The Dissident Playbook: Soviet Lessons for Putin's Russia

About this episode

The episode discusses the Soviet dissident movement and its relevance to contemporary Russia under Vladimir Putin.

How does the Soviet Union's approach to human rights compare to contemporary Russia? Bakhti is joined by historian Benjamin Nathans to discuss the evolution of the Soviet dissident movement, what Vladimir Putin learned from his time as a KGB agent quashing dissent in the Soviet Union, and the lessons of this period for those resisting authoritarianism today. -- Benjamin Nathans teaches and writes about Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, modern European Jewish history, and the history of human rights. Currently, he is the Endowed Term Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book, To The Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement, was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, the Pushkin House Book Prize, the Vucinich Prize in Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, and the Zelnik Prize in History. It tells the story of dissent in the USSR from Stalin's death to the collapse of communism, exploring the idea and practice of rights and the rule of law in the setting of "mature socialism." Nathans is also author of Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter With Late Imperial Russia and edited A…

People in this episode

Host: Bakhti

Guest: Benjamin Nathans

Topics covered

• Soviet Union
• human rights
• dissident movement
• Vladimir Putin
• authoritarianism
• KGB

Keywords

• Soviet Union
• human rights
• dissent
• Vladimir Putin
• KGB
• authoritarianism
• Benjamin Nathans

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Pennsylvania, New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement

Books & works: To The Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement, Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter With Late Imperial Russia

More episodes of The Transatlantic

• Coming of Age in 1968: Youth Music, Politics, and Protest Behind the Iron Curtain · May 19, 2026 · 38 min
• Should free speech be absolute? · April 7, 2026 · 39 min
• Religious Freedom as the Tip of the Spear of Comprehensive Security · March 24, 2026 · 39 min
• Keeping Hope Alive as a Journalist in Exile · March 10, 2026 · 41 min
• What Do Americans Think About Ukraine? Views From a Bike Ride Across America · February 24, 2026 · 35 min
• What Shapes a National Identity? · February 10, 2026 · 44 min