INTRODUCTORY ELEMENTS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF DISSIDENTSHIP. A DIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE IN FORMER COMMUNIST COUNTRIES

Abstract

The issue of dissidence, as it evolved in the former communist countries, can contribute to defining a complex social phenomenon because even if a relatively small number of elites were more exposed, in reality, entire masses of people tacitly agreed with the opposition to the political regimes in those countries, the stake being, in fact, the transition to democracy. The resistance was rather moral and ethical, focused on respecting human rights and much less on violent actions of social change. From the outside, the Helsinki Accords of 1975 also had an increased importance. The complexity of the dissidence phenomenon comes from the diversity of the social groups involved: intellectuals from literary or scientific fields, groups of whistleblowers regarding the respect of human rights, certain religious groups, or bodies specific to economic activity (unions). Relatively small groups of opponents had a significant social impact through the force of the messages they transmitted, by creating a ‘parallel society’ of openness, by encouraging social change, and by providing a new elite capable of managing broad social reforms. This article proposes a complex approach to the phenomenon of dissidence, starting from the definition of the phenomenon, the analysis of its historical evolution, and insisting on the role of elites, but also on the social dimension of an important phenomenon of recent history.