it acknowledges the absence of women in the historiography of dissident movements in East Central Europe. As Szulecki observes, this was due not only to the persistent machismo within the opposition circles, but also to the fashioning of the dissident figure, which was mainly constructed by the Western media, public, and scholars.\u201d (Una Blagojevi\u0107, Hungarian Historical Review, Vol. 9 (2), 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe book is an inspiring and engaging read. It gives much needed analytical perspective on dissidents. It also prompts us to re-think conventional historical narratives on postwar Central Europe that we have often learned from dissidents.\u201d (Aspen Review, Issue 2, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cKacper Szulecki tackles one of the holy words of the twentieth century. Scholarship has long needed an analysis of the figure of the dissident, to overcome the warm and fuzzy notion that the dissident is simply a noble person opposing a bad regime. Szulecki\u2019s analysis is rigorous, clear, and engaging. The payoff is significant: He gives us back the dissident, now recovered as a useful category of historical, global analysis. This is an essential text for scholars of contentious politics.\u201d (Padraic Kenney, Professor of History and International Studies, Indiana University Bloomington, USA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.palgrave.com\/gp\/book\/9783030226121\">https:\/\/www.palgrave.com\/gp\/book\/9783030226121<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knjige","category-novosti"],"acf":{"facebook_opis":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/dissidents.jpg?fit=283%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52692,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52692","url_meta":{"origin":24295,"position":0},"title":"Florian Bieber \u201eHvar in the Modern Age: Identity and Change in Southeast Europe\u201c","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"28. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Description\u00a0 In this open-access book, Florian Bieber traces the history of the Adriatic island of Hvar over half a millennium, from the advent of Venetian rule in the 15th century to the end of Yugoslavia in the late 20th century. The history of Hvar tells a larger story about modernity,\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Knjige&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Knjige","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Florian-Bieber-Hvar-in-the-Modern-Age-Identity-and-Change-in-Southeast-Europe.webp?fit=540%2C810&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Florian-Bieber-Hvar-in-the-Modern-Age-Identity-and-Change-in-Southeast-Europe.webp?fit=540%2C810&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Florian-Bieber-Hvar-in-the-Modern-Age-Identity-and-Change-in-Southeast-Europe.webp?fit=540%2C810&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52673,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52673","url_meta":{"origin":24295,"position":1},"title":"TWO POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS IN THE &#8220;PROLETGARD ERC STARTING GRANT PROJECT&#8221;, KASS\u00c1K FOUNDATION, BUDAPEST (DEADLINE: 1ST MAY 2026)","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"27. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"This five-year ERC-funded project examines how avant-garde art contributed to the formation of a workers\u2019 movement counterculture in East Central Europe after 1918. It argues that socialist and avant-garde periodicals, groups, and figures shaped both avant-garde culture and transnational workers\u2019 movements. Focusing on the successor states of the Austro\u2013Hungarian Empire\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54169,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54169","url_meta":{"origin":24295,"position":2},"title":"Women, Nationalism, and Social Networks in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848\u20131918","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"18. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Edited by Marta Verginella Purdue University Press Series: Central European Studies 258 Pages Published 2023 Women, Nationalism, and Social Networks in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848\u20131918 focuses on the lives of women in Southeastern Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, exploring the intersection of gender and nationalism. 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Studying concepts from\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54256,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54256","url_meta":{"origin":24295,"position":4},"title":"CfP Seventh biennial conference Past, Present, Future (Pula, Croatia, October 15\u201316, 2026)","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"22. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Call for Papers Bonds of Unity: Solidarity and Society Across History Seventh biennial conference in the series Past, Present, Future Pula, Croatia, October 15\u201316, 2026 In recent years, the concept of solidarity has once again emerged as a central topic in public discourse. 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