The Soviet Suppression of Academia: The Case of Konstantin Azadovsky

The Soviet Suppression of Academia explores the persecution of non-dissident literary scholar Konstantin Azadovsky, revealing the KGB's secret operations against him and providing insight into life under KGB monitoring and repression.

Format: Hardback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 28 July 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Scholarship has recently turned its attention to the Soviet dissident movement that emerged in the mid-20th century, but what about those academics who did not form part of this circle? Petr A. Druzhinin's book, "The Soviet Suppression of Academia," sheds new light on the relationship between power and culture in Soviet Russia. Through its intimate portrayal of the persecution of non-dissident literary scholar Konstantin Azadovsky, the book provides a chilling account of Azadovsky's struggle for rehabilitation.

Based on rare access to KGB materials and other sources, the book traces Azadovsky's persecution from the 1960s, when he refused to become a KGB informant, to his arrest on trumped-up drug charges and imprisonment in a labor camp in the 1980s. The book also reveals one of the KGB's secret operations against a prominent intellectual in full, horrific detail.

By telling the fascinating story of an individual's struggle with the powerful state machine, the book provides much-needed insight into the experience of life under KGB monitoring and repression and adds nuance to ongoing debates about the relationship between Soviet intellectuals and the state.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350136137