To Choose Freedom: Soviet Dissidents and Their Supporters

President Ronald Reagan welcomes dissidents Yuri Yarim-Agaev and recently released Yuri Orlov and his wife, Irina Orlov, to the White House
President Ronald Reagan welcomes dissidents Yuri Yarim-Agaev (left) and recently released Yuri Orlov (right) and his wife, Irina Orlov, to the White House on October 10, 1986, the day before Reagan was to meet with Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik. Yuri Yarim-Agaev papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Yuri Yarim-Agaev’s notes taken in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison during his interrogation by the KGB
Yuri Yarim-Agaev’s notes taken in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison during his interrogation by the KGB, two days before he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1980. Yuri Yarim-Agaev papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Map of prisons, labor camps, and psychiatric prisons
Map of prisons, labor camps, and psychiatric prisons from The First Guidebook to Prisons and Concentration Camps of the Soviet Union (Uhldingen, Switzerland: 1980) Hoover Institution Library
Dissidents held prisoner at the Oryol psychiatric hospital, February 1971
Dissidents held prisoner at the Oryol psychiatric hospital February 1971 Yuri Yarim-Agaev papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Letters of protests and petitions to Premier Aleksey Kosygin
Letters of protests and petitions to Premier Aleksey Kosygin followed the arrests of writers Andrei Siniavskii and IUlii Daniel’ in Moscow on September 13, 1965. Andrei Siniavskii papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Arina Ginzburg Calls the US Embassy from a Phone Booth
Arina Ginzburg, wife of imprisoned dissident Aleksandr Ginzburg, calls the US embassy in Moscow while fellow dissident Sergei Moshkov ensures that no one enters the telephone booth. In the background, a KGB woman watches. Aleksandr Ginzburg papers, Hoover Institution Archives.
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A tiny version of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, published in Paris in 1973 for dissemination in the Soviet Union. Aleksandr Ginzburg papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Aleksandr Podrabinek in exile in Ust-Nera
Aleksandr Podrabinek in exile in Ust-Nera, one of the six political exiles visited by Yuri Yarim-Agaev in August–September 1979. Yuri Yarim-Agaev papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Aleksandr Podrabinek, the first editor of the Express-Chronicle
Aleksandr Podrabinek, the first editor of the Express-Chronicle, at its office in Moscow in 1988 or 1989. Yuri Yarim-Agaev papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Exchange of New Year's greetings in 1985–1986 between Andrei Sakharov—still confined in Gorki—and Sidney Drell
Exchange of New Year's greetings in 1985–1986 between Andrei Sakharov—still confined in Gorki—and Sidney Drell, American physicist and Hoover senior fellow, an ardent champion of Sakharov. Sidney Drell papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Crowds in Moscow, in 1989, reading issues of the Express-Chronicle
Crowds in Moscow, in 1989, reading issues of the Express-Chronicle, the first uncensored newspaper regularly published in the Soviet Union. Yuri Yarim-Agaev papers, Hoover Institution Archives
Vladimir Bukovskii and Robert Conquest, May 19, 1987
Vladimir Bukovskii (left) and Robert Conquest, May 19, 1987 A panel of international authorities on communism meets in Munich at the headquarters of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for a symposium entitled “The USSR under Gorbachev: Glasnost and Its Implications.” Bukovskii participated in the international symposium held at Hoover on April 14, 2008, “The Soviet Dissident Movement and American Foreign Policy during the 1980s.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty records, Hoover Institution Archives