Aleksandr Skobov

Last updated

Aleksandr Skobov
Born1957

Aleksandr Skobov (born 1957) is a Russian historian, activist and Soviet dissident. [1] [2]

Contents

Skobov has been convicted and subjected to punitive psychiatry for ″anti-Soviet propaganda″ twice, one time in 1976 and the other in 1982. [1] He was arrested in April 2024 and sent to a pre-trial detention center, charged with "justifying terrorism" and ″participation in a terrorist community″ after he had been openly opposing Russian military action against Ukraine since 2014.

Biography

Early activism and convictions

Skobov was born in 1957 in Leningrad, then in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He took part in his first anti-government protest at age 19, when he and members of an underground organization he was part of threw flyers calling for ″humanistic socialism″ from the roof of a building downtown on the eve of the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1976. As a result, several of the were kicked out of their universities, but Skobov, who was a first-year history student at Leningrad State University at the time, was sent to a disciplinary meeting with the Komsomol youth group. Later in October 1976, he was arrested for publishing an anti-government magazine called Perspectives, after half a year spent in a KGB prison, he was sentenced to forced psychiatric treatment where he spent three years in confinement. [3]

In 1981 following his release, he joined the dissident group Free Interprofessional Association of Workers, which led the first attempt to create an independent trade union in the Soviet Union. [4] In 1982, he was once again sentenced to psychiatric treatment, this time for writing a samizdat article where he defended Chile's former socialist president, Salvador Allende, who had died in unclear circumstances in 1973, and criticized the dictator Augusto Pinochet. The article was deemed "anti-Soviet propaganda." He spent five years in the hospital, being released during the summer in 1987, the initial phase of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's liberalization campaign. [3]

Opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Skobov openly supported Ukraine and condemned Russia's military action on social media. The same year, he was attacked by two unidentified men armed with knives outside his home, which his friends and family believe was retribution for his criticism of the regime [4]

In early April 2024, he was arrested and charged with "justifying terrorism" after making a social-media post about Ukrainian attacks damaging the Crimean Bridge that links Russia with the occupied Ukrainian Crimea region. Two days prior to being detained, he had given an interview to Okno where he called for the support of Russian volunteer groups fighting along with Ukraine's military against Russian troops that have invaded Ukraine. [2] [3] He was sent to a pre-trial detention center, and in protest to his arrest, he refused to take his medication and glasses with him. He was also later charged with participation in a ″terrorist community″, and was transferred from Saint Petersburg to Syktyvkar. [5]

In July 2024, Novaya Gazeta published a letter Skobov had sent to his wife, it was published with an introduction writted by opposition politician Leonid Gozman, who described Skobov as ″not simply a hero but a Saint in the direct Biblical sense″ and his letter as ″a fantastic document″. Gozman described the letter as Skobov avoiding pathos and thinking about his influence on others, but wanting ″today's young people who bear the brunt of the regime's repression know that the Soviet dissidents are standing alongside them.″ [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Security Service</span> Principal security agency of Russia

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) which was reorganized into the FSB in 1995. The three major structural successor components of the former KGB that remain administratively independent of the FSB are the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Russia</span>

Russia has consistently been criticized by international organizations and independent domestic media outlets for human rights violations. Some of the most commonly cited violations include deaths in custody, the systemic and widespread use of torture by security forces and prison guards, the existence of hazing rituals within the Russian Army—referred to as dedovshchina —as well as prevalent breaches of children's rights, instances of violence and prejudice against ethnic minorities, and the targeted killings of journalists.

<i>Novaya Gazeta</i> Russian independent newspaper

Novaya Gazeta is an independent Russian newspaper. It is known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs, the Chechen wars, corruption among the ruling elite, and increasing authoritarianism in Russia. It was formerly published in Moscow until shortly after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began, in regions within Russia, and in some foreign countries. The print edition is published on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; English-language articles on the website are published on a weekly basis in the form of the Russia, Explained newsletter. As of 2023, the newspaper had a daily print circulation of 108,000, and online visits of 613,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Kara-Murza</span> Russian opposition politician

Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza is a Russian-British political activist, journalist, author, filmmaker, and former political prisoner. A protégé of murdered Russian dissident Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza is vice-chairman of Open Russia, an NGO founded by the exiled Russian businessman and former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which promotes civil society and democracy in Russia. He was elected to the Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition in 2012, and served as deputy leader of the People's Freedom Party from 2015 to 2016. He has directed two documentaries, They Chose Freedom and Nemtsov. As of 2021, he serves as Senior Fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He was awarded the Civil Courage Prize in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Politkovskaya</span> Russian journalist (1958–2006)

Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Medvedchuk</span> Ukrainian politician, lawyer, and businessman (born 1954)

Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk, also known as Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk, is a former Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia since September 2022 after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange. Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term dissident was used in the Soviet Union (USSR) in the period from the mid-1960s until the Fall of Communism. It was used to refer to small groups of marginalized intellectuals whose challenges, from modest to radical to the Soviet regime, met protection and encouragement from correspondents, and typically criminal prosecution or other forms of silencing by the authorities. Following the etymology of the term, a dissident is considered to "sit apart" from the regime. As dissenters began self-identifying as dissidents, the term came to refer to an individual whose non-conformism was perceived to be for the good of a society. The most influential subset of the dissidents is known as the Soviet human rights movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Kagarlitsky</span> Russian sociologist and publicist

Boris Yulyevich Kagarlitsky is a Russian Marxist theoretician and sociologist who has been a political dissident in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. He is an associate of the Transnational Institute. Kagarlitsky is the director of Institute of Globalisation Studies and Social Movements (IGSO) and editor in chief of Levaya Politika quarterly in Moscow. Kagarlitsky hosts a YouTube channel Rabkor, associated with his online newspaper of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Podrabinek</span> Soviet-Russian human rights activist and journalist

Alexander Pinkhosovich Podrabinek is a Soviet dissident, journalist and commentator. During the Soviet period he was a human rights activist, being exiled, then imprisoned in a corrective-labour colony, for publication of his book Punitive Medicine in Russian and in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass media in Russia</span>

Television, magazines, and newspapers have all been operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. Even though the Constitution of Russia guarantees freedom of speech, the press has been plagued by both government censorship and self-censorship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dmitry Muratov</span> Russian journalist (born 1961)

Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov is a Russian journalist, television presenter and the former editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. He was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Maria Ressa for "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergei Kovalev</span> Russian human rights activist and politician (1930–2021)

Sergei Adamovich Kovalyov was a Russian human rights activist and politician. During the Soviet period he was a dissident and, after 1975, a political prisoner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergei Udaltsov</span> Russian left-wing activist (born 1977)

Sergei Stanislavovich Udaltsov is a Russian left-wing political activist. He is the unofficial leader of the Vanguard of Red Youth (AKM). In 2011 and 2012, he helped lead a series of protests against Vladimir Putin. In 2014 he was sentenced to 4¹⁄₂ years in a penal camp for organizing the May 2012 protest which ended in violence between the police and demonstrators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 anti-war protests in Russia</span> 2014 protest in Russia against military intervention in Ukraine

The 2014 anti-war protests in Russia refers to a series of anti-war demonstrations opposing the Russian military intervention in Ukraine that took place in Russia in 2014. Protesters held two anti-war protest rallies on 2 and 15 March 2014. The latter, known as the March of Peace, took place in Moscow a day before the Crimean referendum. The protests have been the largest in Russia since the 2011–2013 Russian protests by the Russian opposition against the alleged electoral fraud committed by United Russia during the 2011 Russian legislative election. Reuters reported that around 20,000 people participated in the 15 March demonstrations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation</span> 2014 annexation of Ukrainian territory

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Media portrayals of the Russo-Ukrainian War, including skirmishes in eastern Donbas and the 2014 Ukrainian revolution after the Euromaidan protests, the subsequent 2014 annexation of Crimea, incursions into Donbas, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, have differed widely between Ukrainian, Western and Russian media. Russian, Ukrainian, and Western media have all, to various degrees, been accused of propagandizing, and of waging an information war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergei Grigoryants</span> Russian human rights activist (1941–2023)

Sergei Ivanovich Grigoryants was a Soviet dissident and political prisoner, journalist, literary critic, chairman of the Glasnost Defense Foundation. He was imprisoned for ten years in Chistopol jail as a political prisoner for anti-Soviet activities, from 1975 to 1980 and then four more years starting in 1983 on similar charges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-war protests in Russia (2022–present)</span> Protests in Russia opposing the invasion of Ukraine

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, anti-war demonstrations and protests broke out across Russia. As well as the demonstrations, a number of petitions and open letters have been penned in opposition to the war, and a number of public figures, both cultural and political, have released statements against the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian 2022 war censorship laws</span> Group of Russian federal laws

On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Articles 31 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation is a group of federal laws promulgated by the Russian government during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These laws establish administrative and criminal punishments for "discrediting" or dissemination of "unreliable information" about the Russian Armed Forces, other Russian state bodies and their operations, and the activity of volunteers aiding the Russian Armed Forces, and for calls to impose sanctions against Russia, Russian organizations and citizens. These laws are an extension of Russian fake news laws and are sometimes referred to as the fakes laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evgenia Berkovich</span> Russian theater director

Evgenia (Zhenya) Berkovich is a Russian theatre director, playwright, and poet. She is a member of Kirill Serebrennikov's ‘Seventh Studio’.

References

  1. 1 2 The Moscow Times (18 January 2025). "Soviet Dissident Skobov Detained for 'Justifying Terrorism' – Reports". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  2. 1 2 Sharifi, Kian (3 April 2024). "Soviet-Era Dissident Skobov Detained In St. Petersburg On Terrorism Charge". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 North.Realities, s; Coalson, Robert (10 April 2024). "'I'm Not Going To Quit': Facing Prison, Soviet-Era Dissident Skobov Speaks Out Against War, Repression". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  4. 1 2 "'Someone has to be radical'. Former Soviet dissident Alexander Skobov is determined to defend his beliefs". Novaya Gazeta Europe. 8 May 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  5. "Behind bars in the USSR and in Putin's Russia. The story of dissident Marxist Alexander Skobov". Mediazona. 29 November 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  6. Goble, Paul (1 August 2024). "Last Soviet Dissidents Stand With Today's Opponents Of Putin's Fascism – OpEd". Eurasia Review. Retrieved 18 January 2025.