ABSTRACT
Dissent in the Soviet Union is a very complex subject, for dissent can have many grounds — cultural, religious, national, or purely political. Moreover, different dissenters' programs can be incompatible and even antithetical. The cause of Armenian nationalists in Nagorno-Karabakh has little in common with that of Russophile historians or those advocating the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's works. Under Stalin, when something as trivial as an anecdote overheard by an inappropriate person could pave the way to a concentration camp, one could not expect much defiance. Open dissent appeared only after Stalin's death and can be divided into four major categories of causes: human rights, intellectual, nationalist, and religious. Jewish dissenters were not limited to their own cause. They were often deeply involved in the human rights movement, literary liberalization, the search for religious freedom, and even the protection of the Russian historical heritage.
