Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart) in Milan will hold a conference on November 3-5, 2025, dedicated to the life of Anatoly Marchenko, a Soviet dissident, who died in the Soviet prison in Chistopol in 1986 as a consequence of a prolonged hunger strike.
When Andrei Sakharov agreed to land his name to establish what has become arguably the most significant human rights award in the world, the EU Sakharov Freedom of Thought Prize, he did so on one condition: Marchenko had to become (posthumously) its first recipient. In the event, the first Sakharov Prize was awarded jointly to Marchenko and Nelson Mandela in 1988.
The role of Marchenko in the Soviet dissident movement is widely recognized. Yet, his biography and his works are not well known. Marchenko was an ‘accidental dissident’: a foreman in an oil drilling group in Siberia, he was arrested, aged 20, for being involved in a fight. His background was humble: his illiterate parents were low skill workers of peasant origins, which made his own keen awareness of the injustices of the Soviet system not very likely. While serving his first prison term, Marchenko made friends with political prisoners, whose thinking greatly influenced him. He became a civil and human rights activist in his own right, which landed him in prison many more times.
Marchenko wrote autobiographical books “My Testimony”, “From Tarusa to Chuna”, and “To live like Everyone.” His books are highly regarded for their powerful and firsthand accounts of the brutality of the Soviet penal system and his experiences as a dissident. His clear, poignant prose and the books’ ability to provide a rare, unflinching look into the lives of prisoners and the reality of post-Stalin Soviet society never fail to make a strong impression on the reader. His work is considered an important indictment of the Soviet system and a testament to the courage of those who oppose totalitarian regimes.
The facebook page of the conference:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1375711086955657/